Chapter 1031: Chapter 718: Hope
Wu Qiao didn’t even have the chance to scream; the corpse swayed and fell straight to the ground.
At this moment, Yang Xiao outside the window could do nothing. What happened before his eyes was so instantaneous that even he hadn’t anticipated such an accident, let alone Wu Qiao.
And even more terrifying, without the crucial support from the first floor, Yang Xiao was now utterly isolated.
The Bald Head, like a machine, didn’t even glance at the corpse of Wu Qiao after killing her. He turned around, stepping back with stiff and awkward strides along the original path.
Yang Xiao outside the window was equally invisible to him.
Suddenly, Yang Xiao felt a tightness at his waist. The whole of him was inexplicably pulled up, his toes left the window ledge, throwing him off balance.
Hurriedly looking up, he saw the braided rope in mid-air slowly retracting, some force pulling the rope upward.
It was the female ghost, the female ghost was pulling the rope!
Once pulled up, his life would be over. The preparations Yang Xiao made before this moment came in handy; he had a slip knot at his waist.
The rope was being pulled up quickly; Yang Xiao was soon dragged back to the second floor’s outside. He quickly untied the knot to lengthen the rope, then grabbed the rope with both hands, using his own weight to climb down. Before the whole rope was pulled up, he finally returned outside the first-floor window, gripping the window with both hands to barely steady himself.
At this moment, Yang Xiao was in a dilemma, either hang outside the window indefinitely or climb inside through the open window slit, directly facing the Bald Head.
The Bald Head had already returned to his original position, resuming the appearance from their first meeting, sitting on the bed with his back to Yang Xiao.
There was no choice; Yang Xiao braced himself and climbed in, treading lightly, sticking to the wall to stay as far away from the Bald Head as possible.
Wu Qiao’s corpse lay on the ground, wearing a white coat, her neck twisted, head turned 180 degrees; she never knew who killed her, even at death.
Heart pounding, Yang Xiao held his breath, and step by step, made it to the door without incident, opened it, and rushed out swiftly. Even as he closed the door behind him, the killer Bald Head remained in the same pose, head drooped, motionless, leaving Yang Xiao unable to see his face.
Once outside, Yang Xiao speculated boldly that the Bald Head could only kill one person in a short period before entering a brief dormant phase. Alternatively, it might be related to the hidden rules of the hospital, where the Bald Head prioritizes medical staff as targets. Outsiders like him are ignored unless they provoke him.
In simpler terms, the Bald Head’s attitude towards the Night Shift Doctor was similar to the female ghost’s towards him, except he wasn’t as powerful as the female ghost to hunt throughout.
With experience from the two nights exploring the hospital, Yang Xiao roughly understood the hidden rules here. The roles were generally divided into three categories.
First, the medical staff, including Captain Zhou and five others assigned to the night shift.
Second, he himself, representing another group of six dragged into the hospital a decade ago by the Ghost Bell.
Finally, the female ghost.
The relationship among the three could be clearly illustrated by a triangle: he could see Captain Zhou and the medical staff, the medical staff could see the female ghost, and the female ghost could sense him. But the reverse was not possible.
Yet, it wasn’t absolute. For instance, Captain Zhou demonstrated that if the medical staff voluntarily approached the female ghost within a certain distance, they’d be detected and pursued by her.
Using patients as temporary scapegoats was feasible too, provided they were pushed to the female ghost, preferably with some physical contact.
Within this hospital, patients were a peculiar group. Both Yang Xiao and the medical staff like Captain Zhou could see them, and either party could reasonably use them as scapegoats.
Following all this chaos, Yang Xiao’s already limited stamina was severely depleted. Rushing furiously, he didn’t escape the northern corridor before the bell sound approached, though his ultimate destination was at the very end of the eastern corridor.
Hiding in a room along the northern corridor, the place was pitch black. As soon as he entered, Yang Xiao observed that it wasn’t a ward but an office.
The overall area wasn’t small, with six desks and several dark green iron cabinets along the walls, but there was nowhere to hide. The cabinet doors were locked, inaccessible to him.
If the female ghost came in, he could only hide behind a desk, which provided no comfort beyond self-reassurance.
"Ding-ling—"
"Ding-ling—"
The sound of the Ghost Bell grew closer, and Yang Xiao could feel the female ghost had nearly pinpointed his location, likely finding him within a minute.
Death seemed inevitable, only a matter of time. Yang Xiao forced himself to stay calm; it was around the early hours of May 14th in the hospital world, while the exact time of the supernatural incident began after 2 AM on May 15th. This meant they hadn’t lost yet, or rather, hadn’t completely lost.
Tonight didn’t count; they still had one last chance.
But this was only an analysis based on the hospital’s situation. He had no clue about the circumstance outside the hospital, whether Captain Zhou’s group could get the key, or the extent of their losses, and these people didn’t know Vice Director Huang was a ghost.
Yang Xiao had previously heard from Mu Xiuzhu that a guy named Lv Jun had gone missing among them. Excluding the Night Shift Doctor Mu Xiuzhu and Wu Qiao, only at most three people could steal the key. If there were significant casualties, like two people dying, it would cause severe trouble.
