Seeing Wu Dahai drenched in sweat and panting, his white shirt wrinkled across his chest and missing two buttons, Wang Ziteng cursed, "You useless piece of shit!"
Then he turned his wrath on Fang Xiu.
"Fang Xiu, what the fuck do you think you're doing? Do you have any idea who I-"
Before Wang Ziteng could finish, Fang Xiu shoved him to the floor, revealing the frightened, pitiful-looking Li Feifei behind him.
"Ow! You fucking dared to shove me?" Wang Ziteng exploded with rage.
"Ah!" Li Feifei screamed in terror, thinking Fang Xiu was going to assault her.
But the next second, she felt a force strike her, pushing her slender body off the desk.
After shoving the two of them aside, Fang Xiu focused on the parchment lying on the hospital director's desk.
One glance sent a shock through his mind.
It read, "You who are favored by destiny, do you wish to know the truth about this world?
Do you wish to know what the supernatural entities truly are?
Since you have made it here, you must be full of questions. Do not rush, my friend. I have left everything in Room 520 of Building C at Green Mountain Psychiatric Hospital. Everything you wish to know is there. Go. Seek it out.
When you find the truth, it will also be time for you to make your choice.
Follow your heart and accept destiny's gift."
A name was signed at the bottom.
Zhou Qingfeng
Fang Xiu read every word, his heart sinking into gloom.
Just as I thought! This psychiatric hospital held a huge secret!
This Zhou Qingfeng must be the director of Green Mountain Psychiatric Hospital.
Then who was this letter meant for?
Was it written for me or someone else? Had he known all along that I would come?
Before his old questions could be answered, new ones flooded in.
Room 520 in Building C? Perhaps all the answers were there.
Fang Xiu turned to leave.
But Wang Ziteng, who had already gotten up, aggressively blocked his path.
"You think you can shove me and just run away? Today-"
Before Wang Ziteng could finish, the light bulb overhead suddenly crackled.
It went out instantly, plunging the entire room into darkness.
Wang Ziteng, who had been about to throw a heavy punch, immediately lost sight of his target.
"Fuck! A power outage? Wu Dahai! Go turn on the backup power. I'm telling you, punk, don't run if you've got any balls!"
In the darkness, Fang Xiu paid no heed to Wang Ziteng's threats. His mind was already churning with shock.
Because the instant the power went out, Green Mountain Psychiatric Hospital vanished!
Everything before his eyes was dark, but the hospital hadn't disappeared because of the darkness.
The power had gone out in reality, not in the psychiatric hospital.
The psychiatric hospital was always shrouded in dim light. In theory, even with a power outage in reality, he should still have been able to see it.
Yet now, the hospital in his field of vision had disappeared, as if it, too, had vanished into the darkness.
This sudden change gave Fang Xiu a bad feeling.
He hurriedly took out his phone and turned on its flashlight.
But all he could see was the real-world office. There wasn't the slightest trace of the psychiatric hospital.
What on earth was going on?
Fang Xiu rushed out the door and ran toward the second floor. He needed to see whether the hospital had vanished from other places as well.
Seeing Fang Xiu "running away," Wang Ziteng immediately cursed and chased after him.
Afraid something might happen to Wang Ziteng, Wu Dahai naturally followed.
As the only woman left behind, how could Li Feifei dare to stay alone in the dark?
And so the entire group rushed toward the second floor.
Once there, Fang Xiu moved from place to place, searching for traces of the psychiatric hospital with his flashlight.
Nothing. Nothing. It was nowhere to be found.
The psychiatric hospital had vanished without a trace, like a mirage.
The employees on the second floor were quite calm. After all, it was only a power outage, and there were so many people together that even the female employees weren't afraid.
Except for a few employees who were "screaming."
"Ah! I just finished filling out my report! I hadn't even saved it yet! Of all the times for the power to go out, why now? How late will I have to work if I have to fill it all out again?"
Gloating voices promptly rose around them.
"Good thing I saved mine."
"Me too."
Just then, Wu Dahai's voice rang out in the darkness. "Stop howling! Someone hurry up and check whether the breaker tripped!"
"I'll go see what the hell made me redo my report!"
The employee who had just been screaming volunteered, switched on his phone's light, and stormed into the darkness.
Perhaps because this world had so many supernatural legends, an unidentified colleague joked from the darkness, "Want me to come with you? Careful you don't run into a supernatural entity all alone."
The employee heading to check the power scoffed. "A supernatural entity? Just thinking about having to work overtime makes me more fucking resentful than any of them. If one saw me, it'd have to call me boss."
With that, his figure gradually disappeared into the darkness.
Laughter filled the office.
"Huh? What's going on? Why's my phone flashlight so dim?" a female employee suddenly asked in the darkness.
The colleague beside her said, "Maybe there's dust on it. Try wiping it."
"I did. It didn't help. This stupid phone."
"Wait, why's my phone flashlight so dim too?"
"Mine too."
Quite a few employees holding up their phones in the darkness chimed in.
The scene caught Fang Xiu's attention. He looked toward them, and his pupils instantly contracted.
Employees stood or sat in the darkness, almost every one of them using a phone for light. There should have been more than enough light to illuminate the entire office.
Yet now, the light seemed to be suppressed by the darkness, forcibly compressed to less than half a meter around them.
Stranger still, under normal circumstances, a flashlight's beam should have grown weaker with distance.
But now, half a meter away, a clear boundary separated light from darkness. Not the slightest ray could penetrate beyond it, as though the darkness had severed the light.
Within that darkness, some inexplicable plankton-like organisms seemed to be stirring.
Supernatural entities!
Fang Xiu reached that conclusion almost instinctively. There was no mistaking that familiar feeling!
Just then, an agonized scream suddenly erupted from the darkness in the distance.
"Aaaah!!!"
The voice was familiar. It belonged to the employee who had gone to check the power.
The scream startled everyone.
"Zhang Bo, what happened? Did you get electrocuted?"
"Zhang Bo, don't scare us on purpose!"
Thud!
Something heavy hit the floor.
"Aah! Aah!"
Quite a few female employees screamed in fright.
"Stop screaming. Zhao, hurry over and take a look," Wu Dahai ordered urgently.
Zhao hesitated when his name was called, but cowed by Wu Dahai's earlier intimidation, he had no choice but to obey.
Zhao was the security guard Fang Xiu had encountered earlier. Wu Dahai had called him upstairs, and perhaps because of the nature of his job, he was the first person Wu Dahai thought of when danger arose.
Holding his flashlight, Zhao walked slowly into the darkness.
Time ticked by. About five minutes passed, but Zhao still hadn't returned, and not a sound came from the darkness.
Before you continue