“…May there be fireworks in the human world, how can we know peace and joy? Heaven help me, I really wish I could live another five hundred years~!!”
The all-too-familiar song filled the ward, pulling Liang Xun (梁熏) out of sleep. She groaned, opening her eyes to the same boring, sterile hospital ceiling she’d been staring at for far too long. Turning her head, she saw her two roommates were already awake. One was getting dressed, the other was sipping tea.
“That damn wake-up song is getting on my nerves,” Li Zhen Zhen (李真真) grumbled, tugging on her socks with a hint of irritation. “Can’t they ever change it? I’ve been stuck in this place for so long, and it’s the same tune every single morning!”
Sipping her tea calmly, Lu Lan (吕蓝) commented, “I heard it wasn’t always this song. They changed it after the new director took over.”
Liang Xun pushed herself up, muttering as she shuffled to the bathroom, “Well, this new director sure has weird taste in music.”
These three young women, each afflicted with terminal illnesses, one day abruptly found themselves in this nightmarish place, Tenth Hospital. It was a living nightmare, a pit of vengeful ghosts and all sorts of terrifying monsters.
The only way to survive in this place was to enter “instances”—akin to twisted, alternate realities—and complete tasks. Succeed, and you earn points. These points could buy you more time, a few more precious breaths. Collect enough, and you might just earn your way back to the real world.
Determined to escape this horror, Liang Xun and her roommates threw themselves into these dangerous missions. Now, they were prepping for another descent into the unknown. Searᴄh the NovelZone.fun website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
Before taking the plunge, the three held hands, giving each other a silent look of support.
Then, in a dizzying blink, their surroundings shifted.
When Liang Xun’s vision cleared, she found herself in a new instance. Around them were other souls trapped in this messed-up game. It was unclear which hospital they came from.
Suddenly, a figure in a crisp white lab coat appeared in the distance. The moment he came into view, everyone froze, a collective wave of apprehension washing over them.
Oh crap, it was the attending doctor! The attending doctor was here!
He had the look of a foreigner—a towering, broad-shouldered figure with a shock of unruly blond hair and piercing blue eyes that glinted behind gold-rimmed glasses. But his skin, pale and devoid of any hint of life, indicated he was anything but human.
Walking towards them with a faint, almost mocking smile, he greeted the group. “Good afternoon, everyone. I am your attending doctor. You may call me Dr. George.”
…
After days of non-stop effort, they finally cracked the code; the key to completing the instance was right there in front of them.
A collective sigh of relief swept through the group. They started planning their next move.
Just then, a senior from Seventh Hospital unleashed a torrent of curses under his breath.
Liang Xun frowned. This senior was undeniably skilled; the fact that they’d all made it this far without a single casualty was largely thanks to him. But his temper was as volatile as nitroglycerin, always on the verge of exploding.
*The more skilled they are, the worse their temperament*, Liang Xun thought wryly.
Suddenly, the senior’s friend chimed in, “Temper’s acting up again, eh? Haven’t used an Old Lord’s Talisman lately, have you?”
The skilled senior paused, then silently pulled a talisman from his bag.
Liang Xun had spotted these Old Lord’s Talismans in the hospital’s shop, but she had no idea what they were for. She watched, curious, as the senior pressed the talisman to his forehead. Moments later, it sparked, burning to ash and disappearing completely.
The senior exhaled, a long, slow breath, and even his color seemed to improve, the red flush returning to his cheeks.
“What was that?” Liang Xun couldn’t help but ask. “What does the Old Lord’s Talisman do?”
The senior froze for a second, then turned to Liang Xun and her two companions, who were staring back with obvious curiosity. “You’re new here, aren’t you?”
“Yeah,” Liang Xun admitted, nodding. “We’ve been here less than two months.”
“Makes sense.” The senior chuckled, a hint of something knowing in his tone.
Another senior winked at them and added, “It’s one of the director’s little… gifts.”
The director? The word sparked a bunch of half-remembered rumors in Liang Xun’s mind. “I heard there was a change of directors before?”
“That’s right,” the first senior confirmed, nodding. “The director changed a few years back. The one we’ve got now used to be a patient, like us.”
“Seriously?” Liang Xun was surprised. “How can a patient become the director?”
“No idea,” the senior said with a shrug. “That’s just what the older patients told me. I’m from Seventh Hospital, and the current director was already in charge when I got here. But they said she used to be from Sixth Hospital. Other than that, I don’t know much.”
Even after they cleared the instance and returned to the familiar, sterile confines of her hospital room, Liang Xun couldn’t shake the questions buzzing in her head.
How could a patient become the director? Wasn’t the goal to earn enough points to get out of this place? Why hadn’t she left? Why take over the hospital instead? It didn’t make any sense.
The questions swirled in her mind, a relentless tide that kept sleep at bay.
In the dead of night, she grabbed her phone and logged into the hospital’s patient forum. She fired off a new post:
【OP: I heard the director used to be a senior from Sixth Hospital. Is that true? Why didn’t she leave?】
The forum was full of night owls, and replies buzzed in fast.
【Reply 1: I’ve heard that rumor too. Word is, she was a legend—a total badass.】
【Reply 2: Same. As for why she didn’t leave, your guess is as good as mine. Maybe she’s hooked on the power trip of being in charge?】
【Reply 3: Who knows? Hospitals One through Five are practically ghost towns now—people either died or got out. We rarely see anyone from Sixth Hospital either.】
【Reply 4: I teamed up with someone from Sixth Hospital once. They said the director is still drop-dead gorgeous.】
【Reply 5: What’s the point of all this chatter? The director isn’t going to make the instances any easier for us.】
【Reply 6: I’ve met the director! Keep an ear out—she sometimes checks the wards herself. If you hear singing or even a dog barking when someone passes by, that’s the director on her rounds.】
Liang Xun scrolled through the forum for what felt like forever, but none of the posts gave any real answers.
Maybe they hadn’t been in the hospital long enough, or maybe the director was just a mystery. No one seemed to know much about her.
With a yawn, Liang Xun shifted, trying to get comfortable enough to sleep. The night was deep, and exhaustion was finally creeping in.
She wasn’t sure how long she drifted in that hazy space between being awake and asleep when she thought she heard footsteps outside the ward.
It wasn’t the sound of just one person—it sounded like two or maybe even three people walking together.
Then, she caught the faint sound of singing, a woman softly humming a tune.
“… The sky is blue waiting for the mist and rain, and I am waiting for you; the smoke curls upwards, spanning thousands of miles across the river…”
It was an old song. Liang Xun remembered her mother humming it when she was a kid. She’d been told that it was all the rage back in the day, loved by the young people then.
In her half-asleep state, she thought she heard the faint barks of a dog.
Why would there be dogs in the hospital…?
She turned over and finally sank into a deep sleep. In her dream, she’d finally collected up enough points to return to the real world. She and Li Zhen Zhen, along with Lu Lan, were strolling through the streets, happy as can be.
The sun’s rays bathed them, warm and golden.
Although it only cost me 10 points, I feel slightly cheated. ヽ(`д´*)ノ Where are our charming characters? Why did we need this short story with these random girls? Give me back my 10 points~! Just kidding. (°ε°) But I had hoped for something more… ლ(¯ロ¯”ლ) Oh well…
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“Borrow From the Heavens Another Five Hundred Years” (向天再借五百年 – Xiàng Tiān Zài Jiè Wǔbǎi Nián).:
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(๑✪ᆺ✪๑)
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