Chapter 116 One Heart

It seems that you spent a long time taking pictures of the picture at the door because you were thinking about the last name of the person in it... If not, what is the basis for your inference?

Xiao Wu was puzzled, but Qing Bai had no intention of explaining it. Instead, he followed Qi Xiaopang into the ward.

Just a glance and Qing Bai found the clues - if the hospital lobby and corridors outside were just superficial, unable to withstand close scrutiny, and full of temporary projects that were meant to deceive people, then this old and cramped ward was a little too real... From the large area of ​​aggressive cold white that spread from the ceiling and walls to the floor, to the single iron bed with rusty spots where the paint was peeling, the white bed sheets and quilt covers that were washed yellow with a large hospital logo printed on the front, and even the urinals and plastic basins lined up under the bed... It was so real that every detail emphasized that this was an old hospital with limited funds in a small town, and it was so real that it evoked some memories that Qing Bai didn't want to look back on.

…until his eyes fell on the pale face of the frail girl lying stiffly on the bed in the center of the ward, her eyes closed. Those fragments of memory, like strands of spun yarn, became increasingly clear. Qing Bai's earlier suspicions finally came true—it was indeed an 'old friend'.

Qing Bai remembered her name.

"Liu Yixin."

The middle-aged woman suddenly turned her head, her gaze a hundred times sharper than the one she had given Qi Xiaopang just now, frightening Xiao Wu, who was following behind Qing Bai, so much that he almost subconsciously threw out the soul-binding chain wrapped around his wrist.

Although Qi Xiaopang, who was standing in front of him with a tense nerve, didn't see the middle-aged woman's sharp, even ferocious, gaze, his animal-like instinct for survival drove him to ask, "Brother, who are you calling?"

...It’s better not to speak.

Xiao Wu gripped the chain with his fingers, his eyes sharp, ready to strike first if there was any disagreement.

Qing Bai seemed oblivious to the tense atmosphere in the ward. He calmly and naturally shifted his gaze from the bed to meet the middle-aged woman's. He even raised an eyebrow calmly as the other two stared in surprise, asking, "Why, in this hospital, visitors aren't allowed to call out names?"

The middle-aged woman did not respond. She stood there silently, like a statue with delicate lines.

Only Qing Bai didn't think she looked like a statue at this moment, because even the best sculptor in the world could not give a statue such strong hostility... the hostility of a mother.

As the target of hostility, Qing Bai not only didn't stop, but also pressed the issue further, feigning confusion: "You seem surprised... Surprised about what? Could it be... that you think it's strange that a 'classmate' like me who came to visit her knows her name?"

"Hiss..." Now Qi Xiaopang and Xiao Wu could clearly sense the wildly surging hostility beneath the middle-aged woman's silent appearance.

Brother, please stop it! Why did you mess with her?

Because he had to walk in front of the bed due to his role as homeroom teacher, Fat Qi, who had already stood in front of the hospital bed with his back to the Shura scene, stared blankly at the girl lying on the bed, her skin as pale as a plaster statue, her chest barely showing any movement. A sense of disharmony flashed through his mind, but he didn't have time to think about it. He only felt that there were wolves in front and tigers behind...

As for the shivering, tender and delicious little fat pig caught in the middle, he took a deep breath and mustered his courage to try to save the situation: "Haha, we're all classmates, of course we know the name...right?!"

At the end of the speech, the ending tone suddenly rose, and the nervous Xiao Wu was so frightened that he almost threw the soul-catching lock at the middle-aged woman's face... Although he almost didn't throw it away in the end, it hit Xiao Wu's instep.

What are you talking about! Xiao Wu glared at the startled Qi Xiaopang fiercely, and Zhu Bajie's face under the mask was grimacing in pain.

Fat Qi had no time to respond to Xiao Wu's stare, or rather, his eyes were even wider than Xiao Wu's at this moment. If it weren't for his fat lower eyelids, his eyes would have popped out of their sockets on the spot.

"……Mother."

The 'plaster girl statue' on the hospital bed suddenly opened its eyes.

If that were the case, it wouldn't have caused Qi Xiaopang, who had been forced to become knowledgeable these days, to lose his composure. After all, he had seen a lot of ghosts, so why would he be afraid of a zombie?

But the moment Qi Xiaopang opened her eyes, he suddenly realized the source of the discomfiture that had flashed through his mind earlier - this 'plaster girl' she... she she she only had a head!!!

No, it wasn't 'just' the head. Qi Xiaopang maintained a 'bloodshot' look, and inwardly he rigorously corrected himself: it was only the 'human head'. Although covered by the quilt, the slender neck below her head was clearly still connected to the body, though perhaps a little... small, too small to be a human body.

It is so small that the quilt covering it has no obvious bumps.

Although the "Mom" that the "plaster girl" called out was weaker than that of a sick kitten, the effect was immediate. The middle-aged woman let Qing Bai go without any hesitation, turned around and rushed to the bedside, carefully lifting the girl's head so that she could lean on the pillow more comfortably.

Then, he stroked the girl's hair like a baby and whispered softly, "Mom is here...Mom is here..."

Qi Xiaopang, who was nearly knocked away by the middle-aged woman, took advantage of the mother and daughter's distraction and nimbly moved behind Qing Bai. He completely hid himself in Qing Bai's shadow, and with the double sense of security of his hand gripping Qing Bai's sleeve, he whispered to Qing Bai about the unintentional discovery he had just made while mustering up the courage to maintain his 'eyes wide open' expression: "Her body seems... moldy."

"Uh... maybe it's not mold," Qi Xiaopang's face was furrowed. He suppressed his fear and tried to recall the 'stunning glimpse' he had just had when the middle-aged woman lifted the 'plaster girl's' head and the quilt slipped down. He racked his brains for words, "It's just... grayish-black. There's a layer of grayish-black stuff on her skin, like mold, and also like... hair...."

After saying that, he returned to his old ways and began mumbling, "I only took a quick glance and didn't see clearly. Maybe I was too nervous and my eyes were blurry..."

"It's not that I didn't dare to look closely, it's that she reacted too quickly. The quilt had just slipped down a little when it was immediately pulled up. Who would have thought that her body was so small, but her hands were so quick? It's just that they were too thin, not like hands, but more like a tail..."

The speaker didn't mean it, but the listener's scalp tingled. Xiao Wu remembered what he saw and heard before they came in here. He couldn't help but hiss and quickly turned to look at Qing Bai.

Who would have thought that Qing Bai, who had just been pressing the middle-aged woman, didn't even glance at the suspicious mother and daughter. Instead, he stared at Tong Jiunian, whose presence was three times thinner than air since he entered the hospital.

Qing Bai: "So... I've seen it. Any regrets?"

Although little Wu Qi and little Fatty didn't know what had happened before, they keenly realized that Qing Bai was talking to the obviously abnormal 'Tong Jiunian', so they sensibly held their breath and kept silent.

Tong Jiunian hadn't expected Qing Bai to bring up again what he had said before entering the hospital about how it was a pity not to see his classmates for the last time. He was stunned for a long while, looking at Qing Bai with a complicated expression, and slowly shook his head, not knowing whether he was regretful or finally relieved.

Little Wu Qi and Little Fatty were confused by the two people's ambiguous reactions, but they didn't dare to ask directly. Their two big, round eyes moved back and forth between the two people, trying to see something.

At this moment, the door of the ward was suddenly pushed open from the outside, and Qi Xiaopang, who was closest to the door and had just flashed away, was so frightened that he screamed silently and almost jumped onto Qing Bai's back.

Looking back, he saw that the person who pushed the door was actually an ordinary young man. Qi Xiaopang finally relaxed the breath that had been stuck in his throat. Although it was impossible for the person who appeared in this ghost place at this time to be a truly ordinary normal person, at least he was not a monster with a "monster" appearance.

Qi Xiaopang felt better, but Qing Bai and Xiao Wu were not so optimistic.

"Isn't this..." Xiao Wu said halfway and quickly changed his mouth shape cautiously - is this the young man who was happy to be a father before?

Qing Bai nodded slightly, it was indeed him.

Old friends appeared one after another and gathered together. Qing Bai suddenly realized that the reason why he felt that the middle-aged woman looked familiar when he met her before... If time could be turned back twenty years, the young daughter-in-law with shiny black braids and who always smiled shyly with her head down at the entrance of Juhuai Town should look like this.

The young man seemed not to see Qing Bai and the other two. After entering the room, he walked straight to the bed with a clear goal.

"How are you today?" The young man stood beside the bed, took a quick look at the girl on the bed, and then asked the middle-aged woman directly.

The middle-aged woman didn't even raise her head, and gently and attentively stroked her daughter's face. "Be careful, be good and strong today... We will be fine soon, very soon..."

As if echoing the woman's words, the girl lying on the hospital bed, pale as plaster, opened her eyes and called softly, "Mom, Mom, Mom..."

She cried out again and again, as if she could not make any other sound except "Mom", like a baby who was just learning to speak, or any young animal in the world that instinctively squeezed nutrients from its mother.

The woman did not mind the trouble and responded one after another: "Hey, hey, hey, mom is here, mom is here..."

If you ignore the strange body under the girl's quilt, this scene can be considered a heartwarming and touching story of loving mother and filial son... but the young man is a bit redundant.

After all, with his current appearance, he is too young to be the woman's husband and too old to be her son, so it is difficult to determine his identity.

Perhaps the young man also realized that his presence here was inappropriate, so he took the initiative to break the warm and strange atmosphere in the ward: "My family has no money left."

This is not good news at any time, let alone in a hospital or at a patient's bedside.

The middle-aged woman lowered her head and didn't respond. The young man quickly glanced at the bed, his expression half-conflicted and half-guilty, but it was only for a moment. He quickly looked away, regaining his composure. However, when he spoke again, those words that sounded like a settlement were not cleared for anyone to convince: "The money we saved over the years has long been spent. No one is taking care of the business. The money we borrowed from the elderly and relatives at home has also been used up. The money I borrowed from friends is not even enough to cover Xiaoxin's hospital expenses for one day... If this continues, the family will be bankrupt by us..."

"This strange disease Xiao Xiao has contracted, and doctors in so many hospitals don't dare to claim they can cure it...

"This is fate. If it's bad, we have to accept it. We have to accept our fate."

"If you keep on being so stubborn, it's going to be hard on everyone, and it won't be easy for anyone, either..."

The middle-aged woman remained silent. The atmosphere in the ward was as stagnant as concrete under the scorching sun. The young man waited for a long time but received no response. He sighed and took a step back. "Then you stay here with Xiaoxin. I'll sit outside for a while and greet the teachers and classmates who come to visit Xiaoxin... Xiaoxin's condition isn't conducive to seeing anyone."

After saying that, he turned and left the ward.

As representatives of teachers and classmates who came to visit the patient, Qing Bai and the other two were completely ignored.

Qi Xiaopang didn't expect the reality to develop so harshly, and was speechless.

Xiao Wu, on the other hand, had seen a lot, whether as a human or a ghost, and was used to it. He could analyze it rationally: "If these two are the young couple we saw in front of the ancestral hall before, then this girl must be the one..."

When it came to the key point, Xiao Wu stopped talking, raised her hand suggestively and gently touched her flat belly.

Qi Xiaopang didn't understand what she meant, but Qing Bai immediately understood what she meant. If they were really that young couple, then the girl with the strange disease was most likely the fetus blessed by the Rat God that came so strangely and mysteriously.

...If you dare to think a little more boldly, the gray-black color on her skin that Qi Xiaopang just saw was not mold, but real hair, mouse hair, and what was pulling the quilt was indeed not a hand, but a mouse tail that looked like a thin stick.