Stepping out of the first room in Building Two of Jiuhong Community,
"There's no pattern to the room numbers inside the building. They probably aren't arranged by floor. Each room here likely corresponds to a patient."
Chen Ge looked toward the second room on the first floor. The number on this door was 0049.
"In the cursed hospital, the earlier the number, the more severe the condition. The room I just entered was probably for a patient with mild symptoms."
Walking up to the second room on the first floor, Chen Ge pressed his face against the window and peered inside.
Room 0049 was also dominated by white — the furniture and wallpaper were all white, spotlessly clean.
The door wasn't locked, so Chen Ge walked straight in.
"Hey! We really shouldn't wander around aimlessly. Let's not end up like what happened in Building One, where we get chased out in the end." All Xiao Sun wanted was to sit tight until dawn. The events of this night were already more than he, an "ordinary person," could bear.
Chen Ge ignored him. He had just entered the room and was about to activate his Yin Eyes when a wave of dizziness washed over him.
"My body is starting to give out."
Using the Yin Eyes put a certain strain on the body. Chen Ge had barely felt it before, but behind this door, the damage the Yin Eyes inflicted on his body was unmistakable.
Every time he used the ability, his body temperature shifted slightly.
"Chen Ge, are you alright?"
Someone steadied his arm. Chen Ge turned to find Wen Qing standing beside him. This mother knew how to take care of people.
"Don't worry." Chen Ge stopped using the Yin Eyes, the Spirit Sniff, Ghost Ear, and all his other talents. The world was swallowed by darkness, and the only light in the room came from Wen Qing's phone.
Closing the door, Chen Ge dragged the Skull Crusher around the room. To his surprise, he found nine diaries in Room 0049.
The diaries were identical in material and cover design, and all nine bore the number 0049.
Curious, Chen Ge opened them and began reading. He discovered that the contents of all nine were nearly exactly the same.
"Why would the patient in Room 0049 record the same things nine times?"
Reading further, he gradually began to understand. Though the nine diaries contained the same content, the tone and perspective of the narration were all different.
It felt like the same event being told by nine different people living in the room, each standing at a different vantage point.
None of the diaries had dates. Reading just one would feel chaotic and incomprehensible, but if you laid them all open and read them simultaneously, you'd make a startling discovery.
"These nine diaries were written by one person." Chen Ge spread all the diaries across the floor and flipped them all to the first page.
First diary: "A new patient has arrived at the hospital. Its number has been obscured, its body wrapped in a burial shroud. Its face is completely hidden — very mysterious. I watched from the window for half an hour. The doctors seemed to be hesitating about which room to place it in."
Second diary: "It's been ages since a new patient came to this floor. Big brother told me not to meddle — he's really getting old, scared of everything. I'll never become like him."
Third diary: "Rooms 1 through 50 — I don't think many of them are empty. Where do you think it'll be sent?"
Fourth diary: "Honestly, I kind of want it to move in with us. I'm so sick of watching the eight of you every day. How can we split up? How about we each pick a body part and go our separate ways?"
Fifth diary: "You all want the head. That's obviously unrealistic. I propose we divide by weight — fair and impartial."
Sixth diary: "Stop arguing, all of you! You squatters are living in MY house! I am the real number 0049! You thieves! Perverts! Lunatics! Get out of my home!"
Seventh diary: "Sixth sister is spouting nonsense again. Can someone shut her up?"
Eighth diary: "Enough, stop fighting. From a clinical standpoint, we are all pathological personalities of equal standing — there is no hierarchy. We are all equals."
Ninth diary: "So why did we eat the original personality in the first place? If we keep splitting like this, there will be more and more people in this room."
Nine diaries, representing nine different personalities. Xiao Sun felt his scalp go numb after reading only a little, but Chen Ge was completely absorbed.
"I think these nine diaries were just scrawled down by lunatics — it's all nonsense. You can't trust a word they say." Xiao Sun placed all his hopes on Chen Ge. He was genuinely worried Chen Ge was being influenced.
"You think they're crazy? They'd laugh and call you an idiot." Chen Ge crouched on the floor. Through reading all nine diaries, he had made a brand new discovery. "Patient 0049 suffers from split personality, but his condition is unusual. The nine split-off personalities hunted down and killed the original personality. In their own words, they ate the original personality."
"You can eat a personality?"
"I'm not entirely sure. It might have been the result of misguided treatment by their psychiatrist." Chen Ge shook his head. That cursed hospital was capable of anything — it had a talent for turning minor ailments into terminal psychological conditions. "These nine split-off personalities each have their own life experiences, their own occupations and identities. The eldest brother is a timid, cowardly middle-aged man. The second brother is a lawyer. The third is a plumber. The fourth sister is a short-tempered nightclub hostess. The fifth brother is a germaphobic killer. The sixth sister is a celebrity. The seventh is a piano teacher. The eighth is a psychologist. The ninth personality is the youngest and also the most similar to the original personality."
"Are you treating these horrifying diaries as some kind of story? Boss, I don't need a lecture — let's find a safe place to hide already." A very bad feeling was creeping through Xiao Sun. This building was many times more dangerous than Building One.
"There's nothing safe behind the door. All we can do is chase the faint glimmer of light and keep moving forward." Chen Ge sat down on the sofa. After resting for so long, his energy hadn't recovered at all — if anything, he felt even more exhausted. "The new patient lived among them for nine days. Each day, one of number 0049's personalities would die. The words in the diaries grew more and more desperate as they went on. By the ninth day, only one of the nine diaries was still being updated."
Chen Ge held up the last diary. "This one belonged to the ninth personality — the one most closely resembling the original personality. The final entry was written by him."
"*Year* Month* Day. I don't know whether the heaven the doctor spoke of exists, but I know for certain that hell is real — because I have seen a living demon."