Putting down the second file,
"Trash wants to become human. Everything it does is in pursuit of this goal. From this, we can see it is not human, so what is it exactly?"
"As its doctor, Trash's doctor, I became troubled by this question. I wanted to figure out how Trash came to be."
"I asked it many questions, using the pretext of helping it find happiness, but it did not answer truthfully."
"It's hard to imagine that a monster who doesn't even know what happiness is could understand deception and concealment. It seems filth like this is innately ingrained in every living creature, with no exceptions."
"Trash is very clever, clever enough to worry me. Its thinking ability is constantly improving. I worry that one day it will become suspicious of me and unilaterally terminate my treatment."
"My first conflict with it came much sooner than expected. Trash had been abandoned by the girl in Room 301. I thought it would hate her, but I never imagined this monster didn't even understand the emotion of hatred. I tied the girl up and locked her in the same room with it. I prepared various tools for it to use for revenge, but when I opened the door again, it had untied her."
"Trash is very sick, but it's still not the patient I truly want. In its heart, there is no good or bad, right or wrong—or perhaps it doesn't even have a heart of its own."
"I handed Trash a knife and told it what to do so the girl would belong to it forever. I taught it methods I had used myself, but it seemed reluctant."
"It started having its own thoughts. This is completely different from the symptoms in other cases. On the soil of the mind I had prepared for it, it bloomed a flower that does not belong to this world."
"I really want to conduct a small test. If I killed that girl, would it kill me? What form would its killing take? Would its eyes, as it killed me, hold despair and pain?"
"Just thinking about it, I find it too interesting. Everything is different from the plan, and I grow more and more curious."
Having finished reading the third file, Chen Ge had already mentally labeled the doctor who treated the rag doll as a lunatic: "You two, be careful. When you look at these files, don't use your brains to think too deeply. They want to pull you down to their level and break your mental defenses."
"I don't care about the files. I just want to leave now."
"Is there any information about Xiang Nuan in the files?"
Seeing Xiao Sun and Wen Qing's reactions, Chen Ge was relieved. These two didn't care what was written in the files. For them, the truth wasn't that important; what mattered was getting out alive with their families.
Putting away the third file, Chen Ge opened the last one. Its cover was soaked through with blood.
The fourth file contained the least amount of material—only a thin few pages. Each page was stained with bloody handprints, identical to the prints in the rooms.
"Trash wants to become human, but doesn't know why humans are called human. I compared corpses and living people, teaching it many things from different perspectives."
"I told it the differences between humans and corpses, between humans and animals. I told it what happiness was, what emotion was, what warmth was, what love was."
"Trash has grown. I don't know from when, but I can no longer see through its thoughts."
"In those eyes, dug from someone else's face, there is only a murky, foul network of blood vessels. I have no idea what it is thinking behind that gaze."
"Trash is different from all other patients. It truly exists, yet has no body of its own, only an assembled frame. I cannot gain insight into its mind the way I would a normal patient. Gradually, I even started to lose track of just how far its condition has progressed."
"A doctor who cannot see through his own patient—this is an extremely interesting and dangerous thing."
"I cannot predict its next move, nor do I know when I will be killed. Trash always appears behind me. I can feel it staring at my heart and the back of my neck."
"Maybe it really does want to kill me? Perhaps it wants to cure me of my unhappiness?"
"We kept the girl imprisoned for several days, but Trash ultimately did not kill her. However, the girl could never go back to how she was before. Trash found a compromise. It took my advice while retaining its own characteristics. For the first time, it owned something that belonged to it."
"Hmm, 'something' is probably the right word. Although it calls this 'thing' a friend, in my eyes, it's just a soulless object."
The bloodstains on the case file grew denser, the entire paper crumpled. Bloody handprints crowded together, as if many "ghosts" had reviewed this final document.
"I really want to experience the feeling of being killed by Trash, but when I think that after my death I will never again see such a perfect patient, my heart always feels something is missing. I lived behind the door for a year. Returning to the world outside, I felt somewhat unadapted, until I saw Trash, and I suddenly understood the meaning of my own existence."
"That's right. Compared to me, Trash better fits the hospital's requirements. If I send it back, all the doctors would be thrilled."
"I truly don't want to share it with anyone else. It's a pity I probably won't live to see the day Trash is cured."
"I reported Trash's condition to my teacher. Upon hearing it, he personally rushed to Jiuhong Community. After examining Trash's condition, he gave it a very special case number: Patient No. 0004."
"Seeing this case number, I understood I probably didn't have long to live. All patients in the hospital are numbered according to their condition. The more special the patient, the lower the number."
"Except for the Patient No. 0001, whom I have never seen, Patient No. 0002 is on the other side of the door. Patient No. 0003 is hidden in Hanjiang. Those few are beyond my comprehension, existences I cannot fully understand. I truly never imagined that mere Trash could be ranked fourth. Can such a number bear its weight?"
"The top ten patients cannot be contacted by ordinary doctors. They are handled by my teacher and designated doctors. As for others who know the truth, they are either sent through the door to the other side, or they silently disappear."
"I should be the latter type. After all, I implanted my own thoughts into the materials my teacher valued."
"Before I disappear, I will do one final thing: hide all these case files in a place known only to Trash and me."
"I don't know why I'm doing this. Perhaps people are all selfish, especially someone like me..."
The last file ended there. It didn't seem like much on the surface, but it actually contained a huge amount of information.
This terrifying doctor wasn't the most frightening part; he also had a teacher. And according to him, in the hospital where he worked, there were many doctors as terrifying as them.
In Chen Ge's mind, there was only one hospital that horrifying—the Cursed Hospital located at the border of Xinhai and Hanjiang.