After being poisoned by mushrooms, all the strange creatures became fascinated by me.

The faded sign on the door reads: Ward 4.

The key -104 was inserted into the lock, the door opened, and Tang Li traveled through time and space into a brand new world.

The girl opened the door with her key.

Her hands were trembling. Why?

Tang Li, Tang Li, what's inside the door? A tiny voice asked in her heart, "Is there someone named Gu Xiaoying?" Door, oh door, is it a monster or a person locked inside?

Tang Li, Tang Li, what did you hear?

Like the breath of a dying person, like the sound of blood gushing out when a blood vessel is cut, like the wind blowing through ears of wheat, like a sob of pain, like a teacup falling on a wooden tea tray.

Tang Li, Tang Li, what did you see?

Tang Li, who had kept her eyes tightly closed, suddenly opened them. On the hospital bed lay a writhing mass of flesh and blood, wrapped in tentacled shadows. She stared at it for a while, and after a long time, she could barely make out a small, childlike human figure.

Is that you, Gu Xiaoying?

The girl's eyes stung, and Tang Li burst into tears.

A soft, gentle voice sighed in her heart: Let's go, Tang Li, let's go!

The girl stepped forward, reached out her hand, and Tang Li gently touched the child's face, whose features were indistinct: "Let's go, let's go together."

The girl said, "Let's go home."

A tiny, whispering voice cried out in her heart: Go! Go! Don't worry about him!

The girl picked up the child, and a light, floating mass of flesh and blood fell into Tang Li's arms. Just as they stepped out the door, an overwhelming alarm sounded.

Go! Leave him behind! Go!

The girl ran forward, and Tang Li hugged the child tightly, while the sound of chasing footsteps came from behind.

The child in her arms struggled to wake up: "Nannan, Nannan! Throw me away!"

A voice inside my heart is crying out: Abandon him! Please! Abandon him!

The girl said: No.

Tang Li said, "No."

The moment the girl was caught, Tang Li turned around.

—I remembered that face.

Then everything vanishes, returning to reality, returning to this moment.

In the dusty ward number four, a yellowed sheet covered the rusty bed. Large patches of old bloodstains on the sheet resembled bunches of dried rose petals with a rusty smell, surrounding the person sleeping in the middle of the bed.

Tang Li came down from the eighth floor and then lay down on the bed and fell asleep.

The IV tubing moved automatically without any airflow, trying to wrap around Tang Li's neck. The scalpel, eager to strike, was already aimed at Tang Li's heart.

The comments were right; the world of the Red Clues is fraught with danger.

But a shadow silently crushed them.

A small figure appeared at the doorway and gradually approached; it was Gu Xiaoying, who had followed Tang Li here.

He looked down at Tang Li; a child's eyes could not possibly hold so much sorrow.

"Why?" he asked helplessly. "Why, one after another, do they die for me?"

He took the key off Tang Li's neck.

"What should I do? What should I do with you all?"

"I've already hurt Nannan, Tang Li, I don't want to hurt you too."

the next day.

When Tang Li woke up, it was already broad daylight.

Tang Li stood up and turned around unintentionally, almost stumbling in fright.

The freshly changed sheets, which were snow-white before I went to bed, now have a gray, lifeless human figure clearly imprinted on them!

What's wrong? Tang Li frantically tugged at her filthy hospital gown. "I only wore it for one day. What happened? Did I sleepwalk and roll around in a garbage dump last night?"

The live stream started simultaneously with Tang Li opening her eyes:

"Good morning, streamer. Nobody's better than you." "Streamer, are you clueless about today too?" "Hilarious! Streamer discovered they're dirty overnight." "Didn't watch the live stream last night? What happened to the streamer?" "The streamer slept in an abandoned hospital ward last night and is completely unharmed." "Streamer's awesome!"

"How did the anchor get back?" "The child carried her back with strange difficulty." "???" "He even brought her back and filled a basin with water to wipe her feet, his expression as kind as a grandfather to his granddaughter..." "Unbelievable, it's so creepy."

Tang Li washed her face, tidied her stray hairs in front of the mirror, and then suddenly stopped.

A red mark was visible from the upper edge of the collar of her hospital gown.

Tang Li pulled her collar down a little, revealing a clear red mark on her neck—a key pattern.

The toothbrush cup, just filled with water, slipped from my hand and fell into the sink, splashing water everywhere.

The chaotic, swaying scene flashed through Tang Li's mind. Amidst the dull ache in her temples, she remembered a dream she had last night.

She seemed to have entered Nannan's body, being chased alongside Nannan, with endless villains behind them, and their precious possessions that they refused to give up in their arms.

In the end, Nannan was grabbed by the hair, by...who?

Who harmed Nannan?

A hideous face suddenly appeared in her mind.

Tang Li stumbled out of the bathroom. There was no paper or pen in the ward, so she grabbed a dirty bed sheet and used it as a canvas. With a few strokes, she sketched a human figure.

She was tall with gray hair, a wrinkled face, and a dark purple mole between her eyebrows. Her eyes were deep-set, her nose was hooked, and there were two deep nasolabial folds on either side of her philtrum. Her lips were chapped, with a short, light-colored mustache covering them.

Even in the heat of the chase, running breathlessly, she remained serious and intimidating, like a rigid and stern old nun in a Western novel.

But the moment she grabbed Nannan's hair, she couldn't maintain her solemn composure and burst into uncontrollable laughter, like a hunter who had been hunting for three days and was starving finally catching up with her prey. Nannan struggled in her grasp, and she held her hair like a hunter gripping a rabbit's ear. The woman laughed wildly and slammed Nannan's head against the wall again and again.

It hurts. It hurts. It hurts.

Tang Li's fingernails dug deeply into her palm.

Nannan was in pain, but Tang Li was not. Tang Li turned her head with all her might and remembered her face.

Tang Li looked down at the woman's face on the bed sheet and asked herself, "Tang Li, do you believe this is just a dream?"

How do you explain the filth all over your body, the clear images on the sheets, and the burning anger in your heart?

Who exactly is this woman?

"Knock knock knock".

A knock came at the door.

A woman stood outside the door. She was tall, with gray hair, a wrinkled face, and deep nasolabial folds on either side of her philtrum.

Tang Li's gaze slowly moved upwards.

"I heard you accidentally soiled the sheets and need some bedding changed?"

The woman asked with a beaming smile.

There was a purplish-black mole in the middle of her forehead.