"I can't let you be alone with him. The boy's already mentally fragile — one wrong word from you could push him over the edge." Nurse Yu flatly refused. It was clear that even though Yu Jian had become like this, she still loved him deeply and wanted to spread her wings to protect him as much as she could.
Chen Ge had originally planned to wait until Nurse Yu left, then summon the Red Cloak behind Yu Jian to examine him.
Unfortunately, Nurse Yu refused to leave, and Chen Ge didn't want to expose Zhang Yi's ability carelessly, so he had no choice but to give up.
He picked up a sheet of draft paper from the floor at random. The sentences written on it made no sense no matter how you read them. The only way to understand the content was to guess.
"He gave her a gift out of love. Roses are red, and blood is also red. A rose thorn cut her neck, and blood flowed from her neck."
"She embraced the child out of love. Holding him tight because she didn't want him to leave. I too once had my neck squeezed, unable to breathe, fingers digging into the mud."
"Perhaps I once had it too. No — I definitely had it."
Each sheet of paper contained different content. Chen Ge read through several pages and realized this seemed to be a story composed of countless fragments, recording a child's process of growing up.
Of course, that was only Chen Ge's interpretation. If expressed in the original words on the paper, it would be a seed falling onto a grave, taking root in a corpse, and blooming into a flower.
The man used such phrases to describe himself. He didn't look human. He was immersed in his own mind, completely at odds with the world — like a monster living among people.
No matter what Chen Ge said, the man showed no intention of responding. He simply continued writing on the draft paper of his own accord, and with every stroke of the pen, he seemed to become a little thinner.
The room was quiet. Chen Ge had already given up on dialogue. He picked up sheets of draft paper one by one from the floor and read them, eyes full of curiosity, like a devoted reader of the man's work.
One person wrote, one person read, and Nurse Yu ended up being the one with nothing to do.
"I think I've more or less figured it out." Chen Ge gathered the papers he had finished reading and stacked them neatly together. "A fine story — it's just a shame the protagonist is a living, breathing person."
He placed the thick stack of papers on the table. Chen Ge had flipped through the comic book in his backpack earlier, and now he left the bedroom with Nurse Yu. On his way out, he casually set his backpack by the door and walked into the living room empty-handed alongside her.
"My son's situation is just like this. He hasn't gone outside in a very long time. There's no way he could be involved in a murder. If you still insist, I'll have no choice but to call the police."
"Before high school, Yu Jian was an out-and-out scumbag — hostile to other people's happiness and joy, incapable of returning kindness. His biggest change started in his second year of high school. After dropping out, he locked himself in his room and stopped going out, stopped hurting others. As Yu Jian's mother, have you ever thought about why that happened?" Chen Ge sat across from Nurse Yu, his eyes fixed on the murky tea on the table.
"He was trying to change himself, trying to be a good kid, but nobody gave him the chance. Everyone bullied him, so he completely broke down." Nurse Yu's explanation was one-sided — all of it aimed at defending her son.
"Someone with a demon dwelling in his heart doesn't collapse just because of bullying. Something very particular must have happened to him — something that made him start seeing the world differently." Chen Ge leaned back against the sofa. "Yu Jian's homeroom teacher was the only person who ever helped him. After Yu Jian's incident, did you ever go looking for her?"
"That teacher resigned and left Hanjiang. I don't know where she went."
"If you have time to take him to see a psychiatrist, you'd be better off having a proper conversation with that teacher."
Chen Ge offered his suggestion, but Nurse Yu's reaction was strange. She seemed unwilling to mention that teacher.
"The truth is right there in front of you, and you can't avoid it. The deeper you hide it, the more horrifying the wound will look when it's finally exposed one day." Chen Ge stood up. "Here's my phone number. I'll be coming back tonight. I hope you'll have thought it through by then. If Yu Jian's condition keeps dragging on, his life will be ruined."
Walking to the door of Yu Jian's room, Chen Ge picked up his backpack and stood there for quite a while. In the end, he didn't say a word, turned around, and left.
After exiting the neighborhood, Chen Ge stood in a patch of shade where the sunlight couldn't reach and summoned Men Nan. "Did you two notice anything just now?"
"That guy has a massive amount of residual curses on him! The reason he turned out like that is because he's endured far too many curses." Men Nan's very first words brought Chen Ge a pleasant surprise.
"So the Dark Fetus did exist within him at some point?"
"Yes."
"Ask Zhang Yi — what are the odds the Dark Fetus is still hiding inside Yu Jian right now?" Chen Ge grew excited. Yu Jian and the Dark Fetus were strikingly alike in personality — he would have been the perfect candidate.
"I can't determine that, but the Dark Fetus and Yu Jian seem to have had some kind of falling-out over a certain matter. That's why Yu Jian locked himself away." Men Nan relayed Zhang Yi's words. "He's resisting the curses the Dark Fetus left in his body."
"Yu Jian's transformation started because of his homeroom teacher. She definitely knows what happened. It's a shame I don't have time to go out of town to find her right now."
After leaving Yu Jian's home, Chen Ge made a trip to the city precinct. With Li Zheng's help, he arranged a meeting with Zhen Zhen.
The little boy was recovering nicely. The concept of death still hadn't taken root in his mind — he simply thought his mother was sleeping and frequently asked the officers watching over him when she would wake up.
The child was extremely endearing. Everyone at the police station doted on him, and during questioning they would bring out candy and snacks.
Judging from Zhen Zhen's appearance alone, there was absolutely no way to connect him to the Dark Fetus. Now that Jiang Long, Bei Ye, and Zhen Gui had all died in succession, and his mentally ill mother lay in critical condition in a coma, the only people in the world who knew about Zhen Zhen's past were the Dark Fetus and Chen Ge.
But Chen Ge had no intention of telling anyone this secret. He hoped the boy could grow up healthy.
After asking Zhen Zhen a few questions, Chen Ge also asked the police to help investigate the child with the heart condition. In front of the officers, he said plenty of unflattering things about the Smile — making the police highly vigilant toward those monsters who never stopped smiling.
The police's help saved Chen Ge a great deal of time, allowing him to focus his investigation on Yu Jian.
After visiting the school and speaking with some of Yu Jian's former classmates, Chen Ge discovered that Yu Jian's problems were far more serious than what his mother had described. The police also had a file on Yu Jian — before high school, the kid had been a highly intelligent psychopath seething with resentment and malice.
Once he had done his homework, Chen Ge went to Yu Jian's home yet again that night.