Chapter 37

The City Anning Hospital is located at the foot of Mount Fenghuang, 20 kilometers from the city center, covering an area of about 60,000 square meters, built into the mountainside; Tan Yang’s ward is on the third floor of Yiran Building, near the mountain base.

Gu Changzheng entered the single room at the end of the corridor under the guidance of the security officer.

As he climbed the stairs, he had noticed that this building was an old-style structure from years ago: after ascending the stairs, there was a corridor lined with parallel rooms; the outer side of the corridor was sealed with steel mesh welded from bars as thick as a thumb, and each room had an iron door, with windows similarly barred by the same steel mesh.

The room’s furnishings were extremely simple: a one-meter-wide iron bed, its legs firmly bolted to the floor; a low cabinet beside it, also fixed to the wall; everything else was bare, smooth walls.

Gu Changzheng stood in the room and asked, “Are you certain Tan Yang returned to his ward before he vanished?”

According to hospital staff, after receiving today’s treatment, Tan Yang was escorted back to his ward by his head nurse and had not left since; when the night nurse came to distribute oral medication, she found the room completely empty—no sign of him!

Upon receiving the report, the hospital security department immediately called the police and sealed the room while conducting a full search of the hospital grounds.

Gu Changzheng stared at the room before him: the doors and windows were intact, with no signs of forced entry; even the dust on the windowsill remained undisturbed, untouched by any hand.

He silently circled the room several times, finding nothing unusual—even if he were locked inside, he couldn’t escape without damaging the doors or windows!

How did Tan Yang manage this? Or had he never returned to the ward at all?

“Go get his head nurse. I want to re-examine the details,” Gu Changzheng told the accompanying security officer. He didn’t believe a living man could vanish from a sealed room without leaving a trace—something must have gone wrong at some point!

While waiting for the nurse to arrive, Gu Changzheng noticed through the window a two-meter-wide passage behind the building, beyond which the hospital’s perimeter wall separated it from the mountain behind; one steel gate made of welded bars caught his attention.

At that moment, Tan Yang’s head nurse was brought over by the security officer.

Gu Changzheng looked at the burly middle-aged woman before him and felt something off about the way she stared at people.

“Captain Gu, this is Wu Yan, Tan Yang’s head nurse—she was the one who brought him back to his ward,” the security officer introduced.

Though called head nurse, Wu Yan was responsible for half the patients on this entire third floor—fifteen people in total. Gu Changzheng nodded and asked, “Nurse Wu, can you recall again: did you see Tan Yang enter the room before you left?”

Nurse Wu Yan blinked once and said, “Yes, after treatment, I brought him back, closed the door, and then left—he definitely went in!”

Gu Changzheng stared into her eyes and asked, “Do you have an eye condition, or something in your eye?” He noticed she kept blinking repeatedly.

“Oh, nothing serious—I have poor eyesight, always feel like there’s something in my eyes. I’m scheduled for a check-up in the city tomorrow since it’s been bothering me.”

“Alright, I understand. Thank you for your time—please go on with your duties.”

The security officer, seeing the questioning end so quickly, was about to speak, but Gu Changzheng interrupted: “What’s that iron gate behind the wall for? Who normally guards it? Is there surveillance there?”

The security officer rubbed the back of his head, stammering: “Uh… that gate hasn’t been opened in years. We patrol it daily. As for surveillance… uh… there probably isn’t any.” He kept scratching his head, as if sensing his answer was wrong, then added: “Besides, no one ever goes there anyway.”

Gu Changzheng smiled. From his body language, he was certain the man was lying—this area was clearly a blind spot in management.

He walked back to the window, his eyes locking onto the iron gate like a hawk’s. Suddenly, he pointed at it and ordered the security officer: “Take me there.”

“Ah!” The security officer, realizing this stooped-over cop wasn’t easy to fool, replied awkwardly.

At that moment, Luo Fei finished reviewing the duty log and stepped out of the administrative building ahead, walking across a courtyard enclosed by four buildings toward him.

While waiting for Luo Fei, the security officer suddenly remembered something: “Oh, Captain Gu, one more thing—the on-duty doctor upstairs, Huang, says he lost his access card, but later found it near the nurse station on the first floor. He’s always misplacing things.”

Gu Changzheng already had his theory: the so-called “escape from a sealed room” was a complete fabrication! A living person, without external aid, could not vanish from a well-sealed room—that was pure fantasy!

He needed to go to the rear wall and confirm his suspicion: if he was right, the lock on that iron gate had been tampered with.

When he descended the stairs, Luo Fei had already rushed up, panting heavily. Before Gu Changzheng, he gasped: “Captain Gu, the entry-exit logs and duty records show nothing unusual—all personnel entering or leaving are regular staff.”

“Come with me. We’re going to check one place—very likely, that’s where Tan Yang escaped from the hospital!”

Under the security officer’s guidance, they took the first-floor corridor directly to the rear wall; this passage was normally locked, accessible only with a key held by security.

Gu Changzheng stared at the wall: over three meters high, topped with a half-meter-high roll of razor-wire fencing. It was virtually impossible for an ordinary person to scale it.

So Tan Yang’s best chance to escape was to break open the iron gate.

Indeed, faint footprints were visible before the gate. The ground was all cement, so the prints were indistinct—but upon close inspection, Gu Changzheng spotted traces.

Seeing his theory confirmed, Gu Changzheng signaled Luo Fei to avoid the footprints, ordered the security officer to stay put, then hurried to the gate. The door was wrapped in a thumb-thick iron chain, secured by a fist-sized padlock.

Gu Changzheng sneered. “Looks impressive—but to anyone who knows locks, a single wire can open this in seconds!”

He pulled a paperclip from his pocket—he’d picked it up casually at the nurse station after growing suspicious of the gate.

He bent the paperclip into a thin wire, knelt, lifted the padlock, and noticed its surface was spotless—no dust at all. Then he slowly inserted the wire into the keyhole, twisted it left and right—*click!* The lock sprang open. He saw the hook had released from the left side.

“Hmph! This Tan Yang—what a lunatic! He’s brilliant!”