The residential complex where Ying Chen lived was called Ming Garden. It had once been the most prestigious neighborhood in the old district, home to wealthy families.
But as the economy opened up and Hanjiang New District developed rapidly, the old district lost its population. Fewer and fewer people lived there.
What had once been upscale residences now looked desolate and rundown. There were no security guards at the gate, and the landscaping inside had fallen into disrepair. Walking through the complex, you could even smell a faint, strange odor.
"My parents bought this place back in the day. They were in business. If things hadn't gone wrong for them, I might be some rich second-generation kid right now." Ying Chen joked, but his voice carried a trace of bitterness. Behind the joke lay his true feelings.
Following Ying Chen's lead, the two of them made their way to the deepest part of the complex.
"My place is on the seventh floor. How about I go up and grab some clothes for you, and you wait down here?" Ying Chen clearly didn't want
"That's fine in theory, but if you go up alone, you'll just have to come back down to bring them to me. Double the trip—too much hassle." Chen Ge didn't take no for an answer and walked straight into the stairwell. His nostrils flared. That faint stench seemed to have grown stronger.
Looking around, Chen Ge noticed that the building actually had an elevator installed—an old model from many years ago.
"Ming Garden was the only complex in the old district with an elevator. It used to be quite something, but most of the capable people here have moved away." Ying Chen pointed at the elevator. "Whatever you do, don't ride it. It breaks down all the time, and occasionally it makes these terrifyingly loud noises."
At Ying Chen's insistence, they took the stairs together up to the seventh floor.
The whole building gave Chen Ge a bad feeling—dilapidated, unsanitary, deathly quiet, devoid of any sense of life. Living in a place like this would be incredibly depressing.
"My place is a bit messy—hope you don't mind." Ying Chen's apartment was right near the stairwell. He took out his keys and fiddled with them for a good while before finally getting the door open.
The stench inside was even more pungent. Chen Ge glanced in—the apartment was large but in terrible condition, with furniture that had been shredded and clawed apart.
"I'm kind of a cat person. I've taken in several stray cats over the years. That's all their handiwork." Ying Chen said helplessly. "Make yourself at home. I'll go find you some clothes."
Once inside, Chen Ge instinctively rubbed his finger under his nose. Cat hair was everywhere—on the sofa, the floor, the dining table. But strangely, not a single cat was visible in the apartment, and there wasn't a sound of any cat meowing.
"That smell isn't coming from the cats. It's similar to the stench in the old district—the same kind of odor I smelled when I entered Yu Jian's room. When I came back out from behind Yu Jian's door, the smell was gone."
Chen Ge had encountered that strange stench in many places. He couldn't quite identify what was producing it. All he knew was that it seemed to be connected to "doors."
While Ying Chen went to fetch clothes, Chen Ge took the opportunity to look around.
The apartment had very few pieces of furniture and was sparsely furnished. There were five rooms in total, and four of them had their doors tightly shut.
Before long, Ying Chen emerged from the bedroom carrying a set of his own clothes. "How about this? It's more formal and goes well with your pants."
"Thanks—you've really saved me this time." Chen Ge looked quite pleased. "Mind if I use your bathroom?"
"First door on the right." Ying Chen was happy to be of help. In his mind, this deal was practically sealed.
Chen Ge stepped into the bathroom and closed the door. He took the comic album from his backpack and summoned
"You and Tongtong hide in here for now. Find a chance to get Tongtong into his phone. I'll come back before midnight tonight—when I do, open the door for me from inside." Chen Ge spoke in a low voice.
"So I'm playing the mole?"
"Among all the Red-clothed spirits, you're the smartest. Only you can handle this job." Chen Ge kept heaping praise on Men Nan until the other finally agreed.
After splashing water on his face, Chen Ge walked out of the bathroom. "Ying Chen, I really appreciate this. I'll go back and prepare the contract. How about we sign tomorrow?"
"Sure!" Ying Chen was the sort who loved money. Whether it was an act or he truly worshipped the dollar, it was hard to tell.
"There's nothing better than working with someone straightforward. Since I'm already here today, why don't we just go through the whole process right now?" Chen Ge asked Ying Chen a barrage of questions, most of them about the website. It was only toward the very end that he casually brought up Ying Chen's younger brother. "I heard you have a brother. What happened to his eyes? I know several excellent ophthalmologists. If you need anything, just let me know."
"My brother's eyes weren't always like this. When he was around three or four, he developed an eye condition. It got worse and worse after that. A big part of why I work so hard is to earn enough to treat his eyes."
"The bond between you brothers is really something." Chen Ge set down his backpack. "The earlier you treat an eye condition, the better. Could I meet your brother?"
The request caught Ying Chen off guard, but he didn't read too much into it. After a brief hesitation, he stood and walked to the room next to the bathroom. "Ying Tong? You doing anything?"
"Sleeping." A very soft voice came from inside.
"Then go back to sleep. I won't bother you." Ying Chen spread his hands and looked at Chen Ge with a hint of apology. "The kid's sleeping. Sorry about that."
"Not a problem." Chen Ge said it was fine, but suspicion had already taken root in his mind.
When Ying Chen had asked what Ying Tong was doing, the boy inside had answered "sleeping" almost instantly—as if they'd rehearsed it beforehand.
If Ying Tong had actually been sleeping, he would have paused for at least a moment before responding. And there wasn't a trace of drowsiness in his voice.
Ying Tong seemed to be afraid of his older brother. Some kind of secret lay hidden between them.
"Alright then, I won't keep you. Nine o'clock tomorrow morning—I'll bring the contract."
"Take care, Brother Chen."
The door closed. Outside and inside, both Ying Chen and Chen Ge's expressions turned cold simultaneously.
Chen Ge didn't leave. He stood at the door and pressed his ear against it, listening. Before long, he heard a bedroom door open inside, followed by the sound of a child crying.
"This guy really is rotten through and through."
Without concrete evidence, Chen Ge decided not to act rashly. Men Nan and Tongtong were inside—if anything truly terrible happened, they would intervene.
Standing alone in the corridor, Chen Ge glanced at the adjacent stairwell and the elevator, then headed down the stairs and left.
"If Ying Tong is the child chosen by the Nether Fetus, then the door behind him must be Hell-level difficulty."
"Jiang Ming was deaf—I couldn't hear the ghosts in his door world either. Fang Yu had terrible memory, and my memory kept fading inside her door world. Following that logic, my eyesight would definitely be restricted inside Ying Tong's door world. The most likely scenario is that the ghosts are right beside me, but I can't see them."
Sight was crucial for any normal person. Someone accustomed to seeing the world through their eyes, suddenly thrown into a pitch-black labyrinth, would find it extremely disorienting.
"
If there had been more time, Chen Ge might have wanted to bring the well ghost from the Living
Leaving Ming Garden, Chen Ge waited until after dark and headed straight for the White Dragon Tunnel. Deep inside the tunnel, he found the tunnel ghost's son.
The two of them had already reached an agreement, and the tunnel ghost's son did not go back on his word.
But when Chen Ge tried to seal the tunnel ghost's son into the comic album, something unexpected happened.
Perhaps because there was a door inside his body,