I Run Away with the Earth to Save the World [Unlimited Flow] - Chapter 112

Before rushing down the stairs, Jing Qizhen didn’t forget to glance back.

Just in time, he saw the medical trolley still carrying the unconscious ghost slam into another ghost nurse who had just exited the department. The ghost literally flew through the air, floating away.

The second ghost nurse also saw Jing Qizhen and the others rushing down the stairs and assumed they were part of an emergency surgical team. Even while being sent flying, she managed to shout, “I’m fine! Hurry to the operating room!”

Just then, the missing person notice casually stuck to the front of the trolley got bumped and floated off, carried along with the second ghost.

“What is this?!”

As the second ghost nurse floated upward, she reached out and grabbed the notice.

But the moment she got a good look at it, she let out a blood-curdling scream, “Ahhhhhhhh!”

The scream was deafening. Though Jing Qizhen and the others were startled, they stayed relatively calm due to experience.

Wang Feizhou, however, was entering an erosion area for the first time and had already been shocked repeatedly throughout the night. When he heard the scream, he was so startled that he flinched all over. In a stress response, he missed a step on the stairs, only saved from tumbling head over heels by Lu Lingxi grabbing his arm in time.

“Thanks,” Wang Feizhou said, still shaken.

Lu Lingxi nodded slightly and encouraged him, “Come on, stick close to the handrail. Grab it and run.”

Wang Feizhou: “…”

The group, dressed head to toe in full surgical gear, charged down the stairs in a mighty procession. It was quite a sight.

Perhaps because they ran with such confidence, none of the ghost doctors or nurses they passed on the way suspected a thing. In fact, one even floated to the handrail to give the ‘emergency surgical team’ space to pass.

One ghost doctor muttered to himself, “Isn’t the operating room on the second floor?”

Before anyone could panic, they heard the doctor continue, “Maybe there was a big traffic accident downstairs?”

Jing Qizhen raised an eyebrow.

That excuse was something he’d heard from Wang Feizhou earlier when they first entered the erosion area. Seems that even after so many years, the hospital staff’s first instinct when something urgent happened was still the same.

Old Xiao led the way at the front.

Although he was a middle-aged man whose hair was thinning under stress, Old Xiao’s memory was anything but weak. He’d already walked through the old hospital building once and had memorized the departments and floors.

Physically, Old Xiao had only just started working out recently, so his speed wasn’t too fast, but still good enough for everyone to keep pace.

“The registration desk is on the first floor,” he said between breaths.

Grandma Fang said, “I’ll go!”

Before anyone could object, she explained, “At this point in time, you’d all still be kids…”

Jing Qizhen realized that was true and whispered, “Be careful. Stay safe.”

Grandma Fang remained calm. “It’s fine. There aren’t many patients right now. The first-floor registration hall is probably empty.”

But just as she was about to split off from the group, Jing Qizhen suddenly remembered something. His expression changed dramatically. “Wait! Forget the registration for now!”

Grandma Fang paused. “Little Jing?”

They were still on their way down and Jing Qizhen didn’t have time to explain. He only said, “Let’s go downstairs first.”

Though confused, Grandma Fang didn’t push the issue. Based on past experience, Jing Qizhen was usually meticulous and thoughtful. She nodded and rejoined the group.

As they descended from the first-floor registration hall to the basement, no other ghost doctors or nurses appeared.

Even the surrounding temperature seemed to drop again.

Old Xiao stared at the mortuary. “It’s here!”

Manman looked a bit concerned. “Will the door be a sealed cold storage type? We need to make sure we can open it from the inside.”

Jing Qizhen replied, “Find something thin to wedge in the door from the inside.”

Si Jiayang offered another idea, “If that doesn’t work, we can short-circuit the wiring inside. If the fuse blows and power cuts, the cold storage door will lose function and it’ll open from the inside.”

Manman nodded. “Alright, let’s go!”

Wang Feizhou looked at them all, stunned. “Why are you guys so familiar with this stuff?”

Jing Qizhen didn’t even turn around. “You just need a little experience.”

Wang Feizhou: “…” He’d rather be forced to memorize the thick-as-bricks Pharmacopoeia.

The mortuary was freezing cold but since it was winter and everyone was wearing thick clothing, they didn’t feel too uncomfortable at first.

Inside, one entire wall was lined with rectangular cold storage drawers and two metal gurneys stood in the center. Even though they hadn’t seen any bodies yet, just imagining what the room was for brought an indescribable chill.

Wang Feizhou was rare in feeling at ease, letting out a small sigh of relief.

After all, that kind of place usually doesn’t see many people.

Especially in winter, when it’s cold outside. Unlike summer, when hospital staff might occasionally come there to cool off and take a couple of laps…

Jing Qizhen then explained to Grandma Fang, “The image Grandma Fang saw in Snow White’s Magic Mirror from before was the hospital entrance. Although we still don’t know whether the scenes shown in that mirror are real or fake, I think it’s best if you avoid going near the hospital entrance alone.”

When Jing Qizhen mentioned Snow White’s Magic Mirror, everyone’s attention naturally shifted back to that topic.

Just like Old Xiao had joked, most people still saw Jing Qizhen’s face in the mirror, which just showed how much of a psychological shadow he cast on the mirror.

Among them, only Jing Qizhen, Grandma Fang, and Wang Feizhou saw something different in the mirror.

Since the mirror’s images could be true or false, the real answer likely lay among the scenes seen by those three.

Jin Guijuan hesitantly said, “Although Yun Shuanghua is strange and probably has some issues, based on his past behavior, he doesn’t seem to have any ill intentions toward us…”

Jing Qizhen blinked and fell into a brief, eerie silence.

The Earth suddenly spoke excitedly, “A man who could be tricked with a near-expired baguette…?”

Jing Qizhen calmly replied, “Aren’t you the one who can be lured away with a hot pot meal?”

The Earth exclaimed with emphasis, “A baguette! Just one! A piece of bread!” At least it needed a lavish hot pot meal to get it talking to Jing Qizhen!

Jing Qizhen didn’t bother arguing with the Earth over such a strange topic. Instead, he turned to Si Jiayang and said, “Sorry, but could you get him something nice to eat later?”

Just like the Earth had mentioned before, maybe cooking a meal could lure Yun Shuanghua out.

Even if not, the missing person notice had already been posted. When they eventually run into him, they’ll need a reasonable explanation. Discussing things over a meal seemed like a good idea for approaching Yun Shuanghua.

That said, Jing Qizhen felt he needed to reassess just how sharp Yun Shuanghua’s sense of smell was…

From a gamer’s perspective, Yun Shuanghua was like a beneficial NPC in a dungeon. Share a little food and he’d help out. As a human-shaped add-on within the erosion area, Yun Shuanghua was really worth it.

After all, even without Yun Shuanghua, Si Jiayang would still be cooking meals for everyone.

After catching their breath a bit, the group instinctively began combing through records in the morgue, preparing to examine what kind of state the bodies in the erosion area were in.

Wang Feizhou was quite used to the presence of corpses. In fact, since cadavers were rare and precious resources for medical students, he held a deep respect for the bodies in the morgue.

Of course, no matter how much respect he held in his mind, it didn’t stop the cold sweat and nervous chills in his limbs.

Trying to shake off his anxiety, Wang Feizhou struck up a conversation with the person next to him, “I still don’t get it. Why did that ghost that came out of the department suddenly start screaming afterward…?” It clearly had no reaction when bumped by the medical trolley. It just looked a bit surprised.

Jing Qizhen, who was flipping through the morgue’s registry and even taking photos with his phone, didn’t look up as he answered, “Because afterward, it saw the missing person notice for Yun Shuanghua.”

Wang Feizhou paused. “Huh?”

Manman had already figured it out and couldn’t help but chuckle. “Just imagine the ghost’s perspective and you’ll get it.”

Jing Qizhen’s voice was calm and matter-of-fact, “Someone bumps into you and then hands you a missing person flyer. Naturally, most people would be curious and look at it. But the moment you finish reading the text and glance down, only to find that the photo on the flyer isn’t a normal ID photo, but a ghostly image, you’d be startled too. Whether it’s screaming or hurriedly throwing the flyer away, that’d be a normal reaction.”

Wang Feizhou thought about it and found the scenario Jing Qizhen described quite reasonable. He was left speechless.

Manman, who had screamed during past scary experiences, could relate deeply. But she cared more about something else. “Right. Within this erosion area, it seems like in the eyes of those ghost medical staff, we’re the scary ones…”

Lately, there didn’t seem to be many patients in the hospital and there were even fewer bodies stored in the morgue.

Unless something unusual happened, corpses usually aren’t kept in the morgue for more than three days.

After going through the registry, Jing Qizhen found there were only four corpses currently in the hospital. He looked up and said, “Third row from the left, sixth compartment, that corpse came in five days ago from a car accident. The hospital couldn’t reach any family and has reported it to the medical office for further handling.”

Lu Lingxi and Si Jiayang went over to open the compartment.

Wang Feizhou quickly followed. “Let me help. Be careful!”

The cold storage compartment was pulled out smoothly. Inside, the corpse was sealed in a black body bag.

Everyone instinctively held their breath.

After a short pause, it was Wang Feizhou who reached out first. His fingers trembled slightly as he unzipped the bag.

But upon seeing the calm body inside, Wang Feizhou let out a sigh of relief. It was like the cadavers he had seen during training! A normal, physical body, just not preserved in formalin.

Lu Lingxi glanced at it and quickly whispered, “It’s a normal corpse. Totally different from the physical traits of those ghostly figures. The body is solid and not translucent.”

Jing Qizhen thought for a moment. “So after dying, the ghost becomes a solid corpse again?”

Manman raised an eyebrow. “No wonder those ghosts react to us like people seeing actual ghosts. Maybe in their eyes, we’re the moving corpses?”

In the morgue, Old Xiao, perhaps no longer sweating from the cold, couldn’t help but say, “Isn’t that just a zombie movie? Like the ones from Hong Kong back in the 80s and 90s?”

Jin Guijuan and Grandma Fang nodded. They more or less knew about zombie films. But Manman and Si Jiayang were unfamiliar with the idea of zombies or walking corpses.

Jing Qizhen frowned slightly. Something about the situation felt off to him but the feeling was too subtle. He couldn’t quite catch that fleeting insight, so he pushed the thoughts aside and said softly, “Check the other three corpses too. Then we still have to find the patients rumored to be ‘infected’!”

After speaking, Jing Qizhen reported the locations of the remaining three corpses based on the registry.

Si Jiayang stayed behind to return the current body to its compartment, while Wang Feizhou and Lu Lingxi moved on to the next one.

The others split into two groups and pulled out the remaining three compartments.

Without exception, every body they saw in the morgue appeared completely normal.