Cyber Ghosts

In the next morning, the four people had their breakfast in the hall of the hotel. Liu Shuai found that Xiao Hong had dark circles of his eyes and asked, “Xiao Hong, what’s the matter with you? You look so tired. The room of the hotel is quite comfortable, and did you not used to it?”

“No, it has nothing to do with the bed! It’s all him!” Xiao Hong pointed with great anger at Hao Ning who was holding his breakfast. He cursed in a low voice, “I was tortured for the whole night by him!”

Liu Shuai and Zhou Yuan looked at each other and laughed sportively, “Really? You said you wanted to have a girlfriend. Do you have a crush on your Hao Ning? He is a man! Your Innate Fire Spirit and Amina were released by Yang energy!”

“No, no,” Liu Shuai shook his head and said. “Xiao Hong said he was tortured by Hao Ning for the whole night. I think Xiao Hong was forced by Hao Ning against Xiao Hong’s will. Hao Ning, you hide too much about yourself. You told us that you had no interest in Xiao Hong, but what you did in private, um…”

“You are right!” Zhou Yuan hold his laugh and said to Xiao Hong. “You need to tell Hao Ning that he should not toss you heavily. Look at your face. Just one night, you have already been so weak. You won’t tolerate it for so long.”

“It seems not right to put it in this way!” Liu Shuai pretended to be surprised and said, “We each have our own room. Why did Xiao Hong stay in Hao Ning’s room last night?”

“Stop it!” Xiao Hong knew that the two people were playing jokes and Xiao Hong had seen that Avalokitesvara turned to be a man or a woman to guide ordinary people. He did not care about that and explained with a smile, “I thought he was brave. But after you left, he grasped me and did not let me go. He said he was so afraid to be cut for research when he was asleep.”

Hao Ning came back with breakfast and he quibbled after he heard Xiao Hong’s word., “You cannot blame me for last night! You know that I was so scared yesterday. I dare not to sleep alone.”

“Oh.” Liu Shuai clapped the table excitedly. “Hao Ning, why do you have something to fear since you did all things even including meeting, fighting against and insulting the immortal? ”

“Bullshit! I am not afraid to fight against the immortal. ” Hao Ning had his porridge and frowned. “The immortal had his moral value and we fight against him in the front. Yi Pingzhi has so many tricks. He vanished after talking last night and Zhou Yuan could not find him. Don’t you see his extreme speed? If he wants to attack me secretly, what could I do? I can’t always use Lend Me Your Mana for the defense to stay up for whole night.”

“You are right.” Xiao Hong nodded and said seriously. “So, I will stay with you all day till you help me find a girlfriend—um, till we successfully go through the trouble.”

“…” Hao Ning looked at Xiao Hong without a word. He said, “I thought a lot last night. I am mainly concerned about the essence of thearchy and the azoth of thearchy since I know nothing about him. What do you know about him?”

“No,” Liu Shuai concentrated on having his steamed stuffed bun and said carelessly, “I did not offend anybody yesterday on purpose. I don’t care anything.”

“Ah—” Hao Ning felt very angry and threw chopsticks away. He cursed, “Are you out of your mind? What I did is to gain money to save Long Fei. Am I wrong? You are powerful, then you earn 100 million. All right?”

Back to the 100 million, Liu Shuai suddenly got an idea and asked excitedly, “brother Xiao Hong~”

Xiao Hong felt very embarrassed and the spoon fell on the ground by his naughty words. He frowned, “Behave yourself. Don’t be so naughty!”

“Hey, we got so much money yesterday. ” Liu Shuai did not care Xiao Hong’s reply and said, “Apart from the part used to save Long Fei, how much do we have?”

“I did not count. Maybe we’ve got about several million yuan.” Xiao Hong came back with a new spoon. “What’s the matter?”

“Oh, we are talking about the money discussed yesterday.” Liu Shuai added with a flattering smile, “with so much money left, how about we buy a car…”

“No way!” before Xiao Hong answered, Hao Ning disrupted impolitely with a cold voice. “That’s the money I earned, and you don’t get to spend it!”

“You!” Liu Shuai was about to show his power, but he thought Hao Ning was right. It was Hao Ning who earned the money. He said,” You have said that I can spend it before. Did you just change your mind?”

“You never care about my life.” Hao Ning felt even more angry. He was in danger while Liu Shuai was thinking about how to use the money. He stood and was about to leave, “I have my meal outside!”

“Ah, Liu Shuai, stop teasing him!” Zhou Yuan pulled Hao Ning back. “You know him, right? He is such a coward. He dares to fight back Avalokitesvara but he even can’t stay alone at home and felt extremely frightened even when he heard some strange sound. If you frighten him, maybe he would be insane soon.”

“Here you are!” Liu Shuai laughed and took out his mobile phone to show an app to Hao Ning. “This app was edited by me last night. If Yi Pingzhi appears within 50 kilometers, Zhou Yuan will sense his Spiritual Flying Bugs. We can trace him in the app and even see what he can see!”

“But do not see that the bugs see.” Zhou Yuan laughed. “That will cost my incenses. You must use it moderately—thanks to Liu Shuai, our great programmer, we can see colors by his adjustment! But with half an hour delay…”

“It is not enough for people to adjust the app by only one night…” Liu Shuai glared at Zhou Yuan and turned back to Hao Ning with a smile. “It will be better if I have a few more days to work on it.”

“You—” Hao Ning looked at the app and there was nothing on the screen, which means Yi Pingzhi was not near them. He felt touched. He knew Liu Shuai was so good at programming, but he only spent one night making this app. Liu Shuai must have spent a lot of time and energy. He felt sorry for his mean words, but he just could not speak it out.

“All right, take it easy.” Zhou Yuan added laughingly. “I have magic too. I know you are scared. So, I prepared something for you—” He took out a watch that looks like a normal Apple watch, like the one Liu Shuai sent to Zhang Quan.

“This is not a normal Apple watch. It can sense the smell of Yi Pingzhi.” Zhou Yuan explained, “If you take it, you can be taken to my virtualized reality when you are in danger and he will see a fake you. Thus, what he attacks is the fake you in phantom. It was the first time that I made this kind of app. The app could only be used for three or four times after my adjustment last night. If it is out of order, you can call me.”

Hao Ning at this moment had no idea about what to say. Those two people made fun of him. But last night they must have discussed the plan. Hao Ning felt hot in his chest and he lowered his head. “Sorry, I was so stupid to blame you guys.”

“It’s okay if you know your fault.” Liu Shuai continued to tease. “So, what are we going to do about the money?”

“You guys can take it as you want.” Hao Ning seemed to revive and became so generous about money. “If it is not enough for you, let’s play stone-gambling one more time.”

“Thanks, but no.” Xiao Hong saw them horse around but still cherished the relationship. He reminded, “You all saw the strange thing last night. I suggest that let’s stop and think of another way later. ”

“You are right,” Hao Ning nodded. “We still have a large number of money. Our main task is to find solutions to save Long Fei—”

“Na Mo E Mi Tuo Fo~Na Mo Mount Putuo~” Xiao Hong’s phone was ringing. He found it was Jienan. Xiao Hong felt strange that he had no more connections with Jienan. The number was told to him as they transferred their accounts yesterday. He answered the phone and said politely, “Jienan? You wake up so early. Come down to get something to eat.”

Xiao Hong answered the call with a smile. His face turned to be cold without a word after hearing Jienan’s words.

“What happened?” Liu Shuai had no idea what kind of words of Jienan could make Xiao Hong got so serious. “What happened to Zhang Dalong?”

“No.” Xiao Hong said and looked at the three people. “They found those players who play games for 24 hours continuously.”

“That’s good news!” Hao Ning clapped his hands and had a sip of porridge. “Why do they look for you rather than go to conduct the user talk?”

“They can’t do that. Five people were sent here this morning.” Xiao Hong frowned. “They all get treated in the opposite New Lake Health. But three of them died soon after they came to the hospital. The other two have no ability to talk. Their doctors said they would be dead today.”

“Such a coincidence?” Zhou Yuan said in a low voice. “Why do those people come here so fast as we come here and meet Zhang Dalong and Mr. Hu?”

“It’s not what you think.” Liu Shuai pondered a while and understood it. “I think those people have already got treated in other hospitals, but they didn’t get good effect. So, they come to this Chinese medicine hospital to have a try. It is just a coincidence that we come here too. Many people believe it must be feasible that one with incurable disease should be sent to the Chinese medicine hospital to get treated. ”

“We shall go to the hospital and have a check, ” Hao Ning wiped his mouth and stood, “We may not have the ability to help them.”

They crossed the road and found Jienan and Xiao Yun had already wait for them in front of the hospital. The hospital was large, and all modern facilities were well equipped, which was so different from the Chinese medicine hospital they had thought before.

Hao Ning posed his questions, and Xiao Yuan laughed. “Hao Ning, what do you think Chinese medicine hospital look like?”

“Um…” Hao Ning was shy and laughed. “I thought that it could be an old Chinese medicine doctor sitting in front of the hospital to do an inquiry to patients and then prescribe for their patients.”

“Many people believe that.” Xiao Yun did not laugh at Hao Ning’s ignorant words and smiled, “but grandpa believes that it is the Chinese medicine that should be inclusive and keep paces with the times. It should not follow the old treatment method but should be responsible for patients. Grandpa told me before that both Doctor Huatuo and the King of Medicine Sun Simiao, were pioneers in their time and spent their whole lives to find better method to save people. We, as the descendants of Chinese Medicine, should not be a conservative doctor too.”

“Grandpa Hu’s thoughts is new.” Hao Ning admired him from his heart. But he still had a question and added, “but if so, the Chinese medicine will be unlike Chinese medicine. Isn’t that weird?”

“Ha ha, you are funny. Chinese medicine has constantly developed for several thousand years, and it can’t be more like Chinese medicine.” Xiao Yun laughed when she heard Hao Ning’s words. “Before the invention of acupuncture, is there no Chinese medicine? Before the release of Qian Jin Prescriptions, is there no Chinese medicine? Absolutely NO! Chinese medicine is still Chinese medicine. When the acupuncture came out, if the Chinese medicine doctors refused to use it for it doesn’t belong to our traditional technology of Chinese medicine, so can we see the present acupuncture in Chinese medicine?”

“Eh…” Hao Ning got stunned by Xiao Yun’s words. She was right. Now the acupuncture was a method of treatment of the Chinese medicine. But at the beginning of invention of acupuncture, people at that time didn’t worry about if the acupuncture was used or if the Chinese medicine would be no longer the Chinese medicine after using the treatment of acupuncture?”

“What is Chinese medicine?” Zhou Yuan mumbled. “The Chinese medicine is like the Shel lop of Theseus. If several boat decks were transferred or removed, then the boat is the boat itself?”

“…” Hao Ning heard the Shellop of Theseus, and he remembered that this word was from the experiment of “Me Is Me or Not?” proposed by Zhou Yuan in Zhang Quan. But now he had no time to care Zhou Yuan thought about this issue. He asked Xiao Wen, “if so, what is on earth the Chinese medicine?”

“I have asked my grandpa, but he told me that,” Xiao Wen now slowed her pace and said seriously, “the so-called Chinese medicine, can be summarized as a sentence: Cure Disease and Save People with the Spirit of Benevolence. As to the issues of acupuncture, inquiry, and herbs, they are just the difference of methods and we should not focus on only one method. So, you can see that there are many modern and near western-like treatment methods. The combination of those two methods can gain more effective results.”

“Indeed!” Hao Ning looked at all kinds of facilities around and the surrounding doctors and patients. He praised, “grandpa Hu, though older than us, is very enlightened and open-minded. We, young people, feel deeply ashamed.”

“Right.” Liu Shuai nodded, “grandpa Hu summarized the core of Chinese medicine as Cure Disease and Save People with the Spirit of Benevolence, which expresses the principle of Return to the Innocent. But it is possible that the words of grandpa Hu just now may cause reproaches from others.”

“Yes, grandpa was reproached by people outside the field of the Chinese medicine, such as the family Yi in the field and some entrepreneurs from Fei family.” Xiao Yun nodded, “Also some patients disagreed too and always posed their doubts in the process of treatment.”

“Their doubts about what?” Hao Ning asked quickly and doubted if the Fei entrepreneur was Mr. Fei. If that’s true, it was so strange that he appeared everywhere.

“Just like you, they suspect that we are not real Chinese medicine doctors.” Xiao Yun smiled. “Once a patient asked me why they need to do a blood test in this Chinese medicine hospital when they just get diarrhea?”

“Ha ha ha,” Liu Shuai laughed. “So, we know that those patients must be misguided by some TV serials. There are some unique features and some treatment methods in Chinese medicine. The combination with western diagnoses such as virology can help confirm the cause of disease. Although the disease like diarrhea is very common, it is still necessary to determine whether it is caused by bacterial or viral, or white blood cells, neutrophils or even blood cells. It is better to treat patients with double medical methods.”

“Oh?” Xiao Yun pretended to be calm and she was surprised to look at Liu Shuai, “my grandpa told me that you guys are talents in the IT field. I am so surprised that you know so many details about medicine.”

“I majored in biology in university.” Liu Shuai was shy and scratched his head. “And I studied some elective course about Chinese and western medical knowledge. There are some famous medical universities in Chang’an and I always went to attend the relevant course just for personal interest. Ha ha.”

“Wonderful!” Xiao Yun nodded with a smile. “I envy people like you that you can spend all the time to study subjects you like. If I have a chance, I want to communicate with you more.”

“OK” Liu Shuai answered quickly. “Although my job has nothing to do with biology, I have much interest in that. Welcome to communicate.”

Liu Shuai and Xiao Yun just had a pure interest in biology. But Jienan who stood aside turned to be a little upset. He, as the secretary of Zhang Dalong, knew much about knowledge of Internet and he fell in love with Xiao Yun.

Knowledge was diversified and he knew nothing about medicine which Xiao Yun had an interest in. He just had martial arts and he knew he could not use this to attract Xiao Yun. Xiao Yun stood aloof with him because they had no common topics. Today, Liu Shuai’s ordinary words attracted Xiao Yun very much. He did not know how they would communicate. Upset and depressed, Jienan walked slowly behind those people and saw Liu Shuai and Xiao Yun talking to each other happily.

Hao Ning knew what Jienan was thinking about. Considering the behavior of Xiao Hong recently, he sensed that young man and women always trapped in love. He did not want to create any troubles and then he slowed his pace and said to Jienan secretly, “Calm down. Liu Shuai won’t loot your lover.”

“How do you know that?” Jienan blushed, which clearly showed his love for Xiao Yun. He stammered, “I, I, I don’t, um…”

Hao Ning signed and felt funny that Jienan was free and easy in common time. But now when talking about love, he became such a shy boy. At this age, a girl would not come closer if a boy did not act actively. Hao Ning knew that why Xiao Yun stayed aloof with Jienan. Jienan believed that great martial arts could attract girls. Now he had no interest to be a matchmaker and he just wanted Jienan not to misunderstand Liu Shuai. He added, “Liu Shuai has already had a girlfriend and they are so sweet. Liu Shuai just has normal communication with Xiao Yun. Don’t worry.”

“Really?” Jienan felt excited after he heard it and expressed his gratitude to Hao Ning, “thanks to your guidance, brother Hao Ning!”

Then, they went to the top floor of this hospital, which was the ward. Different from the scene when Hao Ning and his friends went to see Qi Li, the ward was full of patients and some were even lying in the passage.

“Is this the emergency clinic?” Liu Shuai asked, “Why are there so many patients here? And emergency clinic won’t be set on the top floor!”

“This is not an emergency clinic.” Xiao Yun sighed, and said embarrassingly. “This floor is a little bit special, where most of patients who got rare diseases and need to be hospitalized. The ordinary hospital won’t set this ward. But here, we Chinese people have the belief. They want to have a try to be treated here when they have no other method to cure their diseases.”

Liu Shuai agreed with her words and nodded, “Grandpa Hu has great medical morality…”

“I don’t understand your words.” Hao Ning did not understand how Liu Shuai got that idea. He thought Liu Shuai had no reason to flatter grandpa Hu. But from Jienan’s face. He thought Liu Shuai was flattering Xiao Yun. In order to avoid some misunderstandings, he asked with an emphasizing mood on purpose, “how do you know that grandpa Hu has great medical morality?”

“You can think about it.” Liu Shuai analyzed seriously, “The diseases that are hardly been cured by other hospitals are really tough in the most cases. Thus, no hospital will let those people with incurable diseases in and set such a ward to treat them. That will cause a high death rate in hospitals, which will cause bad fame of those hospitals. Only a virtuous doctor who has sincere heart to treat patients can take in people with incurable diseases. Maybe only the doctor who cares about no fame can afford the sentence of Cure Disease and Save People with the Spirit of Benevolence.”

“If you meet my grandpa, he must treat you as his close friend.” Xiao Yun said with her eyes glittering. “I am too blind to see this when I stay with grandpa for curing people for such a long time.”

“You didn’t think of it because you are blind.” Liu Shuai laughed, “Your interest is in curing people other than personal fame. On this point, you are the same as grandpa Hu.”

Hao Ning got crazy after hearing those words. Liu Shuai talked about it with well-founded sincerity. But in Xiao Yun’s eyes, Liu Shuai’s words are the most reasonable praise in this world. Xiao Hong blushed and smiled without a word.

“Brother Hao Ning…” Jienan now felt pretty upset and regretted. Just now when Zhang Dalong let him wait for Hao Ning and his friends, he required to stay with Xiao Yun for communications with Xiao Yun. He did not think that Liu Shuai appeared in front of Xiao Yun and stole his show.

As for appearance, power, sincere heart and martial art, Jienan thought he was superior to Liu Shuai. But he never thought that Liu Shuai earned Xiao Yun’s favorable impression without any reason.

Men had no more jealousy, but Jienan was so upset.

Hao Ning looked at Jienan with a bitter smile and looked at Liu Shuai and pretty Xiao Yun. He found that there were three people with five roles: two were falling in love, two had no love emotion and one knew nothing. What is going on with these three people?”

“Brother Hao Ning,” Xiao Hong secretly pulled Hao Ning’s clothing and said with a serious voice, “Something is wrong here.”

“Ah?” Hao Ning saw Xiao Hong’s face and had no time to consider others’ love story. He asked in a low voice too, “What’s wrong? It is not like a hospital here.”

“No,” Xiao Hong shook his head, “there is no smell of any souls.”

“What do you mean?” Hao Ning saw Xiao Hong’s serious face but did not know what Xiao Hong meant. He pulled Zhou Yuan and Zhou Yuan had already heard Xiao Hong’s words. He slowed his pace and asked, “what is no souls’ smell?”

“According to Jienan, those people were sent to here in this morning.” Xiao Hong looked around and said in a low voice. And those three dead people’s souls must be here waiting for reincarnation. But I can’t feel their soul here waiting for reincarnation.”

Zhou Yuan got stunned. “It means that those dead people have already had no soul when they are alive. Is that what you mean?”

“Yes.” Xiao Hong nodded seriously. “Normally speaking, a man without soul will dead in flesh. But they, with no soul, are still alive to come to this hospital. Then, what is on earth in their bodies?”

“Maybe they are animal souls.” Hao Ning guessed. “It seems that Soul Hunting Sect have done this. Or these people have drink amulet water to remain the living flesh without souls.”

Hao Ning took a glimpse at Zhou Yuan. Lan Ruo who once took Zhou Yuan’s soul was planning to do this.

“No.” Xiao Hong shook his head. “Then I should also feel that.”

“You are so nervous.” Zhou Yuan seemed to understand something. “Is there any other reason?”

“Right.” Xiao Hong nodded. “I do not worry normal death, but I worry that it is a kind of witchcraft– the living dead can live without souls.”

“Ah?” Liu Shuai heard Xiao Hong was talking about living dead and he got great interest in engaging in the discussion. But Xiao Yun were still asking about the combination of Internet and medical technology. He thought that he had no to time to continue the topic with the little girl. He pulled Jienan back and said, “Jienan knows much more IT knowledge than me. How about letting him explain that to you. Excuse me.”

Ignoring Xiao Yun’s astonishment and Jienan’s happiness, Liu Shuai came to Xiao Hong and said secretly, “did you just say a witchcraft?”

“Hey, Xiao Yun.” Jienan now was like an idiot. “It seems that they have something to discuss. We shall not disrupt them. Maybe we can…”

Xiao Hong threw a look at Jienan and walked straight. “Let’s go and give them some space.”

“OK…” Jienan scratched his head and did not know what he should say, but he walked closer to Xiao Yun.

Seeing Liu Shuai rush in and the look of Xiao Yun and Jienan in the distance, Hao Ning thought to himself , ‘that’s all we can do for you, Jienan.’ He continued to listen to the discussion of Xiao Hong and Liu Shuai.

“Do you worry about the witchcraft?” Liu Shuai asked seriously. “But how it is possible?”

“I am not sure.” Xiao Hong described the reason simply. “Then, are there any other possibilities?”

“If it is true, it will be bad.” Liu Shuai frowned and stomped. “Really bad.”

“Eh.” Hao Ning felt so confused by those two people’s words and asked. “Could you tell me what you are talking about?”

“Living dead, the witchcraft, can drive dead people to move.” Liu Shuai said in a low voice. “It is said that the craft is so powerful that can make dead people do the same face and body expression. And it is hard to distinguish the difference. But in fact, those dead people are puppets.”

“The most distinctive difference is that they have no souls—” Xiao Hong thought the description was not so correct. “Correctly speaking, they have no souls for a long time.”

Now Hao Ning could not help to looking at Zhou Yuan because Zhou Yuan once acted like living dead when he lost his soul. He shuddered and stepped away from Zhou Yuan.