In room 1304 on the 13th floor of the oncology department at People’s Hospital, Yu Xiao (余笑: “surplus of laughter” or “extraordinary happiness”) entered, carrying two cardboard boxes. Despite the daylight outside, the room remained dim due to the drawn curtains.
The doctors and nurses had recommended that the three patients in room 1304 expose themselves to sunlight, but they stubbornly refused to open the curtains. Eventually, the medical staff ceased trying, as nobody wanted to argue with individuals battling cancer.
Zhao Lan (赵岚: “established in the clouds” or “making a foothold in the mist”), lay in bed, receiving chemotherapy. She appeared pale and despondent, her young age of 28 making the diagnosis of cancer all the more devastating. Although the doctors didn’t explicitly mention it, everyone knew her chances of recovery were slim.
When Yu Xiao entered the room, Zhou Xiao Zhen (周小珍: “precious little circumference” or “valuable perimeter of youth”) sat cross-legged on her bed and eagerly exclaimed, “Smiley (Xiao Xiao: Little Smile), you’re back! Did you buy anything good?”
Zhou Xiao Zhen, who was only 18 years old and slightly overweight, had smooth, delicate skin as white as a steamed bun. Having shaved her head for chemotherapy, her round head resembled a soft-boiled egg. Among the three, her illness was the mildest, and the doctors had given her a favourable prognosis, which helped her maintain a cheerful and talkative nature. She loved chatting with Yu Xiao, and their conversations could last for hours.
“Um,” Yu Xiao weakly responded, placing two delivery boxes on the desk next to the hospital bed.
At the young age of twenty, Yu Xiao was the only patient in the ward who still had a full head of hair and could move around without assistance. However, this wasn’t because her condition was less severe, but quite the opposite. Her illness was so serious that surgery was not an option, and she was limited to conservative treatment with chemotherapy.
Fortunately, she had only undergone one round of chemotherapy so far, and her hair loss wasn’t too severe, allowing her the energy to go for a walk.
Zhou Xiao Zhen watched her with curiosity. “Smiley, what are these for? What do you use them for?”
After finishing organising the materials, Yu Xiao began cutting the yellow paper with the scissors. She calmly replied, “To draw talismans.”
Zhou Xiao Zhen looked puzzled. “Oh?”
Yu Xiao continued cutting the paper into standard-sized rectangles before grabbing the vermilion ink and inkstone and heading to the bathroom.
When she looked in the mirror, she saw a pale and gaunt face. Her eyes were large and round, while her mouth and nose were small and delicate, giving her a youthful appearance. That’s why Zhou Xiao Zhen, who was two years younger, always called her Smiley.
A month ago, Yu Xiao had been diagnosed with malignant brain cancer. Unfortunately, surgery was not an option because of the tumour’s location, so the doctors recommended conservative treatment and observation in the hospital.
During this month, her family had rarely visited her. Her parents divorced when she was in junior high and started new families with their new partners. As a child of a broken home, she had been living at school since junior high. It was only a month ago, when she was diagnosed with cancer, that her parents reunited.
They cried in front of her once, brought her food a few times, and then gradually found excuses to stop visiting. Nevertheless, Yu Xiao was content with the situation. Even though her parents didn’t show up, they were still generous in paying for her treatment and even hired a caregiver.
After rinsing the ink stone, she dissolved the cinnabar powder in alcohol.
Her new passion for talismanic drawings was ignited three days ago when the nurse finished her routine checkup. As usual, Yu Xiao hid her phone under the pillow. The doctor enforced strict curfew regulations, and any indication of phone usage after hours would result in reproachful admonishments from the nurse. To avoid scolding, Yu Xiao pretended to be asleep during every inspection.
When she retrieved her phone, she realised that an unfamiliar application was downloading. Had she accidentally clicked on an advertisement? But before she could stop the download, the name of the app caught her attention – the Fourth Hospital Patient Forum. She hesitated. Was it really necessary to have a forum specifically for patients?
She patiently waited for the download to complete and eventually opened the app. The forum interface, decorated with a pink colour scheme, resembled other internet forums. The first thread she saw was an official announcement.
Yu Xiao continued scrolling through the forum, her curiosity piqued by the cryptic thread titles. Sёarᴄh the NovelZone.fun website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
【Guide for the Morgue】
Confused, she clicked on the post and read a first-person account of someone’s encounter with ghosts in a morgue and how they managed to escape.
It was a ghost story!
Already having trouble sleeping, Yu Xiao became even more awake. She scrolled further and found more posts related to ghosts, including one that listed various types of ghosts, their names, abilities, and even illustrations.
This wasn’t a patient forum; it was a forum for ghost stories!
Suddenly, she remembered the name “Fourth Hospital” and realised it was a psychiatric hospital in her area.
Everything made sense now. This forum was for psychiatric patients to share their ghost stories.
Intrigued, she continued reading. The patients’ ghost stories were not typical spooky tales but were logically consistent, well-structured, and even had cliffhangers that kept readers engaged.
Yu Xiao was impressed with the quality of the storytelling and read through several more posts.
“Surely everyone in the mental hospital is talented!” thought Yu Xiao as she scrolled through the online forum. The responses were varied and perplexing.
【Thank you for sharing, may you have peace for the rest of your life, OP!】 wrote one user.
【How many health points did you gain from this level, OP?】 questioned another.
【Wuwuwu… If only I had seen OP’s post earlier, then there wouldn’t be only me left alive in the ward.】
Yu Xiao couldn’t understand the meaning of these replies. She wondered if it was her inability to keep up with the thoughts of mentally ill people.
But then she stumbled upon a post that promised to teach readers how to become a master of talismans.
Excitedly, she clicked on it, only to realise the discussion was about a game. The original poster recommended making talismans using cinnabar and yellow paper instead of buying them from the mall. By making them yourself, you can have as many talismans as you want, which can significantly increase your survival rate in the game.
【OP is really talking nonsense. Can everyone learn to draw talismans?】 asked one user.
【I want to know what OP’s success rate is,】 commented another.
【Where’s the savings? Yellow paper and cinnabar are also expensive, you know?】
【Don’t listen to them, OP. I want to learn!】 declared yet another.
【…】
Below was a picture of a yellow paper with red lines, a complex pattern of red lines covering the entire long sheet, making it look quite mysterious to Yu Xiao.
【The Thunder Striking Ghost Repelling Talisman 运雷打祟符 (a talisman for warding off evil spirits and summoning thunder) 】
The explanation for drawing the talisman followed, providing details on where to start and end each stroke and what to pay attention to during the process. The instructions were very thorough.
Lastly, the poster claimed that the success rate of drawing this talisman was only 20%, which surprised Yu Xiao as the author seemed to consider it relatively high.
Yu Xiao, an art student, found the patterns and lines of the talisman quite aesthetically pleasing, regardless of their authenticity.
As she continued scrolling down the forum post, she became increasingly interested in the various strange symbols and talismans. Since she had nothing else to do while in the hospital, she searched for yellow paper and cinnabar on a popular shopping website. She found a whole set of relatively inexpensive tools for drawing talismans and ordered them. Three days later, the package arrived.
Following the author’s instructions to dissolve the cinnabar with alcohol, Yu Xiao brought the materials back to her hospital ward and neatly set up everything on her bedside table. She then sat on her bed and stared into space.
Curiously, Zhou Xiao Zhen picked up one of the yellow papers that had been cut and asked, “Are you really going to draw talismans? Like the ones in those ‘Liaozhai Zhiyi’ stories, to stick on ghosts?”
(TN: “Liaozhai Zhiyi” is a famous collection of supernatural stories written by Pu Songling in the Qing Dynasty. In the book, there are many stories about ghosts and spirits, and some involve the use of talismans or magical spells to control or communicate with them.)
“Yes,” Yu Xiao replied seriously, teasingly adding, “Did you know that there is a ghost in our ward? I noticed her the moment I moved in. She is a female ghost who wanders around our beds every night. In order to prevent her from harming all of you, I must reveal my identity.”
Zhou Xiao Zhen stared at Yu Xiao in bewilderment and asked, “What identity?”
With her hands pressed together, Yu Xiao said, “Amitabha Buddha, I am Yu Xiao, the 250th generation descendant of Dragon and Tiger Mountain.”
“…”
Zhou Xiao Zhen was taken aback by her words. “Really?” she exclaimed.
“Pfft!” Zhao Lan, who had been quietly receiving her intravenous drip, chuckled weakly and tenderly. “Precious (Xiao Zhen), can’t you see that Smiley is joking?”
“Haha, I knew it all along,” Zhou Xiao Zhen’s face turned red as she tried to save face. “I was just teasing her because she always looks so bored.”
Zhao Lan turned toward Yu Xiao and asked, “Smiley, I remember you were a fine arts student. Why did you suddenly start drawing charms?”
“Just looking for something to do when I’m bored,” Yu Xiao dipped her pen into cinnabar ink and sat up straight. “Don’t disturb me, I’m going to draw a charm.”
The Thunder Striking Ghost Repelling Charm was the only one she could remember how to draw because all the other talismans were too complicated for her to remember. Following the instructions from the post on the forum, she tried to clear her mind and focused on the charm. Her mind was now as still as a calm lake.
Next, she needed to pay homage to the gods, so she searched for an image of a god on her phone and worshipped it by bowing three times to the phone.
“It’s done, it’s done,” Zhou Xiao Zhen muttered, watching Yu Xiao at work. “The doctor said that the tumour in her brain might affect her thinking, and now it looks like her mind has been affected.”
Zhao Lan sighed, “Poor Smiley.”
Yu Xiao opened her eyes, holding her pen in her right hand and lightly brushing red lines on the yellow paper.
“Knock, knock, knock.”
The quiet room was interrupted by a knock on the door.
Yu Xiao was wholly focused on her task and wasn’t disturbed. Zhou Xiao Zhen wondered who could be so polite as to knock when entering a multi-person ward and said, “Come in!”
However, there was no sound outside, nor did anyone push open the door.
“Knock, knock, knock.”
The knocking resumed, and Zhou Xiao Zhen impatiently said, “The door isn’t locked, come in!”
“Hee hee hee…”
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