Subduing two vicious criminals in a row had earned Chen Ge considerable goodwill in the eyes of the police.
An A-level fugitive had been caught — big news by any measure. But because of Jia Ming's particular circumstances, the case involving him was never made public, so Chen Ge's name only spread further within police circles.
"Officers, this child's father was killed and his mother is in a coma from serious injuries. Right now he's at his most vulnerable. If it's possible, I'd like to stay with him for a while." Chen Ge slung his backpack over one shoulder and gently placed his hand on the boy's shoulder, drawing him close.
"Don't worry, we'll arrange for professionals to take care of him and provide psychological counseling."
"Then could I come visit him occasionally? I'd met his parents before, so I'd probably have more to talk to him about. Please." Chen Ge gazed at the little boy, reluctant to part.
"If you want to visit, just call Captain Li Zheng and put in a request." The officers couldn't bring themselves to refuse.
"Thank you." Chen Ge crouched in front of the boy. "My name is Chen Ge. If you need anything at all, you can come to me."
"I remember you… on the bus, you were sitting right behind Dad…" The boy had ridden the same bus into Liwan Town with Chen Ge. He had a vague recollection of Chen Ge's face.
"That day I should have taken you all away right then. If I'd done it sooner, none of the rest would have happened." Chen Ge gave the boy a gentle hug, then picked up his backpack and walked out of the alley.
Watching his retreating figure, the two plainclothes officers murmured to each other: "What a kind, gentle man."
Chen Ge had no idea what the police thought of him. After leaving the alley, he didn't head back to New Century Park. Instead, he stepped into a nearby stairwell.
Standing in the corridor where sunlight couldn't reach, Chen Ge flipped through the comic album. A faint smell of blood drifted to his nostrils, and before long the stench arrived along with Xu Yin dragging Jiang Long behind him.
"Chen Ge, give me one more chance! I was confused just now — I couldn't control myself, it was an instinctive reaction!" Jiang Long was so terrified that his spectral form had grown noticeably translucent. He pleaded over and over: "I'll tell you something important — Zhen Zhen and I already found a child who'd been chosen by the Underworld Fetus. The boy was born unable to smell anything; the Underworld Fetus stole his sense of smell!"
Chen Ge looked at Jiang Long, his expression blank. "Take me to the child who lost his sense of smell."
"He's already dead. Bei Ye killed him." Jiang Long no longer dared to hold anything back. "Every child chosen by the Underworld Fetus corresponds to a door. Behind that door lies one of the Underworld Fetus's abilities. As long as you find an object behind the door that still carries the Underworld Fetus's aura, you can obtain that ability."
"There's such a rule?"
"The Shadow told me all of this, but actually carrying it out isn't as easy as it sounds. We found the chosen child seven days ago, and while he was asleep we entered the world behind his door. The residual aura of the Underworld Fetus had attached itself to a toy dog." Jiang Long stole a glance at Chen Ge as he spoke. "I can take you to find that toy dog, along with a clay figurine with the boy's name written on it."
"Hold on. You're barely a half-step red-ghost at best — how could you possibly have killed a ghost that carried the Underworld Fetus's aura behind a door?" Chen Ge himself had entered the door-world of a chosen child before. Even the most ordinary one was already harder than a standard two-star horror scenario.
"The more doors that are pushed open, the easier it is for the Underworld Fetus to awaken — and the stronger the aura it gives off becomes. I only pushed open the first door, so the difficulty was the lowest."
Chen Ge did a quick mental calculation. Jiang Long wasn't lying about this. He had personally entered the door-worlds of both Jiang Ming and Wu Sheng, and Wu Sheng's had clearly been larger and more terrifying than Jiang Ming's.
"Take me to see the toy dog."
"All right. They're in that small courtyard we were just in."
Following Jiang Long's lead, Chen Ge returned to the courtyard. He entered through the back door and found a black leather bag tucked under a bed.
He opened it and inside saw a toy dog with most of its fur worn away.
Chen Ge recognized this toy dog. When he had first moved, he'd found it in the stairwell. Back then it hadn't started losing its fur yet and looked quite cute.
He didn't know who had thrown it away, so he stood there foolishly waiting for an hour before finally carrying the toy dog home himself.
"Is this the Shadow's toy?" Chen Ge reached down and picked up the toy dog. At the same moment, the black phone in his pocket vibrated once.
Chen Ge first recalled all the ghosts into the comic album, then took out the black phone and glanced at the screen.
"Four-Star Trial Mission: Underworld Fetus — three-ninths complete. The Underworld Fetus's sense of smell has been severely damaged. Blessed red-ghost favored one, your time is running short!"
Only after receiving the black phone's message did Chen Ge finally relax. Jiang Long hadn't lied to him — the toy dog had truly been brought back from behind one of the doors. The only pity was that it was Jiang Long and Bei Ye who had found the child, not Chen Ge himself.
He sighed softly, then placed the clay figurine from the bag onto his own shadow. The bloodstained figurine still had the name Liu Wen written on it.
The moment the figurine touched Chen Ge's shadow, the dark red bloodstains on its surface began to vanish rapidly.
This time Chen Ge stood beside it and watched quietly. He noticed that his shadow seemed to resemble a deep, still pool — and very, very far away, he could faintly make out the sleeping face of a woman.
"Zhang Ya's injuries seem to have healed quite a bit. It looks like this black blood on the figurines has helped her enormously."
He pressed his hand against the shadow. Chen Ge's pupils contracted. Deep in the abyss that seemed to be the bottom of a vast ocean, the woman's eyelashes fluttered, as though she were about to open her eyes.
The last drop of black blood was absorbed by the shadow, and the figurine inscribed with Liu Wen's name crumbled into pieces.
"Liu Wen, Wu Sheng, Fang Yu, and my own figurine… If Zhang Ya absorbs the black blood from all the figurines, she might finally awaken."
Standing in the stairwell, Chen Ge stared at the shattered remnants on the ground. "The Underworld Fetus stripped abilities from nine children in order to be born into the human world — hearing, smell, sight, and more. That lines up almost exactly with the talent rewards the black phone gave me!"
"When I first got the black phone, the very first ability I received was the Yin Eye, which is related to sight. After that I got the Living Doll talent, related to constructing bodies. Then came the Ghost Ear and Spirit Nose — these abilities correspond perfectly to the five human senses, which is exactly the same set of abilities the Underworld Fetus is currently stealing from the children!"
"Is the Underworld Fetus simply repeating the black phone's process? Or are the black phone and the Underworld Fetus doing the same thing?" A chill crept over Chen Ge that he couldn't explain. Perhaps all of this had been set in motion the moment he first laid hands on the black phone.