I Run Away with the Earth to Save the World [Unlimited Flow] - Chapter 115

The Earth was still outside the erosion area.

Since Tang Song had praised it as cute several times, the Earth had a very favorable opinion of him. After leaving, it went straight to find Tang Song.

It was noon in the United States. Tang Song was sitting on a couch, chatting with a middle-aged man whose features somewhat resembled David’s.

The Earth guessed that man was likely David’s father.

A black-and-white border collie had its head resting on Tang Song’s leg, tail sweeping the floor clean, rubbing its fluffy head into his palm with all its might, radiating affection.

Tang Song gently stroked the dog’s fur, his expression calm and harmless, completely different from the stern, serious demeanor of David’s father beside him.

Tang Song spoke with a soft and steady tone, “You don’t have to worry about David’s safety for now. He and Caroline chose to trust us and are our guests. At the very least, while they’re our guests, we will guarantee their safety.”

David’s father gave him a long, deep look before finally speaking in a low voice, “In exchange, once I find out who sent that ‘Fairy Tale Anthology’ to David, I’ll send you a detailed report.”

Tang Song simply smiled. His voice carried a cheerful tone. “Pleasure doing business.”

David’s father remained stern, offering only a polite nod. “I need to speak with David directly.”

Tang Song paused and then smiled. “Of course. But can you be sure the people around you are trustworthy? The message we sent out earlier was that David was ‘kidnapped.’ Perhaps that’s the best way to keep him safe.”

With that, Tang Song handed over his phone.

David’s father reached out to take the phone and immediately dialed David’s number. While waiting for the call to connect, he didn’t forget to say in a low voice, “Pleasure working with you.”

Seeing that Tang Song was still in the mood to chat with David’s father while petting the dog, the Earth naturally wasn’t worried about him at all.

Right after, the Earth went to the hotel not far from Binhai City’s Second Municipal Hospital.

It was already past 1 AM, very late.

Those retired staff were quite old and didn’t have much energy, so the staff had already arranged rooms for them to rest.

The current director of the Second Municipal Hospital was still awake and actively working on the front lines. Occasionally, reports from medical staff about the status of transferred patients came in via his phone.

David and Caroline were both clearly wide awake as well, probably running on adrenaline. They came out of their rooms and ran into Joyce, who was frowning with worry over his cousin, Wilcox. So, the three foreigners went downstairs together and ran into Yan Hong and Gu Leshan.

Seeing that Yan Hong and Gu Leshan had gotten two printers and several laptops delivered by the hotel staff and that almost every wall of the conference room was plastered with freshly printed white A4 sheets, the three foreigners were momentarily taken aback.

Although the A4 sheets were covered with text, David, Caroline, and Joyce clearly had a very limited grasp of Chinese.

David even felt a bit creeped out. He quietly searched up Eastern funeral customs on his phone, then cleared his throat and tentatively asked, “I heard that burning paper money is a traditional funeral custom from the East. Are you guys… helping to prepare for something?”

Yan Hong’s hands froze mid-movement and his expression turned speechless when he realized what David had misunderstood.

Gu Leshan couldn’t help but facepalm and said, half-laughing, “Why would you say that? You make it sound like Jing Qizhen and the others didn’t enter an erosion area but went straight to the underworld…”

The Earth: “…Ew!” It understood way more than David and Caroline ever could!

The Earth glanced at all the content pasted up in the conference room and instantly perked up.

It seemed Yan Hong and Gu Leshan had spent the entire night combing through and organizing all sorts of information about the Second Municipal Hospital.

Since they weren’t sure what Jing Qizhen’s group would need inside the erosion area, Yan Hong and Gu Leshan had gone all out, posting everything from a chronological list of all the hospital’s directors, to yearly key hospital events, to detailed staff changes, on the walls, all neatly categorized.

The Earth scanned through quickly, just the titles, not the full content.

It figured that if Jing Qizhen needed anything specific later, it could just come out again to check.

Just then, David’s phone suddenly rang. He glanced at it, surprised, and said to Caroline, “It’s Tang Song. Why would he be calling me?”

Joyce replied listlessly, “Maybe they couldn’t reach Jing Qizhen’s group?”

Caroline frowned. “Tang Song wouldn’t make that kind of mistake. He knows full well that Jing Qizhen and the others have already entered a new erosion area.”

As they talked, David answered the call. “Hello?”

A voice on the other end called out a name, “David, it’s me.”

David froze. “Dad?!”

Yan Hong and Gu Leshan turned around at the sound. Yan Hong looked a little surprised, while Gu Leshan didn’t seem shocked at all. After all, it was Tang Song they were talking about.

After a pause, Gu Leshan lifted a freshly printed half-stack of A4 papers and broke the silence left by David’s stunned ‘Dad’ by saying, “If you’re not busy, why don’t you help us stick these on the walls?”

Then, a thought occurred to Gu Leshan and his expression changed. “Oh no, there are so many patients in the hospital. Could the core of this erosion be coming from one of them? Maybe they brought in something that’s causing resonance?”

Yan Hong frowned. “Then it’ll be even harder to trace… and almost all the patients have already been transferred to other hospitals.”

Gu Leshan: “Check the medical records! Let’s list out all the current inpatients at the Second Municipal Hospital. What if Jing Qizhen’s team runs into someone inside who looks exactly like one of the current patients?”

Yan Hong: “Like that ghost lady, Ms. Li, from the Yunhai Wancheng Department Store?”

Gu Leshan nodded. “Exactly!”

The current hospital director, who had been on a call and too busy to speak, covered the receiver and looked up to add, “Then check the electronic medical records! They have ID photos. The paper records only have ID numbers, no photos!”

***

Jing Qizhen hadn’t gotten a response from the Earth yet and didn’t mind it. He figured the little ball had just gone out to roam.

With the registration slip in hand, Jing Qizhen headed straight for the side door of the building.

Lu Lingxi quietly followed, signaling to the others standing farther away.

Soon, the group met up again in a remote corridor.

Old Xiao, who had memorized the hospital map, said, “The inpatient building is right behind this one. It’s the three-story building.”

Wang Feizhou whispered, “That inpatient building was older. It was later torn down.”

In contrast, the ‘old building’ they were in, where the doctors were, was actually the newest at the current time point. It just hadn’t been scheduled for demolition yet.

Jing Qizhen handed the registration slip to the eldest among them, Grandma Fang. “Grandma Fang, hold onto this. I’m not sure if we’ll need it. Let’s go check out the inpatient building.”

Lu Lingxi muttered, “Isn’t it a little suspicious to go to the inpatient building dressed in full surgical scrubs?”

Manman said, “Well, there should be an emergency room in the inpatient building, right? Just in case.”

Wang Feizhou nodded. “Yeah. But later, the Second Municipal Hospital separated the ICU from the regular inpatient areas. And nowadays, with departments being managed separately, some hospitals even place doctors’ offices right in the inpatient buildings. It makes things easier for both patients and doctors, especially for ward rounds. There are all kinds of layouts. Having a standalone inpatient building like this is actually an older practice.”

Since none of them were from the medical field, they weren’t familiar with how hospital operations had evolved over time.

After hearing Wang Feizhou’s explanation, Jing Qizhen was a bit surprised and murmured, “I wonder what the hospital’s occupancy rate is right now.”

Wang Feizhou: “This is a typical municipal general hospital in Binhai City. There’s probably no shortage of patients…”

Wilcox casually added, “Your population density here is insane. I got used to it ages ago.”

Lu Lingxi, who had the best eyesight, suddenly said, “No, I don’t think the occupancy is high at all. Look, through the inpatient building’s windows, I don’t see a single shadow inside.”

Jin Guijuan hesitated. “It’s the middle of the night. Most patients are probably asleep…” After all, only the ghost doctors and nurses would still be so active at night.

Lu Lingxi: “…You’re probably right!”

Jing Qizhen’s group quickly left the old building full of wandering ghosts and walked toward the inpatient building under the cover of night. As they got closer, they were shocked to discover that the chain on the main door of the inpatient building wasn’t just hanging there; it was completely locked shut!

Si Jiayang said, “…The entire main entrance of the inpatient building is sealed off. This scene is giving me a really bad feeling.”

Wang Feizhou felt cold sweat breaking out on his back again, his mind instantly flipping through scenes from several horror movies.

Without hesitation, Jing Qizhen raised an eyebrow and said, “Unlock the door or climb through a window, choose one.”

Everyone else: “…” That straightforward?

Seeing everyone exchange glances in silence, Jing Qizhen took the initiative again. “How about we try the key first, unlock it but don’t go through the door? We still enter through the side window just in case?”

Lu Lingxi said, “I think that works. If there’s really a problem inside and we can’t win a fight, we can run out the main entrance and lock everything back inside.”

Jing Qizhen was silent for a moment, then said, “Let’s try to think positively first… Who knows, maybe we’ll find a nice hospital bed inside and take a nap until morning before reassessing.”

From what they had seen, the hospital’s erosion area seemed to divide time into three segments per day. Until they fully understood how those time points worked, much of their speculation was just guesswork.

Jing Qizhen found a secluded, shadowy spot and pulled out the key ring from his backpack.

The hospital’s administrative logistics department had provided the keys.

Since the hospital hadn’t relocated in decades, even though the old inpatient building had been demolished later, one of the corroded copper keys on the ring really did match the old building.

Jing Qizhen figured it was likely the guards had too many keys and after the old building was torn down, the whole key ring got tossed in a drawer and forgotten, not even sold off to a scrap collector. Now that the erosion area had appeared, they’d been given every key, useful or not, just in case.

Each key was labeled, so Jing Qizhen quickly found the one for the inpatient building’s front door and removed it from the ring.

Lu Lingxi took the key. “I’ll go check out the front entrance.”

Jing Qizhen nodded. “We’ll go look for a side window.”

After splitting up, Jing Qizhen’s group walked halfway around the old building and fell into silence in front of a bathroom ventilation window.

Jing Qizhen said, “If we’re climbing in through a window, this bathroom’s window is our only option…”

They didn’t even know if it was the men’s or women’s bathroom. It was a bit awkward despite the urgency.

But thinking about how their group included both men and women, and they’d all have to face the same dilemma, Jing Qizhen quickly calmed down again. No point overthinking the details, just get it done.