Chapter 182: Olympics, Here I Come! |
Click.
Click, click…
Crunch, crunch, crunch…
Warmth bloomed on Yu Xiao’s face, accompanied by a strange tingling sensation. Odd clicking noises echoed in her ears, mixing with distant footsteps, coughs, and muffled conversations.
“Doctor! Can I schedule my surgery before 4 p.m. tomorrow? It’s an inauspicious hour…”
“Dinner time…dinner time…”
“Any news on the CT scan for Bed 3?”
She opened her eyes, wincing at the sudden brightness. She raised a hand to shield them, squinting as she took in her surroundings. The air felt strange, unfamiliar. How long had it been since…
Yu Xiao cleared her throat. “Precious?”
“Mm?”
The soft scuff of slippers, then a voice close by. “Smiley, it’s dinner time! Get up and get going!”
She lowered her hand, squinting at the figure hovering above her. Her vision swam, then refocused.
A round, creamy, shiny, decidedly hairless head stared back at her.
“Precious…” Yu Xiao was still struggling to clear the fog in her brain. “Where’s your hair?”
Zhou Xiao Zhen’s face fell. Her hand darted into a bag of crisps, retrieving a chip with two fingers and stuffing it in her mouth. “Crunch, crunch, crunch… Smiley! So mean! You know how traumatic this is for me! No more hair jokes until it grows back!”
It all came flooding back. She was back. Truly back.
Discharged.
She instinctively pressed a hand to her chest. Still silent.
It seemed that even being discharged couldn’t turn an obsessed heart into a real one.
Zhou Xiao Zhen frowned. “Are you okay? Chest pains?”
Yu Xiao blinked. “?”
“Is it that time of the month then?”
“…” Yu Xiao glanced at the next bed. Zhao Lan was sprawled on the adjacent mattress, eyes glued to her laptop.
“Misty!” It hadn’t been long, but it felt like a lifetime.
Zhao Lan, also sporting a rather fetching hairless look, slammed her laptop shut. “Sleeping Beauty awakens! We’re going to grab dinner later, are you coming?”
Yu Xiao shrugged on a coat over her hospital gown, while Zhao Lan and Zhou Xiao Zhen topped their ensembles with woolly hats. They stepped out into the brightly lit corridor, a steady stream of patients and staff moving around them.
“Come on, then.” Zhao Lan grinned, linking her arm through Yu Xiao’s. “What are you waiting for?”
Zhou Xiao Zhen grabbed her other arm, skipping along beside them. “Going to miss you, Smiley!”
“We’re in the same city, you muppet,” Zhao Lan said. “Just call us when you’re feeling sentimental. Speaking of which, shouldn’t you be studying for your college entrance exams?”
Yu Xiao paused. “Wait, I’m just…leaving? Like this?”
Zhou Xiao Zhen shot her an odd look. “Yeah? You’re better now. Don’t tell me you’ve gotten attached to the place?”
“Am I…cured?”
Zhao Lan frowned. Yu Xiao was acting strangely. “Well, it wasn’t anything serious to begin with.”
Yu Xiao stared at their heads. “If it wasn’t serious, why don’t you have any hair?”
Zhao Lan’s smile vanished.
Zhou Xiao Zhen sighed. “Smiley, hair or no hair, we’re still your mates, yeah? Don’t be daft. Have you forgotten? You were the one who didn’t have it serious. Me and Misty, though? Properly ill. Months of chemo, you know.”
“But I’m better now?”
“Yes,” Zhou Xiao Zhen said slowly, giving her a strange look. “The doctor said you’re all good. You remember that, right?”
“Is Smiley concussed or something?” Zhao Lan tapped a finger to Yu Xiao’s forehead. “Why are you talking like this?”
Yu Xiao blinked, then began frantically patting her pockets.
“Lost something?” Zhao Lan asked.
Her phone. She yanked it out, checking the date and time. It was still the day they’d entered the Sixth Hospital. They hadn’t lost any time at all.
And judging by their miraculous recovery, leaving the hospital really did mean a clean slate.
Zhou Xiao Zhen had chosen barbecue for their celebratory dinner. They huddled around a table outside the stall, the scent of grilling meat mingling with the evening air.
“I feel like it’s been ages since I had proper street barbecue,” Zhou Xiao Zhen said, chewing on a skewer with gusto.
Zhao Lan, though she didn’t say anything, couldn’t help but agree.
Yu Xiao, skewer in hand, surveyed the bustling night market. This was something the world of the dead could never replicate – the vibrant, messy joy of being alive.
“This is nice,” she said, a genuine smile spreading across her face. “We’re actually out.”
Zhao Lan, unsure why the one with the least severe illness was the most emotional, shrugged. “Anyone up for a drink?”
“Yes!” Zhou Xiao Zhen pumped her fist, then deflated. “Oh, wait. I’m not old enough.”
“Beer it is,” Zhao Lan declared.
“Oh, right, beer!” Zhou Xiao Zhen perked up instantly. “Been drinking that since I was six.”
“You started playing mahjong at eight,” Yu Xiao added, before she could stop herself.
“Yeah!” Zhou Xiao Zhen grinned, rubbing her hands together. “How did you know? I was a right little hustler. Undefeated champion of my village by the time I hit middle school…”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Exams are more important now,” Zhao Lan said, waving at the stall owner. “Two beers, please!”
Zhou Xiao Zhen’s face fell. “Misty, why do you have to bring up depressing stuff when we’re celebrating?”
Yu Xiao, remembering her promise, jumped in. “How about a tutor, Precious?”
Zhou Xiao Zhen stared at her, jaw slack. “What?”
“Two beers coming right up!” The boss exclaimed, leaving a trail of cigarette smoke behind him.
“Where’s the bottle opener?”
“Coming right up!”
Zhao Lan handed out glasses with a furrowed brow. “Smiley, you’re getting Precious a tutor? I thought you were still studying. Where’d you get the money?”
Money seemed like a foreign concept to Yu Xiao now, something she hadn’t fully embraced yet. “It’s fine. I’ve got it.”
Zhao Lan had only met Yu Xiao’s parents a few times, but they seemed wealthy. “They give you a generous allowance, huh?”
“It’s alright.” Honestly, Yu Xiao wasn’t entirely sure about the specifics. “I own a couple of flats downtown. Rental income’s over ten grand a month. Tutor’s a drop in the ocean.”
Zhou Xiao Zhen choked on thin air.
Zhao Lan gaped at her. She had worked tirelessly for years, finally managing to buy a decent flat with a hefty mortgage. And Smiley, still in school, owned two?
“You…” She shook her head, then gestured towards the absent stall owner. “Where’s that bottle opener?”
Yu Xiao picked up a beer, her fingers closing around the cap. A gentle twist, a satisfying hiss, and the bottle was open.
The cap clattered onto the table. Zhou Xiao Zhen’s jaw dropped, her mouth now large enough to fit a whole pineapple.
Zhao Lan gave her a thumbs-up. “Nice one, Smiley! Where’d you learn to do that?”
It had been instinctive. A side effect, perhaps, of her time in the hospital. Her body had been…enhanced and she was accustomed to solve her problems by hand.
She flexed her hand. Even outside, the strength remained.
Zhao Lan raised her glass. Yu Xiao picked up the bottle, pouring a generous amount.
At the next table, a group of lads were getting rowdy. As Yu Xiao filled Zhao Lan’s glass, one of them, dressed in all black, slammed his fist on the table.
Bottles and plates rattled precariously.
Zhao Lan flinched, tightening her grip on her glass. It shattered with a sharp crack, spraying beer across the table.
The lads at the next table turned to stare, letting out a collective, “Whoa!”
The stall owner, bottle opener in hand, skidded to a stop. He couldn’t believe the delicate beauty had managed to shatter one of his glasses. Must have been a faulty batch. He’d have to speak to his supplier about it.
Zhou Xiao Zhen’s jaw, no longer content with just a pineapple, could now accommodate a watermelon.
“Misty!” she exclaimed, eyes wide with admiration. “That was amazing! You know kung fu?”
Zhao Lan, equally confused, knew she hadn’t used that much force. Definitely a faulty glass.
“Ha, ha,” she chuckled nervously. “Must have been a weak one.”
“So cool!” Zhou Xiao Zhen grabbed her own glass, mimicking Zhao Lan’s grip. “Did you see that, Smiley? Like this…”
“Snap!”
“Crash!”
Zhou Xiao Zhen’s glass followed suit, exploding in a shower of shards.
Silence.
“…Bloody hell…” came a hushed murmur from the next table.
The stall owner, his cheek twitching, stared at the shattered glass. He thought to himself, *I’ve got to get new glasses. This batch is cursed. Luckily, no one has been hurt.*
Zhou Xiao Zhen, her hand still frozen in a glass-holding position, looked at the carnage in bewilderment.
Zhao Lan also stared, speechless.
After a moment of stunned silence, Yu Xiao understood. She had been wondering where all that yin energy went, the stuff that infected people in the hospital. It didn’t just vanish upon discharge. It lingered, woven into their very being.
Zhao Lan and Zhou Xiao Zhen might have walked out of that hospital with their memories wiped, but the power granted by that lingering yin energy… that remained.
Yu Xiao scratched her head, a slow smile spreading across her face. What was this? The hospital wasn’t just some isolated bubble. It seeped into reality, leaving its mark.
And Zhao Lan and Zhou Xiao Zhen? They were walking, talking proof. Superpowers, anyone?
“Terribly sorry about this!” The stall owner bustled over, abandoning the bottle opener, his forehead slick with nervous sweat. “These glasses are past their prime, clearly. Awful quality. Let me get you new ones.”
The guys at the next table exchanged uneasy glances. The one in black, clearly feeling a little left out, picked up his own glass, squeezing it tentatively. He gritted his teeth, his face turning a delightful shade of crimson, but the glass remained stubbornly intact.
“Seriously, boss, these glasses are rubbish,” Zhou Xiao Zhen said, only half-joking. She wiped her hands on a napkin, grinning at her friends. “For a second there, I thought I was superwoman. Bit disappointing, really. Could we trouble you for a couple more glasses?” she asked, picking up a beer bottle. “Or should we just go full savage and drink from the bottle?”
Zhao Lan laughed. “Isn’t one bottle a bit ambitious?”
“Nah,” Zhou Xiao Zhen said, puffing out her chest. “Beer’s basically juice, right?”
Yu Xiao, still musing on the hospital’s lingering influence, tuned out their banter. The talisman meant more discharged patients. More people like Zhao Lan and Zhou Xiao Zhen, imbued with strange, inexplicable abilities. What would that mean for the world outside?
She watched as Zhao Lan, ever the pragmatist, chuckled at Zhou Xiao Zhen’s antics. “Alright, tough guy. Just try not to crush the bottle, yeah?”
“Ha!” Zhou Xiao Zhen threw back her head and laughed. “Watch this.”
“Snap!”
“…Bloody hell…”
Yu Xiao looked up just in time to see the bewildered expression on Zhou Xiao Zhen’s face, her hand frozen mid-grip. The beer bottle, shattered into several pieces, lay in a sad, beery puddle on the table.
The stall owner, new glasses in hand, turned around at the sound, his jaw hitting the floor.
The entire barbecue stall seemed to hold its breath, every eye glued to their table. Phones emerged from pockets, cameras trained on them like they were some supernatural sideshow.
“I…” Zhou Xiao Zhen stared at her hands, a mixture of confusion and awe on her face. “Maybe I *am* superwoman?”
The lad in black from the next table, the one who’d been struggling with his own glass, slid it over. “Try this one.”
Yu Xiao frowned. “Right, let’s go.”
Zhou Xiao Zhen ignored her, picking up the glass and giving it a gentle squeeze.
Snap!
Another wave of gasps rippled through the stall.
The lad who’d offered his glass looked at them with a newfound respect. “Are you…are you like…martial arts masters or something?”
Zhao Lan, equally bewildered, was starting to think this wasn’t just Zhou Xiao Zhen’s usual brand of chaos. She’d crushed a glass too, hadn’t she?
An idea sparked in her eyes. She reached for an unopened beer bottle.
Yu Xiao, sensing her intentions, grabbed her arm. “Misty, let’s go. Now.”
Zhao Lan hesitated. Now? But… She tightened her grip on the bottle, curiosity overriding common sense.
Snap!
The stall owner, clutching a handful of fresh glasses, rushed over, his face a mask of panic. “Please, heroes! Enough with the glass-breaking! I have a business to run!”
“Misty…” Zhou Xiao Zhen breathed, her eyes shining with excitement.
Zhao Lan just stared at her hands, more baffled than she’d ever been during her final maths exam.
Yu Xiao, taking charge, grabbed their arms and pulled. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
“But—” Zhou Xiao Zhen began.
Yu Xiao dragged them away, leaving a trail of bewildered onlookers in their wake.
The stall owner, finally snapping out of his daze, let out a wail. “They didn’t pay!”
Yu Xiao herded them towards a nearby park, the familiar silhouette of the hospital looming in the distance.
“Why’d you drag us here?” Zhou Xiao Zhen asked, swatting a mosquito with enough force to leave a dent in a lamppost.
Yu Xiao hesitated. How could she possibly explain? *Oh, we were all dying, then we got sucked into a haunted hospital, fought some monsters, got discharged, our illnesses magically disappeared, and now we have superpowers. Casualties of interdimensional healthcare, that’s us.*
Yu Xiao hesitated. It wasn’t that she didn’t *want* to tell them. It was more a question of…time. And the distinct possibility they’d think she’d lost her marbles.
“Smiley,” Zhao Lan said, her tone sharp. She knew that look. “Spit it out. You know what’s going on, don’t you?”
“I…I don’t know,” Yu Xiao hedged. “Something’s not right, that’s for sure. We can’t tell anyone about this. Haven’t you seen those films? People develop weird powers, then the men in black come and snatch them away for experiments.”
Zhou Xiao Zhen’s eyes widened. She was sold.
“She’s right!” she hissed at Zhao Lan. “What if the government finds out? Or some secret organisation? We’ll be doomed!”
Zhao Lan gave her a withering look, then turned back to Yu Xiao. “You can pull the wool over Precious’s eyes, but not mine.”
Yu Xiao blinked, genuinely surprised. Her acting skills were top-notch! She’d fooled countless doctors with her Oscar-worthy performances. “What gave me away?”
Zhao Lan rolled her eyes. “Think about it. My hand. I crushed a beer bottle with it, right? But when you pulled me away from that stall, I couldn’t budge. What does that tell you?”
“What does it tell you?” Zhou Xiao Zhen asked.
“She’s stronger than both of us!” Zhao Lan sighted, thinking, *If Precious can’t even figure this out, how will she handle her college entrance exams?*
“Whoa!” Zhou Xiao Zhen’s jaw dropped. “Smiley, you’re like, *super* superwoman!”
Yu Xiao fought back a smile.
Zhao Lan fixed her with a stare. “Don’t even try it. You didn’t bat an eyelid when we crushed those glasses. You knew. So spill.”
Yu Xiao sighed. She hadn’t expected to be rumbled so quickly. She’d been rather enjoying her role as the sole keeper of the truth, the tragic protagonist who remembers everything. But now…
“It’s a long story.”
“We’ve got time.”
“Can we relocate?” Zhou Xiao Zhen piped up.
“Why?”
“Too many mosquitoes.” She slapped her face. “Is it just me, or are they extra bitey tonight?”
**
They trooped back to their hospital room, Zhou Xiao Zhen raiding the cupboard for snacks. “Anyone up for crisps and fizzy pop? Starving!”
Yu Xiao pulled her blanket tighter, then realised she didn’t even have Teng Jing Zhi and Flying to Someone Else’s Bed phones anymore.
The only thing she took out of that hospital was herself.
She slumped back against the pillows. “Right. Where do I even begin… Let’s start with us being terminally ill, shall we?”
Zhao Lan fixed her with a serious look. Zhou Xiao Zhen, snacks momentarily forgotten, leaned forward.
“That night, I couldn’t sleep. I was messing around on my phone when this app downloaded itself… ‘Fourth Hospital Patient Forum’…”
Yu Xiao started from the beginning, her words painting a vivid picture of their shared ordeal. Though the memories felt distant, almost dreamlike, they resonated with a chilling familiarity as she spoke.
The night deepened, neither Zhao Lan nor Zhou Xiao Zhen interrupting. They were captivated, drawn into the heart of the forgotten, the unbelievable.
A knock on the door. The night nurse entered. “Time to sleep, ladies. Blood tests tomorrow morning.”
“Right.” Zhao Lan dabbed at her eyes, nodding slowly.
“And then?” Zhou Xiao Zhen asked, her own eyes red-rimmed. “How did you get out?”
“The Nightmare…he helped me.” Yu Xiao finished her tale, then looked at them, searching their faces. “Do you…believe me?”
“It’s insane,” Zhao Lan admitted, wiping her cheeks with a tissue. “But…yes. Hearing you say it all…it’s like I was right back there.”
She stood, crossing the room to place a hand on Yu Xiao’s chest. A moment later, she drew back, her expression troubled. “There’s no heartbeat.”
“Oh, Smiley!” Zhou Xiao Zhen wailed. “You almost died for us!”
“I’m alright now,” Yu Xiao said, mustering a reassuring smile.
“This is mental!” Zhou Xiao Zhen’s tears morphed into excited sniffles. “You’re like, a ghost VIP now! Do you walk down the street, looking at all us normal people and think…*pathetic mortals*?”
Yu Xiao licked her lips, trying not to laugh. “I literally just got back. Haven’t had time for a superiority complex.”
Zhao Lan, after a moment of stunned silence, flexed her hands. “So…there’s something else inside us now?”
“We’re like…mutants!” Zhou Xiao Zhen’s eyes lit up. “X-Men! This is amazing!”
“Precious,” Zhao Lan said, her tone firm. “We’re keeping this quiet. Understood?”
Zhou Xiao Zhen’s face fell, then she nodded slowly. “Right. Secret organisation. Men in black. My lips are sealed.”
Yu Xiao smiled. “I’m sticking around for a week or so. Wanted to see you two, obviously. But there are some other people I need to find.”
“Teng Jing Zhi and the others?” Zhao Lan asked. “I can help with that.”
“Thanks.”
“What about your studies?”
“Um…” That thought hadn’t actually crossed Yu Xiao’s mind.
Zhou Xiao Zhen perked up. “Speaking of, do I still need to do those exams?”
“Of course you do!” Yu Xiao and Zhao Lan said in unison.
“Oh.” Zhou Xiao Zhen deflated, then her face brightened again. “This could be my ticket!”
Yu Xiao, having serious doubts about Zhou Xiao Zhen’s academic aspirations, raised an eyebrow. “To what?”
“My grades are tragic,” she admitted. “No idea what I’m doing after graduation. But now…” she slammed her fist on the mattress. “Olympics, here I come!”