> "Anyone you want to take, fine… except her."
— Gu Ye
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[1]The List After the Flicker
4:30 a.m.
The corridor lights were still a dim yellow, but every so often they gave a faint flicker, like someone breathing from far away.
Gu Ye returned to the duty room, poured himself a cup of cold water, and drained it in one gulp before the tremor in his palm eased slightly.
The handover sheet lay quietly on the desk—but he knew perfectly well it was no longer the same one as before.
He opened it.
That eerie shadow-writing surfaced again, the ink still wet, as if dredged up from the bottom of a river, carrying a bone-deep chill.
The characters writhed slowly across the paper, like worms crawling beneath the skin.
[Ward 11 · Zhou Qin] — Expired
[Ward 23 · Shen Mu] — Remaining Time: 2 hours
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[2]That Name
Gu Ye's pupils contracted sharply as he stared at the second line.
Shen Mu—attending cardiologist at H City First People's Hospital, the "Iron-Blooded White Coat," and one of the few who had never mocked Gu Ye.
She had saved more lives than any other doctor in the duty room, and she was the only one who had handed him a cup of hot water when he first arrived.
A nurse pushed the door open, saw Gu Ye frowning at the sheet, and asked, "What's wrong? Something off with the list?"
Gu Ye covered the part with the shadow-writing, his tone calm. "Nothing."
But his fingers pressed down hard on the page.
---
[3]Something Off in the Ward
Ward 23 was in the high-floor cardiology wing.
Outside the corridor windows lay the city's nightscape; rain mist lingered, and neon reflections swayed in the moisture.
Gu Ye pushed the door open. Shen Mu was sitting at the bedside, taking an elderly patient's blood pressure.
She looked up with a smile. "Gu Ye? What are you doing here in the middle of the night?"
His gaze swept the ward—clean floors, calm air—but he caught the faintest trace of that chain-rust smell.
He walked over, casually picked up the patient's chart and flipped a couple of pages, speaking in a low voice: "Don't leave the ward today."
Shen Mu blinked. "What do you mean?"
Gu Ye didn't explain. He simply slipped a hand into his pocket, fingers finding the nail clipper—that habitual motion before he made a move.
---
[4]The Sound of Water
The ward was quiet, but in Gu Ye's ears, the sound of dripping water began—from the ceiling, the corners, and beneath the bed all at once.
This sound did not belong to the real world.
He slowly looked up. The ceiling lights swayed faintly, the inner surface of the lampshade rippling like waves.
Death had come earlier than he expected.
Gu Ye stepped to the foot of the bed, voice low and steady. "Mu-jie, lean back against the headboard. Close your eyes."
Shen Mu frowned. "What are you—"
Before she could finish, the lights dimmed. On the wall behind her, a long, thin shadow slowly opened its "eyes."
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[5]The Countdown on the List
Gu Ye shut his own eyes, counting silently in his mind—
The two-hour countdown was already slipping away by the second.
He tapped in the air before Shen Mu's chest; a blue light flared at his fingertips—
But this time, before the glow could fully form, the sound of water in the room surged violently, like someone thrashing up great waves underwater.
The shadow at the foot of the bed suddenly swelled into a human-shaped "water curtain," within which the outline of that pitch-black river was visible.
The hooded figure was already standing at the ferry, the oar's rhythm heavy and urgent, as if impatient to begin.
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[6]The First Clash
Gu Ye's voice went cold. "Her—you can't take."
The seal formed at his fingertips in an instant, locking the air at all four corners of the bed.
From the "water curtain," the hooded man's shadow thrust out a single hand, fingers like strands of waterweed coiling toward Shen Mu's neck.
Gu Ye's left hand clenched, the seal giving a sharp crack as the blue light turned into a horizontal slash, cutting that hand clean off.
The river inside the water curtain roared, towering waves making the ceiling lights flicker wildly as the room's temperature plummeted.
Death's low laugh rippled through the sound of water:
> "Gu Ye… you've touched a name you should never have touched."
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[7]The Gaze That Locks
The waves receded, the water curtain bursting apart, the shadow sucked back into the river's depths until nothing remained.
Gu Ye steadied himself on the bedrail, cold sweat dripping from his temple, the veins in his palm aching, his fingertips still trembling faintly.
Shen Mu opened her eyes, confusion on her face. "What just happened?"
Gu Ye caught his breath and smiled faintly. "Someone tried to take a patient. I sent them off."
He turned and stepped out of the ward.
The corridor lights flickered faintly, like someone was watching him from a great distance—that gaze as cold as a blade of ice.
Gu Ye didn't look back. In his mind, he murmured:
—Tonight isn't over yet.