Changling Road, Xizhao District, Haigu City.
It was Wednesday, half past four in the morning. The rain was pouring down, and the street lights flickered as if they were going to die. Another bolt of red lightning struck, and the street lights finally went out.
In an instant, the whole street fell into darkness.
The scope of the power outage includes No. 018 Changling Road and Haigu Mental Health Center.
It was built in the 1960s and is considered the oldest building in the suburbs of Haigu. When it was first built, it was called "Haigu City Psychiatric Hospital", and later it was changed to the relatively implicit "Mental Health Center".
The fourth floor of the mild disease area.
Old man Zhang jumped up from the hospital bed, dug into the mattress for a while, and took out the door card that had been hidden for a long time. He put on his slippers, pulled at the front of his hospital gown, and straightened his back.
The buildings and equipment are too old, and the emergency power supply system has not yet been connected to the mild disease area. Even though the access control is equipped with a battery, the monitoring will definitely fail and the opportunity will never come back again.
He will be forcibly discharged from the hospital today as a surprise for his son and daughter-in-law.
Lao Zhang doesn’t think there’s anything really wrong with him. At most, he would be confused from time to time, thinking that he was an immortal who had descended to earth and endured calamities. Who hasn’t had the illusion of freedom yet? If it were an illness, half of the elementary and junior high school students in Haigu City would come to recuperate.
Old man Zhang grasped the handrail tightly and rubbed down the steps step by step. The man followed behind him, his footsteps clicking softly.
Seeing that the other person was quite honest, Lao Zhang lost his worries and all his fears disappeared. The mild disease area is geared toward recuperation, and aggressive patients are in closed wards. They just follow the fashion when they are young and have long hair, so there is really nothing to be afraid of.
Zhang Shangxian's children are willing to spend money, and Lao Zhang's single room is in a good location. It is adjacent to the emergency exit on one side and an empty ward that has been converted into a utility room on the other, making it perfect for sneaking away.
The voice is quite nice, but the accent is a bit weird. Lao Zhang can't think of any dialect that sounds like this.
There was a sharp sound of metal rubbing, followed by the dull sound of the door shaft turning.
The man thought for a while, then nodded. He smiled, and the coldness in his body suddenly dissipated by seven or eight points.
Just as Lao Zhang's suspicion changed from "the young man can't figure it out" to "suspected of amnesia", the man slowly spoke.
After making sure it was quiet outside, he spit into the palm of his hand and carefully turned the doorknob. Victory was so close in front of him that Old Man Zhang was so excited that his hands and feet were freezing, and even the metal doorknob didn't know how cold it was.
After the power outage, the corridor was filled with darkness. When the heavy rain came, the dust and paint smell unique to old buildings mixed together. The stairs were as narrow as a monster's esophagus, and were washed by blood-red lightning from time to time.
Who would have thought that the other side would actually do this
“…”
Lao Zhang felt numb. He wanted to shrink back into his room, but his legs were like noodles and wouldn't obey his orders. Seeing that the thing didn't move for a long time, Old Man Zhang had no choice but to smash the jar.
"That's right, there are no mobile phones here to play with, and young people must not be able to bear it." Old man Zhang breathed a sigh of relief, "Do you want to go together?"
This was so good that Lao Zhang almost shouted—
Old man Zhang closed the ward door, put his hands behind his back, and said, "Come to the utility room in the middle of the night to find something to pry open the door, right? It's not that easy! Nowadays, high technology has been adopted, and you have to swipe your card to go out."
There is also half a head sticking out from next door.
Lao Zhang's hand that pushed the door froze in mid-air.
"So." The young man's expression was a little wary, not like he was lying.
This time, the long-haired young man was silent for a long time.
Lightning lit up, and the two eyes on the opposite side were like burning coals that were about to be extinguished, glowing an ominous dark red. The face looked straight towards Lao Zhang, with long black hair hanging sideways on his head.
Lao Zhang put his ear against the door and listened with bated breath for three to five minutes.
Sorry, you're not allowed to go out at night. If this kid goes to tell the truth, his great plan will be ruined immediately, so he must be stabilized as soon as possible.
A few minutes passed, and there was no sound from the next door. There was only dull thunder in the corridor.
The unusual celestial image tonight was a sign that Zhang Shangxian would return home.
"Where did the ghost come from! How dare you not worship the immortal when you see him!"
Opposite him was a young man in his early twenties, wearing a hospital gown, with sharp and beautiful features, and a face that stood out more than an advertising star. Although this kid is as pale as a ghost, he is still breathing, but he is a real living person.
Maybe I was too nervous and my ears were misheard. Lao Zhang swallowed his saliva and drew a self-made talisman. Then he slowly poked half of his head out and looked at the next door.
Lao Zhang instantly regained the feeling in his legs. He coughed twice into his fist and said, "I have no impression of you. Did you move here recently?"
"Yin Ren." I don't know what he thought of, but the long-haired young man laughed again, "Eager Yin, the edge of the blade."
Another flash of lightning lit up, and Old Man Zhang saw it clearly this time.
Perhaps the scene was too scary, so Lao Zhang started to find something to say: "What do you call me young man? We are destined to be together, you can just call me Uncle Zhang."
"You want to escape if you go out at this hour?" He decisively struck preemptively.
The sound was particularly harsh. It tore through the thunder and rain, and its long tail echoed in the empty corridor.
Accompanied by the rumbling thunder, Lao Zhang lowered his voice: "Hey, that's a pretty powerful name. Are you a family member who doesn't want to be discharged from the hospital? What's wrong with you?"
His door is well maintained, and the noise of opening the door won't be that loud at all. The sound was so terrifyingly close that it could only have come from next door.
It turned out to be a fellow patient.
However, as soon as he opened the door, a sharp sound suddenly exploded very close to him.
The ward next door has been empty for more than ten years, without even a mouse. Could it be that someone came to get something from the utility room? But he clearly didn't hear the footsteps just now. Lao Zhang took a deep breath and put his ear to the door again.
The eyes widened slightly, and - he thought for a moment, slowly stepped out of the door, and saluted Lao Zhang: "It turns out he is an old man, sorry to bother you."
"… Well."
"Squeak-"
"It's hard to explain... Maybe they think I'm too dangerous. If they leave me alone, they will kill people and set fires everywhere."
Speaking of this, the two of them were walking to the corner of the stairs.
Yin Ren stopped and looked out the window at the unusually heavy rain. I don't know if it was Lao Zhang's illusion, but scarlet thunder and lightning flashed more frequently. The clouds looked like burned skin, and the darkness was full of dripping red.
Yin Ren retracted his gaze with a bitter look on his face: "Look, they all want to arrest me and lock me up."
Oh, this kid probably has delusions of persecution, Lao Zhang knows it.
He couldn't guess where the "look" was asking him to look, so he had to glance out the window and pretended to be profound: "Well, after decades of living here, I have never seen such weather. Really. Evil nature, there must be something serious coming out.”
Lao Zhang was talking nonsense while taking a look at Yin Ren's reaction. Whether intentionally or not, Yin Rentou avoided his gaze.
When he reached the third floor, Yin Ren suddenly said: "Senior, what's going on in the metaphysics world today? I've been listening to the 'Daily News' for more than forty days, but I haven't heard anything."
"Oh? Oh, I am not involved in those things, I don't know." Lao Zhang paused and looked around to talk to him. "Xiao Yin, do you think it's a bit cold here?" "..." Yin Ren glanced at Lao Zhang's feet and shook his head slowly.
Fortunately, he did not continue to ask about the "metaphysical world", so Lao Zhang breathed a sigh of relief.
Having said that, Lao Zhang really felt that this stretch of road was cold to his bones. I don't know if it was the return of the heavy rain, but the stairs felt sticky when I stepped on them, as if someone had spilled a sweet drink here. He couldn't help coughing twice and changed the subject to global climate change.
The two chatted nonsense for a while, and soon reached the emergency exit on the third floor.
The exit door is still the old style, with a wooden door with a window on the opposite side, painted with green paint. As the thick night fell, the green layer dimmed, a bit like the skin of a corpse.
The door glass was stained with dried water, and the other side of the glass seemed to be painted with ink, completely black.
Lao Zhang stopped and stared at the door nervously, even his breathing slowed down a little. Even Yin Ren also straightened his face and cautiously tensed his back.
The next moment, a cold white beam of light pierced the darkness and swept back and forth on the other side of the door.
Lao Zhang suddenly took a breath and dragged Yin Ren back to the corner of the stairs. The raindrops hit the corner window like crazy, making a series of crackling sounds.
"Well, ahem, that's Old Liu on duty, we have to change lanes!"
Yin Ren glanced at the escape door on the third floor, then turned to look at Lao Zhang.
Lao Zhang didn't understand the complicated look in his eyes, he only knew that most of them were melancholy.
"You're new here, you don't know what's normal. Old Liu has been on duty for fifteen years, and he is very good at catching people... It's terrible, this old boy doesn't know how to be lazy most of the night... "
Lao Zhang squatted on the steps, wheezing.
He understands that plans are not as fast as changes. As long as they stay here for a while, while Old Liu walks to the other end of the corridor -
"Senior...Uncle Zhang, since there are patrol guards, it's better to find another way out."
I don't know why, but after Yin Ren said these words, the corridor became a lot colder. The sound of rain in his ears became clearer and clearer, while Yin Ren's voice was a little blurry. Lao Zhang couldn't help but turn his head.
"What did you say..."
Before Lao Zhang could finish his sentence, he almost bit his tongue.
Yin Ren was floating outside the window at the moment.
He was hanging in the air like a ghost, a full meter away from the window sill. There was no trace of the guardrail outside the window, and the heavy rain poured in through the open window and splashed at the feet of Old Man Zhang. The night wind rushed into the corridor, making a low whimpering sound.
In the night, Yin Ren's long hair reached to his waist, hanging wetly. Behind him was endless darkness and dazzling lightning. Under the nightmare lightning, those eyes became even redder. The evil spirit blows in the face with the wind, making people unable to breathe.
"Uncle Zhang, come on."
Yin Ren stretched out his hand, and his overly handsome face was illuminated by the electric light.
"Your moral behavior seems to have been suppressed. I will give you a ride."
Old Man Zhang knew that Yin Ren was abnormal, but he never thought that he could be so "abnormal". This is a mental health center. It's okay to let your mind go, but it's too much to let your body go.
And this is the third floor! Where is this kid taking himself? Not to mention, Yin Ren's hospital gown was soaked by the heavy rain, and his right hand pocket had an unsightly bulge, which looked like a knife.
The person who came here is not kind!
Is "giving you a ride" what you mean
Old man Zhang quickly pressed against the wall, shaking his head slowly and in horror.
"That's all, I, cough, I suddenly remembered that I still have something important to do, little friend, please take a step forward." Lao Zhang choked for a long time and replied weakly, "Don't worry about me, really don't worry about me -"
Yin Ren: "But..."
"You're too polite! No buts!"
This time Lao Zhang didn't bother to hide it and shouted immediately. He didn't dare to wait for a response. He climbed up the stairs on hands and knees, rushed back to the ward, closed the door and locked it behind the quilt, getting under the quilt all at once.
After wrapping himself into a silkworm chrysalis, Old Man Zhang took a dozen deep breaths and then managed to steady his heartbeat.
"No offense intended, no offense intended... ugh."
He will return the key card tomorrow and seriously admit his mistake. My son and daughter-in-law are right, there is something wrong with me and I should take a good rest.
Damn it, the hallucination just now was too real.
Yin Ren stepped on the ground with his feet and breathed a long sigh of relief.
It's a pity that Uncle Zhang is very kind to him, and he really wants to send the old man downstairs.
As the saying goes, everything is difficult at the beginning. As an extremely evil creature, this journey into the world can barely be considered a near miss. To be honest, when Old Man Zhang said "a very sinister thing" just now, Yin Ren thought he had seen through his identity.
Until I met the resentful ghost in the corridor.
The resentful ghost was lying on the stairs on the third floor, the size of two adults. It was mumbling face down, its limbs stretched out at its sides like spiders. Her long, dirty hair covered the steps and was tangled into a sticky mess.
The resentful ghost itself was not aggressive. When the two passed by the steps, it moved politely. The poor resentful ghost wanted to avoid it, but the old man still stepped on his head and crotch, obviously not seeing anything.
Even if the Taoist practice is sealed, the practitioner will not be able to see the ghosts of resentment.
Mortals on earth were uninspired and fussed over levitation, and the Daily News said nothing about occult matters. However, the two factions in the sky fought fiercely and tried their best to summon themselves.
The lineage of metaphysics is obviously still there, probably it has moved into darkness.
In a time of peace and prosperity, metaphysics is hidden. There is no world more suitable for hiding "big evil things" than this.
On the dark street, Yin Ren opened his arms with satisfaction and felt the pouring rain.
The heavy rain in summer brings a bit of warmth, which dissipates the coldness contained in the seal. The beautiful life was right in front of him. Just as Yin Ren was about to take a few more deep breaths, a sharp sound suddenly exploded very close to him.
"Squeak-"
There was a sharp screeching sound that I had never heard before, followed by the clicking sound of wheels sliding across the ground.
The sound was particularly harsh. It tore through the thunder and rain, and its long tail echoed in the empty streets.
“…”
This subtle sense of familiarity.
Yin Ren slowly put away his arms and turned towards the direction of the sound.
There is the smell of life over there.
(End of chapter)