Hospital 444

This serial murder case can truly be described as extremely brutal.

But for thirty-nine years, the police have never been able to find the real culprit.

Therefore, this case has been taken over by a special case group assigned by the provincial public security department, which has brought the relevant case files.

"It’s a pity that the members of the special case group are still on their way; the investigation at the school this time is still being conducted by the municipal public security bureau," Dai Lin took another sip of water and said, "What we can know at the moment is..."

Four murders...

Spread across cities in the north and south, not even within the same province.

If cross-province serial crimes were somewhat common in the eighties and nineties, the third murder, which is the one from thirteen years ago, can be said to be extremely horrifying and bizarre.

Thirteen years ago, surveillance could be said to have been everywhere, covering nearly every street and alley.

But that murder case was also the first to involve a female victim, and unlike An Minglu, the victim Wei Shirling died in a standard locked-room scenario often found in mystery novels. Moreover, surveillance confirmed that absolutely no one had entered or left the stage dressing room where the victim died.

There’s no doubt about how horrifying this case was.

"There’s only one thing all the victims had in common."

Yes, after such a long investigation by the police, the only thing they could find that the victims had in common, was one thing.

All of their birthdays were June 6, at 6 am!

Three sixes!

"666..." Gao Heyann immediately thought of the Western legend of the Devil, "666 represents the Demon in the West..."

Clearly, the murderer was not human. But it wasn’t an ordinary ghost either.

However, Dai Lin was still preoccupied with something else.

After consuming parts of the Devil’s body, he gained fragments of memories, which included a very blurry picture.

And what he knew now was... inside the sewn mouths of each of the victims, there lay a piece of a torn hand-drawn map. Furthermore, the map pieces from each of the victims could be put together.

Only, the officers from the municipal police department, before the special case group members arrived at W city, had no idea what place the map was of.

The Devil that cursed Lin Yan was related to the curse of the Demon and evil spirits involved.

Was there any connection between these?

Twenty years ago, Lin Yan saw that female ghost on Suyuan Mountain for the first time. It had been six years since the death of the second victim, and that second victim was from X city, which was far from W city. It seemed like there wasn’t much of a relation at all.

Then there were the memories of Wei Ming.

Wei Ming and Dai Wei had a pretty good relationship, as both were members of the school basketball team.

In Wei Ming’s memory, he only remembered An Minglu as the pretty class beauty of the senior high second year, who often came to watch the school basketball team’s games. Since she was quite attractive, Wei Ming had a strong impression of her. But that was it; in his memories, she didn’t have a deep interaction with Dai Wei. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Yet, Dai Wei and An Minglu had already added each other on WeChat, and they seemed to be in a romantic relationship.

Dai Wei hadn’t even told his close friend Wei Ming.

At this moment, the waiter served the dishes.

The appetizer was a Caesar salad.

But as Dai Lin ate it, it tasted like chewing wax.

"The police haven’t looked for ’Dai Wei’, nor have they consulted my family about the situation, which means that not only my parents but also no one in the school knows about the two of them. They have kept it too secret. She must have deleted the phone calls and chat history with Dai Ming from her cell phone, maybe she didn’t even store his mobile number in her contacts list."

"The police will be able to recover the call and chat records by contacting the telecom company, and they will eventually come to your family," said Gao Heyann as he glanced again at the location of the student dormitories outside the window, "If the police keep investigating, they will find your house and then learn that you and Dai Wei went out that night. They will come to you. Of course, they will ignore all the surveillance footage that captured you that night, but you will have to think carefully about your testimony by then, or the police will suspect you."

Dai Lin suddenly thought of something and said, "Then why did you lie about being some kind of cousin? If the police ask Wei Ming, won’t you be very suspicious? And then if they investigate us, they’ll find out we didn’t know each other before this."

"It doesn’t matter if they’re suspicious, the people weren’t killed by us, and the police can’t possibly detain us for that. They definitely can’t trace it back to Hospital 444. If it weren’t for Doctor Tang, to be honest, just by watching the surveillance, the police would definitely consider Dai Wei the prime suspect."

Indeed, that was the case.

"So, we need to get our stories straight. If the police come..."

"Just say I’m a new colleague from your unit. When it comes to the hospital, the director can influence human self-will. Just mention any hospital name, and if they check, I guarantee they’ll find that such a hospital really exists."

The extent of the director’s power was something Dai Lin had experienced.

"But you don’t live in W city, right? Is that okay?"

"It doesn’t matter. When it comes to the hospital part, no matter how unreasonable, there is no problem. The teacher has been in the hospital for seventeen years, and his wife still thinks he’s a sales manager for a foreign trade company."

"Then what do you tell your family about your job?"

"I... don’t have family members I need to inform about my profession."

Dai Lin was taken aback and quickly apologized, "Sorry, I asked an unnecessary question."

To ease the awkwardness, Dai Lin swiftly changed the subject.

"Dr. Gao, I remember you telling me that it’s possible for humans to curse patients through certain means, right?"

Gao Heyann nodded and said, "I just performed a surgery like that not long ago. The patient was cursed by some kind of black magic."

"Specifically, like making a straw man with a person’s birth details on it and then nailing it?"

"That? It’s but a low-level practice to repel victory, with very low chances of success," Gao Heyann took another bite of salad, chewing as he spoke, "There are many extremely terrifying forbidden techniques from ancient times, but they come with a great cost... You mean An Minglu was cursed through black magic?"

"I can’t rule out that possibility. And if it’s from the West, there must be more terrifying things... like black magic and other forbidden practices, right?"

666... The number representing the Devil in the West.

Thirteen years later, perhaps a fifth victim will appear.

"Do you think they used black magic to curse An Minglu?"

"Obviously, that’s unrealistic," Dai Lin shook his head, "In terms of age, it doesn’t make sense. The earliest victim goes back thirty-nine years. So, it’s not impossible that certain human feelings of hatred, like negative energy or something, have been exploited by the curse, right? The day Director Mei took me aside for training at the cemetery, he mentioned this."

"Indeed, there are, but there aren’t many clinical records," Gao Heyann understood, if that were the case, even reading memories wouldn’t be much use. Because it’s possible that they themselves weren’t aware of being exploited by the curse.

At that moment, Dai Lin suddenly saw three girls going upstairs and sitting at a table.

In Wei Ming’s memory, one of these girls had once appeared with An Minglu.

"Xiao, Xiaoying," one girl said to another girl with short hair, "shall we... not eat here tonight?"

"What’s the matter with you, Ge Lin? Don’t spoil it for everyone," another slightly plump girl said.

The girl known to An Minglu, named Ge Lin, was shaking all over and said, "I just feel, with Minglu gone, us coming here to enjoy good food doesn’t seem quite right..."

"Her death wasn’t our fault!" the short-haired girl said impatiently, "It’s just that today happens to be a promotional discount day at the cafe, and we’d agreed yesterday to come here to eat! Ge Lin, if you don’t want to eat then just leave, I don’t care!"

"Right... It has nothing to do with us. In fact, most people in the class didn’t really like her," said the third girl, "And, don’t forget, last time she did something to Xiaoying’s mother’s..."

The short-haired girl signaled for her to stop talking and waved at a server, "Waiter!"

From what that girl had just said, it seemed An Minglu’s popularity was even worse than what the police had investigated.

These people didn’t report this to the police, probably because on one hand, they wanted to respect the deceased, and on the other hand, they worried about being suspected by the police.

Gao Heyann didn’t wait for Dai Lin to speak; he stood up and walked towards where the three girls were sitting. After making a round, he came back.

Then, Gao Heyann spread out his hand, and in his palm lay three strands of hair!

"I’ve got the hair. Swallow it," he said.

Dai Lin had been watching Gao Heyann the whole time and hadn’t seen him make a move!

"Okay... Thank you, Dr. Gao."

Dai Lin grasped the three strands of hair and swallowed them!

The memories of the three people instantly melded into Dai Lin’s mind, and in the blink of an eye, he had completely deciphered them!

Afterward, Dai Lin clenched his teeth and said, "There really... is a bit of a clue!"