Chapter 52: Merry-go-Round |
Dr. George answered with a crisp and detached* voice, “Is something wrong?” he asked, not expecting anything serious.
(*公事公办: literally means “handle public affairs in a public manner”, but it is often used to imply that one is being impartial, professional, or cold.)
But all he received was a heavy silence. He looked at his phone again, wondering if there was a problem with the signal. What did she want from him? They had nothing in common, and he certainly didn’t like her.
He was about to end the call, when a bitter voice broke the silence. “George, what have you done…” Lolita hissed, sounding like a wounded animal.
George frowned, feeling annoyed and puzzled. What could he have done? He had been keeping a low profile for weeks, trying to avoid trouble. And even if he had done something, why would Lolita care? She was none of his business.
He heard Lolita continue, her voice rising with rage. “Why did you let that person be the dean,? I hate you, you’re a traitor…” she spat, accusing him of something he had no control over.
Then she unleashed a stream of insults, calling him every name under the sun.
George listened, half amused, half incredulous. He soon realised what had happened. It was that person who had visited Lolita’s territory. The one who had caused him so much grief. The one who had a knack for stirring up trouble wherever she went.
For some reason, knowing that Lolita was suffering the same fate as him, George felt a surge of satisfaction. He imagined the horror on her face, the panic in her eyes, the despair in her voice. He couldn’t help but laugh.
“…” Lolita, who was in the middle of a tirade, stopped abruptly. She was stunned by his laughter. She resumed her cursing, with even more venom and fury.
The patients in the office were having a major freak-out. Could it be that the attending doctor actually made phone calls too? Could it be that he had a life outside of poking and prodding them, with friends to gossip with, jokes to crack, and joy to spread?
A curious feeling stirred in their hearts. The image they held of the attending doctor changed in their minds.
**
Yu Xiao got to the big pendulum just as they had wrecked it. The five of them hadn’t used the fitness card to power up their physical skills, so even with Saint Elizabeth’s gadgets, they were slow as turtles.
Zhao Lan and Zhou Xiao Zhen watched from a safe distance as they captured the ghosts that had fallen to the ground. Upon seeing Yu Xiao, Zhou Xiao Zhen greeted her, “Smiley, you’re right on time. We’re about to interrogate the ghost.”
Yu Xiao felt a wave of relief wash over her as she looked at the two of them. The ordeal outside the amusement park had left her feeling woozy, unable to tell reality from illusion.
She joined them on the side.
Zhao Lan said: “Let’s get the interrogation over with. Let’s go and eat something. We’ve been surviving on snacks all day. I’m starving.”
“Mm.” Yu Xiao nodded.
Zhou Xiao Zhen’s eyes sparkled as she thought of what to eat. “I spotted a barbecue stall earlier. Let’s go and eat there. We never get grilled meat in the hospital. I’m so greedy…”
Yu Xiao smiled slightly as she listened to them chat.
“OK, we’ll go and eat later.” She watched as they dragged the ghost over. “Are you tired? If you’re not, let’s skip sleeping tonight. I want to get out of here as soon as possible.”
They dragged a long and thin ghost over, like a rope that had come to life. Xie Meng Meng and the others wiped their sweat, feeling exhausted but exhilarated. “Smiley, you’re back. Hang on a sec, we’re going to question it.”
Liu Fei put the chainsaw across the ghost’s waist…
Well, maybe it was the waist, but who could tell? The ghost was so long and thin, it was hard to make out where one part ended and another began.
“Speak!” Liu Fei bellowed, “Give us the clue!”
The ghost, whose home they had wrecked, whimpered and whined for a while, lying on the ground and wriggling its body, making its long and thin body as straight as it could.
“What’s it trying to say?” Zhou Xiao Zhen wondered, “Is it saying it doesn’t have a clue, just one life?”
Long and thin ghost: “!!!”
The long and thin ghost shook its head frantically, and then strained even harder to straighten its body.
Yu Xiao touched her chin and said, “Is it saying the clue is the number 1?”
With a rapid nod, the long and thin ghost confirmed their guess.
Xie Meng Meng scoffed, “This ghost is really dense, don’t you think? It can’t speak, fine, but why can’t it just write on the ground? Why does it have to use its own body to communicate? How are we supposed to decipher that?”
Qian Xin shrugged and replied, “Maybe it’s illiterate?”
The ghost let out a silent wail, curling and uncurling like a snake, its long form wracked with sobs.
They had obtained a clue – five numbers: 48951. They had no idea what they meant, but they knew better than to ignore them. The attending doctor might deceive the patients, but the attending doctor would never lie. That was the rule of the hospital.
“Come on,” Yu Xiao said as she grabbed the chainsaw. “Let’s grab something to eat, and then we’ll head to the carousel.”
The amusement park seemed to never close. They found a spot in a barbecue restaurant and sat at a table away from others.
Zhao Lan poured a glass of lemonade for Yu Xiao. She could sense that something was bothering her.
The trio had distinct personalities. Zhao Lan felt like she understood her two friends well. Precious was fearless and straightforward, often surprising them with her unconventional ideas. Smiley was the cleverest and most inventive of the group, and she seemed reliable, but Zhao Lan knew that sometimes she could lose control.
However, they usually maintained a cheerful attitude. Smiley would often make the attending doctor beg for mercy, and the mission would go smoothly. She should be the happiest of the three. When they were together, she would sometimes act modest and brag a little. But today, she was unusually quiet. Zhao Lan wondered what had happened when she was alone.
Inhaling deeply, Yu Xiao puckered her lips at the tartness after she downed half a glass of lemonade. Tonight, her favourite barbecue had lost its appeal as her thoughts drifted to the world beyond the amusement park.
She was convinced that none of it was a figment of her imagination, unless she was still hallucinating, she had proof: a taxi receipt tucked in her trouser pocket.
She could rationalise everything that had transpired outside, except for one thing that perplexed her: how did the people in that apartment know her, why did she have a home there, and why did she have parents there?
Yu Xiao’s parents had divorced when she was in secondary school, but she had always been laid-back and didn’t crave parental love. Her parents didn’t like her much, but they were never tight with money, so she lived a decent life. She was popular and had good grades.
Well-versed in novels and films, she also knew that usually, when a character in a novel found themselves in a strange place and went through what Yu Xiao did, it was mostly because of their obsession. They either saw things that weren’t there because of their obsession, or their surroundings morphed because of their obsession.
But Yu Xiao wondered, how could any of that be her obsession?
Even if she secretly wished for a happy family, why would she settle for that old and rundown flat? Her family had a big villa, for crying out loud.
It was ludicrous, to put it mildly. Yu Xiao tilted her head and grimaced, as she swigged the rest of the lemon water.
Zhou Xiao Zhen couldn’t stand it anymore. “Smiley, how about a beer? Lemon water is not meant to be guzzled like that.”
“I can’t drink alcohol,” Yu Xiao said, nibbling on a grilled scallop, “I need to keep my wits about me.”
Zhao Lan asked, “Is something wrong?”
Yu Xiao hesitated, feeling that this was not something she could explain in a few words. Besides, she was still clueless herself. So she said, “I’ll fill you in later. For now, let’s eat. We have a lot to do.”
The Merry-go-Round was probably one of the gentlest attractions in the amusement park. Usually, the ones who rode it were children and some goofy couples.
Like right now, the eight of them watched as a guy ran around the carousel, occasionally craning his neck to share goofy smiles with his girlfriend on the horse.
They were having a blast, until his girlfriend leaped off the spinning carousel. The guy was shocked, darting to catch her. But the girl, apparently insane, lunged at him. The guy quickly grabbed her, asking if she was alright. She didn’t answer, but sank her teeth into his face like a lunatic.
“AAAaAhh!!!”
A blood-curdling shriek pierced the air, as the guy tumbled to the ground in agony. The girl sprinted away from him with reckless abandon, only to collide with the wall with a sickening thud. The force of the impact cracked her skull open, spilling a gory concoction of red and white onto the floor.
Zhao Lan wrinkled her nose and said, “We saw this happen before, that’s why we kept our distance.”
Xie Meng Meng gazed at the motionless corpse and remarked, “The Merry-go-Round and the other rides are not the same. They create fatal accidents based on the unique features of each attraction. Even though it looks horrible, there is still a difference from the Merry-go-Round. The people on the Merry-go-Round seem to be choosing death on purpose.”
She had barely finished speaking when another boy, no older than seven or eight, jumped down from the platform, smashing his body against the wall as his parents screamed in horror.
The park staff, calm and collected, casually picked up a broom and swept the mess away, as if they were dealing with the usual rubbish in the amusement park.
Yu Xiao ignored the chaos and declared, “We just need to destroy it. We don’t care about the experience.” She added, “Just smash it, and we’re done.”
Liu Fei held an axe and said, “Let us help too. We can’t depend on you alone to get us out of here.”
Yu Xiao nodded her head in agreement. “Sure.”
Armed with tools, three patients ran towards the whirling Merry-go-Round, screaming like madmen. Liu Fei brought his axe down on one of the wooden horses, but it got stuck in the wood. He pulled and tugged, but the axe wouldn’t budge. His body began to tremble uncontrollably. Then, to everyone’s shock and horror, he snapped and dashed towards the wall.
Zhao Lan felt a surge of dread and sprinted after him, landing a powerful kick that sent him flying through the air.
With the strength of a stampede of bulls and a pair of tigers, she knocked Liu Fei out cold with one blow.
Wu Chao and Zhang Yi gasped, quickly backing away from the Merry-go-Round. What was happening here? Even if they didn’t ride, they could still be affected.
“It looks like touching it is enough to trigger it,” Zhao Lan observed. “We could be in big trouble if we damage the Merry-go-Round.”
They were all at a loss. Yue Xiao turned to Xie Meng Meng and asked, “Can you see where the ghosts are?”
Xie Meng Meng paused for a moment, then let out a sigh and said, “I can feel the presence of ghosts, but I can’t see them most of the time. I can only feel that the Merry-go-Round is very frightening, the whole thing… is horrifying.”
Yue Xiao bit her lip and said, “I’ll go up and ride. If I get affected, please stop me.”
“Don’t worry,” Zhao Lan reassured her. “I’ll stop you, even if I have to break your legs.”
When the Merry-go-Round came to a halt, Yue Xiao grabbed a naughty kid, snatched his seat, and, ignoring the angry glares of his parents, spun along with the Merry-go-Round.
She held a talisman in her hands, prepared to unleash lightning on any ghost that showed its face and give it a taste of its own medicine.
At the same time, she scanned the area, searching for clues to the mysterious numbers on the Merry-go-Round.
As Yu Xiao finished a turn, the music filled her ears and she caught sight of Zhao Lan and Zhou Xiao Zhen. Smiling, she waved at them.
All of a sudden, a cold shiver ran through her, followed by a wave of nausea. In an instant, her whole body went limp, and she blacked out. Meanwhile, bystanders gasped in horror as Yu Xiao, on top of the Merry-go-Round, leaped off and sprinted toward the wall.
Before Zhao Lan could react, the talisman in Yu Xiao’s hand crumbled to dust, and a bolt of lightning hit her. The poor girl collapsed to the ground.