Room 308 of Third General Hospital already had rumors of being haunted, and a new tale was added to its repertoire recently. It was said that one late night, a doctor on s.h.i.+ft suddenly entered the room which had been left unused for a long time. He had turned on the lights, and stayed there for a long time before switching off the lights and coming out. 20 minutes later, a nurse went in, and turned on the lights for five minutes before coming out. But when the two were questioned about what happened, they could not remember what they did, as if they had been sleepwalking.

Apparently this incident was even reported to the hospital chief, and he quietly hired a master to take a look. The master said that this was a case of a deity seeking medical help, and not only was it nothing, it was a good thing, as this helped build up good karma. This was also an acknowledgement of the hospital staff's skills that they were being 'invited' to help.

Moreover, soon after, the rumours of ghostly encounters at room 308 gradually faded away.

—

One day on his way out of the office, Chi Yan saw a security guard holding a old man back. Well technically not an old man, but rather a middle-aged man in his 50s or 60s. He was wearing a traditional grey cloth top and pants, and clutching a brown paper bag to his chest, looking very anxious. Suddenly infused with a desire to help, Chi Yan went up and asked if there was anything he could help with.

Security guards were all polite to employees, and he explained that the old man wanted to go into the building to photocopy something, but since this was a private office building, he had pointed him to a photocopy shop and was just trying to explain the directions when Chi Yan approached them.

Chi Yan guessed that the old man came from the nearby hospital, and wondered if he had brought a family member here to receive treatment and now needed to photocopy doc.u.ments needed for the hospital registration. He vaguely recalled seeing two photocopy shops near the hospital.

While it's already after five, it was still hot and humid in the summer heat of July. As Chi Yan looked at the old man's sweat dotted forehead, he thought of his grandparents who had raised him. The shop was nearby, but the route there was complicated and was not easy to explain. Ye Yingchi said that there was still leftover ribs from yesterday, so he didn't have to go grocery shopping. Chi Yan decided to help the old man, 'Uncle, I know of a shop five minutes walk away. Let me show you the way there.'

Chi Yan led the way, and the old man followed behind him. At the beginning, he continued thanking Chi Yan profusely along the way, but after a while, he quietened down as they walked on. However, Chi Yan could feel his measuring gaze on him.

Chi Yan tried to break the awkwardness with a conversation, 'Uncle, why are you so anxious?'

'To save a life,' the old man answered briefly, and didn't take his eyes away from Chi Yan.

Chi Yan felt uneasy being watched, and didn't know what else to ask. At last, they arrived at the stationary shop. But when the old man took out the doc.u.ments from the file, they were not birth certificates or medical records, instead it was a stack of Eight Trigrams talismans or something of that sort.

The old man told the staff, ' Please print five A4 copies of each page. SIngle page please.' He sounded experienced at giving such instructions.

It dawned on Chi Yan that the old man wasn't the regular anxious family member of a sickly patient, and sort of regretted being a busybody. He was about to take the chance to leave, when the old man, who was staring at his chest, turned and said to him, 'Young man, I don't know whether I should ask, but why are you carrying someone else's ashes with you?'

Chi Yan felt spooked at the words 'someone else's ashes', and had zero idea what he was talking about.

He didn't respond, and said, 'Alright, you carry on, I'll be going.'  Chi Yan turned to get out of the shop.

The old man stopped him, ' Wait, let me ask another question. Are you living alone?'

Keeping his patience, Chi Yan replied curtly, 'No.'  He was regretting taking this strange old man along with him.

He heard stories of human traffickers who try to lure girls by pretending to ask for directions, but their main target were usually single young ladies. Chi Yan didn't fit the criteria, but he felt something was wrong.

The old man heard the distrust and impatience in Chi Yan's voice and sighed. He handed him a name card, 'I'm not trying to interfere, but young man, you are unaware that you are in deep danger. I hope it is not what i think it is. I'm busy today, so you'll have to go check it out yourself. Come look for me if you have any questions.'

In a rush to get away, Chi Yan carelessly threw the card into his bag and left quickly, not noticing a yellow, triangular talisman stuck to the back of the card.

It was a decent spirit-calming talisman*.

*Notes: Spirit-calming talisman was translated from 清心符. I couldn’t find much info, but this talisman should be used to help protect one against evil spirits. It seems to be related to 清心咒 (or Puan mantra) in Buddhism. ‘ is said that when singing or hearing the mantra, many miracles occurred, so that in time this mantra came to be regarded as possessing magical healing and protective powers, the power to consecrate great Peace, the power to eliminate pestilence, the power to restore health, etc. ‘

Sorry for the super slow update! By the way, I can’t help but comment on the largely pessimistic and negative view of Ye Yingzhi lol, I a.s.sure you, he’s not an evil spirit out to harm Chi Yan…