Tales of Aegiceras: Cave in

15. The Fire (3)

Translator: Superbomb

Record of Dark Occurrences in Aegiceras Hospital, 1999~2002 (VI)

Recorder: Li Ting (nurse of the TCM Department, 1999~2002)

 

Everyone in the TCM Department was resentful when we heard that we would have to work in another office. We complained to the leaders, but they insisted that we should move to that office, leaving no room for negotiation. We guessed that some doctor in our department had offended them, so they did this to get back at us!

Although it was just on the other side of the same floor, it was the room that everyone was afraid of!

As this room was once on fire in 2000, it was left idle for more than half a year. Now bad luck had finally come to our department!

I am kind of superstitious. For me, a room, in which someone died, especially died an unnatural death, is ominous. As that room was locked immediately after the fire, we didn’t know what it looked like inside.

Everyone secretly said that it must be very horrible in the room.

When the female corpse had been carried out, many of my colleagues saw it. They said her curling up body was completely black, covered with a white cloth, and the exposed parts were all charred as if a heap of ashes would fall at any time wherever they rubbed against.

Needless to say, such a corpse was beyond identification. The leaders of the hospital didn’t want to spend money for an autopsy on a nameless female corpse, so a few days after a notice was posted at the door, and no one came to claim the body, this matter ended up with nothing definite.

Though they were reluctant, the people of the TCM Department eventually moved to that room.

However, to our surprise, after moving into the new office, we didn’t feel so scared.  As all the walls were covered with posters, we didn’t feel anything wrong.

I was on the morning shift today. As there were no patients, I started chatting with a few colleagues.

Ma Yu was eating an apple when she talked about what had happened in the hospital a few days ago. “It’s said that the abandoned baby wasn’t saved. It eventually died, alas!”

At 7 or 8 o’clock in the evening a few days ago, a nurse found an abandoned baby in the restroom. At a glance, she could tell it was a newly born baby. How merciless of a parent to do such a thing! The doctors of our hospital tried to resuscitate the baby, but failed to save its life.”

“How can people today be so merciless…” Mr. Xu, a veteran doctor of TCM sighed.

“If the baby survives, it’s not necessarily a good thing. Living with such irresponsible parents, it will suffer a lot!” I said.

“By the way, have you heard Sister Qunfang talk about the incident that happened in a restroom in this building?” Ma Yu was about to start telling some terrible story again.

“We have heard it so many times!” The other two nurses waved their hands.

“It’s also a story about a baby. There are many irresponsible parents. Maybe these babies will come to them for revenge one day!” Ma Yu said thoughtfully.

When Dr. Xu heard this, he immediately put on a stern face. “Don’t talk about such things, especially in here!”

Seeing Dr. Xu’s serious look, the nurses stopped talking, a little displeased.

“It’s not just parents who are irresponsible!” I immediately changed the topic. “Did you notice a middle-aged woman sitting by the gate recently? She came every day and sat there alone, but nobody talked to her. I was curious, so I couldn’t help but strike up a conversation with her when I walked past her today. Guess what?”

The others looked at me with an odd look. Ma Yu paused for a moment and asked, “What did she say?”

“She said she was here to find her daughter, who worked at our hospital. She seemed to be from a very remote village and her accent was very strong, so I didn’t catch what she said her daughter’s job was. She always repeated herself when she spoke and she kept saying, ‘I came here with my granddaughter to find my daughter.’ Most likely, her daughter worked here and never went home. Now that her husband had died of illness, her mother brought her child to find her.”

“Where’s her daughter?” Ma Yu asked with a frown.

“Wait…” Xiao Cui interrupted us with a confused expression. “A middle-aged woman sat by the gate of our hospital? How come I have never seen her?”

Another nurse also said hesitantly, “I, I’ve never seen her either.”

I was confused. “Impossible! She has been there every day since last week. Ma Yu, you must have seen her?”

Ma Yu shook her head hard and looked at me with a look even odder. “Actually, I have never seen such a woman either.”

I wanted to explain to them when Dr. Xu, who was just reading, suddenly asked, “Where’s her granddaughter? She said she was bringing her granddaughter with her. Did you see that child?”

“Uh, I didn’t see her. She must have run out to play…” As I said this, my heart suddenly skipped a beat and a chill rose from my spine instantly. “But… Uh… she kept holding this pose…”

She looked as if she were holding a baby, but there was nothing in her arms.

 

“Wait!” When Lu Xia was about to turn the page, Sun Zheng suddenly stopped him. “Let’s go on a moment later! I feel it’s getting increasingly hot, and I’m suffocating!”

Lu Xia seemed to feel the same way, his face red with heat with sweat running down. “I think this story has a lot to do with this room!”

“That’s right!” Sun Zheng paused for a moment as if he was gasping for breath. “Let’s find a way to get out of here first. Otherwise, it’s going to be bad for us!”

“Yes!” Lu Xia responded with a worried look. He stood up and looked around before he finally fixed his gaze on the window. “Let’s see if we can climb into another room from this window!”

Sun Zheng glanced at the window and said, “I don’t think it’s a good idea.” However, in spite of what he said, he walked to the window.

He tried to open the window but suddenly withdrew his hands. “Jesus frickin’ Christ! It’s so damn hot!”

Lu Xia immediately put down the notebook in his hand and rushed to the window as well. He reached out and touched the frame of the window, and drew back his hand in an instant, “It feels like it’s on fire!”

“How could such a thing happen?” Sun Zheng looked at Lu Xia with a frown.

Lu Xia only forced a bitter smile.

Sun Zheng scratched his head impatiently. “I don’t want to die like this. Let’s think about who the woman who was burned to death could be!”

Lu Xia pointed at the notebook and answered quickly, “Isn’t it the middle-aged woman who came to find her daughter?”

“What?” Sun Zheng cried out in surprise.

“When I saw this, I already figured it out briefly. It’s easy to catch this. Don’t you think so?” Lu Xia looked at Sun Zheng and continued, “If you believe this, there will be a reasonable explanation for everything.”

Sun Zheng curved his lips up while staring at Lu Xia. “If the middle-aged woman who came to find her daughter is the one who was killed in the fire, does that mean her daughter is Chen Juan?”

Lu Xia smiled. “Look, you’re smart. Isn’t that easy to think of?”

Sun Zheng turned away.

“But even the smartest person in the world can’t tell that Chen Juan is such a vicious woman!” Lu Xia said, full of anger.

“What do you mean?” Sun Zheng asked in confusion.

Lu Xia was so angry that his hand trembled slightly when he pointed at the handprints on the wall. “Don’t you think she set the room on fire in person, trying to burn her mother and child?!”

“How could it be?” Sun Zheng frowned with a puzzled look.

After pondering for a short moment, Lu Xia waved his hand, and returned to the table. “Actually, these two things are not necessarily related. That middle-aged woman might not have something to do with the fire. Let me take a look again.”

 

I was in a trance all morning after hearing what they said.

At noon break, I asked Ma Yu to go to the gate with me to have a look. However, the middle-aged woman wasn’t there. Ma Yu said maybe because some of the patients’ families were making trouble for us and we had just moved to the new office, nobody in our department had ever noticed that woman.

What she said made sense. Who would pay attention to a middle-aged woman at the gate?

I had a hard time calming myself down, but as soon as we got off work in the afternoon, Ma Yu came to me again.

“Ting, I got someone to help you with that thing you mentioned,” she said with a mysterious look.

“What are you talking about? Who did you bring here?” I felt puzzled.

She whispered in my ear, “Didn’t you see a middle-aged woman at the gate? I’ve found an important person for you, so you should thank me!”

With that, she pointed at the door. When I saw the one who was standing outside, I almost lost my composure. “…Sister Qunfang?”

She nodded and walked in. Sister Qunfang was a senior nurse who had been in the hospital for a long time. She was ready to help others, so everyone in our hospital knew her. She was 30 years old but hadn’t gotten married yet. As she was petite and always put on a smiling face, she looked young for her age.

Ma Yu patted me on my shoulder with a smile and said, “Sister Qunfang is experienced. You can ask her for advice.”

Sister Qunfang glared at her. “How could anyone be experienced with such kind of things!”

I was a little awkward. This kind of thing might sound ridiculous to others, but it was not a big deal to gossip in our own office. How come the rumor spread to other departments and Ma Yu even got Sister Qunfang here? If it turned out I made a mistake, I would become the laugh stick of others!

Ma Yu said, “Didn’t you know about the fire that broke out in 2000? I remember you submitted an investigation report, so you must be experienced!”

Speaking of the fire, Sister Qunfang turned pale and her smile froze.

It seemed the incident of the fire had affected her deeply, and she was very unhappy when she heard someone mention it.

“Forget it! It’s not worth mentioning,” I said, embarrassed.

To my surprise, Sister Qunfang suddenly grabbed me. “No, no! I want to get this straight! There’s something I can’t figure out, so I’m going to be with you today.”

I was confused again. “For what?”

Ma Yu immediately answered, “We’ll stay here at night to see what the hell is wrong with the lady’s room on the 4th floor!”

I trembled in fright and hurriedly said, “No, no! I’d better go home.”

Sister Qunfang grabbed me by my hand again. The two of them kept trying to persuade me to stay in the hospital, saying that there was nothing to be afraid of with them by my side. Moreover, if anything should happen, we could ask the nurses at the nurse station and the security guards on the 5th floor for help. Maybe nothing had happened at all, but through word of mouth, it turned into a horror story.

As Sister Qunfang insisted that I should stay and she usually helped me a lot, I reluctantly agreed.

I didn’t know if the story of the lady’s restroom she had told us was real or not.

I was really afraid, and I even called my family from the office.

The three of us were not on night shift today, but we made up a reason to stay in the hospital. While we were chatting and eating snacks, night fell imperceptibly.