Chapter 147 Elevator
　
The old man tilted his head to glance at the elevator, then unnaturally shifted his gaze back, and said to Jiang Cheng, "Don't stand here, let's talk somewhere else."

"Alright," Jiang Cheng nodded.

At first, the old man seemed to want to invite Jiang Cheng into their ward, but after thinking about it, he dismissed the idea.

Actually, even if he wanted to, Jiang Cheng wouldn't go.

Finally, the group found a secluded spot in the lobby, next to a window, and the old man skillfully flicked ashes out of it.

It seemed like it wasn't the first time he'd secretly smoked here.

The old man coughed from time to time, his throat seemingly not very good.

"Don't take the elevator anymore," the old man said in a low voice, "especially that elevator."

"It's a little better during the day, but especially at night!"

Jiang Cheng pretended not to understand, he shifted his gaze to the elevator's location, then looked back at the old man, and asked suspiciously, "Why?"

"The elevator is there for people to use, isn't it?" Jiang Cheng asked.

The old man licked his lips and said mysteriously, "How long have you been here?"

"Not long," Jiang Cheng gave a vague answer.

"Then, in the time you've been here, how many times have you seen someone ride that elevator?"

"This..." Jiang Cheng scratched his head, "It seems like none, but I haven't paid attention."

"It's not that you haven't paid attention, it's that there simply aren't any!" The old man swallowed and said, "No one uses that elevator easily, unless it's that kind of thing."

"What thing?"

"Sending dead people." The old man looked at Jiang Cheng with a strange look, and after a long while, continued, "Have you noticed that the structure of that elevator is different from the others?"

"The width is about the same, but the length is obviously longer than the other elevators, this is to make it easier to transport corpses."

"This is the only elevator in the hospital that can transport corpses."

Hearing this, Jiang Cheng said, "I know that, but the original intention of making the elevator like this should be to facilitate the entry and exit of stretchers, some seriously ill patients are brought in by stretchers."

Jiang Cheng's words made it clear that he thought the old man was overreacting.

Seeing Jiang Cheng like this, the old man couldn't help but get a little anxious, "Young man, you're not from around here, are you? People around here all know that truly critical patients are never sent to this hospital."

"Not far from here, there's another hospital, although it's not as big as this one, the conditions are much better."

"Young man, I think you're a nice guy, listen to my advice, if there's nothing urgent, leave as soon as possible," the old man said earnestly.

After hearing the old man say that Jiang Cheng was a nice guy, Wang Changguo secretly glanced at the old man, but didn't dare to look too much, for fear of being caught by Jiang Cheng.

"Old man," Jiang Cheng looked very curious, "Did something... happen here?"

The old man had already finished his cigarette, and Jiang Cheng handed him another one.

Staring at the cigarette handed to him, a tangled look appeared on the old man's face, but in the end, he declined, saying, "I have to go back to play cards, those old guys are still waiting for me, young man, you must keep my words in mind..."

"Click."

A crisp sound of a lighter rang out, Jiang Cheng lit the cigarette in his hand, and then belatedly looked at the old man, "This..."

The old man stared at the cigarette, his footsteps stopped suddenly.

"Oh dear, I don't know how to smoke either, how about..." Jiang Cheng made a gesture to throw it out of the window, but as soon as he raised his hand, he was stopped by the old man with a painful look on his face.

"Actually, the doctor doesn't want me to smoke too much," the old man leaned against the window sill, took another puff with relish, and said after exhaling, "Said it's not good for my health."

"Don't listen to their nonsense, I'm a doctor," Jiang Cheng said, "How can you live long without smoking and drinking?"

"Hey," the old man said, "You're quite an interesting young man."

Wang Changguo consciously played the role of a marginal figure, keeping his mouth shut and not disturbing them.

"Old man," Jiang Cheng hesitated, "That elevator you mentioned..."

"Alas," the old man sighed, seemingly losing a lot of interest in smoking when he mentioned these things, "Something happened in that elevator before."

Jiang Cheng immediately realized that what the old man was talking about should be the nurse who lived in ward 906.

He didn't expect the old man to know about something so long ago.

But later, after asking, he found that the two were not talking about the same thing at all.

What the old man was talking about was closer to the present, about a month or two ago.

"In the whole hospital, this is the only elevator that leads to the morgue," the old man said in a low voice, "The only way."

"I remember there are stairs on both sides," Jiang Cheng said.

Unexpectedly, after hearing Jiang Cheng's words, the old man shook his head, looked around, and said mysteriously, "It's useless, only this elevator can get there, the stairs on both sides are all sealed off."

"Sealed off?"

"Yes," the old man said, "I only found out by chance."

The morgue is on the negative first floor. Sealing off all the passages leading to the negative first floor from the stairs on both sides seemed strange no matter how you looked at it.

Could it be... that something happened in the morgue?

Which led the hospital to have to do this.

Seeming to see Jiang Cheng's doubts, the old man swallowed and gave him an affirmative look, continuing, "Young man, you may not believe what I'm about to say, but I promise, every word I say is true."

"Someone... escaped from the morgue."

"A person?" Hearing this, Wang Changguo felt a chill behind his head and looked quite terrified.

If it was a person, the old man wouldn't need to set it up so much, Jiang Cheng thought that what the old man meant should be that a corpse... came to life.

No.

It would be more appropriate to say a ghost.

"What do you mean?" Jiang Cheng asked, "Old man, I don't understand, a person escaped from the morgue..."

"Oh dear, why don't you understand!" Mentioning these things, the old man's expression wasn't good either, "What kind of things are in the morgue, don't you understand?"

"Are you saying... that a corpse is missing?"

"It's not missing, it's escaped, that corpse... escaped on its own!" The old man spoke quite quickly, and his breathing became disordered.

"That person had already died when they were sent here, after completing the formalities, they were pushed into the morgue, but guess what, the next day when they went to check, the corpse was gone!"

"At the time, everyone suspected that someone had stolen the corpse, and the commotion was quite big, but after investigating, there wasn't a single clue."

"Later, a newcomer suggested, don't we have surveillance cameras? Check the surveillance!"

At first, no one paid attention to him, because there were only surveillance cameras in the hospital lobby on the first floor. No matter how stupid the murderer was, they wouldn't steal the corpse and leave through the hospital lobby, right?

That was a corpse, after all, you can't just stuff it in a bag.

"But later... later..." Saying this, the old man suddenly stopped, and his face also became ugly.