This old man had calculated with his fingers: you were lying in bed reading a novel right now, probably on your side, and your phone might even be charging.
Yang Jian, a high school senior, was lying under the covers, boredly scrolling through his phone. He casually opened a post and found plenty of replies beneath it.
"Holy crap, OP is a freaking prophet. You actually guessed it."
"Heh, should I tell you guys I'm squatting on the toilet right now? Don't ask, my legs are numb."
"If you're getting a tattoo, get Mr. Zhou. Never be a wage slave again."
"Respect, respect."
Yang Jian closed that post and opened another one with a very high view count. It began with this sentence:
"I'm a consulting doctor at the Third Hospital of a certain province. Let me tell you something: something absolutely terrifying happened at my hospital recently. I'm so scared I don't even dare go to work anymore, so I'm taking leave at home."
"Don't say another word. I'm not buying shoes or adding you on WeChat."
"OP must have been harassed by a patient. If I'm wrong, I'll eat shit and kill myself."
"Look, the guy on the third floor is trying to scam free food and drinks again."
Finding the replies rather boring, Yang Jian clicked the option to view only the original poster's comments.
The post immediately became much cleaner, leaving only the entries from the self-proclaimed doctor, whose username was: Lightning King.
The post continued: Here's what happened. Last week, I was on the night shift. At around midnight, an ambulance brought in an old man. The medical staff said he had fallen from the fifth floor. My colleague had something urgent to deal with, so I was the only one handling the diagnosis. At the time, I was one hundred percent certain that the old man no longer showed any signs of life. He had been dead for quite a while.
Moreover, judging from the condition of the old man's corpse and the temperature of his chest, there was absolutely no way he had died from a fall that very night.
Anyone with a bit of common sense knew that within ten hours of death, in a normal-temperature environment, a body's temperature dropped by around one degree per hour. It was only after twenty-four hours that it more or less approached the ambient temperature. But in my opinion, that old man's body temperature was at least ten degrees below room temperature, perhaps even more. The temperature that night had been twenty-two degrees.
So I determined that the old man had been dead for more than a day.
Comments immediately appeared below:
"OP's 'bit of common sense' is terrifying. I kneel before the master."
"Quick, check whether the patient's shoes fell off. If they didn't, there's still a chance to save him."
"The more you think about it, the scarier it gets. OP, update fast. I've already hidden under my covers."
Yang Jian continued scrolling down.
Lightning King continued posting: Based on my experience of watching more than three hundred episodes of detective cartoons in middle school, I immediately determined that this old man had not died from an accidental fall. He had likely been murdered. The corpse must have been stored in some sort of cold storage. I chose to call the police and reported the matter to them.
But that wasn't what I wanted to talk about today. It was what happened afterward.
The post paused there. The next update came two hours later.
Sorry, someone just knocked on my door to ask about the incident. They weren't investigators, and they didn't look like reporters either, but they had ID. Forget it, whatever.
It was probably the next morning.
I hadn't gone to work yet, but I heard from my colleagues that the old man's body, which had been delivered the previous night, had mysteriously disappeared from the morgue. The police were investigating with all their strength and suspected that the murderer had stolen it. It caused quite a commotion. They pulled up surveillance footage from the entire hospital, but in the end, they still couldn't find the missing corpse or the murderer.
I was on duty again tonight.
But what happened during the day had left me a little uneasy. A patient at the hospital said he had seen the old man's corpse. It hadn't been carried out by anyone; it had walked out on its own. The patient even pointed out the route the old man had taken with great accuracy. Looking at that route, it really did lead out from the direction of the morgue.
I was a little scared after hearing that, but fortunately, I'm an atheist. I didn't entirely believe what the patient said.
Later, I heard the head nurse say that Dr. Fang from neurology was planning to increase that patient's medication. That made me feel a little more at ease.
Sure enough, I had been right not to believe that patient.
But that wasn't what I wanted to talk about. It was something that happened while I was on duty that night.
It was around two in the morning. I was playing Blue Moon in the emergency room. You can't possibly imagine how fun that game is. If you're my bro, come slash me.
"Damn, OP, you're a real talent."
"What happened to honesty between people? You just hit me with a bait-and-switch. I was completely caught off guard."
"Respect, respect. I guessed the beginning but not the ending. But I have to ask the guy on the third floor—weren't you going to eat shit?"
A huge number of netizens replied, and the forum became incredibly lively.
Yang Jian was lying under his covers, unsure whether to laugh or cry. Were advertisements really this impressive nowadays?
But when he scrolled further down, something felt wrong again.
Lightning King continued posting: Sorry, sorry, I really wasn't advertising. Something truly unimaginable and supernatural happened that night, something you probably couldn't imagine in your entire lives. At quarter past two in the morning, while I was playing a game in the emergency room, I suddenly felt a chill. It felt exactly like the morgue. I got goosebumps all over.
Then guess what happened?
The old man who had disappeared from the morgue yesterday appeared outside the emergency room at some point. He wasn't dead. Step by step, he slowly and stiffly walked toward the exit of the hospital.
God, that was impossible. I had seen with my own eyes that the old man was dead, and he had been dead for more than a day. How could he have come back to life?
A prank? Reanimation? A medical miracle?
In that instant, countless thoughts ran through my mind. But perhaps because I dealt with corpses so often, I wasn't that scared. The most urgent thing was to take out my phone and snap a picture, so I could post it on my Moments.
Photo below. Pictures prove it. Absolutely not Photoshopped.
Yang Jian scrolled down again, and a photograph immediately appeared before his eyes.
The photo was not blurry. On the contrary, it was very clear. Through the glass window of the emergency room, an old man could be seen walking past outside.
The old man wore a long black robe with a somewhat old-fashioned style. He was gaunt all over, his skin brown and covered in spots. From the angle of the photograph, one of his eyes could be seen. What kind of eye was that? Ashen, hollow, devoid of the slightest gleam, carrying a horrifying stillness of death.
There was nothing bloody or overtly horrifying in the picture, but the feeling the old man gave off made one's hair stand on end and scalp go numb at a glance.
And when one recalled that the consulting doctor called Lightning King had clearly stated that the old man had once been an ice-cold corpse, an even deeper fear welled up.
The longer one looked at the photo, the more unsettling it became.
It was like looking at a dead man, yet even more like looking at a ghost.
"I'm scared to death, baby. This photo is so creepy. The more I look at it, the more scared I get. OP, where did you find this picture?"
"Why does that old man have so many spots on his hands? I have trypophobia."
"Those are livor mortis spots. That means this old man is already a corpse."
"Begone, demons and monsters! Lam Ching-ying is here." A netizen posted a picture of a Taoist priest.
"Pfft, you think you're Lam Ching-ying? Then I'm a cute girl with a sweet voice."
But no matter how the netizens commented, Lightning King continued posting; the picture was real. I took it myself. Later, the old man simply walked out of the hospital. I don't know where he went, but if anyone lives in the same city as me, be careful. I'm an atheist, but there are some things you have no choice but to believe.
Wait, someone seems to be knocking again. It's probably someone here to take my statement. I'll be right back, and then I'll tell you what happened afterward.
But less than a minute after the post was made, Lightning King sent another message: Damn it, damn it, it's that old man who ran out of the hospital. That thing is standing at my front door, knocking. I can see him clearly through the peephole. What do I do now? I feel like I've provoked something I shouldn't have.
"OP, are you happy after being this cheeky?"
"Holy crap, is this real? It can't be that cursed, can it?"
"Call the police already! Quick, dial 911!"
"Stop pretending, OP. It has to be fake. If it isn't, I'll eat double the shit."
"It's you again, shit-eating boy. You still haven't paid off what you owed last time."
But Lightning King posted again: I called the police, but what do I do now? That thing is still knocking. It doesn't look like it plans to leave. Oh no, just now, the lights in my living room suddenly went out. I'm so scared I don't even dare go into the living room.
I shut my bedroom door and turned on every light I could, but that old man is still knocking.
By this point, the netizen called Lightning King was posting frantically. Less than thirty seconds passed between each message, and some of the words were even misspelled.
From that alone, it was clear that the doctor making these posts was terrified and panicking.
Yang Jian felt a chill spread through his body as well. Though he knew the story might be fake, the thought of that old man from the photograph standing outside the door and knocking still sent shivers down his spine.
An old man who had already died had come back to life and was knocking at his front door. Anyone would be terrified if they encountered something like that.
But the post had not stopped. It continued: No, this is bad. I can hear footsteps in my living room. God, I'm the only one in the house. I suspect the old man who was knocking outside earlier got in. He must have walked into the living room. Wh-what is going on? I didn't hear him open the door. How did he get in?
The footsteps reached my bedroom door and seemed to stop.
That thing is knocking again. I have a bad feeling. I've recorded the sound now, to keep as evidence. I'll also leave my phone number. If you can't reach me, then something must have happened to me. Please, kind people, report it to the police: 138
"Knock, knock-knock, knock, knock-knock."
Below was an audio file. After opening it, a dull, oppressive knocking sound could be heard.
One knock after another, as though the sound were pounding directly against one's heart, making it almost impossible to breathe.
The post stopped there for a while.
Yang Jian scrolled to the very end and saw only one final line: The old man came in.
Before you continue