Chapter 61
Jiang Li gently pushed the door open and stepped outside.
As soon as she did, a Hairless Cat darted to her feet. Its Eyes were slightly red.
Jiang Li tiptoed, trying to keep her steps quiet, and made her way out along the corridor.
In the hallway, countless Stray Cats were wailing. Their cries sounded disturbingly like the wails of infants.
Some Stray Cats lay limp on the floor, some frantically scratched at the iron doors, and some were even shedding tears.
Every single one of them was crying out, “meow, meow.”
The noise was so loud that it was what had woken Jiang Li up.
Jiang Li remembered the second rule of the Night Rules:
[If you hear the cries of Stray Cats at night, ignore them. This is normal. The hospital has adopted many unwanted Stray Cats.]
So, all of these were Stray Cats adopted by the hospital.
However, each of these cats had an Iron Chain Tag around its neck, with a number engraved on it.
Just like the patients in the Madhouse, each had its own number.
Every Stray Cat saw Jiang Li.
As if they understood her, they all made way for Jiang Li together.
In the darkness, countless pairs of shining Eyes stared at Jiang Li.
Jiang Li carefully walked to the middle of the corridor.
The Fake Doll that the Middle-aged Woman had placed there had already been torn apart and chewed up by many Stray Cats.
The head was separated, the arms were off to the side, and the belly was elsewhere.
The cotton stuffing from inside the Fake Doll was scattered all over the ground.
As Jiang Li passed by, one of the Fake Doll’s Eyes rolled to her feet, coldly staring at her.
She bent down and picked up the Eye.
Now this Eye no longer moved-it was just a normal glass bead.
She looked at it for a moment, found nothing unusual, and slipped it into her pocket.
Then, Jiang Li continued toward the Stairs.
As she walked, she noticed that several Stray Cats kept following at her heels, occasionally brushing against her and meowing loudly.
Once she got closer, Jiang Li realized that quite a few of these Stray Cats had grown pig-like hooves, and some even had pig-like tails.
The degree of Aberration in these cats’ bodies varied-some showed only about 20% change, others as much as 70%-all mutating in the direction of pigs.
Jiang Li suddenly remembered the sixth rule of the Night Rules:
[Stray Cats will not grow pig organs. Please keep this in mind.]
This rule was wrong.
Jiang Li kept her doubts in mind and quickly went down from the fourth floor to the third floor.
The situation in the third-floor corridor was similar to the fourth, but the Stray Cats here were even more of an Aberration.
Rather than calling them Stray Cats, Jiang Li felt they were more like “Little Pigs,” since the degree of Aberration in these cats had reached as high as 90%.
Among these Little Pigs, one especially fat pig stood out. It exchanged a glance with Jiang Li, and she felt a strange sense of familiarity.
Jiang Li didn’t plan to stay long and was about to head further downstairs.
But the Little Fat Pig ran over and blocked her path.
The Little Fat Pig wore an Iron Chain Tag with “022” on it. It bit Jiang Li’s pant leg, as if it wanted to lead her somewhere.
Suppressing her doubts, Jiang Li followed it.
The Little Fat Pig led Jiang Li to a storage room. It nudged something off a shelf and brought it to her in its mouth.
It was a black flashlight.
Jiang Li patted the Little Fat Pig’s head and put the flashlight in her pocket.
She didn’t know what the Little Fat Pig meant, but trusting her rapport with animals, Jiang Li felt it was best to believe it.
Time was gradually approaching 2 a.m.
Suddenly, the sound of footsteps-tap, tap-echoed in the corridor.
The animals on the third floor seemed to hear some kind of signal.
A frantic scramble lasted two or three seconds.
The Little Fat Pig also ran away.
Caught off guard, Jiang Li was left alone in the third-floor corridor!
The third rule of the Night Rules:
[The night security guard patrols the corridor on the hour. Do not wander the corridor at night.]
Jiang Li suddenly realized-the security guard must be coming!
She immediately hid in the storage room and closed the door.
“Tap, tap, tap” – the footsteps were getting closer and closer to Jiang Li.
Jiang Li crouched beneath the storeroom window.
It was frighteningly quiet all around, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Jiang Li even made her breathing extremely careful.
Her heart thudded, beat after beat.
Outside, a security guard was patrolling the corridor with a flashlight.
The guard swept his flashlight toward the storeroom.
The beam cut through the window, illuminating a patch of empty floor inside.
The top of Jiang Li’s head was just below the edge of the light – any higher and she would have been discovered.
“Why is the storeroom door open?” The guard walked toward the storeroom entrance.
The iron door was open just a crack, not wide, about one centimeter.
Jiang Li crouched directly opposite the gap, her breath tightening.
The storeroom’s iron door couldn’t be locked from the inside at all!
Jiang Li’s heartbeat sped up as she held her breath.
She felt for something in her pocket, a thought flashing quickly through her mind.
Just as the guard was about to push the door open, the sound of glass marbles rolling echoed from the distant corridor.
“Who’s there?!” The guard immediately turned his flashlight and headed down the corridor.
That was what Jiang Li had thrown from the window – the Fake Doll’s eyeball.
She hadn’t expected it to come in handy.
Taking advantage of the guard’s absence, Jiang Li was just about to pull the door when she suddenly noticed someone standing behind it, staring at her and smiling.
The person behind the door had a deathly pale face, with two bright red circles of blush on his cheeks.
He looked down at Jiang Li from above, grinning eerily.
Jiang Li’s hair stood on end.
She suddenly remembered – it was the Old Man from the hide-and-seek game, the one made up by the Little Girl, hiding here!
Without any makeup remover, the Old Man could only run around with that creepy makeup on his face.
“You came here too?” The Old Man asked Jiang Li in surprise.
Jiang Li nodded helplessly.
This Old Man had it rough – he’d probably been hiding here for three or four hours.
In fact, Jiang Li had already gone back for a nap.
Outside the door, the sound of the guard’s footsteps returned.
Damn, she was distracted by the Old Man!
The guard was coming back!
Damn it…
Jiang Li slowly moved her feet, standing together with the creepy Old Man behind the door.
At that moment, the guard reached the storeroom door.
“Creak-”
The guard pushed the iron door open, about an 80-degree angle.
Jiang Li stood on tiptoe behind the door, pressed against the wall, barely daring to breathe.
The guard walked in a couple of steps and spotted two or three flashlights lying on the floor.
He bent down, picked them up, and put them back on the shelf.
Jiang Li was just behind and to the right of the guard.
She could see the guard’s back – if he turned his head to the right, Jiang Li would definitely be discovered.
Jiang Li’s heart was in her throat.
At the same time,
Voices from the fourth-floor guard came from outside…
Two guards!
Jiang Li’s hand was already on her knife.
The fourth-floor guard walked to the window outside the storeroom, shining his flashlight inside.
He knocked twice on the windowsill, urging, “Are you coming or not? Fourth floor is done. Are you finished on the third?”
“All done, coming,” the third-floor guard replied perfunctorily.
He walked to the left window and closed the open glass pane.
Then he left the storeroom, pulling the door shut behind him.
Fortunately, the guards didn’t have the habit of locking the storeroom door.
Jiang Li let out a sigh of relief.
The intense tension left her back damp with sweat.
She put away her knife, stepped away from the wall, and, after making sure the guards were gone, opened the storeroom door.
“1037, aren’t you going to keep hiding?” the Old Man asked.
Jiang Li quickly forced a smile and replied, “Of course, of course. You keep hiding, I’ll find another spot.”
The Old Man nodded. “Go on, then. Be careful, don’t get caught.”
Jiang Li secretly thought the Old Man was crazy, then left the storeroom.
A game of hide-and-seek, with the Fake Doll as the ‘ghost’ – if it could actually come after people, then that would be a real ghost.
After leaving the storeroom, Jiang Li tucked away the flashlight that Little Fat Pig had given her and hurried downstairs.