Chapter 18: Mai Minghe · The Fourth Person

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According to the red-haired youth, the exit of the St. Louis Hospital (Nest version) was at the guard booth outside the hospital building.

To get to the first floor, cross the lobby, and exit the main door… Along the way, one had to avoid not only the residents but also the red-haired youth’s companions; without a guide, it was indeed a tricky problem.

Mai Minghe was very grateful.

“Hey, young man, what’s your name?” she asked, smoothing out the white sheet again—a habit she had maintained for seventy or eighty years, even when getting off the mortuary slab, she would always straighten it meticulously. She sighed, “Too bad we don’t know each other in Blackmore City. Otherwise, I’d have to knit you a sweater and send it over. Look at you, it’s November and you’re still wearing short sleeves.”

The red-haired youth glanced at her as if she were the oddest thing in the nest.

“…You’re not my aunt,” he mumbled after a moment. “My name’s Jonah. But I advise you to stay ‘unknown’ to me after this, so our family’s faction doesn’t find you.”

She had countless questions and hoped to ask Jonah in a safe environment, but he was right—those questions were not as important as the illusion.

She could gradually uncover the mysteries of the nest in time.

“Let’s go,” Jonah said. “Even though we’ve reset, it’s safer not to take the same route.”

As the two left, Mai Minghe turned off the light. Just before the light faded, the figure covered by the white sheet in the mortuary corner flickered once more in the corner of her vision—then was swallowed by the darkness.

The mortuary door was heavy and would slam shut automatically if no one held it, making a loud bang behind them.

Mai Minghe followed Jonah, turning down the corridor at the other end. For some reason, her mind felt restless and unsettled.

She kept thinking about the silent silhouette under the white sheet in the mortuary. It looked like a real corpse: it did not react when Jonah turned on the light, not when they talked, and not when they left.

“Are there real corpses kept in the mortuary?” Mai Minghe asked. “Thinking we might have just been lying beside a dead body makes me a bit scared…”

“Huh?” Jonah answered casually. “Just now? A dead body?”

Swallowing a phrase she almost blurted out, Mai Minghe looked up at his back.

Jonah’s red hair was cut very short. Below the neatly trimmed hairline at the nape of his neck, faint orange fuzz remained, mistlike and scattered on his neck.

Her thoughts wavered, and she couldn’t quite grasp what she was pondering, muttering vaguely, “Yeah… just now.”

Jonah was silent for a moment.

Amid the sound of their footsteps, he said, “I don’t know. Maybe someone does that. After all, it’s a mortuary.”

Mai Minghe responded with a soft “Mm,” acknowledging his words.

She glanced back. Behind her stretched a straight corridor leading to the stairs they had descended earlier.

If she turned and ran from here, she couldn’t change direction, and being chased in a straight line was difficult to escape… No, maybe she didn’t need to run?

Perhaps she was overthinking?

Right, no rush; let’s sort this out first, Mai Minghe told herself.

1. The mortuary was a “reset” place; when someone lay down pretending to be dead long enough, the hospital’s residents would forget them.

2. Before they entered, there was already someone—or at least a humanoid figure—lying in the mortuary.

3. After leaving, Jonah clearly forgot that someone else was still lying there.

A chill ran across the skin of Mai Minghe’s thigh, goosebumps rising as every pore felt icy.

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If one drew conclusions from these three known points, the only result was that Jonah was a resident.

But this conclusion was absurd—he was clearly a living, breathing person who saved Mai Minghe. She must have missed something and needed to reconsider.

Jonah walked quickly, and Mai Minghe matched his pace. After some time, they climbed out of the stairs at the other end of the hospital and reached the first floor, not far from the emergency room.

The hospital corridors and waiting areas were brightly lit, but there was no one at the nurse’s station.

Except for the emptiness, this place was indistinguishable from the real human world. On the nurse’s desk was even a paper cup—just missing the drinker—as if this was a place abandoned by humanity after a sudden apocalypse.

There were several consultation rooms in the corridor, some with doors tightly closed, others ajar, revealing impenetrable dimness.

Apart from their footsteps and breathing, there was no sound.

Jonah’s chosen path was excellent; they had not encountered a single resident and avoided all danger.

“There are often things in the emergency room,” Jonah crouched behind a wall, peeking out quietly. After observing for a moment, he said to Mai Minghe, “We have to be absolutely silent when we go past.”

Mai Minghe nodded, but a thought intruded.

…When pretending to be dead, is silence not required?

She didn’t understand the nest or the “gate of life,” but logically, she felt that when someone pretended to be a corpse, they shouldn’t be talking and laughing as they had just done.

A corpse should be like the figure lying in the corner… unmoving and silent no matter what happens.

What if the person in the corner was a real hunter undergoing a “reset”…

Had she truly succeeded in resetting?

Mai Minghe looked down at her fingertips.

She had a way to verify whether Jonah was a resident or a living person.

Though she had wiped most of the blood onto the slender patient earlier, a trace of dark blood remained in the deep crevices beneath her nails.

Mai Minghe used another fingernail to pick at the black-red stain and pinched it between her fingertips. As Jonah stood and softly said, “Let’s go,” she immediately reached out, grasped his arm, and called out, “Wait.”

Luckily, he was wearing short sleeves; the black-red bloodstain was smoothly smeared onto his skin.

The struggling, thrashing behavior of the slender patient did not occur.

“What’s wrong?” Jonah bent slightly, retreating behind the wall. “Did you find something?”

Other than his slightly pale complexion—but who could look rosy in this deadly situation? Mai Minghe suspected her own face looked worse—he showed no other signs, no pain or itch, and didn’t even notice the blood on his arm.

It seemed he was not a resident. Mai Minghe breathed a silent sigh of relief.

The mortuary matter probably had another explanation, though she couldn’t think of one immediately—but she was no god; how could she be flawless and omniscient?

From now on, she would be more cautious and observant.

“You should say something.”

“Um… I just think,” Mai Minghe stammered as he stared at her, trying to find a reason, “Once we get out of here, it’s pretty dangerous, right? We should find some handy weapons before going further.”

Jonah frowned, thinking for a moment. “We don’t have much time. Who knows how long this corridor will stay safe? If we move fast enough and reach the exit before danger closes in, weapons aren’t necessary.”

Originally just an excuse, but what he said made Mai Minghe feel that getting a weapon was indeed necessary. In life, whatever you do, it never hurts to be prepared; Jonah was a confident young boy, normal for his age, but she couldn’t just take reckless chances with him.

“I’ll go look around the nurse’s station on the way; it won’t take long.”

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To leave this building, they had to pass the nurse’s station; if she entered one side and exited the other, just a quick glance would suffice.

Jonah was reluctant but didn’t argue.

“Then I’ll go with you,” he nodded, “If there’s nothing strange in the nurse’s station, it’s safer than walking outside—something to hide behind.”

Decision made, the two immediately crouched and tiptoed out from behind the wall.

They glanced left and right anxiously as they hurried toward the nurse’s station, like two frantic beetles, their four feet rustling softly on the floor before disappearing behind the nurse’s desk partitions.

The nurse’s station was rectangular, with entrances on opposite sides facing each other. Mai Minghe constantly feared that if she looked up, a face might suddenly appear at the opposite entrance, so she nervously glanced over every few seconds to reassure herself.

On the side facing the lobby were three nurse workstations with computers, chairs, telephones, and some folders and papers—if not for what they had just experienced, she could hardly believe this was not the real St. Louis Hospital.

How did the nest have telephones and computers? Who had brought these things in?

The keyboard letters were worn white as if often used for typing; a small cactus sat in a dusty pot on the corner of the desk, its authenticity unknown.

For a moment, she almost forgot their purpose, feeling like a TV viewer seeing a filming set for the first time. Even the mundane duty rosters and ballpoint pens seemed freshly intriguing, worthy of a few extra glances—but unfortunately, she saw nothing that could serve as a weapon.

Just as Mai Minghe reached out to check if the phone had a dial tone, Jonah immediately stopped her.

“Don’t touch anything connected,” he warned in a hushed voice, “it might attract trouble.”

He was probably traumatized by her having pressed the call bell four times last time, his face full of “Why don’t you learn your lesson?”

Mai Minghe withdrew her hand and thought for a few seconds.

“There’s nothing here,” Jonah half-crouched behind the desk, making him invisible from outside the nurse’s station. He pointed to the other entrance and whispered, “Let’s go. Don’t waste time.”

“Okay.”

As Jonah crouched toward the exit, he suddenly stopped and looked back at Mai Minghe. “Why are you just standing there? Hurry up.”

Mai Minghe pulled out a rolling chair; the wheels scraped the quiet air as they stopped in front of her.

She bent slightly, hands on the chair back, looking at the face opposite her.

Jonah looked no older than thirty; as an adult, his journey was only just beginning. His eyes were slightly red, lips dry, and a faint sheen of sweat coated his body—very human.

She didn’t know the truth, but she couldn’t help feeling sad. Like a reflex, she felt sorrow for such a young boy and for the mother who had raised him bit by bit.

“You go ahead,” Mai Minghe said hoarsely, “I’m not going with you.”

Jonah frowned, staring at her as if she were speaking nonsense.

But after two seconds, he relaxed his brow.

“…Did you figure something out?” He stood upright by the nurse’s station entrance, flashing a pale smile at Mai Minghe. “Tell me about it.”

“Besides the slender patient who was already in the room,” Mai Minghe whispered, “after I pressed the call bell four times, a nurse came, then a pair of hands appeared under the bed, and the underground resident controlling the round-headed figure… That’s three ‘disguised nurse figures.’ The fourth to enter was you.”

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