Having devoted myself to guiding souls, I was surrounded by them after my death.

"Zhang Yan? The severely burned patient in room 404?"

Chen Shi noticed something amiss, flipped through his notebook, and the pages rustled.

[2 month 1 day]

My husband is always so thoughtful. Today is our wedding anniversary, and he took half a day off to fill the living room with flowers and balloons, and bought a cake to wait for me at home.

Although this way of celebrating is a bit old-fashioned, not all men understand romance.

He loves me, that's enough.

……

[2 month 3 day]

I went to the night market tonight and accidentally got separated from my husband again.

[But it's okay. He told me that if I get lost or miss him, I should clap my hands, and he'll hear me and come looking for me.]

[Actually, he gave me a high-end watch. You can activate location services by clapping your hands, and then he can see the notification and come find me.]

Sure enough, I clapped my hands, and he found me within 3 minutes!

The middle pages were all burned...

[2 month 10 day]

[In the middle of the night, my husband suddenly said he had a stomachache. I initially thought he just had food poisoning, but he was crying out in pain, so just to be on the safe side, I took him to the hospital.]

The doctor diagnosed it as pancreatitis?

I don't know much about it, but they said I need to be hospitalized.

Sigh, he works overtime day and night for our family. When will this man learn to take better care of himself?

Forget it, I'd be lucky if he could even learn it. Let me take good care of him.

I hope he can be discharged from the hospital soon.

……

[2 month 13 day]

He really spoils me. Whenever I'm at home and want something like fruit but am too lazy to move, I just clap my hands and he'll come and ask me what I want.

He's been away from home these past few days, and I keep clapping my hands for myself, only to remember he's still in the hospital.

Fortunately, the doctor informed me that my husband can be discharged the day after tomorrow.

I won't write much today, I need to go prepare a discharge gift for my husband~

……

[2 month 20 day]

Are you kidding me?

So much has happened these past few days, I haven't been in the mood to write in my notes.

[Those doctors, suddenly telling me my husband is dead?]

[It was clearly just pancreatitis, and he was supposed to be discharged on the 15th, but on the 14th, without any warning, I was told he died!?]

[This is murder, how could it happen so suddenly?]

I won't let that unscrupulous hospital get away with this; I'll pursue the matter through legal channels! Darling, I will definitely get justice for you.

On this page, there are burn marks on the corners of the paper, but the rest of the page is mostly watermarks.

Drops of water.

Water stains covered the entire page of notes, as if the writer was crying as they wrote.

[2 month 25 day]

This is absolutely outrageous...

I asked the hospital to put my husband in the morgue; I want to verify this.

[Without my knowledge, those beasts actually cremated my husband!]

They told me they picked up the wrong person?

[Are you kidding me! Don't they even check a person's face before cremation? Do they think I'm a child who's so easy to fool?]

These beasts...

On this page, there were no tear stains on the paper, but the handwriting was even more crooked, and the paper was torn several times, as if the words were carved on stroke by stroke by the pen.

The next page has no date.

Honey, didn't you say that if I got lost, I could find you by clapping my hands?

I've been clapping my hands these past few days, but I can't find you.

……

【Wait, I'm going to burn that hospital down right now!】

They thought they could deceive heaven and earth; they thought the dead couldn't speak...

It's okay, I can talk.

Darling, wait for me.

I'll bring those beasts down with me to keep you company right away.

Once we get down there, I'll clap my hands, and then you'll find me.

The diary abruptly ended.

No, it was the crooked, ugly characters that came to an abrupt end.

On the last page of the diary, there was a neat row of red text:

She finally broke down in tears.

Chen Shi closed his notebook and fell into deep thought.

"Oh my god." Su Yining's voice suddenly came from beside him, startling him.

"Senior, can't you make some noise when you walk? It's scary."

Chen Shi had wanted to say this for a long time: Su Yining was elusive, appearing and disappearing without a trace, walking silently. Normally it was alright, but in a gloomy place like the Ling Cage, she was truly terrifying.

"What can I do? Ghosts walk silently."

Su Yining pouted and stomped her foot hard, but didn't make a sound.

"Speaking of which, was this notebook dropped by that woman?" She stared at the notebook thoughtfully.

"Yes."

Chen Shi began to think.

Based on the content, these notes were written by Zhang Yan.

Zhang Yan was a burn patient in ward 404. Could it be that she wanted to set fire to the hospital to avenge her husband's death, but failed and was rescued and has been receiving treatment in this hospital ever since?

This confirms what the receptionist nurse said... "Someone set fire to the hospital before, so we started strictly verifying identities."

But why did the notebook fall from the weeping woman?

The last sentence—"She finally broke her heart in tears"—does indeed fit the description of a weeping woman.

But there's still one more thing.

"Why is the handwriting on the last sentence different from the handwriting on the notebook?" Su Yining also noticed.

The entire notebook is filled with crooked and messy handwriting; to put it bluntly, the handwriting is ugly.

But the last sentence is very well-structured.

There's only one possibility...

"To exorcise a malevolent spirit, you need to do two things: find the spirit's true form and analyze its cause of death. The spirit cage will provide clues about the spirit's cause of death."

Chen Shi said:

"The entire notebook and the last sentence do not imply the same thing."

"you say……"

Su Yining narrowed her eyes slightly and pouted. If she had a pipe in her mouth, she would really look like Sherlock Holmes.

"No matter how you look at it, the cause of death was burning, right?"

She muttered to herself:

“Zhang Yan set fire to the hospital, so there must have been deaths. But Zhang Yan was lying in room 404, so the deceased couldn’t be her. Could it be the doctor she set on fire?”

Su Yining recalled the academy rules and said:

"Think about it, doesn't the hospital rules mention it? What's the number again? 'What the head nurse says is all lies, don't believe her'... Obviously, there's another head nurse in this birdcage, but she's been hiding and hasn't shown herself. Isn't that suspicious?"

"Senior, it's Ling Cage."

Chen Shi's eyebrows twitched, but upon closer reflection, he realized that Su Yining's words did indeed make sense.

The head nurse mentioned in the rules has not appeared, and the "crying woman" just now, whoever she is, could be so easily suppressed and dropped clues, so she is definitely not the real person.

Given the environment of Ling Cage... the evil spirit is the head nurse, and the probability of her being burned to death is indeed very high.

"However, there is an even bolder possibility."

Chen Shi looked at room 404 and said:

"Senior, do you remember the clapping that suddenly appeared after we approached Zhang Yan?"

“I remember, and the old man said that there would be laughter and clapping in ward 404 at night.”

Su Yining seemed to realize something, and her crimson eyes lit up, like jewels gleaming.

The two said at the same time:

"Zhang Yan's husband!"

Su Yining tapped her hand: "Zhang Yan's husband died unjustly, so her resentment must be huge, especially since it's right here in this hospital."

Chen Shi nodded: "The clapping sound only occurs when you get close to Zhang Yan, which is very likely the evil spirit of her husband guarding her."

"But will the evil spirit really act according to its emotions from its previous life?" Su Yining tilted her head.

"And then there are those with a talent like you, senior, anything is possible."

"Too."

Currently, there are two most likely possibilities.

The vengeful spirit is either the head nurse who was burned to death, or Zhang Yan's husband who was wrongfully cremated.

"We need to find a way to probe with the head nurse."

Just as Chen Shi was pondering, suddenly...

"Snapped!"

The lights in the corridor suddenly went out.

Chen Shi looked at the wall clock; the hands had already reached exactly 12:00.

"Is it evening?"

His heart tightened, and Su Yining's expression also became serious.

[Hospital Rule 1: Please stay in your ward and do not leave between 12:00 and 8:00]

"Tap...tap..."

As the clock struck midnight, footsteps suddenly came from around the corner of the corridor, and a tall, ghostly figure slowly emerged from behind the corridor.

Something is coming this way!

Chapter 25 Utilizing the Rules