The static ended, and nothing followed it.
No voice. No name. No click of a channel closing the way a channel was supposed to close. The intercom simply stopped, and the silence that came after sat heavier than the noise had.
Lin Yue kept his eyes on the ceiling speaker for a long moment, waiting for the pause to explain itself. It didn't. Somewhere past the archway, a cart wheel squeaked against tile, unbothered, indifferent to the three seconds that had just passed. A door clicked shut down one of the side corridors. The fluorescent light nearest the common area buzzed on, exactly as it had before, exactly as it would after.
The hospital had already moved on.
"Was that supposed to be an announcement?" Shen Rui asked, breaking the silence first, his voice pitched low, like he wasn't sure the ward wanted to be spoken to right now.
