Volume 12: An Invitation from Hell - Chapter 17: Strange Occurrences at the Hospital

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At eleven that night, Yao Guang and the others arrived at the hospital where Wu Yonghan worked. The hospital looked especially eerie after dark.

“Meow. There’s a deathly aura here,” Jelly said, racing toward the building.

Yao Guang and the others followed close behind.

Jelly ran all the way to the end of the second-floor corridor and stopped in front of the obstetrics and gynecology department.

“The deathly aura is strongest here.”

“As expected, it has something to do with obstetrics and gynecology. But what happened here? Why has such a deathly aura gathered? Only the resentment of those who died unjustly can condense into something like this,” Jiang Yun said.

“Let’s go in and take a look.”

Xuan Chen pushed open the door and stepped inside. But the next moment, everyone’s expression changed.

“This is bad. Space has overlapped. We’re no longer in the original dimension,” Chen Haixu said in astonishment.

“Don’t panic. Spatial overlaps like this are usually parallel spaces formed from the resentment of the dead. They may have brought us here so that we could uncover this hospital’s secrets. Jelly, go and investigate,” Yao Guang ordered.

Jelly gave a cry and moved forward.

“Meow.”

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw a human figure drifting past ahead of them. They followed it down the corridor until they reached the door of an examination room. Once again, the space inside twisted and warped.

Voices came from within. They were the voices of two men.

“You can’t do this! That’s two lives! Killing the child would be bad enough, but why kill the mother as well?” one man shouted.

“Do you think we have a choice? If we don’t kill the mother, we’re the ones who’ll die!” the other man shouted back.

“I don’t believe you. You did it for money. How much did he pay you?”

“This has nothing to do with money!”

“Don’t tell me again that it has nothing to do with money. Ten million is no small sum. But a human life is worth more than ten million. That’s a life!”

“It’s too late. I’ve already done it.”

“You’re insane! I’m going to report you!”

“You won’t have the chance.”

A fight broke out inside the room. After a while, everything fell silent.

A blood-covered man dragged another man out of the room. To Yao Guang and the others’ shock, the man who had walked out was none other than Wu Yonghan himself. The other man’s face was covered in blood, and he was already dead.

Wu Yonghan dragged the body all the way to the third floor, where the operating rooms were still under construction.

He then returned to the operating room in the obstetrics and gynecology department on the second floor. He dragged out a bed, upon which lay the corpse of a woman. Her belly was swollen—she had been pregnant.

Wu Yonghan pulled the bed into the elevator and took it to the third floor, where he sealed both bodies inside the wall of an operating room with bricks.

Yao Guang and the others watched the entire scene in stunned silence.

At that moment, the door of the operating room in the obstetrics and gynecology department opened. Four shadowy figures emerged.

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They were ghosts. Each of them had a swollen, pregnant belly.

The ghosts lay down on the floor, cut open their own abdomens, and pulled out the babies inside. Then they strangled the infants before lying there motionless. A very long time passed before someone came to rescue them, but by then it was too late. The mothers were already dead.

“What are they trying to tell us?” Huo Mingkun asked.

“They’re showing us how they died. It seems Wu Yonghan has committed quite a few crimes,” Yao Guang said.

She walked toward the ghosts.

“I accept your grievances. You may rest in peace now.”

Yao Guang recited an incantation. A paper boat flew through the air, and the wronged souls descended onto it. The paper boat began to burn.

As the boat burned, the surrounding world caught fire as well. The scenery around them was like a sheet of paper. Once it had burned away completely, the original surroundings were revealed.

Yao Guang and the others were standing outside the operating room of the obstetrics and gynecology department on the second floor.

“Let’s go to the third floor.”

Yao Guang led them upstairs to the operating room.

“Jelly, sniff around and find out exactly where in the wall the bodies are.”

Jelly meowed and ran around, sniffing here and there. At last, it stopped in front of a glass cabinet.

“They’re behind this.”

Yao Guang stepped forward and used her spiritual power to move the cabinet aside. Waves of spiritual energy slammed into the wall.

The wall gave way, revealing two skeletons.

“Call Captain Song,” Yao Guang said.

She walked over and stared into the opening, feeling troubled. Why had Wu Yonghan killed these pregnant women and their children? Had someone ordered him to do it?

When Captain Song arrived, the others were crouched outside smoking.

“What happened to all of you?” Captain Song asked, baffled by their appearance.

“We found two unidentified skeletons inside the wall of the third-floor operating room. Go up and see for yourself,” Yao Guang said, taking a drag from her cigarette.

Captain Song went upstairs, and Yao Guang and the others followed.

“What the hell is this supposed to be?” Captain Song exclaimed as he stared at the remains inside the wall. “Could Wu Yonghan have done this?”

“What do you think?” Yao Guang countered.

“What was the motive?”

“Someone paid Wu Yonghan ten million to kill the pregnant woman. A male doctor tried to stop him, so Wu Yonghan killed both of them and buried them in the wall. That’s what happened. As for the evidence, you’ll have to find it yourself.”

With that, Yao Guang returned to the obstetrics and gynecology department on the second floor.

“Master, just how many secrets are hidden here?” Jiang Yun asked.

Yao Guang shook her head.

That very night, Yao Guang applied for a search warrant and began searching the hospital. They also examined all the records from the obstetrics and gynecology department.

But every file in the archives appeared completely normal.

“Yun, if you were Wu Yonghan, where would you hide the records of those dead mothers to keep them safest?” Yao Guang asked.

“I would burn them,” Huo Mingkun interjected.

“No. If this had been an accident, the records would have been kept in the most obvious place, because that would prove his innocence. But those records aren’t in the archives, which means this wasn’t an accident. It was a transaction.

“And if it was a transaction, the matter couldn’t be allowed to come to light. The records would have to be kept close at hand, where he could check on them from time to time and make sure they were safe. Besides, possessing those records would ensure that the employer could never turn against him, because they would be leverage. As long as he remained alive, the records would remain secure. Once he died, they would be made public.

“The records must be either in Wu Yonghan’s office or at his home.”

Jiang Yun considered this, then said, “Since the killer chose to kill him at the hospital rather than at home, his office is the most likely place.”

“Well said.”

Yao Guang nodded in agreement. She went to Wu Yonghan’s office, and everyone began searching.

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“Meow! There’s a compartment here!”

Jelly was crying out beneath a silk banner.

Yao Guang took down the banner and discovered a safe behind it.

“What’s the combination?” she asked, staring at the door.

“Leave this to me.”

Chen Haixu stepped forward and began working on the lock. Half an hour later, they heard a click. The door opened.

“Not bad.”

Yao Guang nodded.

Chen Haixu looked gloomy. “Sis, let’s not make a habit of this.”

Yao Guang smiled and opened the safe. Inside were five folders.

She took them out and found that they contained information on the dead. Every victim had been pregnant, but the circumstances of their deaths were different.

One had died of massive blood loss, another during a difficult delivery, another from an embolism, and another from cardiac asphyxia. The last woman had already stopped breathing when she was brought in. A cesarean section had been performed to save the child, but because the mother had been deprived of oxygen for too long, the baby had not survived either.

Yao Guang held the files in her hands and looked at the others with trembling fingers.

“Investigate these women. The one with the earliest estimated date of death, Qingqing, is probably the woman buried inside the wall. The information on her file is very brief, and the final entry says only that she went missing.

“Missing? She was buried inside a wall. How could anyone have found her? Check the missing-person reports and see whether we can match Qingqing’s DNA.”

Yao Guang left the office like a puppet, only to see two shadowy figures in the corridor.

She walked over and led them to an empty corner. Looking at the two souls, she sighed.

“You’re the ones who were buried in the wall, aren’t you?”

The two spirits nodded.

“Tell me what happened,” Yao Guang said.

“I had a boyfriend. We loved each other and were very happy together. But after I became pregnant with his child, I discovered that he already had a wife.

“His wife went to Wu Yonghan and paid him ten million to kill me. Wu Yonghan actually agreed. I was brought here under the pretense of having a prenatal examination, but only after I arrived did I realize that this place was the entrance to the underworld.

“Doctor Zhang found out and tried to stop Wu Yonghan. The two of them argued, and Wu Yonghan beat Doctor Zhang to death. Then he killed me and buried both of us inside the wall.”

The female ghost finished speaking. The male ghost nodded.

“Wu Yonghan has been killed. His body is frozen in the refrigerator in the anesthesia room on the third floor. I accept your grievances. I will send you both into the cycle of reincarnation.”

Yao Guang burned a talisman and summoned the Judge of the Underworld.

When the Judge arrived, he glanced at Yao Guang’s listless face but said nothing. He simply led the two ghosts away.

Yao Guang walked out of the hospital. Outside, a heavy rain had begun to fall.

She stood motionless beneath the downpour and screamed at the sky:

“Why? Why? Why?”

“Master, what’s wrong with you?”

Huo Mingkun and the others rushed outside.

“I could have ascended and become a revered deity, but I chose not to. I stubbornly remained in the mortal world because I wanted to protect it. I wanted everyone to live in peace. I wanted there to be less killing and fewer crimes.

“But why? Why can human lives be traded for money in these people’s eyes? Can a human life really be measured in money?

“Do you know how long it takes to earn the chance at reincarnation? A thousand years! A thousand years!

“Why are human lives so worthless to these people? Is this the mortal world I protect? Is this the world I abandoned the divine realm to guard?

“Tell me—why?”

Yao Guang had completely lost control.

“Pfft!”

A mouthful of blood burst from her lips.

Standing alone in the rain, Yao Guang looked utterly helpless.