Futile Devices Scans

Qin Shu’s forceful attitude left Doctor Liang somewhat bewildered, and Teacher Fu and Su Ting Lian were also momentarily stunned.

But in Su Ting Lian’s eyes, Qin Shu had always been the most reliable and sensible child. If he was acting this way, he must have his reasons.

So Su Ting Lian did not object. She smilingly said a few words to ease the atmosphere, and Doctor Liang, still rather confused, agreed as well, leading the three of them to a private room in the orthopedic ward.

Tang Rui Cheng lay on the hospital bed with a pale face, not yet awake from the anesthesia, though he was fully capable of breathing on his own.

The operation had indeed been successful, and Tang Rui Cheng was in no serious danger. Only his right arm and shoulder were encased in thick plaster. For the entirety of the coming winter break, he would probably be unable to engage in strenuous exercise and would have to spend it recovering.

Su Ting Lian, who had originally been smiling, quietly reddened around the eyes. She sat beside the bed, held his hand, and let out an extremely soft sigh.

Meanwhile, Qin Shu stood at the other end of the bed, narrowing his eyes as he concentrated. He carefully examined every inch of Tang Rui Cheng’s skin, hair, and the edges of the plaster, even personally lifting the blanket to inspect underneath.

He understood that his behavior was abrupt, but Qin Shu did not regret it in the slightest.

Because from between the blanket and the bedsheet, he found a tooth.

It was a human tooth, faintly emitting an indescribable stench.

“Can all of you see this tooth?” Qin Shu took a tissue from his pocket and carefully wrapped it up, holding it out for everyone to examine.

“We can see it. Oh my goodness, could it be Rui Cheng’s?” Su Ting Lian covered her mouth lightly, looking worried.

Doctor Liang was also quite startled. He pushed up his glasses and frowned. “Ms. Su, the patient’s teeth are all intact. There must have been a mistake on the nurses’ side. I’ll have them come over and replace the sheets and bedding immediately.”

“That’s good, that’s good…”

Qin Shu did not stop him. No matter what, Tang Rui Cheng could not be allowed to continue lying on sheets filled with the stench of a corpse. Doctor Liang, however, took the initiative to look toward him. “Student, could you hand that tooth over for us to dispose of? It cannot be taken out of the hospital.”

“Of course. But Doctor Liang… may I ask whether anything strange has happened in the hospital recently?” Qin Shu asked softly, giving him a meaningful look.

Who knew what Doctor Liang had experienced, but he understood instantly. Without changing his expression, he nodded. The two of them walked out of the room one after the other and gently pulled the door closed behind them.

The moment the door shut, Doctor Liang’s gaze abruptly sharpened, his expression even more solemn than when he had first emerged from the operating room.

“Student, I need to confirm one thing first. Are you capable of ensuring your own safety?”

“I’ve killed several ghosts,” Qin Shu said softly. “Do you know about Tang Ran’s livestream accident that trended today?”

“…You did that?” Doctor Liang was startled again.

“Mm. The bunny head on the left was me. The one on the right was a drowned ghost from our school. I’ve already sent him away.”

This phrasing admittedly involved a certain amount of bluffing, but it was highly effective.

Doctor Liang relaxed almost immediately. He removed his glasses and tiredly rubbed his brow bone. “In that case, you probably won’t be affected by resentment… Then I’ll speak plainly. Student, this hospital really is haunted. In the past, we could deal with such incidents ourselves. But this time, the problem is very serious.”

“Wait. You can deal with them yourselves? How?” Qin Shu asked in astonishment, suddenly desperate for knowledge.

He also badly needed to learn more methods of killing ghosts. Solving everything with his fists was not a sustainable solution.

“Scalpels, forceps, and bone saws that have been used many times can all injure ghosts. They’re even more effective than butcher knives. Most of us clinical doctors have our own preferred scalpel handles and won’t replace them for years. Combined with disposable blades that have already been used, they can be extremely lethal.”

At this point, Doctor Liang paused, seeming somewhat uncomfortable. “The more patients who have died beneath the blade… the more effective it becomes at killing ghosts.”

“Fighting fire with fire? I see, I understand. Tsk, but now isn’t the time for that. Doctor Liang, do you know there’s something on your body?”

Doctor Liang fell silent for a moment. “I’m sorry. Without a professional camera or ox tears, I can’t see ghosts either. Student, you can tell me directly. I can handle it.”

“Then I’ll be blunt. There’s a finger lodged in your left ear—a swollen finger. I suspect it came from the same corpse as that tooth.” Qin Shu spoke softly, enunciating every word, his gaze resting calmly on Doctor Liang’s face as he discreetly observed his reaction.

“…All right.”

His right eyebrow twitched, his nostrils flared slightly, the curve of his lips stiffened, and his pupils widened a fraction.

The changes were extremely subtle. Qin Shu had not expected himself to notice anything, but when he seriously focused his attention on one place, he discovered that the human face was so simple and clear, capable of conveying all kinds of information in a single instant.

As expected, Doctor Liang definitely knew something. This corpse was undoubtedly connected to First Municipal Hospital.

“Doctor Liang, this is an exorcism talisman. Hold it for now, just in case.”

Still betraying nothing, Qin Shu handed Doctor Liang a talisman and gently placed a hand on his shoulder. His gaze was firm and calm. “If possible, I’ll try removing that finger now. If anything unexpected happens, do whatever I tell you. Understood?”

“Don’t worry. I have experience.” Doctor Liang’s breathing grew slightly heavier, but he remained in control.

Qin Shu wore no gloves and gave no warning. The hand resting on Doctor Liang’s shoulder suddenly swept upward, and at the fastest possible speed, he seized the finger that had been “peeking out” in his palm.

Out of caution, Qin Shu did not pull it outward immediately. He was worried… that the finger might be connected to Doctor Liang’s flesh and blood, and that yanking it forcefully could cause severe injury.

So he tightened his grip and attempted to crush part of the finger bone, testing what might happen.

Squelch…

After a moment, the rotting, swollen finger finally stopped writhing, and streams of cold, sticky black-green fluid slid from Qin Shu’s palm.

An indescribable chill of revulsion surged through him. Qin Shu had never touched a corpse before. This was his first experience.

And that experience was far from over.

“Do you feel anything wrong?” Qin Shu asked softly, suppressing the intense nausea.

“…My ear canal is very itchy. It feels like there’s something foreign inside, and I’m getting waves of stabbing pain.” Doctor Liang’s body tensed slightly. Unable to perceive the thick corpse fluid continuously spilling down, he described his sensations as calmly as possible. “More than ten years ago, a cockroach died inside my ear. It felt like this too.”

“All right. I’m going to start pulling it out now. If it becomes extremely painful, stop me immediately.”

“Understood.”

Qin Shu exhaled and began pulling the finger outward at an extremely slow pace, little by little, until even the thickest joint gradually came into view, squeezing with difficulty from the narrow ear canal.

But it was not over. The structure at the base of the finger was blurred and sticky, fused to some bizarre, fleshy-white connective tissue.

Qin Shu continued pulling and drew out a length of soft, swollen “tube.” The more he pulled, the longer it became, piling endlessly at their feet.

There was no need to ask Doctor Liang. Qin Shu had already recognized what it was.

—Intestines.

And wrapped around the end of that mass of intestines was a large clump of dripping-wet hair, like cold seaweed that had been soaked for a very long time, mixed with countless indistinguishable scraps and chunks of flesh.

The long hair suggested that the corpse had most likely belonged to a woman.

Qin Shu barely managed to maintain his calm expression, but he had completely lost all interest in the KFC delivery that was about to arrive.

The one blessing within the misfortune was that after the hair had been completely pulled out, there were finally no other foreign objects inside Doctor Liang’s ear. Only a sticky mixture of fluids remained to be cleaned away, and the stench was overwhelming.

“Huff, huff… I’m so hungry. I’m very, very hungry. Student, my ear doesn’t itch anymore, but I really want to eat. I want to, I want to, I want to…”

At that moment, Doctor Liang suddenly spoke in a trembling voice, his legs beginning to shake unnaturally. The talisman he had previously clutched tightly in his hand also drifted silently to the floor.

Qin Shu instinctively lowered his gaze, and his heart jolted.

The exquisite talisman, with its red writing on yellow paper, had already been completely ruined. The center of the sheet covered in cloud-seal script had been consumed by an extremely unsettling black ink. Threads of blood-red showed through the darkness, releasing a sharp and unnatural stench. It was profoundly sinister.

Compared with the state of the talismans in the bathrooms at No. 2 High School, it was obvious that… whatever had been lodged inside Doctor Liang, its danger level was several times greater than those human-faced, eagle-bodied little ghosts.

He had still underestimated it. Next time, he needed to be more cautious.

“Doctor Liang, it’s all right. Don’t move around. We’ll go eat something right now.”

“Really? I’m hungry. I’m really, really hungry.”

“Really. Stand still and behave. You’ll have something to eat very soon.”

As Qin Shu verbally soothed the agitated Doctor Liang, he took every spare talisman from his pocket and pasted them all over him without hesitation. Whether their functions matched the problem or not did not matter. First, he would cover the man in talismans.

But precisely then, a set of light footsteps came from the direction of the nurses’ station.

Qin Shu quickly blocked Doctor Liang behind him and turned his head warily. It was the nurse on night duty.

She carried two rather large red insulated delivery bags and was likewise completely unaware of the wet, sticky fluid covering the floor. Smiling, she said, “Good evening, Director Liang. Sir, are you a family member? The delivery for Room 011 has arrived.”

The moment she finished speaking, Doctor Liang suddenly lunged forward, only for Qin Shu to block him forcefully with his body. His feet continued moving as he shouted like a man possessed, “I want to eat! Give it to me! Give it to me now!!”

“…Director Liang?” The nurse jumped in fright, looking confused.

Qin Shu hurriedly pushed Doctor Liang’s protruding head back and quickly accepted the delivery, shifting his attention onto himself. Fortunately, Doctor Liang was rather thin, while Qin Shu was more than half a head taller. Otherwise, it would have been genuinely difficult to stop him without knocking off the freshly pasted talismans.

“Sorry, miss. Doctor Liang really is a little hungry. It’s fine, it’s fine. We bought this for him. You can get back to work.”

By exerting every effort to sound casual, Qin Shu barely managed to muddle his way through.

Although the nurse remained somewhat puzzled, Doctor Liang did not voice any objection, so she did not interfere further and turned away in confusion.

“Give it to me, give it to me, give it to me!”

Qin Shu frowned slightly and did not satisfy Doctor Liang’s urgent demand. With one hand, he restrained the restless man. With the other, he tore open the delivery packaging, pinched off small pieces of bread and meat patty from a hamburger, and fed Doctor Liang by hand.

He was bitten many times during the process. It hurt a little, but it did not seem unbearable.

A human life mattered more. If Doctor Liang were allowed to eat on his own in his current irrational state, he would either choke to death on a chicken-wing bone or eat so violently that he suffocated.

Qin Shu was very patient. Narrowing his eyes, he carefully observed Doctor Liang’s condition. Only after confirming that the food was gradually calming him did he relax slightly.

After eating two hamburgers, Doctor Liang’s reason seemed to return somewhat. His chewing slowed, and he looked apologetically at Qin Shu. Then his head tilted to one side, and he unexpectedly fainted on the spot.

“…”

Qin Shu checked his pulse, gathered the cardboard packaging and trash from the floor, then strode toward the nurses’ station.

“Miss, Doctor Liang suddenly fainted. There may be a serious problem with his physical condition. Please examine him as soon as possible,” Qin Shu said to the increasingly bewildered nurse, his tone extraordinarily grave. “Run every test you can. Trust me.”

“…O-okay.” The nurse stared into his dark eyes and seemed momentarily dazed. Immediately afterward, she hurriedly picked up the internal phone and began making calls without delay.

At the same time, Su Ting Lian, having heard the commotion, pushed open the door and immediately saw Doctor Liang lying on the floor.

“Little Qin, goodness, what happened? Why did you paste all of Daoist Priest Xu’s talismans on… Ah, Amitabha!”

She watched with her own eyes as every clean yellow talisman was consumed by blackness. Frightened, she stepped backward, removed the sandalwood prayer beads from her wrist, and began continuously rolling them between her fingers.

Medical personnel arrived quickly and took Doctor Liang away for examination. Only then did Qin Shu have time to explain the reason to her.

He did not tell her every detail, but neither did he fabricate anything. Su Ting Lian genuinely believed in mysticism, gods, and Buddhas, even if hers was the typical approach of “believe in all of them a little” and “believe in whichever one works.”

Even if Qin Shu said he could see ghosts, she would not treat him like a lunatic.

With something like this suddenly happening, Su Ting Lian hurriedly made calls and had every little exorcism item she owned brought to the hospital.

These included, but were not limited to, Five Emperors coins, black dog teeth, expensive decorative gourds, garlic, jade pendants and plaques… and a peachwood sword specially given to Qin Shu. It was supposedly consecrated, and the peachwood had even been struck by lightning, making it exceptionally effective.

Teacher Fu frowned deeply at the spectacle and looked as though he wanted to say something. After thinking it over repeatedly, he ultimately remained silent. As for Qin Shu, he no longer dared not believe, so he had to accept everything. Not long afterward, the results of Doctor Liang’s urgent blood tests and scans came back.

As they listened to the breathless report from the nurse who had run over, everyone in the room fell silent.

“Director Liang may not have eaten anything for a month. Apart from water, he hasn’t taken in any nutrients at all. I know that sounds unbelievable… but judging from his test results, there is almost no other possibility.”

“Student, do you have any way to help him? Director Liang is in serious danger now. I’ve also heard that recently, there has been… something unclean in the hospital…”

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