Chapter 33: The Legend of the Ghost Nurse at 426 Hospital

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“Liao Feifei is actually a member of the Paranormal Society?”

Ji Yun was somewhat puzzled.

He had looked through the files before.

The founder of Fox Hunt Detective Agency, “Old Owl”—the ghost whose eyes had been gouged out and ears sealed shut—had hacked into Liao Feifei’s computer and discovered that she had a habit of keeping an online diary.

Using technical means, Old Owl recovered the diary entries she had deleted.

From the details of her daily life, he had analyzed her personality: vain and extraordinarily jealous.

One of the objects of her jealousy was Lin Kexin, her roommate and best friend, who was both beautiful and academically gifted.

That was why Old Owl had suspected that she was connected to Lin Kexin’s fall from the building.

Ji Yun had been powerless to do anything about that case.

Even though it had happened at his own university.

He had never intended to investigate anything. He simply had not expected to run into this “suspect” at a club gathering.

The thought flashed through his mind.

Ji Yun lowered his head and continued eating.

Fatty was still gazing lovestruck at Senior Sister Xia Li. During the meal, he had secretly sent two more virtual airplanes.

Ji Yun was rendered speechless by the sight.

The ridiculous part was that after spending all that money, the fellow did not even dare to say to her face that he was the “Handsome Rascal.”

He had already blushed crimson just from hearing her say, “Thank you, big brother.”

…

Since it was the Paranormal Society, their topics naturally revolved around supernatural incidents.

Most of them were old stories, rather dull ones at that.

Senior Sister Xia Li’s outdoor ghost-hunting livestreams, however, were somewhat interesting.

She described her experiences livestreaming from places such as the “Abandoned Building in the Western Suburbs,” “Nanling Tunnel,” and “Bus 878’s Last Run.”

All of them were places rumored to be haunted online.

She had livestreamed from every one of them.

Ji Yun had browsed gossip forums before. He knew that most of those places really had experienced supernatural incidents, which was why the rumors had begun in the first place.

But professionals had dealt with all of them.

There was no longer any danger in going there.

Still, the fact that Senior Sister Xia Li dared to visit them already put her ahead of the vast majority of streamers.

Ji Yun had remained a listener the entire time, not interrupting once.

But as the conversation continued, someone suddenly brought up a supernatural incident at the university.

“Have any of you heard? A Slit-Mouthed Woman has appeared in downtown Jianghua. Lots of people online claim they’ve seen her with their own eyes.”

“Of course I’ve heard. Apparently someone from our university saw her too! At night, a woman in white wearing a mask wanders through the woods beside Fairy Lake…”

“Really?”

“Of course it’s true. They say she was a senior who died with unresolved resentment after a botched plastic-surgery operation. She became a Slit-Mouthed Woman and now wanders around campus with a pair of scissors, looking for pretty students so she can cut their faces open…”

“Ah… Thank goodness I’m ugly.”

“…”

Another purpose of the Paranormal Society was to tell ghost stories and frighten one another.

If it could scare people, it was a good story.

Horror stories had another characteristic: the longer people discussed them, the clearer the images they imagined became.

Before long, everyone seemed to feel as though the creature truly existed.

Only Ji Yun’s expression grew slightly grave.

He had just heard Sister Hualing discussing the Slit-Mouthed Woman.

An “urban legend” referred to a type of ghost more dangerous than a Vengeful Spirit.

Its most troublesome characteristic was that fear could spread.

The more widely it was talked about, the stronger its resentment became.

It could even rise to the level of a Natural Disaster.

And as long as the legend continued to exist, it could endlessly revive and be reborn, never truly perishing.

This particular urban legend originated in the island nation. Although it had spread fairly widely in the country, few people actually believed in it, and it had never gained enough momentum to take shape.

Nor had it ever formed a physical embodiment of resentment within the country.

But judging from what everyone was saying now, someone had actually seen it.

That made the matter far more complicated.

And it had happened at the university?

Only then did Ji Yun realize that during the few days he had been on leave, the online posts about the Slit-Mouthed Woman had been revived and stirred up again.

Listening to everyone talk, a thought surfaced in his mind.

Could someone be deliberately spreading this urban legend throughout Jianghua City?

What concerned Ji Yun even more was that the person who had raised the subject was none other than Liao Feifei.

If this girl really was connected to Lin Kexin’s death, then why was she spreading the legend of the Slit-Mouthed Woman so casually? Did she have some ulterior motive?

…

Before long, the dinner ended, and the members of the Paranormal Society reluctantly went their separate ways.

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Ji Yun and Zhao Kai also left the restaurant.

Senior Sister Xia Li’s livestream was still going on, and Zhao Kai continued guarding it happily with his phone in hand.

Now that no one was watching him, Fatty stopped hiding his behavior.

With a few rapid taps, he sent over two more virtual airplanes.

Seeing how completely carried away he was, Ji Yun could not help worrying about his good friend.

He glanced at the frighteningly high title beside the account name and could not resist asking, “Fatty, how many gifts have you sent her?”

Zhao Kai replied casually, “Not that many. A hundred or two hundred thousand, maybe.”

“???”

Ji Yun froze, wondering whether he had misheard.

Well, then!

So all those luxury goods on Senior Sister Xia Li had been bought by this guy?

A friend was a friend—not because he was rich, but because he was a friend.

Ji Yun had never been particularly concerned about his best friend’s family background. But watching the fellow scatter money like this still seemed inappropriate, so he asked, “You’re not secretly a rich second-generation heir, are you?”

It sounded like a joke, but he was genuinely concerned.

If Zhao Kai’s family was merely ordinary, Ji Yun would have to talk some sense into him.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Kai replied bluntly, “More or less. My family owns a few supermarkets. The allowance my dad gives me is enough.”

Allowance?

Only then did Ji Yun realize that Fatty truly did not care about spending a hundred or two hundred thousand.

There was nothing more he could say.

At that moment, Zhao Kai—still intoxicated by the sweet voice saying “Thank you, big brother”—opened Senior Sister Xia Li’s profile. As if showing off his girlfriend, he said, “Brother Yun, look. Senior Sister Xia Li really comes from a family of genuine metaphysical practitioners…”

Ji Yun glanced at the screen as well.

Just as everyone had discussed earlier, Senior Sister Xia Li clearly had some real ability.

Her profile also contained clips from her outdoor ghost-hunting livestreams.

But when Ji Yun saw a line in her information section, his brows drew together.

“Senior Sister Xia Li actually has an Extreme Yin constitution?”

Fatty assumed Ji Yun did not know what that meant and immediately began showing off his knowledge.

“Yeah. I heard Senior Sister say that, according to folk legends, someone with an Extreme Yin constitution is born with a medium’s body. That’s why she can act as a spirit medium. She can even see filthy things that ordinary people can’t…”

Ji Yun naturally knew that.

Streamers often displayed their birthdays to make it easier for viewers to send gifts.

That alone was not strange.

But this was not merely a birthday.

It was a complete astrological birth chart.

That was how Xia Li introduced herself on her profile:

Born on October 5. Heavenly Stems Yi, Ding, and Gui, all Yin; Earthly Branches with the double Rooster, Pig, and Ox, of extreme cold. An Extreme Yin constitution.

With a destiny like that displayed on her profile, even someone who did not believe in the supernatural would be convinced three parts out of ten.

It also fit Senior Sister Xia Li’s persona as a paranormal streamer perfectly.

What truly astonished Ji Yun was this:

Who would willingly make their complete birth chart known to everyone?

After learning quite a bit from his Third Uncle, Ji Yun had recently made up for his lack of basic knowledge about Chinese astrology.

For many practitioners of folk traditions—spirit mediums, exorcists, and those who walked between the worlds—a pure Yin birth chart did indeed provide an innate advantage.

But anyone who genuinely understood the taboos of folk practices would never make their birth details known to the entire world.

One’s birth chart was the anchor of one’s destiny.

Many wicked techniques and ghostly spells could be cast directly upon someone as long as the caster obtained that person’s birth details.

And there was an even more striking coincidence.

Lin Kexin, the girl who had fallen from the T4 women’s dormitory the previous year, also had a pure Yin constitution.

Ji Yun instinctively sensed that the two were connected somehow.

According to the detective files, many girls had leaped to their deaths from the T4 women’s dormitory.

If Senior Sister Xia Li really came from a family of spirit mediums, could she truly have no qualms about this?

Ji Yun could not understand it.

Ever since discovering that ghosts existed in this world, his perspective had changed.

Especially after browsing the gossip forums, he had learned that many accidents reported openly concealed one truth behind another.

A subway collapse might actually have been caused by the excavation of an ancient tomb and the subsequent appearance of zombies. A drowning at a reservoir might really have been the work of a water ghost…

Even Ji Yun himself had experienced something similar.

The day before yesterday, the incident at Happiness Estate had been reported in the news the following day as a gas explosion caused by a resident illegally connecting a gas line. Six people had died, and half a building had collapsed.

Ji Yun had been there. He knew exactly what had happened.

The traces left behind by the battle with the Cat-Faced Old Woman and the others could not be dealt with, and there had certainly been other deaths inside the building as well.

If the matter was not covered up, it would inevitably cause panic.

A “gas explosion” seemed to be the most reasonable explanation.

That was why Ji Yun had such a strange feeling now, as though an eerie cloud were hanging over the university.

The legend of the Slit-Mouthed Woman, the string of deaths from falling buildings, the Extreme Yin constitutions…

He could not make sense of it all for the moment, and he did not want to say too much.

Perhaps Jianghua was about to experience a major supernatural outbreak. In that case, it was only natural for strange incidents to occur more frequently.

After thinking it over, he merely said to Zhao Kai, “Fatty, send Senior Sister Xia Li a private message and remind her to hide her birth chart. Tell her that there have been too many supernatural incidents lately, and exposing her birth details might attract some filthy things…”

“That’s true!”

Zhao Kai’s small eyes immediately lit up.

Only then did he realize that his best friend was quite knowledgeable about folk traditions as well.

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Worried that his goddess was too professional for him to find a way into the conversation, he promptly sent her Ji Yun’s well-intentioned warning.

Then he turned around and asked, “Come on. Want to go back to the dorm and play?”

Ji Yun shook his head. “No. Something came up at home. I’m going back to stay there for a few days.”

…

Across the street, Xia Li was still livestreaming when she received a private message from the top donor, “Handsome Rascal.”

She replied, “Thank you for the reminder, big brother. It’s getting late today, so I’m going to end the stream now~ Don’t forget to come watch Chestnut’s livestream tomorrow~”

She then ended the broadcast.

In reality, the professional streamer’s smile disappeared from Xia Li’s face at once, replaced by a faintly weary expression.

After she shut down the livestream, a girl in the distance finally dared to approach.

It was Liao Feifei.

She had also been watching the stream and had been intensely envious as the mysterious donor sent airplanes throughout the evening.

“Wow, Sister Chestnut, your top donor sent you ten airplanes again today!”

Xia Li enjoyed the adulation, but pretended not to care.

“It was nothing.”

After the platform’s cut, she would still receive several thousand yuan from tonight’s stream, which was indeed a handsome sum.

Beside her, Liao Feifei said enviously, “Handsome Rascal must be a rich second-generation heir. I wish I had a sponsor like that…”

Her voice was filled with longing, as though she could already see the scene in which Cinderella met her prince.

Xia Li frowned slightly, as if something about the situation left her dissatisfied.

“He’s definitely rich. But whether he’s handsome is another question.”

Liao Feifei looked puzzled. “Why not?”

“If he were handsome, he would have already been desperate to invite me out for dinner. He even uses an alternate account to add people on messaging apps. Either he’s a married old man, or he’s an ugly shut-in who’s too embarrassed to show his face.”

This was commonplace in the livestreaming industry.

Anyone who chose to put themselves on display before the public was bound to encounter all kinds of strange people.

With hundreds of thousands of followers, Xia Li had run into such men more than once.

But to her, they were all the same.

As long as they brought gifts and popularity to her livestream, nothing else mattered.

Hearing this, Liao Feifei inexplicably felt much better. She nodded in sudden understanding.

“Oh.”

She hurriedly added another compliment.

“Sister Chestnut, you’re amazing. I always learn so much whenever I’m with you~”

Xia Li merely smiled without replying.

By now, she had become highly skilled at manipulating men’s emotions.

A sycophant was a sycophant.

A little coaxing, and he would come right back.

Neither of them felt there was anything wrong with privately commenting on their benefactor in this way.

Together, they followed the tree-lined avenue toward the women’s dormitory.

As they walked, Liao Feifei sighed again.

“Ah, Sister Chestnut, I wish I could become a major internet celebrity like you. But I only have a little over a thousand followers right now. Hardly anyone watches my streams, and I certainly don’t have a generous sponsor like yours.”

Xia Li responded like a considerate senior.

“Oh, Feifei, just stream more often. Your following will grow eventually. Besides, I’m still a long way from becoming a major internet celebrity myself.”

She did not continue on that subject. Instead, she muttered with a troubled look, “I don’t even know where to go for my next outdoor livestream. I’ve already visited all the haunted places recommended by my viewers. Last time, Songjiang Bridge turned out to be nothing but a battered iron bridge with more people jumping into the river than anything else. The show had no impact at all, and the stream barely gained any followers. If I don’t find some interesting material soon, I’m going to start losing fans…”

The paranormal-streaming niche was indeed less competitive.

But it required a constant supply of new material to satisfy the viewers’ curiosity.

Merely being attractive was not enough.

The content and the script had to be exciting as well.

Xia Li sighed, her face filled with longing.

“Ah… If only I could find a sufficiently unusual supernatural incident. Then I could gain another wave of followers.”

At those words, Liao Feifei’s eyes shifted, as though she had thought of something.

“Sister Chestnut, have you heard that our university has its own supernatural legend? I think it would be perfect for a livestream.”

Xia Li tilted her head, looking puzzled.

“What? Our university has a supernatural legend?”

“Yeah. I only just found out myself.”

As she spoke, Liao Feifei seemed to remember something and took out an old newspaper.

“Here. I found it at a secondhand bookshop. I originally intended to use it as material for one of my own livestreams…”

Xia Li did not hear the second half of the sentence.

Her eyes lit up the instant she saw the title of a ghost story in the corner of the old newspaper.

“The Legend of the Ghost Nurse at Hospital 426… Oh, this is interesting! So the T4 dormitory at our university used to be a haunted hospital decades ago!”

She had studied at the university for several years, yet had only just learned that the dormitory had once been a hospital built with Soviet assistance.

The rest of Liao Feifei’s sentence caught in her throat.

“I… I only just found out too.”

As an experienced major streamer, Xia Li had already imagined countless spectacular scenes for the livestream the moment she saw the headline.

Looking at the newspaper, she read aloud, “There was once a case involving someone falling from the hospital building… A legend about a ghost nurse… According to the story, at midnight, the ghost nurse could be seen making her rounds on the third and fourth floors. Oh my god, this is the perfect material for a livestream!”

By the time she finished reading, she could no longer suppress her excitement. She threw her arms around Liao Feifei in a passionate embrace.

“Haha, Feifei, you’ve done me a huge favor!”

Her words clearly meant that she had claimed the subject for herself.

Liao Feifei gave an awkward smile and nervously pinched the edge of her clothes, wanting to speak but holding back.

It was obviously material she had found herself.

In the end, she was too embarrassed to argue and merely asked, “Sister Chestnut, then… could you take me with you next time you livestream?”

Xia Li knew that the girl wanted to ride her popularity, but she agreed readily.

“Of course!”

She was not brave enough to explore haunted places alone. Whenever she conducted an outdoor ghost-hunting livestream, she always had a group of people following behind the camera.

She also needed someone to play an NPC in the staged segments of the show.

Liao Feifei beamed.

“Thank you, Senior Sister.”

Thinking about the old dormitory building on campus, Xia Li’s mind instantly filled with countless ideas.

“With a legend supported by real historical records, this is practically the perfect script! I’ll warm it up in the livestream first. Then we can design a few supernatural segments. The show is guaranteed to explode!”

The two of them continued walking and chatting.