Ninth In the World

Di Jiu had overestimated his purchasing power. He wandered near the hospital for hours before he realized that his mediocre savings were insufficient for him to afford a place that suited his taste or training routine. He could not even afford to rent a single room.

After wandering around the neighborhood for a bit, Di Jiu grabbed a quick meal and returned to the hospital.

Di Jiu worked at the basement of Block 11, so he wanted to find accomodation nearby.

When he entered the basement, he finally understood how much Tong Mu had helped him. The basement did not need anyone to be on guard duty or watch it in any way.

The only reason for someone to guard the place was the nursery located outside the morgue. However, the nursery was empty and its door was locked. When Di Jiu opened the door with his key, it became obvious that the room had been vacant for a long time.

The room was over 10 square feet, so it was quite spacious. Inside was a bed with a wire frame, a desk and a chair. Apart from this furniture, it was completely empty.

Di Jiu was satisfied with the room, as it was sufficiently quiet. If one ignored the sound coming from the ventilation vents, the surrounding area was completely silent.

For most people, the mere sight of the word ‘mortuary’ would send some prickles down their spine. However, Di Jiu had never been bothered by it. He had no reason to be afraid, especially as he had been full of Essence Energy ever since his martial arts practice.

After cleaning up the area quickly, Di Jiu began to practise the Major Conduit Internal Records. Even though he had the key to the mortuary, he did not plan on entering it.

Before Di Jiu could even start practising, he heard the sound of hasty footsteps outside. The footsteps betrayed the fear and panic of the person in the corridor.

Who would come to the morgue at such a late hour?

Di Jiu stepped out of the nursery immediately. He was relieved to find out that the sound of the footsteps was not coming from the morgue.

A silhouette soon appeared under the lights. Di Jiu saw clearly the middle-aged doctor he had met in the afternoon. The doctor, who was the one who had given him directions, had later been accused of medical malpractice by the family of a deceased girl.

The doctor should have been battered after what had happened in the afternoon, so it was strange that he had come to visit the morgue so late.

“Hi!” Di Jiu called out to avoid startling the doctor.

The middle-aged man was obviously nervous. Di Jiu’s call startled the doctor, who took a few steps back and glanced at him in panic.

Di Jiu stepped forward as he chuckled. “Don’t you remember me? You gave me directions this afternoon. I thought doctors were supposed to be braver than most people.”

“It’s you!” When the doctor finally saw Di Jiu clearly, he heaved a sigh of relief. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

“Director Yu Jianfu recommended me for a position here, but a new director was appointed, so the Human Resources Department had no choice but to send me here,” Di Jiu answered.

The middle-aged doctor clearly understood the internal arrangements of the hospital personnel. When he heard Di Jiu’s reply, he sighed and said, “That is unfortunate. If you had arrived a few days earlier, you might have been sent to a better place. The truth is, the director must have helped to get you sent here, as there was no one working here previously.”

“I know. What are you doing here so late?” Di Jiu asked. His eyes landed on the plastic bags that the doctor was carrying.

The middle-aged man raised the plastic bags as he said impatiently, “Well, I made a medical mistake this afternoon that resulted in the death of a patient who would not have died otherwise. There is no hope of resolving this, so I reckoned that I’d be asked to leave the Ai Bo Hospital soon. I came here tonight to burn some incense for my patient. This is a tradition of the hospital. Doctors burn some incense for patients who die during a surgery, regardless of the reason they passed.”

“How do you know that the patient died due to negligence?” Di Jiu asked, secretly admiring the doctor’s integrity. In most cases, doctors who engaged in medical malpractice that resulted in death would not admit to it, even if they had made a mistake.

However, the middle-aged doctor had chosen to take responsibility for his wrong decisions.

“The patient had turned blue and started twitching, so I should not have injected her with a drug that would increase her heart rate. The drug caused too much stress on her heart, which resulted in…” The doctor’s eyes were full of chagrin and his tone was remorseful.

Di Jiu, who knew nothing about this pulse-quickening drug, asked, “Do you intend to burn the incense here?”

The middle-aged man looked at Di Jiu apologetically before he said, “I am Ling Bo and I am a former heart surgeon. If you have the key, could I trouble you into helping me open the door so I can burn some incense inside?”

Ling Bo had originally planned on burning some incense outside and leaving. However, after meeting Di Jiu, he had decided that he wanted to burn the incense inside the morgue instead. An uneasiness lingered in his heart, as he felt responsible for the patient’s death. His guilt had prevented him from fighting back when the patient’s family had shouted abuse at him.

The hospital’s policy forbade the burning of incense inside the mortuary, but no one would know if he burned it inside.

“No problem,” Di Jiu said as he took out the key to the morgue. He had not planned on taking this job seriously anyway, so if this was where Ling Bo wanted to burn the incense, Di Jiu would try to accommodate him.

Although the mortuary spanned a wide area, there were not many bodies inside. The bodies that would be stored for an extended period of time were frozen, while those kept for a short period of time were placed in the spacious hall.

Despite the warm weather, Di Jiu felt a chill ran down his spine when he stepped into the mortuary. This was not merely due to the air conditioning. There was also strong Yin Qi in there.

As soon as he entered the mortuary, Ling Bo immediately walked towards a corpse in the furthest corner. He kneeled on the floor and took the incense out of his plastic bags.

Di Jiu’s eyes landed on the corpse, which was covered with a white cloth. He could tell from its long hair that it had been a woman.

Di Jiu saw Lin Bo kneel on the floor with a lighter in his hands and mutter something inaudible. Di Jiu was about to leave, when his eyes caught a glimpse of the deceased woman’s fingers.

Despite the dim lights in the morgue, Di Jiu’s acute eyesight allowed him to notice that the color of her fingers was that of a living person’s.

“Doctor Lin, please wait…” Di Jiu stepped forward and removed the white cloth covering the deceased woman’s body.

“What are you doing?” Lin Bo looked horrified as he hurried to stop Di Jiu from removing the cloth.

“She is not completely dead. If I intervene now, she might get a chance to live,” Di Jiu said solemnly. He was sure about this the moment that he removed the white cloth.

Di Jiu’s sensory and visual abilities had heightened considerably every since he had started practising the Major Conduit Internal Records.The lady might appear to be dead, but she still had some life in her. Those signs of life were metaphysical, so most doctors were not able to sense them, unless they had been practising medicine for a long time.

Despite his medical skills, Di Jiu had not been able to correctly sense those signs of life during his time in the Ji Nation. This had been due to his lack of experience and practise at the time. After practising the Major Conduit Internal Records, his ability to sense metaphysical things had been deeply ingrained in his senses.

“Did you say that she is alive?” Lin Bo looked agitated. His trembling voice and jerking body betrayed the tremendous wave of emotions that had washed over him.