The hands of the clock ticked past number after number, the tick-tock of the mechanical watch overlapping with the sound of a beating heart.
Everyone turned toward Chen Ge, as though whatever he did next would affect them all.
The memories in his mind grew hazier with each tick of the watch. Chen Ge tried to seize control of his body, but the harder he fought, the more it slipped from his grasp.
Blue-green veins bulged along the backs of his hands. His lowered head rose slowly, and his scarlet eyes fixed on Patient No. 5.
Chen Ge was teetering on the edge of losing control, and Doctor Gao was watching him just as intently.
As a physician, Doctor Gao not only failed to stop Chen Ge at this moment — he actually pulled something wrapped in newspaper from his pocket.
He set the object down on the table in front of Chen Ge. The instant it touched the surface, a sharp crack rang out.
Whatever was inside the newspaper was hard.
Time continued to slip away. Chen Ge's consciousness dimmed further with every passing second. He was grateful now that he hadn't taken Doctor Gao's medication. Had he swallowed those pills laced with black threads, the drug's stimulation would have made resistance utterly impossible.
His fingertips slid along the edge of the table until they closed around the newspaper.
His five fingers clenched tight. Blood seeped from his palm — the thing wrapped in the newspaper was extremely sharp.
The blood soaked into the newspaper, staining it a deep black. Chen Ge gripped the object inside with all his strength, blood streaming down his palm, yet strangely, he felt no pain at all.
"Why is my body reacting like this? I haven't taken any medication, but I still can't control myself — could it be Doctor Gao's watch?"
The mechanical watch sat on the table, its hands sweeping forward.
Fifty-one minutes and fifty seconds past midnight. Fifty-one minutes and fifty-one seconds. The tick-tock seemed to grow faster and faster. Chen Ge's heartbeat quickened to match, his chest heaving violently as fine black veins began to surface on his face.
Fifty-four seconds. Fifty-five. Fifty-six!
The hand clutching the newspaper trembled uncontrollably. Chen Ge's body leaned forward, and the silhouette of Patient No. 5 loomed in his pupils.
Fifty-seven seconds. Fifty-eight!
At fifty-one minutes and fifty-nine seconds, Chen Ge raised the object wrapped in newspaper — but just as he was about to drive the blade toward Patient No. 5, the ward door was suddenly knocked upon.
The knocking shattered the rhythmic tick of the watch. For the first time, an expression crossed Doctor Gao's icy face — his brows furrowed slightly.
"Boom!"
Thunder rumbled outside the window. Moments later, raindrops the size of beans hammered against the glass, as if trying to shatter it.
A torrential storm engulfed the night sky, and a cascade of sounds flooded into Chen Ge's ears. At last, he wrested back control of his body.
Doctor Gao picked up the watch, glanced at the time, then set it back on the table and turned to stare at Patient No. 1 again: "Twelve fifty-two in the evening. You hear someone knocking on the door of the ward you're in. You suspect the person who's been watching and following you is standing right outside. You walk over and open the door."
"Impossible — he can't be out there!" Doctor Fang rose from his seat and stood before the ward door, his trembling hand pressing against it.
Unease. Terror. Doctor Fang hesitated for a long time, then threw the door open with all his strength.
"Boom!"
A deafening crack of thunder split the air. Every patient and doctor in the room stared out into the corridor beyond.
The corridor was pitch black, without a single ray of light. All the ward doors stood tightly shut, as if the few of them were the only people left in the entire hospital.
"I remember the light at the end of the corridor was on before." Chen Ge was slowly regaining control of his body. He rolled his arms and hid the hand holding the newspaper behind his back.
What the newspaper wrapped was not a knife — it was a shard of mirror with razor-sharp edges.
No one noticed Chen Ge's small movement. Every eye was fixed on the corridor.
After the ward door was pushed open a second time, the hospital outside seemed to have transformed into something entirely different — there was a completely foreign quality to it. If he had to put it into words, the hospital now looked far closer to the one from Chen Ge's nightmares.
Outside, lightning flashed and thunder rolled while a violent storm raged, but inside the hospital, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
The dim, shadowy corridor stretched on as though it had no end. The white walls now resembled the ghastly pale faces of the dead.
"Twelve fifty-three in the evening. You see the corridor outside your ward. It is completely empty. The hospital you once knew has become something unfamiliar." Doctor Gao rose from his chair and fastened the watch onto his own wrist. "You're terrified. A voice inside you keeps whispering — don't leave the room, don't be curious, take one step forward and you may never come back."
The moment Doctor Gao finished speaking, a heavy dragging sound suddenly echoed down the empty, eerie corridor — like a boatman hauling a massive dead fish out of the water.
Everyone was startled by the sound and turned toward the corner of the corridor. The noise grew closer and closer, until finally a human head emerged from the floor at the base of the wall.
"Zhang Jingjiu?" At the sight of that head, the name immediately surfaced in Chen Ge's mind.
After entering the hospital, Zhang Jingjiu had twice given him hints. The first time was in the garden, when Zhang Jingjiu had shouted at him — ghosts, ghosts, ghosts!
Zhang Jingjiu had been punished severely for that. The doctors locked him in the critical care ward on the fifth floor, where it seemed he'd been subjected to all manner of torture.
The second hint had come when Chen Ge and Zuo Han went to check on him in the middle of the night. Zhang Jingjiu had parted his cracked lips, barely clinging to life, and managed to utter the word "boss."
Chen Ge was certain — Zhang Jingjiu was connected to him somehow. He had to be a friend from his past.
And now, the greater half of Zhang Jingjiu's head had appeared at the corner of the corridor. Chen Ge could no longer sit still.