I Run Away with the Earth to Save the World [Unlimited Flow] - Chapter 108

The hospital corridors buzzed with silent commotion and noise.

Inside the quiet equipment room, everyone exchanged glances in silence.

Everyone had long since gotten into the habit of turning off phone sounds; everyone except for Wang Feizhou, who had entered the erosion area by accident for the first time.

But he was quick to react. Seeing that Jing Qizhen and the others were quietly typing to communicate, he immediately muted and disabled all his phone’s sounds and vibrations. Thinking of the ghost doctors in white coats he had just glimpsed, a chill ran down his spine.

Jing Qizhen typed, [There are a lot of ghosts outside and all of them we saw were in white coats. It’s likely that all the hospital’s doctors have turned into ghosts.]

Manman typed next, [If it were just a few ghosts, then something probably happened to those individuals. But with the whole hospital’s doctors like this, I suspect some sort of mass incident occurred.]

Jing Qizhen nodded. He agreed with Manman on that point but that raised a new question.

Jing Qizhen: [But here’s the thing that doesn’t add up, if the hospital really experienced a major mass incident, there’s no way it wouldn’t have left any trace.]

Although the erosion area at the Second Municipal Hospital of Binhai City had appeared very quickly and suddenly this time, and both the other personnel and their team had been caught a little off guard, the fact remained that the old retired staff were still calmly sitting in the hotel.

If there really had been a large-scale mass incident in the hospital’s past, like an earthquake, fire, or some other major safety accident involving the entire staff, there’s no way outsiders wouldn’t have heard of it.

Pressed for time, Jing Qizhen’s group hadn’t had a chance to comb through the hospital’s archives and neither the current director nor the retired old hands had mentioned anything. That could only mean the hospital had mostly been running smoothly over the years.

Jin Guijuan reached over and poked Wang Feizhou on the arm. The unlucky kid had only been wearing a sweater when he went to the bathroom and wandered into the erosion area, so he had no coat. Just now, he had picked up a white coat from the equipment room and thrown it over his shoulders.

Wang Feizhou gave her a friendly but confused smile.

Jin Guijuan turned her phone to show him a message. [You’re interning at the Second Municipal Hospital. Have you ever heard any stories or rumors?]

Back when she worked as a cashier in the supermarket at Yunhai Wancheng Department Store, she’d heard a few gossip bits about her supervisor, Ms. Li.

Wang Feizhou perked up and typed on his phone. [I’ve heard a few!]

He paused and then continued silently typing. [But they’re all urban legends about the hospital… Honestly, those ghost stories don’t compare at all to what’s going on out there!!]

Everyone instantly understood what was bothering him.

Typically, hospital ghost stories were things like ghost babies that came and went mysteriously, creepy noises from the morgue at night, faceless nurses in the hallway, elevators dropping to non-existent negative floors, getting lost on a floor that loops endlessly, weird people in the ward selling stranger wreaths, or change from a payment turning into paper money the next day…

But when you summed it up, all of those spooky tales had a common thread; they were isolated incidents, experienced by some unlucky individual by chance.

After all, no hospital has ever circulated a bizarre tale of a department head confidently leading a line of medical staff arranged in order of professional title ranks on a grand ward round, only to run into a ghost wall halfway through.

But that was all before.

The level of haunting in today’s erosion area was far more severe than a ghost wall during a ward round.

In fact, looking at those ghosts physically hovering off the ground, busily working all around, Jing Qizhen thought about it and realized that in the unusual setting, the few of them who were still normal humans actually seemed like the odd ones out.

The situation outside was beyond imagination, so no one dared to act rashly. Everyone chose to stay in the relatively quiet equipment room and fell into temporary silence.

Jing Qizhen held his phone and watched the surveillance footage being transmitted through the wireless pinhole camera.

In the office where they had previously dismantled a window and an IV stand, a ghost doctor had entered to work.

Seeing the empty window, the ghost doctor paused for a moment in a daze, and then carefully examined the removed window. After confirming it couldn’t fix it itself, it prepared to report it for repair.

Jing Qizhen watched through the pinhole camera as the ghost doctor walked out of the office. A while later, it actually came back with some administrative and logistics personnel.

There were two ghost workers who weren’t wearing white coats.

Through the camera, Jing Qizhen and the others watched as the ghosts bustled around and repaired the window.

Seeing them, everyone was stunned.

Si Jiayang frowned and typed, [This hospital… seems to still be functioning normally.]

He didn’t finish the second half of that sentence but everyone understood. The hospital didn’t resemble the deserted, ruined state of the supermarket. It appeared to be operating ‘normally,’ except that the medical staff and logistics personnel had all transformed into a different kind of being.

Grandma Fang wrote a line by hand, [Is it possible that in this erosion area, the ‘normal’ form of humans is actually the ghost state?]

Jing Qizhen typed on his phone, [It’s not out of the question. But in our current state, that makes things tricky.]

Wilcox also joined the discussion, phone in hand. [Actually, this erosion area is starting to feel a little like a fairytale kingdom.]

Jing Qizhen looked over at Wilcox.

Old Xiao also showed a look of realization. [You mean like how, in a fairytale kingdom, the March Hare or the Knight of Hearts are in their own normal state. So in this erosion area, these ghost figures are also in their own normal state?]

Jing Qizhen thought about it for a moment and then shook his head. [No, that’s not right.]

Everyone looked at him.

Jing Qizhen: [If this world truly were a normal ghost world, there shouldn’t be a distinct transition point at midnight.]

[And,] he paused before continuing to type, [I haven’t seen a single patient.]

Under normal circumstances, a hospital at the level of Binhai City’s Second Municipal Hospital would never be without patients.

If it really were a ghost world, then they shouldn’t be seeing only busy ghost doctors in white coats and no ghost patients at all.

Unless it’s because it’s currently midnight and no ordinary patients would be coming to the hospital in the middle of the night, which would make sense in the real world. But the fact that the logic lines up with a ghost world at all is already suspicious.

With almost no solid clues, they felt like they were trapped in a massive mystery with no leads to grasp.

Manman: [Should we bring out Snow White’s Magic Mirror from the last erosion area to open up our thinking a little?]

In the last erosion area, Jing Qizhen’s team had harvested plenty of rewards but most special items had dangerous side effects.

The fates of Sophia, Sean, and Williams served as a clear warning. No one would try such things lightly unless it was a last resort.

The only ‘safe’ special item was probably the highly unreliable Snow White’s Magic Mirror.

Jing Qizhen nodded and began rummaging through his backpack.

Soon, he pulled out a lavish-looking mirror, leaving Wang Feizhou completely confused.

Still, ‘Snow White’ was a famous fairytale he definitely knew. After hesitating a while, he couldn’t help but type, [In the fairytale, the magic mirror talks and answers questions. If it starts talking by itself, will it attract the ghosts…]

As a medical intern, Wang Feizhou considered himself pretty brave, but that was before seeing so many lifelike ghost figures. In the eerie, unpredictable world, just looking at those white-coated ghosts made his heart pound. Honestly, he felt there was no such thing as being too cautious.

Jing Qizhen: [This mirror isn’t as good as its predecessor. It doesn’t talk.]

Only then did Wang Feizhou relax a little. But just as he did, he saw Jing Qizhen smile slightly in the mirror. And honestly, in this kind of atmosphere, someone smiling at a mirror for no reason was more creepy than reassuring.

His scalp began to tingle again.

Just then, the Earth, who had just returned from scouting outside, glanced at the reflection and immediately said in disgust, “Ugh, why is it still taking on Yun Shuanghua’s form? This mirror must be holding a grudge. Just because you hurt it by setting the villa on fire, now it’s using Yun Shuanghua again to trick you.”

Jing Qizhen didn’t respond but his gaze was fixed on the image in the mirror. He had just noticed that Yun Shuanghua in the reflection was wearing different clothes.

Under normal circumstances, Jing Qizhen wouldn’t care whether one of his teammates had changed clothes.

But after experiencing Yun Shuanghua’s strange appearances and memory loss, Jing Qizhen now examined him with the keen eye of a ‘spot-the-difference’ game master, no detail would go unnoticed.

If Yun Shuanghua’s clothes had changed, did that mean the image in the mirror was actually real-time?

Moreover, since an erosion area was the overlap point of two colliding parallel universes, its outer space was chaotic and crammed with dangerous spatial rifts.

In such a case, even the Earth couldn’t get a direct view of the erosion area. So logically, the mirror, which had only absorbed a small amount of the erosion area’s special energy, should be even less capable.

In other words, did a changed Yun Shuanghua appear again within the erosion area?

Jing Qizhen’s mind flashed with countless thoughts in that instant but for now, he simply handed the magic mirror to the companions beside him.

Wang Feizhou watched with wide eyes as Jing Qizhen and the others took turns flashing eerie smiles at the mirror. His scalp tingled and a chill crept down his spine. He couldn’t help but start doubting. The ghost figures in white coats outside were obviously abnormal but were the ‘normal people’ beside him truly normal?

Until Jin Guijuan lifted her hand and shoved the mirror into Wang Feizhou’s hands.

The cool metallic touch of the magic mirror made cold sweat break out down his back.

But then, as a description of Snow White’s Magic Mirror suddenly popped into his mind, he froze on the spot.

Grandma Fang couldn’t help but glance at him with a chuckle, silently thinking, ‘Who knows what this kid imagined? He scared himself so pale.’

By now, Jing Qizhen had sorted out the thoughts that had been racing through his mind and was typing them up on his phone one by one.

At the same time, the others were summarizing the scenes they had seen in the mirror.

Manman: [Me, Jiayang, Lu Lingxi, Old Xiao, Guijuan, and Wilcox all saw Little Jing’s big mugshot again. If Grandma Fang hadn’t seen the hospital gate and Wang Feizhou the hospital building itself, we might’ve thought this mirror was broken.]

Wilcox: [Maybe it’s still traumatized by Little Jing. The psychological damage he left on this magic mirror is probably huge.]

Jing Qizhen refused to participate in the conversation and instead shared his speculation about Yun Shuanghua with everyone.

The Earth asked curiously in his mind, “What are you planning to do?”

Jing Qizhen didn’t even lift his eyelids. “While the ghost folks aren’t around, let’s put up a missing person notice in the hospital.”

He remembered clearly that Yun Shuanghua had once said that the ghost lady, Ms. Li from the Yunhai Wancheng Department Store, wasn’t dangerous. So he wasn’t the least bit worried that Yun Shuanghua, who might attract the attention of the ghost staff, would be in any real danger.

Manman: [I’m seriously starting to suspect Yun Shuanghua is a native creature of the erosion area.] Why is he always involved?

Si Jiayang sincerely said, [He’s kind of like a permanent NPC in a game instance…]

Jing Qizhen smiled slightly without denying it. He then signaled to Lu Lingxi and asked for the Polaroid camera they had brought earlier.

Lu Lingxi handed it over right away.

Jing Qizhen aimed it at the mirror, focused on Yun Shuanghua’s face, and used the Polaroid to snap a close-up photo of him.

Everyone else: “…”

Okay, they got it now. So the photo for the missing person notice was already done.

The Earth: “0.0 Honestly, I think if the hospital’s ghost staff here don’t know how to cook, you could just have Si Jiayang whip up something tasty and Yun Shuanghua would probably show up in no time.”

Jing Qizhen, who had been pondering how to word the notice, fell silent. After a long pause, he said faintly, “Are you just projecting?”

The Earth: “Hey, it’s a good idea, okay? =.=!”