The diary from Room 0011 was missing a great many pages. Chen Ge could only read and guess as he went along.
It took him a full half hour before he finished the diary.
"How is it? Did you find anything?" Wen Qing noticed the changes in Chen Ge's expression. In her mind, Chen Ge was someone who could stay calm no matter what, yet even he had let his expression shift multiple times while reading that diary.
"I understand some very crucial things now. Every outcome I've seen may have been planted long ago as a cause."
Chen Ge stuffed Dr. Gao's diary into his backpack and placed it together with Zhang Ya's storybook. His physical condition was poor, and his mood was turbulent.
From the Ghost Story Association to Liwan Town in the eastern suburbs, the Underworld Fetus and Dr. Gao had maintained a tacit understanding. Chen Ge hadn't seen it clearly back then, but now he finally understood the reason.
"Perhaps the original members of the Ghost Story Association were patients who escaped from that hospital. They knew they were sick and wanted to heal themselves in their own way."
"All the patients in that hospital had no personal names—only patient numbers. The Ghost Story Association was the same. Every member had only a number."
"There are many more similarities. From the very beginning, certain clues were already right in front of me."
Chen Ge sat on the sofa, chin propped in his hand, deep in thought. "Dr. Gao knew the Underworld Fetus was called Chen Ge. So the first time I went to the Ghost Story Association, he didn't make things difficult for me and even let me join successfully. That was the only chance he ever had to surround and kill me. Even with Zhang Ya, I couldn't have faced so many Association members all at once back then."
"Does Dr. Gao know other secrets, like the files on the top ten patients? Could his interest in me also be connected to those top ten patients?"
Chen Ge was sinking deeper into his thoughts when the building suddenly shook as if hit by an earthquake!
This tremor was far more intense than the previous three, and it lasted an unusually long time.
"Did another doll's body inside the building get found?"
Changes swept through the building. The stench in the air grew heavier by the moment, and everyone felt as though a lock had clamped around their necks—even breathing became difficult.
Eerie sounds poured in from outside the building, as if some monster were ramming against it. Piercing shrieks drilled into their ears, audible even with hands clamped tight over them.
The moment the shaking stopped, Chen Ge pulled out his comic book. "The doll's remains are the pillar of the world behind this door. Once the foundation is shaken, this world becomes unstable, and the restraints on my employees will keep loosening."
He flipped open the comic book. Blood seeped across every page, veins of crimson threading through each leaf, and faintly he could see wretched ghostly faces emerging.
Seeing this terrifying sight, Chen Ge finally broke into a smile. "Almost! They're almost out!"
His tone edged toward mania as he held the blood-soaked comic book and muttered to himself, a smile plastered across his face that no ordinary person could comprehend.
Wen Qing and Xiao Sun both instinctively backed away from the sofa. They felt that the current Chen Ge was frightening—the aura radiating from him was no less terrifying than the monsters beyond the door.
"That fourth tremor must have been caused by other outsiders. They've already located the positions of two doll remains. Looks like I need to pick up the pace too."
He rose to his feet, slung his backpack on, and dragged the Skull-Breaking Hammer toward the door.
"Chen Ge, take another rest. You're barely walking steady." Wen Qing tried to support him, but Chen Ge refused.
"I'm fine."
Stepping out of Room 0011, Chen Ge reached the last room on the first floor. The number on its door was 0005.
"Patient Number Five?" Chen Ge had assumed Patient Number Eleven represented the limit of the doll's memories. He hadn't expected to find Number Five's room in this building. "According to those earlier diary entries, the top ten patients were on a completely different level from the others. But since Number Five's room is here… could Number One's room be upstairs?"
His heart pounded wildly. He didn't know why, but the mere thought of Patient Number One sent his blood surging through his veins.
He pushed open the door to Room 0005 and stepped inside.
Every surface in Room 0005 was coated in a layer of dried blood. The furniture was smashed to pieces, and almost nothing inside could be called intact.
"Whoever lived here was definitely a madman." Wen Qing carefully picked her way through the debris on the floor and walked over to Chen Ge.
"Don't stray too far from me. Let's search the room together and see if there are any important clues."
The previous three patient rooms had been repainted. Though there were still large patches of blood inside, at least some effort had been made to cover things up. Room Five was completely different—no attempt at concealment whatsoever. The entire room's dominant color was blackish-red.
Chen Ge looked around. He didn't find a diary in this room, but on the bedroom wall he saw many small characters scratched out with fingernails.
Most of the writing had been crusted over with dried blood, making it look utterly horrifying.
"I have no idea what state he was in when he wrote this. This is insane." Xiao Sun huddled at the very back. His worldview had been shattered over and over today, and by now not even a speck of it remained.
While Xiao Sun and Wen Qing stared in astonishment, Chen Ge had already walked up to the wall. He carefully scraped away the dried blood and began reading the text beneath.
"I'm starting to forget so many things. A few days ago I still remembered my name, but now all that remains in my mind is a number."
"I know I'm forgetting more and more, but there's one thing I can never seem to forget—kill the director!"
"I don't know why I have this thought, or why it keeps appearing in my head. Perhaps the director is the one who turned me into this. But what exactly did he do to me? Why can't I remember clearly?"
"The new roommate who moved in died beside my bed. When I woke up, he was already dead. There was no one else in the room, so if we rule out suicide, the person who killed him must have been me. But I have no memory of it at all."
"The doctors say my condition is severe, but why won't they treat me? They just keep swapping out my roommate, making me wake up every morning to a different corpse."
"I've gotten used to opening my eyes and seeing a corpse each day, until one day my wife moved in. She was still as beautiful as before."