Ghosts in Medical School Horror Files

Chapter 18

Chen Bao's reaction was exactly what Ye Cheng had expected, which only strengthened his resolve. There was something wrong in Chenguan Village; a murder might have actually occurred. He needed to find a way to get the village chief to talk. A thought struck him. He said to Chen Bao, "The anonymous tip we received might be a prank. We've been encountering these kinds of things frequently lately. Since we're already here, would you mind if we took a walk around the village?"

"No problem, feel free to look around." Chen Bao's expression was somewhat unnatural.

"Then I'll trouble the village chief to lead the way." Ye Cheng strode ahead, with Li Xiao and several policemen following closely behind.

Li Xiao pointed to the mirrors in front of each house and asked, "Village chief, why is there a mirror in front of every house?"

Chen Bao's face twitched slightly. "This is a custom in our village. Placing a mirror at the door can ward off evil spirits and protect the family."

Li Xiao continued, "These mirrors all look brand new to me."

A bead of cold sweat appeared on Chen Bao's forehead. "The old one got dirty, so I replaced it with a new one."

Li Xiao simply said "oh" and didn't press the matter further.

Ye Cheng observed Chen Bao's reaction. Regardless of whether Li Xiao's actions were intentional or unintentional, one thing was certain: there was something wrong with Chenguan Village. Whether it was a murder case was still uncertain, but it was definitely related to some mysterious force. Strike while the iron is hot, Ye Cheng asked, "The ancients said that the day's work begins in the morning, but why don't I see any villagers working this early? And these houses, nine out of ten are empty—what have the villagers all done? Also, we saw many dead livestock at the village entrance—what happened to that?"

"This..." Chen Bao was stumped by the question, and cold sweat poured down his back.

Before Chen Bao could answer, Ye Cheng smelled a strange odor in the air—the distinctive fragrance of burning incense. According to local custom, this incense was only burned when someone passed away. Ye Cheng followed the scent and turned into a small alley.

Chen Bao hurriedly called out, "Comrades, there's nothing to see over there. I'll take you to the village orchard."

Ye Cheng stopped in front of a dilapidated courtyard. The aroma was wafting from inside. The gate wasn't locked, and Ye Cheng pushed it open.

The yard wasn't big, and it was overgrown with weeds. In the middle of the yard stood a coffin. Ye Cheng had just taken a step when Chen Bao stopped him, smiling obsequiously, and said, "Officer, there's nothing to see in a dead body. It's bad luck to look at it."

Ye Cheng snorted coldly, broke free from Chen Bao's hand, and went inside to glance at the coffin. Inside lay an old man, over sixty years old, dressed in a Taoist robe, with a strange expression, as if he had seen something astonishing before his death. More importantly, the body was deathly pale, an unnatural white.

"Speak, what happened?" Ye Cheng said coldly to Chen Bao.

Chen Bao continued to argue, "The old man died of illness, it has nothing to do with me."

"Still trying to deny it? Looks like you're not going to tell the truth. Take me back to the station."

"Yes, sir!" Two male police officers who had been waiting for a long time took out handcuffs.

"I'll talk, I'll talk." Chen Bao collapsed to the ground. "The old man Chen is lying in the coffin. He was killed, but it has nothing to do with me. It was a demon that killed him! The demon sucked its blood."

"A monster?" Everyone was stunned.

005 A Demon?

Chen Bao's voice trembled with tears, "It wasn't just old man Chen, but also the livestock that died at the village entrance. They were all drained of their blood by the demon."

The villagers hung mirrors on their doors to ward off evil spirits. Those who could leave have already moved away; those remaining are the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled who cannot move. The once beautiful Chenguan Village has been destroyed by these evil spirits.

Ye Cheng was stunned. He had assumed the murder would be related to Chen Bao, but the result of his interrogation was this: demonic possession? What era are we living in? Who still believes in demonic possession? Wild animals are almost driven to extinction by humans; how could they possibly become demons? Domesticated poultry only live for a dozen years before being killed and eaten. Although Chen Bao's explanation was absurd, the fact that the deceased was an old man who looked like a Taoist priest seemed to make sense. Chen Bao had no need to lie; a simple question with any villager would reveal the truth.

Ye Cheng gestured for Li Xiao to examine the body, walked around Chen Bao, squatted down in front of Chen Bao and said, "Explain clearly what kind of demon is causing this."

Chen Bao looked up and slowly began to speak, recounting how the old man predicted a bloody calamity from the appearance of the blood-red clouds until the old man's valiant battle against the demon, ultimately ending in defeat and death. Ye Cheng listened, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper. Chen Bao's words were sincere; he even shed a few tears when recounting the old man's death, seemingly not lying. Since meeting Xia Chen, he had seen all sorts of bizarre and unbelievable things, but did demons, creatures existing only in mythology, truly exist in the real world? His head began to ache. How should he write the case report? A very serious problem lay before him: if he truthfully wrote that a demon was at work, would the chief send him to a mental hospital? Knowing the chief's character, it was highly likely he would.

Li Xiao gently tugged at Ye Cheng's clothes and said in a low voice, "The preliminary examination results indicate that the deceased died from massive blood loss, but I only found a one-centimeter-long wound on the right index finger of the body. This is the preliminary examination result; a more detailed examination will require the use of instruments. This body is really too strange."

Ye Cheng turned around and asked, "What did you mean by that last sentence?"

Li Xiao said in an even softer voice, "I guess there isn't a single drop of blood in the body. Even with the latest blood-drawing technology, that's something that can't be done. No matter how you draw blood, there will definitely be some blood residue in the body."

Ye Cheng rubbed his forehead and said, "You mean there really is a demon at work?"

Li Xiao playfully stuck out her tongue, "I didn't say anything, it was all you who said it."

Ye Cheng's head throbbed even more. Was he having a run of bad luck this year? Why were the cases he encountered getting stranger and stranger? He turned to Chen Bao and continued questioning, "Since you didn't kill the person, and it has nothing to do with you, why didn't you call the police? This evil spirit is causing such a serious problem, why don't you try to solve it? Is it because you've been doing something shady behind the scenes? Tell me!"

Before Chen Bao could speak, a childish voice called out from outside the door, "You're not allowed to bully Daddy! Daddy isn't a bad person!" Before the words were even finished, a little girl of about five or six years old ran in, stretched out her arms to block Chen Bao, and glared fiercely at Ye Cheng with a pout.

Chen Bao asked in surprise, "Xiaoxian, didn't you go to your maternal grandmother's house with your mother? Why are you back?"

The little girl said angrily, "Mom said you have to fight the evil monster. I was worried that you would be in danger, so I secretly ran away from Grandma's house. I want to fight the evil monster with Dad."

Tears streamed down Chen Bao's face. "Xiaoxian, be good. Daddy can handle the demon by himself. You should go back to Grandma's house obediently."

The little girl obediently wiped away Chen Bao's tears with her hand, "Daddy, don't cry. Did these bad people bully you? I'll fight them for you." As she spoke, she picked up a small stone from the ground and was about to throw it at Ye Cheng.

Chen Bao quickly hugged the little girl and said softly, "Xiaoxian, be good. These uncles and aunts are police officers. They're here to help Daddy deal with the evil spirits."

After the little girl calmed down, Chen Bao said to Ye Cheng, "You're here now, and I've told you the truth. Do you believe me? You probably still think I'm crazy. I admit, out of a little selfishness, I didn't want you to get involved. If the government finds out that there's a demon haunting Chenguan Village, my time as village chief is over. As for why I don't try to solve it, the most powerful magician for miles around, Chen Banxian, is lying in the coffin behind you. He's gone, what am I supposed to do?"

Ye Cheng gestured for the police officer who was taking notes to close his notebook and said sincerely, "I believe what you said. A good friend of mine often says that the world is so big that there are always things beyond our understanding. You said that two of the six witnesses from that night are still in town. Can you call them here? I need to ask them some details."

"No problem, but this isn't the place to talk. How about we go to my place?"

"OK.

Ye Cheng instructed a policeman to guard the body and then took Li Xiao to the village chief's house.

The village chief's house wasn't far; just walk out of one alley and turn into another. Although it was a brick and tile house, it looked rather old and much worse than the two-story buildings next door. The furnishings inside were simple; one wall was covered with certificates of merit and banners, all of which, upon closer inspection, were addressed to Chen Bao. Chen Bao poured tea for the two of them, put the little girl in the yard, and went out to find someone.

Ye Cheng saw a photo of Chen Bao holding a banner that read "Leading Figure in Poverty Alleviation," and standing next to him was none other than the city's mayor. Ye Cheng clicked his tongue, "This Chen Bao is no ordinary person."

Before the time it takes to drink a cup of tea was up, Chen Bao led a middle-aged man and a middle-aged woman into his home.

Ye Cheng glanced at them and knew they were honest people, a little reserved since it was their first time meeting the police. Chen Bao introduced them, "This is Li Youcai, and this is Aunt Wu. They were eyewitnesses to Chen Banxian's death. Also, Youcai's chicken coop was the first to be attacked by the demon, and he even saw the demon in the stream by the village."

One question piqued Ye Cheng's interest: "What did the monster you saw look like?"

Li Youcai was a little nervous and said intermittently, "I only saw a pair of blood-red eyes, and then I fainted from fright."

Ye Cheng was somewhat disappointed not to see the monster. The two then recounted the events, each adding to the other's account. Ye Cheng's eyebrows were intertwined, he was impervious to bullets, walked silently, sucked blood from a distance, his body emitted a black mist, and he possessed a certain level of intelligence, seemingly able to understand human language. All his characteristics resembled those of a demon, but did demons truly exist?

A thought suddenly struck Ye Cheng, "Chen Village, do you have a map of your village? Bring me one."

"Yes, yes." Chen Bao quickly found a map.

Ye Cheng then said, "Mark the locations of the farms that were attacked by the demons."

Chen Bao knew Chenguan Village as well as he knew his own fingers, and quickly marked it on the map before handing it to Ye Cheng.

Ye Cheng glanced at it, a smile appearing on his lips, and asked Li Xiao, "Have you figured out the problem?"

Li Xiao knew Ye Cheng was testing her, and said with a smile, "The initial attack locations were concentrated by the river. Li Youcai also saw the monster by the river, so it seems that this monster can't live without the river. After sucking more blood, it gradually expanded its range of activity. Do you think it's possible that river pollution caused some kind of creature in the river to mutate, like leeches?"

Chen Bao quickly replied, "No, the water quality of the stream at the entrance of our village is excellent. There are no factories upstream, only Yishi School, so there's no pollution. Some manufacturers even came to inspect it recently, saying that the water in our village's river is some kind of mineral water and that they're planning to build a factory here."

Ye Cheng had a bad feeling. Upstream was Yishi School, where a series of bizarre murders occurred last month. The killer was eventually identified as a strange creature called an intestinal worm, and all of this revolved around a "Nuwa Project." According to common people's understanding, intestinal worms could indeed be considered monsters. Could this blood-sucking creature have escaped from one of Yishi Academy's laboratories? Should he call Xia Chen? He's quite skilled at handling these kinds of incidents.

Seeing Ye Cheng lost in thought again, Li Xiao nudged him and asked, "What are you daydreaming about? I need to ask you what our next step should be?"

Ye Cheng asked, "Chen Village, does your village still have any livestock farms?"

"There's only one left, Aunt Wu's chicken farm."

"That makes things easier. Tonight, we'll ambush Aunt Wu at her chicken farm and have a go at this monster."

"Yay!" Li Xiao almost jumped for joy. She'd only just joined the police force and already encountered such a major operation—her luck was extraordinary. If she performed exceptionally well in the operation and left a deep impression on her superiors, her future would be limitless. The more Li Xiao thought about it, the happier she became, her heart overflowing with joy.

Ye Cheng knew what she was thinking. When he first joined the police force, he was also eager to prove himself and get ahead. Years later, he was still the same. If it weren't for his father's connections, he might be in an even worse situation. Ye Cheng was reluctant to shatter her dream, but time was limited; they weren't dealing with ordinary criminals. He shouted to Li Xiao, "Now that we know about the operation, get the arrangements in place quickly! We also need to contact the bureau and get some advanced surveillance equipment. And send Chen Banxian's body back to the station for examination; get the autopsy report out as soon as possible."

Li Xiao glared at Ye Cheng and said, "Why are you shouting so loudly? I'm not deaf." She ran out of the village chief's house and went to work.

Ye Cheng took out his phone and dialed Xia Chen's number. He figured Xia Chen would be very interested in such a bizarre incident, and perhaps he could offer some insights into solving the case. Unfortunately, Xia Chen was in class and his phone was off.

The call didn't go through, so Ye Cheng asked Chen Bao, "Could you take me to the river to take a look?"

"No problem," Chen Bao readily agreed. For some reason, the demon never appeared during the day. Aunt Wu and Li Youcai exchanged a glance, then followed. They wanted to see what the police would do if even Chen Banxian couldn't handle the demon.

Ye Cheng walked upstream along the riverbank. The water was clear, and the soft sand on the bank rustled pleasantly underfoot. There were no living creatures in the river; they must have all been killed by the demon. Nearing Yishi Academy, Ye Cheng discovered a large iron pipe buried by the riverbank, about a meter in diameter. He crouched down and peered inside; it was a dark, indistinct mass, its destination unknown. There were some traces of water inside the pipe. Ye Cheng touched a little and smelled it; it had a formaldehyde odor. He asked Chen Bao, "What's this iron pipe about?"

Chen Bao thought for a moment and said, "This iron pipe seems to belong to Yishi Academy. It's been there since I was a child. I think it was used to discharge sewage back then, but it was later abandoned." Aunt Wu added, "I saw this iron pipe discharging bloody water many years ago. It seems to have been when Yishi Academy was first established."

Ye Cheng stood up without speaking. This iron pipe had been used not long ago. The formaldehyde solution would evaporate; if wastewater had been discharged a week ago, there wouldn't be any formaldehyde smell left. Could this be related to the evil spirit's interference? Ye Cheng dared not speculate.

"Let's go back." Ye Cheng and the village chief and others returned to Chenguan Village.

Shortly after Ye Cheng left, two red dots appeared deep inside the iron pipe, like a pair of eyes, emitting an eerie red light.

Ye Cheng dialed Xia Chen's phone again, but it was still switched off. After Li Xiao took the body back to the police station, he quickly received the autopsy report. The cause of death was massive blood loss. Strangely, the body only had one wound on its right index finger, and there wasn't a single drop of blood inside the body. A group of veteran forensic doctors surrounded the body, sighing and wondering what had happened. The autopsy report Li Xiao brought back caused a huge stir among the police in Chenguan Village. Ye Cheng wasn't surprised. He gathered all the police officers together and gave a speech about risking their lives for the people, unafraid of hardship, fatigue, or death to save the villagers from the fire. Every policeman present felt a surge of patriotic fervor. Let alone demons, if there were a group of zombies in front of them, they would rush forward without hesitation. Even Li Xiao's gaze towards Ye Cheng changed slightly. Having achieved the desired effect, Ye Cheng began assigning tasks. Ye Cheng didn't want anything to happen to Li Xiao, so he arranged for her to stay by the river and observe from a distance. He told her that this was a very important post and that she couldn't be careless. Li Xiao actually believed him and happily went to keep watch.

Night fell in the blink of an eye, and Ye Cheng laid a trap in the village, waiting for the demon to appear.

Every policeman was holding his breath, as if he had been injected with two hundred cc of duck blood, his eyes wide like copper bells, afraid of missing anything that would cause damage to the villagers' property and ruin the image of the police in the eyes of the simple villagers.

Ye Cheng was drinking hot coffee in Aunt Wu's farm, feeling a little uneasy. Would his preparations be effective against the demon? What if he couldn't subdue it?

Li Xiao hid in a pile of grass not far from the riverbank, intently watching the lake with thermal imaging binoculars. It was the height of summer, the peak season for mosquitoes, and despite applying mosquito repellent, she was covered in bites, feeling as if countless ants were crawling all over her. Unable to bear it any longer, Li Xiao put down the binoculars and waved her hands to swat away the mosquitoes.

When she picked up her binoculars again, a red, radiating heat appeared in her field of view, steadily reporting towards the village. She quickly picked up the radio and reported, "Target spotted, heading towards the village. Something's strange, I haven't heard the target come ashore."

"How could that be?" Ye Cheng frowned again. He had installed a microphone on the shore, which could be heard even if a fish swam by. Why didn't Li Xiao hear the sound?

After reporting, Li Xiao picked up the binoculars again and noticed that the target stopped, slowly turned her head, and stared at her.

Li Xiao couldn't describe the strange feeling. She couldn't see the target's eyes through the thermal imaging telescope, but she had a feeling of being stared at.

She felt a chill run down her spine, and the hairs on her body stood on end.

The target slowly extended his hand towards her.

Li Xiao felt an invisible hand gripping her heart, all the blood rushing to her head, threatening to suffocate her. She tried to scream for help, but something was stuck in her throat, and no sound came out. She watched as a stream of blood gushed from her nose, swirling in the air like a small snake flying towards its target.

Just when she thought she was doomed, the target lowered his hand, and the blood that had been in the air fell to the ground. Li Xiao hurriedly covered her nose with her hand, only to find that the bleeding had stopped. She picked up the thermal imaging binoculars again and watched the target walk step by step towards Aunt Wu's farm. She asked herself, why did he suddenly stop killing me?

Before Li Xiao could come up with an answer, the monster had already reached the entrance of Aunt Wu's breeding farm. The police officers hidden inside had already been notified and were on high alert.

The gate was wide open, and the demon entered.

Ye Cheng and a policeman hid in a haystack in a corner. Ye Cheng cautiously peeked out and saw a dark figure slowly walking towards the chicken coop in the yard. The figure was about 1.75 meters tall. Ye Cheng thought the figure looked familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere before, but he couldn't remember where.

The demon walked into the encirclement. Ye Cheng didn't have time to think. He waved his hand and the police officers who were hiding everywhere rushed out, surrounded the dark figure, and shouted, "Don't move, hands up!"

The dark shape stood still, its head rotating 360 degrees to look around before continuing towards the chicken coop. That single head-turning motion sent chills down the spines of the police officers at the scene, making their necks feel cold. What was that thing?

Ye Cheng was prepared. He snapped his fingers casually, and the police hidden in the shadows received the signal and pulled the switch. Eight searchlights mounted on the chicken coop roof emitted a blinding white light, all shining on the dark figure. The light was so glaring that the surrounding police officers raised a hand to shield their eyes. The dark figure paused for less than a minute before continuing towards the chicken coop. The first plan had failed. Ye Cheng had assumed that the demon dared not appear during the day because it feared sunlight, so he had brought in these searchlights. He was wrong; the intense light had little effect on the dark figure. Under the bright light, it remained a dark blur, its features indistinct.

"Option Two!" Ye Cheng shouted.

The surrounding police officers hurriedly dispersed, and two officers rushed out of the chicken coop, each carrying a water hose as thick as a bowl. They turned it on, and a powerful jet of water shot out, hitting the dark figure squarely and sending it flying. It was a high-pressure water gun used for firefighting; heaven knows how Ye Cheng got his hands on it.

The dark shadow slammed heavily against the wall of the farm, struggling to get up, but the water jet sprayed onto it again, knocking it to the ground. Unwilling to give up, the shadow struggled to stand up again.

Ye Cheng said with a smile, "Just surrender. Don't waste your energy. The tap is connected to the river by the village. You have no chance."

The shadowy figure did not stop, continuing its struggle against the water column.