Da Niang’s son wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, unable to conceal the fear in his eyes.
“Did you go to the bathroom downstairs? Were you alone there?” Tang Lin sat up from the bed.
The patient in the bed closest to the door and their family member also sat up, clearly having grown curious about the matter.
Da Niang’s son nodded: “I didn’t think much of it at the time. In fact, I was secretly pleased when I saw the bathroom was empty. But when I came out after showering, I encountered someone in the corridor.”
“Was that person who gave you this bruise?” Da Ma couldn’t contain herself.
“I was in a hurry to get back to sleep, worried that if I took too long you’d all be asleep and I’d wake you when I returned, so I didn’t pay much attention to him. But as we passed each other, he patted me. When I turned to ask what he wanted, there was no one in the corridor.”
“Gasp!”
Da Ma inhaled sharply, feeling a chill rise from the soles of her feet. She shuddered violently. “I know which corridor you’re talking about! A couple days ago when I brought food back from the cafeteria, I took a detour and came up that way. At that time, I saw hospital staff pushing a gurney down that corridor toward the back. I didn’t think much of it then, but hearing your story now, I remember – the person on that gurney was covered with a white sheet.”
At this point, not only Da Niang’s son, but even Da Ma and her niece looked terrified.
Just then, the lights in the hospital room flickered several times. While this would normally be considered ordinary, it undoubtedly became the final straw that broke everyone’s psychological defenses.
Everyone agreed that what Da Niang’s son had encountered today was a ghost, and that he had been struck because he was blocking the way.
Hearing their conclusion, Tang Lin and Leng Hui exchanged glances.
They had merely transmigrated into a book – why did it sound like they had crossed into a supernatural world?
This was truly unbelievable.
Wasn’t this era supposed to value science? Leng Hui found these natives believed in ghosts and gods more than they did.
That night, some people were frightened and unable to sleep throughout the night.
But this didn’t include Tang Lin and Leng Hui. They had seen plenty of dead people during the apocalypse, and during the chaotic period of the end times, they had personally dealt with many ruffians who meant them harm.
The other two patients’ families in the room, hearing the even breathing coming from the innermost bed, didn’t know whether to say the mother and daughter were remarkably calm or just very sleepy.
The next day, unsurprisingly, Da Niang’s son fell ill.
He had a fever – when measured, his temperature was 39 degrees, which counted as high fever but wasn’t too serious.
When the doctor came for rounds and discovered his fever, he found it strange that a grown man would fall ill after just one night of caring for a patient.
After asking and learning about the previous night’s events, the doctor joked: “You’re really scaring yourselves. There are no ghosts in this world – the ghosts are in your own hearts.”
Hearing this, Tang Lin and Leng Hui breathed sighs of relief – at least they hadn’t transmigrated into a supernatural world.
Noticing their instantly relaxed expressions, the doctor misunderstood and comforted everyone for a while longer before leading the medical team to other rooms.
Actually, the doctor’s comfort didn’t help the others much, since even he couldn’t explain where the bruise on the man’s shoulder had come from.
Da Niang’s son continued having recurring fevers for three days before finally recovering.
After the fever subsided, he had visibly lost weight, and ever since that day, he no longer dared to wander around the hospital at night relying on his strong yang energy.
Once it got dark, he basically never left the ward.
The bruise on his shoulder had only faded slightly by the time Tang Lin was discharged from the hospital, and it was unclear how long it would take to completely disappear.
The day before discharge, Leng Hui went home and asked Leng Yongkang to pick them up from the hospital by bicycle the next day.
She also brought back half a basket of Qingming Vegetable, instructing Sun Xiaojuan to make Jiao Ba the following day to welcome Tang Lin home and cleanse her of impurities.
In short, all the rituals that Leng Mei had received upon discharge were also to be given to Tang Lin.
Leng Yongkang took half a day off from the factory and arrived at the hospital around a little before ten o’clock.
“Have you packed everything?” Leng Yongkang asked as soon as he entered the ward.
Tang Lin pointed to the washbasin and other toiletries placed on the sickbed and the bedside table. “It’s all right here in plain sight. Can’t you see?”
Leng Hui was also annoyed at Leng Yongkang’s lack of awareness. “He’s just here as a tool to pick you up from the hospital. If there’s anything, just tell him to do it.”
Being discharged was a happy occasion, so Leng Yongkang didn’t get upset at being criticized by the mother and daughter. He picked up the personal belongings, said goodbye to the others in the ward, and led the mother and daughter out.
As they left the inpatient building, Leng Yongkang voiced his confusion: “Why do I feel like the other patients in your ward were reluctant to see you leave?”
“Of course they’re reluctant. Mom and I are their lucky charms for warding off evil spirits.”
The mother and daughter slept soundly every night, and the other two patients, hearing their steady breathing, could also rest easy.
They were indeed the lucky charms for warding off evil spirits.
Leng Yongkang was baffled by what he considered nonsense.
Leng Hui then told him about what happened that night.
“There was such a thing?” Leng Yongkang was stunned.
Leng Hui was displeased by his skepticism. “Why would I lie about something like that?”
Leng Yongkang hung all the items on both sides of the bicycle and nodded. “The older generation’s sayings always have some truth to them. When I was little, my grandmother often warned me not to answer if someone called my name at night and not to pick up money on the roadside during the Ghost Festival.”
Leng Hui was curious about the reasoning behind such beliefs.
Leng Yongkang patiently explained it to her and cautioned her to be careful in the future.
The father and daughter got along quite harmoniously on the way home.
Leng Yongkang rode the bicycle, with Tang Lin sitting on the rear seat and Leng Hui on the crossbar in front.
With his wife and daughter seated before and behind him, passersby who glanced their way would believe they were a loving family.
However, this rather pleasant scene took a sudden turn once they arrived home.
“Comrade Leng Yongkang, where is the Pomelo Leaf Water I asked you to prepare?”
When they reached the doorstep, Leng Hui noticed that no one had prepared the Pomelo Leaf Water to cleanse Tang Lin of impurities, and her expression instantly darkened.
Leng Yongkang glanced at Tang Lin’s face, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and said, “Let me check the kitchen. The water should be in the pot.”
The house was empty. Leng Yongkang didn’t have time to check the inner rooms and turned into the cramped little kitchen. On the stove was a pot specifically for heating water, but the water inside wasn’t the so-called Pomelo Leaf Water.
Under Leng Hui’s anger and Tang Lin’s cold stare, Leng Yongkang smiled awkwardly and said, “Maybe they forgot. Should I go downstairs now to pick some leaves?”
Most of the Leng Family’s neighbors had gone to work, and the housewives who didn’t work had either gone to the market or gathered somewhere downstairs to gossip.
Only Chen Shumei was upstairs tending to the stove. Hearing their family conversation, she tossed several pomelo leaves her son had picked for play from the windowsill into the stove.
“Tang Lin, Xiao Hui, if you don’t mind, you can use my stove to step over the fire basin—it serves the same purpose of dispelling bad energy.”
Leng Hui caught the scent of pomelo leaves in the air and nodded gratefully at her. “Thank you, Auntie Chen.”
Seeing Chen Shumei preparing to move the stove, Tang Lin nudged Leng Yongkang with her foot. “Show some initiative—go help out.”