A storybook filled to the brim with cruelty and slaughter — yet its final page turned out to be a warm, gentle dream.
His fingers traced the handwriting on the pages, and exhaustion washed over him like a tide.
For ten days and nights behind that door, he had endured crushing psychological pressure, pushing himself to the very brink of collapse.
Once he left Yu Jian's world, he could hold on no longer.
His backpack dropped to his side, and Chen Ge fell asleep just like that. On the single bed beside him, Yu Jian jolted awake from a nightmare.
Wrapped in a thin blanket, Yu Jian glanced at Chen Ge, then slowly buried his head against his chest.
Yu Jian's mother, standing in the doorway, witnessed this scene. She had no idea what had transpired inside the room.
All she knew was that before Chen Ge entered, only Yu Jian had been acting strangely. After Chen Ge's "treatment," it now looked as though both of them had gone mad.
"What am I supposed to do?"
Yu Jian's mother stepped inside, intending to drag Chen Ge away. She tried, only to discover that with her strength alone, she couldn't budge him at all, so she gave up.
She walked out of the bedroom with a furrowed brow, and behind her, one blood-red silhouette after another materialized.
Had she done anything harmful just now, the entire building might have paid the price.
At eight the next morning, Chen Ge was woken by his phone alarm. The red veins in his eyes had not fully faded.
He pressed a hand against his still-aching head and glanced toward the window. Sunlight streamed through a gap in the curtains into the bedroom. Yu Jian, neatly dressed, was sitting at the desk.
"You're awake?"
Hearing the movement, Yu Jian turned around. He was tidily dressed, as though ready to head out.
"My head still hurts a little." Chen Ge picked up his backpack and packed everything away. "You still remember the dream from last night, right?"
Yu Jian shook his head. "Not clearly. But I haven't forgotten the things you said to me."
He handed Chen Ge several sheets of paper he had organized on the desk. "On here I've written out all my sins. I'm going to go see Teacher Zhang first, then turn myself in at the police station."
The contents on the white paper were shocking — filled with malicious thoughts and vile curses. Three incidents stood out above the rest.
The first was when he was very young. Egged on by the Dark Fetus, he had nearly gouged out a neighbor child's eye.
The second occurred when he ran away from home during junior high. He had completely surrendered himself to the Dark Fetus, indulging it in carrying out its layout involving nine children.
During that period, the Dark Fetus had harmed others on multiple occasions — including the injury to Wu Jinpeng's younger brother's hand caused by a fan.
Back then, the Dark Fetus had wanted to strip the voice from Wu Sheng. Wu Kun, whose intelligence was far below average, feared nothing from the Dark Fetus and fought desperately to stop it. Unfortunately, he was no match for it at all.
The third incident involved Yu Jian's biological father. If not for the intervention of a certain teacher, Yu Jian might already have been driven by the Dark Fetus down a path of no return.
"I knew he was using me. From the very beginning, I knew he could never truly choose me." Yu Jian gazed at the sheets of paper covered in writing that Chen Ge held. "He and I are the same kind of person. He despises people like us from the bottom of his heart. His deepest loathing comes from himself."
Yu Jian was the living person who had spent the most time with the Dark Fetus. He was arguably one of the people who understood it best.
"If you knew the Dark Fetus was using you, why did you still help it?" This was what Chen Ge couldn't comprehend.
"I told you — he and I are the same kind of person. For one brief moment, I felt he was my only friend." Yu Jian's body was frail. He took back the sheets of paper and drew open the bedroom curtains.
Sunlight poured into the bedroom for the first time in what felt like forever. Yu Jian looked out at the scenery beyond the window. "This world is actually quite beautiful."
He slipped the pages into his school bag, turned his back to the sunlight, opened the bedroom door, and walked out of the small room that had kept him confined all this time.
In the hallway, Yu Jian's mother saw him emerge from the bedroom, neatly dressed, and her face was full of disbelief.
"Son…"
"I want to go out for a walk."
"Okay — okay!"
The front door opened, and Yu Jian left with his backpack on. His mother rushed into the bedroom, her face a mask of shock as she stared at Chen Ge. "How did you do it? Yu Jian seems so much better! He actually volunteered to go outside — this is incredible!"
"Yu Jian was never truly sick. He simply didn't know how to love this world or the people around him." Chen Ge fixed his gaze on Yu Jian's mother. "If you don't want Yu Jian to end up the way he was before, then sit down and talk with me — honestly this time. No more lying or withholding the truth."
Through their conversation, what the Dark Fetus had said behind the door was confirmed.
Yu Jian was indeed an illegitimate child. His father had wanted nothing more than to rid himself of the mother and son, while his mother had used him as a tool for leverage.
Growing up without ever knowing what love was, he was exploited by the Dark Fetus. Malice and ugliness were magnified without limit until his mind began to twist.
Yu Jian's mother carried deep guilt toward her son. She cared for him with painstaking devotion, yet at the same time she wanted to mold him into someone even more successful than his father, so she was extraordinarily strict with him.
There was virtually no social life or recreation — as long as his grades were good and he had special talents, that was enough.
Through their in-depth conversation, Chen Ge also uncovered deeper issues.
Yu Jian's mother had known for a long time that something was wrong with her son psychologically. After Yu Jian had made dangerous moves toward others on several occasions, rather than recognizing the severity of the problem, she had simply deflected and shielded him, causing him to miss one opportunity after another to be set right.
"Yu Jian didn't become this way entirely because of his own fault." Chen Ge picked up his backpack. "If you get the chance, you should go see the teacher who was dismissed because of Yu Jian. The person who truly saved Yu Jian was her."
Having pieced everything together, Chen Ge prepared to leave.
"Wait." Yu Jian's mother stopped him. "I don't know what method you used, but you really did help Yu Jian open up his heart. How much does this treatment cost? And if Yu Jian shuts himself in his room again in the future, how can I reach you?"
"I don't do this for money." Chen Ge scanned the bedroom, then picked up a clay figurine from Yu Jian's desk. "This figurine will serve as my payment."
He placed the figurine — the one inscribed with Yu Jian's name — into his backpack and left the apartment.
He took the elevator down to the first floor and stepped into the stairwell. Crouching on the ground, he stared at his own shadow.
"When are you going to wake up? I have so many questions I want to ask you."
He took the clay figurine bearing Yu Jian's name from his backpack and placed it on top of his shadow.
Dark-red blood seeped out of the figurine, soaking into the shadow. A suffocating, terrifying aura was slowly stirring to life.