☆ I’m So Sorry
Translator: InkyDragon (https://inkydragontranslation.wordpress.com)
Word count: 3k
Yu Xiao, with an exasperated sigh, blew away the talisman that had landed on her forehead. “For the last time, I’m not a ghost.”
Zhou Xiao Zhen paused, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. “You’re human? But you look exactly like my friend Smiley.”
“That’s because I am Yu Xiao,” she replied, the absurdity of the situation threatening to bubble into laughter.
Zhou Xiao Zhen burst into a fit of giggles, turning to Zhao Lan. “Misty, this one’s a riot! She’s pretending to be Smiley even though she just left! Three characters 三万!”
“Two pancakes.” 二饼 
Zhao Lan studied the figure at the mahjong table. The resemblance to Smiley was uncanny, almost unsettling. Had she not seen Smiley leave moments ago, she would have been convinced.
Yu Xiao’s patience was wearing thin. “Look, either you two shut up and let me explain, or ask me something only the real Yu Xiao would know.”
Zhou Xiao Zhen’s eyes lit up with a challenge. “Who’s my idol?”
“Leonardo,” Yu Xiao replied without missing a beat.
“She knows!” Zhou Xiao Zhen squealed. “Who’s Smiley’s idol?”
“I don’t have one,” Yu Xiao deadpanned.
Zhou Xiao Zhen, stumped, turned to Zhao Lan. “How does she know everything?”
Ye Tao chimed in, “Seven of Bamboo 七条 
Zhao Lan frowned, considering the possibility.
Yu Xiao, realising drastic measures were needed, decided to play her trump card. “Even a mind reader wouldn’t know this,” she began, gesturing towards Zhou Xiao Zhen. “You’re eighteen, in your final year of high school, with grades that are, shall we say, less than stellar. The mere thought of college entrance exams gives you hives. You were one of the first to join the Sixth Hospital, and on your first day, to avoid getting eaten by a ghost, you claimed you hadn’t pooped in five days and were stuffed like a sandwich.”
The words hung in the air, leaving Zhou Xiao Zhen utterly speechless.
“Holy crap!”
Zhao Lan was about to respond when Yu Xiao cut her off, a mischievous grin spreading across her face as she pointed an accusing finger. “As for you, my dear corporate drone, let’s just say you had a rather…unconventional relationship with a young boy before your unfortunate illness. While it was technically a sponsorship arrangement, the two of you met under rather unorthodox circumstances and had an unspeakable relationship.”
Zhao Lan’s jaw dropped as the room fell into a stunned silence.
Ye Tao’s eyes ping-ponged between the two women, her curiosity piqued. “Unconventional, you say? Do tell…”
Yu Xiao opened her mouth to elaborate, but Zhao Lan recovered from her shock and cut her off with a sharp wave of her hand. “Hold your tongue! Just how the devil do you know about all that?”
The smirk never left Yu Xiao’s face as she leaned back triumphantly. “Finally ready to listen, are we?”
What followed was Yu Xiao’s captivating recount of her encounter with Wang Dong Dong, her unintended foray into the Second Hospital, and the arduous journey she undertook to return to her own hospital.
By the time she finished, her three listeners were gaping in disbelieved horror. Yu Xiao, exhausted and famished from her ordeal, could only dream of devouring the bowl of fried rice sitting on the table.
“If you still have doubts,” Yu Xiao croaked, her voice weak, “check my pockets. People can lie, but props don’t, right?”
Zhao Lan, as if in a trance, floated to Yu Xiao’s side and knelt down to rummage through her pockets.
Out came a pair of sunglasses. Zhou Xiao Zhen’s eyes went wide. “Whoa…”
Next, a tarnished copper coin emerged. “No way…”
“Smiley!” Zhao Lan gasped, the last shred of doubt evaporating as she clutched Yu Xiao’s hand tightly. “You made it back! Thank the heavens!”
Yu Xiao returned the firm grip, offering a weary smile. “Misty, you can let go now.”
Zhao Lan blinked in confusion. “What?”
“I need to finish this mahjong round,” Yu Xiao stated matter-of-factly, nodding toward the tiles.
“Oh, right.” Flustered, Zhao Lan quickly released her hand. As Yu Xiao scooped up a tile, she inquired with an air of nonchalance, “So, who’s taking the punishment after this game?”
The relieved expression melted off Zhou Xiao Zhen’s face, replaced by a petulant frown. “Hey, I don’t think it’s my fault this time. Anyone would have reacted the same way, right?”
Yu Xiao slowly nodded, appearing to consider this. “So you’re saying I should take the fall instead?”
“…Fine,” Zhou Xiao Zhen mumbled, her shoulders slumping with a defeated sigh. “Looks like I’m the lucky loser.”
Ye Tao, completely lost in the conversation, piped up, “Eight bamboos , what punishment are we talking about here?”
Yu Xiao turned to her, a glimmer of empathy in her eyes.”You heard my story, right? Xiao Long’s phone can get you out of this haunted hot mess. But it means going to the Second Hospital… a one-way ticket to a new life.”
The question hung in the air, the weight of the decision clear on Ye Tao’s face. The idea of stepping into the Second Hospital, of living someone else’s life… it was a lot to take in.
Yu Xiao understood the turmoil in her heart all too well. She herself had faced the same choice, the opportunity to inherit Xiao Long’s points and remain in the Second Hospital. Yet, she chose to return without a second thought. Becoming someone else wasn’t a decision to be made lightly.
“Take your time,” Yu Xiao said softly, her fingers tracing the intricate patterns on a mahjong tile. “There’s no rush to decide. Just know that we’re leaving tomorrow morning at eight sharp, so you’ll need to make up your mind by then.”
“I… I won,” Zhou Xiao Zhen announced, her voice hollow, as if the victory had sucked the life out of her. It was more a death knell than a celebration.
Suddenly, a deafening crack of lightning split the air, causing every hair on their bodies to stand on end. Zhou Xiao Zhen let out a strangled cry, her body contorting violently before collapsing onto the floor, a wisp of smoke curling from her singed hair. Zhao Lan rushed to her side, panic etched on her face, as she frantically fumbled with emergency talismans, their glow casting eerie shadows on the walls.
Meanwhile, Yu Xiao, freed from the game’s grasp, lunged towards the table like a starved animal. In a flash, she snatched the plate of egg fried rice and devoured it with a ferocity that would make a hungry ghost proud.
Zhao Lan looked up in disbelief. “Smiley… are you starving?”
Between ravenous bites, Yu Xiao managed to gasp, “Haven’t eaten in two days.”
“Oh, you poor dear,” Zhou Xiao Zhen, her bold head now black and smoking, reached out to pat Yu Xiao’s back with trembling hands. “You’re nothing but skin and bones. When you were sipping that soup earlier, I thought your earlier soup-sipping performance was mere theatrics, but you were truly suffering, weren’t you?”
Tears welled up in Zhao Lan’s eyes as she and Zhou Xiao Zhen fussed over Yu Xiao, their voices filled with a mixture of relief, worry, and a whole lot of love for their friend who had returned from the brink.
“Slow down, or you’ll choke.”
“Do you need some water?”
Yu Xiao demolished the entire plate of egg fried rice, enough for three people. Leaning back with a groan, she clutched her stomach and gasped for air.
Zhao Lan, finally processing the earlier shocking revelation, spoke in a hushed tone filled with fear and curiosity. “So, ghosts can take the place of humans and even enter instances as humans… does that mean they can also leave the hospital?”
“Why would they want to?” Zhou Xiao Zhen frowned, genuinely confused. “Being a ghost seems much easier than being a human – no bills, no work, just chilling and scaring people.”
Zhao Lan shook her head. “We’ve never been ghosts, so we can’t understand their motivations. But think about it – with patients scattered across six whole hospitals, what are the chances that some haven’t already been replaced?”
“Woah, woah,Wait a minute,” Yu Xiao interjected, a cold realisation hitting her. “Not just the patients. People on the forums too! I once posted about Time Hospital on the Sixth Hospital board, and it disappeared instantly.”
“Someone… or something… doesn’t want the truth about Time Hospital to be revealed,” Zhao Lan concluded, her voice barely a whisper.
“Maybe,” Yu Xiao admitted, still puzzled by the mystery. “It could be the administrator pulling the strings.”
A mischievous glint appeared in Zhou Xiao Zhen’s eyes. “Maybe the administrator wants to become human too!”
This sent shivers down everyone’s spines. Zhou Xiao Zhen, captivated by the terrifying possibilities, continued. “Do you think any of the people who left the hospital might be ghosts in disguise?”
Yu Xiao and Zhao Lan exchanged horrified glances, as if they were characters caught in a real-life horror movie. Zhou Xiao Zhen leaned forward, her voice a conspiratorial whisper. “Those people who leave… are they truly human, or are they just ghosts pretending to be human?”
A tense silence fell over the room. Yu Xiao instinctively rubbed her arms, feeling a sudden chill down her spine. Zhao Lan clearly didn’t want to explore further, as the implications were too unsettling to contemplate.
Yu Xiao finally broke the silence. “Speculating won’t solve anything. We just need to be extra cautious from now on. Besides, there are things that we can actually control. So, what can we do?” she asked, turning to Zhao Lan.
Zhao Lan, her voice trembling slightly, met Yu Xiao’s gaze. “What can we do?” she echoed, the question hanging heavy in the air, begging for an answer.
Yu Xiao chuckled, the sound laced with a hint of mischief. “Simple: buy a mountain of smartphones and flood the Sixth Hospital forum with our Second Hospital patients!”
Zhou Xiao Zhen’s eyes widened. “A mountain of phones? Does Lu Xu even have that kind of stock?”
Zhao Lan, ever the pragmatist, voiced a concern that had been nagging at her. “Speaking of the Second Hospital, remember the news about the patient uprising? The one where the ringleader lost 50 points? That has to be Ye Tao, right?”
Yu Xiao, who’d already gamed this out in her head, just shrugged. “True, but Ye Tao’s still Ye Tao, even in Xiao Long’s identity. Her phone, her points, it’s all still there. She can just transfer some points over to Xiao Long, easy peasy. She might even have enough points to leave this place..”
She glanced over at Ye Tao, who was huddled in a corner, silent and still as a statue since their mahjong session. Zhang Qi Qi’s hand rested in hers, their fingers intertwined. No one knew what she was thinking.
Suddenly, a chilling thought struck Yu Xiao. The old lady Zhou Xiao Zhen saw for the first time… could it have been Zhang Qi Qi all along?
That night, Yu Xiao crashed early, leaving Zhao Lan and Zhou Xiao Zhen to play ghostly guard duty. TBy seven the next morning, Zhou Xiao Zhen was at Yu Xiao’s bedside, shaking her awake.
“Rise and shine, Smiley! It’s past seven!”
Yu Xiao, stifling a yawn, sat up and noticed Ye Tao, still rooted in the same spot. “Has she been like that all night?”
Zhou Xiao Zhen shrugged, her face a picture of sympathy. “Yep. Not a wink of sleep.”
Zhao Lan, freshening up with a makeshift facecloth torn from an old shirt, sighed as she glanced at Ye Tao. She understood the gut-wrenching agony of leaving a loved one behind. If it were Smiley or Precious… But life, especially in a haunted hospital, rarely offered easy choices. They could only save one, and that one had to be Ye Tao.
Yu Xiao, finally fully awake, checked her watch and turned to Ye Tao. “So,” she began, her voice gentle but firm, “have you made up your mind?”
Yu Tao turned, her face a mask of exhaustion, eyes red-rimmed and haunted. She shook her head, her voice a dry rasp. “Just… a little more time.”
Yu Xiao sighed, padding towards the bathroom. “Look, even if you don’t want to stick with Wang Dong Dong at the Second Hospital, you can always slip away in the confusion. Head over to Yu Qing Lang’s room, see if you can take Jiang Nan Qiao’s place. But honestly, it doesn’t really matter. Being alive, that’s what matters.”
Her words tumbled out, a stream of consciousness, and she wasn’t even sure if Yu Tao was listening. But she’d done what she could. The rest was up to Ye Tao.
The clock ticked relentlessly on, each second dragging them closer to the eight o’clock deadline. By eight-fifteen, they would begin their attempt to open the door. They gathered by the threshold, Zhao Lan and Yu Xiao exchanging a worried look.
“Ye Tao,” Zhao Lan said gently, “it’s time to decide. We’re ready to go.”
Ye Tao turned her head, her gaze sweeping over each of them.
And then, her eyes met Yu Xiao’s.
A shiver shot down Yu Xiao’s spine, a prickle of unease crawling across her skin. Something was wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong.
“I’m sorry,” Ye Tao whispered.
Zhou Xiao Zhen frowned, her brow furrowed in confusion. “Sorry for what?”
In a flash, Ye Tao raised her hand, three black cards pinched between her pale fingers.
The cards dissolved into dust, crumbling at her touch. She leaned back against the wall, tears welling up in her bloodshot eyes. “I’m so sorry…”
The air crackled with a strange energy. Yu Xiao, Zhao Lan, and Zhou Xiao Zhen stared at Ye Tao, their hearts pounding in their chests. For a fleeting moment, Ye Tao seemed bathed in a soft, almost angelic light.
“Don’t cry,” Zhou Xiao Zhen blurted, her voice thick with concern. “What’s wrong?”
“The Deep Love Cards,” Ye Tao choked out, tears streaming down her face. “I can’t… I can’t leave Qi Qi. I… I’m so sorry.”
She stumbled towards them, her face a picture of misery. “Can I… can I have your phones?”
A suffocating dread choked Yu Xiao. She knew, with chilling certainty, that something was terribly wrong. But it was like watching a horror movie unfold before her eyes, her mind paralyzed, unable to react.
“What… what will you do if we give them to you?” she managed, her voice hollow.
“I’m so sorry,” Ye Tao whispered, her face etched with a devastating mix of guilt and desperation.
Zhao Lan recoiled as if struck. “You’re asking us to die for Zhang Qi Qi?”
“Please,” Ye Tao begged, tears streaming down her face. “You have to give her to me. Qi Qi has to leave with me.”
Zhou Xiao Zhen let out a choked laugh, a sound filled with despair. She flung her phone to the ground. “Fine! Take it! Just get out!”
Ye Tao snatched up the phone, tears blurring her vision. She turned to Yu Xiao, her voice trembling. “Where… where’s yours?”
Yu Xiao’s hand trembled as she reached into her pocket. She loved Ye Tao. Loved her with a ferocity that defied reason, that would make her agree to anything, even her own demise. A searing pain ripped through her. Why? Why didn’t Tao Tao love her back? If she couldn’t have Tao Tao’s love, then what was the point of anything?
She drew out her phone, her fingers brushing against the cool metal. Ye Tao’s hand, trembling with need, reached out to take it.
And then, with a speed that made their heads spin, a hand shot out from the side, knocking Yu Xiao’s phone away in a blur of motion.
All eyes swivelled towards Zhao Lan, her face contorted in a mask of fury as she glared at Ye Tao.
“You want to leave me? Only over my dead body! Qi Qi!” Zhao Lan roared, whipping out a handful of talismans with a speed that would make a magician jealous. She bolted towards Zhang Qi Qi, a woman possessed.
Ye Tao, caught completely off guard, lunged for Zhao Lan, but missed. “Stop her!” she shrieked, her voice raw with panic.
Yu Xiao and Zhou Xiao Zhen, their hearts fiercely loyal to Ye Tao, sprang into action. They slammed into Zhao Lan like a pair of protective linebackers, tackling her to the ground before she could get close to Zhang Qi Qi. The Thunderstruck Talisman fluttered harmlessly to the floor.
“Get off me!” Zhao Lan snarled, struggling against their grip.
“Misty,” Zhou Xiao Zhen pleaded, her voice thick with anguish, “loving someone means wanting them to be happy. You can’t do this.”
“My heart is breaking too, believe me,” Yu Xiao added, tightening her grip on Zhao Lan. “But I won’t let you hurt Tao Tao.”
“Are you guys nuts?” Zhao Lan spat, struggling against their hold. “Once that creepy thing is gone, Tao Tao will be ours!”
“…”
A flicker of doubt crossed Zhou Xiao Zhen’s face. “But… she loves Qi Qi though.”
Yu Xiao shook her head firmly. “I won’t force her.”
Seeing her pleas fall on deaf ears, Zhao Lan unleashed a burst of strength, kicking her legs out and sending Yu Xiao and Zhou Xiao Zhen sprawling. With a renewed surge of determination, she reached for Zhang Qi Qi.
“No!” Ye Tao’s scream cut through the air as she lunged forward, her fist connecting with a sickening thud on the back of Zhao Lan’s head.
The world blurred for Yu Xiao. In a desperate attempt to intervene, she launched herself towards the scene. But before she could reach them, a figure shot past her in a blur, landing on top of Zhao Lan with a resounding thud.
A horrifying crack echoed through the room as Ye Tao’s fist met its mark – not on Zhao Lan, but on Zhou Xiao Zhen’s back. A bloodcurdling scream pierced the air as the talisman on Zhao Lan’s hand came into contact with Zhang Qi Qi.
Multiple bolts of lightning struck simultaneously, illuminating the room with a blinding white light. The deafening roar of thunder seemed to shake the very foundations of the building. In that chaotic moment, Yu Xiao could only stare in stunned silence as the room erupted in a cacophony of sound and light.
─── ❖ ── ☆ ── ❖ ───
( )………( )
(๑✪ᆺ✪๑)
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