Chapter 412 The Secret of the Departed (12)

"Professor? What happened to him?"
Jiang Qiao exclaimed in disbelief, her knowledge of the professor was that he was only in his forties. Yet, the old man standing before her claimed that he was already in his eighties or nineties. How did he suddenly transform into this appearance overnight?
"Who knows, maybe he's done a lot of bad things and now he's getting what he deserves. I heard that a young girl he violated previously committed suicide due to depression. Maybe it's her ghost coming to hold him accountable. No need to pity him, he brought this upon himself. Anyway, our doctors have already examined him and couldn't find any abnormalities. There's nothing more we can do."
"He... He's dead..." Jiang Qiao stared in disbelief at the lifeless old man. There was still no sign of a ghostly presence around him, but Jiang Qiao could see green smoke rising from the top of his head, as if being drawn towards some unknown destination.
Jiang Qiao walked over, and the professor struggled to lift his head, his gaze unfocused, his mouth moving slightly but no sound came out. Jiang Qiao placed her hand on his smoking head, temporarily stopping the smoke from spilling out. The professor's pupils contracted, as if regaining a moment of clarity, and his bark-like hands slowly reached out towards Jiang Qiao, as if he had something to say.
Jiang Qiao hesitated for a moment and then leaned closer, putting his ear next to the professor's mouth. He only heard the professor whisper two words quietly: "You...".
Jiang Qiao asked, "What about me?"
Professor Zhang opens his mouth, seemingly wanting to forcefully make a sound. Suddenly, his eyes widen and stare straight ahead, as he tightly grips the clothes on his chest. He exhales heavily, with a contorted face that appears extremely painful. Not far away, medical personnel rush over upon seeing this. Jiang Qiao follows their gaze, and sees a small girl wearing a white school uniform standing coldly in the shadow behind a tree.
"You move aside first." Jiang Qiao was pushed to the side by the medical staff. When she turned her head back, the little girl had already disappeared. Although everything happened in an instant, just a moment ago when she locked eyes with the little girl, she clearly saw two lines of bloody tears streaming down her cheeks, while the empty air beneath the floating corners of the robe fluttered."
"Jiang Qiao suddenly remembered what the nurse had said before: 'If you do bad things, karma will always come back to you.'"
"Jiang Qiao whispered softly in the direction of the little girl, 'Have a safe journey.'"
"What... what am I?" Jiang Qiao kept thinking about this question until she returned to the ward. What does this professor want to say to her? Jiang Qiao raised her head and looked at the ceiling.
Although there are still some areas obscured, the painting on the top of the head has roughly revealed its true face.
Without a phone, Jiang Qiao couldn't take a photo of it, so she could only look at it several times and firmly remember it. The painting is a huge eye, and from the lines, it can be seen that the eye has double pupils. Unfortunately, Qi Ming only has a black pen, so the entire painting is in one color, black, and it is impossible to tell if these double pupils are related to Jiang Li.
The eye is depicted very vividly in this painting, with even every single eyelash drawn, but the world inside the pupil is more abstract.
Firstly, in the center of the pupil, there is a distorted figure, who Jiang Qiao speculates is a person. Although this figure has a head and body, it lacks limbs. The lines composing this figure are twisted and winding like small snakes, and the head lacks facial features except for a round hole that looks like a mouth. Beside this distorted figure are some floating wavy lines, which, although simple, do not seem to convey any specific meaning. Below the wavy lines is an elliptical shape that is divided into many fragmented pieces by lines.
"What on earth is this painting?" Jiang Qiao's neck was sore from looking up for so long. He lay down and rested his hands behind his head, continuing to stare at the painting. The nurse was right; although Qi Ming's painting was not gory, it did make people feel uneasy. The eyes in particular had a kind of magic to them, especially when the pupils became visible, it felt as if the painting was also looking back at you.
Suddenly, Jiang Qiao sat up with a start. Just a moment ago, she noticed that the eyes on the ceiling blinked at her.
In disbelief, Jiang Qiao rubbed her eyes and stared at it carefully for a while, but nothing like what happened just now occurred again. Jiang Qiao silently withdrew her gaze and murmured, "Could it be that I saw it wrong just now?" Jiang Qiao turned her head towards the corner.
Qiming is still facing away from her, mechanically drawing in the corner.
"Jiang Qiao, come out. Your paperwork is done. You can leave the hospital now. The person picking you up is waiting outside for you." The door of the ward opened, and the nurse walked in with a smile.
Jiang Qiao nodded and obediently followed her out. Just before leaving the room, Jiang Qiao looked up at the painting on the ceiling and froze. She hastily ran back and stared intently at the ceiling.
During the time when the nurse came in, the painting on the ceiling changed.
The wavy lines decreased, and the simplified figure grew limbs, and even two holes like eyes appeared on the face. Interestingly, the parts outside the eyes also changed. Not only did some horizontal wavy lines appear, but also two connected circles. Most importantly, below those two circles, two words appeared.
Devil!
Although written in a rather twisted manner, those two words are indeed devilish.
"What are you doing?" The nurse had already walked halfway before realizing that Jiang Qiao hadn't followed. She hurried back to find her, only to discover Jiang Qiao still standing in the ward with her head tilted back. The nurse followed her gaze and exclaimed, "Oh my god, how did you make the ceiling look like this? You have to pay for it."
Jiang Qiao only came back to her senses, apologizing while looking up at the ceiling, but in the blink of an eye, the painting had returned to its previous appearance.
This drove Jiang Qiao crazy. She rubbed her eyes hard, then stared at the painting closely, but this time the painting did not change at all. Jiang Qiao couldn't understand what had just happened. She turned her head and asked the nurse, "Can you see the painting on the ceiling?"
"Nonsense!" The nurse looked helplessly at Jiang Qiao, even 1000 degrees of nearsightedness would be able to see this large painting clearly: "Isn't it just a big eye? And... it even has two pupils, so disgusting."
Jiang Qiao secretly breathed a sigh of relief, it seemed that this painting was not her illusion, but a real existence.
"However, it's too eerie to have only two empty eyes in such a big painting. It would be better to add something else." The nurse muttered to herself, "But it's still okay, easy to clean."
Jiang Qiao suddenly realized and asked stutteringly, "Empty? Nothing in the pupils... nothing?"
The nurse looked at her strangely, "No, what do you mean?"