Thriller Zone: From the Mental Hospital to the Ghostly World

Pass through the nurses' station, turn into the stairwell, and walk further in to find the staff elevator.

Chen Ji walked with ease. The only female nurse on duty on the third floor was conducting an examination in Zone C.

Within five minutes, she should have realized that the chief physician she had met earlier had vanished into thin air on this floor.

Chen Ji walked to the nurses' station and glanced at the table. Besides the hospital's landline, there were some documents and a medium-sized bouquet of lilies.

It was brought over by the patient's family earlier.

Chen Ji stopped and took the microphone off the landline phone, placing it aside.

When the hospital called again, all they heard was a busy signal.

After thinking for a moment, he picked up the flowers on the table again. The large bunch of white lily petals covered most of his face.

Now, Chen Ji looks like just an ordinary family member visiting a patient.

The hospital has three elevators: two in the lobby, close to the emergency exits, and the other in a corridor on the edge of the hospital, for staff use only, used to transport medical equipment.

Chen Ji touched the access card in his pocket. This card allowed him to pass through most of the hospital's doors, including the monitoring room and emergency doors.

However, he could no longer use the emergency exit.

Just a few minutes earlier, when Chen Ji pushed open the emergency door on the second floor, he clearly heard sounds coming from downstairs. There were at least ten staff members guarding the stairwell on the first floor.

Among them, Tang Qin's voice was the most prominent.

This is why Chen Ji didn't go downstairs directly, but instead went up to the 3rd floor instead.

He had to go to the monitoring room, open the employee elevator separately, and go down to the first floor from there.

The LED panel on the wall showed that the elevator was coming down from the fifth floor. Chen Ji stood in the elevator lobby and reached out to look at the watch that Du Tingfeng had lent him.

It is 7:13 now.

Ding-dong.

The elevator doors creaked open slowly, revealing a pale, flickering light that hadn't been repaired in a long time.

Chen Ji gently inhaled the delicate fragrance of the lilies in his arms and pressed the button for the first floor.

......

Where is the repairman?

"It's one thing for the elevator to be broken, but why can't we use the stairs?"

"What a stupid hospital! It's full of freeloaders!"

First floor, lobby.

Two warning signs, which read "Under Repair," were blocked in front of the elevator by a black and yellow cordon.

The bustling crowd, mostly patients in hospital gowns, had been waiting outside the cordon for a while.

Many of them had just finished dinner and were heading back to their wards.

Following Tang Qin's orders, the emergency exits have now been completely sealed off, and more and more people are being trapped in the lobby on the first floor.

Zhang Ting, dressed in a hospital gown, stood alone in the far corner of the crowd.

Her hands trembled uncontrollably, her heart pounded, and the noise from the outside world seemed to be separated from her by a membrane, making Zhang Ting feel a strong sense of unreality.

She bent over, trying to calm her increasingly rapid heartbeat, but only felt a strong urge to vomit. There were too many people and too much noise here, which triggered Zhang Ting's panic attack.

Extreme anxiety and fear made Zhang Ting feel like she was on the verge of death.

Suddenly, a warm hand touched her.

The next second, a bouquet of pure white and fragrant lilies was brought to Zhang Ting's eyes.

"Take a sniff, it might make you feel better."

Looking at the petals, Zhang Ting was somewhat surprised to see an ordinary-looking young man wearing a mask and holding flowers in his hands, seemingly on his way to visit a patient.

“…Thank you.” Zhang Ting forced a smile.

The subtle fragrance of flowers and the calm voice of the man beside her unconsciously made her feel less anxious and afraid.

She was about to stand up when she suddenly stumbled. Then she saw the man push a wheelchair over and help her into it.

"Are you here to visit a family member...?"

Zhang Ting sat down and asked somewhat awkwardly, as she wasn't very good at socializing.

"Yes, I've come to pick up my sister so she can get some fresh air." The man behind her said softly, "She has anxiety and needs to walk around the park every day."

"But it looks like we won't be able to pick her up today."

Ahead, a dozen staff members were still maintaining order, and the elevator was still not running.

"Then..." Zhang Ting hesitated for a moment, "Could you take me outside the inpatient department for some fresh air?"

"I can't breathe here, it's really uncomfortable."

Without the accompaniment of family members, patients generally cannot leave this building at will.

"Ah, let me think..."

The man behind him hesitated for a moment, then looked toward the entrance to the inpatient department, which was surrounded by many people in security uniforms, preventing anyone from entering or leaving.

Zhang Ting also looked out the door, but not at the security guard; instead, she looked at the starry sky outside, a hint of longing in her eyes.

“It’s okay, I’ll just say that I had a panic attack and couldn’t stay in crowded places.”

After thinking for a moment, she added, "I have anxiety disorder, just like your sister."

"OK then."

The man behind him paused for a moment, but finally agreed.

He pushed his wheelchair toward the door, and several security guards immediately surrounded him.

"Are you here to visit someone in the hospital? The hospital has issued an order that no one is allowed to leave!"

The man looked troubled, his eyes showing anxiety. At that moment, Zhang Ting, who was in the wheelchair, suddenly convulsed violently, clutching her clothes tightly to her chest, as if she couldn't breathe.

"What...what happened to her?" Several security guards were startled and quickly took a few steps back.

"There are too many people here. My sister had an anxiety attack and needs to go outside to get some fresh air."

The man explained quickly.

A man who seemed to be the team leader frowned, walked to the side and spoke a few words with a doctor from the hospital, his eyes occasionally glancing at Zhang Ting.

Less than half a minute later, he returned and said to Zhang Ting:

"You can leave now, but you must be back within half an hour."

The man pushing the wheelchair nodded, his eyes filled with gratitude, and then gently pushed Zhang Ting toward the garden outside the inpatient department.

The man stopped beside a quiet flowerbed. This place was right in front of the hospital gate, very close to the outside, and he could already hear the sound of cars driving on the main road.

"You stay here by yourself. Remember to go back within half an hour and don't leave the hospital."

The man glanced at his watch, as if something urgent had come up.

"okay."

Zhang Ting stood up from her wheelchair, breathing in the long-awaited fresh air.

She was about to thank the man for helping her leave the lobby when she suddenly paused.

"that......"

Her voice was hesitant, and her eyes were fixed on the direction of the hospital gate.

Why...are they all staying?

Are they watching us...?

Directly in front of Zhang Ting, a man stood still, his whole body tense.

His gaze was fixed intently on the road outside the gate.

There, time seemed to stand still; the security guard, the pedestrians on the road, and the deliverymen on their electric bikes all stopped what they were doing.

Until everyone on the street turned their gaze to Zhang Ting.

To be precise, she was looking at the man in front of Zhang Ting.

Zhang Ting's blood seemed to stop flowing. She stared blankly ahead, her eyes filled with terror, unable to utter a single word.

Everyone who looked at them had the same face!

The ordinary-looking man twitched his fingers slightly, sensing that among all the eerie gazes, only one was emanating from behind him.

The man turned around and looked at the window on the second floor of the inpatient department.

There was a face exactly like all the others on the street, radiating ecstasy, its mouth moving incessantly.

It is a Tang zither.

Her lips were making a sentence:

"Chen Ji, we've got you."