Hua Yun and the Taoist

After leaning against the warmth behind him for a few minutes to recover, Qi Gu straightened up again and strolled over to one of the glass cases. Inside was an ordinary beige, lined exercise book of the kind handed out at school.

"Diary" was written in the subject field on the cover, and "Hua Yun" in the name field.

When Qi Gu had driven back that long, distorted evil spirit at the stairwell, he had gotten a rough look at her face. Now it matched the photograph on Hua Yun's ID card.

Qi Gu took the cheap diary out of the glass case and opened it.

The handwriting was small and delicate, the characters crowded tightly together. It was hard to say whether she had done it deliberately to save paper.

January 15. Rainy.

Someone in my class bought a diary with a pretty little lock and key. I can't afford one, so I'll just use a school exercise book I haven't filled up. They're all the same anyway.

January 16. Sunny.

They all say I'm a kid with no dad, no mom, and nobody to love me. That's not true! I have Grandma, and she loves me more than all their moms and dads put together!

People in the village only give eggs to boys, but whenever Grandma boils an egg, she always gives it to me.

I'll study hard and do better than all the other kids in the village. I'll make everyone who says bad things about Grandma and me envy us!

May 24. Cloudy.

The doctor said Grandma has uremia. If she gets dialysis, her medical bills will be at least seven or eight thousand yuan a month. Grandma said she won't get dialysis, just take medicine. That'll only cost a thousand a month.

I know she wants to save the money for my schooling.

But without Grandma, what would be the point even if I really made something of myself?

July 10. Rainy.

Grandma won't let me drop out. I want to get the school to expel me.

I disrupted class and didn't pay attention, but the school didn't expel me.

I skipped classes on purpose, but the school still didn't expel me.

Later, I stole the dean's phone and deliberately let the security camera get a clear view of my face.

I finally got expelled. That's great!

July 12. Sunny.

I found a job. It's a bit far away, in Lotus Town. The boss is really nice. He said he'd reimburse my travel expenses both ways. Twelve hours a day, six thousand yuan a month. With a bit of part-time work on top, I can cover the dialysis!

July 15. Rainy.

I've found a part-time job too, and I'm on the bus to Lotus Town. Let me work out the money again.

Expected monthly income: 6,000 + 2,000 (part-time work)

Expenses: Grandma's dialysis, 7,200; my living expenses, 300; utilities and phone bill, 100; two new outfits for Grandma, 200...

That leaves two hundred. I'll buy Grandma a silver bracelet too.

Grandma's never said anything, but whenever she sees other grandmas wearing gold or silver bracelets, she looks so envious.

Maybe it has something to do with the customs back home too. People always say that if a woman is buried without a silver bracelet weighing down her body, she won't rest in peace even in death.

It's all just superstition, really, but Grandma believes it, so I'll get her one!

In her final diary entry, Hua Yun had still been full of hope for her future with her grandmother, filled with joy at being able to pay her grandmother's medical bills.

But everything had come to an abrupt end, just like the young girl's life, which had withered before it could bloom.

Qi Gu and the viewers naturally knew what had happened afterward.

[Oh my god, how could this happen? Poor Hua Yun, sob sob sob.]

[How heartbroken would her grandma be if she knew she was gone!]

[She couldn't even bear to buy herself a nicer notebook, and she only set aside three hundred yuan a month to live on... why did fate have to be so cruel to her?]

[My eyes are peeing.]

[Huh? Production crew, please tell me this is scripted. I'm about to cry myself unconscious in front of my screen.]

[Does anyone have her grandma's contact details? I can help pay for some of the dialysis.]

[She didn't know any better. Health insurance can reimburse dialysis expenses! It's so much cheaper after reimbursement!]

[Do you think a family in their situation looks like they have health insurance?]

"Hua Yun, come out," Qi Gu said toward the pitch-black corridor outside the door, which had swallowed so many living people.

A distorted, eerie spirit nearly two meters long floated in from outside. She was the very one who had clung to Sha Chuan's back on the stairs.

Startled by her twisted appearance, Sha Chuan abruptly ducked behind the others.

The others were frightened too, but they did their best to keep their expressions normal, not wanting to hurt the young girl's feelings.

"K-k-k..." Hua Yun's pupils were scarlet, her face horrifying, and a hoarse sound came from her throat.

She had clearly suffered a great deal of torment before she died. Otherwise, her spirit would not have been so distorted.

"Hua Yun, Hua Yun..." Hua Yun repeated her own name. She seemed no longer quite aware of who she was, only finding it familiar.

Day after day, the thick, murderous energy in the clinic had eroded her mind. There were many things she could no longer remember clearly.

As a result, her actions were deeply contradictory. She did not want the show's guests to wander into the clinic like the Taoist, only to be spotted by Diao Huaqing when he happened to be watching the cameras and killed for no reason.

So she had caused trouble along the way to stop them from entering the depths of the clinic and reaching this room where the surveillance equipment was hidden.

Yet she had also been unable to resist replacing the show's jigsaw puzzle with one depicting the murderer, then using drops of blood to guide the guests to Room Six. She wanted someone to discover them, these wretched souls, and take their bodies out of this filthy hell, back to their families.

"Taoist... Auntie Li... Auntie Wang..." Hua Yun uttered one form of address after another, her gaze falling on the ID photographs in the last row of the shelves.

No one knew that a group of Yin Corpses had once lived together in the bloody, terrifying Lotus Town Clinic.

They were all unfortunate people whom Diao Huaqing had lured there by various means and murdered, with the sole exception of the Taoist.

He was a young Taoist who had only just left his mountain to gain experience. By chance, he had discovered the dense yin energy here and decided to investigate, only for Diao Huaqing, who was watching his collection through the surveillance cameras, to spot him and attack with lethal intent.

The young Taoist had many ways of dealing with ghosts and spirits, but his martial skills were mediocre. Despite his resistance, he had still been killed by the ruthless Diao Huaqing.

After the victims died, their bodies did not decay, and they became Yin Corpses. Yet they could not leave the clinic, nor could they attack Diao Huaqing, who had killed so many people that the baleful energy around him had taken on physical substance.

Every day, they huddled together in a corner and plotted how to get word out that Diao Huaqing was here.

But Diao Huaqing was far too cunning. He deliberately spread rumors outside that the clinic was haunted, making everyone avoid it and leaving no one daring to approach, so he could murder people and hide their bodies without restraint.

The second-to-last person killed was the Taoist.

The last was Hua Yun.

Back then, the other Yin Corpses had nearly gone frantic at the sight of Hua Yun, who had just been tricked into coming and was clearly very young. Each had used their supernatural abilities, hoping to scare her out of the clinic before Diao Huaqing could attack her. Who could have known that the girl would be so stubborn? Even when she was so frightened that she hid under her covers and cried at night, she still refused to leave.

Later, Hua Yun became the youngest Yin Corpse here apart from the Taoist.

The older Yin Corpses scolded Hua Yun for not running away back then, but they also felt sorry that she had died so young and took great care of her.

But slowly, the resentful, baleful energy within them grew stronger. The older Yin Corpses who had died first began to lose their minds, unable to distinguish friend from foe. At their worst, they even attacked the other Yin Corpses.

The Taoist said it was because they had been trapped here too long, and the clinic's feng shui already gathered baleful energy. If they let the older Yin Corpses carry on like this, they would soon lose their minds completely and never be able to pass on.

Naturally, the other Yin Corpses did not want to see that happen, so the Taoist proposed a solution: separate the souls of the Yin Corpses on the verge of losing control from their bodies, then seal their souls away.

That way, they could still retain some of their sanity. With luck, if someone discovered what was happening here, a person with the requisite spiritual skills could find the talismans sealing them and help them pass on.

As time passed, there were fewer and fewer Yin Corpses in the clinic.

In the end, only Hua Yun and the Taoist remained.

Later, the Taoist was gone too, leaving Hua Yun to hold on alone.

"Please, save them..." Holding a pile of bright yellow talismans covered in cinnabar markings and folded into triangles in both hands, Hua Yun offered them to Qi Gu.

The talismans glimmered with lightning and fire, scorching her hands with pain that acted directly on her soul. An ordinary evil ghost would have fled screaming at the slightest touch.

But Hua Yun held the talismans firmly, her hands not trembling in the least.

Her eyes were full of pleading, and tears of blood dripped from them.