The Sinister Grins Outside the Ward
The inpatient building of the Provincial Third People's Hospital.
The afternoon should have been a relatively quiet time. The only sounds in the corridor were the soft footsteps of medical staff, the creaking of trolley wheels, and the occasional whispers from the wards. Sunlight streamed in through the bright windows, bringing a touch of warmth. Monkey's parents had just finished feeding Xiaoya her medicine. The girl was sleeping weakly, her face still pale, but she seemed more at peace than when she was at Ankang Hospital.
However, this brief peace was abruptly shattered by a series of abrupt, chaotic, and aggressive footsteps.
Seven or eight burly men, dressed in tight black T-shirts and revealing their tattooed arms, stormed into the corridor of the inpatient department like wolves breaking into a flock of sheep. Their fierce eyes and menacing faces exuded the swagger of gangsters, a stark contrast to the quiet and peaceful atmosphere of the hospital.
The leader was a man with a shaved head and a ferocious snake head tattooed on his neck. He had a toothpick in his mouth and his sinister gaze swept across the ward numbers on both sides of the corridor.
Their appearance immediately caused a commotion.
Several Patient and their families who were strolling or talking in the corridor were frightened by the menacing appearance of this group of people. They instinctively stepped back, their faces showing fear. A nurse carrying a treatment tray happened to come out of the ward. When she saw this scene, she was so frightened that her hand trembled, and the instruments in the treatment tray made a "clanging" sound.
"What are you looking at?! Get the hell back to your rooms! This is none of your business!" A skinny, tall man with a thuggish look on his face, standing behind the thug, shouted menacingly at the stunned crowd in the corridor, while forcefully shoving an old man who was standing on the side of the road and was a little slower.
The old man stumbled and almost fell, but was quickly supported by those around him, who dared not utter a word of anger.
"Who... who are you? This is a hospital, please keep quiet!" A young man wearing Glasses, who looked like an intern, mustered up his courage and stepped forward to try to stop them.
"Quiet your mother!" Another burly man with a face full of scars stepped forward, grabbed the intern's white coat by the collar, almost lifting him off the ground, and grinned menacingly at him, "Kid, if you don't want to get beaten up, shut the hell up and get lost!"
The intern was terrified by the fierce look in his eyes. He struggled to be pushed away and slammed against the wall, then dared not utter another sound.
This group clearly had a specific purpose and used brutal methods, clearing the area and creating fear in the most direct way. They moved like a plague, causing panic and retreat wherever they went, and medical staff fell silent. The once quiet corridor was instantly enveloped in an atmosphere of tension and terror.
The young man was satisfied with the result. He spat out the toothpick in his mouth and fixed his gaze on a young nurse who had just come out of the nurses' station, clutching a notebook, her face pale with fright as she tried to hide back inside.
He strode forward, grabbed the nurse's arm, and the force made the girl cry out in pain, causing the notebook in her hand to fall to the ground with a "thud."
"Tell me! Which ward is Hou Xiaoya in?!" The thug leaned close to the girl's pale face, which was drained of color by fear, and his voice was low and menacing.
"I... I don't know..." The nurse was so frightened that tears welled up in her eyes, and her voice was trembling with sobs.
"Don't know?" The shrew sneered, and with his other hand, he suddenly reached out and grabbed the nurse's Liu Hai and a small tuft of hair, pulling them down forcefully!
"Ah--!" The excruciating pain in her scalp caused the girl to let out a piercing scream. Her body involuntarily bent in the direction the other person was pulling, and tears instantly welled up in her eyes.
"If you fucking say you don't know again, believe me, I'll rip all your hair out!" the thug threatened viciously, spitting almost onto the girl's face. "Say it! Hou Xiaoya! Where is she!"
Overwhelmed by extreme pain and fear, the young nurse's defenses crumbled. Trembling, she raised her hand, pointing towards the end of the corridor, and sobbed in a broken voice, "That... over there...7...721..."
The shrewish man snorted coldly, released his grip, and shoved the nearly limp nurse aside. "Why didn't you say so earlier? You spineless wretch!"
He led his men like hyenas that had smelled blood, striding quickly toward room 721. Along the corridor, behind the cracks in the doors of other wards, were pairs of terrified and angry eyes, but no one dared to step forward.
Soon, they arrived at the door of ward 721. The door was tightly closed, and the small observation window on the door was blocked from the inside with something, making it impossible to see what was happening.
The burly man with the green skin winked at the most muscular man behind him, a man as tall as Iron Tower. The man understood, a cruel excitement appearing on his face. He took a half step back, then took a deep breath, raised his right foot, which was clad in a heavy military boot, and kicked it hard at the lock of the ward door with all his might!
"Bang--!!!"
A huge, deafening explosion echoed through the corridor!
The heavy hospital room door swung open with a thud, the door panel swinging violently inward with tremendous force, slamming against the wall with another dull thud.
With a savage grin on his face, the thug charged forward.
However, the moment he stepped into the ward, his steps froze as if he had been frozen in place!
The sinister smile on his face froze instantly, then melted away like ice and snow, replaced by utter astonishment, shock, and a rapidly spreading... fear!
His men, who had been poised to storm in, all stopped in their tracks, crowding at the doorway, staring dumbfounded at the scene inside the ward, as if they had all been choked and were unable to utter a sound.
In the ward,
There was no panicked girl or her family as they had expected.
There are no hospital beds available.
There wasn't even any standard medical equipment.
The entire ward was empty.
In front of what should have been the hospital bed, directly facing them as they broke down the door,
A row of people stood in perfect unison.
A row of figures stood silently, like black Iron Tower.
They were all dressed in well-tailored black suits, their ties perfectly tied, and dark sunglasses that covered half their faces. Each of them was burly, their muscles bulging taut over their suits, exuding a cold and fierce aura of rigorous training.
Their numbers were no less than, and certainly no less than, those brought by the Green Skin Leader.
They stood there quietly, like hunters who had been waiting for a long time.
As the loud crash of the ward door being kicked open echoed, and as the astonished gazes of Qingpitou and his gang turned towards them...
The row of burly men in black, as if by prior agreement, simultaneously and slowly parted their lips into a uniform grin, revealing a smile that was both mocking and cruel, brimming with undisguised murderous intent.
Smiling evilly.
That smile was more chilling than all the previous ferocious expressions of the gangsters combined.