Tales of Aegiceras: Cave in

21. The Little Boy (2)

Translator: Superbomb

No matter how, he had to leave this place and find the next safe place asap. He quickly glanced at the map.

There was only one safe place on the 3rd floor: No. 3 Clinic of the General Surgery Dept.

After memorizing its approximate location, he summoned his courage to shine the torch on the floor. However, to his surprise, not only did the terrifying blood was gone, but the rustling “thing” crawling on the floor disappeared!

Having no time to think about these incredible things, Sun Zheng stuffed the map back into his pocket and ran towards the No. 3 Clinic of the General Surgery Dept.

Waving the torch in his hand, he knew he had moved away from that ominous operating room. For the first time, he let out a sigh of relief. He then reached out to open the door.

 

Pah!

 

It felt as though he had been electrocuted.

 

Without any hesitation, he turned the handle and pushed the door open, and then rushed into the darkness behind the door.

He scanned the No. 3 Clinic of the General Surgery Department in the torchlight and felt a little uncertain. There were some ordinary surgery furnishings, desks, and bookshelves in the room, but he didn’t see any posters or drawings on the wall which, according to Lu Xia, could block something out. Then how could this place be ‘safe’?

The burning sensation from entering the TCM Department by mistake was deep in his memory.

Perhaps, there was something that Lu Xia hadn’t mentioned yet? How was Lu Xia now? He was alone in the archives room and his feet were injured…

He found that he couldn’t help but think about Lu Xia again. He patted himself on the head, trying to concentrate on what he was doing.

“I’d better find out what’s going on with that door first…” he muttered. He pulled a chair over and sat down before unfolding the map again.

He carefully searched the map but didn’t find that there was any structure similar to the corridor he had been in just now in the main building of Aegiceras Hospital.

In the main building of this hospital, there were rooms at each end of the corridor on each floor. For example, at one end of the corridor on the 3rd floor was the operating room (4), which was far from the archives room. And at one end, it was a restroom that faced the staircase. However, on the map, no corridor on any floor ended in a wall, nor did it seem that there was such a strange room at the end of any corridor.

Then what kind of place did he get to just now? Perhaps it was just a dream, an illusion?

Perhaps it was just a moment of chaos, and in fact, he was still on the 3rd floor. As for how he had reached the other end of the corridor… He might have run over in the chaos…

Knowing that this reason did not make sense, Sun Zheng still remembered what it felt like to be in a hell-like place surrounded by dark mist, so he temporarily convinced himself.

He thought of the record again. Maybe he could find some clue in it? He then pulled out the notebook.

The whole story started from the long blood trail on the third floor.

It must be very easy to find the record about the 3rd floor of Aegiceras Hospital. He then started flipping through the notebook that recorded the dark occurrences taking place between 1999 and 2002, looking for keywords like “the 3rd floor” and “imprint”… He stopped several times halfway, but to his disappointment, the themes of those stories had nothing to do with “something” on the third floor.

After quite a while, he noticed that the pages that followed Li Ting’s record seemed to be related to “the 3rd floor” and “imprint”. The handwriting was clearly neat as if it was written by someone who was well-educated. Sun Zheng looked specifically at the name of the recorder: Yan Yang (internship, 2001~2002).

Record of Dark Occurrences in Aegiceras Hospital, 1999~2002 (IX)

 

Recorder: Yan Yang (internship, 2001~2002)

April 20th, 2001

 

Before he left, my senior brother once told me that medical interns might have a lot of difficulties during their internship: Doctors never treat them as doctors, but handymen. On the contrary, patients regarded them as formal doctors, thinking that they should be responsible for everything. Therefore, they were often in a dilemma.

I was surprised the moment I was told that I would have to write such a strange record at the beginning of my internship at Aegiceras Hospital. Everyone says that surgeons are in high demand, so they are well treated, but I don’t think so. The first day I arrived at the hospital, a few nurses, who worked on the same floor as me, ran to me cheerfully and put a notebook on my desk. “Yan, you’re the new intern here, right? As you’re a college graduate in surgery, both knowledgeable and experienced, we’ll leave this to you!”

I flipped through the first pages. What was it? Mere trash!

How can a talented young man who graduated from a prestigious medical college believe in such ridiculous things! But… I’m still interested in those wonderful ghost stories, the more thrilling, the better. Those that are illogical and too vulgar make no sense to me. I heard too many ghost stories when I was in college, so I have developed a special method of studying ghosts. First of all, the type of ghost… (It seems the recorder still wanted to say something more about his method, but he crossed out the next sentence and shifted the topic).

Alright, I’m going to tell you the first story, which may be a little exaggerated. Some of it is just my guess, so you don’t have to take it too seriously.

One month after I joined the hospital, it was always raining for a few days. As the floor was both wet and dirty, many people fell in the main building. Anyway, as they were in the hospital, if someone got injured, he could be treated soon.

That morning, it was drizzling again, and as usual, there were many patients in and out of the hospital. Putting away my umbrella, I walked towards the No. 3 Clinic of the General Surgery Department on the 3rd floor. The corridor was covered with wet footprints. I walked carefully to avoid falling and finally got to the office.

Dr. Liu hadn’t come yet. It was said that he was a famous senior doctor in this hospital, so I was lucky to work with him. Dr. Liu was indeed diligent and he always came into the office about ten minutes before the required time. When he was on duty, I could only do some errands.

Seeing that Dr. Liu was focusing on the patient with a lame leg, whose illness didn’t seem to be serious, I walked to the bookshelf by the window. When I was about to take out the tape of New Concept English, I suddenly felt something wrong, but I couldn’t tell what it was. It seemed as if something strange burst into my eyes when I was walking to the bookshelf.

Where did I see it? Out of curiosity, I scanned around but didn’t find anything wrong with the desks, the windowsill, and the bookshelf… Wait! What was that outside of the windowsill?

I popped my head out and was stunned.

There was a shelter above the windowsill, so though the rain was still dropping, the windowsill was dry. However, there was a pair of small wet footprints on it, with the tips pointing to the room, as if someone was trying to get into the room through the window.

I looked down and saw a mess of footprints on the ground outside, so I couldn’t tell if there was such a small pair of footprints among them.

However, I suddenly felt a little chilly. After all, we were on the 3rd floor!

From the size of the footprints, I could tell they were left by a child of seven or eight years old. How did it come in from outside the windowsill? If the child stood outside of the window during the day, someone must have seen it. If it climbed up to the 3rd floor at night… Taking the height of this floor into consideration, it was impossible for such a young child to have done this.

I popped out my head again and looked around. The pipes outside were at least two or three rooms away from our office, but there were no footprints on the windowsill next door on both sides.

“Uh… Dr. Liu, did you see a child… come in through this window?” I asked carefully.

Dr. Liu revealed a surprised look as well. When he followed the direction I was pointing at and saw the windowsill, he immediately yelled, “You punk, why don’t you focus on your work? Are you trying to frighten me with something that does not exist at all?”

I shut my mouth, depressed. However, when I looked up, I suddenly saw Nurse Liu, who had just come in with something in her hands, standing at the door, pale and trembling. When she noticed my gaze, she hurriedly put her things down and left.

Ah, maybe it was that naughty kid, whose name seemed to be Colacao?!

Actually, his name was not Colacao, but Gao Letian. This kid was my first patient and my worst nightmare!

He looked lively and smart at first sight. However, as soon as he sat down and I asked him what his name was, he started acting up. Seeing that he picked up the medical record from my desk and was about to tear it, I immediately took it back. Annoyed, he started slapping the desk and kicking around. Standing behind him, his mother said apologetically with a smile, “Doctor, that’s him! I hope you’re not offended.”

Not offended? Thinking that he was not only my first patient but also a kid, I managed to hold back my anger. I didn’t stop him when I saw him tearing the notes that Dr. Liu and I made into pieces while shaking his leg that draped over the other triumphantly.

To my surprise, after thorough physical checking, I found this naughty kid in perfect health!

Was it because I was still not skilled enough to tell if there was anything wrong with him? As if his mother had figured out what was on my mind, she pulled me aside.

“Letian is actually not sick,” she said in a low voice.

I almost jumped up. “Then why did you bring him here?” Were they making fun of me because I was an intern? No wonder Dr. Liu was so assured putting me in charge of this kid.

“You, you can put anything on the diagnosis as long as it can keep him in the hospital for a few days. Doctor, please!” His mother said sincerely, not as if she were joking.

“What do you mean?” I asked as I watched the child start flipping through the things in the cabinet.

She secretly pulled my sleeve again. “He’s like this every year. He used to come here for a few days at this time of the year, and all the doctors and nurses in this hospital know that… Just give him some medicine or whatever…”

Dr. Liu had told me to do what the kid’s mother said, so although I was still puzzled, I knew I couldn’t turn her down.

Without hesitation, I wrote on the medical certificate that he would need an infusion for three days, intending to take this opportunity to teach him a lesson.

The kid was pulled away by her mother, and before leaving, he took away a box of delicately wrapped chocolates from me.

It was said that like a tyrant, as soon as Gao Letian was brought to the ward in the Inpatient Department, he grabbed the TV remote control. Having no choice, his uncles and aunties in the same ward spent the whole afternoon watching cartoons with him. Moreover, he rummaged around for snacks and bossed the patients in the bed near him. If he was not given what he wanted, he would immediately burst into tears and make a scene, which attracted a crowd of patients from other wards.

I heard this from those nurses before I got off work. It was said that this was the third time the kid had been here. He insisted on coming to Aegiceras Hospital at the same time every year, and as his mother was an acquaintance of the hospital leader, nobody could do anything to him. Anyway, before the off time, all the other three patients who were in his neighboring beds had demanded to be transferred to beds further away from him. No one could get on with this little bully.

I couldn’t help but suspect that these were the footprints left by that kid when he tried to get into our office through the window at night.

However, how was that possible? He was just an 8-year-old kid…

The next day, I couldn’t stand those nurses begging and visited the kid. When he saw me, he became even more aggressive. Rolling about on the bed, he covered his stomach and said that his stomach hurt. Then he pointed at me and shouted, ”Quack! He’s a quack!” Humph! Though he was ill-bred, he seemed to know a lot of words. Did he even know what “quack” meant? His mother grew anxious again. She rubbed his stomach and asked him what he wanted to eat.

Obviously, this kid was spoiled.

I immediately wrote on the diagnosis that he would need to be put on a drip for two more days. The kid immediately cried loudly. Unfortunately, his acting skills were so poor that he couldn’t squeeze out tears at all. Seeing that, his mother quickly went downstairs to buy him bananas.

Before I left, I glanced at his shoes. Indeed, they were similar to the footprints on the windowsill.

‘Want to fool me?’ I grabbed the kid by the hand and said earnestly, “How about I tell you a story? Do you want to hear the story about back-to-back, or about the little girl who looked for her friends in this room that night?”

Gao Letian shrugged and stared at me without saying a word.

I clapped my hands and left triumphantly.

The moment I had just arrived at the main building, I heard a “thump”. That kid had thrown the bananas that his mother bought from far away out of the window. Looking at the smashed bananas in the small garden, I felt both sad and angry. As soon as I walked into my office, a nurse told me that Dr. Liu was taking leave and I would be on the night shift that night.

It was my first night shift and I was a little excited. I went across the street and bought some soup dumplings, a few bags of chips, and a box of milk so that I could build a good relationship with those nurses by sharing the delicious snacks with them.