Chapter 67

As a poor guy who often fell into ghost stories when he was still a student, Xu Ming knew very well that in such a place, the most important thing is to remember two things.

One is to try not to be afraid. The other is to stay alert at all times.

"Because in the ghost story area, you can never imagine how those monsters will deceive you." She said seriously to Lu Yueling who was sitting beside the bed, "They may pretend to be beautiful, cute, or harmless, and use all means to let you down. Thereby tempting you to violate some fatal rules - or when you are not paying attention, suddenly reveal a terrifying side and hit your psychological defenses hard."

Lu Yueling: "..."

Her eyes slowly swept across Xu Ming's serious face until they fell on the bed. Lu Yueling uttered "uh" and tried to choose the most polite words:

"Is that why you are holding the cat and stroking it now?"

"This is a necessary inspection." Xu Ming was very confident, and while speaking, his hand had already moved along the cat's neck to the cat's chin. The cat raised its head quite comfortably and even squinted its eyes.

"..." Lu Yueling knew that she was a little careless and sometimes a little silly. But at this moment, she felt that she had definitely seen through the truth, "You just want to stroke the cat."

"No." Xu Ming said decisively.

Lu Yueling: "Do you pinch the chin of monsters when you examine them?"

"Specific analysis depends on the specific situation." Xu Ming nodded, "This way my hands can always be in a mobile state. If it makes an attack, I can just pinch its neck."

He completely ignored the fact that he probably couldn't pinch the other party's neck at the moment.

Lu Yueling: "..." Okay, you are good at jargon, so you have a point.

On the other side, the beautiful cardinal cat seemed to be pleased with the touch, shook its ears, and turned its head to Xu Ming's hand. Xu Ming followed suit and began to touch its ears. He was having a good time when he heard two light knocks on the door.

"Director." Lando walked in from outside, saying as he walked, "I've already asked clearly. You can be discharged after 4 pm. We can soon..."

Lando stopped talking halfway.

He stared at the tabby cat in Xu Ming's arms, and the whole person seemed to be in a daze.

The beautiful silver fox terrier that he had forcefully dragged out of the room at that time was also in a daze. Its pointed mouth opened slightly, and it even forgot to continue wagging its tail.

"Oh." Lu Yueling exclaimed in a low voice at the excitement and took the initiative to lean back. She was not particularly interested in this kind of fluffy things, but she still liked to watch the fights between fluffy things.

To her surprise, the cat and the dog did not fight, but the dog and the human did.

To be precise, it was a unilateral declaration of war by the dog. After a brief stagnation, the fluffy silver fox suddenly turned its head and started biting Landor's trouser legs, howling and howling, with a look of deep hatred and resentment, as if complaining or venting.

Xu Ming was so scared that she stopped stroking the cat. She looked at Landor, then at his trouser legs. For some reason, she suddenly felt a little guilty.

The little cat, who was being touched comfortably by her, was very calm. He just glanced indifferently in the direction of Landor, with three parts of sarcasm, three parts of indifference and four parts of indifference in his eyes. He quickly retracted his gaze, meowed softly, and nudged Xu Ming's hand with his head, signaling her to continue.

"..."

There was still an inexplicable guilt in his chest, but when he calmed down, he could feel the awkwardness and stiffness floating in the air. Xu Ming's fingers hung in the air, tangled for two seconds, but he finally chose to indulge in the happiness in front of him, and foolishly continued to touch the cat's chin, making the kitten cry.

Fortunately, her brain was still online. Seeing that the atmosphere was not right, she decisively took over the previous topic, trying to divert all attention:

"By the way, you just said that we can be discharged at four o'clock in the afternoon? That means we can leave in two hours?"

"...Yeah."

Lando responded muffledly, leaned over and picked up the silver fox that was still gnawing on his trouser legs, threw it out the door casually, glanced at the cat lying on the bed with annoyance, and continued:

"According to the rules of this place, you can go through the admission and discharge procedures from four o'clock in the afternoon to four o'clock in the morning. If you want to leave early, you can go to handle the procedures in two hours. If you want to rest here for a while..."

"No need to wait!" Xu Ming said immediately, "We don't know what's going on outside. If we don't go out, someone might call the police. And don't we have to contact Tian Yiliang?"

Of course, the main reason was that she didn't want to stay here for a long time - after all, it was a ghost story area, and it was not very reassuring. For the sake of safety, it's better to leave early.

Lando's eyebrows seemed to brighten slightly when he heard this. The kitten whose ears were being rubbed by Xu Ming meowed unhappily, and just as it spoke, Lando glared at it.

The tabby cat glared back coldly, and its originally round pupils instantly condensed into sharp vertical pupils.

However, the vertical pupils only lasted for a moment - the next second, its eyes were round again, as if nothing had happened.

Then it stretched lazily, jumped off the bed, and walked towards the door with its tail raised.

Xu Ming was surprised that it would leave without saying anything, but he didn't care. Landor closed his eyes and made way for it without saying anything. Only his silver fox terrier was standing at the door. When he saw the cat coming out, he immediately growled nervously and even bared his teeth.

The cat didn't bother to be polite with it, and just arched its back and snorted. The already nervous dog was so frightened that it jumped up on the spot and ran

into the ward without looking back. It didn't have the courage to turn around and continue barking at it until its two front paws were wrapped around Landor's legs. The cat, however, had already trotted away, and its figure quickly disappeared into the corridor outside the door, never to be seen again.

"..." Xu Ming blinked slowly, and withdrew his gaze somewhat reluctantly. Beside the bed, the silver fox, having confirmed that it was safe, had decisively given up Landor's calf, and instead pounced to the bedside, with its two paws on the edge of the bed, continuing to bark at Xu Ming.

Xu Ming reached out and touched the dog's head beside the bed, lowered his eyes to think for a while, and raised his head to look at Landor.

"Do you have anything to say to me about that cat?" She asked tentatively.

"..." Landuo fell silent. After a pause, he said, "It's not just a cat."

"Hmm." Xu Ming looked at him encouragingly, "And then?"

"..." Landuo's eyes turned slightly, as if he was considering. After a moment, he opened his mouth again, but no sound came out.

He himself did not seem to have expected this, and he touched his throat in surprise. After a few seconds, he sighed resignedly and apologized to Xu Ming: "Sorry. There are some things that I have to remain silent about."

"...Okay." Xu Ming was silent for a moment, and exhaled softly, "To be honest, it's not that surprising."

After all, a similar silence had already appeared when the two had just met.

Seeing that she did not continue to ask questions, Landor seemed to be relieved. After thinking for a while, he picked up the silver fox lying on the bed: "Do you want a panda? Or a panda cub? Or a fennec fox? This one ranks higher than a cat in cuteness."

After a pause, he added emphatically: "And it's a canine."

Xu Ming: "..."

"Forget it. Don't bother, I'll go to sleep soon." Yawning, Xu Ming said with some regret, and reached out to take the puppy in Landor's hand, "Let this little one accompany me... Come, you sleep here."

Xu Ming patted the edge of the pillow, and the little silver fox obediently nestled over and curled up into a ball of velvet, like another pillow.

Xu Ming patted the little pillow and couldn't help yawning again. She picked up her phone to check the time, muttered "Wake me up when the time comes", and soon fell asleep again.

When she woke up again, it was three hours later.

This time, when she woke up, Xu Ming felt a little better. But it seemed that it only lasted for about ten minutes after she woke up. Not long after, she felt limp again.

Even so, she still packed up her things firmly, and went to handle the discharge procedures accompanied by Lando and Lu Yueling. It was not until she walked out of the ward that she realized that this hospital seemed to be quite large.

Large, and empty. All she saw along the way were empty wards. There were people in the nurses' station. Several nurses and caregivers in uniform were playing cards together. When they learned that Xu Ming was leaving, they all showed reluctance.

"What a pity, it's so rare to have a living person here." After walking a long way, Xu Ming could still hear their mutterings, "Since the new dean was replaced, not many people come here."

"After all, the new dean doesn't need eyes... and doesn't need guests either..."

New dean? Eyes?

Xu Ming turned his head slightly because of these two words, but he didn't stop. Soon he followed Lando all the way to the office hall of the inpatient department.

The admission and discharge procedures are all handled here. Lando took Xu Ming's information to the window to handle it. Xu Ming sat quietly in the chair and waited, his eyes turning around curiously, and his gaze soon locked on a "Hospitalization Instructions" posted in a corner of the hall.

The content on it was very simple, probably talking about some procedures and precautions to be followed when entering and leaving the hospital. Apart from the somewhat shady time of processing, there seemed to be nothing special.

However, if you look closely, it is not difficult to find that there is another piece of paper clearly pasted under the "Admission Instructions". That piece of paper seems to be larger than the "Admission Instructions" that is currently pasted, so some of the curled and damaged edges can be seen, and it looks quite old.

The text part is strictly covered and cannot be seen at all.

Xu Ming poked his head out with some concern, and was wondering whether to get closer to study it. Landor had already returned with a discharge certificate* given by the window in his hand.

Xu Ming did not investigate further. Until he walked out of the door, he looked back unconsciously, and his heart suddenly jumped.

- I only saw a corner of the hall, where is the "Admission Instructions"? There

was only a huge eye that was sewn tightly with fine thread.

"......? What's wrong?" Lando was organizing the folding umbrellas that he would use later. Seeing her pause, he couldn't help but ask.

Xu Ming paused, but just shook his head. Wisely giving up on further investigation, he continued to walk out.

According to Lando, walking out of the door is basically leaving the ghost story. The stairs at the door are the boundary between ghost stories and reality. Xu Ming walked down the stairs. When he stepped onto the last step, he clearly felt that the touch under his feet was wrong; one more step forward, he was already back in the bathroom.

Fortunately, the bathroom was empty at this time, and no one noticed their sudden appearance. Xu Ming exhaled deeply and walked out quickly. Halfway through, she opened her phone again and found that the date had not changed. It still showed three days after she entered Guo Shuyi's ghost story.

While the phone still had power, Xu Ming quickly called an online taxi - in this case, even if she ran to the old house in the south of the city, she might not have the energy to pack, and there were still things missing. It would be better to go back to the apartment and rest.

Fortunately, she was lucky. In this rural area, she was able to call a taxi very quickly. Lu Yueling sat with her because no one could see her. Lando couldn't be in the sun, so he hid in the umbrella. The remaining puppy turned into the smallest puppy form again, barely able to fit into Xu Ming's handbag, so he took it with him.

The time on the ride was not wasted. Xu Ming quickly processed the information at hand. Fortunately or unfortunately, among so many accumulated messages, most of them are various notifications. In the past three days, there are only two real people who have actually contacted her: Qiu Yufei and Shi Mian.

Qiu Yufei sent a message yesterday. It is said that she found a good new job and came to tell Xu Ming the good news. I don’t know if it’s because she is too excited, she didn’t even ask Xu Ming to respond, and she sent several messages by herself. Xu Ming patiently read them one by one, and then began to reply slowly. Xu Ming

doesn’t have many friends, Qiu Yufei is one of them. There is also a tacit understanding between the two in terms of communication: Xu Ming is used to concentrating when he is busy, and he won’t look at his mobile phone for a long time, so it is difficult for him to reply immediately. Qiu Yufei is no longer surprised by this, and usually comes over to say what she wants to say, and then runs away. When Xu Minghu comes back and takes over the conversation, the two will continue chatting.

Like now, Xu Ming also explained the reason why he hadn't replied for a long time according to habit, and Qiu Yufei quickly replied with a "hug" emoticon; Xu Ming sent another "congratulations", but the other side knocked out a question mark.

Qiu Yufei: [...Did you just come out of that kind of place and your brain was affected? Why are you talking to me again now. ]

Qiu Yufei: [Forget it, you take a rest first! I'm doing the entry physical examination, and I'll bring you a small cake on the weekend! ]

...?

Does it mean that you will come to see her on the weekend?

Xu Ming thought about it, replied "OK", and then closed the chat box.

Clicking on Shi Mian's message again, it was much shorter. It means that their unit has started to send Dragon Boat Festival gift boxes, and they want to send one to Xu Ming as well, and ask if she is at home. The time was two days ago.

Xu Ming said "Oops" in his heart, and immediately replied to thank and apologize. He wanted to say that there was no need to send it, but Shi Mian replied quickly, saying that he had already sent it, and the gift boxes had been collected by Xu Ming's partner.

Xu Ming: "..."

Xu Ming: [Partner? ]

[Yes.] Shi Mian replied, [They are the two people at your house. When I delivered it, they happened to be there, so they collected it for you.]

[They said they were originally from other units and were temporarily transferred here to help you... Did I get it wrong?]

Other units... Xu Ming frowned and thought for a while, then he remembered that when he left, there were indeed two Ah Piao at home, brought back by Gu Yunshu from the Magic Cube Building.

But how did they explain this "other unit"?

With such doubts, Xu Ming finally arrived home. Faced with her confusion, the new colleague with a dark horse head quickly gave an answer.

"A place full of pain, suffering and sorrow." He repeated his answer at that time seriously, his voice was low and full of poetic melancholy, "In your words, it might be purgatory."

Xu Ming: "..."

Xu Ming: "You, really told her that?"

It was Mr. Matou who nodded firmly in response to her.

Xu Ming pursed her lips and confirmed again: "At that time, did you two go to get the gift box together?"

This time, it was the two new colleagues who nodded together in response to her.

... In other words, Shi Mian came to her home to deliver the Dragon Boat Festival rice dumplings, but she saw two Ah Piao who claimed to be from purgatory, and these two looked very ugly...

Xu Ming didn't know how Shi Mian felt at the time. But she sincerely hoped that she would not have some strange associations because of this.

After so many days, Gu Yunshu has also returned from Xincheng. Compared with the Ox-Head and Horse-Face, she is obviously more concerned about Xu Ming's situation. Seeing Xu Ming come back, she relaxed a lot; however, after seeing the red marks on the back of Xu Ming's right hand that had not yet faded, her eyes became solemn again.

Xu Ming quickly said that everything was fine, and hurriedly changed the subject, asking about her visit to her relatives. Gu Yunshu was silent for a while, but just shook her head.

"Nothing happened." She said softly, "I went there according to the address, sat at the door for two days, and then came back."

"...Ah?" Xu Ming was stunned for a moment, "Then you, didn't you see your family?"

"I don't know." Gu Yunshu shook her head again, "Maybe. I don't know."

Because the relevant memories had long been taken away by time. She doesn't know anyone anymore.

...Although she had expected it, Xu Ming was still inevitably stunned when she heard this answer. She responded softly, not knowing how to respond for a moment. Gu Yunshu was very calm, even a little relaxed, and was willing to ask Xu Ming about her experience this time.

Xu Ming gave a general account, but her heart was still heavy. She turned her head and saw Lu Yueling sitting against the wall, looking at Gu Yunshu silently, with a rare thoughtful expression.

...And when she finished talking to Gu Yunshu about what happened in the past few days, Xu Ming had unknowingly sat on the bed again.

The feeling of fatigue climbed up her bones again like a ghost. She almost used up all her willpower before she finally pulled herself up from the bed and into the bathroom.

After careful consideration, there are still many things that need to be dealt with.

She needs to communicate with Tian Yiliang, start taking painting orders, and move to look at houses. And there is that person who hasn't come back for three days. Maybe she needs to pay attention to him. If I remember correctly, there is another person who was snatched back from Lando, and she hasn't decided how to deal with him yet...

So many trivial matters, it's a headache just thinking about it.

Xu Ming, who finally finished taking a shower, thought silently and almost fell on the bed.

But forget it, who cares.

Let's talk about it later. Now, she just wants to be a waste.

...

It was not until two days later that Xu Ming, who was determined to be a waste at home, finally understood what Guo Shuyi meant by "rent" on the bus.

It was a relatively sunny afternoon. Lando was in the kitchen, unskillfully preparing the pork to be cooked that evening, and quietly warned the puppy that was sticking out its tongue beside him; Lu Yue was hiding in the window, holding the electronic reader that Xu Ming had lent her, but her eyes were not on the reader at all, but staring out the window, wondering what she was thinking.

After Gu Yunshu learned that Xu Ming was planning to move, she volunteered to ask for the address and took Niutou and Mamian to clean up; Xu Ming sat alone on the bed, playing games on his phone, and always felt as if something was missing, but he couldn't tell what it was.

Unable to figure it out, she simply turned her eyes back to the phone screen in front of her and continued to poke at the game interface, bored.

Xu Ming didn't play mobile games very often, and even if he did, he only played single-player games. The one I'm playing now is a very niche puzzle adventure game series, in which I control a little man to solve puzzles continuously in order to obtain clues to unlock the princess.

I don't know if it's because I'm not focused enough, but the little games I used to play are a bit stuck now. Xu Ming looked at the slightly complicated math problems on the screen, his fingers gradually stopped, and he frowned in distress.

"25."

While he was thinking, he suddenly heard a voice next to him: "The first question is 25. The second question is 18. I can't see the third question clearly, can you move your hand a little bit?"

"Oh." Xu Ming responded and subconsciously moved his hand.

After a short pause, she suddenly reacted and turned her head in surprise——

"Yeah." Next to her, the girl in school uniform was still staring at the screen seriously. After thinking for a moment, she nodded firmly, "I figured it out, it's 34!"

"So the password is 251834!"

The girl reported the final answer and seemed quite happy. She raised her head and met Xu Ming's slightly surprised eyes.

...Then she smiled awkwardly, stepped back, distanced herself from Xu Ming, and turned her eyes awkwardly.

"S-Sorry?" She straightened up a little nervously and spoke uncertainly, "Did I scare you?"

Xu Ming: "..."

To be honest, a little.

Looking at Guo Shuyi who appeared out of nowhere in front of him, Xu Ming opened his mouth slightly, and after a moment, he turned his head with sudden realization -

his eyes fell on the rule book beside him.