After finishing his meal, Jiang Chen went upstairs to the sofa in the tea with milk shop for a nap.
In the afternoon, there was another class. During the lesson, he opened his phone to search for information about North Second Road Hospital. It was a decades-old hospital located in the old district of the eastern suburbs, the largest hospital in that area.
A few days ago, a family brought in a man with half his face a bloody mess. The doctor asked a few questions, and the family said the man was injured by falling construction equipment at a site.
After understanding the type of trauma, the doctor pushed the man into the emergency room.
During this process, the emergency doctor noticed a problem: the man's face and hands were very cold. However, seeing the ice pack applied next to the wound, he didn't think much of it.
The emergency procedure began and ended in less than a minute.
Because after hooking up the heart monitor, they found that the man had long lost all signs of life.
Not only that, during the on-site autopsy, the emergency doctor discovered a terrifying fact: the man's body temperature was below 20 degrees, and he had been dead for over 48 hours. This was a patient who had died long ago!
All the doctors and nurses in the emergency room broke out in a cold sweat.
Especially the emergency doctor, who had clearly seen the man's hand move and heard a faint, painful moan from his mouth.
The emergency doctor thought of something and quickly ran out, but the family who had brought the man in had already left. He immediately reported to the Public Security Office, but they couldn't find the patient's family.
Later, the hospital could only send the patient to the morgue. During this process, they discovered another strange thing: under the patient's normal clothes was a hospital gown, suggesting he was a patient from another hospital.
Moreover, this hospital gown was peculiar. Generally, hospital gowns have blue and white vertical stripes, while prisoner uniforms have black and white horizontal stripes. This patient's clothes had blue and white horizontal stripes, which seemed to carry an ominous meaning.
A patient who had died long ago was brought to the hospital, and no one knew what this meant. But after placing the body in the morgue, everyone considered the matter closed, leaving the rest to the Public Security Office.
However, in the following days, North Second Road Hospital experienced a series of mysterious deaths among critically ill patients, doctors, and nurses. The hospital's higher-ups realized something was wrong and contacted the Public Security Office again, which reported the matter to the Netherworld and recorded it in the Underworld App.
"A patient who died long ago, a strange hospital gown..." Jiang Chen muttered to himself, noting down some key information.
...
After class, Jiang Chen took a taxi to the old district. Though called the old district, it was quite bustling, being within Jiangbei City. Just two years ago, two thirty-story office buildings were erected here.
As the car passed through the streets, there were many people in the shops on both sides. However, when it turned into another side road, the surroundings suddenly became quiet, and a sign stood by the roadside.
At the entrance, Jiang Chen got out of the car. The security guard at the gate glanced at him without asking for any identification.
Inside the gate, there was a large osmanthus tree on the left and a row of pine trees on the right. Along the way, several trash bins emitted the pungent smell of disinfectants and medicines.
The hospital had three buildings. Jiang Chen thought for a moment and walked into the main building.
It was already after work hours, so there was no one at the registration desk, and the doors of the departments on both sides were closed. The corridor lights were on, and Jiang Chen only saw a nurse on duty on the second floor, walking hurriedly with a stack of medical records in her hand.
"Hello, nurse," Jiang Chen called out.
The nurse's hand shook violently, and she turned her head with a displeased expression, "It's late at night, don't just call out to people suddenly! The emergency doctor is on the third floor, go there yourself."
"Oh, I'm not looking for a doctor. I just want to ask where your hospital's morgue is?" Jiang Chen smiled.
Hearing this, the nurse's face froze.
Late at night, someone suddenly runs over to ask where the morgue is.
Anyone would be scared.
"Nurse, could you tell me? I have something urgent at the morgue," Jiang Chen said with a smile, trying to appear as gentle as possible.
But this smile only seemed more eerie to the nurse.
What urgent matter could someone have at the morgue late at night?
In a hurry to lie down in there?
"Ah!" The nurse screamed, thinking of something, and her footsteps clattered as she ran upstairs.
Jiang Chen: "..."
He could only follow her upstairs, trying to reassure her, "Nurse, don't be afraid. I have nothing to do with the recent reports of a serial killer."
When Jiang Chen reached the upper floor, he saw her running towards the other side of the corridor, probably trying to lose him by going downstairs from the other side. It seemed that tonight, this nurse wouldn't dare stay in the hospital.
"Nurse, slow down, wait for me!" Jiang Chen called out again, then shook his head with a smile, no longer chasing her.
Some things couldn't be said directly, but the hospital tonight was definitely dangerous, scaring her away was for her own good.
The lights in the third-floor emergency room were on.
Jiang Chen walked in and saw a middle-aged doctor in a white coat playing on his phone. Noticing someone entering, the doctor looked up, "Are you here for a consultation?"
"No, I'm not here for a consultation. I want to ask where your hospital's morgue is."
Hearing this, the doctor hesitated for a moment and tentatively asked, "Are you here to handle... that matter?"
Jiang Chen was taken aback, "You know?"
"Heh, I signed a confidentiality agreement. The comrades from the Public Security Office said someone would come in the next few days." The doctor smiled, letting out a long breath, "That's great, we've been on edge these days."
"By the way, my name is Zhang Wenbo."
"Jiang Chen," Jiang Chen nodded, "Take me there."
"Alright, the morgue is below the inpatient department. Let's get the keys from the first floor first."
The two walked down the hallway.
"By the way, tell me more about this matter," Jiang Chen said.
The Underworld App had information, but it couldn't compare to the depth of understanding from someone who had experienced it firsthand.
"Ever since Patient No. 18 arrived, the first to die was one of my patients," Zhang Wenbo sighed.
Jiang Chen knew that Patient No. 18 referred to that strange patient, whose bizarre hospital gown had an 18 on it.
"My patient was an elderly person who had a benign soft tissue tumor removed. His heart had some issues, and given his age, he was in critical condition. But he had been recuperating in the hospital for half a month, and his condition was gradually improving. He might have been able to leave the critical care unit next month," Zhang Wenbo continued.
"But on the third day after Patient No. 18 disappeared from the morgue, the elderly patient suddenly suffered multi-organ failure and died despite resuscitation efforts. Medically speaking, it's impossible; his condition shouldn't have caused such complications!"