### Chapter 119: This Ghost Seems a Little Strong
The creaking sound of a food cart was slowly approaching, and Zhao Mingyue bravely stepped forward. If the other party didn’t attack, then she wouldn’t acknowledge their presence—after all, she had just arrived and didn’t fully grasp the situation.
The cart rolled past her as if it didn’t see her at all.
Leaning against the wall, Zhao Mingyue instinctively held her breath as the ghost brushed by her, bringing with it a whiff of burnt, greasy odor. Not pleasant, but certainly better than the stench of decay.
She caught snippets of what this ghost was mumbling, a gravelly and sinister tone.
“The kitchen is really short-handed. What should we do?”
The phrase “short-handed” seemed overly emphasized, like the ghost really wanted to drive the point home.
“Short-handed?”
In a normal context, “short-handed” means needing assistance. But for some reason, Zhao Mingyue felt this ghost meant it literally—just “hands.”
As the cart continued its way, Zhao Mingyue’s eyes darted, and a bold idea struck her.
In that brief moment, she re-evaluated her purpose and positioning in this place. Earlier, she thought it wise to tread carefully and avoid conflict with the ghostly residents and see how things went. But reflecting on it, that didn’t sit right with her; she had essentially brought Bai Yu along to stir things up, yet here she was, cowering.
Wasn’t the ghost targeting her and Bai Yu? Didn’t it practically roll out the red carpet for her to come here?
She had to create some chaos! She might not have strength, but Bai Yu did!
After a mental pep talk with Bai Yu, she received a confident reply.
“Go all out; I’ll handle the rest.”
“Alright!” Zhao Mingyue gripped her magic wand, feeling a wave of unease lift as Bai Yu’s reassurance washed over her.
With Bai Yu on her side, what was there to fear?
“Those cowards lurking in the shadows must think they can confuse me. I don’t believe that letter was just a coincidence placed here for me to find.”
“A puzzle, huh? If I storm through each ward without solving it, will there even be a puzzle to begin with?”
“I’ll wipe every ghost out of here and see if they dare stay put!”
“If they have the guts to wait for me to solve riddles, good for them.”
“If the ghosts don’t come out after I finish them all, then I won’t lose anything.”
Zhao Mingyue murmured to herself with a grin, her face lighting up as any trace of fear vanished—she was a far cry from the girl who had just entered the hospital. Bai Yu couldn’t help but wonder if this girl had received some sort of jolt, causing such a stark transformation.
But, hey, it was a good change!
She nearly wanted to remind Zhao Mingyue that while this journey was meant to toughen her up, being frightened all the time wasn’t conducive to that.
The key was not to be scared but to be steady. Strike swiftly but solidly! Olivia didn’t need to be worried, she only needed to focus on uncovering the secrets of this place.
Who knew? It seemed this girl cared so little for solving puzzles.
As the cart ghost reached the entrance of the nearest ward and set down a dish, it stood and attempted to leave, only for Zhao Mingyue to spring into action.
The door of the ward cracked open, revealing a shadowy arm reaching out to grab the dish on the floor. With her hands gripping the magic wand, Zhao Mingyue shouted in her head, “Miss Rabbit, grant me courage!”
She kicked the ward door with all her might, her shoe collecting specks of bl**d along the way. With a loud bang, the door burst open, and the bloodied frame slammed against the shadowy ghost, sending it flying.
The dish remained untouched, but Zhao Mingyue stomped it into dust.
“Ha! I knew it! You can’t enter without solving the riddle! Each ward is bound to a particular patient, and that patient’s list is surely in that Doctor Sun’s office.”
“As long as I follow the clues you’ve provided, I won’t let myself be lulled into complacency or fear!”
“Ghosts thrive on manipulation, especially when a person is tense and afraid. To them, fear is a feast!”
Zhao Mingyue stood at the entrance, eyeing the shadowy figure of the ghost that had crashed into the wall, grinning with fierce confidence. Of course, in her mind, she was fierce. In reality, she was more of a “soft but fierce” kind of fierce.
She stepped inside, deeply inhaling and even closed the ward door behind her.
One hand held a nine-pound, solid, girl-shaped magic wand, positioned like a hammer ready for battle.
The other hand tucked away the flashlight into her pocket, giving Miss Rabbit a gentle pat on the head.
Her actions bore semblance to Bai Yu’s readiness for confrontation.
Earlier, Bai Yu mused about what stimulus could’ve provoked such a dramatic change in Zhao Mingyue. The answer wasn’t too complicated. While Zhao Mingyue felt it necessary to be a bit reckless, she also contemplated something she had been mulling over since entering this hospital.
If she were Bai Yu, how would she handle coming to this hospital alone?
Yes, Bai Yu.
Zhao Mingyue didn’t want to be herself in that moment; she wanted to be Bai Yu. Because “Zhao Mingyue” was too timid, whereas “Bai Yu” sprang into action with precision and fierceness, maintaining a clear mind regardless of the situation—fear and anxiety weren’t in her dictionary.
Charging forward, Zhao Mingyue swung her hammer towards the ghost’s head.
The ghost, dressed in a patient’s garb emblazoned with a number on its chest, was just as Zhao Mingyue predicted. Step by step, she was solving the mystery—ultimately ending up in these wards.
With a thud, the bl**d-tinted hammer smashed into the ghost’s skull. The ghost, attempting to retaliate, simply couldn’t match Zhao Mingyue’s speed.
One blow sent the ghost sprawling; she followed up with a second strike.
“Doesn’t matter who you were, you’re getting knocked out!”
Another strike smashed it back down. Zhao Mingyue raised her arm again, winding up to belt the ghost down.
“Too bad I don’t have a kn*fe on me; this hammer will have to do!”
After three mighty whacks, the ghost’s head was nearly obliterated. It must have wondered how those seemingly frail arms could wield such overwhelming force.
The ghost lay still, and Zhao Mingyue frowned.
If I were Bai Yu, seeing my opponent like this—down and out—what should I do?
Finish it off!
Yes, definitely finish it off!
Another seven strikes followed with the bl**d-thread-enchanted hammer.
From Bai Yu’s perspective, this ghost was smashed apart, dissipating into black smoke—utterly defeated.
“Bai Yu, I found something!”
Just as Zhao Mingyue thought to wipe nonexistent sweat from her brow and exclaim how tough this was, she noticed a shriveled, gnarled hand appearing from within the wall, as if trying to rescue the ghost, but was too late thanks to Bai Yu’s interference.
A mass of bl**d threads twisted around the ghostly hand, preventing its escape back into the wall.
“This big fish is definitely worth it!” Zhao Mingyue casually returned her hammer to her backpack and eagerly yanked at the bl**d threads, helping Bai Yu drag the trapped ghost along.
She had put on a show the last time she barged in, mimicking Bai Yu’s bravado, but now, having personally taken down a ghost, her confidence skyrocketed.
Not wanting to take chances, the cornered ghost opted for self-mutilation, severing its arm to save itself. Before Zhao Mingyue even had to exert herself, that arm fell to the floor and vanished into a swirl of black smoke.
“More ghosts?” Zhao Mingyue narrowed her eyes, catching sight of another figure beneath a hospital bed.
Moments later, she emerged from ward 106, politely closing the door behind her.
Clapping her hands, having successfully taken down two ghosts, fear and anxiety were the last things on her mind.
Even without holding onto Miss Rabbit, she felt invulnerable, as if…
With Bai Yu around, I’m unbeatable!
For a moment, Bai Yu was at a loss for words. She felt like she had come to understand Zhao Mingyue. This girl was often a bit scatterbrained, but who knew she could go from tiptoeing through tasks to bulldozing through ghosts in an instant?
“Mingyue, what’s with the sudden… boldness?” Bai Yu questioned, pondering if Zhao Mingyue had fallen under an enemy’s mental influence.
“Ah?”
“I mean, what makes you so… daring all of a sudden?”
“Because I figured out that fear doesn’t help at all. Plus, I thought about what I’d do if we swapped places,” Zhao Mingyue admitted forthrightly.
“What would I do…?”
From that point, Zhao Mingyue plunged deeper into the wards, hammering her way through one after another, each room hosting ghosts—some wards had one ghost while others had three. She resembled Bai Yu with each swing, fears discarded completely.
Bai Yu, momentarily at a loss for words, wanted to say, “Girl, I’m Bai Yu! I’ve taken down people before, my style in battle isn’t sloppy like this,” but honestly, she wouldn’t approach it so recklessly.
If it were her in this scenario, she would have prioritized solving the puzzle first, using clues to determine the BOSS’s location, and then swiftly gone in for the k*ll.
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
On the first floor bathroom, just after Zhao Mingyue killed her way out of a ward, she heard dripping sounds.
The bathroom was huge and typically used for patient washing and laundry.
Zhao Mingyue walked in with her magic wand, heading towards a dripping faucet.
The tap had been dripping for who knows how long, and the sink teetered on the edge of overflowing.
Gradually, Zhao Mingyue noticed the liquid turning reddish, until it was entirely bl**d.
The dripping speed quickened, the water bubbling ominously as something floated up—a human head, its raven-black hair unmistakable.
At the same time, loud banging erupted from a bathroom stall, something trying to break free from the inside.
She was in the ladies’ room, wherein a sinister dark red glow enveloped the space, akin to the gates of hell swinging wide open.
The sink gurgled violently as the head began to twist, its swollen face now facing Zhao Mingyue, eyes that had only the whites left sprang open, bl**d streaming from them.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The pounding at the stall door grew more frantic—just from the sound, it was clear the door wouldn’t hold for long.
Something was about to come out.
Simultaneously, Zhao Mingyue could faintly hear similar ruckus from the men’s room next door.
Now she had two choices: flee and trigger a chase, hiding until these two monstrosities passed, likely never to return, or stick around and confront them head-on.
“Bai Yu, you take the men’s room; I’ll handle the ladies’.”
As she finished speaking, a lithe figure stepped out behind her, like a mirror to her own self.
“Okay.”
Bai Yu calmly pressed the head back into the sink, her expression stoic as she walked towards the exit.
Zhao Mingyue was clearly trying to prove her worth. If nothing else, she must have been inspired by the Dragon Lady, who had repeatedly said she didn’t want to be a burden—a thought that now weighed heavily on her.
Once this ordeal was over, time for a heart-to-heart.
But what exactly should they talk about? In all honesty, this shift was probably a good sign.
With a thud, the ladies’ room door crashed open, a ghost soaring out, claws like black talons aimed right at Zhao Mingyue.
This ghost didn’t reach the level of the red-cloaked kind; it wore clothes splattered with some bl**d, hardly enough to count as half a red outfit.
In comparison, from the men’s room, a stout, elderly male doctor in a bl**d-soaked lab coat emerged.
…
On the hospital rooftop, the Rabbit-Masked Girl perched on the edge, swinging her slender legs adorned in black-and-white striped stockings, toying with a bloodied Rubik’s Cube.
Behind her, three masked figures were engaged in some discussion.
Today was all about targeting Zhao Mingyue, planning to set her up for a creepy tale while treating the new recruit, Wang Xinxin’s “disease,” and then capturing the ghost attached to Zhao Mingyue, which their leader had taken quite an interest in.
As for Lu Liangting, he was merely an afterthought.
Not a concern at this point; two members had already been dispatched to take him down, but Zhao Mingyue’s trajectory had taken an unexpected turn.
She wasn’t following their planned steps; instead of getting backed into a corner by the two ghosts and heading upstairs or to Doctor Sun’s office, she charged straight at them.
Using some method, they could connect to the ghosts’ line of sight. Through a little ghost, they clearly saw the red-clothed doctor get dismembered by the target before a few moves were completed.
Their mission target actually leaned against the wall, eyes directed at the little ghost they used to monitor.
They had no idea how they had been spotted. Judging by the lip movements, it was clear she’d said:
“Get lost.”
It was only then that they realized something felt off.
“It’s cool; we have numbers. Number 7, find a way to lure Zhao Mingyue to the third floor. Let’s surround and eliminate her!”
As one of the masked figures started issuing commands, the Rabbit-Masked Girl shook her head from her perch on the railing.
“Ugh, working with this bunch of pests is just torturous.”
…
One more chapter by ten o’clock tonight, maybe by ten-thirty at the latest.
Please cast your votes; I’m off to do the splits!
