Chapter 9 Duty

The outpatient building and the inpatient building were connected by a corridor bridge. Dai Lin happened to be on duty in the inpatient department tonight, so he came over as well.

Upon entering the inpatient building, the place was shrouded in silence.

The inpatient department was much like the outpatient building, where everywhere you went was purely white.

Gao Heyan had told him that the hospital itself was a sterile environment comparable to an operating room, where any bacteria or viruses from humans would automatically decompose and disappear within the hospital's atmosphere, only persisting within the human body. Therefore, the hospital didn't need to be disinfected at all.

Just at that moment, Dai Lin suddenly felt a strong will passing through his left eye. It urged him to stay in the inpatient department tonight!

Especially… to stay on the floor where Lin Yan was staying!

That feeling was like the biological craving for nourishment, even capable of influencing Dai Lin's willpower.

He didn't know the reason for it.

Before long, Lin Yan was quickly arranged by Gao Heyan to a three-person ward on the fifth floor.

Gao Heyan reminded Lin Yan, "If a ghost appears by your side, immediately press the call button on the bed, and a nurse will come right away."

"They can fight off the ghosts, right?"

"They can ensure your safety."

"But what if I fall asleep?"

"You can sleep with ease. The hospital has multiple checks in place to intercept ghosts before they enter the wards, and if they can't be stopped, the noise will be enough to wake you up."

"Well, that's good," Lin Yan breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It's good that I live alone and don't need to inform any relatives..."

After all, mobile phones inside the hospital automatically shut down and cannot be turned on.

Saying this, she looked out the window of the inpatient building.

It was an incredibly deep darkness, utterly obscure.

Does this hospital really exist in a space separate from any dimension?

Gao Heyan and Dai Lin left the ward.

"You should go on duty now. After the implantation of the curse object, we won't feel tired as long as we don't wish to sleep," Gao Heyan said, looking thoughtfully at Dai Lin. He asked, "How do you feel about today?"

Dai Lin, however, gave a non-responsive answer, "You haven't been hiding anything about Miss Lin's condition, have you?"

Gao Heyan replied, "I'm a doctor, not a deity. I can only say that her situation is very bad, and I can't make a definitive diagnosis just with auscultation."

"Resentful Spirits or Malevolent Ghosts, the prognosis varies greatly, right?"

"If diagnosed with a Malevolent Ghost curse, the prognosis is very poor. It's like calculating the five-year survival rate for cancer, but with a Malevolent Ghost curse, we calculate the one-year survival rate. There's no kind of doctor who can kill a ghost. The key will be tomorrow's examination."

After a moment, Dai Lin said, "Then, could I possibly take the night shift on this floor? I could just find someone to switch with me. I'm not very at ease about Miss Lin's condition."

Gao Heyan looked surprised and said, "It's not impossible. However, as a doctor, you shouldn't develop too much of a special emotional attachment to a patient; it can easily affect professional judgment."

"Miss Lin was brought to the hospital by me, I still want to take responsibility for her."

"If that's the case, then suit yourself,"

At this moment, the two of them had just arrived at the nurse station on the fifth floor.

"Great. I'll check for you who's on duty tonight… I'm sure there will be someone willing to swap shifts with you."

Dai Lin had suggested taking a shift in the inpatient department mainly because his eyes had given him a strong hint: Stay here tonight! And by doing so, his eyes could evolve!

Of course, this would come with risks.

But as a doctor, Dai Lin never shied away from danger easily.

For the patients, and for himself!

When the great earthquake struck the southwestern region, the hospital summoned surgeons to go there. There were a large number of injured, many still buried under the rubble. However, the possibility of aftershocks and an outbreak of infectious diseases due to the abundance of corpses meant entering the disaster area was fraught with great danger. Without hesitation, Dai Lin volunteered to go.

Now, he would not hesitate either!

The ghostly eyes implanted in Dai Lin both had a deep and shadowy inner space, and he was currently unable to fully master the ability of these eyes.

Humans can't kill ghosts. Hence, they can only contend with them using cursed objects and seal ghosts away. And the things that seal ghosts are those cursed objects.

Cursed objects allow people to balance with ghosts to a certain extent, giving humans the capability to treat patients afflicted by curses.

His right ghostly eye could currently seal a part of a ghost inside and devour and absorb it, thereby becoming part of the cursed object, with a certain chance to seize the ghost's abilities and memories from its life. For instance, he had almost entirely acquired Old Zhang's memories from his life, learning that his son didn't visit him because the son was hoping for his early death to inherit the family property.

This meant that his eyes were a cursed object with strong potential for growth. However, at the moment, Dai Lin could only barely use the right eye's ability, and sealing a ghost was no simple task.

As for his left eye… Dai Lin was still exploring its abilities. At present, he was more passively receiving information provided to him by the left eye. Thus, when he first saw Lin Yan, he knew through the left eye that she was entangled in a severe curse, prompting him to give her Gao Heyan's business card.

"Lu Yuan, you'll be swapping shifts with Dai Lin tonight,"

Inside the office of the inpatient department, under Gao Heyan's arrangement, Dai Lin swapped shifts with a young resident doctor named Lu Yuan who wore glasses.

"Are you the only intern doctor recruited this quarter?" Lu Yuan gave Dai Lin a look, "You don't think this floor will be any easier, do you? There's not much difference in ordinary wards, but the intensive care rooms upstairs, that's the real hell. Well, I don't mind either way."

And so, Dai Lin took the seat where Lu Yuan had sat before.

This office was the necessary passage to the patient wards.

At the same time, it was an important checkpoint guarding the safety of patients' lives.

Inside the duty room of the inpatient department, there were roughly a dozen doctors, two of whom were attending physicians, and the rest were resident physicians.

Chief physicians, associate chief physicians… they were all stationed in the intensive care rooms upstairs.

"Don't be too nervous."

After Gao Heyan left, a man with somewhat disheveled hair sat down in front of Dai Lin and said, "Every night, some ghosts drift into the inpatient department, but not many can reach us here; most are stopped over by the nurse station."

Yet, through the information brought by his left eye, Dai Lin was certain... tonight would not be calm.

Dai Lin saw that the man had a rather familiar disposition, so he glanced at his name badge - the man was named Zhao She, and he was an attending physician in the Evil Ghost Department.