Chapter 689 — Not Dead Yet

"Oh, then let her stick you!" The battle-axe of an auntie dropped what she was doing and turned out of the treatment room. The lecherous look on Kang Jingming's face had put her in a foul mood. Was the man here to get treated or to eye up pretty girls? What a piece of work — and he had the nerve to ask someone else to give him the needle? May it sting him to death!

Seeing that the battle-axe nurse had actually agreed, Kang Jingming was overjoyed. He turned to the pretty young nurse and said, "How about you give me the injection?"

"I... this is my first day interning here. I can't do it..." The pretty young nurse waved her hands again and again, but under his pleading gaze she relented: "How about... I give it a try? If I can't get it in, I can always try a few more times..."

"Gah?" Kang Jingming had been desperate for the pretty nurse to stick the needle in him, but at her words his heart turned to ice in an instant! First day on the job? And she'd just give it a try? What kind of sick joke was this — he was no lab rat. If she stabbed him to death, then what?

"What's wrong?" The pretty nurse gave him a puzzled look.

"N-nothing. I'll just find that Nurse Wang from before!" Kang Jingming might be a lecher, but there was no way he'd gamble his life on a bit of flirting.

"But Nurse Wang has gone to the inpatient wing. She won't be back for a while..." The pretty nurse looked at him helplessly. "So why not let me have a try? Please? My technique's actually very good — I practiced on dead bodies before!"

"N-no need..." Kang Jingming was aghast. To hell with that — practiced on corpses? One jab from her and I might turn into a corpse myself!

The pretty nurse looked fresh and lovely enough, with big eyes and big breasts, but she was clearly a reckless fool who didn't care if she killed someone. Since when did giving an injection involve a trial run?

Kang Jingming had no intention of dying at her hands. He scrambled to his feet and forced a smile. "Ha, no need. Is there another treatment room near here?"

"Oh, yes. Go out, turn left, take the elevator down to the second basement level — that's the one." The pretty nurse thought for a moment. "But it's a bit far. And look at you, you're about to faint. Why not let me give you the shot?"

"No need. I'm perfectly clear-headed, I won't be fainting anytime soon!" Kang Jingming waved her off, and he, Wang Shubin, and Zhu Xiaozhang hurried out of the nurses' treatment room and ran for the elevator, cursing all the way. What kind of two-bit hospital was this? Intern nurses with no morals at all, daring to use patients as guinea pigs!

"Young Master Ming, are you going to make it? Should we rest a bit?" Seeing Kang Jingming teetering on unsteady legs, Wang Shubin asked anxiously.

"I'm fine. Let's just get the injection over with! If I'd known, I'd have let that battle-axe stick me. What rotten luck!" Kang Jingming was convinced that nothing but bad luck came of running into Xiaofen — and now it seemed he was right.

The three of them stepped into the elevator. The auntie operating it glanced them over and asked, "Which floor? This car's going down!"

"We're going down too — second basement level!" Wang Shubin told her, though privately he was thinking: What kind of layout is this hospital? The treatment rooms aren't even together — one here, one over there, and this one's actually down in the basement.

The auntie gave the three of them a rather odd look, but pressed the button for the second basement level all the same.

When the elevator reached the first floor, everyone aboard filed out, leaving only Kang Jingming and his two companions.

Kang Jingming found it strange. Why had not a single one of them been headed for the basement?

When the car reached the second basement level and the doors slid open, Wang Shubin and Zhu Xiaozhang helped Kang Jingming out, and a gust of cold, clammy air rushed at them, making all three shiver.

What followed was a stench of decay and disinfectant, and the lights in the corridor were dim and murky.

"What the hell? What kind of godforsaken place is this? There isn't even a soul around!" Kang Jingming couldn't help but curse.

Wang Shubin thought it strange too, but when he looked up he nearly jumped out of his skin, instinctively backing up two steps. He still had an arm around Kang Jingming, and the sudden retreat sent Kang Jingming lurching; he couldn't help but swear, "What are you doing? Trying to kill me?"

"Young Master Ming, here... here..." Zhu Xiaozhang looked up too and saw that something was wrong — only Kang Jingming was too groggy to lift his head.

"What is it? If you've got something to say, spit it out!" Kang Jingming said impatiently. "Hurry up and find some place I can get my shot..."

"Young Master Ming, you can't get a shot in here!" Zhu Xiaozhang said.

"Can't get a shot?" Kang Jingming blinked. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"This is the place where they give shots to dead people..." Zhu Xiaozhang pointed at a spot not far ahead, looking rattled. "Young Master Ming, this is the morgue!"

"What?" Kang Jingming nearly jumped out of his skin at Zhu Xiaozhang's words. He looked up — and there it was, sure enough: the three big characters for "MORGUE," looming in the dim hallway light, more grim and terrifying than ever.

"Click..."

Just as the three of them stood frozen in alarm, a sound came from the morgue door.

"Run!" At that moment Kang Jingming forgot all about being a patient. Strength came from somewhere he couldn't name; he spun around and bolted madly for the elevator, jabbing at the button again and again. But the elevator had already climbed a dozen floors, and it would be a while yet before it came down.

Wang Shubin and Zhu Xiaozhang were just as wound up. They kept telling themselves that it was broad daylight, so where could a ghost possibly come from? And yet the atmosphere here was genuinely eerie, and it set their hearts racing for no reason at all.

The morgue door swung slowly open, and a corpse trolley glided slowly out through the small doorway.

Kang Jingming heard the noise and glanced back — and with a strangled "urk," he fainted dead away from fright! He had already been weak as a kitten, and the shock on top of it was more than he could bear.

Wang Shubin and Zhu Xiaozhang, though, frightened as they were, breathed a sigh of relief once they made out what was behind the trolley. An old fellow, short and wizened, was pushing the corpse trolley toward the elevator. The light had been dim, the old man was small, and he had emerged from the back — no wonder it had looked as though the trolley was moving all by itself...

The old man saw Wang Shubin and Zhu Xiaozhang too, and when his eyes fell on Kang Jingming lying on the floor, he asked at once, "Another one dead? Why'd you bring him in yourselves? Where's the doctor?"

"No... he's not dead, not yet — we just took a wrong turn, that's all..." Wang Shubin hurried to explain, terrified the old man might wheel Kang Jingming straight into the cold storage.