Everyone was a bit surprised after listening to Lin Ye.
No one expected that Lin Ye was actually a family member of a victim in the “Tiancheng Medical Dispute Case” from back then.
No wonder he was so familiar with everything that happened that year.
“I’m sorry, Teacher Lin, I didn’t expect…”
Chen Bugu apologized, after all, he was the one who brought this photo back, stirring up Lin Ye’s unpleasant memories.
“It’s okay, so many years have passed.”
Lin Ye waved his hand, indicating that he was fine.
“Then are we still going?”
Wang Bin spoke a bit out of turn.
It was not easy to see human civilization buildings in this forest, and everyone actually wanted to go and see them at first.
Even if no one lived there anymore, they might be able to find supplies, which would still be good.
Chen Bugu looked at Lin Ye; he actually wanted to go and see it at first, as it was a building left behind by the Great Disaster more than twenty years ago, and it might contain certain information.
He hoped to know more about the secrets of the Great Disaster.
However, seeing Lin Ye’s complicated expression, Chen Bugu still decided against it.
“Forget it, we won’t go…”
“Let’s go!”
Before Chen Bugu could finish his sentence, Lin Ye had already interrupted him.
“I also want to go back and see!”
“There are some things I still want to confirm.”
“And perhaps there are still things my wife left behind there…”
“Although I know this idea is a bit selfish, I beg all of you.”
Lin Ye bowed deeply to everyone, his eyes firm.
Afterward, everyone proceeded along the marks Chen Bugu had left earlier.
Although they had heard Chen Bugu’s description before, seeing it with their own eyes still felt incredible.
In a dark, sun-obscured forest, a dilapidated, old hospital suddenly appeared.
Next to the “Tiancheng City First Hospital” plaque was a rusty, unopened sliding door that made a “creaking” sound when the wind blew.
Such iron doors are no longer seen in hospitals today; they were clearly a popular style twenty years ago, which further proved Lin Ye’s conjecture.
This “Tiancheng City First Hospital” seemed to be the one that mysteriously disappeared that year.
Everyone stood in front of the guardhouse, looking inside.
A thick layer of dust had already accumulated on the guardhouse desk.
On the newspaper rack to one side, there was a thick stack of newspapers and hospital brochures.
Chen Bugu picked up a newspaper, and the dust that fell off made everyone cough.
“Tiancheng Evening News,” the newspaper’s masthead clearly showed the date: June 1, 2003.
This date was exactly Children’s Day 22 years ago.
According to Lin Ye’s recollection, the hospital was “demolished” and disappeared on a certain day in September of that year.
It seemed that from June onwards, the hospital was already deserted, so the latest newspaper was also from June.
“Look at this.”
Wang Bin unfolded a hospital brochure, and the first page happened to be the hospital’s layout plan.
After entering the hospital gate, directly opposite was the Outpatient Building, to the left was Ciyun Building, to the right was Changde Building, and behind the Outpatient Building was the Inpatient Department.
The cafeteria seemed to be on the first floor of Ciyun Building, and this was what Wang Bin wanted everyone to see.
“Why look at the cafeteria? It’s been so many years, how could there still be edible food?”
“Oh, that’s right.”
“What a pity, even if it’s medicine, it should have expired after so many years.”
Wang Bin suddenly realized, feeling a bit awkward.
The main gate of Tiancheng City First Hospital was tightly shut, and whether it was the guardhouse, the ground, or the surrounding courtyard walls, all were covered in dust, clearly indicating that no life had visited for a long time.
In Chen Bugu’s impression, Black Iron Grade beasts, unless they were intelligent species, had no interest in such human-style buildings, and large beasts were even less likely to live in cramped human structures.
Thus, it seemed that the safety issue was, surprisingly, not something to worry about.
At this time, there were less than four hours until dark.
It was certainly impossible to continue moving after dark, and if they were to spend the night here, they would first have to complete the exploration.
After leaving the guardhouse, everyone walked to the front of the Outpatient Building.
The exterior walls of the Outpatient Building, Ciyun Building, and Changde Building were all covered with a plant similar to ivy.
Looking up from downstairs, some rooms with open windows had already been invaded by these plants.
A gust of wind blew, and the leaves of these ivy-like plants made eerie sounds, echoing between the buildings.
“Why do I feel a bit eerie?”
Lin Xiaoxiao hid behind Chen Bugu.
In fact, it wasn’t just her; everyone felt an inexplicable palpitation in that instant, as if they had walked into some supernatural place.
Only Chen Bugu felt different; he didn’t feel any palpitation, but he did feel a strange sense of being spied upon.
It was as if some beast was secretly watching all eight of them from a place they couldn’t discover.
Everyone first entered Changde Building, where the first floor housed the radiology outpatient clinic and examination rooms, filled with numerous individual rooms.
Many rooms contained very large machines, but they looked old-fashioned and were already covered in dust; after losing power, they had long turned into scrap metal.
Due to the loss of electricity, everyone could only rely on the electric light in Bai Ting’s hand and Wang Bin’s Fireball for illumination, so the exploration speed was not fast.
It took a full fifteen minutes to completely search the first floor, but they found nothing.
“Teacher Lin, is your wife’s workplace in this building?” Yan Kuan asked.
“Probably not, my wife is in pediatrics; she mostly works in the Outpatient Building or the Inpatient Building.”
“Then why don’t we just split up and search? Otherwise, this building has six or seven floors, and we won’t finish searching even when it gets dark.”
Wang Bin said casually, but it received unanimous approval from everyone.
“Splitting up?” Chen Bugu hesitated a bit.
Splitting up would increase efficiency, but it would also disperse their combat power. However, their exploration so far, with dust everywhere, seemed to indicate that it was indeed safe here.
It was too difficult to explore the entire hospital in four hours…
After some discussion, in order to finish the exploration before dark, they finally decided to divide into three teams to search the Outpatient Building, Ciyun Building, and Changde Building respectively, to improve efficiency.
“Alright, no matter the outcome, everyone must return to the front of the Outpatient Building to gather within 2 hours to exchange information.”
The first team consisted of Chen Bugu and Lin Ye, responsible for searching the Outpatient Building.
The second team consisted of Bai Ting, Lin Xiaoxiao, and Old Liu, responsible for searching Changde Building.
The third team consisted of Yan Kuan, Wang Bin, and Lin Lin, responsible for searching Ciyun Building.
This division of teams mainly considered the strength of each team, trying to maintain balance so that they could respond to emergencies or call for help from other teams.
So, apart from Bai Ting, Lin Xiaoxiao, and Old Liu, everyone else returned to the front of the Outpatient Building.
Chen Bugu and Lin Ye walked towards the Outpatient Building together, and Yan Kuan and the others also walked towards Ciyun Building.
After entering the Outpatient Hall on the first floor of the Outpatient Building, visibility rapidly decreased.
As power supply had long been lost, all lighting facilities in the Outpatient Hall had turned into scrap metal.
Chen Bugu had no choice but to use Fireball for illumination.
The first floor of the Outpatient Hall was very large, but it had clearly been abandoned for a long time; a thick layer of dust had accumulated on the ground, and some iron chairs had rusted.
After walking around the Outpatient Hall, the two found that there were basically no supplies on the first floor, so they decided to go upstairs.
“The elevator seems unusable, let’s take the stairs.”
Lin Ye looked at the desolate scene before him; although he was revisiting an old place, he was surprisingly calm.
The staircase had the style of old residential buildings from the 1980s and 1990s, paved with distinctive floor tiles unique to the Southwest region.
Perhaps extending from the windows, all the stairwells were also covered with those ivy-like plants.
Chen Bugu used the residual light of Fireball to illuminate them and found that the roots of these plants were very thick, and their leaves were crescent-shaped, seemingly quite sharp.
Although this abandoned hospital had long been lifeless, these otherworldly plants thrived here.
The layout from the second to the fifth floor was basically the same.
The main hall was where people took numbers and waited for their appointments, and other corridors connected to various departmental offices.
The two searched floor by floor, with basically not much to gain.
Chen Bugu did find a few flashlights in the ENT department office; after replacing them with spare batteries from a drawer, they actually still worked.
He immediately canceled Fireball, as Fireball illumination also continuously consumed his mental energy.
This was a small gain, but apart from that, they basically found nothing else useful.
Finally, the two went up to the sixth floor.
According to Lin Ye, this area was where the hospital administration and offices were located, including the director’s office, which was also on this floor.
Upon reaching the sixth floor, a display board by the corridor still had photos of outstanding medical staff posted.
It was probably a hospital honor roll of sorts, used to motivate employees.
Chen Bugu, however, felt that this kind of thing was the most useless, and it would be better to just give out more actual salary.
Although the board was covered in dust, if the dust was wiped away, the photos could still be barely recognized.
Lin Ye stood in front of that board, staring silently at a blank spot on the board, lost in thought.
Before Chen Bugu could ask Lin Ye what he was looking at, he suddenly made a chilling discovery.
In that instant, Chen Bugu felt all the hairs on his body stand on end.
He rubbed his eyes, confirming that he had not seen wrong.
The bottom right corner of this display board had an inscription.
The date written on it was: June 3, 2025!
