"The old man is calculating with his fingers, guessing that you are now lying in bed reading a novel, probably on your side, with your phone still charging."
Yang Jian, who was currently a senior in high school, was lying under his covers, bored, scrolling through his phone. He casually clicked on a post, which had many replies from netizens below.
"Damn, the OP is a real genius, he even guessed that right."
"Haha, should I tell you all that I'm currently squatting in the toilet? And yes, my legs are numb."
"If you get a tattoo, make it say 'Mr. Zhou' so you'll never be a working man again."
"Society, man, society."
Yang Jian closed the post and opened another one with a high click rate. The opening sentence read:
"I'm a doctor at the Third People's Hospital of a certain province. Let me tell you something, something very terrifying happened at our hospital recently. I'm so scared that I don't even dare to go to work anymore and am taking a leave of absence at home."
"Say no more, I'm not buying shoes, nor will I add you on WeChat."
"The OP must have been involved in a medical dispute. If not, I'll eat shit and die."
"Quick, look! Third Floor is trying to scam us again."
Feeling the replies were a bit dull, Yang Jian clicked "only view OP's posts."
Immediately, the thread became cleaner, leaving only the posts by the self-proclaimed doctor, whose online name was "Thunder King."
The post continued: "So, here's what happened. Last week, it was my turn to take the night shift. At around midnight, an ambulance brought in an old man. The paramedics on the ambulance said the old man had fallen from the fifth floor. At the time, my colleague had an emergency, and I was the only one responsible for the diagnosis. I was 100% sure that the old man had no signs of life and was already dead.
"Moreover, from the state of the body and the temperature of his chest, I could determine that the old man absolutely could not have fallen to his death that night."
"Anyone with a bit of common sense knows that within ten hours after death, at normal room temperature, the body temperature drops about one degree per hour. After 24 hours, the body temperature would approach the surrounding environment. But in my judgment, the old man's body temperature was at least ten degrees lower than normal, maybe even more. At that time, the outside temperature was twenty-two degrees.
"I immediately judged that the old man had been dead for more than a day."
Right away, netizens began to comment:
"OP's 'a bit of common sense' is really terrifying. I kneel before you, great one."
"Quick, check if the patient's shoes fell off. If not, there's still a chance to save him."
"Chilling to the bone, OP, keep going. I've already hidden under my blanket."
Yang Jian continued to scroll:
Thunder King continued to post: "With my experience of watching over 300 episodes of detective cartoons in junior high school, I could immediately deduce that this old man didn't accidentally fall to his death but was probably murdered. The body must have been stored in a freezer. I decided to call the police and reported the situation to them.
"But what I want to talk about is not that, but what happened afterward."
The post paused and updated two hours later.
"Sorry, someone knocked on my door just now, asking about that incident. But they weren't the police, nor did they look like reporters. But they had some kind of government ID, said they were detectives. Anyway, forget it.
"It must have been around the next morning.
"I hadn't gone to work yet, but my colleagues said that the old man's body, which had been brought in the night before, had mysteriously disappeared from the morgue. The police were conducting a thorough investigation, suspecting that the killer had stolen the body. There was a lot of commotion; they even checked all the hospital's surveillance footage. But in the end, they couldn't find the old man's body, nor the culprit.
"I'm on the night shift again tonight...
"But the events of the day left me a bit uneasy. A patient in the hospital said he had seen the old man's body, but it wasn't being carried out; it was walking out on its own. The patient even accurately pointed out the path the old man took, which indeed led out from the direction of the morgue.
"When I heard this, I was a little scared, but luckily I'm an atheist and didn't fully believe what the patient said.
"Later, I heard that Dr. Fang from the neurology department was going to increase that patient's medication, which made me feel a bit more at ease.
"After all, not believing that patient's words was the right choice…
"But what I want to talk about is what happened during my night shift that evening.
"It should have been around 2 AM. I was in the emergency room, playing a mobile game. You guys can't imagine how fun that game is. If you're a brother, come and slash me..."
"Damn, OP, you're really something."
"What about the sincerity between people? You caught me off guard with that trick."
"Society, society. I guessed the beginning but didn't guess the end. But what I want to know is, Third Floor, where's the shit you said you'd eat?"
A bunch of netizens chimed in, making the forum lively.
Yang Jian was lying under the blanket, a bit amused. Have ads become this clever now?
But as he scrolled further, something felt off.
Thunder King continued posting: "Sorry, sorry, I'm really not advertising. But something truly inexplicable and supernatural happened that night. You guys could never imagine it. At exactly 2:15 AM, while I was playing the game in the emergency room, I suddenly felt a chill, just like the one from the morgue. My skin was covered in goosebumps.
"And guess what happened next?
"The old man who had disappeared from the morgue yesterday somehow appeared outside the emergency room. He wasn't dead but was walking very slowly, step by step, out of the hospital.
"My God, this is impossible. I personally confirmed that the old man was dead, and not just for one day. How could he come back to life?
"A prank? Reanimation? A medical miracle?
"At that moment, a lot of thoughts crossed my mind. But perhaps because I was used to dealing with dead bodies, I wasn't that scared. My first reaction was to take out my phone and snap a photo, planning to post it on my social media.
"Here's the picture. With evidence, I swear it's not Photoshopped."
Yang Jian scrolled down, and a photo immediately appeared on the screen.
The photo was not blurry. On the contrary, it was very clear. In the photo, through the glass window of the emergency room, an old man was seen walking by outside.
The old man was wearing a black one-piece long robe, with a bit of a retro feel. His whole body was thin, with brownish skin covered in spots. And from the angle of the shot, you could see one of the old man's eyes. It was an eye that looked... dead gray, hollow, devoid of any spirit, filled with a terrifying lifelessness.
There was nothing gory or horrifying about the scene in the photo, but the aura the old man exuded was enough to make anyone's hair stand on end and feel a chill down their spine.
And remembering that this doctor named Thunder King had clearly stated that this old man was once a cold corpse made the fear even more palpable.
The more you looked at the photo, the more unsettling it became.
It was like looking at a dead person, or rather... a ghost.
"I'm scared to death, this picture is terrifying. The more I look at it, the more frightened I become. OP, where did you find this photo?"
"Why are there so many spots on the old man's hands? I have trypophobia."
"Those are corpse spots, which means this old man is already a dead body."
"Hey, evil spirits, begone! I, Lam Ching-ying, am here." A netizen posted a picture of a Taoist priest.
"Bah, you're no Lam Ching-ying; I'm a loli voice actress."
But no matter how the netizens commented, Thunder King continued to post: "The picture is real; I took it myself. Later, the old man just walked out of the hospital. I don't know where he went. But if any of you are in the same city as me, be careful. Although I'm an atheist, there are some things I have to believe in.
"Wait, someone's knocking at my door again. I think it's the police coming to take my statement. I'll be right back to tell you what happened next."
But within less than a minute, Thunder King posted again: "Damn it, damn it, it's that old man who escaped from the hospital. That thing is standing at my door, knocking. I saw it clearly through the peephole. What do I do now? I think I've gotten involved with something I shouldn't have."
"OP, are you having fun pulling our legs?"
"Damn, is this for real? It can't be this spooky."
"Call the police immediately, hurry, dial 110."
"OP, stop faking it. If it's real, I'll eat shit and double it."
"It's you again, Shit-Eating Boy. You haven't even fulfilled your last bet."
But Thunder King
4o