Chapter 25

Chapter 25: Old Case Four [Catching Bugs]

The ceiling on the sixth floor of Baoshan Hospital was truly "exceptional."

It almost made Ming Yue's leftover meal from last night come back up.

Compared to the heads and limbs hanging above her, the vaginal discharge smell from the gynecology department was as delightful as Darjeeling tea.

Chen Xiu took a breath, subtly putting out his cigarette, "It's so nice standing next to you, junior, so warm."

Ming Yue snapped back to reality, "Senior, what did you just say?"

"I was just saying, your yang energy is strong," Chen Xiu glanced at her and smiled, "Nothing."

"Wait here, keep an eye on things, I'll call Zhou Jingren."

"Oh."

Ming Yue obediently agreed, giving up the corner with the potted plants for Chen Xiu to make his call, while kindly reminding him:

"Senior, be careful. I just saw someone spit here."

Chen Xiu: "......"

Chen Xiu raised his head, twisting the little junior’s head toward the nurse’s station, "Keep an eye on things."

Behind them, Chen Xiu's voice was steady as he communicated with Zhou Jingren, his cold tone almost unnoticeable if one didn’t listen closely, but their conversation was far more intense than it sounded:

"Brother Da Ren, you're really a good guy, bringing a bunch of brothers to fill the grave for you...?"

"...What? You don’t know? You don’t know what you’ve been babbling about in the picnic group?"

"If you keep making excuses, I’ll let you see just how beautiful the ceiling on the sixth floor of Baoshan Hospital really is!"

"Yama? Ox-head and Horse-face, or the Black and White Impermanence?"

"...How big of an area did you seal off?"

Hearing the words "Yama" and "Yama’s minions," Ming Yue’s ears perked up, recalling her encounter with the White Impermanence on the high-speed train.

A high-crowned hat, wearing a long robe.

Yin energy as vast as the sea, with a face as emotionless as death.A phone notification popped up—It was from Yan Jun.

Ming Yue read it and replied:

【@Ming Yue: We arrived early, lucky for us, we managed to sneak into the hospital】

【@Ming Yue: We're on the sixth floor in the gynecology department. The obstetrics department has police, it's hard to get in】

【@Ming Yue: Squad leader, let me tell you! The ceiling on this sixth floor is amazing, if you get the chance, come check it out, I guarantee you won’t regret it】

Ming Yue, staring at a baby's leg wriggling on the ceiling, earnestly recommended it to Yan Jun.

【@Ming Yue: Alright, if we can get in, we will, if not, we’ll help from the outside. According to Senior Chen Xiu, this might be a big deal, we're still just small fish, so who knows, we might just take a look】

Outside the hospital.

Yan Jun stood under an umbrella, waiting for the traffic light, his gaze focused across the street where Senior Zhou Jingren was arguing on the phone in the rain, his figure blurred in the misty air.

Yan Jun knew he wasn’t the earliest, considering Ming Yue’s message earlier and the previous messages exchanged in the group.

Probably seven or eight students had already sneaked into the hospital.

He then glanced at the serious negotiations happening outside the hospital, with black banners sealing the hospital's outpatient building, and all the people were being forced out.

Yan Jun felt his heart tighten.

He immediately sent what he saw to Ming Yue.

【@Yan Jun: Be careful, stay close to Senior Ming Yue, I see the police have sealed off the hospital】

However, after a long while, there was no response.

The sixth floor gynecology department was filled with the scent of "Darjeeling tea."

Chen Xiu, his head spinning from the argument, had to endure these smells. He swore to himself that once they got out, he would definitely give Zhou Jingren a good beating.

Turning around, he realized the junior he had been with was gone.She went to chat with the patients and nurses.

Chen Xiu: "......"

Chen Xiu looked at Ming Yue, who was smiling brightly, thinking to himself, in a place like the gynecology department, where yin energy prevails and yang is weak, isn’t the handsome man tactic more effective than the beautiful woman tactic?

So, he approached as well.

Ming Yue, with a serious expression, pretended to be a campus reporter, not sure where she had borrowed a student ID from the New Media Department:

"Yes, we were hoping to interview you—"

She mysteriously pointed upstairs, just as a baby’s head slowly turned its neck above, its lifeless eyes focusing on Ming Yue. Ming Yue stopped her hand and said, "—What's going on with all those police upstairs?"

The nurse who answered was still a nursing student, shy because it was her first interview, but the question made her look troubled: "Well... it's some kind of dispute."

Ming Yue took notes seriously: "Is it a dispute between nurses and teachers?"

The nursing student: "......"

The nursing student’s eyes reddened in an instant. She waved her hand and covered her mouth, then ran off, leaving Ming Yue standing there, stunned.

Chen Xiu snorted: "You got stunned, didn’t you?"

Ming Yue clapped her hands: "This proves I asked the right question!"

Chen Xiu rolled his eyes: "Even that rookie police officer named Lin could tell it was a teacher-student dispute."

Ming Yue ignored her hot-headed senior.

The sixth floor hallway was long and straight, with rooms on both sides, opening and closing. Many aunts and women in patient gowns slowly paced the corridor, supporting their waists, with their husbands trailing behind them like weaklings.

A few aunts gathered on the side near green chairs chatting, laughing, when another nursing student pushed a medication cart beside them. She eagerly joined the conversation, chatting with the patients—

Ming Yue watched them, "Senior, when cutting ghosts, isn't it easier to hit the mark if we understand the source of resentment?"

Chen Xiu nodded: "Of course."

Ming Yue: "Then, how about putting on a show?"

Chen Xiu: "Tell me more."Li Jiajia is a nursing student from the nearby Medical University, and along with a group of her fellow interns, they’ve managed to cover most of the departments at Baoshan Hospital.

She’s extremely talkative and enjoys embellishing her stories, but in an interesting way. Not long after switching from obstetrics to gynecology, she had already made the nurses and teachers in the department smile from ear to ear.

The long-time patients in the department also liked her.

Right now, she’s here to change dressings and, seeing some familiar patients, she chatted with them for a bit.

After talking for a while, a young couple with worried faces sat down on the long bench.

The man was handsome, and the woman was beautiful.

But both of them had expressions full of worry. Li Jiajia, with her warm-hearted nature, pushed the medication cart over to inquire:

"Hello, is there anything I can help you with?"

The woman touched her seven or eight-month-old belly, reluctant to speak, and the man pushed her lightly.

Seeing this, the nearby patients began whispering:

"Look at these kids, barely grown up, and they’re already having a baby."

"Yeah, one looks about eighteen or nineteen, the other just in their twenties."

"Tsk, society is going downhill, and people have lost their morals."

"Strange, it’s already this far along in her pregnancy, why would she come to gynecology?"

The woman heard this and was on the verge of tears.

Li Jiajia’s heart softened. She quickly advised the older patients gently:

"Seeing that you’re not feeling well, maybe you should go to obstetrics for a checkup?"

The man sighed: "We just went to obstetrics, there were a lot of police, they didn’t let us see the doctor, only the ones already admitted to the hospital can stay."

He waved his hand: "They won’t let us do a checkup."

"We were thinking of just sitting in gynecology for a while."

Upon hearing this, the woman’s tears started to fall: "I’ve been feeling pain in my belly these past few days, what should I do?"

Li Jiajia, hearing this was related to obstetrics, felt a bit helpless. But seeing this young couple with thick skin and innocent faces, she whispered: "Why don’t you try switching to another hospital?""Something happened in Baoshan Obstetrics."

The woman wiped away her tears, the scar at the corner of her eye looking strange:

"What happened?"

Before Li Jiajia could speak, the elderly aunt sitting beside her clicked her tongue and began talking rapidly:

"Don’t you know? You dare run around like this?"

"Upstairs, a lot of people died!"

"First, a pregnant woman died, then some students, and after that, a nurse."

"The head nurse who was killed a few days ago? She was hung by a few students who died before her."

"Look at these students now, even after they died, they’re still causing trouble." The aunt spoke with great detail.

Li Jiajia: "…"

Li Jiajia was quick with her words, but there were some teachers who were beyond comforting, like the former head nurse of obstetrics.

She saw the young couple looking confused, and the whispers of the old aunts in her ears. Her heart stirred with the urge to defend her classmates who had unjustly died. For a moment, she almost started crying:

"Aunt Zhang, it's not like that, it’s not what you think."

"My classmates, they were all good people."

The wife of the young couple, quick to understand, took out a handkerchief and gently handed it to Li Jiajia, saying softly: "Nurse, don’t be sad."

"It’s okay."

Li Jiajia shook her head. "You don’t know, that head nurse of obstetrics was really a terrible person…"

She was about to say more, but suddenly stopped, her face changing. After a pause, she continued softly:

"Forget it, I’ll say it. We were classmates, someone should know about her injustice."

The young couple exchanged a glance. "Please, tell us."

Li Jiajia, filled with emotion, no longer cared about the medication cart, and sat down directly."I had just rotated out of obstetrics less than a month ago, and I switched shifts with the few classmates who passed away."

"They didn't want to be nurses, they thought it was exhausting and not respected. They were planning to take the graduate entrance exam and switch to another profession."

Li Jiajia wiped her face with a tissue and blew her nose. The elderly aunt felt sorry for her and quickly agreed:

"Yes, yes, nursing is so exhausting. Switching to another profession is a good idea."

"Taking the graduate entrance exam is great, higher education, it's easier to marry well and find a good job."

Li Jiajia smiled through her tears, "I actually think taking the graduate exam is a good idea, but my grades aren't great, so I didn't think about it."

"But they weren't like that."

"Last month, when they rotated into obstetrics, it was so busy, and with the graduate exam approaching at the end of December, they were thinking of saving a few days off to study for the exam."

"But the head nurse wouldn’t allow it," Li Jiajia said, lowering her head.

"Ugh," the young wife clicked her tongue, "That head nurse is too unreasonable."

"It's not like they're not working, and they're not full-time staff, just an intern. If they take a few days off, it’s like adjusting shifts, right?"

This was a clever remark, both igniting and fanning the flames. Chen Xiu glanced at Mingyue and thought, this junior is quite clever with her words.

"True."

Li Jiajia, her heart full of indignation, let tears stream down her face:

"One of my classmates had a strong temper and had a conflict with the head nurse."

"It wasn’t anything serious, just some comments in her friend circle—somehow the head nurse found out."

"And then," Li Jiajia’s voice faltered, her eyes red, "The head nurse made things difficult for her, spreading rumors that she was incompetent, always trying to climb the ladder, that she definitely wouldn’t pass, and that she should just stick to being a nurse."

"At that time, everyone on the three or four floors knew these nasty things."

"And then, she was reassigned to be the primary nurse for beds 42 to 50."

The young couple: "…"The man squinted, his voice calm, not getting swept up in Li Jiajia's story: "What do you mean by beds 42-50?"

Aunt Zhang beside them clicked her tongue: "You don’t know that and you’re bringing your wife to Baoshan to give birth?"

"Beds 42-50 in obstetrics are for high-risk pregnancies," she said.

Li Jiajia choked back a sob.

"And the nurse responsible for those beds and the head nurse are in cahoots. As soon as my classmate went there, they didn’t take care of it properly. They let my classmate handle high-risk patients alone during night shifts."

"How could she manage? She was just an intern fresh in obstetrics."

"Those were lives, didn’t these adults care?"

Mingyue lowered her eyelids, "So, the high-risk mothers your classmate cared for all died?"

Li Jiajia rubbed her eyes and nodded, her eyes reddening: "So many mothers died."

"Medical disputes happened over and over again, and the families beat my classmate in the obstetrics hall."

"Her face, her body, everywhere was covered in injuries."

"The nurses didn’t care."

"Some doctors came out to try to mediate, but the head nurse scolded them back."

"I... my classmate really..." Li Jiajia was trembling even while taking a breath, "She was proud, she couldn’t handle all of this."

"She couldn’t handle it."

"She really wasn’t a bad person."

Mingyue: "..."

Chen Xiu: "..."

Mingyue and Chen Xiu exchanged a glance.

After comforting Li Jiajia, they said goodbye to the few helpful aunts and made their way to the safety exit and closed the door.

Mingyue pulled her backpack out from under her clothes, and instantly, her seven or eight-month pregnancy bump was replaced with a flat waist."How about it, Senior?" she asked.

Chen Xiu leaned on the door, paused for a while, then shook his head. "Women are really terrifying."

Mingyue silently put her backpack on, her mind drifting between the "corpses" floating on the sixth floor ceiling and Li Jiajia's tear-streaked face.

She couldn't quite figure out what she was thinking.

She had never been immune to bullying like this.

However, she realized that what she had gone through was nothing compared to what others had suffered.

"Senior, where do you think that unlucky student is now?" Mingyue asked softly.

Chen Xiu lit a cigarette to calm his nerves. "What do you think?"

"Maybe she's in the police station's forensic room, lying next to a corpse, watching herself being dismembered."

"Or maybe she's on the seventh floor, where the grudges still linger."

Mingyue: "..."

Mingyue: "I think she's on the seventh floor."