In the blink of an eye, three people had become two, and both of the remaining ones were wounded.
Dr. Li and Big Head had originally been standing on opposite sides. After seeing Qu Ying get knocked down, they instinctively moved closer together, standing side by side.
The two of them gripped their knives, the twisted expressions on their faces slowly freezing into place.
Their eyes darted between their blades and the Skull-Shattering Hammer. In terms of sheer professionalism, the man in front of them seemed far more like a hopeless madman, while they could only be classified as patients with psychological problems.
They were both perverts, but there was a fundamental difference between them. Even in movies, they had rarely encountered a character who carried around such a savage iron hammer.
"You must be tired too. Get some good rest. In the next life, don't do bad things."
Chen Ge dragged the Skull-Shattering Hammer as he walked toward Dr. Li and Big Head. Their eyelids twitched wildly. They stared at the thick, dried bloodstains on the hammer, their faces turning ghastly pale.
Chen Ge had been blocking the door the entire time. Big Head and Dr. Li both knew that the other party had no intention of letting them leave. Their only chance of survival was to fight to the death.
All this time, they had believed they held the advantage. Only now did it suddenly dawn on them — the one who had been walking step by step into a trap was not Chen Ge. It was them.
His pupils contracted. Chen Ge wasted no words. He charged toward Dr. Li with the Skull-Shattering Hammer in hand.
Big Head had a wound on his stomach and couldn't run fast. Even if he tried to flee on his own, Chen Ge was confident he could catch up. So his target was crystal clear — he locked directly onto Dr. Li.
Dr. Li, his face twisted and his mind unhinged, gripped the knife in his hand. He had never encountered anything like this. Normally, the position Chen Ge currently occupied should have belonged to him.
"Boom!"
Dr. Li fought back with everything he had, but his knife didn't even come close to touching Chen Ge.
The nearly one-meter-long Skull-Shattering Hammer moved with extraordinary agility in Chen Ge's hands. He was simply far too practiced with it.
Dr. Li and Big Head went down one after another. Chen Ge didn't spare Qu Ying's girlfriend either. He used the electrical wires in the room to tie up all the incapacitated people, and only then did he let out a breath of relief.
Dragging the Skull-Shattering Hammer with one hand, his chest rose and fell slightly. "My stamina really has dropped a lot. I've been conserving energy the whole way here, but I didn't expect that just a few swings of the hammer would tire me out this much."
He walked between Dr. Li and Big Head and looked at Wen Qing and Xiao Sun, who were both stunned with fear. "Everything I just said was a lie to scare them. Facing criminals this vicious and twisted, I'm scared too. I just have to act tougher — that's the only way to overwhelm them."
He dragged the Skull-Shattering Hammer, still flecked with scraps of clothing and dried blood, his expression perfectly natural, as if he had just done something utterly trivial.
"I can understand what you mean, but how do you explain that thing in your hand? Was it always in your backpack?" Xiao Sun's voice was trembling. He felt like he had just escaped a wolf's den only to fall into a tiger's den, and his situation looked grim.
"This hammer?" Chen Ge wiped the blood off with the killer's clothes. "It may look terrifying, but it's actually just a haunted house prop."
"A haunted house prop? Even a ghost wouldn't believe that. What kind of haunted house uses something like this as a prop?"
"Jiangxi Suburban Century Paradise Haunted House." Chen Ge finished cleaning the blood off the Skull-Shattering Hammer and walked over to Wen Qing. Whether Xiao Sun believed him or not didn't matter much — what mattered was Wen Qing. "I believe I told you about it before."
"You did, but it's not quite what I imagined." Wen Qing's eyes were wide open. She had always thought Chen Ge was refined and gentle, the sort of high-IQ person who lived by his wits. It wasn't until the sound of Qu Ying's bones shattering that she realized how wrong she had been.
From the moment Chen Ge drew the Skull-Shattering Hammer to the point where all three residents of the building were on the ground, less than a minute had passed. It was far too fast — so fast that Wen Qing hadn't even figured out what expression to wear when facing Chen Ge.
"There are always differences between imagination and reality. Don't worry about those details. All you need to know is that I won't hurt you, and I want to bring Xiang Nuan back to the real world just as much as you do." Chen Ge gave Wen Qing a reassuring smile. There was something special about him — no matter the situation, he always made people feel they could rely on him.
"You came through that door together with me. I dragged you into this. I was honestly a little scared just now, but don't worry — I will trust you one hundred percent. Without you, forget about finding Xiang Nuan; I'd probably already be dead because of these people." Wen Qing had calmed down. She knew very well that in this world behind the door, Chen Ge was the most trustworthy person there was.
"What exactly is going on between you two? Your relationship doesn't seem like brother and sister? Are you pursuing her?" Xiao Sun's gaze shifted back and forth between Chen Ge and Wen Qing. After hearing his words, Wen Qing immediately started to explain, while Chen Ge turned to look at his own shadow. He stared at it for over a full minute, then took out
"Did I guess right? So you're not brother and sister — it's a romance between a grown man and a girl he watched grow up?" Xiao Sun felt he had once again deduced the truth.
"Can't you just live quietly?" Chen Ge tucked the diary back into his backpack's hidden compartment. He was beginning to understand why Xiao Sun had gone missing in the real world. "From now on, you'd better keep your mouth shut. We're a team, and if you attract trouble beyond what I can handle, I won't be able to protect you."
Chen Ge had a nice, firm heart-to-heart with Xiao Sun, hammer in hand. He learned all of Xiao Sun's secrets. The main reason this college student had moved into Jinhua Residential Complex was that he was broke.
He had been used by the landlord, thinking he'd gotten an incredible deal. In reality, the landlord had marked him as prey from the very beginning. The rent he paid wasn't in money — it was in life.
Xiao Sun's story gave Chen Ge a great deal of inspiration. An idea formed in his mind: if he made it back alive this time, he could let visitors experience Xiao Sun's ordeal and see how long they could last.
Stepping out of Room 1001, Chen Ge glanced back at the television sitting in the living room. He recalled the image of Xiang Nuan on the screen.
That child had seemed to say a single word to the people behind the door — Leave.
"His words might have been meant for Wen Qing."
He closed the security door. Using the keys he had taken from Dr. Li and Big Head, Chen Ge led Wen Qing, Xiao Sun, and Granny Li downstairs.
Blood flowed through the hallway. Door after door had been violently pried open. None of these were the door Chen Ge was looking for, but behind each of them lurked the same kind of ugliness and despair.
When a person stands at the edge of an abyss, all it takes is a gentle push, and they may never be able to turn back.
That push might come from an insignificant detail in daily life, a stranger's casual remark, or even one of their own memories.
Chen Ge used a key to unlock Dr. Li's apartment. Inside, he found a large collection of human bone specimens, along with keys the landlord had left behind and several bottles of unidentified medication.
"Finally, we can leave."
Before departing, Chen Ge made a detour to Aunt Ding's door and gave her the same treatment he had given Dr. Li. Along the way, he also rescued the child from Aunt Ding's apartment.
Under Aunt Ding's torment, the boy's mind had been shattered. He only knew that his name was Jia Fu.
Chen Ge found a family portrait on him. The scene in the photo was bone-chilling.
Aunt Ding and Jia Fu stood in the center of the photo, grinning from ear to ear. Beside them sat row upon row of wooden boxes, each one bearing a photograph and a name — Jiale, Jia'an, Jiamei…
Jia Fu's legs had been amputated. He couldn't leave with Chen Ge. When it came to deciding what to do with Jia Fu, Wen Qing and Xiao Sun disagreed.
Xiao Sun wanted to carry Jia Fu out on his back, while Wen Qing felt they should find Xiang Nuan first and then come back. After all, Jia Fu couldn't walk on his own, and bringing him along would be extremely inconvenient.
In the end, it was Chen Ge who made the call. He decided to bring Jia Fu down to the first floor first, to Grandpa Huang.