"'Where did you get that syringe?' Zhou Xiaoxiao asked curiously. He watched as the little boy quietly pushed open the door and picked up the empty syringe from the floor. 'The nurse took the needle out after my injection and gave it to me to play with,' his friend said proudly. Zhou Xiaoxiao walked into the dark room with a hint of envy. 'Close the door,' his friend instructed, turning back. 'I'm going to turn on the light.' Zhou Xiaoxiao obediently closed the door, and as he turned around, the dim light came on, just enough to make out the things in the small room."
"The room wasn't big, about the same size as their two-person ward. It had a damp, cool feel, with empty incubators scattered around. Most weren't numbered, with only a few numbered ones mixed in. A faint yellow light shone on the slightly yellowed glass of each incubator, creating an eerie and unsettling atmosphere, like tiny coffins binding infants. My friend pointed to an empty incubator next to him, numbered '#3124,' and said, 'Ah, that's the one the nurse just brought in.'"
"Zhou Xiaoxiao asked softly, 'Where are the children inside?' 'Of course they're dead!' his friend smiled innocently. 'Those whose numbers weren't taken are all dead children!' Zhou Xiaoxiao's mind immediately flashed back to that little baby with bluish-purple skin, his mouth open, weakly crying—or perhaps not crying… but a final struggle before death? Zhou Xiaoxiao shivered. The room had no air conditioning, no heating, damp and cold. A cool breeze, carrying the distinctive smell of disinfectant from a hospital, brushed against his skin. Zhou Xiaoxiao was a little scared. He kept glancing at his friend, hoping he would suggest leaving first. But his friend's curiosity remained undiminished, rummaging through things, seemingly preoccupied with something."
Zhou Xiaoxiao tugged at his hospital gown, finally unable to resist suggesting, "Let's go!" His friend teased him, "Are you scared?" Zhou Xiaoxiao quickly shook his head, stubbornly saying, "No, I just don't want to stay here anymore, I... I'm sleepy." His friend seemed a little disheartened, muttering, "So boring!" Seeing his friend's disappointed expression, Zhou Xiaoxiao regretted it a bit, "But staying here isn't fun either! It's so boring, and besides, what if the nurses come to check on us again?" He successfully persuaded his friend, and the two of them prepared to leave the uncomfortable little room one after the other.
"But just then, Zhou Xiaoxiao caught a glimpse of something moving out of the corner of his eye. Startled, he grabbed his friend's arm. 'Did you see that?' His friend shook his head, a little impatiently. 'What?' Just as he finished asking, an insulated box made a whooshing sound and moved towards the door. His friend's eyes widened, and he gripped Zhou Xiaoxiao's hand in disbelief, asking tremblingly, 'Is it moving?' Before Zhou Xiaoxiao could answer, the insulated box confirmed it. It moved again, as if pulled by something, and slid to the doorway, making a screeching sound as it scraped against the ground, completely blocking the exit."
The two children instantly huddled together in fear, their feet frantically backing away until they pressed themselves against the wall, their eyes fixed on the empty box. For a long time, until their eyes grew tired, the incubator returned to its lifeless state. One child tentatively reached out to push the door open, but halfway through, he stiffly asked, seeking confirmation, "This box doesn't have a number, does it?" Zhou Xiaoxiao quickly nodded in agreement, "No number." The child breathed a sigh of relief, "No number means no child died inside. Maybe it was some kind of scientific event we're too young to understand!"
Zhou Xiaoxiao thought it made a lot of sense, and his fear gradually faded, while his curiosity slowly took over. He let go of his friend's hand, walked half a circle around the incubator, and after confirming that it wasn't numbered, he pulled his friend along and bravely pushed the incubator open. 'Let's go! There's nothing fun here,' Zhou Xiaoxiao reiterated. His friend seemed reluctant, but under Zhou Xiaoxiao's insistence, he gave in and reached for the door open button.
"'Oh no, I lost something!' His hand didn't press down, but instead reached for his pocket. 'I lost my syringe.' The little friend was very upset. He hung his head and kept looking at the ground. 'What should I do? I begged the nurse for so long.' Zhou Xiaoxiao hesitated. He had finally met a friend of similar age in the ward who he could talk to. He didn't want him to be unhappy, especially since the little friend had lost his favorite toy while playing with him."
"'Where did you lose it? Let's look for it together, and get out of here quickly.' Zhou Xiaoxiao was still scared and urged anxiously, 'Go check over there, you've been looking around there before.' Her friend ran over, searching as she spoke, 'Can you help me look too? I've been looking for a long time.' Zhou Xiaoxiao felt something was strange, but couldn't quite put her finger on it. She agreed and crouched down to peek through the gap under the incubator. The floor of the small room was very clean, so anything was quite obvious. She found a small white tag under a box."
Zhou Xiaoxiao reached out and frantically pulled at the white strip. Just as his fingertips were about to touch it, he felt a chill near his ear. Instinctively, he turned around, but there was no one behind him. Zhou Xiaoxiao touched his ear, and when he turned back again, his fingers couldn't touch the white strip anymore. It seemed to have moved back two centimeters on its own. Zhou Xiaoxiao was still young, and he didn't think there was anything wrong with this situation. He stubbornly stretched out his leg and pulled the white strip out. The strip had a number written on it—#3032. Zhou Xiaoxiao was puzzled. All the numbers here started with 31, so why was this number 3032? He then looked at the incubator in front of him, numbered #3124—3124? Zhou Xiaoxiao suddenly realized, stuffed the strip into his pocket, and hurriedly opened the door. "If you can't find it, come out! I'll go ask the nurse for a syringe for you, okay?" he explained to his friend who suddenly looked up at him.
The darkness of the corridor rushed in, but Zhou Xiaoxiao didn't feel the chill; instead, it swept away the heavy oppression that had gripped him. The warmth outside and the coldness of the small room created a stark contrast. With this contrast, Zhou Xiaoxiao was even less willing to stay any longer. 'If you don't leave, I'll leave.' He knew he was still recovering from a serious illness, and his hospital gown was too thin. The goosebumps on his body had never gone away, as if his body was silently urging him to leave. Besides, he didn't dare to look at the #3124 incubator.
"His friend didn't persist because Zhou Xiaoxiao had already stepped out the door. He chased after him, quietly took Zhou Xiaoxiao's hand, and asked, 'Are you angry?' Zhou Xiaoxiao wasn't angry; he just didn't like the atmosphere of that room—cold, deserted, and lifeless. He didn't answer, only feeling extremely tired. He went back to his ward, lay down on the bed, and fell asleep. He didn't wake up until the next morning when the nurse came to give him an IV drip. The bed next to him was empty, and the bathroom door was closed, from which he could hear the sounds of washing up."
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