Chen Ge's expression was grave. Under normal circumstances, when parents hear that their child might be involved in a murder case, they would immediately and firmly deny any possibility. But on Nurse Yu's face, what he saw was more worry and fear.
Which was to say, in Nurse Yu's heart, her child truly was capable of doing something like that.
The first few children the Underworld Fetus had chosen were all harmless — one could even say they leaned toward the good side. They had actively resisted the Underworld Fetus, holding on to the light in their hearts.
But not everyone in this world cherished the light. Some people needed no coaxing from the Underworld Fetus at all — they would plunge into the abyss on their own. If the Underworld Fetus parasitized someone like that, it would become incredibly difficult to deal with.
In the old world, Chen Ge had had helpers. But once he entered a Door-world like this, everything would be out to get him, and he would receive no outside help whatsoever.
"Think it over carefully. I'll be waiting for you right outside the hospital." Chen Ge looked Nurse Yu in the eyes. "Don't even think about running. There's a world of difference between me finding you and the police finding you."
"I still don't believe my son could be involved in a murder case. There has to be some kind of mistake." Nurse Yu gradually calmed down.
"Rest assured, I don't think he's the killer either. I just need to ask him some very important questions." Chen Ge gestured for Nurse Yu to relax. "Take me to see him as soon as possible. Time is really running out."
Nurse Yu wasn't entirely convinced, but seeing all those news articles about Chen Ge on her phone — someone who had made it into the Hanjiang Legal Daily time and again probably wasn't a scammer.
"I'll go request leave right now. Wait here for a moment." Nurse Yu dashed into the hospital. A little over ten minutes later, she emerged from a side entrance in different clothes. "I'll take you to see him. You can talk face-to-face. Once you see what he looks like now, you'll understand why I'm so sure he couldn't be involved in a murder case."
The two of them took a taxi to a residential compound in the eastern suburbs. The neighborhood actually looked quite nice, though somewhat desolate — there were hardly any people around, and only a handful of cars parked downstairs.
"There are lots of neighborhoods like this out in the eastern suburbs. They used to build everywhere back in the day, but the occupancy rate was never high." Nurse Yu had no interest in making conversation. Her voice was listless, her eyes full of worry. "I live on the twenty-third floor. Give me a second — the elevator here is slow."
It took a full ten minutes for Chen Ge to reach Nurse Yu's apartment. When the door swung open, he caught a faint whiff of stench.
It wasn't the smell of spoiled food, nor the stench of fermenting garbage or rotting flesh. It was something peculiar — as though it radiated from the depths of the soul itself.
"The place is a bit messy. Sorry about that." Nurse Yu stepped inside first, scooping the dirty clothes off the sofa and carrying them into the bathroom before letting Chen Ge in.
"Your place is actually quite spacious."
"It just looks big. The floor plan isn't very practical." Without even bothering to change her shoes, Nurse Yu walked toward the room at the far end of the apartment. "Yu Jian? Are you in there?"
While Nurse Yu knocked, Chen Ge surveyed her home.
The apartment was large but eerily empty. Inside the shoe cabinet were just two pairs of slippers — one men's pair, one women's.
"Such a big place, and only Nurse Yu and her son live here? What about the child's father?"
"When Nurse Yu called out to her son just now, she called him Yu Jian — same surname. Does that mean the boy doesn't have a father?"
Nurse Yu knocked for a long time, but her son still didn't come out. He didn't even respond.
"He's not home?" Chen Ge also walked toward the back. He noticed a meal tray sitting outside that room's door, with bread and a glass of fresh milk on it.
"He didn't eat breakfast either. This child..." Nurse Yu picked up the tray from the floor and carried it back to the living room. "Ever since he dropped out during his second year of high school, he's been like this. I don't know how long he's going to keep locking himself away."
"Refusing to communicate, shutting himself off — this is not a good sign. When people spend too much time alone, their thoughts run wild, and it's easy for them to do something extreme." Chen Ge sat down across from Nurse Yu. "I'm not trying to scare you, but after seeing the state of your home, I think the situation is even more serious than I imagined."
"There's nothing I can do. I've taken him to see therapists before, put him on medication, but nothing worked." Nurse Yu's face was a mask of bitterness.
"Can you tell me specifically how Yu Jian came to be like this?" Chen Ge knew that only by understanding Yu Jian's history could he gain the upper hand and stay in control. "Don't hold anything back. I can assure you, on behalf of the city branch criminal investigation unit, that your family's information will never be disclosed to anyone else."
"Yu Jian was just like any other child when he was little — healthy, lively, adorable, and very bright. He learned everything quickly. But at some point, I noticed that this child..." Nurse Yu's expression twisted with difficulty. "How do I put it? He seemed not to understand how to repay other people's kindness. For instance, if the neighbor's kid gave him a piece of candy, he'd throw it away. If the children built a sandcastle and invited him to come play, he'd stomp it flat right away."
"That's not a failure to repay kindness. That's pure malice."
"No, it isn't." Nurse Yu shook her head. She clearly hated it when people said things like that about her child. "Yu Jian is a very gentle boy. He just doesn't know how to express the love in his heart — or perhaps the way he expresses love is different from everyone else's. I once hired a therapist who said that Yu Jian's mind seems to lack the very concept of love. His body has warmth, his heart pumps warm blood, but his consciousness is ice cold."
"Missing the concept of love?" Chen Ge thought of the writing on the walls of that old rented room in the old city district. Love was something the Underworld Fetus needed as well. He believed that one of the most important reasons humans could be called human was because they understood love and possessed it.
"The doctor said Yu Jian has a very rare condition called emotional expression disorder syndrome. Although it manifests as a psychological problem, it's actually a physiological abnormality. My son isn't abnormal — his brain is simply sick."
"I have never said your son is abnormal. And let me tell you one more thing — you won't find a better therapist in all of Hanjiang than me." Chen Ge knew nothing about psychology, but he remembered with perfect clarity the way Dr. Gao had faced his patients. That confidence seemed to come from the very core of his being.
"You're a therapist too?"
"Many psychological deficiencies in adults are tied to their childhood experiences — small accidents that occurred during their understanding of the world." Chen Ge straightened up and stared directly into Nurse Yu's eyes. "I'll say it again — hold nothing back. Tell me everything Yu Jian has ever been through. Only then can I truly help him."