Thriller Zone: From the Mental Hospital to the Ghostly World

hang up the phone.

Chen Yuetan didn't know the name of the person who called him; he called him "Niu" (meaning "cow"). This person turned out to be Wei Gu's coach.

And he is a real coach.

In reality, "Niu" owns a martial arts school, and Wei Gu is his apprentice, not a company member.

Putting this matter aside for the time being, Chen Ji did not give any reply to the other side, as he had more important things to do at the moment.

In the ward, Chen Ji saw Du Tingfeng sitting on Du Muyu's hospital bed, lost in thought.

On the cabinet next to him, the daisies that Chen Ji had brought earlier had withered, their limp petals scattered everywhere, and the whole room was devoid of any life.

The three of them walked up to Du Tingfeng and didn't know what to say for a moment.

The good news is that Du Muyu is not dead.

But this was only because they had misunderstood, which gave them a slight sense of relief; as for Du Tingfeng, it meant that his older sister, whom he had relied on since childhood, had disappeared without a trace.

"Brother Du." Liu Zi looked at him sympathetically.

"Any clues from the surveillance footage?"

Du Tingfeng raised his head blankly and hummed in response.

At this moment, Chen Ji noticed that he was holding a piece of paper with neat handwriting, which was Du Muyu's handwriting!

Chen Ji glanced at the words revealed under Du Tingfeng's palm and his heart sank.

"Death is a cool night, life is..."

Isn't this the poem that Du Muyu once recited, which sounded like his last words?

Could this be a suicide note?

Before Fei'er could notice anything amiss with the letter, Du Tingfeng suddenly murmured:

"I found the letter under her pillow."

"It was for me. She said I couldn't go to her, and she also said... she also said..."

what?

The group was on high alert, waiting for Du Tingfeng's next words, when suddenly, a piercing alarm sounded throughout the ward!

"Beep beep beep-"

The sound came from the electrocardiogram monitor next to the hospital bed!

Even though the object it was monitoring was no longer there, at this moment, the instrument's circuitry started fluctuating again, as if it had been paused and then restarted.

But the very next second that everyone looked at the electrocardiogram machine, the waveform turned into a straight line!

"...She is dead."

Du Tingfeng muttered to himself, as if he hadn't heard the alarm.

Chen Ji walked up in a few steps and immediately noticed something was wrong:

"The date shown on the screen isn't today at all!"

The instrument displays the point at which the patient died:

2025/04/05，13：13：31

It was yesterday.

The day Du Muyu disappeared.

Bang!

Several doctors rushed in, but were taken aback when they saw the people in the room. They then walked to the end of the bed and looked at the patient's name.

“Du Muyu...”

The doctors looked at each other, and after a long while, an attending physician who looked like an old professor shook his head and unplugged the machine.

The alarm, which sounded like a death knell, came to an abrupt halt.

"Sorry, this instrument is malfunctioning."

"You didn't receive any reports yesterday?" Liu Zi immediately asked. "When exactly did the patient leave the hospital?"

"No."

The old professor looked grave. "I personally checked on her early yesterday morning, and she was still unconscious."

"She was gone by 2 p.m. when the caregiver arrived, and the machines weren't running."

"The surveillance footage shows that she appeared in the lobby on the first floor around 1:30 p.m., and then left the hospital. There are no further records of her thereafter."

In other words, Du Muyu left the hospital on her own after her death.

Having realized this, even though Du Tingfeng was unwilling to admit it, Chen Ji and the others present had already confirmed one thing:

That is, everything that happened to Du Muyu can no longer be explained by science.

"We have already reported it to the police. Please rest assured that we will notify the family of any progress in a timely manner."

The old professor gave Du Tingfeng a complicated look. He had been in charge of Du Muyu's illness all along, and the old professor naturally knew how much the man in front of him had sacrificed to save his sister.

The old professor sighed softly.

Without saying much, he left the ward with the other doctors.

"What should we do now?"

Liu Zi asked cautiously, "Brother Du, do you know where your sister might go?"

"...It might be a very cold place."

After a long pause, Du Tingfeng waved the paper in his hand and said softly.

The alarm sounded like a slap in the face, shattering all his illusions and forcing Du Tingfeng to accept the reality before him.

Just then, Du Tingfeng's phone suddenly rang.

"Hey."

"it's me."

"What?!" Du Tingfeng's voice suddenly rose, then he said, "It's nothing," and hung up the phone.

"We are very lucky."

A glimmer of light finally appeared on his face: "Someone saw the missing person notice I posted and provided a clue."

She was on a train bound for Yanjing.

......

Smoking is prohibited on this train....

Amidst the mechanical broadcast, Xiao Zhang wearily shut down his computer.

This high-speed train, running from Tianhai to Yantai-Beijing, is a well-known special train for migrant workers; it travels very fast and almost never stops in between.

He rubbed his eyes, turned to look at the trees rushing past the window, and then glanced at the woman sitting inside.

A strange feeling arose in Xiao Zhang's heart.

She had long, jet-black hair, an extremely thin figure, and wore a large coat that seemed out of place in the late spring weather.

The woman was staring blankly at the back of the chair in front of her.

And... he wasn't wearing shoes.

"Sir, please show me your ID card."

The attendant's voice rang out in the carriage, and Xiao Zhang quickly took out his ID card from his briefcase and handed it to the attendant.

A few seconds later, the flight attendant finished checking, frowned, and looked at the seat next to Xiao Zhang.

"Miss."

"Did you sit in the wrong seat?"

She was writing in her notebook that the seat next to Xiao Zhang was empty.

"Ma'am, could you please show me this?"

The woman, who hadn't spoken until now, suddenly looked up and quietly stared at the flight attendant.

The plain white collar of her coat was visible underneath.

Xiao Zhang glanced at her furtively and had a feeling that the woman was wearing a hospital gown.

Suddenly, the flight attendant patted him on the shoulder.

"Sir, please show me your ID card."

"Huh?" Xiao Zhang was confused. Hadn't he just shown it to the flight attendant?

But without much thought, he handed over his ID card again.

"Thank you."

The flight attendant smiled politely, turned around, and left.

Without questioning the woman next to Xiao Zhang again, Xiao Zhang then noticed that the woman had turned her head away and was staring at the back of the table and chairs in front of her.

Who is she?

Xiao Zhang was pondering in confusion when a phone call from his boss diverted his attention.

Half an hour later.

"Yes, yes, Mr. Zhou, I'll get on it right away."

Standing at the connection between the carriages, Xiao Zhang numbly finished saying those words before hanging up the phone.

The train is about to arrive at the station.

He sighed and started scrolling through Douyin (TikTok). One boring video after another flashed by. Suddenly, a missing person notice with very few likes appeared on his screen.

This person....

Isn't that the woman next to him?!

Although they weren't exactly the same, they were about 7% similar in appearance. Considering the possibility of distortion in the photo, Xiao Zhang still called the number listed above.

He turned his head as he checked the information with the man on the other end of the phone:

"Yes, it's train G392, arriving in Yantai soon. I'll stop her first—"

He suddenly froze.

There was no one next to him.

Empty.