Death Timeline

Chapter 21

What unexpected events might occur tonight? She dared not even think about it… She locked her door early and stayed inside. She needed to think carefully about the ins and outs of all the recent events, and the relationships between each one.

But terror had shattered her mind, like a clock whose spring had been accidentally broken.

Li Hui heard Grandpa Zhou calling her from outside the door, "Dr. Li, dinner's here!"

At times like this, she didn't want to trust anyone, including Grandpa Zhou, whom she always trusted. So she lay on the bed, not moving an inch, and simply mumbled a reply to the door:

"Uncle Zhou, I've already eaten. You can take it back and eat it yourself."

"Alright, you should get some rest now, and don't forget to lock the door properly!" The old man's footsteps faded into the distance. Li Hui buried her head in her pillow, wanting to think carefully about what to do tomorrow.

She could clearly sense the danger approaching step by step, like a hungry beast hissing and panting at her doorstep. But she had no idea who her opponent was! The more she felt this way, the more terrified she became.

Call the police immediately!

Her life was threatened? Where was the evidence? So many things were at stake; she couldn't explain a single thing clearly. That's it! That "death timeline" would suffice! And so many emails too.

At this moment, Li Hui's mood had completely changed. She walked quietly down the hospital corridor, feeling that this familiar corridor had never felt so strange and indifferent. The lights in the corridor flickered dimly, like will-o'-the-wisps.

She made the call after everyone had left work, sneaking past the emergency room entrance and running to her office on the third floor.

As if by some strange twist of fate, the moment Li Hui picked up the phone, her original plan unknowingly changed. When she realized that the number she had dialed was Da Dun'er's cell phone number, she was immediately startled by her own action.

But when Dadun'er's gentle voice came, Li Hui immediately felt that she had found a pillar of support.

"I'm going to call the police!" she said urgently.

"Why? Please don't do this! You'll kill me!"

"I simply can't live a single day without calling the police!" Her voice rose unconsciously, only to be quickly suppressed by her alertness.

"Don't do anything rash! Wait for me to come back! You must wait for me to come back! Do you hear me?" Da Dun's panicked voice was abruptly cut off by her—why was he so afraid that she would call the police?

Da Dun'er, whom she had just excluded in a daze, has now returned to his original position in this way: Could it be that the "death timetable" was indeed his doing?

Li Hui stood in the office, holding the phone, dumbfounded.

Suddenly, she felt a hand gently pat her shoulder: "What are you doing here?"

It's Zhang Lili's voice!

"ah!"

Li Hui was so frightened that she plopped down in a chair. She stared speechlessly at Zhang Lili's half-lit, half-shadowed face, her whole body trembling uncontrollably.

"You've been too weak these past few days. Come on, let me help you back to rest."

Li Hui couldn't feel her feet moving, but in the blink of an eye, she was in the lounge on the third floor.

She had never felt Zhang Lili was so unpredictable as she was today. Her slightly tired face, a few strands of disheveled hair, wandering eyes, and exaggerated gestures were nothing like the usual Zhang Lili. Usually, she was always neat, composed, and full of confidence.

To be honest, Li Hui was a little afraid of her at this moment.

"Why did you run off halfway through baking again today? The same thing happened last time; you left halfway through when I wasn't looking. Why are you so afraid of infrared light?"

Zhang Lili brought up the very thing Li Hui feared most. Her face was expressionless, but her tone was somewhat resentful.

Her mention of it made Li Hui feel that Zhang Lili was still honest and open-minded, and didn't seem to have any intention of harming her. It was just that the infrared therapy device itself had a mechanical malfunction.

Li Hui felt a little calmer. She sensed that Zhang Lili herself posed no direct threat to her, and she couldn't be sure that Zhang Lili was the one who wanted to harm her. But how could she explain Zhang Lili's instigation of Ning Kun? Was Ning Kun deliberately trying to slander Zhang Lili and confuse Li Hui?

Li Hui felt that Da Dun'er's firm refusal to let her call the police further confirmed her original judgment about the "timeline of death".

Whom should she believe?

Special gift

Zhang Lili offered some words of comfort before going home.

Li Hui lay alone in bed, lost in thought. She was particularly anxious to know what the email she would receive the next morning would contain. If the sender was Da Dun'er, would he issue a "no-contact" warning? (False)

What if the other party was Zhang Lili?

Just past midnight, unable to sleep, Li Hui nervously got up and turned on her laptop. But her inbox was empty. She then realized she had been a bit foolish; even the murderer needed to sleep at a time like this.

Li Hui got up and went to the bathroom. But after putting on her shoes, she hesitated.

She first quietly listened through the crack in the door for a while, and only after confirming that there was nothing happening outside did she cautiously open the door.

The moment the door was pulled open, Li Hui felt that it seemed a little heavier than usual.

Immediately afterwards, her hand touched something cold, wet, slippery, and soft. It was hanging on the door handle outside and was now pressed tightly against her body as the door opened.

Under the dim corridor light, she could see clearly that it was a bloody, dead infant!

Li Hui jumped back in fright. She heard her own terrified scream, a strange sound, like the faint wail of a dying infant.

Someone actually stole a stillborn baby and hung it on the door of the doctor's on-call room. This is outrageous!

Director Chen insisted that the police should be called immediately, but the hospital director disagreed. She felt that if this matter became public, it would negatively impact the reputation of the maternal and infant hospital, and unsuspecting patients would develop psychological barriers to seeking treatment at the hospital.

How can someone do something that would cost them their own livelihood?

Li Hui was frightened and was lying in bed receiving an IV drip. She was having nightmares one after another, waking up in fright every now and then.

She understood that the person who brought the stillborn baby was reminding her that her time was running out!

With only three days left on the "death timetable," the killer intensified his actions, accelerating the process to drive her to her death.

The hospital held an emergency meeting specifically for Li Hui's case and decided to send her home to recuperate, intending to assign Zhang Lili to take care of her. However, at this crucial moment, Zhang Lili suddenly fell ill, and in the morning, Mr. Yang called to ask for leave on her behalf.

There was no other way, so they had to send one of the maternity nurses home with her.

Li Hui refused; she preferred to be alone at home so she could see her emails promptly, and what she was most eager to know was what was in today's emails.

The underlying reason was that she felt she could no longer trust anyone, including Grandpa Zhou who would leave a bottle of hot water in front of her door every morning and deliver meals to her three times a day.

That evening, Li Hui packed her things and took a taxi alone back to her home, which she had left many days ago.

The stairwell was still pitch black and terrifying. Li Hui, carrying a small bag, hesitated as she climbed the stairs. She had to stomp her feet on each floor to turn on the motion-sensor lights, and each stomp startled her, afraid that the loud footsteps would alert the person hiding on one of the floors waiting for her.

The doorway was dark, like a monster crouching there. Li Hui remembered she had already replaced the stairwell light, so she stomped her foot, but the light didn't respond. It broke again so quickly? That doesn't make sense.

Li Hui hoped someone was home in the apartment across the hall, but after listening intently, she heard nothing. There was no light coming through the crack in the door. She hesitated, unsure whether to open the door, but the lights downstairs were all off, and she was surrounded by darkness. The only way to dispel her fear was to immediately go into her room, turn on the light, and get out of there.

She gritted her teeth and groped her way to her front door. Her fingers trembled as she fumbled for the key, but she couldn't get it in. The clattering sound of the key echoed crisply in the empty corridor, like a mysterious and eerie melody.

The door finally opened, and a strange smell wafted out, like the formaldehyde solution used to preserve specimens in a hospital. Li Hui quickly locked the door and reached for the light switch on the wall near the door, but the light wouldn't turn on!

I tried several times, but it still wouldn't light up!

Like a frightened bird, she immediately pressed herself against the wall, too afraid to move.

The surroundings were so quiet that only her own breathing and heartbeat could be heard.

She had a vague feeling that danger was lurking in the darkness.

After about a minute, nothing happened, and her eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness of the room, she reached for the dressing table to find candles. Li Hui's hand found a lighter, and with a "click!" she lit it. She immediately saw two white candles, as thick as her wrists, neatly placed in two paper dishes on the dressing table. They were the kind of dinner candles sold everywhere in stores, short and long enough not to fall over no matter where they were placed.

While she was still in shock, she instinctively lit the two candles. A corner of the room was instantly illuminated.

Li Hui looked up and saw herself in the mirror, suddenly transformed into a grinning, hideous skeleton! Her teeth, devoid of gums, were exactly as she saw in the mirror every morning after brushing them: neat, small, pearl-like front teeth, with a noticeable gap on the right one, a mark left from her fondness for cracking "Little Liu's Sunflower Seeds".

She felt her breathing stop for a moment, and her whole body immediately went limp.

It's a ghost! And the ghost is herself!

Strangely, she didn't scream. It seemed like there was something wrong with her vocal cords. In her extreme terror, she couldn't make a sound.

The candle flame flickered, waking her. Looking in the mirror again, she noticed a line of tiny black characters, the size of a fingernail, below the skull:

"Your death has been brought forward. Farewell!"

Every word was printed out and then cut and pasted on. Li Hui then realized that the skull on the mirror was a pasted-on image, the same size as a real person, the entire sheet of paper completely covering the mirror, and surrounded by a shocking black border!

That guy has already been in her room!

The ending has finally arrived ahead of schedule...

This time, Li Hui felt as if she had been given a fatal shock, as if a nerve in her body had suddenly snapped.

She turned around abruptly to look at the entire room, only to find that her "memorial portraits" were hanging all over the walls of the hall, enlarged several times larger than real people, and all with wide black frames. The portraits of her were exactly the same as the one in the dressing table mirror.

In the darkness, the whole house felt eerie and oppressive, making it hard for her to breathe.

Her eyes swept across the sofa and coffee table before she noticed that short white candles were placed all over the room.

Li Hui subconsciously lit the candles one by one. She noticed that on the dining table on the other side of the hall, knives, forks, and a plate were neatly arranged.

In the center of the dining table, in a glass specimen bottle over two feet tall, was a fetal specimen. The little thing had a large head and a small body, with its limbs huddled together, two tiny fists pressed against its chin, and its whole body curled up into the shape of a large ear. Its originally red and tender skin had turned white from being soaked in formalin solution for a long time.

A note was placed on the plate, and it read:

"This is your last supper, so enjoy it while you can."

Large skull portraits on the wall served as a backdrop to this horrifying scene, and the snarling images of "Ghost Li Hui" seemed to be drooling over the delicious food in front of them!

Li Hui's stomach suddenly surged up, reaching right to her throat...

She took a few steps back, about to rush out the door, but when she reached the door, she sensed something lurking in the darkness outside that was even more terrifying than the room itself.

When she looked back, the mirror on the dressing table was arranged to resemble a memorial tablet, and the two white candles on the left and right flickered like will-o'-the-wisps, making the room look more like a real funeral hall!

Li Hui leaned against the door, drenched in sweat, her terrified eyes darting from one portrait to another. Except for her eyes, she couldn't move any part of her body.

The game is over!

She wasn't fully prepared; she wanted to review today's emails again, but the other party was already impatient and wanted to speed things up!

Her phone call to Shenzhen during the day must have alerted the murderer.

Regardless of who the murderer is, his evil hand has already reached for her neck. If he exerts force, she could instantly turn into the snarling skeleton in front of her.

Li Hui felt that she could no longer think normally; her mind was completely filled with terrifying thoughts.

She dared not go to the other rooms; perhaps even more terrifying sights awaited her in this dark house…

But, by some strange twist of fate...

She couldn't resist the urge to go into the bedroom to take a look.

There's a computer there. At this point, she was hopelessly thinking about the computer!

Her feet involuntarily moved further into the house...

Just as she reached the bedroom door, the candle flame in Li Hui's hand suddenly seemed startled, jumped a few times, and went out.

But it was too late! Her eyes had already clearly seen everything in the bedroom: