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Mental Asylum
It Was Empty
The long corridor was dark, with dim, old-fashioned light bulbs suspended from both sides of the walls. Visibility was dismal.
The trainees who had taken the pill huddled together in their two groups, both groups led by veteran C-ranks. The other members forced themselves to keep their spirits up. They went into their rooms in twos and threes and moved their mattresses and blankets over to the leaders’ wards, forming makeshift beds.
The guy in glasses was allotted to the second group.
He followed behind his groupmates and they worked together as one to shift the beddings to another ward.
Seeing the blankets on the floor, the guy in glasses smiled wryly. “Seems like we can only make do and squeeze together tonight.”
The single-person ward was originally cramped enough. Even if they used the beddings to fill up the floor area, there would only be enough space for two or three. But their group had a total of nine people. It really would be very tight if they all squeezed into this tiny ward.
“…Actually, I do feel safer this way,” Sheng Yu consoled from beside him. “With everyone sleeping next to each other, it would be easy to react if anything happened. At least we have many people together.”
Indeed.
These newcomers were all scared out of their wits. Once thinking that they were placed in an environment wherein they could die at any time, let alone lying down, they’d rather stand here for the entire night than go back to sleep in their own wards.
“Yeah.”
The guy in glasses didn’t say much else. He rolled up in his blanket and retreated into the corner.
Perhaps because he had drunk an entire bowl of soup earlier, he felt an urgent need for the washroom, curling his legs up once he laid down.
In this group of nine, only three others were F-ranks like him; the others were D and E-ranks.
It was obvious that the group leader took more care of those few newcomer trainees with higher ratings, giving them special treatment and pulling them aside to chat, likely trying to develop them as his own henchman.
Having been an societal animal for many years, the guy in glasses’ everyday interpersonal interactions were confined to the office and his superiors. Any favour he curried from above was the result of a long time of cultivating feelings, so he didn’t have the courage to go up and make conversation today, and could only quietly chat with Sheng Yu, a blue F-rank like him, in the corner.
Although everyone was wearing the same hospital gown, the latter was a full head taller than the guy in glasses. His facial features had yet to wean the air of childishness, the greenness of youth on his face like bamboo that had just grown to its prime.
“You’re not very old, are you?”
“I just entered senior year this year.”
Sheng Yu tugged his blankets around him tighter. “I was way too sleepy the previous morning. Took a nap in class and when I next opened my eyes, I found myself here.”
The guy in glasses said sympathetically, “It’s okay, at least you managed to escape the college entrance exams.”
Sheng Yu forced a smile. Both people fell silent at the same time.
Even studying hard for the college entrance exams would be better than coming to this godforsaken place, honestly.
Under the influence of the medication, they grew lethargic, too lazy to even bother with making conversation. Yet for some reason, despite clearly being very drowsy when on their feet earlier, they started to tense up again as soon as they laid down, and sleep eluded them.
Especially so for the guy in glasses. His eyes were narrowed, willing sleep to overtake him, yet felt a more pressing need to use the toilet surge up to an unbearable level.
He stared at those crooked, illegible writings on the wall, trying his utmost to suppress the urgency of this physiological need.
For added insurance, they hadn’t even turned off the lights, leaving it to when the nurses came on their rounds to turn it off.
In the crowded ward, even the slightest conversation from not far off became particularly jarring to the ear.
“The high-rankers have all gone upstairs, who knows if they’ll be able to uncover any clues…”
“Do you think they’d feel that we’re dragging them down and deliberately conceal information from us?”
“Relax, there might be an issue if it was anyone else, but this was arranged by the Holy Son.  You can completely set your mind at ease.”
The group leader suddenly changed the topic. “Do any of you know anything about that E-rank white-haired foe?”
Several newcomers looked at each other. No one answered.
The group leader stared at the ceiling above the iron-framed bed. “What dumb luck. An E-rank actually managed to leech onto the Holy Son.”
In front of the newcomers, the group leader was a respected C-rank. But he himself knew clearly that compared to those few S and A-ranks gathering information, a C-rank was not even worth shit. Even the Holy Son said that this instance had a certain degree of difficulty, whether or not he could survive was still hard to say.
“Who knows, with the way that white-haired guy looks, he probably has some inside connections.”
Someone immediately cottoned on, yapping enthusiastically, “You don’t say. He really looks even prettier than a woman, I wonder how he tastes…”
Sheng Yu, pretending to be asleep, clenched his fists.
“You know him?” The guy in glasses had his eyes wide open as he held his bladder. Without meaning to, he had caught this reaction.
“Mm,” the high school student said softly, “Zong-ge is my saviour. If it weren’t for his reminder, I would have long been…”
F-rank was the lowest grade.
The ranking was based on a comprehensive evaluation of all aspects, not only limited to one’s physique, but also encapsulating their mental capability.
Even newcomers, anyone with a good brain or who had gone to the gym on a regular basis, could easily get an E-rank.
Sheng Yu was still a high school student who had yet to enter society, whereas the guy in glasses was just a poor bottom-rung of society, a nobody that no one would want to go on a blind date with. Even if his surroundings had changed, he was still a bottom-rung, and he couldn’t even refute it.
“Don’t be rash,” the guy in glasses silently reached over and patted Sheng Yu on the back.
After a while when he saw Sheng Yu calm down, the guy in glasses hesitantly said, “I really need to use the washroom. Do you want to go together?”
The guy in glasses really couldn’t hold it in anymore. He didn’t dare to go to the washroom alone yet also didn’t dare to pee in the sheets.
Everyone was huddled together, it was hard to even stretch his legs. If he really peed in the sheets, the others would beat him to death for sure.
But now, it would undoubtedly be a challenge to find someone to go to the washroom with. Those few higher-ranked trainees looked at the F-ranks like they were trash, so no matter how he thought about it, he could only put his hopes on Sheng Yu.
As luck would have it, Sheng Yu got from under the covers without hesitation. “Let’s go.”
The guy in glasses exhaled in relief, scrambling to his feet.
The people who were still telling their vulgar and dirty jokes over there noticed this and laughed meanly. “Look at that, two F-ranks.”
They shouted at their backs. “It’s so dark out there, don’t get scared and wet your pants!”
“Wham—”
Sheng Yu slammed the ward door behind him.
The loud sound of the iron door closing echoed down the deep corridor. Rust and dark oil stains rustled down from the shabby ceiling.
The guy in glasses silently sighed, “Come on, don’t go picking a fight with them.”
The corridor was very dark. The two men walked quietly side by side, constantly keeping an eye on their surroundings.
Basement 1 consisted of not only the wards, but also the communal showers where the patients could shower and the storeroom where the beddings were kept. Like the washroom, all of these were located at the left end of this deep corridor.
On the other hand, the renowned confinement room was located on the right end of the corridor, where the unlucky man from a while ago was locked up. The ‘sleeping’ team had specially made a trip over to look at the confinement room when they went downstairs earlier, but the lock outside the iron door showed no signs of bulging.
After a veteran used a special prop to affirm that there was still a living person inside the confinement room, they then gathered the courage to lift the iron flap on the confinement room door. Perhaps due to passing out from excessive shock, the newcomer didn’t respond no matter how much they called.
Nevertheless, at least he wasn’t dead; that was the one silver lining.
“This damn hospital doesn’t have a single clock at all. I don’t know when they will come by to conduct room-checks.”
It was difficult for the guy in glasses to walk while holding his bladder. “It should still be early. Dinner was at seven o’clock. We left around eight-thirty and went to move our things. It should be about ten o’clock now, at most.”
“Speaking of which… it’s been so long yet we haven’t seen any patients that were admitted before us.”
After calming down, Sheng Yu couldn’t help the apprehension that appeared on his face. “Did you realise that all the trainees in the broadcasting room were males? The same goes for this mental asylum. I think when I watched talent shows on television in the past, the males and females had separate auditions. Could it be that this Thriller Trainee is also a draft for males only?”
“Who knows,” the guy in glasses gave a wry smile, “what does it matter if it’s male or female, would anyone be in the mood to think about this now? We’ll be lucky enough to survive.”
“Let’s hurry up a bit.”
Inexplicably, he felt a little panicky looking at the grime completely covering the tiles in front of him. “The tiles are pitch-black; it’s creepy.”
The light cast from the bulbs pulled their shadows long. From around them, the only sound that could be heard was their footsteps.
After walking for a while, they finally reached the washroom at the end of the corridor.
The guy in glasses felt much more at ease once in the washroom.
It was a communal washroom. Although there were only four cubicles, at least it was a lot brighter than the gloomy corridor outside, giving off a much better impression.
The guy in glasses, “Do you need to use the washroom?”
Sheng Yu shook his head. “I’ll wait for you outside.”
Since Sheng Yu didn’t need to go, the guy in glasses didn’t force him.
He picked the outermost cubicle and made sure to leave the door open.
Few people would come to the washroom at this time. After all, lives were at stake here, it was inevitable that they had to afford some obscenity.
Perhaps because he had really drank a lot, he peed for an exceptionally long time.
A cold breeze poured in through the cubicle door, blowing chills against the exposed half of his ass.
And as he finished peeing, the guy in glasses abruptly felt a spell of dizziness hit the left side of his head.
His eyes went hazy for a moment. Then, he suddenly jolted, thinking in his head, this is bad.
He hadn’t had time to worry about anything else because he had been holding his bladder. Now that the physiological problem was resolved, the drowsiness imposingly reared its ugly head again.
Dizzied, the guy in glasses could barely stand upright.
In his trance, an icy hand lightly landed on his shoulder.
“Th, thanks.”
With that hand on him, the guy in glasses managed to steady himself.
He hurriedly lowered his head and zipped his pants. “Bro, thanks a bunch. If it weren’t for you, I’d definitely have toppled over earlier.”
The split second that he pressed the flush button, the guy in glasses suddenly felt that something was wrong.
Because, the hand on his shoulder was gradually gripping him tighter and tighter.
The sharp nails dug so tightly that they seemed to have spikes growing out of them, piercing the thin hospital gown with ease. A freezing cold seeped into his skin.
“Sheng… Aha, ha, bro. Don’t scare me…”
His shoulders froze to the point of numbness, and his voice trembled as an eerie chill prickled from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.
His face was ashen from fear. He didn’t dare turn around, practically about to collapse to his knees, pleading. “You… You… Say something, brother…”
“Just say something…”
—
Sheng Yu leaned against the toilet door, drifting off to sleep.
Although that pill looked small, its effect was the real deal. Even standing up could make him feel like he was in a classroom, his head nodding off like a chicken pecking at rice.
“Why are you alone?”
A voice rang out of the blue.
The high school student whose eyelids were batting immediately jolted awake.
After seeing the familiar person in front of him, Sheng Yu sighed in relief. “Jiu-ge!”
The young white-haired man who had hurried down from upstairs frowned. “Why are you standing alone in front of the washroom?”
“I came with Glasses-ge to the washroom. I’m standing guard for him outside.”
Zong Jiu lifted his eyes to look at the washroom behind him.
The incandescent light illuminated the space well. The cubicle doors were partly closed, and a dirty mop was dumped in a smelly, stained sink. It was inconceivably quiet.
“How long has he been in there?”
“Err… this, I don’t quite remember. He should have been in there for a while already, maybe he’s doing big business.”
Sheng Yu scratched his head. He turned his head back inside and shouted, “Glasses-ge, are you done yet?”
No one answered.
Now, even Sheng Yu could sense that something was obviously wrong. He shivered, saying with a stutter, “That can’t be… I’ve been keeping watch out here the entire time and I haven’t heard anything.”
Zong Jiu didn’t reply. Instead, he walked straight into the washroom and kicked open the door of the cubicle.
It was empty.
He did the same thing again, kicking open the remaining three cubicles in a row.
Contrary to expectations, there wasn’t a person in any of the four cubicles.
The whole washroom was only that big, it’d be a squeeze for a few people to stand in there; trying to hide a living person was impossible.
“What’s going on? Where is he?!” Sheng Yu was shocked. “I watched him walk in with my own eyes.”
The bullet chat in the live broadcast was equally trepid.
[Wtf, were any of you in the glasses guy’s live broadcast earlier? It’s nothing, right?]
[See, he just had to wander off alone. I called it, those left alone are always picked to be first blood, he just didn’t listen.]
[They’re two newcomers. There are so many bigshots here, who would senselessly go to watch their live broadcast? Sure enough, the newcomers in Thriller Trainee are just cannon fodder, there’s nothing to watch here, let’s go let’s go.]
[No response when they called his name, I guess he’s a goner.]
“Describe what happened in detail.”
Zong Jiu’s eyes lightly swept over the dirty sink with the mop. A big, black spider was sprawled on a large web knotted under the faucet.
“I came to use the toilet with Glasses-ge. He asked me if I wanted to go with him, and I said I wasn’t going. After that I watched him walk into the washroom and close the door behind him, then I leaned against the wall and ended up dozing off.”
Sheng Yu tried hard to recall every detail. “Although I was sleepy, I wasn’t asleep for sure. It would be impossible for me to miss it if Glasses-ge walked out of the washroom, I could hear him peeing when he used the washroom!”
…If he had even heard the sound of peeing, then the situation should be quite serious.
The young white-haired man’s eyes narrowed. Internally, he skimmed over the novel’s description of this episode, and slowly clenched his fingers around the ballpoint pen he had hidden in the long sleeves of his hospital gown.
“Rumble—”
Just then, the outermost pumping tank thundered all of a sudden, the sound carrying far, echoing loudly in the corridor. A chill ran down their spines.
They turned their heads at the same time.
The next moment, the two men standing at the door of the washroom clearly saw that the water flushing out from the squat toilet was dyed a deep, viscous scarlet.
It was blood. An unending stream of blood.
“Let’s go back and inform everyone.”
Zong Jiu shrugged. “If my guess isn’t wrong, something should have happened to him.”
Thriller Trainee – Mental Asylum
Translated by luckykoi Edited by snoflakesun
Please don’t repost or re-translate.