Chapter 1 A Scream

A scream awoke the family.

Understandably so.

Imagine, late at night, entering a dark bathroom, bladder aching, only to open the door and find someone already inside. That alone is enough to terrify anyone; most people have had a similar experience.

Except, the sister-in-law encountered a ghost.

Lin Wanqiu came out of the bedroom and reached out to pull her younger sister up.

"What's wrong? What's wrong!"

The father-in-law and mother-in-law also came upstairs from the first floor, seeing their youngest daughter crying in her sister's arms, and then glancing at Zhou Ze, still sitting on the toilet.

"You good-for-nothing Xu Le! You're a heartless bastard! You're even trying to take advantage of my youngest daughter!"

The mother-in-law grabbed the broom from the bathroom doorway, ready to hit Xu Le.

The father-in-law was the same, storming in to teach his worthless son-in-law a lesson.

It's understandable.

Seeing this scene,

everyone would naturally jump to that conclusion.

The brother-in-law had gone mad,

making advances on the sister-in-law.

After all, as the saying goes, the sister-in-law is half the brother-in-law's…

"Mom and Dad, Xiao Yi was just scared when she went into the bathroom," Dr. Lin said.

The mother-in-law paused, the broom raised but unsure where to put it.

The father-in-law also faltered, then retreated a few steps, looking somewhat embarrassed.

This interruption made Zhou Ze suddenly realize that the veins on his arms had receded sometime ago, and the intense pain had also disappeared.

He just felt so tired, so sleepy, and desperately wanted to sleep.

He stood up, ready to leave the bathroom. As for his parents-in-law, Zhou Ze really couldn't be bothered to argue. He had no interest in cleaning up Xu Le's mess.

However, when Zhou Ze stood up, the sister-in-law immediately shuddered several times, hiding in her sister's arms.

"Ah! Don't come over here! Don't come over here!"

Zhou Ze frowned slightly. What had she seen just now?

"What exactly is going on!" the mother-in-law demanded, hands on her hips, questioning her youngest daughter. This didn't seem like just being scared. "Xiao Yi, tell Mom, what happened? Did he... do something to you?"

The sister-in-law was honest, and she knew that she couldn't lie about such a thing, otherwise the consequences would be severe.

"No, I came to use the bathroom, and when I opened the door, I saw him sitting there. It was so scary!"

After bravely saying this, the sister-in-law buried her head in her sister's arms again.

Okay,

it was just a misunderstanding after all.

"You mindless idiot, you know you should turn on the light when you use the bathroom at night?

Do you think my house is your house, all stingy,

unwilling to spend that little bit of electricity!

If you scare my daughter and something happens to her, how will you ever compensate us…?"

The mother-in-law started to berate Zhou Ze, her finger almost poking him in the face.

Zhou Ze was exhausted at the moment. When a person is extremely sleep-deprived, they tend to be irritable, and Zhou Ze was already impatient with the terrible network of relationships Xu Le had left him.

If they hadn't been sleeping in separate beds,

Zhou Ze might not have snapped.

But now that they were sleeping in separate beds,

Zhou Ze wasn't willing to put up with this snobbish mother-in-law's attitude anymore.

"Slap!"

Zhou Ze waved his hand, directly knocking away the mother-in-law's finger that was pointing at him.

"Don't bother me."

The mother-in-law's eyes widened, clearly not believing that her usually meek son-in-law would dare to speak to her like that.

"How dare you talk to your mother like that! Where are your manners!" the father-in-law scolded.

"If you want your daughter to become a second-hand woman, then go ahead and lecture me about manners!"

Zhou Ze retorted directly, then bumped past his father-in-law with his shoulder and walked back to the bedroom.

"Bang!" The door slammed shut with great force.

"Outrageous! Absolutely outrageous!" The father-in-law's chest heaved with anger.

The mother-in-law quickly came to her husband's side and patted his chest.

But in the end, the two of them didn't dare to continue the commotion,

after all,

what Zhou Ze had just said was a great deterrent to them.

Although they didn't know what had happened to their usually timid son-in-law today, he was right. If their eldest daughter divorced, her next marriage would be a second marriage, which would be bad for her reputation and for the family's reputation.

Moreover, in their eyes, a woman who had been married once was worthless and wouldn't be able to find a good family.

In fact, a person's quality and whether their thinking is feudal have little to do with their education or family background. It mainly depends on the individual's own quality.

For example, Xu Le's parents-in-law at this time, no matter how angry they were, didn't dare to provoke their worthless son-in-law at this time, for fear that he would really jump up and demand a divorce.

Zhou Ze lay in bed, took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and planned to sleep. He was really tired.

About fifteen minutes later,

Zhou Ze heard a knock on the bedroom door:

"Xiao Yi is scared. I'll go sleep with her tonight."

It was Lin Wanqiu's voice, and then she left.

It's not like you really sleep with me anyway.

…………

The next day at noon,

the father-in-law and mother-in-law were eating lunch.

"Did he go to the bookstore?" the father-in-law asked the mother-in-law.

"He hasn't gotten up yet," the mother-in-law said resentfully.

"Disgraceful," the father-in-law commented.

"Exactly…"

At this moment, the mother-in-law suddenly stopped talking, because she saw Zhou Ze walking down the stairs. Zhou Ze's eyes were red, and he had severe bags under his eyes.

The atmosphere was a bit stagnant,

perhaps because of what happened last night, Zhou Ze's status as a live-in son-in-law in this family had risen to a certain extent. At least, at this time, the father-in-law and mother-in-law didn't say anything to provoke him.

Of course, it was also because Zhou Ze's current appearance looked like he was ready to grab a knife and start hacking at any moment.

Scanning the dining table,

Zhou Ze reached out and covered his chest.

The aroma of rice,

the aroma of meat,

so disgusting,

he felt like throwing up again.

Zhou Ze walked out of the house, breathing in the slightly cool, fresh air outside, feeling a little better.

His head was a bit dizzy, and Zhou Ze began to wander the streets alone. He needed to think about some things quietly, but his current state of extreme sleepiness but inability to sleep made it difficult for him to truly calm down.

Very conflicted,

very uncomfortable,

like walking out after spending two consecutive nights at an internet cafe, or like a middle school student hiding under the covers all night reading novels and then getting up early to go to school the next day.

As he walked, Zhou Ze suddenly stopped. The surrounding environment was somewhat familiar.

Then he saw the sign in front of him,

Tongcheng First Affiliated Hospital.

He had actually wandered to his old workplace. Heh, maybe it was because Tongcheng was too small.

Zhou Ze walked into the hospital, not to revisit old haunts, but to get some sleeping pills to try.

Not eating, he could still endure it, at most drink more water, drink enough to fill his stomach and make do for a while. But not sleeping was a long-term torment.

The familiar hospital, the familiar working environment. Zhou Ze saw that on the list of names and photos in the emergency department on the ground floor, his photo had turned grayscale.

Then he subconsciously walked to his original office. His desk had been replaced, and a middle-aged doctor with many freckles on his face was sitting in his seat. Glancing at the nameplate on the desk, the doctor's surname was Kang.

He breathed a long sigh, feeling a bit melancholy.

Zhou Ze temporarily forgot about getting sleeping pills. Perhaps this feeling of "things have changed" temporarily suppressed the torment of sleepiness. Zhou Ze began to wander around the hospital.

He was savoring the bits and pieces of his life here,

his work,

his life,

and,

his past,

or rather, his previous life.

He couldn't go back, he really couldn't go back, Zhou Ze muttered to himself.

Then, unknowingly, he actually walked down the stairs and came to the basement.

He stood in place. As a doctor who had worked here for many years, he knew the layout of this floor.

Some equipment storage rooms, and then, the morgue.

He remembered that he had once laid in the hospital morgue and had been made up by a mortician there.

He started walking again, toward the morgue.

Zhou Ze wanted to see the place where he had once laid. This was his own explanation for going there now, but in reality, it was a special feeling in the dark that was guiding him forward.

As he walked, Zhou Ze saw the door of the morgue. The door had an electronic keypad lock. Coincidentally, Zhou Ze remembered the password. Doctors from other departments probably wouldn't have much contact with this place, but Zhou Ze used to be in the emergency department. People sent to the emergency room were generally patients with serious injuries and illnesses, and some would inevitably die and have to be sent here for placement.

In fact, this hospital also served as the police station's morgue. Some corpses of unknown origin or that needed to be "processed" were temporarily placed here. This was common practice in many places. If the local police station's conditions were insufficient and there were not enough forensic doctors, the corpses were often placed in the local funeral home or hospital.

He entered the password,

and the door lock opened directly.

Zhou Ze walked in.

A chill came over him,

not the kind of chill that stimulated the skin,

but the kind of special coldness that seemed to be able to cover the temperature of your heart.

In the morgue, of course, lay corpses. Here was the dead's brief resting place.

Logically speaking, there should be a designated administrator outside, but for some reason, Zhou Ze didn't see anyone when he just came in. Maybe the other party had gone off somewhere.

Zhou Ze walked among them. Several corpses were placed on cold gurney beds, covered with white sheets, and another corpse was wrapped in a flowered quilt for home use. Judging from the silver hair on the corpse's exposed head, the deceased should have been an old woman.

Because of his profession, Zhou Ze was not very afraid of corpses, not to mention that he himself was now a ghost.

Zhou Ze walked to the freezer, which was the kind with layers that could be pulled out.

The freezers with corpses in them had labels on the outside, recording the corpse's name, gender, and other information.

Zhou Ze pulled open an empty freezer, reached in, closed his eyes, and slowly sensed it, gradually producing a kind of intoxicating emotion, as if only here could he find peace.

Hesitating for a moment, Zhou Ze lay down.

"Creak…"

The freezer was slowly pushed in, until the final closure.

Quiet,

cold,

silent,

Zhou Ze slowly closed his eyelids,

sleepiness came over him,

he had finally found the feeling of sleep,

but he couldn't sleep yet,

because he didn't know,

who was standing outside just now helping him push the freezer in…