Chapter 1: Do Not Burn Me!

Scooping up a handful of water, Zhou Ze slowly lifted his head and gazed at his reflection in the mirror. The weariness on his face seemed almost a staple for an emergency room doctor. "Doctor Zhou, there's a new patient coming in, seems like they fell from an upper floor. Not sure if it was a suicide attempt," Nurse Wang Ya called out from the doorway of the men's restroom. "Got it, I'll be right there," Zhou Ze replied, wiping his face dry with a paper towel before heading out.

The ambulance arrived swiftly at the hospital, carrying an elderly man dressed in a grey traditional Chinese suit on the stretcher. The man coughed continuously, spitting out blood and fragments of his spleen, his body covered in bloodstains. Zhou Ze rushed over, pushing the stretcher while assessing the patient's condition, and shouted to the team, "Get the surgical instruments ready, fast!"

The patient was in critical condition. "I... I... don't want to die," the elderly man said, his eyes fixated on Zhou Ze, the closest person to him. "Don't worry, you'll be fine. We're here to help. You won't die," Zhou Ze reassured him. Most patients in critical condition would say something like this. It's rare for someone to face death calmly. As a doctor, now wasn't the time to analyze the odds of survival. What the patient needed most was comfort.

"No... no... below... it's too terrifying," the elderly man suddenly gripped Zhou Ze's wrist, his expression grave. "Try to relax, your life is not in danger," Zhou Ze said, trying to soothe him despite the pain in his wrist.

"I don't want to... go back down there... they... they found me... they discovered me..." the elderly man stammered.

Suddenly, Zhou Ze felt a sharp pain in his wrist. "Doctor Zhou, your hand!" a nurse nearby exclaimed. The elderly man's nails were long and, for some reason, black like translucent amber, not as if dirt was embedded within them. Now, his nails had pierced into Zhou Ze's flesh.

"I'm not going back... not going back... haha... cough, cough, cough..." The elderly man suddenly sat up, coughing violently, and then, his body shuddered, his grip loosened, and he became still.

"Prepare for resuscitation!" Zhou Ze called out. The patient was rushed into the emergency room, where doctors and nurses began life-saving measures, including readying a defibrillator.

"Doctor Zhou, let me take care of that wound," Wang Ya approached him. For doctors, a superficial wound was the least of their worries. They were more concerned about potential exposure to diseases, especially since the elderly man's blood was on Zhou Ze's hand, and it was unclear if he had any infectious diseases. Some diseases, once contracted, could ruin one's life.

After the wound was dressed, another doctor emerged from the emergency room, shaking his head at Zhou Ze, indicating the patient did not survive. The mood was somber, but for them, death was a familiar part of their job, and they would soon recover.

"Doctor Zhou, you should get checked," Wang Ya suggested. "No, I have some things to take care of tonight," Zhou Ze declined, heading to the locker room to change before leaving the hospital.

As Zhou Ze's car entered the underpass of Jianghai Avenue, his phone rang. "Hello, this is Zhou Ze." "Doctor Zhou, the children are waiting for you," the voice on the other end said. "Sorry, Principal Wu, I got held up by a patient. I'm on my way now. Please tell the kids to wait a little longer."

"Okay, okay," the call ended quickly. Zhou Ze glanced at the time; it was already 8:30 PM. The children at the orphanage usually went to bed early. As the traffic light turned green, he stepped on the accelerator.

Suddenly, a truck ran a red light and headed straight for him. Zhou Ze only had time to glance at the glaring headlights before the collision sent his car flying, tumbling several times in the air before crashing to the ground.

Zhou Ze woke up, unable to move, trapped in the wreckage. He tried to open his eyes and move, but couldn't. Surrounded by the sounds of passing vehicles and emergency sirens, he wondered if he was still at the accident scene, inside the car.

Soon, the familiar sound of an ambulance approached. Zhou Ze felt his body being moved, likely to extricate him from the car. He had been part of many rescue operations and knew the procedure well. Unfortunately, the cake he had in his car for the orphanage's Children's Day celebration was now ruined.

"Doctor Zhou!" A familiar voice called out, likely Doctor Chen from the hospital. Zhou Ze felt a wave of relief; at least he had survived what seemed like a freak accident. However, Doctor Chen's next words plunged him into despair: "Doctor Zhou has lost vital signs."

No, I'm not dead! I haven't died! I'm still alive! Zhou Ze screamed internally. He sensed attempts at resuscitation, the heavy compressions on his chest. He wasn't dead; he wanted them to realize he was still alive.

But after a frantic effort, familiar voices of nurses crying and Doctor Chen's grief-stricken punch on a car door filled the air. They had given up, convinced he had died. Dead people shouldn't be able to hear or feel, right? Zhou Ze raged internally. They had declared him dead too soon.

He felt his body being lifted onto a stretcher, then a hushed silence enveloped him, a chilling indication of where he was – the hospital's morgue.

When Zhou Ze "awoke" again, he was being prepared for his own memorial service. Despite his internal screams and protestations, no one could hear or sense his plight. They believed he was dead, but he knew he was still alive.

The despair deepened as he was transported to the crematorium, the finality of being mistaken for dead becoming a terrifying reality. "Don't cremate me! I'm not dead!" he screamed internally, but to no avail.

Then, a small voice pierced through the despair, a little girl claiming she saw his hand move. But her observation was quickly dismissed and punished by her mother. Zhou Ze's heart sank as his silent pleas went unheard, his body advancing towards the cremation chamber.

As he felt the spray of liquid – presumably fuel – and the imminent threat of fire, Zhou Ze's mind raced with fear and desperation. This was his final moment, unless a miracle happened, unless someone noticed he was still alive.

This harrowing chapter concludes with Zhou Ze trapped in a horrifying situation, his fate hanging by a thread, a poignant reminder of the fragility of life and the precipice between life and death.