Amid the noisy chatter, not a single frog croaked.
Qi Si raised an eyebrow slightly. "A red frog?"
Sun Dekuan blinked twice, then slapped his chubby face in disbelief. "No, that frog disappeared again... Was I seeing things?"
The man behind them was still sobbing in self-reproach, while the nurse beside him offered tired, perfunctory consolation.
Qi Si patted Sun Dekuan on the shoulder and continued down the path they had taken before. "Let's go. If we want to figure out what happened, we'll need more clues."
As if waking from a dream, Sun Dekuan withdrew his gaze and followed Qi Si.
The hospital corridors twisted and turned like a maze. Patients in hospital gowns sat outside the rooms, staring blankly at passersby.
Every time they rounded a corner, the corridor before them looked exactly the same as the last. If the room numbers had not changed, they might have felt as though they were trapped in a ghostly loop, walking in place.
Sun Dekuan muttered softly, "We haven't even seen a single emergency exit along the way. Anyone who didn't know better would think this was a prison..."
"Maybe it's meant to stop the patients from running away." Qi Si smiled with interest, his gaze following the grimy walls into the distance. There were no maps, indicator lights, or signs of any kind.
For no apparent reason, he thought of a horror game he had played as a child called The Exit 8. The character was placed in a long, narrow corridor and had to turn back upon spotting an anomaly; otherwise, they would be trapped in the underground passage forever, unable to leave.
Qi Si noticed that there was not a single staircase on the fourth floor. The entire level seemed completely sealed off in its own separate