Translator: CinderTL
"Later, I passed out, and when I woke up, I was lying on a hospital bed downstairs," Zhao Ru recalled. "The nurse taking care of me told me that Director Qi happened to pass by, found me, and carried me out."
"What happened next?" Jiang Cheng asked gently.
"After Director Qi found out I had woken up, he came to see me and asked me what had happened," Zhao Ru said, her throat involuntarily moving as she looked at Jiang Cheng.
"You didn't tell him about these things, did you?"
Zhao Ru nodded and lowered her voice, "I told him I had accidentally fallen."
"Perhaps... perhaps I was just too nervous," she added, seemingly feeling that bringing this up with Jiang Cheng was too abrupt and that he wouldn't really believe such a bizarre story.
Zhao Ru had found herself an excuse.
Jiang Cheng didn't press the issue further and instead changed the topic, "The daily medication is..."
"The medication is picked up from the pharmacy," Zhao Ru explained. "Director Qi prepares the medication in advance and leaves it in the pharmacy. I just go and get it."
"Director Qi prepares the medication himself?" Jiang Cheng became interested.
"Yes," Zhao Ru whispered. "I only found out about this by chance."
It was clear that Zhao Ru had doubts about the woman in the ward and the relationship between the woman and Director Qi.
But compared to her doubts, her job was more important.
As an intern, her only goal now was to stay and work in the hospital.
And all of this was in Director Qi's hands.
So she didn't dare question Director Qi, nor did she want to offend him.
But based on what Zhao Ru had said, Jiang Cheng gradually pieced together a line of thought. Although it wasn't very clear, he had a general direction.
First, there was Director Qi.
He clearly knew the patient in Room 906, who was also a former nurse at the hospital.
And not only did he know her.
Their relationship must have been quite strained, or perhaps the nurse had some kind of leverage over Director Qi.
Director Qi didn't want her to wake up.
And from various clues, Jiang Cheng reconstructed the incident Zhao Ru had experienced.
Ten years ago, because of a certain incident, the nurse had been traumatized and gone insane.
At least, she must have truly been insane at the time.
And Director Qi was also involved in this incident.
But not long ago, this nurse had awakened from a vegetative state.
Jiang Cheng thought that this might be related to the appearance of the Ghost.
However, when Director Qi noticed signs of the nurse waking up, he became extremely nervous and began purposefully injecting her with sedatives.
For some unknown reason, he didn't do this himself but instead asked Zhao Ru to help him administer the injections to the woman.
This was why Director Qi had been so nervous during Zhao Ru's first few injections.
He was worried that the woman might suddenly wake up and reveal some secret that shouldn't be known.
But after seeing that the woman showed no unusual signs, he finally relaxed and later only instructed Zhao Ru to handle it alone.
However, by a twist of fate, one day Zhao Ru accidentally broke the sedative. Afraid of being punished and losing her job, she didn't dare tell Director Qi.
As a result, the sedative's effects wore off, and the woman on the hospital bed woke up the next day when Zhao Ru went to administer the injection, startled by a sudden clap of thunder.
Then he said to Zhao Ru, "It's back."
This "it," Jiang Cheng thought, must refer to the ghost.
Looking at the girl beside him, Jiang Cheng couldn't help but wonder what the consequences would be if she told Director Qi that she had heard a woman's voice.
Jiang Cheng even had a suspicion.
She might die.
This nurse must know something, but she's currently not in her right mind.
Jiang Cheng also considered whether he should take advantage of the absence of others to visit her, perhaps to extract some information, or wait until she came again at night.
But then, he dismissed this immature plan in his mind.
According to Zhao Ru, she had touched a hand that didn't belong to either of them present.
Moreover, Jiang Cheng noticed her choice of words.
She said that the hand was very cold, extremely cold, as if frozen in ice.
If it wasn't just her being frightened out of her wits and talking nonsense, then that hand must have belonged to the ghost.
At that time, the ghost was in that room.
Right beside Zhao Ru! If he rashly approached the woman on the bed, Jiang Cheng feared he might provoke the ghost.
As it stands, this ghost harbors hostility towards them, especially since Director Qi had commissioned them to eliminate it.
Later, during casual conversation, Jiang Cheng brought up the abandoned corridor on the 6th floor.
But Zhao Ru, who had only recently arrived, knew nothing about it. However, she mentioned that a head nurse who had mentored her once warned her not to wander around the 6th floor for no reason.
When she asked why, the other person didn't seem to know either.
The response was vague, probably just something passed down from the hospital's seniors.
"But she did mention one thing," Zhao Ru looked up at Jiang Cheng with a strange expression, "She said that one morning when she came to work, she happened to pass by the 6th floor and noticed a lot of black things on the ground."
"When the wind blew, they scattered everywhere."
"Curious, she went over to look and found that they were ashes left after burning." At this point, Zhao Ru paused, then lowered her voice, "The day before was the 15th of the seventh month."
The 15th of the seventh month.
Also known as the Ghost Festival.
Another more commonly known name—the Ghost Day.
"Someone was burning paper money in the 6th-floor corridor?" Jiang Cheng frowned.
"Yes," Zhao Ru nodded unnaturally, then continued, "And many people have reported feeling an eerie sensation whenever they pass through the 6th floor."
"I never go there alone," Zhao Ru said, "Even when I do, I take a detour from your ward side, avoiding that corridor."
"You should try not to go there either," Zhao Ru looked at Jiang Cheng's face with concern, "Maybe you should talk to Director Qi and ask him to change your room."
"Don't be fooled by the size of this hospital; I only found out after I came here that its operational condition is actually quite poor, with many empty wards."
(End of the Chapter)
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