Chapter 2: The game is on |
“Who knocks on the door and laughs outside instead of coming in like an idiot?” Zhao Lan, who was still receiving an IV drip and unable to move, was irritated by the knocking and laughter outside. “Precious, could you please go and see what’s happening?”
(The phrase “敲门不进” (“When opportunity knocks, but one doesn’t take it” or “Knocking on the door but not coming in) is a common idiom in Chinese, meaning “someone missing an opportunity or failing to take advantage of a chance presented to them” or “someone who teases or provokes without actually following through”.)
Annoyed, Zhou Xiao Zhen got out of bed without bothering to put on her hat, revealing her shiny bald head, and walked towards the door. Just as she was about to open it, she heard a strange sound outside, as if someone was scratching the door with their fingernails.
Zhou Xiao Zhen’s hand froze on the doorknob. Something was not right. Could there be crazy people in the hospital? This was the tumour surgery department, not a psychiatric ward. The hospital staff wouldn’t play such pranks.
The scratching sound continued, and Zhou Xiao Zhen instinctively lowered her head, only to see a black piece of paper being pushed through the gap in the door. It appeared to be some kind of leaflet.
Someone was distributing leaflets in the hospital?
Yu Xiao breathed a sigh of relief as she looked at the talisman she had just drawn. The person who taught her how to draw the talisman in the forum had said that a successful talisman would emit a faint glow on the paper when finished. She examined the paper closely, but there was nothing there. It was probably a lie.
She rubbed her tired eyes. Due to the tumour, she had developed intermittent hearing loss. The doctor had warned her that if she didn’t receive effective treatment, the tumour could eventually affect her optic nerve.
Stretching lazily, she noticed Zhou Xiao Zhen standing at the door with her back turned to them.
“Precious,” Yu Xiao asked, “what are you doing over there?”
Zhao Lan, who was lying down, said, “Someone knocked on the door and laughed outside just now. Precious went to see.”
“Look, ladies,” Zhou Xiao Zhen turned around and held up the black paper in her hand. “The person we just saw seemed to be handing out flyers.”
“Really?” Yu Xiao had never heard of anyone distributing flyers in a hospital ward before, so she asked, “What kind of flyers?”
Zhou Xiao Zhen flipped over the flyer and said, “Let me see… Congratulations on being selected, and welcome to the Hospital Survival Game.”
Upon reading that, she couldn’t help but exclaim, “What the heck is this?”
Zhao Lan coughed and asked, “Is it some kind of coupon?”
“Doesn’t look like it… let me keep reading.” Zhou Xiao Zhen continued, “Your ward has been chosen by the Sixth Hospital. Please follow the hospital regulations and cooperate actively with the treatment. Please handle doctor-patient relationships properly…”
“Is there more?” Yu Xiao asked.
“There’s one more sentence,” Zhou Xiao Zhen said, “Wishing all patients a speedy recovery and early discharge, yo~”
Yu Xiao burst into laughter immediately. “Why are you trying to be cute?” she asked.
“I’m not trying to be cute,” Zhou Xiao Zhen said as she handed Yu Xiao the flyer. “It’s written like this.”
Yu Xiao took the flyer and noticed that the last word in the last line was indeed “yo,” with a wavy line following it.
“Is this a flyer from the hospital?” Zhao Lan asked from her bed. “Isn’t this the People’s Hospital? Why is it changed to the Sixth Hospital?”
As Yu Xiao looked at the black and white flyer, she felt that something was off.
“Welcome to the Hospital Survival Game…”
The Hospital Survival Game sounded like an advertisement for some sort of haunted house. For some reason, she thought of the Fourth Hospital’s patient forum, but this one was for the Sixth Hospital.
“I don’t know,” Zhou Xiao Zhen said. “I’ll go to the nurse’s station and ask.”
As Yu Xiao pondered the potential connection between the Sixth Hospital and the forum, a sudden scream made her jump. She looked up to see Zhou Xiao Zhen standing at the door of the ward, the darkness outside enveloping her as she let out a piercing shriek.
Zhao Lan, struggling to sit up, asked, “What’s happening?”
Shaking all over, Zhou Xiao Zhen pointed outside and stammered, “What… what’s going on?”
Yu Xiao got off her bed and walked slowly towards the door, mindful of the doctor’s advice not to engage in any strenuous activity. Even walking needed to be done slowly.
When she reached the door, she finally understood why Zhou Xiao Zhen had screamed. The hallway outside the ward, usually lit up 24/7, was now pitch black – not the kind of darkness that comes with night, but a thick, inky blackness that seemed to be hiding something ominous.
Despite not being able to see anything, they had a feeling that something terrible was lurking out there, just waiting to pounce on them.
After thinking for a moment, Yu Xiao said seriously, “Has the tumour finally started affecting my optic nerve?”
“No… no, look!” Zhou Xiao Zhen pulled at Yu Xiao’s sleeve, still shaking, and pointed downwards.
Yu Xiao followed her gaze and saw that the ground outside the door was also shrouded in darkness. But there was a red blotch spreading towards them from a place they couldn’t see, like a pool of flowing blood.
The two of them stared intently at the growing blotch of red while Zhao Lan, on the bed, grew increasingly agitated. “What are you seeing? Why is it so dark outside? Has the light gone out?”
Just then, a pale, swollen hand with black nail polish appeared at the door. Zhou Xiao Zhen let out another terrified scream, “Ahh!”
With a swing of her hand, Yu Xiao slammed the door shut with a loud “bang.”
Little did she know that a hand obstructed the door, preventing it from closing properly and causing it to bounce back, widening the opening even more.
Zhou Xiao Zhen screamed once again, “Ah!!!”
Yu Xiao closed the door once more, forcefully slamming it shut. Four pallid fingers were caught in the door, writhing and twisting, while the black nails scratched against the wood, emitting a grating noise.
“What the blazes is this thing?” Zhou Xiao Zhen panicked and started jumping up and down. “It’s coming in!”
“Thud!”
“Thud thud…”
Something outside was pounding relentlessly on the door, causing Yu Xiao’s entire body to press against it and bounce up and down from the impact.
“Quick, lock the door!” urged Zhou Xiao Zhen. “Lock the door now!”
Yu Xiao’s face turned crimson as she replied, “Those fingers are trapped, I can’t close it!”
At this point, Zhou Xiao Zhen was too frightened to care. She lifted her foot and kicked the four fingers, delivering eight consecutive blows. However, as a cancer patient, she was too feeble to continue. Gasping for breath, she leaned against the door and said, “It’s no use… this thing is too stubborn. Even if I twist the fingers into knots, it won’t give up.”
Yu Xiao lowered her head and observed the four fingers, now dirty and twisted into a strange shape, trembling.
“Whimper~…”
A strange noise came from outside the door. Yu Xiao pressed her ear against the door and listened. It sounded like a woman’s shrill scream. Despite the pain, Yu Xiao refused to let go. She gritted her teeth and said, “I’ll hold it back. There’s a knife in the bedside drawer. Go get it and cut off the fingers.”
“Ah?” Zhou Xiao Zhen looked at her in shock, thinking to herself, ‘I didn’t expect this. My soft-spoken and gentle sister is actually tough.’
She gritted her teeth and said, “I’ll go get it.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the hand stuck in the door suddenly pulled back, causing the door to slam shut with a loud “bang.”
Yu Xiao quickly locked the door.
By now, Yu Xiao’s back was drenched in cold sweat.
“What’s happening?” Zhao Lan trembled as she got out of bed. She couldn’t walk far because she still had an IV in her arm. “What are you talking about? Whose fingers do you want to cut off?”
Yu Xiao and Zhou Xiao Zhen stood side by side at the door, frozen as if being punished. After a moment, Yu Xiao asked, “I’m not sure if my tumour has affected my optic nerve, but I just saw a hand stuck in the door. Did you see it too?”
Zhou Xiao Zhen vigorously nodded, “Of course I saw it!”
“Oh,” Yu Xiao suddenly chuckled, “then it must be my tumour affecting my thinking. I must be going crazy, hehehe…”
“You need to snap out of it!” Zhou Xiao Zhen grabbed Yu Xiao’s shoulder and shook her vigorously. “You’re not crazy, and you’re not hallucinating. There really is a ghost hand!”
“What? What ghost hand?” Zhao Lan was completely bewildered.
“It’s haunted, Misty!” Zhou Xiao Zhen dragged Yu Xiao away from the door. “There’s a ghost outside! What do we do? Will the ghost come in…”
Zhao Lan was completely at a loss. “Don’t get so excited. What did you two really see? Oh my, Smiley, you tell me. Is there really a ghost outside?”
As soon as the words were spoken, the ceiling lamp flickered, plunging the entire ward into darkness.
“Aaaaahhhhh~!”
A deafening scream reverberated in Yu Xiao’s ears, causing her head to buzz and almost rendering her deaf. Suddenly, a pair of icy hands climbed up her neck, and she felt someone clinging onto her body.
Initially, Yu Xiao thought it was Zhou Xiao Zhen, who was scared and had thrown herself onto her. She reached out and embraced the person, using her other hand to grip the edge of the bed to prevent herself from falling.
“Precious, don’t be afraid,” Yu Xiao tried to keep her voice steady. “Don’t hold onto me too tightly, or I might lose my balance.”
But just as she finished speaking, she heard Zhou Xiao Zhen’s trembling voice from behind her: “I… I’m not hugging you.”
Yu Xiao immediately stiffened. If Zhou Xiao Zhen was behind her, then who was hanging onto her?
“Ten.”
“Nine.”
A woman’s voice whispered slowly into her ear.
“Eight.”
“Seven.”
“Wu wu wu~…” Zhou Xiao Zhen cried out in fear. “Who’s counting down?”
“Five.”
“…”
“Two.”
“One.”
“Hehe…let’s begin.”
With a sharp electric sound, the lamp flickered before illuminating the room.
Yu Xiao instinctively closed her eyes, feeling something brush past her. Finally, a sense of relief washed over her. Reluctantly adjusting to the sudden brightness, she saw Zhao Lan squatting by the bed, while Zhou Xiao Zhen lay curled up under the quilt.
It wasn’t Zhou Xiao Zhen who had been clinging onto her just now.
“What was that voice just now?” Zhao Lan stood up, leaning on the bed. “What’s happening?”
Yu Xiao paused, then turned around and picked up the black flyer that Zhou Xiao Zhen had dropped on the ground. Everything suddenly made sense.
The Fourth Hospital patient communication forum wasn’t for mental patients; they had unintentionally stumbled upon a cruel and mysterious game.
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