“Hello, Ms. Wong… how can I help you?” when he got the phone call from Josephine Wong, Jason was surprised and nervous as he did not ever expect such a call would happen.
“Just call me Josephine, how’s school?” Josephine Wong asked.
“Yeah, good, I learned a lot - we both learned a lot.” Jason stuttered: “And how’s - work?”
“Work’s good. Thanks for asking.” Josephine Wong chuckled: “And sorry to call you out of the blue like this - but this is for work as well. Do you have a minute?”
“Yeah, yeah sure. I have some time now.”
“Okay, I wanna know about your experience with these ‘influencers’ going into the Clearwater Municipal Hospital.” Josephine Wong said: “Specifically, the kind of things you encountered in it. Don’t worry too much about secrecy, this line is blessed and protected, so feel free to tell me everything you know.”
“Um… okay...” Jason thought for a while: “Yeah, so the thing is, at the time I didn’t know about the Division at all - so when those influencers looped my friends in this adventure into the haunted hospital, I kinda had no choice but to follow them and tried to stop them from getting into too much trouble - so I followed them into the hospital. Then everything was kinda normal for a while, it was only until we reached the third floor did things start going wrong.”
“Yeah. Room 3-5-13?”
“Yeah! Yeah!” Jason nodded even though they were speaking through the phone: “Wait, how’d you know? Did you go in there as well?”
“Yes, I went in there for work.” Josephine Wong said: “And you said you didn’t have much trouble before reaching the third floor? Did you notice anything?”
“Just the mirrors and windows felt weird - I couldn’t tell what it was, but there was something really unsettling about them.” Jason thought for a while, then said: “And when we reached room 3-5-13, we saw some kind of memory hologram replay - ”
“Memory replay? You saw it too? What did you see?”
“A nurse - I think her name was Nurse Shirley, went into the rooms and poured some powder into three patients’ mouths. I remember they seemed to be some gangsters, but I couldn’t tell from the memory I saw.”
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“Okay … interesting.” Josephine Wong went silent for a short while: “You should know, when I went in there, I seemed to have seen the memory from a different perspective. I saw the Chief Administrative Officer berating two journalists and sending them out of the hospital. Then the CAO went into his office, then he seemed to hear some struggle outside and then I saw the security guards dragging the nurse away.”
“So it must be the same incident.” Jason immediately said: “Did… did you see the nurse’s face?”
“No.” Josephine Wong answered: “In the memory I saw, the face of the nurse was severely damaged. I don’t think that’s what she looked like when the incident happened.”
“Yeah, I might be totally wrong here, but I think you and I saw two different pieces of memory from two different spirits trapped in the insanity of the clustered malice.” Jason said.
“Mhm.” Josephine Wong acknowledged: “Go on.”
“I forgot to mention this, but when we were in there, we were actually helped by the spirit of Nurse Shirley. If not for her help, we might not have been able to make it out alive.” Jason said: “I remember I could see her face quite clearly, and she even prayed after putting the powder into the three patients’ mouths. It’s quite clear that the memory belongs to her, at least the major parts. And what you saw, is clearly at least for the most part the memory of the CAO. Now, I don’t remember seeing the CAO in Nurse Shirley’s memory, but from what you said, looks like at least this CAO is in charge of some kind of sick experiment, and Nurse Shirley foiled the experiment by feeding them poison and granting them mercy. I suspect these memories have something to do with the reason the hospital is haunted. I was thinking the other day I may need to dig into the history a bit. If you need my help with anything, please feel free to let me know.”
“No, I don’t think that’s poison.” Josephine Wong said: “When I saw the memory, there was some kind of strange dark liquid flowing on the ground. That was some kind of medium substance - it might even be liquefied malice. And this reminded me of some kind of past evil practice, where live animals and even humans are used as subjects and incubating vessels to cultivate malice. I don’t have a lot of evidence to back this up, so don’t treat it like a definite theory. We’ll definitely let you know if we find something that can be disclosed. Also we will send some people to check on your friends.”
“Thank you very much, Josephine.” Jason said.
“Now, I heard that the academy went on lockdown due to the circulation of some dangerous substance. How are you doing? You have something you need?”
“Oh! No, thank you so much. We’re doing really good.” Jason chuckled and felt flattered by this sudden offer, “I don’t think we need anything for now - we may need some help choosing some tier 2 enchanted artifact from the Martin House though.”
“Yeah, I heard.” Josephine Wong laughed: “I would love to help you. Especially with Dorothea being the Headmistress. But unfortunately per the rules of the student duel, people like me cannot offer you any direct assistance, otherwise serious consequences would befall you. But I can tell you this - there are no rules forbidding me from teaching you a few things on judging and appraising the quality of artifacts - I taught Jianmen this, and I can teach you this. I’ll have some reading material delivered to you in a few days. Don’t make any rash decisions until you receive them.”
“Got it, thanks again!”