The door of the apartment was closed by Lian Gui when he left.

Shi Yu stood there for two seconds, went to the living room to find a paper cutter, bent down and cut a line on the tape on the box on the ground.

He opened the lid, found the milk box, cut the tape on it, took out a box, returned to the sofa, and unbuttoned his coat.

The lady who had the accident this morning already has a name in the group.

The first person to talk about this was the social butterfly in the group: "This time it's the one from the Jiang family."

"The one who lives in Building C?"

"So the ambulance I heard this morning was coming to pick her up?"

"Mrs. Jiang is a nice person. I ran into her while I was on patrol a few days ago and she greeted me. She seemed quite energetic. Nothing serious should happen to her, right?"

"Anyway, I saw with my own eyes that their entire family followed them. When the ambulance couldn't accommodate them, they asked someone to drive over. If the situation wasn't so serious, would there be such a large group of people?"

"What's going on in our neighborhood these days? Is it Tai Sui? The ambulance has come several times, and even the doctor is tired, but I am tired too."

Even though the four events did not appear to have any connection, they happened too close together. It might not make ordinary people think too much, but someone would definitely notice something unusual.

Yizhihua interrupted and said, "That's not the point. Didn't any of you notice that none of the people who were taken away by ambulances in the past few days have returned yet?"

“…”

"Damn! Huazi, stop telling ghost stories!!"

Yizhihua added: "And I saw the police coming over several times in the past two days. Their faces looked as if someone had died."

"Pah, pah, pah, Mr. Zhang is in the hospital recovering well, what are you talking about?"

"Why are you dying? Are you worried that there aren't enough things going on in our community?"

The foreman directly called out to all members: "Who is checking their phone during working hours?"

“…”

Everyone went into hiding.

After exiting the group chat, there is a small red circle next to a dialog box outside.

Foreman: “Are you okay?”

Foreman: "Don't take Xiao Zhong's words to heart."

When Shi Yu saw this, it took him several seconds to remember who "Xiao Zhong" was referring to.

No wonder he had turned on the do not disturb function, but notifications still popped up on the page. It was probably because Zhong Shou called him out by name and said something in the group.

All the messages had been marked as read, so he didn't plan to look through the past messages and read on.

Foreman: "The hospital said that Lao Zhang can't come back to work in the short term. Do you still plan to continue working? Do you want me to arrange for someone else to partner with you, or should we just take a vacation together?"

Shi Yu sat quietly on the sofa for a moment, said "No thanks", then threw the empty milk carton into the trash can, got up and went to the room.

※

One o'clock in the afternoon, Nanhang Central Hospital.

The air conditioning in the inpatient department was turned on very low. The air in the corridor smelled of disinfectant, and the breath felt like cold metal.

Shi Yu didn't ask for directions. He took the elevator to the 16th floor and found the correct house number not far away.

He was about to walk over when he was stopped by someone.

The person who stopped him was wearing a white coat and holding a bottle of medicine in his hand: "Come to visit the patient?"

Shi Yu nodded.

The white coat said: "The patient's condition is not suitable for visiting now, please go back."

Shi Yu finally looked up at him, his eyes fell on the IV bottle in his hand, and stayed on the words on it for a few seconds: "Police?"

The muscles in the white coat's hands tensed up: "What did you say?"

Shi Yu glanced around and saw the nurse reading a magazine at the front desk, the patient sleeping on the bench with his elbows covering his eyes, and the man in a white coat blocking his way.

If it was just a criminal case, the police would have left someone to guard the victim. However, the people sent now were not standing outside the door in uniform as door gods, but were in plain clothes surrounding the ward as passers-by. They either did not want to attract the attention of ordinary people, or they wanted to lure specific people into the trap.

So, what’s so special about what happened to Lao Zhang?

Shi Yu asked, "How can I get in?"

The white coat still said: "The patient is not suitable for visitation now."

Shi Yu: "What if you only take a look?"

The white coat still shook his head: "You can't just enter the ward now."

"No need to go into the ward." Shi Yu turned his eyes slightly, "You can open the window curtain on the door from the outside, so you don't need to go in and open the door."

The man in the white coat probably didn't expect him to say that, so he didn't answer for the time being.

"There shouldn't be any disease that would worsen a patient's condition if someone looked at them," Shi Yu said calmly. "It shouldn't be considered an overreaction if you just glanced at them from the window."

The air was quiet for a while.

Since it involves the supernatural, the policemen in white coats, or policemen dressed in white coats, have been assigned to guard here, it is naturally impossible for them to let ordinary people in. It would be a small matter for them to fail in their duty, but it would be a big matter if it caused panic.

But on the other hand, he really couldn't find any reason to refuse the other party's request.

During the stalemate, the door of the ward next to them was suddenly opened from the inside.

Zhong Shou came out: "What..."

Before he could even utter the word "了", he saw who was standing at the door and frowned reflexively.

The man in the white coat turned around and saw the door of the ward was opened. He suddenly raised his hand and grasped the door handle.

"Bang--"

A loud bang echoed through the hospital corridors.

The door was closed again.

The man in the white coat looked back at Shi Yu and said sternly, "The patient is not suitable for visitation now. Please go back."

Shi Yu's gaze fell on Zhong Shou who was standing beside him.

Zhong Shou crossed his arms over his chest, feeling the gazes directed at him: "What are you looking at? Why didn't you come when the person was in danger and the most important time? Now that the person has woken up, you are ready to come and curry favor with him as an afterthought?"

He took a step forward, looked him up and down for a long while, and then sneered: "But that's true, after all, everyone knows that Uncle Zhang likes you the most in the entire security team? As long as you ask for something, you will get it. On weekdays, you don't even open your mouth for ten days or half a month. Now you have lowered yourself to visit others. Tsk tsk, how merciful. A commoner like him should kneel down to express gratitude, right?"

The man in the white coat at the side thought that the two of them just happened to know each other, and he hoped that the other party could help him get rid of the ordinary people who had nothing to do with him. But the more he listened, the more he felt something was wrong, and he patted him on the shoulder from behind.

The mockery on Zhong Shou's face was not concealed at all: "Who do you think you are? You can come here whenever you want? How can you judge people by their chins?"

Shi Yu listened to him quietly, then asked, "Then why can you come whenever you want? You are not a security guard based on your identity? Have you been lying?"

Zhong Shou didn't seem to mind the previous part, but when he heard the last part, his expression suddenly turned extremely ugly: "I'm warning you, you better keep your mouth shut..."

"Xiao Zhong!" The man in the white coat's tone could be considered stern.

Zhong Shou’s chest heaved, and his tone was even worse than his: “I didn’t fucking talk to you!”

White coat: “…”

It was the first time that he witnessed the temper of this young master who was said to be a candidate for the supernatural investigation team. He almost laughed out of anger: "Since you don't want to do it, I will submit an application to your team leader after get off work..."

Zhong Shou: "You dare!"

"It is my job to report all the situations around the second victim truthfully every day. Why shouldn't I dare to do that?" Although the white coat's unit was not as high-ranking as the other party's, he had been a policeman for so many years. His work experience alone was enough to pick up this little brat and beat him up a hundred streets. He was too lazy to serve the young master. "But you forgot to close the door because of your personal emotions and almost exposed the supernatural existence in front of ordinary people. Now you can think about how to explain to your team leader when the time comes."

Shi Yu was not interested in watching their conversation. The moment he heard the man in the white coat speak, he turned around and left the ward, leaving them enough space to argue.

He stood in front of the elevator, closed his eyes, and recalled the brief glimpse he had when the ward door opened.

Hospital bed, Lao Zhang.

A purple-black face, water marks winding along the cheeks, and a blood-red stain on the pillowcase.

Even though he was not a medical student, he knew that Lao Zhang's condition could not be caused by any disease. After all, if there really was a disease with such a strange clinical reaction, its scientific name would have been known all over the world long ago.

It doesn't look like a disease, but it doesn't look like someone deliberately created it either. This is a hospital, and even if they really used chemicals to damage their face and poke out their eyes, it's impossible that the bleeding hasn't stopped after two days.

But if it's not a physiological reason...

Shi Yu recalled the inexplicable attitude of the police at the Public Security Bureau and the phrase "serious case".

The elevator door opened with a ding.

Shi Yu walked into the elevator and flipped through the past messages on his phone. Instead of going to the first floor, he pressed another button.

Twenty-sixth floor.

The little girl sat on a bench in the hall, swinging her legs and eating her children's meal with a spoon. Not far away sat a policeman in plain clothes.

Hearing the sound of the elevator door opening, the little girl looked up and her eyes lit up: "Brother!"

Shi Yu saw her and stopped: "Why are you in the hospital?"

"My grandma is sick, and mom and dad said she needs to be hospitalized."

At the age of three or four, I was too young to have a strong concept of life, aging, illness and death, and I had a short memory. Although I was shocked when I saw my grandmother collapse in the fresh food store, the elders comforted me and told me some white lies afterwards. After two days, my intense emotions had long since dissipated.

She put down the plastic spoon and ran to his calf: "Brother, why did you come here?"

Shi Yu asked, "Can I see your grandmother?"

"Sure." Without hesitation, the little girl pulled his trouser leg and led him to the ward.

As expected, he was stopped by plainclothes police officers posing as medical staff: "I'm sorry, the patient is not suitable for visitors right now."

The little girl was still afraid of strangers. She subconsciously grabbed the clothes of the people around her, took a small step back, and turned her head to the ward and shouted, "Mom!"

plainclothes:"……!"

"What's wrong baby?"

The door of the ward was opened again from the inside. The woman looked down and saw her daughter. Then she raised her eyes and saw the stranger beside her daughter. Her pupils shrank slightly, and she immediately reached out and pulled her daughter to her side.

The little girl didn't notice the woman's abnormality at all, and shouted happily: "Mom, he is the big brother who can talk to Xiaohua!"

The woman didn't respond, but looked at him directly: "How do you know my daughter? Why are you here?"

The half-open door of the ward only remained open for a few seconds before the plainclothes officer next to it raised his hand and closed it.

Shi Yu retracted his gaze: "Just passing by."

※

The 26th floor is the top floor of the inpatient department. Shi Yu did not take the elevator, but entered the emergency passage and walked from the 26th floor to the first floor. Every time he reached a floor, he would stop at the entrance of the passage to take a look.

There are four wards in total with people who appear to be plainclothes police officers guarding outside the doors.

Mr. Zhang on the 16th floor occupies one, the old lady on the 26th floor counts as one, and the other two are on the 17th and 21st floors. If nothing unexpected happens, Ms. Jiang, who went to the hospital this morning and has no news since, may account for one.

As for the remaining one, Shi Yu suspected that it might be the one named Chen who lived in the same building as him in Lanwan Community.

At first, the police took him to the Public Security Bureau as a suspect, saying it was a serious case. Assuming that these four patients are related to the case, two of them showed exactly the same condition to the outside world, with a probability of one in two, it can be basically confirmed that the other two are in a similar situation.

The phenomena happening to them cannot be explained by modern science, so it seems that we can only think about them from a metaphysical perspective.

In fact, it makes sense. If this was really a supernatural incident, then there would be perfect explanations for why the police listed him as a suspect but refused to tell him anything about the case, sent police officers disguised as ordinary people to sneak into the hospital and guard outside the ward, and answered "inconvenience" when asked to visit the ward.

Because the police knew that this was a supernatural incident and that there were supernatural beings in this world.

So the question is: What exactly happened to the people involved in this case, such as Mr. Zhang and Mrs. Xu, that made them look like that?