Su Cheng's gaze fell on the hospital map next to the elevator.
Floors 4 through 6 of Golden Leaf Hospital are entirely dedicated to the obstetrics and gynecology ward.
The entire three floors are dedicated to the obstetrics and gynecology department; what space is left for the other departments?
Are there really that many patients in the obstetrics and gynecology department? Does it really require such a large area to house the beds?
"Swish"
The elevator doors opened.
Su Cheng and her family entered at the same time.
"Rustling sound..."
The elevator's air conditioning vents emitted cold air, and perhaps due to their age, they made an unusually loud noise.
The air conditioning was particularly strong; even wearing a coat, Su Cheng felt goosebumps rising on her arms.
"Oh dear, it's so cold in here! Lili, aren't you cold?"
"Why don't you take the clothes out of your bag and put them on? I'm telling you, you're pregnant, you can't afford to get sick, and you can't take any medicine..."
The woman with a protruding belly interrupted impatiently, "Mom, I don't want to wear it. Where am I cold? I feel just right."
The mother-in-law pursed her lips, " A Zhe, what do you think?"
Caught between his wife and mother, the man looked around before finally saying, "Uh, I think it's a bit cold. For the baby's sake, Lili, you should listen to your mother, okay?"
With the man on her side, the mother-in-law smiled slightly, took out clothes from her bag, and put them on despite her pregnant daughter-in-law's resistance.
"When I was pregnant before, I wasn't like you, only thinking about yourself."
The mother-in-law glanced at the lonely Su Cheng, "Besides, A Zhe and I personally accompanied you to the hospital. Some mothers-in-law and husbands just don't care about their wives..."
The woman was annoyed by her mother-in-law's lecturing, yet she couldn't escape it. Her pent-up emotions boiled over in her chest. She suppressed her feelings, her fingertips clenching until they turned white from holding back.
Su Cheng glanced at the woman twisting her clothes and clenching them tightly out of the corner of her eye. Something seemed off about her, but her mother-in-law and husband didn't notice.
The former was still rambling on, while the latter was playing on his phone.
Su Cheng suddenly Perception something and looked up at the air conditioner vent above her head.
A red silk scarf tied at the entrance of the elevator shaft fluttered in the wind. Hidden in the dark entrance were a pair of narrow, probing, blood-red eyes, silently watching the people inside the elevator.
It met Su Cheng's eyes and vanished into the shadows in the blink of an eye.
No wonder the elevator lobby was so cold; it turns out there was something else providing shade.
"Bite"
The elevator doors opened.
We've arrived at the fourth-floor obstetrics and gynecology ward.
"Hey! Nurse! Which room are we staying in?"
The woman, carrying her bag, had just stepped out of the elevator when she shouted at the nurses' station.
The two nurses who were originally sitting at the nurses' station frowned in displeasure. The older nurse quickly walked over and said, "Please don't make a sound!"
The older woman felt embarrassed after being reprimanded, but when she met the older nurse's cold, stern eyes, she didn't dare to say anything more.
"Bring him to the hospital so I can see him."
"Here."
The older woman rolled up her daughter-in-law's sleeve, revealing a red bracelet on her wrist.
"Mom, I can do it myself, can you..." The woman pulled her mother-in-law's hand away in dissatisfaction, and was about to say a few more words when her husband tugged at her clothes.
"Alright. We're outside."
The woman glared at her husband, then shut her mouth, feeling somewhat aggrieved.
"And yours?" the nurse asked Su Cheng.
Su Cheng took out a red wristband from her pocket.
The nurse took it, glanced at it, and handed it back to her, saying, "Please tie it on your wrist for easy identity verification."
"Okay, I'll be there in a bit."
The nurse nodded. "Come with me to the ward."
In front of the nurses' station is a long corridor, with rows of wards across the way, some of which have VIP signs.
Each ward was closed, and a red indicator light next to the door showed that it was full.
The entire inpatient ward was unusually quiet, with only the sound of a few people moving around.
Su Cheng couldn't help but wonder, did all pregnant women sleep with the doors closed? Or were the hospital room doors so soundproof that there wasn't a sound at all...?
"You can stay in this ward." The older nurse led them into a three-bed ward.
"No overnight stays are allowed. Family members should leave as soon as possible. It will be 7 PM in 15 minutes."
Upon hearing this, the mother-in-law and husband's expressions changed slightly. "What? So fast?"
The husband put the bag on the ground. " Lili, you can pack it up yourself later, or Mom can pack it up tomorrow. We're leaving now! We'll be late getting home."
After saying that, the two left in a hurry.
The nurse then looked at the woman and Su Cheng, "My surname is Liu. You can call me if you need anything."
"It's getting late. The pregnant woman needs to rest well. You should all go to sleep and not leave the ward unnecessarily at night. The cafeteria will deliver nutritious meals tomorrow morning."
She looked at Su Cheng's flat stomach, "Especially you, you need to eat more nutritious meals. You're too thin, it's not good for the baby."
"Okay, sure," Su Cheng replied casually.
After giving her instructions, Nurse Liu left the ward, seemingly without any intention of going through the admission procedures, taking blood pressure, or filling out various consent forms with them.
"My name is Li Li, I'll sleep in this bed, what about you?" Li Li sat down on the bed by the window.
" Su Cheng, then I'll sleep by the door."
Su Cheng sat down on the bed. The quilt beneath her wasn't striped; instead, it had a fresh floral pattern.
Li Li: "You're so thin! Doesn't your mother-in-law force you to drink all sorts of nourishing soups?"
After her husband and mother-in-law left, Li Li was visibly much more relaxed.
Su Cheng chuckled, "Oh, she doesn't care about me at all. I actually didn't want to be hospitalized; I was thinking of going back tomorrow..."
Li Li disagreed with interrupting, saying, "You're six months along and about to give birth, how can you go back?"
Don't talk nonsense! Even if your mother-in-law doesn't care about you, you still need to think about yourself and your child!
Su Cheng caught the key phrase: Is she about to give birth?
"Ahem, don't talk about me, how much longer until your due date?"
"That's fast, next week. Otherwise, I wouldn't have come to the hospital so soon."
Next week? This instance's gestation period is only six months...
No wonder people who have been registered for more than six months can be admitted directly to the hospital.
Su Cheng understood, but still smiled and offered her congratulations, "Congratulations! I'll be here a little later than you."
"Um... actually I... ha..."
Li Li lay on the bed, yawned, and closed her eyes before she could finish speaking, then began to breathe evenly.
Li Li had actually fallen asleep. She lay flat on her back with her hands clasped over her stomach.
Was she really that sleepy? She fell asleep while talking.
Is this why the inpatient department is so quiet?
Su Cheng had heard that pregnant women could become sleepy, but the pregnant women in the ward who all went to bed early were clearly experiencing something different from what she had imagined.
Is it because it's almost 7 PM that they've fallen asleep?
Going even further, perhaps Li Li's husband and mother-in-law's sudden rush to go home was also because of 7 PM—whether they wanted to escape the hospital or for some other reason...
Su Cheng leaned against the bed, looking at the digital clock hanging on the wall.
It is now 18:50:10.
Symbolizing seconds: ticking silently.
Su Cheng sat on the bed, staring at the digital clock, waiting.
Ten minutes passed quickly. She noticed that when the digital clock showed 7:00 PM, it paused for three seconds before resuming its ticking.
That three-second pause seemed to herald the arrival of a special period.
It was still very quiet outside the ward.
Su Cheng got out of bed and stood by the door. Looking out through the observation window, she could only see an empty corridor in dim light.
Her hand touched the doorknob, hesitating whether to go out.
The nurse had reminded her before leaving that she wasn't allowed to go out without permission, but she wasn't sure if that counted as a rule.
Before Su Cheng could decide what to do, she suddenly heard panting and running sounds coming from the nurses' station.
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh..."
"Finally up."
"Have they caught up yet?"
"No, no! It's safe here!"
That energetic voice—you could tell at a glance that a contestant had arrived.
Su Cheng turned the doorknob and had just stepped into the hallway when she heard a terrified scream.
"Ah!"
"Strange! Strange!"
Su Cheng's heart tightened slightly, and she quickly approached the nurses' station to see what had happened.
The two nurses were elongated, their pink and white uniforms bulging out of place.
Their hands transformed into enormous black eagle claws, their skin melted like wax, their features distorted, and tears barely flowed down their faces.
The contestants were three young people, two women and one man.
The man's body was pierced by the nurse's sharp claws.
The sharp claws were mercilessly pulled out of the man's body, and blood dripped from the hole onto the white floor tiles.
"Why..."
The man's legs gave way, and he collapsed forward to the ground, dying with a final, defiant question: He was safe all along...
Two girls, splattered with blood, frantically searched for an escape route. They kept pressing the elevator buttons, but the doors wouldn't open, and their path was blocked by two monsters...
Unlike their swift movements earlier, the two monsters hesitated before reaching out their claws towards the girls.
"Wait! They're pregnant!"
Su Cheng's sudden appearance drew their attention.
The monsters all turned their heads, one of them looking at the suddenly appearing Su Cheng, seemingly angry, and letting out a hoarse roar from its mouth:
"Going out at night is not allowed! Pregnant women need to rest well!"
Su Cheng was even more impatient than them, and retorted confidently, "It's because you were making too much noise that you woke me up!"
The two monsters paused slightly.
Liu Yue and Mo Yiyi stared blankly at the scene, then belatedly realized what was happening and quickly followed Su Cheng's words, "We're pregnant... we need to be hospitalized..."
The two monsters' gazes returned to the two new patients, or more precisely, to their flat stomachs. After a moment's hesitation, they slowly stepped back, making way for the ward.