Chapter 71 The Old Campus: "To avoid it, do not pass by, turn around..."
The first thing to do after knocking Deng Dayun unconscious is to carry him to the broadcasting room and end the segment immediately.
But behind the door of the broadcasting room was a ward where the patient was resting, and three paintings hung on the wall... The strange tale of the abandoned hospital did not end there, but rather merged with the campus.
They entered the broadcasting room, but didn't finish the segment... This isn't the broadcasting room?
Taking Deng Dayun with him was too much trouble. If this guy woke up and saw eyes, noses, and mouths all over the corridor, he would be in a state of panic. So Xue Chao simply packed him up and put him into another dimension, carrying his head with him.
Behind the office door was the broadcasting station. He climbed over to the next classroom to eavesdrop on the nurses on duty chatting, but it was all trivial stuff. It was nothing more than which patient didn't follow the doctor's orders, ate breakfast on the morning of the examination, or which patient had disappeared somewhere, or which patient's condition was getting worse and worse, and whose family had already prepared a coffin. They were once again recalling why they had fallen to this state, living a life full of sins.
No matter who they talked about, the nurses would either express disgust or schadenfreude, and would always say things like "they're probably going to die soon." Once they said that, they would immediately feel pity and their tone would soften, much like the concern shown to a death row inmate as if they were giving them their last meal.
The patients in the broadcasting room didn't seem to be anything special... Xue Chao listened to some gossip by the window but couldn't get any information, so he had to find another way.
There are two possibilities. First, this is not the real broadcasting room. Second, he missed a key plot point, or is missing a certain link or clue, causing the broadcasting room to be temporarily unable to reveal its "true nature," and is currently being "replaced" by other spaces.
He continued thinking along the lines of the second line.
The episodic stories revolve around the protagonist, "Deng Dayun," whose image is already quite vivid. Ghosts and supernatural phenomena may be terrifying or unconventional to others, but for this silent man who suffers from the evil of "humans" all day long, "ghosts" become a source of comfort.
Deng Dayun once drew seven ghost stories in his notebook. The evil ghost stories became cute under his dark and round hands. For example, he drew "Ju-on" as a "mischievous little elf". Ghost stories are the "main line" of this unit.
Since there are seven, not one should be missing.
The seventh mystery even hints at how Deng Dayun will die in the future, but the sixth mystery has never been triggered or appeared on its own, its presence being as subtle as Deng Dayun himself.
The paintings in the ward all have numbers in the lower right corner, which are the paintings that disappeared from the studio. Among these paintings, one painting is probably the key - "No. 7", which was copied by "Deng Dayun". He needs to find it.
But before that, he needed to find a new set of clothes—his tattered clothes from his beggar gang days were about to give way, and if there was any big movement, he would be exposed before his opponent could even make a move… Although they had a certain psychological impact, he had said before that he wasn’t a pervert.
The corridor was still a school corridor, but behind the classroom and office doors were all wards. Since there were no school uniforms to wear, he had to steal hospital gowns. He found a "difficult ward" that the nurses had complained about for a while. Only a small light was on at the door, and the three beds were separated by curtains. The patients were already resting.
Three paintings hung on the wall outside the partition curtain, facing the hospital bed. They were all classical oil paintings, each depicting an angel in a flowing, holy robe with six snow-white wings spread out. Their faces were like sculptures meticulously sculpted by heaven and earth, with compassionate expressions. However, most of them were submerged in darkness, making it impossible to distinguish one from another. Yet, they all shared a strangely consistent, vague, and eerie quality.
But this is not a bust of an angel. Although the angel is the main character of the painting, he only occupies a small part of it. The surrounding area is an endless chaos of oil paint spreading out, with brown, gold and red mixed together. The composition looks strange no matter how you look at it... It's also too empty.
It seems I originally intended to draw many gods or angels, but I only drew this one.
The painting was placed in a magnificent gold frame, but it was a little too big to fit properly. Like the paintings in the hospital room, it was numbered "2", "16", and "19" in the corner, which further confirmed that it was a painting from the studio.
The first patient behind the curtain was an old man. No one cared about him. He always rode his broken bicycle to the hospital when he was sick. At this moment, the bicycle wheel was turning slowly and feebly. Each turn was like his last breath, and it was uncertain whether he could turn it over.
Xue Chao put the severed head aside, eager to try it out. Xue Chao gave a warning gesture, forbidding him from scaring the old man. Who would be responsible if he was scared to death?
The human head was unwilling, but trapped in the cage, it had no choice but to gnaw on the cage fiercely.
Xue Chao quietly took away a brand-new hospital gown, changed into it, and observed the three patients. He then noticed a shadow slowly lengthening in the dim light on the ground—the patient behind the third curtain had sat up.
A small, pale hand suddenly grabbed the window frame, trying to lift the curtain. Xue Chao picked up the head, preparing to run away with practiced ease, but then heard a "beep" sound. A long alarm tone came from inside the first curtain, and the line representing the heartbeat slowly straightened.
"Damn, he's really dead?" Xue Chao was shocked, suddenly feeling a sense of bad luck, as if he had been extorted.
The little hand suddenly retracted, and the little thing that wanted to scare people lay down again, pretending to be asleep. As soon as Xue Chao reached the door, he heard the nurse's footsteps. Although they were very light, the echo still circled around in the corridor several times, which was very oppressive. There was also the sound of pulling the syringe, which was the nurse's head that could directly insert the needle.
Xue Chao then crawled under the middle of the hospital bed.
A moment later, the nurse entered, pulled back the first curtain, and skillfully checked the patient's condition. The needle twitched repeatedly, as if piercing the patient's skin. She drew a tube of blood, and as she looked up, a drop or two dripped right in front of Xue Chao.
The nurse sighed at the end, a kind of indifferent regret. Xue Chao pondered it and figured it meant "hopeless."
Another nurse who arrived confirmed his suspicions and shut down all the equipment: "Is this all there is for clinical use today?"
Xue Chao didn't hear the nurse's initial reply, but the two of them subsequently left the ward, which should be considered an admission.
Has the patient in the first bed today received any treatment?
But didn't they leave too quickly, without even noticing him? He thought they might suddenly break off the syringe tip and give him a shot before leaving... And the child in the third bed was very quiet, even though he was scared just now?
...Maybe the child was afraid of nurses, but now that the nurses are gone, he probably won't be able to hold back any longer.
But he was wrong; the child lay in the hospital bed pretending to be asleep, without making a sound.
He heard footsteps again. It wasn't the nurses; all the nurses had gone out. The footsteps suddenly sounded inside the room, but no one got out of bed.
The footsteps were so light this time, it was as if they had no feet at all and just floated down.
A white robe swept across the underside of the bed, scattering feathers. The newcomer, holding a Bible, stopped before the first patient's bed, slowly opened the book, and read aloud: "Now, I come to your bedside to guide your soul."
Xue Chao was taken aback... "Clinical" means this?
The voice was hypnotic, like that of an old pastor who had recited scripture his entire life, his breath echoing in the vast cathedral with a sacred resonance: "There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are abhorrent to his own heart: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that plots wicked schemes, feet that rush to evil, false witnesses who pour out lies, and those who sow discord among brothers..."
With each word spoken by the winged monster, Xue Chao's corresponding organs seemed to be sealed off. When it came to the last word, "human," his entire mind went blank... He suddenly understood the saying that the dying are inspired, and felt that he would appear at the gates of heaven in the next moment.
But in all his lifetimes combined, he had no connection with "holiness" and no heart to atone for his sins. He was turned back at the gate, and after only a second or two, his dreamlike soul returned to its place.
The ward had returned to silence; the uninvited guest, whose words were like a curse, had withdrawn his powers and left.
That thing is the "angel" in the painting.
It was exceptionally bright outside, the light flickered, and the temperature was scorching... There was a fire!
Xue Chao fully regained consciousness, crawled out from under the bed, and the first hospital bed burst into flames, reaching all the way to the ceiling, but it did not spread to the surrounding areas. Instead, it remained orderly and passionately contained within this hospital bed.
The patient's bicycle wheel stopped turning, indicating he was no longer "breathing." The head of the skull crackled and popped as it burned, like firewood being added to a furnace. Soon, only a handful of ashes remained, barely resembling a human figure.
Xue Chao pinched his nose, parted the partition curtain, and the angel in the picture frame was gone.
Suddenly, a wing swept across his neck from behind, its coolness shattering half of his nerves in the sweltering heat, and there it was again: "Avoid it, do not pass by, turn around and leave..."
An angel stood behind him, but instead of wings growing from his back, they extended from the cavity in his neck and slowly opened... revealing a six-winged head.
With that, the winged head flapped, and Xue Chao was pushed into the painting... He was supposed to be pushed into the painting, but he put his head into the painting first, so he was blocked outside the painting and couldn't go in.
Sure enough... this bizarre composition doesn't showcase ethereal epic beauty; it's simply because a painting can only depict one person... or rather, "one consciousness."
The human head, already trapped in a cage, was now sealed inside an oil painting. It angrily thrashed about, its teeth protruding from the cage's gaps and burrowing into the painting. Xue Chao hissed, glancing in surprise at the bite marks on his palm, as if he had discovered a new continent.
The head, oblivious to Xue Chao's terrifying gaze, seemed to wish it could grow more mouths to bite off his hand. Taking advantage of the head's vigorous energy, Xue Chao ripped off the painting and slammed it against the angel's wing and head. The head was quite powerful, biting off a handful of bloody feathers from the angel. The angel screamed and was swiftly and ruthlessly kicked into the sea of fire on the hospital bed by Xue Chao.
He rushed out the door carrying the picture frame, and the eyes and lips in the corridor disappeared, swept away by the holy chanting of angels.
But before he could take a few breaths of fresh air, he felt the familiar heat wave again.
A door opened from the inside of the ward, and a sunflower-shaped head peeked out. Jiang Ming was holding an old-fashioned teacup, about to wash it, when he suddenly saw Xue Chao with his curly hair ends scorched. He exclaimed in surprise, "Did you go to dig coal?"
Xue Chao glanced inside and immediately understood what was going on; it was the ward where "Jiang Ming" Grandma was staying.
He made no mention of Jiang Ming being the one who sewed up Red Rose's body, but instead asked in a businesslike and rather cold manner, "Where are the two of them?"
Jiang Ming knew that Xue Chao must have figured it out. Seeing that he didn't expose him, he felt itchy inside, looking forward to what tricks he had up his sleeve. On the surface, he acted as if he hadn't done anything and said affectionately, "Pu is looking for a ward. She still hasn't found any clues about her NPC. As for that fiery red rose, you guessed it. It's down there. After all, she died in the future, just like Deng."
He pointed to the ground, and Xue Chao suddenly realized that the heat wave had been rising from underground... The morgue was on fire!
"She burned that place down?" Jiang Ming seemed equally surprised. "The morgue was a plot point for her at the hospital. Doing this is cutting off her own escape route. I would never burn down 'Grandma's' ward, no matter how much I offend someone..."
He suddenly stopped talking, and Sunflower tilted his head to look at Xue Chao.
The morgue is a plot point where Red Rose can reasonably exist in the hospital, and burning it down would not do her any good... unless she doesn't care about the benefits or the harm, and only cares about making her opponents unhappy, which would hurt her enemies a thousand while hurting herself eight hundred.
There are two possibilities for the broadcasting room.
If it's one... then the morgue might just be the broadcasting room!
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