Chapter 478: Chapter 478 - 472: Don’t Be Afraid, It’s Me
She didn’t turn her head to look over there, just squeezed into the elevator along with the two nurses who were pushing the bed of an elderly patient. Ignoring the curious and unfamiliar glances from the nurses, she stood in the elevator with her head down, noticing they pressed the button for an upper floor. Seeing they were taking the elderly patient to a ward on the tenth floor, she suddenly reached out and pressed buttons for the tenth and twelfth floors.
The elevator paused briefly at both of these floors before proceeding to the elderly patient’s ward level.
Once at this floor, Shi Su headed straight for the stairwell, preparing to run down to the first floor. However, the moment she passed the eighth floor, she suddenly noticed her coat, hidden behind the trash can, had already been taken.
She stopped abruptly, simultaneously noticing anxious footsteps suddenly rushing from around the sixth or seventh floors.
Logically, she had deliberately left her clothes here as bait to lure them to wait on the eighth floor, expecting them to go to other floors instead. Yet, surprisingly, someone remained near these floors.
Was it coincidence or were there more than just two of them?
Or perhaps other people?
Those who knew she was at the hospital might now include more than just Shi Xiangchao.
Shi Su stepped back two paces, then turned around and ran down the corridor, swiftly darting into a ward with its door ajar. Apparently, the patient’s family had gone out momentarily without closing the door, leaving just a sleeping patient inside.
She didn’t approach, just leaned against the wall by the door, gently closing it to avoid detection. Meanwhile, she heard rapid footsteps outside in the corridor, precisely like someone prowling the area to see where she might hide.
At the same time, the ward door opened, and the patient’s family returned with a basin of water. Turning around, they saw a person dressed in a nurse’s uniform inside even though they hadn’t called a nurse in.
"You...?" The family member looked at her, puzzled.
As the door opened, Shi Su turned and walked toward another empty bed in the ward, her gaze catching the bed number above. While tidying the clean white sheets, she said, "Bed No. 9 will have a patient checking in later."
The patient from bed No. 9 had been discharged just that morning. The family expected it to remain vacant for the night, hoping to rest there themselves as a companion bed.
After casually asking a couple more questions, the family didn’t pay further attention to the nurse, who seemed unusually good-looking and whose voice was particularly pleasant. They turned to wipe their own patient’s face and hands.
Two minutes later, Shi Su discreetly left the ward, glanced around, and just as the elevator door opened with a ding, she seized the opportunity to step inside.
The phone in her pocket vibrated; she glanced down to see it was an unfamiliar number. Not knowing who was calling, she did not answer.
Once out of the elevator with the nurse, she realized this was the second floor. The nurse who had just exited the elevator was pushing a cart to distribute medication. Without a work badge, Shi Su couldn’t risk stepping out to help, so she followed behind, wasting no more than a minute as she moved swiftly towards the other side.
In the eyes of passing medical staff and family members, it seemed like just some nurses passing by, nothing unusual. Having played a nurse in a film before, Shi Su was somewhat clear on the actions to perform. Whenever encountering a questioning glance, she quickly turned to busy herself with something else, like helping push a medication cart or moving the large green-leaved potted plants along the corridor aside. All to ensure she maintained a normal ’busy work state,’ avoiding drawing any attention.
Suddenly, she glimpsed through the lush leaves of the greenery, spotting a man wearing a cap hastily leaving what seemed like a lounge, tea room, or some other room on the second floor. He was rushing towards the elevator, and she saw him enter it directly to ascend.
Shi Su hid behind the potted plants, turning her head to glance towards the end of the corridor.
Heading down from here is the first floor, which now seemed safe, even if there were others, probably just a single person guarding.
She decisively turned back towards the stairwell, secured her medical mask snugly across her face, descended quickly, and as she reached the first floor, she avoided the main entrance, looking instead at the inpatient building’s partition signboard near the stairs and headed towards the rear exit.
Just as she reached the rear exit, she abruptly saw another man with a bizarrely stuffed backpack standing there; his eyes locked onto her.
The environment in the inpatient department differed from the emergency building up front. Every corridor was bustling with family members carrying medicine and food, and nurses coming and going with carts delivering meals to various wards.
Shi Su turned and ran, suddenly overturning a row of steaming soups on a passing delivery cart. Amidst the nurse’s startled scream and instant steam spreading upward, she slipped into the crowd, running towards the main entrance.
Within two seconds, the man, laden with things on his back, nearly slipped in the puddles of soup, swore under his breath, and shoved the annoyed nurse aside to follow her.
The first-floor corridor of the inpatient department was chaotic at this moment. Shi Su, dressed as a nurse blending into the crowd, made it hard for anyone to immediately distinguish one person from another. By the time the man squeezed out of the crowd with difficulty, Shi Su had already vanished.
"Damn!"
He hurriedly strode outside, taking out his phone as he walked, lowering his voice in an urgency: "Hey, that woman slipped away. Guard near the hospital’s main entrance. She came with that director, didn’t drive herself. We can block her as long as she hasn’t gotten in a car and left!"
After hanging up, he searched around, but meanwhile, Shi Su had already ducked into the hospital’s interior from behind a planter.
She had overheard the conversation.
She couldn’t leave now.
The phone in her pocket kept vibrating, but she couldn’t answer. As the man charged outside, she could only turn and press herself against the wall, trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible behind the greenery, not moving a muscle.
Surveying her surroundings, uncertain of these pursuers’ motives nor their number, staying outside and on the first floor remained highly dangerous.
She needed to return upstairs to the inpatient department.
Seeing the man still searching outside, she dared not lower her guard, quietly sticking close to the wall to slip around from behind, then quickly walked inside again.
Those spilled soups from earlier had left the first-floor corridor still slightly chaotic. The nurses had just called over the cleaning aunties for assistance, several people stood nearby, bewildered about what had happened, planning to clean up the mess first and then check the first-floor surveillance cameras.
Upon hearing the word surveillance, Shi Su abruptly turned her gaze towards the corners and upper areas of the first-floor corridor hall and its surveillance cameras. She hoped those people had merely followed quietly, lacking the capability to access the surveillance room.
Otherwise, her every move was visible to them, escape would be impossible.
Just as Shi Su stood there eyeing the cameras, the elevator suddenly stopped on the first floor. Shi Xiangchao swiftly stepped out. The moment he spotted Shi Su, he hurried over, reaching out to grab her wrist, whispering urgently: "Shi Su, hurry and come with me, there’s in the hospital..."
Before Shi Xiangchao could finish speaking, Shi Su quickly dodged his extended hand, turned to avoid him and attempted to run away, but unexpectedly, she bumped into someone. Instinctively trying to retreat, she was instead pulled into an embrace.
Her alarms instantly went off, her body tensed in alert, in her panic she failed to recognize the familiar scent from the person.
"Don’t be afraid, it’s me."
Raising her head, Shi Su met Jing Jihan’s eyes as he tightened his embrace around her. He looked down at her eyes swirling with panic and soothed her by pressing his lips gently against her cool forehead while draping his coat over her nurse uniform-clad body.