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Kapitel 1

Death Timetable

The Death Timeline (Part 1)

Every morning, a chilling email from "Death" would appear, like a death knell tolling daily. Filled with dread, the protagonist couldn't help but recall past grievances and grudges, thus beginning a terrifying period.

Introduction

I woke up inexplicably half an hour late this morning, and while washing my face, my right eyelid suddenly started twitching. How strange!

Li Hui imitated the old ladies in the alley, tearing off a piece of paper the size of a grain of rice and sticking it on her eyelids. Then she drank a glass of milk in one gulp, hurriedly put on her coat and leather shoes, opened the door, and only then did she remember to put on lipstick.

When she saw herself looking strange in the mirror, she quickly removed the piece of paper from her eyelids and rushed to the hospital.

As soon as she stepped out the door, her eyelids started twitching even more intensely. As a doctor, she naturally understood the physiological reasons for eyelid twitching, such as lack of rest or mental stress, but Li Hui couldn't recall anything unpleasant that had happened in the past few days.

Her husband, who was a visiting scholar abroad, was about to return, and a newly built staff dormitory building at the hospital had just been handed over; Li Hui had also received the keys to a three-bedroom apartment. Her professional abilities were increasingly recognized by all parties, and she was expected to be promoted to associate chief physician within the year.

It can be said that Li Hui is currently enjoying great success.

She recalled the sayings about whether an eyelid twitching meant "good fortune" or "misfortune," shook her head, and smiled dismissively.

Just then, the bus arrived, and Li Hui hurriedly moved forward, but everyone who had just left home was anxiously afraid of being late. Suddenly, the people behind her rushed forward like madmen, and Li Hui lost her balance and was pushed to the side by the crowd.

The car was packed with people and drove off without a care.

Ever since Li Hui left her hometown of Nanjing to study at a medical school in Shanghai, the crowded buses in Shanghai have been an unforgettable experience for her! Fortunately, she is almost over. Wang Yang has said several times on the phone that he will buy her a Sail car to drive to and from get off work as soon as he returns to China.

Li Hui even went to the exhibition to see it. The jewel-blue car glittered in the hall, looking luxurious and agile, making her dizzy with enchantment... However, before Wang Yang returned, she would have to endure a period of hardship, squeezing onto buses like this every day.

Li Hui kept checking her watch. As she got anxious, her eyelids twitched even more, and in her confusion, she missed another bus.

As a result, she was unexpectedly late that day.

Since graduating from university and starting work at this district-level maternal and child hospital, she has never been late.

Li Hui was a prominent figure in this small hospital, usually attracting a lot of attention. So when she walked through the gate, she felt a little guilty and deliberately skipped the usual routine of greeting Grandpa Zhou at the mailroom and checking her emails, wanting to quickly slip to her office on the third floor.

Unexpectedly, as soon as Grandpa Zhou saw it was Li Hui, he hurriedly leaned over the mailroom window and kept calling out to her, "Li Hui, Li Hui? Dr. Li..."

Having already reached the stairwell, Li Hui had no choice but to patiently turn back: "Sir, what can I do for you?" "...There's a letter for you here!"

Because Li Hui is beautiful and gentle, and because Grandpa Zhou is also from Jiangsu—a fellow townsman, after all—he's always been particularly enthusiastic about Li Hui's affairs. But today, Li Hui felt no kindness from Grandpa Zhou whatsoever.

She hurriedly turned around, rushed to the mailroom window, absentmindedly took the letter, stuffed it into her bag, and ran upstairs. While doing all this, Li Hui didn't even glance at the old man, which was quite unlike her usual self.

Grandpa Zhou stood there stunned for a long time, feeling that Li Hui was acting a bit strange today.

Just then, a dark shadow flashed in front of him and bumped into him. The old man was startled: "...Dr. Ning! Why do you seem to have lost your soul?"

The man called Dr. Ning was dark-skinned and thin. He was walking absentmindedly, glancing back at Li Hui's back as he went.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." Ning Kun mumbled, his eyes darting around, before turning and disappearing through the door.

"Something just doesn't feel right today," Grandpa Zhou muttered to himself, shaking his head.

A letter that was read too late

The hospital was particularly busy that morning.

A first-time mother's water broke at home. On her way to the hospital, she encountered a traffic jam, which delayed her and put the lives of both mother and baby in great danger.

As soon as Li Hui went upstairs, she noticed that something was wrong in the corridor. Several doctors and nurses were frantically carrying out emergency treatment.

Without a word, she dropped her bag and threw herself into the rescue efforts. The fetus was too large and there was no amniotic fluid, making a normal delivery extremely difficult; surgery was the only option to remove the fetus.

Before the surgery, Li Hui was on her way to the restroom when the phone rang as she passed the office door. After a moment's hesitation, she picked up the receiver.

The call was from Zhang Lili.

Zhang Lili was Li Hui's classmate from two years prior in university and is also the director of the physiotherapy department at the Women and Children's Hospital. It was Zhang Lili who introduced Li Hui to the hospital. She is experienced and steady in her work, and Li Hui trusts her deeply. The two have a very close relationship.

These past few days, Li Hui has been asking her for a favor, and she doesn't know how it went. Although she's extremely anxious about the surgery, she still wants to hear what Zhang Lili has to say.

"Li Hui! Come upstairs for a moment, I have good news to tell you!" Zhang Lili's voice was very excited. It was very rare for Zhang Lili, whose love life had always been unsatisfactory, to be in such high spirits.

But Li Hui didn't hesitate: "No, I have an emergency patient..."

Zhang Lili didn't give Li Hui a chance to speak, she interrupted and said, "You come up first, it'll only take a moment, just listen to me!"

Li Hui hesitated for a moment, then anxiously glanced at her watch. Just then, a nurse came over and said that the surgery was ready and asked her to start quickly.

Li Hui finally found reinforcements. She shoved the phone into the nurse's arms and ran out of the room.

The cesarean section took more than an hour. The mother was out of danger, but the baby, who had been asphyxiated for too long, could not be saved.

Li Hui felt somewhat guilty.

After washing her hands, she felt a heavy weight in her heart, thinking that the child shouldn't have died. Ten months of pregnancy—the money spent was a small matter; what mattered was the torment that young mother endured, and the many beautiful dreams the young couple had about their child! Now, all their efforts had vanished like a bubble.

If it weren't for Zhang Lili's damn phone call, if she had started the surgery sooner, perhaps...

Li Hui was tormented by this thought, and she vaguely remembered the baby who died three years ago due to her negligence. She felt even more uncomfortable, so she shook her head vigorously and scolded herself in her heart: "How unlucky! Why think about this? They are two different things!"

At the maternity and child health hospital, so many babies are delivered and so many sick children are treated every day. People have become indifferent to things like today's events, so she forgot about it when she got off work.

That day, she felt more tired than ever before. The busyness and stress had caused her eyelids to stop twitching without her even realizing it.

It took Li Hui quite a while to slowly go downstairs after getting off work.

As she passed the mailroom, she suddenly remembered the letter she had received that morning. How could she have forgotten it after a busy day?

I initially considered taking the letter out of my bag to look at it, but then I thought about it. It didn't seem to be from someone I knew, because I'd glanced at it when I received it that morning and didn't recognize it. Perhaps it was a thank-you note or a polite greeting from a new mother's family.

As an obstetrician, she often encounters such understanding expectant mothers and their families. They would remember to write her a letter on holidays or their child's birthday, and she had gotten used to it.

Thinking this, Li Hui walked straight towards the intersection in front of the hospital gate.

A friend invited me to dinner tonight, saying he wanted to ask about C-sections because his wife had been overeating during her pregnancy, resulting in an overweight baby, and he was worried about the risks of a normal delivery.

Li Hui had just stepped out from under the shade of a tree at the gate when she saw the black Santana parked at the intersection in the distance.

This friend was actually her husband Wang Yang's elementary school classmate. His name was quite strange, Da Dun'er, which didn't sound like a typical Shanghainese name. Li Hui guessed that it might be his nickname or a nickname among friends.

Da Dun'er is a wealthy businessman. When his wife was pregnant, he wanted to bring home all the delicious food in the world, which resulted in the pregnant woman's weight and the baby's size increasing unnecessarily. Now that she's about to give birth, he's finally come to find Li Hui.

Since she hadn't been in much contact with Wang Yang for many years after graduation, Li Hui had never met him before. She was quite surprised when she received his call for the first time, but since he was Wang Yang's old classmate and trusted her so much, Li Hui readily agreed, even though she didn't know him.

Da Dun'er's face looked simple and honest, without any guile, but his small eyes were somewhat unfathomable, which made his smile look a little melancholy.

When Li Hui saw Da Dun'er's figure, she couldn't help but chuckle: over 1.8 meters tall, fat and strong, no wonder his child was overweight!

Just as Li Hui was about to climb into Da Dun'er's car, she suddenly saw Zhang Lili also walk out of the hospital gate, stop at the gate, and look around while checking her watch, not knowing who she was waiting for.

Upon seeing Zhang Lili, Li Hui suddenly remembered the phone call from that morning and felt a little uncomfortable.

Several days have passed since she asked Zhang Lili to help her find a decoration company to decorate her new house, and she doesn't know how it's going. She wants to decorate the new house properly before Wang Yang returns to China so that she can move in as soon as he comes back.

However, Zhang Lili did not see Li Hui, and Li Hui was too embarrassed to waste Dadun'er's time, so she did not go over to greet her and quickly got into the car.

Da Dun'er's wife sat in the back seat. She was not tall, but her eyes were big and her face was round. She had an innocent look on her face, but she proudly carried a big belly that looked like a small mountain.

Dinner was seafood at a restaurant owned by Dadun'er.

Li Hui isn't very interested in food. She's always been very careful about maintaining her figure, and over the years, it's become a habit that she never eats too much for dinner, especially avoiding high-fat and high-protein foods. Therefore, people who invite Li Hui to dinner often feel uneasy, thinking they've ordered food that doesn't suit her taste, as if inviting her to dinner means they owe her a favor.

But Li Hui was too tired and hungry today, and being able to eat so many kinds of seafood in autumn was a luxury, so she ate to her heart's content.

When the Dadun couple enthusiastically offered him a drink, he even had a glass of wine. All of the Dadun couple's questions were answered satisfactorily.

When Santana dropped Li Hui off at home, it was already past 10 p.m.

After closing the door, Li Hui threw her shoes on the floor and leaned back on the sofa, too tired to move.

That wine had quite a "aftereffect," and now Li Hui felt dizzy and really wanted to just go to sleep.

However, Li Hui is a germaphobe; she must take a shower before going to bed.

She walked into the bathroom in a daze, turning on the electric shower faucet while taking off her clothes.

She slowly took off her outer clothes and underwear one by one, hung them up on the hanger, and then, as usual, straightened her chest and raised her head in the mirror to admire her proud figure. Then, she habitually reached out and tested the water temperature under the tap.

This was a dangerous test; Li Hui jumped up in shock, yelling "Wow!" Why was the water in the tap suddenly so hot?

She quickly placed her hands under the tap in the sink and rinsed them repeatedly with cold water. The pain was temporarily relieved, but her hands were already scalded and bright red.

This unexpected event also sobered Li Hui up by about 80%.

She rushed to the first-aid kit to find burn ointment, and only after treating her hand did she realize she hadn't showered yet. Holding her aching hand, Li Hui managed to quickly wash her hair and rinse her body with one hand, and that was it.

Right now, she sat in front of the dressing mirror, feeling dejected, and suddenly felt inexplicably troubled.

I'm going to sleep, but my hand hurts, so I definitely won't be able to fall asleep anytime soon. I'm not in the mood to watch TV either.

She slumped on the sofa, remembering the twitching in her eyelids before leaving home that morning. It seemed to be a true sign of bad luck, just as the old saying goes.

It's really baffling. Could it be that the old ladies' supernatural sayings are actually based on experience?

She needed to find something to do to distract herself from the irritation caused by the pain. She suddenly remembered the letter she had received that morning, so she took it out of her purse to read it.

The yellow kraft paper envelope had no signature, but the postmark was from the city.

Li Hui paused for a moment, then took out the letter inside. It turned out to be a computer printout. When she unfolded it, she saw a table with the title written in bold, large black letters: "Death Timeline".

What?

Li Hui's mind suddenly went blank.

She held the "death timetable" in one hand, and for a moment she seemed to be nailed to the sofa.

After a few seconds, she blinked hard, shook her groggy head, and looked again. It was still that intimidating title, each word like a heavy hammer blow, thud! thud! thud! thud! thud! each word hitting her forehead!

The first cell contains the following text:

Day 1

Punishment is directed at: hands stained with sin!

Vivisection diagram