"Next time you pull me, give me a warning first." Xiao Qiao's faint voice came from beside him in the dark corridor.
They had found the nurses' station by now, and Gu Mian was standing at the counter, flipping through the files.
At her words, he silently nodded. It wasn't as if they were guaranteed to run into each other again.
Her hand had been pulled out of its socket. Luckily, Gu Mian was a doctor. A psychiatrist, technically, but he knew a little about setting bones, too.
He couldn't exactly pull her hand out and then leave it that way. There was still a road test after the written exam, and they'd have to drive.
Ever since the LED board fell, the rustling sound hadn't appeared again.
Gu Mian had also found the file he was looking for.
One of the files contained a very familiar name—
"Zhao Lanhai, pregnant, husband: Ma Gang."
Her surname was Zhao, and she was pregnant, so there was little doubt she was one of the ghosts.
Just as Chu Changge's test questions had suggested, the three ghosts had known one another when they were alive.
The relationships they knew so far were that Ma Gang had killed someone, Yang Shuang had reported him, and Zhao Lanhai was Ma Gang's wife—and pregnant.
But they didn't know how Yang Shuang and Zhao Lanhai had met.
Gu Mian glanced at Zhao Lanhai's room information again.
"Room 59, bed 2." He closed the file. "Let's go there."
Xiao Qiao asked, "Are you still looking for a ghost?"
Gu Mian nodded. "The one from the second floor seemed to be following us the whole time. I was going to lure it over and catch it, but as you saw, things went a little wrong."
"Catch it?"
Gu Mian looked down at her. "How else are we supposed to find out the answers to these test questions?"
"...I think your approach might be a little off."
By now, the Fatty had scrambled his way up to the second floor.
Fortunately, coming face-to-face with the ghost hadn't killed him on the spot. Once he turned on his flashlight, Chu Changge pulled him up and ran. After they got out, they split up and fled. The ghost seemed to have gone after Chu Changge.
He scrambled upstairs in a panic and hid in a patient room. He had wanted to message Gu Mian through the friend system to ask what was going on, but it seemed like messaging friends wasn't possible inside the instance.
"I'm done for, I'm done for. The doctor's gone, Chu Changge's gone. This instance is fucking terrifying..."
The Fatty muttered to himself in the room. He even went over to the window and looked down. "If I throw myself out, will I die right away?"
Then he seemed to realize that a fall from the second floor might not kill him, and could leave him half-dead and suffering for a long time. He gave up on the idea.
It wasn't ten o'clock yet, so he couldn't take the test. That meant he couldn't deliberately fail and leave the instance.
Thinking this, the Fatty crept closer to the door, hoping to check the time on the LED board in the corridor. But as soon as he crouched beside the long window in the door, he saw what looked like someone standing outside in the darkness.
He dropped onto his butt in fright and scrambled backward, trying to get as far from the door as possible.
But the farther he moved back, the more something seemed wrong.
Every time he shifted, it looked as if a shadow beneath the figure was swaying.
At first, he stared in confusion, unable to make sense of it. But a moment later, the Fatty understood.
Trembling, he slowly raised his head. Sure enough, the glass reflected the top half of his own head—and the figure was right behind it.
It wasn't outside. It was behind him.
A chill crept over his back, and he heard something dripping onto the floor.
In an instant, the Fatty found strength he didn't know he had. With a shout, he scrambled to his feet and ran out on all fours.
With a bang, the patient-room door slammed open.
He stumbled out in a panic.
He ran down the corridor in the dark for more than ten seconds. When he finally dared look back, he saw a figure with a bulging belly right on his heels, its heavy footsteps thudding after him.
"Ah—" He jolted and found another burst of energy, sprinting down the corridor with every bit of strength in his legs.
He didn't know how long he ran, but at last he managed to put some distance between himself and the footsteps. When he looked back again, the eerie figure was nowhere to be seen.
The Fatty rushed into the nearest half-open door and hid beneath the bed farthest inside.
Apparently, that still didn't feel safe enough. He reached up and yanked the sheet down until it completely blocked his view of the patient-room door.
"Phew..." He let out a tiny sigh of relief.
This should be enough, right...
It won't find me. Please, don't find me...
Soon, the footsteps sounded in the corridor again.
The Fatty held his breath, not daring to make the slightest sound.
Don't stop...
Don't stop...
Please, don't stop!
A thin bedsheet blocked his view. He couldn't see what was outside the door, and whatever was out there couldn't see him—at least, he hoped so.
The sluggish footsteps drew closer and closer. The Fatty clamped both hands over his mouth.
"Thud, thud, thud..." The footsteps passed right by his door and headed in the other direction.
He listened as they faded farther and farther away, until they finally disappeared. Only then did his whole body go limp, and he collapsed onto the floor, gasping for breath.
The sheet in front of him blocked his view, as if it had shut out the entire world.
It's safe here. I can stay safe until ten and then get out, the Fatty reassured himself.
But just then, he suddenly felt a hand settle on his shoulder.
His scalp prickled. Pressed against the floor, he twisted his head stiffly.
A face had somehow poked beneath the bed behind him. It was grinning at him.
Ah—
He opened his mouth wide, but not a sound came out.
Am I going to die?
But just then, he saw another hand reach in. It landed on the shoulder of the thing in front of him, just as the first hand had, and then another head ducked beneath the bed.
Gu Mian grinned widely. "Finally caught you."
Before you continue