I Run Away with the Earth to Save the World [Unlimited Flow] - Chapter 109

While chatting with the Earth, Jing Qizhen had already put together a missing person notice.

Since all the medical staff outside were ghosts, there was no way he could include his or his team’s exact location or valid contact info. In the end, the so-called missing person notice only had three things: the title ‘Missing Person Notice,’ a big close-up photo of Yun Shuanghua, and a single line of text beneath the photo.

[Buddy, do you still remember your name?]

Jing Qizhen showed the notice to everyone.

Having all experienced Yun Shuanghua’s bizarre behaviors, everyone was left speechless upon reading it.

The only one who found it questionable was Wang Feizhou, who didn’t know the backstory.

[Would putting up this notice make the ghost staff recognize the guy in the photo and all come after him?]

Jing Qizhen: [That would require the ghosts to instinctively want to capture humans.]

Wang Feizhou looked hesitant. [Isn’t that the case?]

Jing Qizhen: [Not necessarily. But this hospital must have some rules in place.]

If ghosts were really hunting humans on sight, then what’s the point of pretending to be normal staff still working?

Back then, the ghost lady Ms. Li from the Yunhai Wancheng Department Store was much scarier than those hospital ghosts but even she maintained a ‘friendly and polite’ demeanor toward customers who followed the rules.

But with so many ghosts around now, even though Jing Qizhen was gutsy, he didn’t want to test the waters just yet. [Let’s observe for a bit.]

Just then, Old Xiao fished an ID card out of his bag and held it up to Wang Feizhou to compare. [Nope, the photo doesn’t look like you. Do you have your own ID?]

Wang Feizhou shook his head.

His intern badge was in the lab coat he left hanging on a rack in the office when he went to the bathroom.

Lu Lingxi pulled out the Polaroid again and gave it a shake toward him.

Wang Feizhou blinked in confusion. “Huh?”

Jing Qizhen: [We’ll just take a new photo. Then paste it over the one on this ID card.]

They jumped into action while Wang Feizhou was still dazed.

It wasn’t until he got a good look at the ID Old Xiao handed him that he noticed the listed department was part of the Health Bureau.

Wang Feizhou:[“=口=??? Don’t I look kinda… not the part?]

Most people wouldn’t care about departments like the Health Bureau or the Drug Administration, but Wang Feizhou, having been through a few inspection-induced disasters, saw those names and immediately felt cold sweat. Words like ‘trouble’s coming again!’ flashed through his mind.

He was being polite. Honestly, aside from Old Xiao and Grandma Fang, people like Jing Qizhen and Jin Guijuan didn’t look old enough to be part of a hospital’s upper management anyway.

Jing Qizhen didn’t mind at all. [Government departments have interns too. As long as we’re doing the work, it’s fine. Just hold on to the ID.]

Wang Feizhou watched as they smoothly and efficiently forged a whole new ID for him, complete with a Polaroid photo.

When he held it in his hands, he was overwhelmed by the surreal feeling. It took a long time to calm down.

Maybe the ID card was just that uncanny. For a moment, it even helped wash away the psychological trauma from seeing them all smile eerily at that strange mirror earlier.

At that moment, the door to the equipment room suddenly rattled.

The ghosts there didn’t make any footsteps but they could open windows and doors, and interact with physical objects.

Everyone inside the equipment room felt their hearts stop for a second.

What now?

The equipment room had been locked from the inside. If the ghost outside wanted to come in, it would have to use a key.

They were now just a few seconds away from being discovered, just the time it would take for that ghost to unlock the door and enter.

Wang Feizhou’s face, which had just calmed down, turned pale again. His mind went completely blank.

A flurry of thoughts flashed through Jing Qizhen’s mind. He could try to jam the keyhole before the door opened but if the ghost couldn’t unlock the door, it would probably go report it to hospital maintenance. That would only attract more ghosts over.

If they tried to trap the ghost as it entered, setting aside whether that was even possible, if it didn’t return after grabbing the equipment, the ones who sent it would eventually come looking.

It was a dead-end situation. Delaying wasn’t hard. The problem was what to do afterward.

The subtle sounds coming from the lock felt like a hammer pounding on everyone’s hearts.

They exchanged tense glances, eyes all clearly screaming, ‘What do we do?!’

Even the Earth, in Jing Qizhen’s mind, seemed infected by the tension and couldn’t stop muttering, “It’s coming, it’s coming, it’s coming! What do we do, what do we do, what do we do?!”

Jing Qizhen silently replied in his mind, “You’re not even afraid of these ghosts.”

The Earth replied righteously, “That’s because you guys are scared!”

Jing Qizhen: “Being scared won’t help.”

The Earth: “If it were just the female ghost, Ms. Li, you guys might be able to run but now the place is full of ghosts. How are you going to escape?”

Jing Qizhen was helpless too. “I’m thinking…”

The Earth: “Have you come up with anything yet?”

Si Jiayang and Manman had already offered their solutions as seasoned horror game players to manipulate the camera angles, and hide in the cabinet, or behind the door. The core idea was to wait until the ghost left with its stuff before they moved.

Jing Qizhen’s eyes stayed fixed on the lock that was still turning. In his mind, the Earth kept repeating itself like a broken record.

Then Jing Qizhen suddenly pulled a book from his backpack, a yellow and red plastic cover, cracked and ugly, with big blue characters on it. The thing screamed pirated night market book from the 1980s or 90s.

When Manman saw the ‘Journey to Hell’, she blinked in surprise. [You’re going to use that?]

Jing Qizhen nodded slightly. He didn’t speak but his meaning was clear: let’s just try it first.

He rushed to the equipment room door in a few quick steps, positioning himself right where the door would open.

Wang Feizhou was still completely blank. Si Jiayang had to grab his arm and pull him into the blind spot beside the door.

The lock clicked open.

The ghost who entered wore a white coat and nurse cap and was even pushing a medical cart.

Jing Qizhen wasn’t sure if he could touch the ghost directly, so he grabbed the edge of the cart and yanked it inside with force.

The ghost still had its hands on the cart’s handle and was caught off guard. It stumbled and staggered forward into the room.

Without hesitation, Jing Qizhen shoved the ‘Journey to Hell’ into the ghost’s hands. He’d already opened the book earlier and it just happened to be on the page everyone was most familiar with, the oil pan hell.

The moment the ghost touched the book, it froze completely, motionless and stuck in place.

Jing Qizhen quickly slammed the door shut and locked it again.

Lu Lingxi, still remembering the brainwashing incident in the remote mountain village in Shennongjia, whispered, “Is it brainwashed?”

Jing Qizhen shook his head, face still tense. “Hard to say. But as long as it works.”

As he spoke, he reached out and touched the ghost. His fingers passed straight through its wrist but he could feel its clothes. He raised an eyebrow. “Interesting. We can’t touch them directly but we can touch their clothing.”

Last time in the Yunhai Wancheng Department Store, they hadn’t fought with the female ghost Ms. Li, so they didn’t know if she was the same kind of ghost.

Manman: “So we can touch them through a medium.”

Lu Lingxi finally let out a breath. “If we can touch them, then we’re good.”

He didn’t mind at all if he had to fight by grabbing someone’s clothes instead of their body.

From the start, Wang Feizhou’s mind had gone blank. To stop himself from screaming, he’d stuffed his sweater collar into his mouth and was now chewing on a mouthful of fuzz. Watching Jing Qizhen and the others, he slowly regained his senses.

“What… what happened to it? What did you give it?” he whispered, pointing to the still-frozen ghost.

Jing Qizhen: “Good point. That means this ghost can hold the book too.”

Wang Feizhou: “Yeah… these ghosts really are weird.”

Grandma Fang quietly explained the book’s effect. “That ‘Journey to Hell’ is said to change the reader’s beliefs. But since we don’t know what ghosts believe in, the actual effects are unknown.”

Manman stepped up and, wearing gloves, tried touching the ghost, only to get nothing. “Huh?”

Si Jiayang, right behind her, saw the failure and tried using his sleeve. He shook his head. “Doesn’t work either. It seems like the only effective medium is stuff from this hospital.”

Wang Feizhou had calmed down a bit. There was a white coat in the room, so he put it on and tried what the others did. “It works!”

Jing Qizhen glanced at him and muttered, “Honestly, for a second there, I had a flashback to ghost stories like the red wedding dress. You know, where once you put it on, you can’t take it off, and it keeps tightening around your body. You get me?”

Wang Feizhou immediately regretted everything. “QAQ!!!”

Stop, he was scared! QAQ! Help!

Lu Lingxi walked over, considered the force needed, and while the ghost was still frozen with the ‘Journey to Hell’, he stepped up behind it and delivered a karate chop to the back of its neck.

The ghost collapsed gently onto the medical cart.

Jing Qizhen directly reached out and stripped off the white coat Wang Feizhou was wearing, then tied up the unconscious ghost.

Wang Feizhou: “…………” You can actually kidnap a ghost?