> "This is my territory."
— Death
---
[1]The Call That Shouldn't Have Sounded
3:12 a.m.
The emergency room's call light suddenly lit up red, beeping rapidly.
A duty nurse glanced at it—Room 14, three consecutive calls.
"Isn't 14 the long-term oncology ward? Three calls at this hour?" another nurse frowned.
Before she could finish, the lights at the end of the corridor flickered with a zzzt and half went out, the remaining glow a sickly pale blue, making the hallway look like a cold storage room.
Gu Ye was flipping through Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases. Hearing the sound, he looked up, as if staring at something on the ceiling that no one else could see.
"Busy night for departures today…"
The nurse blinked. "Departures? Who's departing so often?"
Gu Ye didn't answer, just slipped his nail clipper into the pocket of his white coat and stood up at an unhurried pace.
---
[2]The Lock You Couldn't See
They pushed the crash cart to Room 14. The nurse twisted the handle, but the door only opened a couple of inches—as if an invisible hand were holding it shut.
"Broken?" She gritted her teeth and pushed again, but the door didn't budge.
Gu Ye stepped forward, touched the gap. The skin on his fingertips instantly took on a faint blue glow, and the air rippled like the surface of water.
"Locked pretty tight."
At that moment, the shadow at the end of the corridor stirred, like a black snake crawling in silence. Low, damp breathing drifted from there, carrying the damp-earth stench of a grave.
The nurse shivered. "Gu Ye… your fingertips just—"
He gave her a sidelong glance. "Reflection in the air."
Then he pushed hard, and the door eased open as if something had been unlatched.
---
[3]The Shadow in the Room
The temperature in the ward plummeted, like falling from midsummer straight into deep winter.
The old man on the bed was breathing hard, face bluish, the ECG's waves pulled into a flat line.
At the foot of the bed—
A mass of pure black shadow was half-kneeling over the old man's chest. It had a man-like shape but no features, only two hollow eye sockets, and it was reaching toward the man's heart.
Gu Ye stepped in, his pace unhurried, but each step seemed to land on a precise position in an unseen formation.
"Let go."
The shadow lifted its "head," speaking in a voice so low and cold it seeped into bone:
"Gu Ye… This is my territory."
---
[4]The Struggle for a Soul
"Gu Ye! The patient's not breathing!" The nurse tried to rush forward but found her body frozen. Tears welled rapidly in her eyes but wouldn't fall. Her ears felt stuffed with cotton, leaving only the amplified sound of her own heartbeat pounding—thud, thud, thud—making her chest tighten.
Gu Ye reached the bed, left hand pressing over the heart, right hand placing two fingers exactly at the junction of Shanzhong and Juque points.
The temperature at his fingertips plunged to icy cold, his skin turning pale, veins rising faintly as if the force was being wrenched straight out of his body.
"You still haven't repaid what you owe me."
A blue light surged from his fingertips into the old man's chest.
The shadow froze, then lunged—its arms turning into twin streams of dense mist, wrapping tight around the man's soul and trying to drag it out through his nose and mouth.
Gu Ye's eyes darkened. His fingers twisted suddenly, as if snapping an unseen thread—the blue light burst into a chain-like pattern, yanking the soul back into the chest.
The shadow let out a piercing shriek, retreating into the corner. Before it fully dissipated, a cold voice came from the darkness:
> "Next time, I'll be waiting ahead of you."
The words seemed carved directly into bone, carrying the chilling certainty of another encounter. The ward air grew even colder.
The old man's body jolted; he drew a long, deep breath, eyelids fluttering. On the ECG, the flat line trembled into a wavering wave again.
---
[5]The Aftermath and the Warning
The nurse collapsed to the floor, breathing hard. "Just now… what was that?"
Gu Ye pulled on his mask, voice calm. "What did you see?"
"I… saw nothing." She answered instinctively, and in the blink of an eye, the crushing pressure she'd felt moments ago seemed erased from her memory.
Gu Ye slung the medical bag over his shoulder and walked out of the ward.
The light at the end of the corridor flickered twice, and Death's voice whispered in his ear again:
> "You can save them once, but not forever."
Gu Ye's steps paused slightly. His gaze turned cold, as if engraving the threat deep inside.
Then he moved on, fingers in his pocket rubbing the nail clipper, lips curving slowly into a faint arc—
—The night wasn't over yet.