Hospital 444

Night.

That evening, Song Ran was on night shift, so Hai Yunlan and Su Wen entered the bar.

Tomorrow...

She must see Doctor Dai. Therefore, the best way to find out who the Faceless Leader was at this time was to collect a strand of hair from each of the three suspects.

With the hair, once she was in front of Doctor Dai, she could immediately learn the identity of the Faceless Leader.

Even though she didn’t know why she had been investigating the identity of the Faceless Leader before losing her memory, she surmised that the leader was probably related to a series of paranormal horrors on the island.

Perhaps, knowing the leader’s identity, she could put an end to the lawlessness of the Wumianhui.

She instinctively felt Su Wen shouldn’t be the one, but... something still felt off.

At this moment, there weren’t many people in the bar.

And the resident singer Ni’an Xia’er was sitting at the center of the bar, playing the guitar while seated.

"She is Ni’an Xia’er, the most famous singer in the bar," Su Wen, oblivious to Hai Yunlan’s intentions for coming here, said, "You didn’t use to come to this bar much, and definitely not at night."

After entering the bar, she began to feel a strong pull on her memories again.

At this moment, Hai Yunlan was almost certain that she had been to this bar shortly before she lost her memory!

Before she lost her memory, she had found a clue to the Faceless Leader.

This was clearly related to Dan Ka.

That person called Dan Ka was supposedly a mid-level boss of the Wumianhui who knew the identity of the Faceless Leader.

So...

"Ni’an Xia’er..." Hai Yunlan looked towards the resident singer.

Then, she shifted her gaze to a middle-aged man by the bar.

"Is he the bar owner?"

"Yeah, Uncle Dan Ka. He’s been running this bar for over twenty years," Su Wen replied.

The middle-aged bar owner Dan Ka, however, was quite slim and without the typical beer belly seen in men of his age.

Although Dan Ka was the owner, he was currently working as a bartender.

Su Wen approached the counter and said to Dan Ka, "Boss, give me a bottle of gin."

"Sure." At that moment, he glanced at Hai Yunlan standing behind Su Wen and asked, "Does the lady not drink?"

Hai Yunlan said, "I’ll pass."

"Alright."

Then, she heard Ni’an start singing an English song.

The melody of the song was beautiful.

The singing Ni’an, with her wavy curls and heavily applied makeup, was in full swing.

"This song..."

It seemed familiar in her memory.

"Why does the sun go on shining

(Why does the sun continue to shine)

why does the sea rush to shore

(Why do the waves lash against the shore)

don’t they know it’s the end of the world

(Don’t they know it’s the end of the world?)"

She felt as though she was very familiar with this song, as if she’d heard it somewhere before.

"This is ’The End of the World’ by Skeeter Davis," Dan Ka handed over the gin and said, "If you translate it directly, it’s the end of the world."

"She sings it so well, as if English is her native language..."

Then, Hai Yunlan walked towards Ni’an Xia’er.

Following along with the singer’s melody, she began to sing as well.

"It ended when I lost your love

(It ended when I lost your love)

I wake up in the morning

(When I wake up in the morning)

and I wonder why everything’s the same as it was

(And I wonder why everything’s just as it was)

I can’t understand, no I can’t understand

(I cannot understand, I simply cannot understand)

how life goes on the way it does

(How life continues on as it does)

why does my heart go on beating

(Why does my heart keep beating?)"

As she sang on, she realized that she had sung the lyrics before Ni’an did.

She must’ve also sung this song before in the past.

So...

She took steps towards Ni’an, finally sitting down at the table closest to her.

Dan Ka watched her and said, "I think I’ve seen her before..."

Su Wen was taken aback and said, "She shouldn’t have been here very often."

Dan Ka took a closer look and said, "I must have seen her recently. But I can’t remember exactly when."

At this moment, Yun Lan looked at Ni’an, along with Dan Ka and Su Wen behind her...

In her remaining memories, the impressions these three gave her were all significantly associated with the leader of the Wumianhui.

These three people...

One of them was the leader of the Wumianhui.

As the melody of the song developed, she felt her memories gradually reviving, bit by bit...

On a certain evening before she lost her memory...

She had come to this bar.

She was there to ascertain if one of them was indeed the leader of the Wumianhui.

At that time, these three were the prime suspects in her mind.

Yes, it was then...

Back then, she didn’t know why, but she was sure that one of the three was the leader of the Wumianhui. It’s precisely because she was sure of that, so she...

"Why have I lost such a crucial piece of memory?"

If she could only remember...

The heights and builds of these three people were not too different. If they put on masks and gloves, especially masks that could change one’s voice, even a woman could disguise herself as a man.

The Wumianhui originated half a century ago, but even Dan Ka, the oldest-looking among them, did not seem likely. If that’s the case, then the leader might be from the second or third generation. Thinking this way, it’s probably a descendant of the original Wumianhui leader. Yes, that’s the most probable.

The identity of the Wumianhui leader was shrouded in mystery, but what could be known was that the leader had vast assets, very few were aware of their identity, and the most frightening aspect of the organization they established, the Wumianhui, was their intelligence capabilities. It was said that if the Wumianhui really wanted to find something out, they could even find out what you had for dinner last night. Therefore, it was only a matter of time before the Wumianhui found her.

She had to identify the leader of the Wumianhui before that happened.

In this town, there was a curse system that could be controlled by humans!

...

"Artificially controlled curse categories."

Dai Lin sat in front of the computer, reading this paranormal medical research paper that was a full thirty thousand words long.

Downloading this paper had cost him 150 Spiritual Therapy Points.

The first author of the paper was Fei Jingyan, and the second author was Mei Quzhen.

This made Dai Lin feel intrigued; co-authoring papers was common, but co-authoring across different departments was quite rare in Hospital 444, a place rife with factional strife, so inter-departmental cooperation in writing papers was extremely unusual.

"I never thought there were so many curses that could be controlled by humans... but, the logic behind these curses remains elusive."

For this reason, he could understand Mei Quzhen’s mindset as well.

For a doctor, dealing with incurable diseases often brought the most headaches. No one wants to be in such a situation.

"So..."

How should the logic behind these artificially controlled curses be deciphered?

For Dai Lin at the moment, there were still far too many issues to worry about.

He needed to figure out how to save his brother Dai Wei...

And how to rescue Milan, who had become a malevolent ghost in the mirror...

Moreover, how to pass the professional title examination, that is, the examination at the Oroñe Hotel, is also crucial.

However, looking at the paper before him and the black skull, Dai Lin realized that perhaps a bigger problem was how to find the curse’s principle for this kind of special cursed item.

Last time, the failure to obtain relevant curse knowledge about seed ghosts through An Xiunian greatly frustrated Mei Quzhen.

What about this time?

Is there a way to achieve this?

If the Curse Item Department could really decipher it and create targeted cursed items for malevolent ghost curses...

Yes, targeted cursed items.

This is a point frequently mentioned in countless paranormal medical papers.

To develop targeted cursed items for curses.

Essentially, cursed items are somewhat similar to vaccines. A vaccine is essentially a virus that has had its toxicity reduced or completely removed; by injecting it into humans, the immune system recognizes it and successfully produces antibodies against the virus. Cursed items also work by sealing the original curse of the cursed item, transforming it into something beneficial to the patient. Clinically, many cursed items need to be transplanted into the patient’s body during surgery, but the cost is that the patient must forever bear the cursed item’s backlash and rejection reaction, and their lifespan will also be reduced. Most targeted cursed items require surgical transplantation into patients.

The Evil Ghost Department is the only clinical department in Hospital 444 that lacks targeted cursed items. And using targeted cursed items aimed at karma ghosts and vicious ghost curses to treat malevolent ghost curses would be inefficient. Undoubtedly, this is what Fei Jingyan really wanted to ask Mei Quzhen about... What she initially wanted to create when she established the Evil Ghost Department was targeted cursed items for the specific treatment of malevolent ghost curses.

Originally, many opposed her creation of the Evil Ghost Department for a variety of reasons. This can be found in the paper before him. Traditionally, malevolent ghost curses are treated with the same approach as vicious ghost curses, that is, simply symptomatic treatment. As a doctor, Dai Lin was, of course, well aware that symptomatic treatment could not compare to etiological treatment in prognosis. Just because the clinical symptoms and imaging manifestations of vicious ghost and malevolent ghost curses were highly similar, completely identical treatments were applied. In the end, it was about avoiding additional responsibilities and seeking stability. After all, as long as the patients’ survival period could be extended and they did not die in the hospital or on the operating table due to ineffective treatment, that was what mattered. The ultimate death of the patients would be attributed to the doctor who treated them last when they came to the hospital.

"If we can develop real targeted cursed items, not only can they be implanted into patients, but also into paranormal doctors." Dai Lin knew that if he were promoted to deputy chief physician, he would immediately get another chance to have a new cursed item implanted.

In this way, Dai Lin hoped that he could assist Mei Quzhen effectively.

As a doctor...

There are many things that are known to be difficult, but still need to be done.

He remembered a sentence from Luo Ren’s essay that had left a deep impression on him: Medicine is an ivory tower built on a heap of white bones.

"Maybe I should head over earlier."

In the Demons Department, with Maria’s help, Dai Lin had gained the ability of a spatial curse item.

That was also why he was able to escape the Demons Department in the first place.

Dileiwito, this small Southeast Asian nation, is visa-free for Chinese, so buying a plane ticket is all it takes to go there. Besides, Black Reef Island is not a tourist destination, so tickets are not hard to come by. But, however you put it, it would still take some time to get there.

Perhaps, he should set off right away.

He always felt that if he did not go soon, something might happen.

"So... let’s go."

If he set off now...

He should be able to find out the clues very soon!

"And from my research..." Dai Lin read the last part of the paper: "Curses that can be artificially controlled are often related to malevolent ghost curses. Human malice can sometimes strengthen the power of a curse. Especially the so-called Karma Force, karma obstacles, are themselves the result of human malice."

Karma Force...

At 666 Hospital, it is referred to as original sin.

Yes, original sin!

Human original sin is the key component of demons!