In this entire hospital, the only ghost with the power to drag that monster away was probably her.

I thought she'd stormed off in anger. I never expected her to still be protecting me from the shadows. To have a wife like that... what more could a man ask for? If I were alone, Dr Chen felt like he really would've fallen for her.

“Oh, you're up here? Why'd I hear you yelling, ‘Wife, I love you’ just now?”

The poker-faced guy had come up earlier, so he hadn't seen the monster get dragged away.

“It's nothing. Just pretend I went crazy and shouted nonsense.”

He'd been so worked up after seeing the monster dragged away and realizing he'd been saved that the words had slipped out on instinct.

“How did you know that monster wouldn't come upstairs?”

“Because of this.” I lifted the patient file in my hand and gave it a little shake.

“Celebrity No. 4, Li Xinyu. Dissociative identity disorder. Extremely high IQ. Fluent in multiple languages. Medical school graduate. Skilled in dissection. He excelled academically from a young age, but suffered frequent abuse from his alcoholic single father, which led to severe mental issues and an extremely violent secondary personality. During one episode, he dismembered his father and hid the body in a refrigerator. He was later discovered and arrested. Due to his special condition, he couldn't be held in a normal prison, so he was taken in by this hospital.”

Dr Chen read out the key parts of the file. Earlier, he'd noticed that the cuts on the director's body were unnaturally clean. It definitely wasn't crude dismemberment. It felt more like meticulous carving.

An ordinary person could never have done that. But a mental patient skilled in dissection was a different story.

As for why that thing didn't dare come upstairs, the answer was simple. Ward No. 4 was here. A Malevolent Ghost born from a mental patient had to be even stronger than the director. She didn't dare step into his territory.

“What good is that file by itself? Can it kill Patient No. 4?”

“It says here that he's afraid of light. Every time his father beat him, he'd hide in a dark closet. So once he's in complete darkness, he feels safe. There are records of three treatment experiments. Every time they placed him in a lit environment, he'd go berserk. Even flashlight beams would set him off. He only calmed down after every light source had been destroyed. That's why Ward No. 4 is a completely dark room with no windows and no lights.”

That was crucial information. As humans, we instinctively crave light. Especially when facing ghosts, light brings a sense of safety.

Without this patient file, anyone heading blindly into Ward No. 4 would definitely prepare glow sticks or some other light source first.

But that would only enrage the Malevolent Ghost and trigger an even more violent attack.

In other words, the only way to defeat him was in total darkness.

“It also says here that after midnight, they let him out for air. Usually a doctor and a security guard escort him around the hospital. So I think even if we don't go into Ward No. 4, he'll still come out after twelve. And when that happens, in a hospital this huge, we'll be his prey.”

Dr Chen checked the time on his phone. There were still two hours left until midnight. He had to go in.

If he waited for the patient to come out, Dr Chen didn't think they'd have any advantage in a wide-open space. That thing would hide in the dark and appear from nowhere. By then, they might not even know how they died.

Without knowing the truth, anyone in this hospital would naturally stay near the light.

But light would send him into a frenzy.

Inside Ward No. 4, though, the whole room was only so big. If they didn't turn on any lights, he wouldn't go berserk. That made him easier to deal with.

“If that's the case, then the ghost-repelling talisman is useless. Doesn't that mean this Level One mission is just trying to get us killed?”

The firelight from a burning talisman would definitely drive Patient No. 4 into a frenzy.

“Who said that? The ghost-repelling talisman is for dealing with the ghost doctor. Then you get the electrotherapy device, use it to trap the director on the fourth floor, and use that one minute to find the patient file. Once you know Patient No. 4's weakness, you can deal with him using what you already have. This hospital is built like linked chains. If you don't move and just hole up in one place, then once midnight comes and the patient is released, we'll all die.”

Brother Li was right. The side objectives existed for a reason. He'd just gotten the order completely wrong.

“Then you go in. I'm scared of getting eaten.” When they reached the door to Ward No. 4, the poker-faced guy chickened out.

“Suit yourself.”

There was no point bringing that guy along anyway. Dr Chen walked up alone, turned off his phone's light, and twisted open the door to Ward No. 4.

Whooo—!

A gust of yin-cold wind mixed with the smell of blood blew out from inside. Dr Chen had no lighting tool on him at all. Standing in the dark hallway, he couldn't see a thing. He could only follow the direction of the wind and feel his way forward, one step at a time, into the ward.

Absolute darkness.

Dr Chen couldn't see anything. He had no idea how big the room was, or what was inside it.