The girl, whose family was currently looking for her, found herself standing in front of Jiang City Medical Center where she saw an overwhelming dark aura surrounding the place. Li Fei'er stood in front of the gate, her brows furrowing as she wondered how the hospital became a massive feeding ground of several demons and ghosts.
"What just happened here?" She muttered to herself and stepped inside, feeling a little suffocated by the amount of demonic miasma around the place.
Not only that, but she could also sense a heavy feeling of despair and hatred at the western side of the building where the ICU was. In her seventeen years of living, Li Fei'er had never seen a place as infested as this hospital.
The sun was about to set, and it only meant that more low-level demons would crawl out from their hiding places and join the others in feeding on the negative life forces seeping out from their willing prey, the sick patients of the hospital.
Li Fei'er stopped walking and bit her lip. If she didn't do anything to stop these demons, more humans would eventually lose their lives without knowing what had killed them. She might not be able to save them all, but it was better to try saving some than ignoring everything altogether.
"Are you also here to visit someone?" A child's voice startled Li Fei'er and made her snap out of her deep thoughts.
How come she never sensed this child's presence coming towards her? She thought.
As she stared at the young girl standing next to her, Li Fei'er realized that the girl was wearing a hospital gown for young children and that she was ghastly pale. There was no doubt that the girl was a ghost.
"What are you doing here outside? Should you be in your room?" Li Fei'er wasn't sure what the girl's motive for reaching out to her was.
"I'm waiting for my mommy to come back," she said in response, "I've been waiting for her to come and visit me for too long. Miss, do you think she had forgotten about me?"
"I-I'm not sure." Li Fei'er hesitated to answer. Did this girl even realize that she was already dead? "Why don't you go inside? It's starting to get chilly now," she suggested.
It also would be weird if someone saw her talking by herself in public like this.
The girl frowned and shook her head defiantly.
"But I don't want to! There are so many scary monsters inside."
Li Fei'er rubbed her neck awkwardly. What should she do now?
"Is that why you are here?" she questioned the girl.
The ghost nodded and rubbed her hands together.
"I came here to wait for my mommy. I know she'll come and see me easily if I wait for her here," she told Li Fei'er. "Those scary monsters won't chase me if I stay outside."
"I see." Since the ghost put it that way, it only meant her spirit hadn't been tainted yet. If the girl continued to stay in a place like this and not cross the border to the spirit realm, she would be trapped here for eternity as a malevolent ghost.
"But still, this isn't a place a child like you should be. Say, what if I go inside with you? Will you come?"
The girl fell silent and hesitated to answer Li Fei'er. She glanced at the hospital, sensing the dark miasma spreading throughout it. She gave Li Fei'er a confused look and nodded. Most of the humans she'd seen so far ignored her, and this young miss was the only one who took notice of her.
"Okay."
"Lead the way then." Li Fei'er smiled at her. "I'll stay behind you to make sure those monsters won't chase you." It would also give her a chance to know what was truly happening inside the hospital.
As the girl walked back inside, Li Fei'er took notice of the surroundings. With her protective spell activated, she and the child ghost were protected from the affliction of the miasma swirling around them like a thick black fog.
"Miss, they are coming." The girl started to worry, wanting to run back outside for safety.
"It's alright. No one will dare to come after you while I'm here." Li Fei'er assured her, hoping they wouldn't encounter a high-level demon on their way, as she wouldn't be able to deal with it by herself.
The most important thing for her right now was to find the source of the despair and hatred taking territory in the ICU area. The other demons could wait, as she would make sure the other members of the Li family would exorcise them later.
As the night approached, the lower demons came to cling to the unsuspecting humans to slurp their life force slowly but surely. The moment they sensed Li Fei'er, they ran away in fear. These kinds of demons loved to feast on a human's life force, but they were cowardly enough to run away from trouble to preserve their lives.
It didn't take long before they reached the children's ward. The ghost girl led Li Fei'er to an empty room, only proving her initial assumption that the girl had died without seeing her mother for the last time.
A nurse came and saw Li Fei'er standing outside the door, staring out blankly with knitted brows. The ghost beside her disappeared without a trace.
"Miss, it's almost past visiting hours. You might need to come back again tomorrow." She tapped Li Fei'er shoulder to get her attention.
Li Fei'er blinked twice before facing the nurse, making sure that it wasn't another ghost approaching her for help again. Since she was young, ghosts sought after her to help them resolve their unfinished business in the mortal realm or to possess her body. Seeing that the nurse was a living human, she sighed in relief.
"I'm actually looking for someone. I heard she was confined here, but I might have come too late."