Chapter 10 Chapter 10 The Woman in White at Midnight

In the walking stairs of the new dormitory building to the east of the main building of the hospital, Gu Sheng, the chief surgeon who is off duty, is going up the stairs. His home is also on the fourth floor, but he never takes the elevator. This is a habit he has had for many years. .Just two years ago, going home was the happiest part of his day for him.At that time, he carried his briefcase every day, and walked upstairs briskly, because he knew that at this time, his wife Xia Xue had prepared a steaming meal at home and was waiting for him to come back. Maybe Xiao Yu also happened to be on vacation. , while doing homework, my wife will specially fry a portion of her favorite egg with celery.He pushed open the door, smelled the smell of the food in the room, and said loudly, "Xiaoyu is back, it's celery and eggs again." The bedroom ran over and gave him a sweet kiss on one side of the face.Is there anything happier in this world than this?

The bearded Gu Gusheng smiled for no reason, put the key in the lock, opened the door, put on slippers, and hung the white coat in the hallway.In the past two years, he has indeed aged a lot, and his back is slightly arched. He went to the bathroom to wash his face, took off his suit and hung it up, then went straight to the altar, lit three incense sticks, prayed up and down three times, inserted Small incense burner.Facing the portrait of his wife, Gu Zhensheng said: "Xue, I'm back! I'm not here, are you okay? ... Work is good, ... Xiaoyu is also good, don't worry, I will take good care of her... "

In a daze, Gu Zhensheng seemed to see Xia Xue pursing her lips in the photo and smiling slightly at him.When he looked carefully, he found that there was nothing unusual. He looked at Xia Xue in the photo, and said faintly: "I know you have something on your mind, don't worry, I'm thinking about it, don't worry, it won't be long before you can be reunited." After talking to his wife, Gu Zhensheng went into the kitchen with a dull head, and randomly tore open a pack of instant noodles and boiled them in the pot. The boxes of instant noodles in the kitchen had piled up like a mountain, and many of them were directly turned into trash cans, with a lot of food bags on them. , Rice dregs and egg shells and other sundries...

Dr. Gu went into the bedroom to pack up a pile of dirty clothes, towels, and socks, and stuffed them all into the washing machine in the bathroom. With the noise of the washing machine, he went into the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and put hot water in the bathtub.The bathroom soon became hot and steamy. Gu Zhensheng filled a bowl of noodles for himself from the kitchen, and sat in the living room and ate it hastily.Putting the chopsticks on the coffee table casually, he walked to the bathroom, opened the cover of the washing machine, took off his shirt and threw it into the washing bucket, and then threw the pants, socks, and shorts into the washing bucket one by one.

Gu Zhensheng felt his brain swell up and down. His eyes widened, but he couldn't believe his eyes. He tremblingly asked, "Xue? Xue, is that you?" Gu Zhensheng swallowed a mouthful of saliva, stretched out his hand in the heat, and said softly: "Xue, I'll help you, I'll help you wash..." His hands gently held the woman's beautiful shoulders, the feeling was so familiar and beautiful, and then he slowly took her into his arms, he closed his eyes, stroked her wet back, feeling The softness and fragrance of her skin, and then gradually moved his head closer to the depths of her long hair, looking for her lips, but suddenly felt something silky and slippery across the back of his hand, and then there was a "click", It was like a nightgown with a wet waistcoat dropped into the water.Gu Zhensheng reluctantly opened his eyes, only to find that he was hugging the corpse of a bald, faceless woman. Her skin was already swollen due to long-term soaking, and she looked pale and slack. The smell of formalin... The great horror made Gu Zhensheng scream like crazy—"No...!!!"

Gu Zhensheng in the bathtub opened his eyes, he was gasping for breath, his hands and feet were still thrashing involuntarily, but everything around him had returned to calm, there were no women, no hair, and nothing but a tub of hot water beside him . Gu Zhensheng looked blankly at the peaceful surroundings, and suddenly burst into tears. This morning, Lin Xiang stood outside the door of the psychiatric office deep in the corridor on the eleventh floor of the main building of the hospital, looking a little cautious.It can be seen that she specially put on makeup today, and she has a good figure. She wore a dark professional dress, wearing chestnut-colored stockings on her legs, and a pair of dark purple high-heeled shoes under her feet, making her look more mature Capable, she seemed to be hesitating whether to go in or not.

Mai Yuxiang came here from the other end of the corridor, and he noticed this beautiful young woman standing outside his office from a long distance away, which aroused his curiosity, so he quickened his pace and came closer. First of all, he asked, "Ms. Lin, is there anything I can help you with?" Lin Xiang turned her head to look at the handsome young doctor in front of her. The sudden encounter made her speechless for a while, and she murmured for a long time before saying, "Ah, I, Dr. Mai." Mai Yuxiang looked at the embarrassed beautiful woman in front of him with a professional smile and felt a burst of comfort.

The words and sentences originally planned were all invalid, but Lin Xiang felt relieved. She laughed dumbly and said, "Dr. Mai, I'm here to talk to you about my psychological problems." Mai Yuxiang let Lin Xiang into the office, and sat down politely.Mai Yuxiang asked straight to the point, "Ms. Lin, what happened to you?" Lin Xiang smiled, looking at the handsome face full of kindness in front of her, she couldn't help trusting her suddenly, she said: "You can call me Lin Xiang, it's kinder, it's the first time I'm doing psychotherapy. "

Mai Yuxiang smiled kindly and said, "Yes, people in China haven't fully accepted psychotherapy as a form of treatment. They always think it's just chatting. This is something we can't help." Lin Xiang said, "Ah, Dr. Mai, I still believe in psychotherapy, but I am more or less embarrassed." Mai Yuxiang kept his trademark smile and encouraged her to continue, so Lin Xiang continued, "I want to ask you, is there a problem with her perception if she has a disease in her body? For example, I have a heart problem. I'm sick, will this make me hallucinate?"

Mai Yuxiang thought for a while, shook his head and said, "Probably not, even if physical discomfort affects people's perception, it is only to a certain extent. Besides, from my point of view, you are not sick yet. It's that serious." Lin Xiang listened, nodded, and said almost to himself, "That's right, if you can't even believe your own ears and eyes, what else can you believe?" Mai Yuxiang heard that there was something in her words, so he asked: "Ms. Lin, no, Lin Xiang, is it convenient for you to tell me what hallucinations you think you have? Of course, if you don't want to say, you don't have to." As a psychiatrist, it is a question language structure that he has tried many times. He knows that under normal circumstances, the person sitting across from him will not be able to help but reveal his inner secrets.

Lin Xiang thought for a while, and suddenly her face looked a little frightened, as if she was forcing herself to recall a very terrible thing. After about five minutes, she opened her mouth to say—— "Haunted in Ward 413!" Although Mai Yuxiang was ready to hear an unbelievable event, when he heard Lin Xiang's words, he couldn't help being secretly surprised. No one had ever said that this ward was haunted so seriously. ... But he still kept a calm smile on his face and asked, "Why do you feel this way?" Lin Xiang seemed to have said the word "ghost", and felt a lot relieved. She continued: "It's been raining these days, and in the middle of the night, it's cold. At first, I could always hear a woman crying. Sound, I don’t sleep well, and I often wake up. I thought it might be the patient or family member or escort living next door, but I went to the next ward to see it. 412 is an old man in his seventies. Uncle, usually only her wife is with him. 414 is a woman in her fifties, and her son is on the bed, and the cry I heard at night is clearly the voice of a young woman! Moreover, this is also Not the scariest…” She glanced at Mai Yuxiang, took a deep breath, and continued, "The night before yesterday, Nurse Xu in my ward just finished filling me with liquid and left, but the door was not closed properly. I was too lazy to move, so I ignored it. As a result... not long after, the crying sound appeared again, and it sounded getting closer, I was terrified, covered my head with the quilt, and then I heard that sound was at the door of my ward!" Speaking of this , Lin Xiang became short of breath, she calmed down for a while, and then continued, "I couldn't help but quietly opened a seam of the quilt, looked out tremblingly, and saw a long shadow cast into the ward by the light in the corridor Come on, the shadow was surprisingly long, it was a woman in a skirt, she didn't know what was happening because of something sad, the more she cried, the more there was no voice, I was frightened, so I rang the emergency bell by the window, I heard The sound of nurse Xu Chenchen running over, covered her head with the quilt again... When she arrived and turned on the light, I asked her if she saw a woman in a skirt in the corridor, but she firmly said no, it must be I was wrong, and I begged her to stay with me for a while before letting her go." Mai Yuxiang frowned and listened, seeing that she stopped talking, so he asked again: "Then, have you seen the woman's face clearly? What does she look like?" Lin Xiang shook his head and said, "I didn't see it, she didn't come into the house in time, and I didn't dare to look carefully! But I was really scared, I didn't dare to sleep at night, I only slept during the day, yesterday, the bed next door The old lady told me that the patient who lived in this ward died here, and at that time I often heard a woman crying near this ward. People said that it was the daughter of the patient who died before, but now she is crying. They are all dead, what is her daughter still doing here?" Mai Yuxiang thought for a while, and comforted, "Lin Xiang, I don't think you need to worry too much. As far as I know, the hospital is still very safe, and there are nurses and doctors on duty at night. As for what you saw, I want to be more specific. Might be a nightmare." Lin Xiang wondered, "Nightmare? How could it be? I can still distinguish dream from reality." Mai Yuxiang asked, "Are you going to have an operation soon?" Lin Xiang nodded and said, "Yes, the medical certificate was issued three days ago, part of the heart muscle has shrunk and died, and a heart transplant operation is required to survive..." Mai Yuxiang thought for a while, and said with certainty: "Then I think it might be because you are too nervous, and you heard some absurd things from the people around you. In this way, I will give you some soothing medicine. Take the medicine, try it first, if you still hear crying at night after a few days, come and find me again, okay?" Lin Xiang nodded. In fact, Mai Yuxiang, the deputy chief physician of the psychiatry department, didn't even fully agree with his diagnosis of Lin Xiang, because in the past few months, he had heard too many stories about seeing a crying woman in white in this hospital at midnight. Although there is no evidence for the incident, and it cannot be confirmed that it must be a supernatural event, it at least shows that this incident is not groundless, not to mention that his girlfriend Wen Miao and Xia Xiaoyu, a nurse in the intensive care unit, have dreamed of this mysterious event many times. A woman in white.It’s just that he has no clue now. This matter runs counter to the knowledge he has learned over the years, and he can only help himself fall into a contradiction of constantly seeking answers and constantly asking himself to believe that these things do not conform to scientific common sense. However, what Mai Yuxiang never imagined was that this strange event would have a direct connection with himself, and soon. On this day, Mai Yuxiang drove his own car into the hospital compound, bypassed the main building, and stopped behind the building.He just came back from Wen Miao's side, and he was in a rare good mood, humming the popular songs played on the car stereo.He unbuckled his seat belt and was about to get out of the car when someone knocked on his window. Mai Yuxiang rolled down the car window, and the strange and grim old face of Uncle Hong, the guard of the hospital mortuary, appeared in the window.Mai Yuxiang thought to himself, how did he meet him?But he still asked politely: "Oh, Uncle Hong, you surprised me, do you have anything to do with me?" Uncle Hong said in a hoarse voice, "You are blocking the way of the mortuary..." Mai Yuxiang couldn't help being surprised, "Huh? What did you say?" Uncle Hong bent his back, stretched out an arm and pointed to the front left, and said, "Young man, you are blocking the road of the mortuary, you cannot park here..." Mai Yuxiang asked in confusion: "But, Mr. Hong, I have been here for a month." Uncle Hong sighed heavily, "The season is here, the season for collecting corpses is here, it will be very busy, very busy, very busy, very busy, the car that pulls the corpse from the balance to the crematorium will go here, you are in the way I said, I can't block it, it's unlucky..." Mai Yuxiang had heard that Uncle Hong had been stimulated in the head in his early years and had a weird personality. There are even rumors that he has yin and yang eyes and can see things that ordinary people can't see... Mai Yuxiang thinks that he should not argue with such theories. So he nodded helplessly and said, "I'll just move the car away." He restarted the car, turned and turned, and finally parked in a parking space downstairs in the male staff dormitory. The male staff dormitory of the hospital is at the back of the main building. It is an old three-story house, which is much older than the main building of the hospital. It is an old-fashioned tube building, also known as an old dormitory building. It was built in the city in response to the central government's instructions to prepare for war and famine. Later, after the land was converted into a hospital, the hospital staff temporarily lived in it. It was originally planned to be rebuilt, but unexpectedly, a new building was built in front of it. The main building, which was completely blocked, was never mentioned about the reconstruction.In fact, there are only a few people living here at present, and most of the residents moved to the new dormitory building on the east side of the main building a few years ago.When Mai Yuxiang just returned to China, Wen Tonghe also made an exception and arranged for him to live in a new dormitory building, but Mai Yuxiang claimed that he liked quietness and wanted to do research, so he continued to live in the dormitory before he went abroad. It was getting late, and the main building in front blocked most of the sunlight, so the old dormitory building gave off a dark feeling.There was only one dim light in the corridor, and it was still flickering. Mai Yuxiang walked upstairs briskly, causing the light and shadow in the corridor to shake for a while. When Mai Yuxiang walked to the corner of the stairs from the second floor to the third floor, suddenly a white figure flashed past him. This unexpected encounter made Mai Yuxiang terrified.He stood there blankly, watching helplessly as the figure leaned against the wall and quickly disappeared at the stairs.From the appearance, it should be a young woman, because the corridor was too dark, and because he was too nervous, he didn't see clearly that the woman was wearing a hospital white blouse and a white dress. It took a long time for Mai Yuxiang to recover from the panic, and he hurried back to his dormitory on the third floor of the dormitory building.Turning on the light, he turned on the laptop as usual, but found that the computer was already on. He reached out and touched the computer, it was warm.He couldn't help but recall the shocking scene just now. Did someone come to his dormitory and move his things?Mai Yuxiang looked puzzled, if so, who would it be?Could this be the woman in white in the legend?He felt the need to speak to his future father-in-law. The next morning, in the dean's office, Mai Yuxiang sat in front of Wen Tonghe and told him what happened last night. Wen Tonghe listened to him quietly, but just said lightly: "...Since nothing was lost, it is not a thief, so there is no way to call the police." Mai Yuxiang felt that he didn't care about how such a strange thing happened, but first thought that he didn't need to call the police, and he felt displeased for a while, but he still said politely: "If it's a thief, the matter is simple. I'm worried , Among our medical staff, due to long-term work or life pressure, they have accumulated very serious psychological problems. If they are not taken seriously, it may cause serious consequences. During this period of time, many people in the hospital have discussed One after another, they said there was a woman in white crying in the middle of the night..." Wen Tonghe nodded and said: "Mai, I agree with your statement in theory, but don't say such things to the outside world, it's up to me. Otherwise, the consequences will be very serious. You don't know, this In the past year, in order to solve the conflict between doctors and patients and maintain the image that our hospital should have, I have worked hard, or it can be said that I am exhausted, and I don't want to cause any troubles. Do you understand?" Of course Mai Yuxiang understood, so he nodded reluctantly. Wen Tonghe suggested: "You can carry out some psychological diagnosis and treatment work among the employees of this hospital in an undisclosed manner to help them relieve stress. But you can only do it and not talk about it. The treatment files must be kept strictly confidential. If someone with ulterior motives gets it from the safe in my office, the consequences will be disastrous." Mai Yuxiang said helplessly, "I understand." Wen Tonghe said again: "Oh, Wen Miao has been having nightmares at night, you can help her more, take her out to play and relax, and I also let her walk around more, which is good for postoperative recovery. You young people will also have an optimistic and happy mood when you are together." Mai Yuxiang forced a smile and said, "I will." He thought to himself that Dean Wen and him were thinking about two things, but what could he do?Since he couldn't get his support, he could only investigate secretly. The chief surgeon of the hospital, Gu Sheng, was lying on the sofa in the living room in his pajamas. He was drunk and blurred, sometimes sad and sometimes happy. On the coffee table in front of him were some takeaway dishes and a few empty wine bottles. It was obvious that he drank a lot . The TV was on, but there was no sound. It was an old-fashioned 21-inch Panda brand color TV. On the screen was a home video. It was a video of him and Xia Xue getting married. It could be seen that the scene was very lively. At that time, Gu Zhensheng's figure was not blessed, his waist was tall and straight, his hair was combed black and shiny, and he was dressed in a neat suit with the joy of a bridegroom official all over his body, and Xia Xue beside him was even more radiant, wearing a white waist The tube top wedding dress outlines her beautiful figure gracefully and charmingly. Her long hair is tied up in a bun on the back of her head, filled with flowers. The two are toasting to their relatives and friends frequently. They can be seen in the crowd A twelve or thirteen-year-old girl with ponytails, that is Xia Xiaoyu, wearing a beige dress, holding flowers, smiling happily... There was a knock on the door. Gu Zhensheng got up and went to open the door. A courier was standing outside with a courier box in his hand. He looked at the unshaven Gu Zhensheng and asked, "Are you Mr. Gu Zhensheng?" Gu Zhensheng said drunkenly, "Yes." The courier said: "The goods you ordered have arrived." He handed the box to Gu Zhensheng, and a pen—— "Please sign for it." Gu Zhensheng took the courier box and put it under his armpit, and then scribbled on the receipt. The courier took back the pen and smiled: "Thank you, goodbye." The courier who turned to leave seemed to hold back for a long time and finally couldn't hold it back. He turned around and commented with a smile; "The thing you want, our boss said it's really hard to find!" Gu Zhensheng gave him a cold look, didn't answer, and closed the door heavily. Gu Zhensheng came to his and Xia Xue's original big bedroom, a beautifully framed wedding photo hanging above the bed was particularly eye-catching, the dressing table, hangers, and the furnishings in the room were the same as when Xia Xue was alive.Gu Zhensheng sat on the big bed in the middle of the room and opened the express box... Unconsciously, tears welled up in his eyes, and he muttered silently: "Look, Xue, how beautiful! How beautiful!" Since the accident of Mrs. Li Guifen, for the three nurses in the intensive care unit, working the night shift has become the most daunting thing for them.Xu Chenchen with a big mouth has recently conveyed to Xia Xiaoyu and Wu Xinyao with certainty that in the middle of the night a few days ago, she was woken up by the emergency bell from the female patient Lin Xiang in Ward 413 in the middle of the night. There was nothing abnormal, but Lin Xiang insisted repeatedly that she saw a woman in white standing outside her ward door, crying very sadly.At first Xu Chenchen said that she didn't see anything, but after a day, she got up again and said, "I seem to have seen something, but I was afraid and didn't dare to tell you. I saw a white shadow floating around. Suddenly went to the elevator. Do you think it is the ghost of Mrs. Li's daughter who thinks her mother is still alive and refuses to leave?" Nurse Xia Xiaoyu is always terrified by such rumors, but Wu Xinyao doesn't really believe them. She has been a bold and careful girl since she was a child. When she was in middle school, she was the representative of the girls in the class. Screaming.At that time, she often thought that men are already the scariest thing on this planet for women. If a woman can be easily handled by a man, what else is there to be afraid of?But she also understood that any rumors were not groundless, which made her faintly want to find out the truth of the legend. It was raining again late at night, and it was Wu Xinyao's turn to be on the night shift.After adding fluids to patients 413, 414, and 415, and taking medicines for patients 411, 412, and 417, she didn't feel particularly tired, so on a whim, she decided to sit on a long table at the corner of the corridor. Wait on the chair for a while, and see if you can see the mysterious woman in white with your own eyes. Will the woman show up and startle her?Or will she dare not come out when she sees someone here who is not afraid of her?Inexplicably, Wu Xinyao wanted to verify it. After waiting for about half an hour, there was nothing but the occasional low-pitched conversations of people who were not asleep in the ward or the groans of patients in pain.Wu Xinyao couldn't help laughing secretly at her own boredom, even if she was broken in love, even if she was in a bad mood, she shouldn't entertain herself like this. It was already midnight, and Wu Xinyao felt chills all over her body. A window not far away was not closed tightly, and the cold wind was pouring in with the drizzle outside the window. Wu Xinyao got up and closed the window, tightened her nurse's shirt and prepared to go back to the duty room to rest for a while.But suddenly heard a faint cry, which seemed to be coming from the stairs, Wu Xinyao suddenly turned around and asked, "Who?!" Seeing a group of white shadows standing at the end of the corridor, looking at her quietly, Wu Xinyao boldly asked again: "Which ward are you from, what's the matter?" But the white shadow retreated into the stairwell, and the desire to find out after waiting for a long time prompted Wu Xinyao to chase after her. She wanted to find out who had been playing tricks like this all this time. The woman in white entered the stairwell and went upstairs quickly. Wu Xinyao followed closely behind, and she didn't know how many floors she had climbed. Wu Xinyao's initial fear gradually disappeared, because she thought that since this "thing" would run away If you can climb stairs, then it is definitely not a ghost, but a person. Finally reached the top floor, the woman in white pushed open the door of the stairwell and ran into the corridor on the twelfth floor, Wu Xinyao was a little out of breath, but she followed closely—— Pushing open the door of the stairwell, the corridor on the twelfth floor entered her field of vision—different from other floors of the hospital, it seemed that the lights here were pale all year round, and the cold was threatening... In fact, Wu Xinyao, like other nurses, seldom comes to this floor, so she doesn't know what it's like here. At this moment, the corridor is empty, but it seems that there are inexplicable gusts of wind blowing... But, the woman in white Where did you go?Wu Xinyao walked in hesitantly. She knew that the refrigerator room only three to five meters away from her was filled with rows of iron shelves. On the shelves were glass vessels of various shapes, which contained various internal organs of the human body, and even Complete corpses and skeletons, rushing into here alone at midnight, made her feel her heart beating faster.Her footsteps landed in the empty corridor, and the sound of the rubber-soled heels hitting the ground seemed to be amplified, but where did the woman in white go?Did she go into a freezer somewhere?But the cold room is locked, only Director Wen and Director Gu have the keys, she can't run in, impossible? !What is impossible?What if she is really a female corpse living here?Wu Xinyao couldn't help being startled by this thought.Maybe being in such a lonely situation can make people cranky. Wu Xinyao suppressed the thought of running away immediately, and continued to walk forward. She was very nervous, always guarding against a sudden attack from the corner of the corridor, or behind the bathroom door, or even from any direction.She tremblingly walked to the door of the elevator, but suddenly found that the number on the elevator was changing, but it was not going downstairs, but going up from the lobby, one floor at a time... It was so late, who would come to the hospital? ?Wu Xinyao wanted to leave, but felt that roots had taken root under her feet. Her eyes were involuntarily attracted by the flashing numbers on the elevator, and she couldn't move. The appearance of someone, like a condemned prisoner eager to meet a bullet destined to fly to her, so as to relieve her unbearable fear now, who could it be? ...4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11- The number finally became 12, and the elevator opened with a ding-dong—— Wu Xinyao screamed uncontrollably, the sound was too sharp, as if it broke through walls, floors and glass, and it spread so far that everyone in the building was startled.But none of them were as surprised as the midnight visitor in the elevator. The chief surgeon, Gu Sheng, was almost frightened by Wu Xinyao's scream and sat on the elevator!After he saw clearly where the scream came from, it took him a while to return to normal. Gu Zhensheng stepped out of the elevator, lowered his voice and said to the trembling Wu Xinyao, "What are you calling? It's midnight, what are you doing here?" Wu Xinyao finally saw that it was Director Gu, and the sense of collapse after screaming came over her. She managed not to pass out, but she couldn't speak clearly, "I, I." After a few words, she didn't utter a complete sentence. Gu Zhensheng grabbed her arm, entered the elevator together, and pressed the down button.