Wen Yan was kept awake all night by the tireless little people dancing in front of him.
After several trips to the bathroom and receiving IV fluids, he felt a bit better. Perhaps the poisoning wasn't severe, and the symptoms faded as dawn approached. The dance-crazed little people, their legs broken from dancing, joined hands. Singing "Bright Poles and Red Umbrellas," they retreated behind an unseen curtain and disappeared from view.
He closed his eyes and drifted into a drowsy sleep.
He woke when his need to urinate became unbearable. Opening his eyes, he saw it had gotten dark outside.
He Jian, who had been in the bed next to him, had already left. Of the two beds in the neighboring section, one now held a new patient, who was sleeping.
He Jian and Cai Qidong must have eaten fewer mushrooms, Wen Yan figured. Those two were catching up and boasting. If Cai Qidong hadn't said he wouldn't drink, the two middle-aged men would likely have drunk themselves merry.
Of the three, only Wen Yan had truly gone to eat. He alone had consumed more mushrooms than the other two combined.
He felt under his pillow. His phone was dead. It was pitch black outside. Through the glass on the room door, he could see the main lights in the corridor had been turned off, leaving only the night lights.
Wen Yan touched his empty stomach. Holding his dead phone, he decided to go to the nurses' station first to borrow a charger.
As he pushed open the door of his room, the hallway outside was very quiet, with only the faint beeping of machines and a barely perceptible humming sound.
Clutching his phone, Wen Yan made his way to the nurses' station. He looked up at the illuminated panel above, which showed it was already two in the morning.
Touching his stomach, Wen Yan thought, No wonder I woke up hungry. I slept from dawn to dusk and then all the way to midnight.
At the nurses' station, only one nurse in a pink uniform was present, resting with her head down on the desk behind the counter.
Wen Yan glanced around but didn't see a second nurse. He reached out and gently tapped on the counter.
He tapped gently, but the sound was far louder than he expected. A THUMP THUMP echoed in the silent hallway.
The resting nurse startled awake and slowly lifted her head, giving Wen Yan quite a shock.
The left side of her face was exquisitely made up: perfectly groomed eyebrows, eyelids that appeared to have double eyelid tape, cheeks blushed with a natural rosy tone, and lips tinted a moist, natural color.
However, the upper half of her right face was charred black, as if carbonized. From the right side of her lips to behind the apple of her cheek, the carbonized skin was cracked, with dark red flesh peeling away.
As the nurse naturally smiled, the wound on her cheek, deep enough to almost reach her ear, split open further, revealing her molars.
If I only looked at the left side, her smile is rather sweet, he thought.
Wen Yan's eyelids twitched, but he quickly composed himself. Since yesterday, I've seen all sorts of things, he mused.
He'd seen eerie little figures whose legs were broken from dancing, yet they tirelessly continued to sing and dance.
Never mind a half-disfigured face; he had even seen Cai Qidong's neon rainbow face.
There was also the giant mouth that had emerged from the wall, over half a meter tall, its teeth clashing inside—one molar had even knocked a wisdom tooth askew.
Outside the window, there had been a giant mushroom taller than the building, and an old man who had floated by, sighed at it, and then vanished.
Initially, he had constantly tested if they were hallucinations by asserting, "I Am Your Dad!" After a while, he couldn't be bothered to try anymore; his lips were sore from it.
Besides, to an outsider, I must seem a bit unhinged. If I encountered a real person, it would be like activating a taunt skill, forcefully drawing aggro...
Now, seeing this, Wen Yan was only startled for a moment. He maintained his composure, even looking a second time and noticing one of the nurse's wisdom teeth seemed to have a cavity.
She wore a name badge: "Wang Xin." Judging by the color of her uniform, she was probably an intern.
"Miss, could I borrow a charger? My phone's dead," he said.
The cavity-ridden nurse met Wen Yan's gaze, which seemed somewhat strange. She touched her own face, her fingers sliding over the charred cheek, flakes of black powder drifting off.
With her other hand, she casually pulled out a three-pronged charger from nearby, placed it on the counter, then tilted her head up slightly and looked at Wen Yan with a faint smile.
"Is there something wrong with my face?" she asked.
"Your makeup's a bit smudged. Long shift, from day through night, right? Your skin looks good, though. I can't even see any dark circles. Actually, a lighter, fresher makeup style would suit you well."
The cavity-ridden nurse paused at his words, then immediately beamed, her surprised smile distinctly different from her previous, more formulaic one.
"Wow, you know about makeup?"
Before starting this job, Wen Yan had studied makeup. He'd even discussed it with colleagues in the Deceased Care Department, especially an enthusiastic older female colleague in the embalming room who had given him a tube of homemade lip balm.
At that moment, Wen Yan somewhat understood his colleague from the embalming room. She probably hasn't had the chance to discuss makeup for the living with an actual living person in a long time.
Wen Yan was too embarrassed to say that what he actually knew most about was applying makeup to the deceased.
"I've picked up a bit here and there. Just theory, though; I'm not good with the practical application."
The cavity-ridden nurse, smiling sweetly enough to reveal her molars, thanked Wen Yan and then asked another question.
"So, what do you do when wearing a mask always makes your makeup come off?"
"Touch-ups? Oh, but that's probably not convenient for you. In that case, switch to a lighter-textured, high-coverage liquid foundation. Apply it lightly with a foundation brush. And instead of loose powder, use a cushion foundation with pearlescent particles to set your makeup. Even if it wears off, the traces won't be very obvious."
Wen Yan pondered for a moment, continuing to appraise the cavity-ridden nurse seriously.
"Actually, I still think you're the type whose dark circles aren't naturally prominent. Your skin is good, and you're young. Just focus on good skincare, a light touch of makeup, and some lip color. You won't need to go through as much trouble as others to look great."
"Oh, stop..." The cavity-ridden nurse laughed again, her eyes crinkling into crescents, revealing her wisdom teeth. Carbonized powder POOFED off her face with her laughter.
Just as he was teasing the cavity-ridden nurse, Wen Yan's stomach rumbled. He decided to use an outlet at the nurses' station and plugged his phone in to charge directly.
"I'll just charge this for a bit and order some takeout. I've been starving all day."
"Oh, why order takeout? I have some food here. You can have this for now. The building doors are locked for the night; no one from outside can get in."
The cavity-ridden nurse pulled out two small plates from under the counter, one with a few small bread rolls and the other with some mung bean cakes.
"Someone gave these to me. You can have them. I don't really like sweets; they make me gain weight. You eat them, so they don't go to waste."
"Go on, eat. And get some rest soon after. Don't wander around tonight."
"Thank you, then." Wen Yan had been hungry all day and suffering from diarrhea for hours; his stomach felt like it was stuck to his spine. He grabbed a mung bean cake and started eating.
While he ate, the cavity-ridden nurse thoughtfully poured him a cup of purified water in a disposable cup.
Chatting and eating, it wasn't long before he finished the mung bean cakes. Only one small bread roll remained.
Seeing Wen Yan eating and chatting cheerfully, the cavity-ridden nurse handed him the last small bread roll too.
"You should head back. The Inspector will be here soon." The young nurse seemed somewhat afraid of her superior.
Wen Yan figured that if the hospital administrators saw him here, chatting and snacking with the young nurse, the intern would probably get reprimanded. He took his charger and phone and returned to his room.
His phone now charging, he mused, Tomorrow morning, around seven, I'll go out and buy some food. The cavity-ridden nurse's night shift will be ending then. I'll treat her to breakfast as a thank-you.
I'll probably have to stay in the hospital for a few more days before I'm discharged, he guessed. Chances are, I only feel fine now because the worst hasn't hit yet.
I'm never eating those damn mushrooms again!
He lay on his hospital bed. The patient in the bed two down from his was snoring loudly. He felt too embarrassed to turn on the light. His phone had been charging for a while but hadn't powered on automatically. Lying there, he soon dozed off again.
At three in the morning, a chilling aura materialized outside the patient rooms, coalescing into thin wisps of fog.
The door to the floor opened, and a middle-aged woman in a white coat entered.
Her head was slightly bowed, her expression stiff, her eyes cold. She held a clipboard in her left hand and a pen in her right.
As she passed each patient room, she glanced inside through the glass in the door, consulted her clipboard, and then moved on to the next.
She continued this way down the corridor. When she passed the nurses' station, she shot a brief glance at the cavity-ridden nurse, who sat there solemnly, looking straight ahead.
The next moment, the cavity-ridden nurse was flung backward, slamming into the wall. Her right cheek seemed to be scorched by invisible flames, deforming that side of her head.
Searing pain overwhelmed her, but the cavity-ridden nurse bit down hard, stubbornly stifling her screams.
A moment later, the cavity-ridden nurse crumpled to the floor, her face deathly pale, completely drained of color.
The middle-aged woman extended a finger and gently wiped it across the counter. Mung bean cake crumbs stuck to her fingertip.
"No eating during work hours."
"Understood, Director. It won't happen again," the cavity-ridden nurse replied submissively, her head bowed timidly.
The middle-aged woman, her face cold, continued on her way.
When she reached Wen Yan's room, she peered through the glass at the sleeping Wen Yan for a long time, twirling her pen continuously. Then, without a word, she continued toward the end of the corridor.
Upon reaching the last room at the end of the hallway, her face suddenly twisted. An eyeball popped out of its socket, dangling on her cheek. Blood vessels spread through the eye, radiating an undeniable malice she could hardly conceal.
She stared at an empty bed in the room, the sheets disheveled.
She took out her pen, vigorously checked something off on the document on her clipboard, then vanished down the end of the corridor.