I turned around. Tiểu Hàng was still happily pretending to drive. No wonder he missed his dad so much.
“Mrs. Trần really likes Tiểu Hàng. She’s staying here to rest during her pregnancy, and she usually plays with him. She pays all of Tiểu Hàng’s expenses.”
I remembered the wealthy lady who’d come looking for Tiểu Hàng the other day. She really did seem to care about him.
“I saw her the other day. She didn’t seem to be in very good health, did she?”
“That’s right.” The nurse’s aide sighed.
“They say every gain comes with a loss. The Trầns have always wanted a child, but they’ve never been able to have one. This pregnancy may be their last hope. Mr. Trần is getting on in years, and IVF didn’t work either.”
The nurse’s aide lowered her voice. “But I don’t think this pregnancy is going well, either. Mr. Trần is consulting famous doctors everywhere, both traditional and Western. The hospital says they’ll try to keep the baby until seven months, but people are saying behind their backs that the pregnancy probably won’t last.”
By then, Liễu Ngũ’s group was almost done. The nurse’s aide called Tiểu Hàng back.
As I carried Tiểu Hàng downstairs, the nurse’s aide spotted Liễu Ngũ coming out of the building and murmured, “Hey, isn’t that Mr. Trần’s friend? For a while there, he used to visit her with Mr. Trần.”
For some reason, my heart suddenly clenched!
On the way back, I let Lão Trương and Vương Thành go on ahead. I parked near the hospital and waited until it was completely dark, then returned to Thụy Hòa. I avoided the foot traffic and went back to the experimental building.
To my surprise, the building was brightly lit at night. It looked like the people inside were working through the night.
I hid in the grass on the hillside and waited until nearly midnight, when the workers finally left and locked up.
I surveyed the area, then finally jumped from a boulder on the hillside to the second-floor balcony. The window there wasn’t fully closed. I pried it open and climbed inside.
The room was empty.
I carefully opened the door onto the hallway and looked out. I froze on the spot.
It was as if I’d returned to No. 3 Maternal and Child Health Hospital!
Everything in this hallway—from the walls and floor tiles to the ceiling lights—was exactly the same.
Using my phone for light, I walked a little way down the hall, and memories from twenty-six years ago came flooding back.
The patient-room doors, the ones left ajar, even the scenes inside—they were no different from what I remembered.
Now I knew what the marble slabs Liễu Ngũ had hauled here were for.
But why? Why had Liễu Ngũ recreated Bệnh viện Phụ Sản Ba in Thụy Hòa? And why had Bệnh viện Phụ Sản Ba remained unchanged for the past twenty-six years? Was someone deliberately trying to preserve something?
I had too many guesses, and my mind was a mess.
That night, I dreamed again of the day my little sister died.
I followed Uncle Diệp to No. 3 Maternal and Child Health Hospital and heard people crying all around me.
Only later did I learn why so many people had been crying that day: seven newborns had died the night before.
The families of those babies, like my parents, were on the verge of collapse.
I went back to my parents and saw my mother leap to her feet and rush at the nurse who had just come out of the patient room.
This time, I looked into the patient room for longer. The cribs inside had wooden railings painted in bright colors to make them feel less cold and bare.
On the crib facing the door was a name card: Long Hi Hi. That was my little sister’s name.
I turned around in shock and met the nurse’s eyes. She should have been comforting my mother, but now she just stared at me in a daze and suddenly said, “She really did give birth…”
I jolted awake. It was already morning.
Whether it was instinct or reason, something seemed to be telling me that what Liễu Ngũ was doing had a lot to do with my little sister’s death twenty-six years ago.
When I returned to No. 3 Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Lão Trương didn’t show up, and another young man had fallen ill.
There had been six of us to start with. After two days on the road, only three were left.
Liễu Ngũ, on the other hand, acted as if it were no big deal. “It’s fine. There isn’t much cargo today, and there’ll be even less on the final trip tomorrow.”
Vương Thành looked downcast. He tugged me aside and whispered, “Anh Long, what if we don’t come tomorrow?”
“If you don’t come, what happens to your boss? Bành Hữu has already signed the contract. Besides, I have a feeling it doesn’t matter whether anyone else comes or not, but I have to be here.”
Today, I’d planned to sneak into the inpatient ward at No. 3 Maternal and Child Health Hospital while we were loading the cargo and have a look around. But Liễu Ngũ’s people were keeping a close watch on the entrance. I was afraid that if I took a chance, Vương Thành and the others would get dragged into it, so I decided to come back tonight.
We loaded the cargo later than we had the previous two days. I didn’t know what Liễu Ngũ was busy with. He’d said there wasn’t much cargo, but by the time we set off, it was already past noon.
The sky was overcast that afternoon, and there were fewer cars on the road than usual. For some reason, my left shoulder felt uncomfortable, as if a cold draft were blowing into the joint.
At first I didn’t pay attention, but then my left shoulder grew heavier and heavier, and the left half of my body started to go numb.
Just then, I noticed Thạch Khang glancing at me now and then, the corners of his mouth curled up as if he were gloating. Irritated, I immediately pulled out the soul-striking whip and lashed it hard behind my left shoulder. The air cracked with a sharp “snap”!
The strike startled Thạch Khang. His eyes widened as he stared at the whip in my hand, then at me. Suddenly, he sat up straight, his arrogance gone.
I noticed the change in him. This soul-striking whip had been a gift from a mad Taoist when I was a child.
He’d told me, “An asura’s bearing, a bodhisattva’s heart—you were fated to walk between the worlds in this life.”
Later, I learned that this soul-striking whip was one of the three magical treasures of an unorthodox organization called Khuy Thiên Đài.
I’d clashed with Khuy Thiên Đài a few times. They’d do anything, no matter how vile, for money and profit.
The last time, I got caught up in a strange ritual and came face-to-face with Tả Hạo, a member of Khuy Thiên Đài.
I’d knocked out half his teeth, but he’d also pressed his palm against my left shoulder.
He said he’d extinguished the yang fire on my left shoulder, draining half my fierce energy. But I didn’t usually feel anything, so I hadn’t made a point of having anyone examine it.
Still, it seemed to be affecting me a little today.
By the time we reached the hospital in Thụy Hòa, it was nearly dark.
Vương Thành’s truck followed mine. It sat there for a long time, but he still didn’t get out.
I went over to check and saw him bundled in his military coat, huddled in the driver’s seat and trembling.
“Long—Anh Long, I think I’ve caught a cold. I keep breaking out in cold sweats.”
I felt his forehead. It was ice-cold.
The other young driver wasn’t doing any better.
I went back to find Liễu Ngũ. He didn’t avoid me. Standing beside my truck, he gave a little chuckle. “Looks like tomorrow only Long will be able to make a run. It’s fine—the shipment’s small tomorrow. One truck will be enough.”
Thạch Khang and the two other escorts stood behind Liễu Ngũ, their faces full of caution.
I was almost certain. “You’re with Khuy Thiên Đài?”
Liễu Ngũ didn’t deny it. “Long, don’t be nervous. We’re not like Tả Hạo. Tả Hạo belongs to the Third Hall. They’re always at odds with the Elder Council. We in the Second Hall don’t have that bad habit. The Elder Council said not to lay a finger on you, Long, and we won’t touch you. We just didn’t expect our paths to cross this time. How about this: if you help us finish hauling the last load tomorrow, I’ll answer every question you have.”
I laughed coldly. “You think I’d cooperate with Khuy Thiên Đài?”
Liễu Ngũ spread his hands. “Of course you can refuse. We won’t force you. But we can find another driver, too. Tomorrow will certainly be dangerous, but with our people escorting him, it might still be possible to make the trip.”
I didn’t answer Liễu Ngũ right away. I drove Vương Thành and the other driver home and told them they didn’t need to go tomorrow.
After that, I went back to No. 3 Maternal and Child Health Hospital alone.
The entire construction site had shut down, and everything around it was quiet. I stepped once more into the building that had taken my little sister from me.
As I climbed the stairs to the second floor, for a moment it truly felt as if a lifetime had passed. But the feeling was gone almost at once.
From the hallway, the once-crowded pediatric ward looked as if it had been stripped of its skin.
The walls, floor, even the ceiling—anything that could be cut out had been. The neighboring patient rooms and treatment rooms were empty, too.
No wonder Liễu Ngũ wasn’t worried about me investigating. There was nothing left to investigate.
Relying on my memories, I finally found the room where my little sister had once stayed.
The door had been removed. I stood in the doorway for a while, then slowly walked in. The room was completely empty.
All I could do was imagine my little sister lying in a crib, alone and facing the hospital’s coldness.
What had really happened the night she left?
As I was thinking, a sigh suddenly sounded behind me.
I turned in surprise and saw someone standing in the corner behind me.
She had her back to me, head bowed, dressed as a nurse. I couldn’t see her face, yet she seemed strangely familiar.
“Who are you?” I asked.
Her upper body swayed gently, her head occasionally knocking against the wall. I waited in silence as the temperature around us seemed to drop rapidly.
A stream of cold air seeped into my left shoulder. In almost an instant, she vanished before my eyes. But right afterward, I felt her icy breath directly behind me.
I drew my soul-striking whip and turned around. I saw her face.
It was her!
I never expected her to be the nurse whose hand my mother had held all those years ago.
She stared at me in a daze. Suddenly, the sound of a newborn crying rang in my heart.
It sounded like a baby who had just been born. But the white swaddling cloth quickly turned to blood, staining the nurse’s pristine white uniform red.
She lifted her head and let out a piercing scream.
I fought the urge to swing the whip. I didn’t want to hurt her.
The next second, she lunged at me!