Военный советник и принцесса

Глава 22

Li Hong swallowed hard, her eyes fixed on the staircase on the other side, as if the other half of a ghost's body might emerge from there at any moment. She pressed herself against the wall, only sticking her head out.

Zheng Zhihao stopped talking, and the entire corridor seemed to be frightened by what was climbing up the stairs, and fell silent.

A sigh came from the bottom of the stairs, sounding more like someone panting heavily from climbing. Li Hong rubbed her ears lightly, as if she couldn't believe her ears. But then came another sigh, this time very real.

“I…I heard it…” Li Hong stammered.

"Hey, baby, don't be afraid, it won't hurt you, don't be nervous," Zheng Zhihao's calm voice came.

"I shouldn't be able to hear... right?" Li Hong still couldn't relax.

"It's okay that you heard it. Relax, maybe it's not on this level after all."

Suddenly, Li Hong saw a hand reach out from the stairwell and grab onto the wall, as if it was struggling to move its body using the wall as leverage. She saw that the hand was pale and bloodless, but covered in bright red blood.

"Don't scream! Don't be afraid! Close your eyes!" Zheng Zhihao commanded.

But he was a beat too slow, and Li Hong let out a soft scream. As the scream quickly disappeared into the empty corridor, the hand stopped moving, no longer tense, but slowly relaxed.

2.14 False Alarm

“I told you not to bark…” Zheng Zhihao said, a little annoyed. “Now it knows there are people in the hallway, and I wonder what it will do next.”

“You said it wouldn’t hurt me…” Li Hong’s eyes remained fixed on that hand.

“That’s because it didn’t find you,” Zheng Zhihao said. “Now that it has found you, it doesn’t know what to do.”

"Help me!" A stranger's voice suddenly rang in Li Hong's head. "Help me!" As the voice spoke, the hand began to exert force again, and then a head covered in large patches of blood appeared behind the hand. At this point, only the hair could be seen.

"Oh my god! It wants me to save it!" Li Hong said nervously. "What should I do?"

"Don't pay attention to it for now, and don't look over there." Zheng Zhihao's voice was still as calm as ever. "Because it doesn't know that it is already dead. The way it looks now is how it saw itself before it died, making it think that something just happened. So when it finds you, it will naturally ask you for help. But that makes things easier."

"What should we do?" Li Hong asked.

"Leave it to me. Don't move, don't make a sound, don't look over there, and pretend you didn't see anything."

"Okay, okay." Li Hong immediately stood up straight and pressed herself tightly against the wall.

Suddenly, she felt a chill on her right hand, and then saw a faint shadow separating from her body—Zheng Zhihao was leaving her body and drifting towards the dead ghost. This made her very curious, wondering what he would do, but she didn't dare turn her head to look, and could only stand there stiffly.

"Hey, buddy." It was Zheng Zhihao's voice.

"Help me!" came the ghost's voice.

"You're already dead, there's no way to save you."

"I'm not dead! I can't die..."

"Relax, relax. Look at me, I'm dead, and you're dead too. We belong to another world now. The living can't see us, so your cries for help are useless."

"You bastard! I'm not dead!"

“Hey, I’m trying to be nice to you, and you’re cursing at me. Go ahead and crawl, crawl into that room, there are nurses there. This is a hospital, do you want me to show you your own corpse? It’s in the morgue on the third basement floor.”

"..."

"Still don't believe me?"

"...Am I really dead?"

"Nonsense. You should hurry up and reincarnate. There are obstetrics and gynecology clinics in a few other buildings not far from here."

"reincarnation?"

"Oh, you'll see when you get there. But you should stay a little further away from people, otherwise their popularity will weaken your energy, and you'll become weaker and weaker."

Are you serious?

"Why would I lie to you? You're lucky you met me, otherwise you would have missed the best time to be reincarnated."

"Am I dead? Am I dead? Why is it dark around me?"

"That's right, welcome to the world of souls, this is where we should be."

"If I die... what will happen to my wife? What will happen to my children?"

"That's not something you need to worry about. You'll gradually lose your memory..."

Li Hong remained standing upright, but hearing their conversation gave her a sudden sense of amusement. She blinked hard to make sure she wasn't dreaming, then slowly turned her head to see what had happened to that deadbeat. However, she only saw Zheng Zhihao floating towards her—he was a ghostly blue, transparent figure with a smile on his face. Passing through his silhouette, Li Hong realized that the terrifying hand had vanished. Then, her right hand felt icy cold again; Zheng Zhihao had returned.

"It's done," he said smugly.

"That's hilarious," Li Hong replied, her heartbeat gradually returning to normal.

"It seems a bit funny, but this is the best outcome. It hadn't released its resentment, still believing it was alive, but now I've convinced it, released that energy, and made it a normal soul. You can't see it now, can you?"

"They're invisible. Do ghosts really reason like that?"

"That's because I'm the one talking to it, so the channel is open. But if a person talks to it, it can't hear you, and you'll think it's being unreasonable."

"I can't take it anymore..."

"What's wrong?"

"It all feels like it's all fake, like I'm dreaming." Li Hong slowly squatted down again. Now she felt a little tired and wanted to go back to bed as soon as possible, and then pretend that what she had just seen and heard was a dream.

"Hang in there a little longer!"

As they were speaking, a faint noise came from the room behind Li Hong, as if someone was getting out of bed, making the bed creak.

Li Hong squatted down but immediately stood up again. She listened in surprise to the noise in the room, wondering if it was Xu Feifei making the noise.

"Don't stand here yet, go stand on that windowsill over there," Zheng Zhihao ordered.

"Why? What if Xu Feifei is in danger?" Li Hong was a hundred times unwilling.

"Go now!"

Li Hong reluctantly walked over, then leaned against the windowsill, listening to the sounds behind her.

The door opened, followed by the sound of footsteps in slippers. Perhaps startled by seeing someone in the hallway, the person paused for a moment before the slippers moved in another direction.

Li Hong turned around and glanced at it casually. It turned out to be another patient in Xu Feifei's room, who had gotten up to use the restroom in the middle of the night. This made her breathe a sigh of relief.

“Look, if you were standing at the door, the person would be startled when they came out, and they might even have a mental breakdown from the fright,” Zheng Zhihao said.

"Hehe, it's true. She'd probably be startled if I just stood here." Li Hong smiled sheepishly.

"I don't think anything will happen tonight. It's already past 1 a.m. If we can hold on for another two hours, Xu Feifei won't get up."

"What if she gets up to go to the bathroom? Would that be dangerous?"

“There might be danger. You see, the methods Liu Yun is using so far are all accidental, so I think as long as Xu Feifei stays asleep and doesn’t get up, she’s safe.”

"Then we have to keep an eye on her all the time?!" Li Hong said, somewhat surprised. "How can we possibly keep an eye on her all the time?!"

"Nothing's wrong during the day, it's mainly at night."

Then the sound of slippers came again, and Li Hong stopped talking. Until the door closed and locked again.

"Listen to me," Zheng Zhihao said seriously. "We can't watch Xu Feifei all the time to prevent any accidents. After we get through tonight, we can talk to her tomorrow, tell her everything, and also tell her about the dangers she faces, so she can be more careful. Do you understand?"

"Well, that's the only way."

"In addition, we need to find clues from her to figure out Liu Yun's motives, and even use her as bait to lure Liu Yun out and kill her."

"Okay, okay, let's just take it one step at a time!" Li Hong said, frowning.

2.15 Conversation (Part 1)

Li Hong was woken up by a nurse. She had fallen asleep squatting outside room 206 and the nurse didn't find her until 5:30 in the morning. She staggered back to her room and fell asleep immediately—for the first time, she felt that a hospital bed was so comfortable.

At noon, Li Hong was notified that she could complete the discharge procedures, and only then did she get out of bed. Zheng Zhihao told her that Xu Feifei hadn't been discharged today and had remained in her ward. Hearing this news, Li Hong's spirits lifted; the time had finally come.

*********************

Xu Feifei was a beautiful girl. Even in a hospital gown, her stunning figure couldn't be concealed, nor did it diminish her pretty face. She was very good at dressing up and always mindful of her image, even in the hospital. So, when Li Hong saw her, she couldn't help but feel incredibly pathetic as a woman. Fortunately, Xu Feifei didn't notice the strange expression on her face and greeted her with a professional smile.

"You should know me, my name is Li Hong." Li Hong introduced herself first.

"Yes, you're my savior, thank you!" Xu Feifei said sincerely, taking Li Hong's hand. Xu Feifei's voice was very sweet, much more pleasant than the voice Li Hong had heard on the phone before. However, the act of taking her hand made her a little embarrassed. She carefully pulled her hand away and smiled, "It's nothing, how could I just stand by and watch you die? But besides me saving you, don't you remember I called you?"

"Oh, really?" Xu Feifei looked a little surprised. "You know me?"

“We’ve never met before, but I called you on your cell phone before. I’m from the Public Security Bureau, do you remember me?” Li Hong reminded her carefully, afraid that Xu Feifei would reject her again, which would be troublesome.

"Ah... was that you who called?" Xu Feifei's smile froze.

"Yes, it's me." Li Hong quickly smiled and said, "Don't be nervous, okay? I'm just a forensic doctor. I just wanted to ask about a friend of yours. I've been looking for this friend for a long time and finally found you after many twists and turns, so I couldn't wait to call you. I'm very sorry if I startled you."

Hearing Li Hong's words, Xu Feifei didn't know what to say. She glanced into the ward and noticed that the other patients, including their visiting family members, were all looking in their direction, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Her face flushed.

"Hehe, asking you for help is a personal matter; I'm just doing this on someone else's behalf." Seeing the awkward atmosphere, Li Hong said nonchalantly, "Let's go outside and talk."

Xu Feifei nodded and walked towards the door. Li Hong watched her walk with a girlish sway, and couldn't understand how a girl like that could work in a bar for so long.

"Hey, Zheng Zhihao, what do you think of her?" Li Hong followed behind Xu Feifei at a distance and asked in a very low voice.

"What do you mean, how? What aspect are you referring to?" Zheng Zhihao was puzzled by the question.

“Just ask me what your first impression of her was,” Li Hong added.

"My first impression? Hmm, she's a young girl, all sweet and affected," Zheng Zhihao said. "I'm not interested."

“Boss, so what if you’re interested?” Li Hong said. “I just think she’s really ‘feminine,’ a little different from the ordinary girls I’ve met.”

"Good 'woman'?" Zheng Zhihao was a little puzzled. "Oh, I see, you mean she's very feminine, right?"

"Yes, they all give me goosebumps."

“I said, when did you start talking about others behind their backs like this? You weren’t like this before.”

"Just what I felt, just what I felt. Hehe." Li Hong said with a smile.

The two arrived one after the other in a small garden behind the hospital building. The sun was shining brightly, and the weather was lovely. Although it was a bit hot, the tall trees provided dappled shade. Xu Feifei stood by a stone bench on the pebble path, took out a tissue, and carefully wiped the dust off the bench. Li Hong saw that the bench was shiny and clean, and noticed Xu Feifei's hand holding the tissue—her perfectly orchid-like fingers—and frowned. Before Xu Feifei finished wiping, she casually smacked the bench and sat down.

"Oh dear, the stool is very dirty. So many patients sit on it, there must be germs!" Xu Feifei said softly. "Let's wipe it down."

"It's alright, it's alright," Li Hong quickly said. "You can just wipe yours."

Xu Feifei smiled and said, "Okay."

"Ouch~~~~ I'm getting goosebumps again," Li Hong thought. "I really don't know how Liu Yun could stand living with someone like that back then."

After Xu Feifei finished getting ready and sat down, Li Hong smiled politely at her and said, "Although I'm a doctor, I'm not as clean as you, haha."

"Be careful, okay?" Xu Feifei smiled sweetly. "I had a friend who wasn't careful when she was hospitalized and almost caught an infectious disease. This isn't home, it's a hospital."