48 Agency
◎Qi Qiuxue had no time to bandage the wound and let the blood drip.◎
Pinhole?
Qi Qiuxue frowned. This tiny mark that appeared out of nowhere sent a chill down her spine.
She was sure that this mark did not exist before last night. She was a person who paid attention to details, and the more subtle the details, the more she cared about them. If the pinhole had been there earlier, she would have noticed it quickly without having to wait until now.
When did it appear? Who did it? And why? Qi Qiuxue had trouble sleeping. If someone had really come in, she would have definitely sensed it, but why didn't she notice?
And the most crucial point is, what is the state of the needle when it is inserted? What is the purpose, is it to draw blood or inject medicine?
"Aqing." Qi Qiuxue didn't have time to explain. She stepped forward, grabbed Li Yiqing's arm, and rolled up her sleeves. Soon, she also found a small pinhole on her arm.
Li Yiqing exclaimed in surprise when he saw this: "What on earth is this..."
"Shh." Qi Qiuxue covered her lips and glanced at the door, indicating that there was someone outside and not to make any noise.
Li Yiqing understood what she meant, blinked his blue eyes, and nodded obediently.
Qi Qiuxue then let go and checked the arms of the other players one by one.
——Everyone has pinholes on their hands, without exception.
"Oh my God." Wu Shanyue was terrified. He lowered his voice and looked at the others for help. "Who did this?"
"Did anyone come in last night?" Zhu Lan met Wu Shanyue's gaze. "I was sleeping so soundly I didn't notice."
"Me too," Lu Jin agreed. "I've always had a good sleep quality. Unless something loud wakes me up, I'll sleep through the night."
Zhu Lan looked at Qi Qiuxue who was standing beside him. "You were the first person to discover the pinhole. Do you know what happened yesterday?"
"I don't know." Qi Qiuxue answered truthfully.
"Tsk." Zhu Lan rubbed his arm in dissatisfaction, "Who on earth did this? Damn it."
"Girls, stop being lazy and come out to hand over your shift!" The night shift nurses' voices urged them outside the door again. Qi Qiuxue put her sleeves down again and pretended nothing had happened.
"We'll talk tonight if you have anything." Time was pressing, so she ended her conversation with the players and quickly went into the bathroom to wash up. "Don't let anyone know you found the pinhole."
"Understood." Everyone nodded in response.
-
They quickly handed over their shift to the night nurse.
Last night was a night full of unexpected events. Several patients suddenly developed high fever and respiratory arrest during the night. After the night nurse discovered it, she quickly called a doctor to treat these patients, but still failed to save their lives.
"Which ward is the patient in?" Qi Qiuxue asked.
The nurse spread out the six files of several people on the table and said, "Take a look for yourself."
Qi Qiuxue looked over and saw that five of the deceased patients were in wards with higher numbers, 1301, 1303, and 1304. They were admitted to the hospital earlier than the other patients.
As for the other person, Qi Qiuxue, her heart involuntarily stopped beating for a second when she saw the name and room number above.
It was the old lady in Room 1325, the old lady who had chatted with her just yesterday and who could not hide her affection for her.
Qi Qiuxue took a deep breath and controlled her voice to remain calm: "Why did she die?"
"The condition has suddenly worsened," the night nurse said nonchalantly. "You know, that's the way cancer works. Even if it's well controlled, there are still various uncertainties that can easily take a patient's life."
"We're going to rest now." As if she didn't want to say more, the night nurse yawned and gently waved goodbye to everyone, "Thank you for your hard work~"
After saying this, he turned and left.
"This is totally wrong," Wu Shanyue whispered, a voice only a few people could hear. "Even if the hospital is full of cancer patients, with such advanced equipment and such high-level medical care, six patients shouldn't have died in one night."
"More than that." Zhu Lan quickly corrected her. "Don't forget, the hospital has more than one floor. So many patients died on the thirteenth floor where we are in just one night. Who knows what the situation is like on the other floors?"
"Oh my God." Wu Shanyue felt horrified and heartbroken. "These are all living lives."
She suggested, "Should we go to other floors and ask around?"
"You can find an excuse to ask them questions, or take the opportunity to check the patient files they keep at the nurses' station," Qi Qiuxue said, "but don't ask them directly and openly. Don't forget the needle marks on our arms."
"Until the truth is revealed, neither the medical staff nor the patients in this hospital should trust it."
"Okay." Wu Shanyue nodded.
"Let's go to work." Qi Qiuxue paused and took the lead to head towards 1325.
The old lady's bed was empty, and her already scarce daily necessities had disappeared without a trace. After working for two days in a row, Qi Qiuxue discovered that most of the patients staying on this floor came from poor families with simple backgrounds. Some even had no relatives, or their relatives were far away in foreign countries, just like this old lady.
Ward 1325 had just welcomed a group of new patients on the afternoon of the first day, but now two of them have been removed. Qi Qiuxue specifically asked the head nurse if the mattresses needed to be replaced.
"Don't worry, go do something else first." The head nurse was sorting through documents. She wore thick glasses, and her eyes, hidden behind them, were old and sharp. "We'll clean it up when we have time. Anyway, there won't be any other patients admitted for the time being."
"For ease of management, we assign wards according to the time of admission. New patients will only be admitted after the room is completely vacant," she said calmly.
Qi Qiuxue pretended to understand and asked, "Completely clear out?"
The head nurse glanced at her, as if annoyed by her noise, and said in a somewhat displeased tone, "When a patient dies or is transferred to the intensive care unit, the bed will naturally become empty. When the entire room is full of empty beds, new patients will naturally move in."
"There aren't so many questions." She opened her mouth and assigned a new task to Qi Qiuxue. "There's a patient in room 1322 who needs an IV. Go quickly."
"I understand." Qi Qiuxue didn't say much, turned around and left obediently, but her mind started thinking faster.
Death or metastasis... There was no mention of discharge among the possibilities listed by the head nurse. Even though cancer is difficult to conquer, recovery is not impossible if it is discovered early. Even in the late stage, patients have the right to choose to give up treatment and do not have to stay in the hospital for a long time.
Unless the patients here have no possibility of being discharged from the hospital from the beginning.
What kind of hospital is this? Qi Qiuxue is sure that it must be hiding many unknown secrets.
-
It's time to change shifts again.
After returning to the dormitory, the few of them integrated the information they had obtained. Today, the players all tried to find opportunities to go to other floors to look for clues. Just as Zhu Lan said, there were far more than six patients who died last night.
"The wards on other floors also assign patients based on their time of admission," Li Yiqing said. "They say it's easier to manage, but is it really that convenient? Why not assign them based on their condition?"
"It's really a problem." She couldn't figure it out, so she looked at Qi Qiuxue for help, "What on earth is this hospital doing?"
"Could they be doing some kind of research?" Xu Gui, who had been silent the entire time, suddenly spoke up. A veteran horror film fan, she had watched so many that her mind naturally swung. "Is the reason they're assigned based on the time of admission because the doctors here did something to the patients when they were admitted? Perhaps they implanted something or injected some medication, and this allocation pattern is used to facilitate observation."
"It's very likely." Lu Jin agreed with her words, but soon, as if remembering something, her face changed drastically, "Could the needle holes on our arms also be..."
"I don't know." Qi Qiuxue shook her head. The sky gradually darkened and the night deepened. Since the pinhole appeared last night, the hospital might take some action tonight.
"Everyone stay alert at night and try not to sleep too deeply." She warned everyone, feeling that something else would happen tonight.
"Okay." The players nodded in succession.
The players went to bed very early tonight, but they all had their own thoughts and could not fall asleep for a long time.
Qi Qiuxue kept her eyes closed and rested, but her mind was still clear. She was integrating and deducing, thinking over all the information she had obtained in her mind again.
Originally, she had no intention of falling asleep, and was prepared to deal with any disturbance in a dozing state, but inexplicably, the irresistible sleepiness like last night came over her again.
Qi Qiuxue's thoughts began to wander and her mind became unclear. She forced herself to look at the other players and noticed that their breathing became heavier.
Something is wrong. Something is very wrong.
This sudden sleepiness was beyond her control. Qi Qiuxue was unwilling to fall asleep. Before she was about to lose consciousness, she took out a bone knife from her backpack and stabbed it hard into her thigh.
A burst of pain suddenly hit him, accompanied by blood slowly flowing from the wound, but fortunately, consciousness was restored because of the piercing pain.
Qi Qiuxue had no time to bandage the wound and let the blood drip out bit by bit. She staggered out of bed, picked up the bedside lamp and carefully checked the room.
Then, she discovered a small mechanism, made of metal and a honeycomb structure, full of holes. It was quietly embedded in the wall, unlikely to attract excessive attention from others. Even if someone saw it, they would think it was just an ordinary vent.
Qi Qiuxue covered her nose, and with the help of the light, she saw streams of colorless and odorless gas pouring out of the mechanism.
【Author’s words】
Here we come!
Thank you all for your overlord tickets and nutrient solution, thank you all for reading, mua!
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