Now that he knew how to break free,
"This door keeps drifting toward the boy, and when a red-clothed ghost appears, it even makes a sound to warn him. No matter how you look at it, this door bears no ill will toward Jiang Ming."
Chen Ge stroked his chin. "Something inside the door clearly wants to get out, but after I entered the world behind it, I didn't find that thing. Is it hiding?"
Whatever was inside the door didn't want to harm Jiang Ming, so it couldn't be those monsters filled with malice.
"Maybe Jiang Ming's lost hearing is in there."
Chen Ge still remembered the task information on the Black Phone: "The Nether Embryo mission is a life-or-death game of hide-and-seek. Is this time, when I enter the world behind the door, the moment I'm supposed to find what the Nether Embryo has hidden? Could this be the first showdown between me and the Nether Embryo?"
Chen Ge felt this was very likely. He pulled out the Black Phone and was about to double-check the mission when footsteps suddenly echoed from the second-floor hallway.
Very soft, very light footsteps—like a child tiptoeing. If Chen Ge hadn't possessed the Ghost Ear, he never would have heard them.
"Someone passing by?" The moment this thought flashed through his mind, Chen Ge's eyes snapped wide open. "Wait—monsters formed from memories in the world behind the door don't make sounds! I already tested that!"
Jiang Ming had lost his hearing in both ears. He couldn't hear the sounds of the world, but he could hear the voice of his own heart.
The world behind the door was woven from his memories. The only people who could make sounds here, besides outsiders, should be Jiang Ming himself!
Chen Ge pushed open the bathroom stall door. The bathroom was empty—not a single soul in sight.
Carrying the Skull Crusher and his backpack, Chen Ge stepped out of the bathroom and saw several children standing in the hallway.
These kids wore clothes much cleaner than those of the neighbors. They held all sorts of toys and seemed to be playing some kind of game.
"Is Jiang Ming among them?" Chen Ge approached slowly with the Skull Crusher. Before he even got close, the children spotted him.
The kids looked bright and cheerful on the surface. Their clothes were pretty and clean, but their faces were something else entirely.
Their eyes were disproportionately large, and their mouths split wide to both sides, as though they were constantly making faces.
The child at the front pointed at Chen Ge, then tugged on his own ear. All the children around him burst out laughing.
From Chen Ge's perspective, there was no sound whatsoever. He couldn't hear the children's laughter—he could only see their grotesque expressions.
"Those little brats are laughing at me."
His pupils contracted slowly. Chen Ge was sharp and meticulous; by watching the way the children's lips moved, he roughly figured out what they were saying.
The children thought Chen Ge was stupid, that he was different from normal people, and that anyone who played with him would lose their hearing too.
"Looks like Jiang Ming isn't among them. A deaf-mute kid hearing a 'joke' like that wouldn't laugh along with them." Chen Ge raised the Skull Crusher, but didn't swing it. "No point getting mad at children. Once I'm out of this door, I'll go teach them some manners in the real world—and make them apologize to Jiang Ming."
Those neighbors were too clouded in consciousness to communicate. One important reason for this was that Jiang Ming was only a child who rarely interacted with adults—but peers were different.
These children's mockery and cruel remarks were seared into Jiang Ming's memory. They must have played together often. Chen Ge thought he might be able to find clues about Jiang Ming from these kids.
He crouched down and gestured laboriously with his hands, trying to communicate with the other children without making any sound.
Chen Ge didn't want to go through all this trouble either, but the moment he made a sound, that drunk man would come chasing after him. The fewer problems, the better—so Chen Ge had no choice but to do it this way.
After gesturing for a long time, the group of children still didn't reveal any useful information to Chen Ge. All they seemed to know how to do was mock and humiliate, drawing satisfaction from it.