Ye Chu ran forward, hearing Pei Yanchuan hiss in pain behind him.
He was hurt.
Ye Chu turned and saw Pei Yanchuan drive his scalpel into the female ghost's shoulder. He also saw her nails rake across Pei Yanchuan's elbow.
Ye Chu glanced at his teammates' room, now just ahead. He could even hear them talking inside.
Clenching his fists, Ye Chu rushed into the room where Su Fengzi and the others were staying. He flung the door open, and the room instantly fell silent.
"Ye Chu?"
Ye Chu said nothing. He tossed the death records into Su Fengzi's arms, and Su Fengzi scrambled to catch them. By the time he looked up again, Ye Chu had already left, seemingly carrying something.
"What's the rush?" Su Fengzi muttered. "What did he take?"
Wu You looked around, then timidly raised her hand. "I think he took Tian Yatou."
"Oh, I thought it was something..."
"He took what?!"
The others finally registered what had happened. When they ran outside, this was the scene that greeted them:
Ye Chu held Tian Yatou in one hand and passed medicine to Pei Yanchuan behind him with the other. A slit had been torn in Pei Yanchuan's white hoodie. Fortunately, the fabric was thick enough that his skin was only slightly red, with no bleeding.
"I've got your daughter! Back off if you don't want her hurt!" Ye Chu took a step forward as he spoke, forcing the female ghost to retreat a step.
The others: "..."
Who was the villain here, exactly?!
Tian Yatou wasn't frightened either. She spread her arms and blinked her big eyes. "Mommy, hold me..."
The female ghost glared viciously at Ye Chu, but her expression changed the instant she looked at Tian Yatou. She backed away, one step at a time.
Suddenly, someone else caught her eye. Her pupils darkened, and a heartrending scream tore from her throat. "Aaaah!!" She tried to move forward, but something seemed to be blocking her.
Bewildered, Ye Chu followed her gaze and saw Tian Fuguo, who had hidden earlier. He was behind a door, watching the group the entire time. Noticing the female ghost's gaze, he widened his eyes, grabbed Tian Guangzong from behind him, and pulled his son in front of himself as a shield.
...Seriously? You're copying my moves now? Ye Chu thought.
Everyone present looked disgusted at what he had done. This scumbag wouldn't even spare his own son.
The female ghost's broken cries echoed throughout the floor. "Aaaah!" Her hatred for Tian Fuguo and her unwillingness to hurt her son warred within her, tormenting the poor mother.
Pei Yanchuan finished bandaging himself and stood beside Ye Chu. "Quite a crowd."
Ye Chu looked around. Indeed, humans and ghosts alike had gathered in the third-floor hallway, leaving it unbearably crowded.
Tian Fuguo hid behind the door, glaring at the others with hostility. His other hand gripped Tian Guangzong's shoulder so hard that the little boy began to cry. He looked miserably at the female ghost before him. "Mommy..."
"Give... back..." Zhong Xiaoli's voice emerged in hoarse, broken fragments.
Somehow finding the nerve, Tian Fuguo stepped out from behind the door. "You've got some nerve saying that! Weren't you the one who abandoned us?! You're the one who didn't want your son!!!"
He shouted at the top of his lungs, as though being louder made him right.
Unfortunately for him, none of them listened. They were all watching Zhong Xiaoli, because she looked to be in unbearable pain.
Zhong Xiaoli knelt on the floor, digging her long nails into her skull as muffled cries escaped her mouth.
"Aaaaah!"
For some reason, Tian Fuguo suddenly screamed again. They turned toward him and discovered another person behind him-Wang Chunhua.
Well, that was everyone now, human and ghost alike.
Wang Chunhua staggered forward with a cane in her hand. Strange patterns wound around it. Her withered fingers gripped the cane as she brought it down hard on Tian Fuguo.
"Aaah-!" Tian Fuguo cried out in agony.
Ye Chu thought the old woman was punishing her unfilial son, but Wang Chunhua kept walking. She reached Zhong Xiaoli, stretched out her cracked fingers, dry as dead wood, and gently drew Zhong Xiaoli into her arms, stroking her head again and again.
Zhong Xiaoli lay in Wang Chunhua's embrace, and a tear slipped from the corner of her eye-a transparent, crystal-clear tear.
Ye Chu blinked. What... was going on now?
Pei Yanchuan tugged at the hem of his shirt and pointed upstairs. He exchanged glances with Su Fengzi and the others across the hallway, and they quietly slipped away toward the morgue on the fourth floor.
The five of them regrouped in the morgue. "What's going on?" Su Fengzi asked.
Ye Chu took out the death records. "There were three female deaths in this building: Tian Fuguo's mother, his wife, and a nurse. His mother killed herself by drinking pesticide, his wife was beaten to death, and the nurse also died by suicide."
Pei Yanchuan added, "Tian Fuguo had a hand in all three deaths."
Once they had finished, Wu You took out two newspapers. "These are the clues we found. During the 1970s, there were several cases of women being abducted and trafficked in a village. The victims were all young women around twenty."
Realization dawned on Ye Chu. "Granny Wang was one of those trafficked women." That was why she had said, "Take me back to my own home." That was why she had scratched out the man in the photograph, and why she had hidden her dress and rag doll in the box.
She had enjoyed such a happy childhood, with pretty floral dresses, a lovely rag doll, and parents who loved her. Yet she had been abducted and taken somewhere completely unfamiliar, forced to marry a man she didn't know, and forced to bear a child.
From the moment she was abducted, nothing in her life had been her choice. Just like the patterns on that box, she had been locked in shackles, trapped inside a box for her entire life.
"So this was Granny Wang's wish..." To find her hometown and send her body home. To take her home.
Wu You took out the other newspaper. "This should be the nurse's story. At noon on July third..."
That day, Li Jiayi went to work as usual. The weather was lovely, and she had no idea what she would face that day.
Tian Guangzong was receiving an IV infusion when his indwelling catheter suddenly became blocked and needed replacing. Li Jiayi went to insert a new one, but Tian Guangzong was afraid of the pain and kept trying to pull away.
Li Jiayi failed twice, and the little boy was already crying from the pain. But he knew he had been pulling away too much, so he shakily held out his hand, ready for a third attempt.
Just then, Tian Fuguo came in. Seeing his son's tear-streaked face, he flew into a rage, grabbed a 20 ml syringe used to prepare medication, and stabbed at her face. Thud, thud, thud-he struck more than a dozen times.
Li Jiayi had no time to react. Blood covered her face and her nurse's uniform. She stared blankly at her hands as the bleeding continued.
And her attacker was still hurling abuse, as though he were the victim.
Silence fell over the room. No one spoke.
"Later," Wu You continued, "Li Jiayi couldn't come to terms with what had happened. She jumped from the building and killed herself."
She was only twenty-four, so young, yet she had chosen to end her life.
"So it was an attack on medical staff..."
No wonder Li Jiayi had been so unwilling to enter Room 24, and so terrified of Tian Fuguo.
Before you continue