Chapter 29

Everyone took out their phones one after another.

Zhou Jingren: 【The little brats should head to the urology department (it has plenty of yang energy), go downstairs, and stay away from this matter.】

Yan Jun: 【First, gather the students who entered the hospital.】

Jun Weiran: 【Continue following up.】

Ming Yue: 【Today is the 15th (calendar screenshot).】

Chen Xiu: 【The freshmen leave, we stay behind.】

The responses had their own distinctive action styles.

Chen Xiu: "..."

Chen Xiu narrowed his eyes. "Ming Yue, what do you mean?"

Ming Yue wrapped her coat tighter, pointing at the full moon in the sky, and reminded: "Senior, today is the 15th, the day with the most Yin energy of the month."

"After the afternoon's heavy rain, the Yin energy spread, I believe the malicious spirit will cause trouble tonight."

Zhou Jingren chuckled, patting his junior’s head: "Hasn't the malicious spirit been acting up for the past few days?"

"So many patients have already died in these departments, don’t you think the sky full of human heads and rain isn't a bad omen?"

Ming Yue shook her head: "It's different, Senior."

"Disturbing the vitality of someone about to die, and slaughtering a living person, is a huge difference."

"I think Zhang Aihua is in danger tonight."

As soon as the words fell, everyone fell silent.

Jun Weiran spoke coldly and objectively: "We can use Zhang Aihua to lure out the malicious spirit."

"Those who do evil will bring about their own doom."

Ming Yue glanced at him, her eyes rarely free from confusion and fluttering.

"Feasible, but very dangerous."

"If things go wrong, and someone really dies, that would be a sin.""Alright."

Yan Jun interrupted the two: "We still don't know where Zhang Aihua is."

"The major premise is missing, so the assumption doesn't hold."

Chen Xiu and Zhou Jingren exchanged a glance, both showing admiration and relief in their eyes.

"Don't forget, there's one more thing."

"For the past week, the malicious spirit has been playing tricks, causing many patients to die prematurely—no matter how much earlier, even if just a second, all of this needs to be rechecked with the death registry, the data needs to be inputted into the underworld database, and corrected registration must be made."

"This requires us to go through each department, check night shift records, and note down the time of death."

Ming Yue felt for her seniors' heavy workload. "How about, once everything is settled, we could, in the name of the academy, request the hospital and police records?"

"This way, it will be easier to calculate."

Zhou Jingren looked at the little junior and found himself liking her more and more.

"How did this girl grow up? Smart, brave, and kind, plus she's damn beautiful," he mused. "Little cutie, now the Black and White Impermanence are wandering around Baoshan District."

"We, the ones making a living under the underworld's hands, are still hustling with our leaders up top. Aren't we supposed to show some results?"

"Wait for the police, wait for the school? In the monkey's year and horse's month?"

"Delaying time isn't something an independent ghost-slayer should be doing."

Chen Xiu shot Zhou Jingren a cold look, unimpressed with his antics.

"Enough, Big Brother Da Ren, wipe off the saliva."

"Now, two things on hand— I know you guys aren't going to leave," Chen Xiu said to the three freshmen.

"—First, collect death data. Second, go find Zhang Aihua and keep an eye on the obstetrics department."

"Yan Jun and I, Zhou Jingren, will go find Zhang Aihua. Ming Yue and Jun Weiran, go collect the death data from various departments."

"Any objections?"

Yan Jun: "..."Ming Yue’s heart bloomed with joy, nodding eagerly like a chick pecking at rice: "No, no."

Jun Weiran stood up from the wall, holding his knife, "I have one. I request to switch places with Yan Jun."

Chen Xiu was indifferent, "Sure."

Ming Yue: "..."

Ming Yue’s face visibly fell, looking pitiful.

Yan Jun couldn’t hold back his laughter, laughing so hard his stomach hurt.

Watching his dorm brothers and the class beauty outwit each other every day was truly amusing.

After closing the door to the tenth-floor internal medicine department, the gentle nurse sister reminded Yan Jun and Ming Yue to be careful on the road as it was getting dark.

In the stairwell.

Yan Jun lowered his head to check the data, while Ming Yue organized the case copies, flipping her student ID back and forth, "I’ve heard for a long time that major hospitals and district police have dealt with the Spirit Institute."

"But, to be able to get the case and death records with just a student ID, that’s really impressive."

Yan Jun: "..."

Yan Jun paused, turned, and looked at Ming Yue.

In the stairwell, the moonlight and darkness blended together. Ming Yue’s Yin-Yang eyes were half bright, half dim. The golden Yang eyes lit up like a torch in the night. Yan Jun looked at her carefully, thinking she was incredibly beautiful.

"Compared to the student ID, I think our Yin-Yang eyes are even more useful for identification."

— Like a little moon in the darkness, Yan Jun thought to himself as he gazed at Ming Yue.

Ming Yue stared at him.

The same mixed light and dark background enveloped Yan Jun. His blue and gold eyes were pure like jewels.

"Class monitor, your eyes are really beautiful."

Ming Yue sincerely complimented him.Yan Jun: "..."

Yan Jun kept his expression calm and smiled: "You too."

His heart was beating a bit fast.

The atmosphere was too awkward.

Yan Jun grumbled to himself.

But unexpectedly, Ming Yue immediately followed up with a nerve-wracking statement: "Thank you."

"But in my heart, Jun Weiran's eyes are the most beautiful."

"Sorry, big brother."

Yan Jun: "..."

Yan Jun felt as though an arrow had pierced his knee. He was both frustrated and amused.

Ming Yue silently counted the departments in her mind, "Only the operating room and two more floors left."

"Let’s go."

"The eighth floor is pediatrics, so the Yin energy should be heavier there."

After speaking, Ming Yue stretched out her hand and shook it towards Yan Jun, "If the class monitor feels cold, you can hold my hand."

"I'm full of Yang energy, very warm."

Yan Jun: "..."

Hearing this, Yan Jun didn’t know what to say.

To call herself a fur blanket, someone like this, he had never encountered before.

Yan Jun pretended not to hear it and pushed open the eighth-floor stairwell door.

The hospital layout was consistent across floors. As he opened the door, moonlight poured in, illuminating a long, straight corridor.

The "children" wandering in the corridor all turned their heads at once.They looked like children of varying ages, some were teenagers, others just two or three years old, tall and short, standing like little wooden stakes in the corridor, black mist swirling around them.

Ming Yue: "..."

Yan Jun: "..."

The two held their breath, quickly walking through the corridor, pretending not to notice the child ghosts standing along it.

Suddenly, someone called out to Ming Yue.

"Big sister."

Ming Yue stiffened, her muscles tensing, preparing for anyone who dared to tap her on the shoulder—she’d throw them over her shoulder in an instant!

Big sister.

The voice called out again.

A little boy, crouching next to the trash can and pretending to be a spittoon, stood up. His legs formed a black mist and floated behind Ming Yue. His jet-black eyes had no whites, and he tugged at Ming Yue's clothes, shaking her.

"I've seen you before."

Yan Jun saw this and pulled out a short knife from his backpack, ready to sever the ghost's hand.

"Wait," Ming Yue stared at the little ghost, feeling a sense of familiarity.

She crouched down, looking at the little ghost at eye level. She gently patted his head and spoke softly:

"Baby, where have we met before?"

The little ghost tilted his head. "Downstairs." He said, even hopping a bit.

Downstairs was the obstetrics department.

How would a ghost of a few years old die in the obstetrics department?

Ming Yue felt suspicious.

So she smiled and said, "But I don’t remember."

"The little ones downstairs are all very young, little brothers and sisters."

"Baby, you’re a big brother now. You wouldn’t go to the obstetrics department, right?"The little boy giggled, and his laughter echoed in the corridor, causing the other children to join in with their own high-pitched, eerie giggles.

The collective laughter felt like hooks, stabbing at her back, causing her flesh to tremble.

Ming Yue kept her smile in place, resisting the goosebumps crawling up her skin.

"I saw you in the obstetrics department."

"This afternoon, you set the fire in the stairwell. I saw it."

The little ghost’s smile was both innocent and eerie.

The souls of young children wouldn't easily leave a place of grudges for long.

Unless they transformed into an adult mindset, with autonomous consciousness to break free from the place, or—

Unless they were attracted by a strong external source of negative energy.

Ming Yue felt a jolt of electricity run through her body, and an idea flashed in her mind. "Yes, it was me who started the fire."

"Who was the one who lured you down?"

The little boy bit his finger, his black teeth biting through his finger bone, grinding the milk teeth with the bone shards. "A new big sister in the obstetrics department."

"She’s prettier than you, taller than you, and older than you."

"She has more eyes than you."

Ming Yue: "…"

Ming Yue was momentarily caught off guard by the strange series of descriptions, her thoughts racing like a worm inside her mind. "Eyes? What eyes?"

"How many pairs of eyes does she have?"

The little boy extended all ten of his fingers, and Ming Yue noticed that his ten fingers were all exposed bone shards, the broken parts white from being soaked in saliva. "So many!"

He pushed his two hands forward, all ten fingers outstretched.

Ming Yue: "…"

Five pairs of eyes.Yan Jun kept watch in all directions, speaking quietly: "The five students who died on the seventh floor happen to be five."

"If five pairs of eyes were to appear on one ghost..." That would mean a vengeful spirit has fused.

Ming Yue's internal alarm rang loudly, and she nodded at the class leader. "I know."

She then smiled sweetly and turned to the little boy, continuing her questioning:

"Baby, I really don't look as good as the obstetrics big sister, and I have fewer eyes than her."

"Can you tell me how you went to find her?" Can a vengeful spirit really be so picky? How did this little ghost manage to avoid being affected when passing by the whirlpool?

The little boy punched his fist and said, "I went down through the floor, quack."

"That big sister can speak in several voices."

"You can't."

"You’re way uglier than her."

Ming Yue: "…"

What a mischievous child.

Ming Yue: "So, did that big sister tell you her name?"

"She did, quack."

The little boy's cold hand grabbed Ming Yue's wrist, and black scars swiftly climbed up her skin:

"She said her name was Qiao Ting."

"Sis, why isn’t your hand cold?"

Ming Yue allowed the negative energy to sink into her skin, her eyes fixed on the little ghost as she asked the last question:

"When was the last time you saw her?"

The little ghost giggled: "Three days ago."

"You’re too late."