"Wu Sheng used to live in the old district? I thought his family moved from the western suburbs to the eastern suburbs?"
He didn't rush forward. Instead, Chen Ge turned to look behind him and noticed a large iron gate blocking the mouth of the alley. "That gate behind me looks identical to the iron gate in the world behind Jiang Ming's door."
He noticed a detail: "I went to check the apartment building where Jiang Ming used to live. That building didn't have iron gates like this. The iron gate wasn't part of Jiang Ming's memory. Now I've entered the world behind Wu Sheng's door, and this same iron gate has appeared behind me again."
Looking more closely, Chen Ge couldn't find anything obviously wrong with it. "An iron gate that serves as the entrance and exit probably has nothing to do with the parasitized child. It's most likely the Nether Egg's own memory."
With that thought, he studied the iron gate behind him even more carefully. There were no words or symbols written on it, and up close, he could smell a faint, faint hint of blood mixed with the scent of disinfectant.
"The world behind the door is woven from memories. This gate, in someone's memory, carried the smell of blood and disinfectant — could the owner of those memories have once been confined in a hospital? But a hospital shouldn't have a black iron gate like this!"
Chen Ge had now entered the worlds behind two children's doors, and there was still a lot he couldn't be certain about. He stared at the iron gate for a long while before finally looking away.
"First I'll find Wu Sheng inside the door. This world behind the door is different from what I imagined before I came in."
Chen Ge had talked with Wu Sheng's father, Wu Jinpeng, for a long time. The father was like a protective umbrella, shielding Wu Sheng from harm.
In theory, Wu Sheng's world shouldn't be too dark. But once Chen Ge stepped inside, he discovered that it was every bit as eerie as the others.
The streets were perpetually shrouded in darkness, and from every corner came all manner of terrifying sounds.
"So the Nether Egg did something. That madman would never let the children he chose be happy. What it envies most is love and warmth."
Chen Ge reached out to the Pen Spirit and
The resistance the haunted house employees faced this time was even greater.
"I need to buy them time." Chen Ge didn't believe the Nether Egg would be hiding in this world, but caution never hurt. If the Nether Egg had done the unexpected, he could very well lose his life.
"The doors beside the children's beds all looked somewhat illusory, far from real blood doors. I suspect that of these nine doors, only one is real. The other eight are decoys the Nether Egg deliberately placed to mislead people."
Chen Ge pulled out the Skull Crusher and headed deeper into the street. Wu Sheng's world was much larger than Jiang Ming's — it seemed to encompass the entire street.
After only a few steps, Chen Ge furrowed his brow. The noise around him was growing louder and louder, like swarms of insects burrowing into his ears. The sensation was deeply unpleasant.
"Having keen senses isn't always a good thing."
Chen Ge held his breath and activated his Yin Eye. The darkness couldn't greatly hinder him. "Not a single figure in sight, yet where is all this noise coming from?"
He didn't rashly charge deeper into the street. The terrain was complex, and a single misstep could leave him lost — making escape difficult when the time came.
All in all, before Xu Yin and the others could appear, Chen Ge's only objective was to stay alive.
He gently pushed open the door of a nearby building. Once inside, the noise in his ears grew even louder, and one particular crying voice became strikingly clear.
"The crying is coming from here?" Chen Ge followed the sound with his gaze and peered into the room. The buildings in the old district were all small — usually just two or three single rooms — and he quickly located the source.
In the bathroom, a girl was washing her hair. Her back was turned to Chen Ge, and she looked no older than thirteen or fourteen.
"Washing her hair while crying?"