Tales of Aegiceras: Cave in

20. The Little Boy (1)

Translator: Superbomb

“Zheng!!” Lu Xia suddenly stood up, but he fell to the floor again due to his foot injury. He managed to climb a few steps forward and raised his head.

Sun Zheng was not at the door. There was nobody there!

The door of the archives was still shut tightly.

And there was no blood on the floor.

Sun Zheng was gone! He was the only one in the room now.

Lu Xia stared at the door in a daze. He kept rubbing his eyes, but until they hurt he didn’t see Sun Zheng.

After quite a long time, he came back to his senses and accepted the reality that Sun Zheng had disappeared with something.

He got up with his hand while countless thoughts and guesses crossing his mind. Sun Zheng was taken away by a ghost? Sun Zheng had become a ghost? Sun Zheng ran off himself (but how could he run so fast?)? Sun Zheng… Sun Zheng… Or maybe actually, he had never run into this person, and everything he saw was a part of his illusion?

The more he thought about it, the more restless he became. As he couldn’t find a way out, Lu Xia suddenly lost his composure.

He patted himself on the head. His mind was in a complete mess due to anxiety and panic. “Calm down, Lu Xia! Calm down! He must be somewhere…” he mumbled.

‘Even a world that seems impossible or absurd to us must have its own rules that we can’t understand. So this world here must be the same.’

‘As long as I found the rules, there would be a way to find Sun Zheng.’

Thinking of this, Lu Xia held the chair and slowly got up from the floor. When he sat back in the chair, he saw the envelope on the table again.

“Brother, what would you do if this happened to you?”

In his mind, his brother was still the same as he had been in 2001. He looked so mysterious and he could never see through him.

“Mommy, my brother was up all night!”

When he was young, he always complained to his mother like this. His mother would cover his mouth and hug him in her arms. “Don’t talk nonsense! Your brother is sick. If our neighbors find out about this, they will regard your brother as a monster and drive him away!”

He often hid half of his head under the quilt and secretly looked at his “sick” brother. Lu Xiaoyun would sit by the window with his knees bent, leaning sideways to look at the darkness outside the window.

There was neither moon nor star outside. What was he looking at?

He seemed to be able to see another world at night.

Sometimes, when he woke up at midnight, Lu Xia would find his brother gone.

He had a feeling that his brother was different from ordinary people. Sometimes, his brother looked at other people the way as if he was looking through them at something else.

His mother was very upset about this. Lu Xiaoyun’s teacher came to their house frequently, complaining that Lu Xiaoyun always slept in class, or disrupted the class discipline.

His brother was silent about all this. Lu Xia felt that Lu Xiaoyun had some superpower since he was young and it seemed to him that there were no problems in the world worthy of his attention and effort to solve.

At the thought of this, Lu Xia couldn’t help but smile bitterly. If he had half of his brother’s talent, he wouldn’t have been so helpless. Later on, when he grew up gradually, he vaguely found out some of his brother’s secrets. Out of curiosity, he had read many books in private and followed his brother.

Now Lu Xia regretted that he had never seriously studied such things with Lu Xiaoyun. Perhaps in the past, he was only curious about those ghost stories and had never taken them seriously.

“You’re really useless now…” Lu Xia mocked at himself. His legs still hurt so badly that they couldn’t take him anywhere. Even if he could walk out of the archives room by holding against the wall, there was no way that he could run away once in danger, so if he found Sun Zheng, he would be his burden if something happened.

He recalled the moment when Sun Zheng stared at him with his face contorted with anger. “I shouldn’t have pissed him off…”

Lu Xia leaned back in the chair and took a deep breath. However, the next second, he suddenly sat up and grabbed the torch.

What had Sun Zheng said just now?

There were many employee profiles on the floor, and most of the employees in these documents were either retired or deceased?

He shone the torch on the messy floor. Some of the documents still had Sun Zheng’s footprints on them, and beside them was a stack of files neatly arranged by Sun Zheng.

Lu Xia bent over and picked up that stack of files. He casually flipped through a few pages. Sure enough, Sun Zheng was a man with precision. In such a short period of time, he had already sorted the employee profiles out of other documents and arranged them in an orderly manner. However, from the first page to the last, he only saw the profiles of those who left or died in 2000, 2001, and 2002.

He thought of Sun Zheng’s question again. Did the people in this hospital collate the data regularly? Why were there only employee profiles for this period? He had a feeling that someone had taken them out on purpose. Moreover, there was something wrong with the letter Liu Qunfang received. Why did someone happen to be flipping through her things at this time?

He had a bad feeling. Could it be that Sun Zheng’s disappearance had something to do with this… While pondering, he started reading the files Sun Zheng had put together carefully.

The first page started with employees who had quit in 2000. Apart from basic information and job positions, there was also information about their departure. The last few pages were all about the same as this. In some employee’s personal data also indicated the detailed reason for demission. There was a number in small font at the bottom of each profile, which seemed to be the storage number of important items or reference materials.

The last profile was dated in late 2002.

Lu Xia looked at the torch in his hand, which seemed to have dimmed a little. The battery would run down sooner or later! He frowned and looked back at the documents, feeling something wrong. If someone was deliberately giving out this information, what was he up to?

Lu Xia had no time to think about his surroundings, the hospital, the darkness, and that ‘thing’. He looked at the text on the documents and subconsciously rubbed them.

He flipped through the pages again, counting the employee profiles one by one.

Sure enough… they were storage numbers. A few numbers were missing in the middle. Obviously, these numbers should be sequential, but both 05 and 06 were missing! Moreover, there was no information about Liu Qunfang who had disappeared at the same time.

Lu Xia could finally come to a conclusion with certainty: Not long ago, someone was looking for some information while someone else was trying to hide it deliberately…

What was in the files? And why did someone try to hide it? Whom did he want to hide this information from?

Could it be me?

Though Lu Xia lied to Sun Zheng, he did meet the director of this hospital before coming. The grey-haired Director “Lu” (though his surnamed sounded the same as Lu Xia’s, it was not the same word) greeted him with a smiling face. He said he had never heard of his brother, but it would be great if Lu Xia was willing to come to investigate the dark occurrences that had happened in the hospital.

“I have some notebooks and maps, and there are also some old files in the archives room. If you want, I can provide them at any time… Something happened to Aegiceras Hospital really upset me. Now that it has become a private hospital, it will be more convenient to solve the problem by ourselves. If you can find some clues, of course, that will be great…”

The director specifically mentioned the archives room, and the notebooks and the map were provided by him. As he knew Lu Xia’s plan well, he was very suspicious.

Were they trying to hide something related to Lu Xiaoyun? Did someone take some files away from the stack of documents just now?

At the thought of this, Lu Xia was seized with a pang of rage. He must have been set up! He cursed in a low voice while throwing the stack of documents onto the table.

No wonder he felt that something was wrong! However, that old director must have never expected that Lu Xia was so unlucky that he had already entered the cavern even before he could start a real investigation.

It was not too late!

Lu Xia suddenly felt refreshed and he immediately turned to the box on the table in front of him.

It seemed that they were cleaning out the contents of this box. It was the envelope under the box, which meant that they had just started cleaning out the folder containing Liu Qunfang’s personal information…

He immediately pulled the box to him, as if it would be snatched away at any time.

Most things in the box seemed to have been cleaned out. The best out of the worst, the vital letter was still there. He opened Liu Qunfang’s employee’s card and saw a photo on the last page.

It was a woman in her twenties and a child in the photo. With blunt bangs, the woman tied her hair into a ponytail, looking fresh and tidy. From her resolute eyes and rosy lips curling up slightly, Lu Xia could tell she was very confident.

He compared it with the ID photo on the employee’s card again and was sure this beautiful woman was Liu Qunfang.

The boy next to her had a pair of big eyes shining brightly on his round face and short, soft, dark hair. His slightly pouted small mouth added a touch of childish pride and disdain to him.

Lu Xia turned over the photo and saw a line of crooked words written on its back:

“Auntie Qunfang, ask Dr. Yan and that strange uncle to come to visit me!!”

He was talking in a bossy and coquettish way. From the way he addressed Liu Qunfang, Lu Xia could tell it was that little boy who had written this.

Dr. Yan and that strange uncle?

Someone who had been called a strange uncle… Lu Xia instinctively thought of his brother, Lu Xiaoyun.

If it was Lu Xiaoyun, it meant his brother had once indeed been in this hospital and met Liu Qunfang. Moreover, he must have stayed here for a long time—at least he knew this honest, but overbearing boy.

However, Dr. Yan… Lu Xia grabbed the stack of documents and flipped through them quickly, but he didn’t find any information about anyone whose surname was Yan.

In other words, this doctor might still be working here, or he had already quit his job, but anyway, his employee profile was missing.

Lu Xia’s paranoid personality made him more suspicious. Maybe Dr. Yan was the one who had taken those documents away…

Sun Zheng felt so chilly that he suddenly opened his eyes.

It was so dark. Where was he now?

Just now… a face and a pair of eyes flashed across his mind.

No, impossible… He patted his face with his almost stiff hand until he felt the pain. ‘I’m not dreaming. But… ‘

He sat up slowly and found himself completely wrapped by dark mist, which pressed him so much that he could barely breathe. He suddenly remembered that he was holding a torch.

Pah!

A beam of light shot out from the torch. Unable to adapt to the instant bright light, Sun Zheng blinked a few times before he finally saw clearly his surroundings.

This was… a corridor?

Surrounded by the gloomy fog, he felt the torchlight might go out in the mysterious darkness at any moment. When he stood up in a daze, a gust of wind blew in, which made him feel like a cold chill was running up his spine along his legs. It was so cold that he broke out in a thin layer of sweat.

He didn’t even dare to move.

Without Lu Xia’s cheerful voice, he only felt a deep fear of the strange and mysterious environment.

In the pale torchlight flashing ahead, he found himself almost at the end of the corridor.

What was around the end of the corridor? A staircase leading to an even more mysterious place, or a corridor turning a corner deeper?

Whether it was cold or fear, he couldn’t help but shiver.

What was behind him? He didn’t dare turn around. Lu Xia told him not to look back, or he would get even more scared.

However, the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to look back.

He suddenly heard a rustling sound ringing from behind. It sounded as if something was crawling on the floor slowly, or something was approaching him secretly along the wall.

What was it? He thought nervously. Or perhaps he just had an illusion…

The chilly wind seemed to be seeping into his limbs and bones again and he could only move forward mechanically. He took two steps and was surprised to find himself walking without making a sound!

The aperture on the wall at the end of the corridor became increasingly larger.

For the first time, he felt that it would be great if Lu Xia appeared.

Suddenly, he stopped.

He had reached the end of the corridor! However, there was no staircase or a corner.

Instead, it was a door in front of him.

He looked at the door and couldn’t help but take a step back.

It was a very old and worn-out door, and even the metal handle on it was extremely old and rusty. These things seem to be older even than Aegiceras Hospital. The door was covered with bloodstains, some of which were in large patches as if they had been sprayed on the door and some of which seemed to have seeped out from somewhere, dripping to the floor and forming a long trail of blood.

Apart from the bloodstains, there were also countless irregular scratches on the door. It was hard to tell what had left such imprints. If someone had made them, what was his purpose in doing this? If one took a closer look, he would find that these imprints appeared to be scratches made with fingernails. What a lot of effort it would take to leave these deep scratches on such an old wooden door!

There were also red lines along the doorframe, not neat, but complete. It was hard to tell what these red lines were made of, or with what they had stuck to the doorframe. Anyway, the whole door was completely framed by red lines.

It was just…

Sun Zheng had an urge to turn around and run away, but his attention seemed to be attracted by something and he shifted his gaze to the door once again.

What would be behind the door?

A strange idea suddenly popped into his mind.

He took a step forward curiously.

Suddenly, he heard a faint scratching sound.

Something was scratching the back of the door!

The sound was ethereal, but it was so creepy that Sun Zheng felt like something was scratching his back!

It was clearly a faint sound, but how come he felt something was scratching hard?

What was scratching the door desperately with its fingernails, or its fingertips…

 

Sun Zheng felt his heartbeat thumping. He could clearly feel his own fear, but he was still attracted by the door.

He took another step forward. The imprints on the door and the sound behind it seemed to be driving him on.

He reached out in the darkness and touched the door.

 

Pah!

 

Sun Zheng lowered his hands, standing there blankly.

He shone the torch on the floor and in the light stretching forward, he suddenly found the door disappear. Once again, he saw the familiar and suffocating darkness ahead.

Feeling at loss, Sun Zheng scanned around, flashing the torch in his hand. It seemed he had returned to some long corridor. The undercurrent surged and behind every door and in every crack in the wall there seemed to be a dark secret. At the thought of this, he couldn’t help but grow tense, getting goosebumps all over.

He patted himself on the head, trying to wake himself up. Maybe he was just too scared, and the next second when he looked up again, he might have returned to the door, no, returned to the archives…

However, what was in front of him was still a corridor. Where was the door? How did he get here? How did he get to the door just now?

For no reason, he suddenly thought of the scarlet blood he had seen just now. He felt dizzy, and when he was about to fall, he instinctively held against the wall, managing to regain his balance.

Sun Zheng spent a lot of effort to drive the scene away from his mind. He had to get his mind back into a normal mode and keep his head clear.

If he got too nervous, he would go crazy!

Probably, there were many people who stumbled into the cavern had gone crazy in the darkness and suspicion.

Though Lu Xia did not tell him about this, Sun Zheng had noticed it from his own unstable state of mind.

Lu Xia… If only Lu Xia were here! He couldn’t help but think this again. When did he become so dependent on others? It was because he trusted other people so easily that he was often cheated. What did he say to Lu Xia in anger just now? He would find a way out on his own?

After calming himself down, he decided to find out where he was before he took the next step.

Sun Zheng felt that his back seemed to be leaning against the wall, so he mustered up his courage and turned around.

It wasn’t a wall, but a door, larger than normal. He lifted the torch, and finally saw the signage above it: Operating Room (4).

The operating room? What floor was this? Where was he now?

He felt even more confused. If there was a certain explanation for meeting those strange things, what could he explain when he suddenly found himself standing in front of the mysterious door and then the operating room?

Thinking that the map and the records were still with him, he felt relieved a little. He then pulled out the map from his pocket and unfolded it.

As it was inconvenient to hold the map with one hand and the torch with the other, he had to lean against the wall and slowly find the location of the operating room (4) on the map.

“It’s difficult to do anything alone…” The moment this idea had just popped into his mind, he immediately restrained himself from thinking it again.

He searched the room on the map but couldn’t find it. Moving his sore arm slightly, Sun Zheng got himself together and continued looking for the operating room.

It seemed that all the operating rooms of Aegiceras Hospital had been moved to the new surgery building. Who would build an operating room in this shabby old building? At this moment, his attention was suddenly attracted by the red cross on the map. It had never occurred to him that one of these rooms might be the operating room, so he paid no attention to them just now.

Now he finally made out the words “operating room (4)” marked with a large red cross. Because it was covered in red, it was difficult to recognize it.

He was still on the 3rd floor, but on the other side of the corridor. So the operating room was separated from the archives room by a long corridor.

But what did these red crosses mean?

He suddenly remembered that Lu Xia once mentioned that those rooms marked with a red cross were “ominous”.    Ominous? What would happen if he entered these rooms? Except for the operating room (4), no other operating rooms were in this building. From the handle on the door, he could tell that the room was built long ago. At the thought of this, he suddenly felt a shiver down his spine.