Chapter 15: He’s Already Dead
The nurse looked at Luo Ling, whose height barely reached her shoulders, with a puzzled expression, then glanced at Director Li, who sat at his desk with a serious look.
After seeing Director Li nod silently, the nurse stepped aside slightly and said,
“Miss Bai, please follow me.”
Although the nurse was curious why the director would let such a young girl visit the mad woman, she didn’t show it on her face.
Luo Ling didn’t have time to worry about the nurse’s strange look. She had already begun her preparations quietly.
She would likely face the Forgotten River Child directly soon. Although it was only a low-level Grotesquery of Sequence 388, Luo Ling didn’t dare to underestimate it.
She planted Spores throughout the hospital, the nearly invisible white hairs scattered in every corner.
Of course, due to the limitations of her mental fortitude, Luo Ling couldn’t sense multiple Spores simultaneously; she could only handle the perception of two at most.
But even so, the ubiquitous “standby surveillance” formed a tight net, leaving the Forgotten River Child with no chance of escape.
To avoid alerting the Grotesquery, Luo Ling didn’t immediately use a Spore to scout the ward but instead set up a surrounding formation.
As for direct combat…
Luo Ling gripped the utility knife in her pocket. She would avoid revealing her true strength in front of the Forgotten River Child if possible.
Forgotten River Children were timid by nature. Simply revealing her identity as an Awakened One should be enough to scare it off.
After learning the truth about the Forgotten River Child from Ji Ying yesterday, Luo Ling had researched ghost child raising. She wasn’t an expert, but she at least knew how to deal with it.
“Miss Bai, do you know the mad… Miss Huang?” the nurse couldn’t help but ask on the way. “Are you her daughter? Or a relative?”
“…Neither,” Luo Ling replied.
“Oh, alright, haha…”
The nurse’s face mirrored Director Li’s disappointment. The nurses had suffered the most from Huang Xiuqin’s situation and were eager for her family to take her away.
“I thought, since both your surnames are colors, you might be related somehow.”
Seeing Luo Ling’s impassive expression, the nurse awkwardly tried to recover from her previous statement.
“My surname isn’t Bai, my name is Bai,” Luo Ling shook her head.
She had considered this when signing the form. Since her appearance had completely changed, it was better to use a different name.
Luo Ling wasn’t good at choosing names, and in that moment, she couldn’t think of anything particularly impressive, so she simply wrote down her hair color.
She had given the same explanation to Director Li earlier.
“Just a single name… that’s rare,” the nurse muttered but didn’t press further. Luo Ling’s indifferent attitude made her feel uneasy, so she chose to remain silent.
Soon, the nurse led Luo Ling to the ward at the far end of the third floor. The dilapidated door was covered in patches and secured with heavy locks.
“Here we are,” the nurse turned and said. “Little Miss Bai, although Ms. Huang’s condition has improved unprecedentedly these past few days, remember not to provoke her.
“Oh, and it’s best not to mention her child. We finally managed to…”
Realizing the mad woman was just behind the door, the nurse covered her mouth and quickly unlocked the ward.
“Be careful.”
The nurse warned, then quickly stepped back, clearly traumatized by previous experiences.
Luo Ling remained silent. She first used a Spore to scout the surroundings, then slowly stepped into the unusual ward.
…The room was old, small, and dilapidated, unlike any ward Luo Ling had seen before. It resembled a prison cell more than anything.
A smell of blood and rust permeated the air. A few rays of light filtered through the boarded-up window, illuminating the pockmarked walls.
The room contained only a bed and a small table. Everything else had been removed, and even the corners of the bed and table were padded with foam, seemingly to prevent the patient from harming herself.
A woman sat on the bed with her back to the door, staring blankly out the window. She didn’t react to Luo Ling’s entrance.
“Auntie Huang?”
Luo Ling called out tentatively.
The woman flinched. Just as Luo Ling thought she was about to have another episode, she turned around and looked at Luo Ling with confusion. “…Who are you?”
Huang Xiuqin no longer looked as frantic as before. After being cleaned and having her hair combed, she looked like an ordinary young woman, around twenty-five or twenty-six years old.
Luo Ling didn’t answer. Her gaze fell on Huang Xiuqin’s arms, which were empty.
—No child.
…What was going on?
“Little girl, I don’t think we’ve met before,” Huang Xiuqin asked calmly. “What are you doing here?”
Luo Ling remained silent, using her Spores to frantically search the hospital, trying to locate the Forgotten River Child, but to no avail.
Seeing Luo Ling staring at her arms, Huang Xiuqin suddenly realized something and blurted out,
“Are you looking for Dong’er?”
Luo Ling immediately looked up at Huang Xiuqin.
She wasn’t sure if Huang Xiuqin was currently under the Forgotten River Child’s control.
“…Did he hurt you before?”
Seeing Luo Ling’s cold expression, Huang Xiuqin’s face softened with understanding and apology. “I’m so sorry, I had a mental breakdown some time ago and did a lot of wrong things. If there’s anything I can do to make amends, I will.”
Luo Ling looked at her and asked slowly,
“Now, do you still believe your child is alive?”
Huang Xiuqin gave a wry smile and replied,
“Dong’er… he’s already dead, I know.”
She had accepted the truth!
This meant the Forgotten River Child had left its host! That was why Huang Xiuqin had returned to normal!
While this was good news, it was a terrible situation for Luo Ling.
If they couldn’t catch the Forgotten River Child this time, she and her sister would face its vengeance at any moment.
She could handle it, but her ordinary sister probably couldn’t withstand the mental torment of a Nightmare Grotesquery…
“Where… is your child’s body now?” Luo Ling’s voice was laced with urgency.
“Of course, it was sent to the morgue according to hospital procedures,” Huang Xiuqin sighed, her expression turning haggard. “Poor Dong’er, I wonder when he’ll finally be at peace…”
“The morgue?”
Luo Ling’s pupils constricted. Her previous search had indeed overlooked the morgue located on the third basement floor. Her Spores’ range couldn’t reach that far.
Not good!
The Yin energy and resentment in the morgue were nourishing for a ghost child.
If it leveled up because of this…
Luo Ling might not even be able to stall it.
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