They soon arrived at Shou City Hospital.
Before getting out of the car, Shen Mo skillfully put on thick black-framed sunglasses and a mask, completely hiding his features.
Bai Lixin glanced at Shen Mo’s actions and asked, “Are you getting off?”
Shen Mo had just put on his sunglasses so he looked at Bai Lixin with his fingers supporting the glasses. “Yes, after all, I need to see a doctor. If you’re sick, you need to take medicine. You shouldn’t hide illness.”
Bai Lixin: “…”
‘You can talk nonsense, but you can’t take medicine recklessly.’
The assistant was also about to get off, but Shen Mo gave him a casual glance, and the assistant immediately received the signal. “Oh, I suddenly remembered there’s something to do on the set. So, well, we’ll be heading back. Give me a call when you’re done.”
The assistant stretched his thumb and pinky and gestured at his ear, and before the two of them could react, he got back into the car and it sped off.
Bai Lixin glanced at the calm Shen Mo beside him. “Is your assistant in a hurry to go back and get money?”
Shen Mo said seriously, “You’re overestimating him. His money is all in the hands of his wife; he doesn’t have any.”
Bai Lixin: “…”
It was a workday today, and there weren’t many people coming to the hospital for treatment at this time.
The two walked into the hospital lobby and approached the reception. A young nurse was handling reception duties. At the moment, the young nurse was bowing her head, holding a phone while watching a drama.
It wasn’t until Bai Lixin called the nurse twice that she finally lifted her head from her phone.
As soon as she saw Bai Lixin, her eyes lit up. “Bai Lixin, why are you here?”
The reception nurse was none other than Twin Tails, the player who had entered the copy with them, and now worked as a nurse at the hospital.
Bai Lixin politely smiled at Twin Tails. “What a coincidence. How come you’re here? Isn’t your work shift at 8 pm in the evening?”
Twin-tails: “No, it’s not. I have a three-shift rotation in my studio. The first day is the night shift, then I had an 18-hour break, and now I’m on the day shift. Why are you here? You’re not here to find me, right?”
Bai Lixin: “Was it your shift last night?”
Twin-tails: “No, I just got here.”
Bai Lixin noticed a patient hurriedly approaching the reception. Twin-tails dealt with the person a bit awkwardly. After the patient left, Bai Lixin’s gaze fell on the computer screen Twin-tails had just used. “Can you help me check some information?”
Twin-tails: “What do you want to check?”
Bai Lixin: “Around 9 PM yesterday, an ambulance brought a patient here. The patient was transported from the film and television city. Can you check if you can find any information?”
Twin-tails sat down at the desk and opened the search page. “Sure, wait a moment. Let me check.”
After about a minute, she turned the screen toward Bai Lixin. “I found it. Yesterday evening, Shou City Hospital only dispatched one ambulance. The patient’s name is Lu Dali. I can see the registration information, but I can’t find the cause of death.”
Bai Lixin’s gaze landed on the screen, where the level system recorded the man’s name, ID information, and admission time.
“The one who performed the surgery was Dr. Ren from the emergency department. At this time, Dr. Ren should still be on duty. Shall I take you to find him?”
Bai Lixin glanced at Twin-tails. “Yes, thank you for guiding me. But is it okay for you to leave your post here?”
Twin-tails smiled readily. “No problem. I’ll call another nurse to take over for me.”
With that, Twin-tails picked up her phone and made a call. After the call was connected, she spoke a few words. Soon, a nurse dressed in uniform came hurrying over from a distant corridor. She shouted to Twin-tails as she walked, “I’m here, I’m here. You can go now. Go get busy!”
After conveying a few words to the nurse, Twin-tails turned and led Bai Lixin in the direction of the emergency department.
She walked with bouncy steps, and her twin tails swayed and trembled with each step, looking extremely cute.
Twin-tails absentmindedly twisted a strand of hair around her finger and looked back at the person behind Bai Lixin. “Who is he?”
Shen Mo silently followed behind Bai Lixin, his square black-framed sunglasses covering his sharp gaze perfectly.
Maybe because he was putting on an act, Shen Mo followed behind Bai Lixin and unless you observed closely, he seemed like an ordinary lackey with no presence.
Bai Lixin hesitated for two seconds. “He is…”
Shen Mo intervened, “I’m Lu Gong’s colleague. I heard he had an accident and came to see him.”
“Oh, then come along,” Twin-tails glanced at Shen Mo, then at Bai Lixin. “Do you know each other?”
Bai Lixin cast a sidelong glance at Shen Mo. “Yeah, I was working next door on the set last night, so we came together.”
Twin-tails looked at Bai Lixin, then at Shen Mo. She giggled and continued walking ahead.
“There don’t seem to be many patients in this hospital,” Bai Lixin commented casually as they walked past a patient.
“Yeah, I noticed that too after I came here. Thankfully, fewer patients means my workload isn’t too heavy,” Twin-tails said. “This Shou City Hospital is somewhat remote, so not many patients come here.”
“Also, there might be another reason,” Twin-tails suddenly lowered her voice, saying mysteriously, “Everyone believes in feng shui. I’ve heard from the nurses here tha this hospital was built on a graveyard.”
Bai Lixin frowned at Twin-tails.
Twin-tails continued, “Over twenty years ago when the city was planned, they moved all the graves away from here and then renovated and built this hospital. They say this hospital has particularly heavy Yin energy at night. Because there were many deaths here before, sometimes you might even see supernatural occurrences. Some even say it’s connected to the underworld, especially at midnight. Don’t wander around randomly, because you might end up crossing from the mortal realm to the ghost realm and never return.”
As she spoke, she shivered suddenly.
Bai Lixin asked, “Have you encountered anything?”
Twin-tails’s pupils trembled, and she looked somewhat scared. “I haven’t. I was alone at the reception the night before yesterday. I was so scared I didn’t even dare to go to the bathroom.”
While talking, Twin-tails stopped in her tracks.
She stood by the elevator and pressed the up button. As the elevator doors slowly opened, a masked doctor walked out.
Twin-tails greeted the doctor skillfully and then waved for Bai Lixin and Shen Mo to enter the elevator.
She pressed the button for the third floor. “The office of the emergency room is on the third floor. The doctor on duty at this time should be awake. I’ll take you there. If you’re lucky, you might be able to ask about the situation.”
After saying this, Twin-tails glanced at Shen Mo, then leaned closer to Bai Lixin and asked in a low voice, “Why do you want to ask about that Lu Dali? Does he have something to do with our mission?”
“Not really,” Bai Lixin explained. “It’s just that I happened to be nearby when this person fell ill yesterday, so I’m a bit curious about the cause of his death.”
“Wow,” Twin-tails tugged at her ponytail. “Is there something suspicious?”
Bai Lixin recounted his findings to Twin-tails, and her grape like eyes widened slightly as she listened. She covered her mouth in fear and asked, “How could this be? Are you suggesting he didn’t die of natural causes? Could it be related to our task?”
Bai Lixin said, “I really don’t know. By the way, do you have any clues?”
Twin-tails replied, “I didn’t see the patient records in the ophthalmology department on the first day, but I sneaked in the next day and took a look. There aren’t many patients on this side of Shou City Hospital who come for ophthalmology treatment. Most of them are elderly people having cataract surgeries, and a few are young and middle-aged people having LASIK for myopia. I reviewed the records, but didn’t find anything.”
“Perhaps the clue is not in this hospital? Since it’s related to the eyes, isn’t Shou City Eye Hospital more suspicious?”
The elevator made a “ding” and slowly came to a stop. Shen Mo and Bai Lixin followed Twin-tails out of the elevator, heading towards the office of the emergency room.
While walking, Twin-tails turned her head and glanced back at Bai Lixin. “Bai Lixin, how about I take you to the ophthalmology department later? We can find an opportunity to look at the registration book and see if you can find anything.”
Bai Lixin’s steps paused slightly. “No need. If the killer is intent on hiding, they would delete any possible information. You’ve been there twice and found nothing. I might not find anything either.”
Twin-tails: “Okay then.”
The lighting in the third-floor corridor was somewhat dim, and the whole building was extremely quiet.
Occasionally, a door would appear in the middle of the white walls, each one with a small glass pane in the center. These glass panes were probably intended to allow doctors to make rounds from outside, but now they were covered with thick paper from the inside, blocking all sight.
Twin-tails casually knocked on a door. “There’s no one in here. These are all leftover rooms. When this hospital was built, it was designed with high occupancy in mind, but after it was completed, there weren’t many patients, so many rooms were left abandoned.”
“These used to be patient rooms in this row. Later, some of these rooms were converted into doctors’ restrooms because there was nowhere for the doctors on duty to rest. The unused rooms were also covered with paper from the inside and locked up.”
They walked along the long corridor for a while and stopped in front of a door.
Compared to the rooms before, which only had doors without nameplates, this room had a nameplate hanging above the door. Three large words were written on it: “Emergency Duty Room.”
Twin-tails leaned over and lightly tapped the back of the door with her index finger. As she knocked, she asked in a soft voice, “Hello, doctor, are you there?”
“Who is it?” Soon, a heavy question came from inside.
Twin-tails responded, “I’m a nurse on duty at our hospital. The friend of the patient from yesterday’s emergency case has come. They want to ask about the patient’s condition. Can you come out?”
“Uh… wait a moment,” sounds of dressing came from inside. A few minutes later, the door was pulled open from the inside, revealing a slightly chubby man with a sleepy expression who stood at the door, looking at the three of them.
The hair on top of his head was messy, and his white coat was wrinkled. His gaze swept back and forth over the three at the door. The man asked, “Who are you, how are you related to the deceased?”
Shen Mo spoke, “I’m his colleague.”
The doctor tidied his hair a bit. “What do you want to ask?”
Shen Mo inquired, “How did Lu Dali die?”
The doctor responded, “If you’re just his colleague, I can’t tell you the cause of death. That’s the deceased’s privacy, and only family members have the right to know. I’m sorry, you can go back.”
Bai Lixin added, “If you can’t tell us the cause of death, can you at least tell us when he died? Was he in the middle of resuscitation?”
The doctor pushed his glasses up. “You might not believe it if I tell you, but when he was brought in, his body was already cold and stiff.”
Bai Lixin was accommodating, “We believe you.”
The doctor almost rolled his eyes. “…”
‘You don’t have to believe me.’
Bai Lixin continued, “Did any of Lu Dali’s family come?”
Doctor: “No, the hospital already checked. His parents passed away long ago, and he had no siblings or spouse.”
Bai Lixin pondered, “So, no one can know the cause of his death now?”
Doctor: “No, the police can know. If we think the deceased died suddenly and doesn’t have family members, we’ll contact the local public security bureau. With their assistance, the body will be transferred to the forensic department, and the forensic department will perform an autopsy to determine the true cause of death. Our hospital is responsible for saving lives; the cause of death is a matter for the forensic experts.”
Bai Lixin asked, “So, where is Lu Dali’s body now?”
Doctor: “It has been transferred to the forensic department. There’s a dissecting room in our hospital. If you want to know the cause of death, you can go to the first basement and take a look.”
Twin-tails chimed in, “Thank you, doctor.”
The doctor yawned, “No need to thank me. If you manage to find out the cause of his death, let me know too. This is the strangest medical record I’ve ever seen. It’s May now, and it’s just a ten-minute drive from the point of departure to the hospital. Even if you put a person in the cold storage for more than ten minutes, they wouldn’t freeze into a popsicle. Although we received two patients with extremely low body temperatures from the film city a couple of days ago, they weren’t this cold.”
Bai Lixin looked up quietly. “I know those two. All three of them should be crew members from the same production team. Doctor, do you know which room they’re in now? We’d like to visit the other two.”
Doctor: “They seem to be on the 12th floor of the inpatient department, specifically in room 1209.”
After thanking the doctor, the three headed towards the 12th floor of the inpatient department.
Although Twin-tails had only been at this hospital for two days, she had already familiarized herself with its various areas.
She quickly led Bai Lixin to the inpatient department and located the two men who had initially fainted.
On their way to the inpatient department, they bought some fruits and dairy products from the hospital’s shop.
The door to the ward was tightly shut. They didn’t rush in but stood in the corridor, peering inside.
This ward was a double room, with two weak men sitting on beds positioned against the wall, facing each other. Their mouths moved, indicating they were conversing about something.
Both men didn’t seem very old, likely in their early thirties. Their complexions were healthy, and they looked spirited with no signs of illness.
Bai Lixin and Shen Mo exchanged a glance, a trace of puzzlement passing through their eyes, and then they started reading their lips.
—“I didn’t expect it to really work. I just got a checkup yesterday, and the tumor is really gone.”
—“Me too, my lupus erythematosus has cleared up.”
—“We really have to thank Lady Yuexian. Without her, I wouldn’t know what to do.”
—“Yes, yes, good brother. Once we’re discharged, we must offer our gratitude properly.”
Lady Yuexian?
*Yuexian means Moon Immortal.
Bai Lixin mentally repeated the name once and continued to focus on the lips of the people inside.
The two inside seemed like they wanted to say something more, but the man closer to the door caught sight of Bai Lixin and the others outside and immediately exchanged a glance with the person beside him.
The two who were conversing instantly shut their mouths, their expressions furrowing as they looked warily towards the door.
Knowing they had been discovered, Bai Lixin didn’t try to pretend he hadn’t been eavesdropping and knocked on the door. He didn’t wait for an answer from inside but pushed the door open, stood at the entrance, and raised the basket of fruits he was holding. “Hello.”
The two on the beds still looked cautious, their gazes scanning the newcomers. When their eyes landed on Shen Mo, who was disguised, their expressions suddenly transformed. The wariness disappeared in an instant, replaced by surprise. “Shen Mo?”
Shen Mo removed his mask and offered a polite smile to the two on the beds. “Hello. I came to the hospital today for a checkup. I heard you both were here, so I came to see you.”
The two men’s expressions were slightly excited. “Ah! We really didn’t expect that a big shot like you would remember us. It’s enough that you’re here, but why did you bring so many things? You’re too polite. Come in, come in.”
Saying that, they hurriedly prepared to get up from their beds but Shen Mo stopped them. “No need, you guys are patients. Just stay lying down.”
Twin-tails didn’t know who Shen Mo was, so Bai Lixin gave her a meaningful glance. After Shen Mo and Bai Lixin entered the room, Bai Lixin closed the door, leaving Twin-tails outside in the corridor.
Twin-tails stood in the corridor for a while, and seeing that the two inside didn’t seem like they were going to come out, she didn’t linger either and turned to leave.
Inside the ward, Bai Lixin placed the basket of fruits and the milk on the bedside table. The slightly longer-faced man grinned and said, “You bought so many things. Thank you for your trouble, Movie King Shen. There are stools here. Don’t just stand, please sit down.”
There were a few stools by the beds. Bai Lixin fetched them and placed one behind Shen Mo. He then sat in the gap between the two beds, next to Shen Mo.
The other man with a square face scrutinized Bai Lixin. “Who are you? Why haven’t we seen you before?”
Shen Mo explained, “He’s a caregiver I just hired. He’ll be taking care of my daily life for a while.”
Bai Lixin: “?”
‘A caregiver? Paying money to have someone take care of your daily life? Aren’t you just trying to freeload without paying?’
“A caregiver?” the man with the longer face said. “What’s wrong with you? Why would you need a caregiver?”
Shen Mo’s tone was steady. “I have a low-grade fever.”
The man with the longer face looked puzzled. “A low-grade fever?”
Bai Lixin added, “His body is very cold, as if he’s been in an ice cellar all day.”
The man with the longer face and the one with a square face exchanged a glance.
The man with a square face tentatively asked, “May I touch him?”
