Hospital 444

"What do you mean by that? Did he just run away?"

"Yes. It felt incredible. He really just ran off. And what’s strange is that he said something very bizarre to me. He actually told me..."

"What did he say?"

At this moment, Lu Mange felt quite confused. She lifted her hand to brush her bangs from her forehead and, sitting in the restaurant seat, said, "Never mind, it’s nothing."

Lin Lu asked anxiously, "Are you trying to kill me with suspense? What exactly did he say?"

"Nothing. I just feel like he might really be mentally unstable. I’m very worried about him now."

"Do you really believe he’s mentally unstable? Is he not just pretending to be crazy?"

Remembering Dr. Mei Quzhen’s words, Lu Mange felt a tightening in her chest.

Just then, something occurred to her, and she called over a nearby waiter.

"Hello, I want to ask you a question."

The waiter said, "Um, miss, hello, if you want to order you can scan the QR code on the table, our restaurant has a discount on Dianping..."

"You just served the table next to us, right?"

"Yes."

Recalling Dr. Mei Quzhen’s remarks about "Malevolent Ghost," she bit her lip and said, "That’s good. You, you think carefully, just now, when you were serving the table next door, did you notice our table?"

"Um, I didn’t pay much attention."

"Do you remember, at our table, how many people were there?"

"It seemed like three people. You alone, and then two people sitting across from you."

Hearing the waiter’s words, she was horrified.

"Are you joking? There were only my husband and me at this table!"

"Then I must have remembered incorrectly."

Thinking back on Mei Quzhen’s words, she felt a chill run through her.

Then, she quickly said, "Could you call your lobby manager over? I’d like to take a look at the restaurant’s surveillance."

Soon, the lobby manager arrived.

"Hello, may I ask what’s the matter? Miss?"

"The person sitting in front of me stole something of mine. My husband went after her, but he’s not answering my calls," said Lu Mange. "Can I please take a look at the restaurant’s surveillance?"

Hearing her say this, the lobby manager showed a troubled expression, "This is a bit inappropriate, um, you could call the police, and as soon as they arrive, we’ll release the surveillance."

"Do I have to call the police?"

"I’m sorry, it’s the policy."

"This is our company’s official Weibo," Lu Mange took out her phone and showed him the official Weibo of her advertising company. "I’m from the advertising planning department of our company. I don’t want to make a big deal by calling the police; just let me see the surveillance, and I can submit a plan to our team to do promotional advertising for your restaurant."

"This... I can’t decide on this..." 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

"Please."

"I’ll discuss it with the store manager then. Actually, our restaurant already gets many internet celebrities visiting, so we might not need your advertisement. I suggest that since it’s a robbery, you should still call the police."

The lobby manager’s expression was clearly full of suspicion, and Lu Mange’s hastily concocted lie was downright unreasonable. Your husband is chasing a robber, why are you still here?

Is this just an excuse?

What exactly do you want to see with such an excuse?

In the end, after negotiating with the store manager, the manager came forward and said to Lu Mange, "Miss, here’s what we’ll do: we can let you view the surveillance. Let’s consider it making a friend, and in the future, we might have some promotional events that we can cooperate on with your company."

"Thank you, manager."

Lu Mange was very nervous.

It wasn’t long before she stood in front of the surveillance screen.

The lobby manager pulled up the surveillance footage from before her arrival.

She watched with wide eyes.

Before she arrived, Li Zhixiao was sitting in his seat, constantly talking to himself, looking incredibly eerie!

"He..." She pointed at the surveillance screen and said to the manager, "Look, he keeps looking to the side, as if he’s talking to someone."

But what the manager said next was completely unexpected to her.

"He is indeed talking to someone. Isn’t there a woman sitting next to him? Is she the one who stole something?"

"What? Manager, are you saying there’s someone sitting next to my husband? Make sure you’ve got it right; it’s this person, wearing a blue casual outfit, black trousers, that’s him."

"Yes, there is definitely someone sitting next to him."

She bit her lip, took out her phone, and brought up a photo of her and Lin Lu.

"Manager, that’s the person, right?"

The manager looked at the photo of Lin Lu on the phone and said, "Um. Yes, that’s right. So you know each other? That’s why you don’t want to call the police? But that doesn’t make sense, then why do you still want to see the surveillance?"

Lu Mange stared intently at the store manager before her and said, "Can I, can I take a photo with the security camera? Just one?"

"Sure. There’s nothing bad in the footage anyway. But, I hope you won’t go around saying there’s been a robbery at our store, okay, Ms. Lu?"

After leaving the popular store, she walked for a long time before quickly approaching the entrance of a grocery store.

She picked up her phone and said to the grocery store owner, "Have you seen this person?"

On the phone screen was a picture of Lin Lu.

The grocery store owner shook his head and said, "I haven’t seen her."

Then she brought up the security camera photo she had taken.

"Then look, this woman sitting beside this man in the photo, is she the same woman I just showed you?"

"Hmm, she looks quite similar, let me see... yes, it should be the same person."

This was a randomly chosen grocery store.

He had no reason to lie to her.

The ’ghost’ Director Mei Quzhen spoke of was not Li Zhixiao, but Lin Lu!

Lin Lu, she was a ghost!

All the unusual reactions from Zhixiao were caused by Lin Lu!

The very thought of this terrified her.

She walked on the street for a long while, by now it was getting darker, but she dared not return to Lin Lu’s house.

Luckily, she carried with her the protective charms she had gotten from Hospital 444. With the charms, she could feel somewhat at ease.

She even feared to call Lin Lu again.

She tried calling Li Zhixiao, but he still didn’t pick up. When she sent him a WeChat message, he surprisingly blocked her straight away.

So she made a call to Liu Gang.

"Mang Ge, what’s up?"

"Can you reach Zhixiao? If so, tell him right away that he’s... he’s in great danger! He needs to contact me immediately! Hurry!"

"What do you mean?"

"Just contact him! No questions now!"

Then she hung up the phone and didn’t take any more calls from Liu Gang, to prevent him from wasting any time.

Next, she rushed into a hotel and took a room.

She didn’t go home because she wasn’t sure if this so-called Malevolent Ghost would follow her home and harm her parents. The protection from the charms might not extend to her parents.

After entering the hotel room, she sat on the bed and picked up her phone again, carefully examining the security camera photo she had taken.

In the photo, there were clearly only Zhixiao and her.

No one else.

Lu Mange started to recall everything she had experienced with Lin Lu since they met.

When exactly did Lin Lu turn into a ghost?

Or was she a ghost from the very beginning?

According to what Director Mei Quzhen said, the curse of the Malevolent Ghost was extremely terrifying.

Even with this protective charm, could she truly be safe?

Li Zhixiao still hadn’t contacted her.

She could only try calling Liu Gang again.

But just as she was about to exit the phone screen, suddenly, the box with the protective charms she had placed beside the bed moved slightly.

She startled, then noticed that the box with the charms had opened a bit.

At the same time, the phone screen changed.

She could faintly make out a dark silhouette appearing alongside Li Zhixiao!

"What is this?"

The box with the charms closed again.

Immediately after, the dark silhouette on the phone screen also disappeared!

"What in the world is this?"

Lu Mange felt increasingly terrified.

Suddenly, the phone rang.

The caller was Lin Lu!

She gripped the phone tightly, too afraid to answer.

Lin Lu... what on earth was she???