☆ I’m Jiang Nan Qiao
Translator: InkyDragon (https://inkydragontranslation.wordpress.com)
Word count: 2,2k
Yu Xiao stood dumbfounded for a moment, mouth agape, like a gasping fish, trying to process what she had just heard. “Are you saying a spook can impersonate a living person and leave the instance? Where would it go after that?”
Ah Dong gazed at her in silence, his expression solemn.
“Don’t tell me… Would it go to the hospital ward?” She asked again when he didn’t respond.
He gave a slow nod.
A chill ran down Yu Xiao’s spine. “To kill all the patients there?”
“It’s not like that,” Ah Dong said, his eyes flickering as if recalling a distant memory. “It’s to completely replace the living person – their appearance, name, even their personality. They can enter new instances, accumulating points just like we do.”
Yu Xiao snorted. “Now I know you’re pulling my leg. What would a ghost want with points? Do ghosts also wish to leave the hospital?”
She stopped mid-sentence, struck by the absurdity of her own assumption. Why had she thought ghosts wouldn’t want escape?
“It’s hard to believe, I know.” Ah Dong lowered his head slightly, taking a deep breath. “But what if I told you the person who was replaced was a fellow patient in my ward?”
Yu Xiao felt the air leave her lungs.
Ah Dong continued grimly, “Originally, there were three of us in that ward. We only discovered it after two more instances. It was too horrifying.”
His hands trembled as he spoke. “Xiao Long and I thought he was just exhausted at first, acting strangely. Never dreamed he’d been friggin’ body-snatched…”
Yu Xiao gasped, raising a hand anxiously to her wig. “Hang on – if phones let these ghoulies slither in, how’d we miss this party before?”
Ah Dong shook his head. “You’re missing a crucial point. Most ghosts can’t shapeshift.”
Relief washed over Yu Xiao. To impersonate someone, a ghost needed more than just a phone – the ability to change their appearance. As far as she knew, few ghosts possessed that skill.
“Thank you for telling me this,” she said quietly. A fleeting thought crossed her mind – if Ye Tao wanted to leave this place, she would need to assume someone else’s identity. And Xiao Long’s phone could be the key.
“Will you come with me?” Ah Dong asked hesitantly.
Yu Xiao shook her head. “No, I need to return to my own time.”
Ah Dong nodded, his expression pained as he glanced at Xiao Long’s body on the sofa behind Yu Xiao.
Suddenly, his face changed. He grabbed Yu Xiao’s arm. “Watch out!”
A bone-chilling cold rushed towards them from behind. Yu Xiao barely dodged, but something struck her left shoulder, numbing it instantly. She stumbled through the doorway with Ah Dong.
Horror gripped her as she turned back, reaching for the door. But it had become intangible, impossible to grasp.
“Click.”
They stood gobsmacked, gawking at the closed door.
“Ah!” Yu Xiao clutched her head, feeling like it might explode.
Ah Dong seemed just as blindsided. “I…I never thought Xiao Long would revive at this moment…”
“What do we do?” Yu Xiao was frantic. “My friends are still waiting for me!”
The next moment, a familiar dizziness washed over them both. When they opened their eyes, she found herself in an unfamiliar hospital room.
Seeing Yu Xiao in Xiao Long’s bed, Ah Dong didn’t know what to say – this was uncharted territory even for him.
“Ahhhhh…” Yu Xiao’s panic spiralled. “What am I going to do!”
Though rattled himself, Ah Dong tried to calm her. “Under the circumstances…why not stay at Hospital Two for now? Xiao Long has quite a few points accumulated here.”
“No!” Yu Xiao rejected the idea outright. “My friends are still in that instance; they won’t leave without me!”
Ah Dong frowned. “But how will you go back? You can only enter the same instance once.”
“I’ll find Shi Guang at Time Hospital.” Yu Xiao forced herself to breathe evenly. “I can bribe him to send me back to my original room.”
The experienced Ah Dong shook his head. “An attending doctor might accept a bribe to look the other way, but none would let a failed patient re-enter an instance. Besides, do you even know where Time Hospital is located?”
Turning to sit on the dishevelled bed, he glanced around at the chaotic piles of clothes – they never expected lady visitors in their ward. Seeing Yu Xiao amidst the mess, Ah Dong silently began tidying.
Yu Xiao cradled her head, consumed by fear and helplessness.
She had to return to Time Hospital. Misty and Precious would be waiting, and they only had one bowl of egg fried rice left to split three ways. In their foodless state, they could last no more than seven days, which meant she had to go back within a week.
Suddenly, Yu Xiao looked up. “What’s today’s date?”
Pausing his cleaning, Ah Dong checked his watch. “Just after nine in the morning.”
“No, I mean the actual date.”
He told her, and Yu Xiao’s heart raced. Seeing her flushed face, Ah Dong asked, “What’s wrong?”
“I still have a chance!” she exclaimed. “I still have a chance!”
Confused, he asked, “A chance for what?”
The opportunity was time itself. Ah Dong had mentioned the date, but the time here wasn’t synchronised with Yu Xiao’s original timeline. Quickly calculating, she realised at this moment, she and her friends from Sixth Hospital should be at Sage Hospital.
She relayed this to the frowning Ah Dong. “But how will you manage that? Leaving Second Hospital to return to Sixth? Forgive my bluntness, but in all my years here, I’ve never heard of such a thing. Not to mention the danger outside these walls.”
It was indeed a dilemma. Yu Xiao bit her lip. Even if she escaped Second Hospital and made it back to Sixth, she couldn’t simply rejoin her own ward.
In her memories, her ward had always been peaceful, without anyone identical to her presence.
There had to be a solution. Yu Xiao clasped her hands, willing herself to stay calm.
Seeing her inner turmoil, Ah Dong quietly went to fetch her some food.
Ah Dong was grateful to Yu Xiao, not just for helping him leave Time Hospital, but also for her presence at Second Hospital. He had just lost his best friend Xiao Long. Had he been alone in their ward right now, he didn’t know how he would have coped. But Yu Xiao arrived, a newcomer from Sixth Hospital, full of vitality and untouched by the gloom. Her spirit diluted Ah Dong’s lifelessness and sorrow.
For too long now, Ah Dong and Xiao Long had lost interest in food. Tormented by nightmares almost nightly, their tastes grew bizarre – the food of the living rarely aroused desire anymore.
Today was a rare exception as Ah Dong prepared a hearty meal. “Let’s eat first,” he said, laying out bowls and chopsticks. “If you want to go back, you’ll need your strength.”
Yu Xiao nodded thoughtfully and joined him. Taking the chopsticks he offered, she picked up a piece of braised pork.
After a bite, she remarked, “The food at Second Hospital seems tastier than Sixth.”
“Really?” Ah Dong sampled the pork himself. “I’ve never tried Sixth’s fare.”
“It used to be delicious there too,” Yu Xiao said around a mouthful of rice. “But then the chef left, and the quality plummeted.”
Hearing this, Ah Dong savoured another tender morsel, seeming to truly appreciate its long-lost flavours. He nodded. “Indeed, it’s delicious. Have more.”
“I have an idea,” Yu Xiao ventured. “I know Sixth Hospital’s courier well. Could I have myself sent back as a parcel?”
Ah Dong shook his head. “Sending parcels requires listing the items. The couriers at Second and Sixth are different.”
Deflated, Yu Xiao ate slowly, thinking of Misty and Precious likely starving, an uncomfortable knot forming in her stomach.
Noticing her dismay, Ah Dong asked, “Are you going to cry?”
“No.” She swallowed hard. “Even if I wanted to, not now.”
Another problem loomed – since Saint Elizabeth was destroyed, she couldn’t return there first wearing her white coat before going to Sixth Hospital.
Frustration built until even the delicious braised pork tasted like wax in her mouth.
After clearing their plates, Ah Dong tidied up as Yu Xiao asked, “Second Hospital doesn’t have a forum, right?”
“Hmm? That’s correct.” He knew the other hospitals all had forums, but Second’s outdated phones lacked that functionality.
“Then how do you get help when you have questions?”
Ah Dong considered. “Ask people you know or figure it out yourself.”
Yu Xiao hesitated. “Some instances are really dangerous, like Time Hospital. How do you warn others about an instance’s situation?”
“Don’t mention it,” he replied simply.
Taken aback, Yu Xiao pushed on – she abhorred that accursed instance. “Do you still have any Second Hospital patients’ contacts?”
Ah Dong nodded. “Not many.”
Yu Xiao wasn’t sure if Ah Dong meant there were few living people left overall, or just few remaining in his contacts. Either way, she needed to spread the word. “Look, just cram all the gory deets about this freakshow instance into a message and blast it to everyone you’ve got.”
Ah Dong paused wiping the table. “Is this how you all share information?”
“We post instance details on the forum so everyone can see,” Yu Xiao said, taking out her phone and opening Sixth Hospital’s forum. She quickly composed a post about the Time Hospital instance and hit submit.
Ah Dong sidled up, peeking over her shoulder as the replies started trickling in. “This is good. If we’d had a forum back then…”
He trailed off, then changed tack. “I remember a lot of instance situations. I…I can tell you about them.”
But those were stories for later. Right now, they needed to spread the word about Time Hospital’s treacherous nature before more people fell victim. This instance was trickier than most – Yu Xiao was certain the vast majority would succumb once inside.
Because after passing through that first door, there was almost no hope of escape. It was even scarier than Sage Hospital, where at least you could try fighting your way out.
Ah Dong didn’t refuse. He quickly edited Yu Xiao’s message and selected his entire contact list to receive it.
Suddenly, a familiar name caught Yu Xiao’s eye. “Wait.”
Ah Dong turned to her, and she pointed to the name. “Jiang Nan Qiao, is she from Second Hospital? Do you know her?”
“You know her too?” Ah Dong’s brow furrowed. “She’s been dead for many years.”
Yu Xiao felt a chill. Jiang Nan Qiao must not have made it out of Time Hospital. But Ah Dong’s next words made her blood run cold:
“It was probably about five years ago. Her ward got a team card and merged with ours. She died in an instance called Hospital Photography Studio.”
Yu Xiao’s mind reeled. “She didn’t die in Time Hospital?”
Ah Dong seemed equally confused. “She probably never went there.”
“But how?” Yu Xiao insisted. “I saw her myself in Time Hospital!”
An uneasy silence stretched between them. Finally, Ah Dong said, “This…”
He quickly dialled a number. “A patient from Jiang Nan Qiao’s old ward. I haven’t reached out in years, but I have to know…” His voice caught. “I hope she’s still alive.”
The call connected, and a voice answered…
Ah Dong put the phone on speaker. A hoarse female voice crackled through. “I got your message. Are you…holding up okay these days?”
Ah Dong swallowed hard. “Xiao Long is dead.”
Silence crashed over the line like a tidal wave.
Finally, the woman’s voice wavered. “So you called just to tell me that?”
“There’s something I need to confirm.” Ah Dong’s tone was granite. “Did Jiang Nan Qiao ever go to Time Hospital?”
“Qiao?” The voice dropped to a hush. “Why bring her up? She never went there – we were always together.”
Ah Dong paused, measuring his next words. “I brought someone out of the instance. She claims she saw Qiao there.”
Another deafening silence. Then, hysterical: “Are you insane? Brought someone out of an instance? Those beings aren’t even people! Xiao Long is gone, and now you want to get yourself killed too…”
“I’m alive.” Yu Xiao leaned in close to the phone. “A patient at Sixth Hospital – maybe you’ve heard of me? ‘Deaf Descendant’ is my nickname. And I really did see Jiang Nan Qiao.”
This time, the silence stretched taut as a garotte wire before finally snapping. “How can you prove it?”
“I can call you from my own number,” Yu Xiao said evenly.
Whether the woman believed her claim or was simply desperate to understand, her voice trembled. “You saw Qiao? Tell me everything.”
Yu Xiao recounted the encounter in disturbing detail, leaving the caller shaken. “Impossible. We never went anywhere near a Time instance. We stuck together.”
“I know exactly what’s going on.” Yu Xiao’s jaw was set.
“What?” Ah Dong searched her expression.
“That Jiang Nan Qiao was me.” She exhaled slowly. “That’s how I’ll get back to my friends.”
Stunned silence ballooned over the speaker. Finally, the raspy voice asked: “What do you mean?”
“I’ll enter Time Hospital as Jiang Nan Qiao,” Yu Xiao said with grim resolve. “That’s my way back.”
─── ❖ ── ☆ ── ❖ ───
( )………( )
(๑✪ᆺ✪๑)
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