Hospital 444

"Dad, I was wrong, please, just this once... just this once... I shouldn’t have gone to the video hall to watch those kinds of movies... don’t go... so many of my classmates are there too..."

"Right is right, wrong is wrong! If you’ve made a mistake, you should be punished!"

...

"Yin Wuque, sorry, but you cannot join our club."

"But... I really love playing the piano, why can’t I join the music club?"

"Your dad would probably blame us for leading you astray. Remember? Your deskmate helped you cheat during a test, and you scored high. But what happened afterward? Your dad erased the answers and made you retake the same test, and even though you copied it all over again, you still flunked. And then you snitched on your deskmate, and when your dad brought you to school... Our music club is just a small group, the activity room is hard come by, and it can’t withstand such turmoil. What if you do poorly on a test again..."

"I, I didn’t want to..."

"If you want to learn piano, why don’t you have your father learn it!"

How could his father possibly let him learn to play the piano? Becoming a success through music is a very small probability event in this world, and naturally not the main path to success.

...

Yin Wuque inadvertently lit his second cigarette.

"But I don’t know why, I always feel that Dai Lin might possibly come back alive."

"That’s unlikely..."

Yin Wuque’s head tilted back slightly...

"Shi Ling... only with your death could I have you back by my side..."

...

"Shi Ling, I want to change my name."

"Isn’t Wuque a pretty good name?"

"I don’t like this name. In this world, there is no one who is perfect. Shi Ling, if someone does something wrong, they can be forgiven, right?"

"Did you do something wrong? But, Wuque... even if you did, I think I would be willing to forgive you. As you said, there’s no one without flaws in this world. My parents used to always say I spent too much time on the violin, thinking it was too difficult to make a career out of music. But I was determined, I just wanted to play the violin. One day, I’ll definitely perform in Vienna’s concert halls!"

"Do you really like my name?"

"Yes, I do."

"So, you would forgive me for anything I did wrong?"

"As long as it’s not a fundamental mistake, of course I would forgive you, Wuque. I like you, so I would even like your faults."

...

"Cheng Jun, there are some things I will only say to you." Yin Wuque took another drag on his cigarette, "I’ve always... despised people like Gao Menghua and Gao Heyann who take the initiative to work in hospitals. They always talk about medical ethics and patients as if they were saints or virgins. Why pretend to be saintly when you’re a mere mortal? Isn’t it right that people should have flaws and fears, and think about themselves more than others?"

It seemed that Han Ming’s words before he died had stirred Yin Wuque, who was now almost babbling.

"Shi Ling never pressured me to become a certain type of person, she accepted me fully, whether I am the obscure pianist Yin Wuque, or Yin Wuque, the Executive Vice President of Hospital 444—it’s all the same to her! She never made demands on me, discussed right and wrong, or debated what kind of person I should be! Yet she died, killed by the curse of the Abyss’s pollution!"

Yin Wuque looked coldly at Huo Jialan who had turned into a skeleton. As he did so, Huo Jialan, now a skeleton, began... to move!

Inside the blood-red space, there were countless skeletons, and Huo Jialan moved to the edge of the blood-red space, melting into the multitude of skeletons there.

Then...

Suddenly, another skeleton walked out from inside the blood-red space.

"You go first, Cheng Jun. I want to be alone for a while."

"I understand..."

Xie Chengjun left.

And that skeleton came up to Yin Wuque.

Now, only Yin Wuque and the skeleton remained.

Yin Wuque put out his cigarette in the ashtray on Han Ming’s desk and walked in front of the skeleton, raising his hands and hugging the skull.

"Dad... you’re already dead. Now, I’ve killed so many people, but what does it matter? You can no longer discuss principles and right and wrong with me. You can’t scold me anymore, can’t make me write self-criticism, and can’t force me to apologize to anyone."

He raised his finger pointing towards Han Ming’s seat.

"Look, the man I just killed, he was just like you, even willing to report his own uncle who gave money to treat his father’s cancer, which led to his father’s worsening condition and death. Such a person is the ideal model in your mind; you wanted me to become like him, right?"

Then he brought his face closer to the skull in front of him, his forehead almost touching the bone.

"But what does that matter, Dad? In the end, didn’t he die at the hands of your despised son? I have no friends, no higher education, no high-paying job, so you said your education of me was a failure, and you were even ashamed to mention me to relatives and friends! But so what? Now I am the real Executive Vice President of Hospital 444! Dad, you are just a part of my curse."

The skeleton in front of him simply stood there.

But suddenly, from the hollow eyes of that skeleton, blood began to ooze out...

...

A bright and beautiful morning.

Dai Lin almost immediately opened the hotel room door.

The hotel service staff were startled.

"Are you asking me if humans are the only beings that can laugh?"

"Yes... How did you know?"

I knew all too well.

Dai Lin continued, "So, what is the correct answer?"

"There is no correct answer," the service staff continued. "You can decide for yourself."

Decide for myself...?

Dai Lin had understood.

Under the influence of abyss contamination, the boundary between nothingness and reality had begun to blur.

The identities of doctor and patient, too, would change continuously in this process.

In Han Ming’s memory, there was something most important that had been conveyed to Dai Lin.

Something crucial to remember in order to pass this test.

"You must remember, Dai Lin. You are human, not anything other than human."

"Believe you are human, not some other kind of being."

"Believe you are human, do not be assimilated by the high-dimensional abyss!"

Remember... I am human.

"All I can tell you is that I can laugh, and I am also human."

Dai Lin looked at the service staff, said no more, and walked past them.

Just now...

He had made a mistake.

He had opened the door after hearing knocking sounds from above.

In the end, the abyss contamination had still affected him to some extent, and he even began to doubt the influence of the rules on himself.

If "humans" were not allowed to laugh in this hotel, they would have to accept the cognition that "those who can laugh are not human."

As this cognition deepened, a person’s thinking, through the double structure of the soul, would be pulled into parallel timelines contaminated by the abyss.

By then, Dai Lin would no longer be human.

Instead, he would become like Milan mentioned before—of "our kind." At that time, their flesh and souls would be assimilated by the abyss, becoming part of the demons.

Damon Dailun had realized this point long ago, and he did not want to live as a demon’s host, but rather tried everything to break free.

"Milan, can you hear my voice?"

It was at this moment that a voice from the service staff suddenly came from behind.

"Are you sure... you are human?"

Dai Lin turned sharply to look at the service staff.

"Are you sure you are still human?"

Dai Lin looked at the service staff.

"Yes. I am human."

"Is that so? Then, be careful that your shadow doesn’t increase in number. Remember the hotel’s rules firmly, guest."

The service staff turned and left.

"It has begun."

Dai Lin knew that what was coming next was the true beginning of terror.

The abyss invasion would never stop; his consciousness, his soul, and even his past and future timelines, would all be influenced by high-dimensional forces.

But as the Executive Vice President, Dai Lin was almost immune to the influence of higher dimensions, and abyss invasion was even less likely to change his memory and cognition.

He would not become like Dai Wei, a child who grew up in Nanmian Village. He wouldn’t become a doctor at the 666 Hospital, a host for the demon, a lapdog of the hospital director.

The right thing should be done.

Then, Dai Lin’s shadow suddenly projected onto the wall ahead.

And then, Dai Lin saw... his shadow suddenly turned into an absolute darkness rushing towards him.

At the same time...

"Now, bring him to me, Virgil. Bring his eyes... to me! Those eyes shall become the navigator for the director to invade the surface world!"