Before Patient 101's memories vanished completely, Zhang Yi managed to glimpse a few more things — for instance, that within the Cursed Hospital, doctors were divided into day-shift and night-shift staff. The day-shift doctors were humans who weren't quite right in the head, while the night-shift doctors were ghosts who treated the patients.
The Cursed Hospital had many day-shift doctors, but only ten night-shift doctors. That number hadn't changed in a very long time — until just a few days ago.
The most senior night-shift doctor had gone missing in Hanjiang. Rumor had it that this doctor had accompanied the hospital director to Hanjiang twenty years ago and was one of the director's most trusted night-shift physicians.
To investigate the reason behind the doctor's disappearance, the Cursed Hospital had exhausted every means at its disposal, infiltrating Hanjiang through all manner of methods.
Most of the Cursed Hospital's people had come to Hanjiang to search for the missing night-shift doctor. A small handful of patients with special abilities had been given other tasks — Patient 101, for example.
His ability was concealing his own aura. Even a top-tier Red Clothes ghost wouldn't be able to detect anything wrong with a person he had possessed.
Beyond that, he could judge whether someone was lying by sensing their aura, and could pinpoint a person's location through their presence.
Because his ability was so unique, his attending physician had entrusted him with an important mission — to pose as a tourist, infiltrate the deepest underground level of the haunted house, and see what
Patient 101's memories didn't contain anything concrete. The portion related to Chen Ge's parents had vanished first, which only went to show how seriously the hospital regarded Chen Ge's parents.
In truth, the Cursed Hospital had already been exceedingly cautious. Their contingency measures were formidable — the moment the eyeball burst, Patient 101's memories had begun silently eroding away.
If Chen Ge hadn't possessed Zhang Yi, a half-Red Clothes ghost capable of browsing and deleting memories, he probably wouldn't have obtained any information related to the hospital this time around.
"Not a total loss. Patient 101 may have gathered some intelligence, but he also revealed a fair amount about the hospital in return." Chen Ge was about to have his employees extract Patient 101 from Cha Wen's body when Zhang Yi told him one more thing.
Patient 101's hospital gown and personal belongings were hidden in the apartment Cha Wen had been renting in Hanjiang. Zhang Yi thought those items might prove useful to Chen Ge.
Right now, Chen Ge couldn't leave. He was worried the Cursed Hospital might send additional people in, so he had to remain inside the haunted house. If the Red Clothes ghosts ended up clashing with those intruders, things would get very ugly.
Under no circumstances would he gamble with tourists' lives.
He couldn't leave the haunted house, but if he didn't go retrieve those items now, the Cursed Hospital's people might come to their senses and take them first.
After a moment's thought, Chen Ge had Zhang Yi relay the address to
Originally, Chen Ge had wanted to send
"With Patient 101's belongings, plus the partial memories we've already recovered, I might be able to try creating a brand-new Patient 101." Chen Ge's eyes lit up. The Cursed Hospital had prioritized destroying all memories related to the hospital itself, meaning Patient 101's trivial day-to-day recollections were the last to disappear. By now, Chen Ge had a solid grasp of Patient 101's personality.
"All patients in the Cursed Hospital have only numbers, no names — which means this Patient 101 could be called Zhang San, Li Si, or even Sun Xiaojun."
Getting Sun Xiaojun to play Patient 101 perfectly would be extremely difficult. He'd need outstanding acting skills and excellent psychological composure. On top of that, with no script to work from, he'd also need strong improvisational instincts.
None of these were qualities Sun Xiaojun possessed. But as luck would have it, these were precisely the things Chen Ge and his other haunted house actors excelled at.
"Looks like I need to put Sun Xiaojun through some intensive training. I'll turn this uncut jade into a peerless treasure."
Chen Ge placed great importance on Sun Xiaojun. After all, Sun Xiaojun was someone both the Netherborn and the Black Phone had recognized, and Chen Ge had personally experienced just how special he was.
If Sun Xiaojun was positioned correctly, the role he could play would far outweigh that of a single Red Clothes ghost.
The original Patient 101 was slowly losing his memories. Chen Ge had no intention of killing him — he merely had him temporarily expelled from Cha Wen's body and locked away.
"You two take Cha Wen and his girlfriend to find the Red High Heels. Help them clear the residual curse from their bodies." Watching Cha Wen being carried away, Chen Ge couldn't help but reflect: "Forty yuan to have a top-tier Red Clothes ghost remove a curse from your body — isn't that a little cheap?"
After Cha Wen and his girlfriend left, Chen Ge immediately set off to find Sun Xiaojun. Old
…
"Did any of you hear something?" Xiao Sun, surrounded by the tourists in the center of the group, suddenly glanced behind him. Deep within the black fog, there seemed to be a cry for help.
"Don't try to distract us." Ma Feng had barely finished speaking when Shangguan Qinghong quietly tugged on his sleeve. "Mr. Ma, I think someone really was calling for help just now. It came from behind us."
When Shangguan Qinghong said the same thing, the tourists finally grew alert. They turned to look back and were shocked to discover that two more people had vanished from their group.
"When did that couple disappear?" Ma Feng was genuinely starting to panic now.
Excluding the three from the Forensic Medicine College, their team of twelve had now been reduced to just four. When and how those people had gone missing — they had absolutely no idea.
"We were all focused on Sun Xiaojun just now and neglected what was behind us. Could the haunted house employees have used that opening to make their move?" Shangguan Qinghong tried to analyze. He'd had a bad feeling ever since entering, and as one companion after another disappeared, that foreboding was steadily becoming reality.
"That couple's disappearance is different from Fu Bole and Wei Chaochao's." Snake Sister's face was grim. "The people who disappeared before — Liang Er, Liang San, Fu Bole, Wei Chaochao — they all vanished after stepping out of our line of sight. But that couple disappeared just a few steps away from us. Making two living people vanish without a sound at such close range is extremely difficult, unless they left of their own accord."
"What are you getting at?"
"I suspect that couple from Xinhai might be haunted house employees in disguise." Snake Sister thought back for a moment. "Do you all remember the haunted house dossier mentioning a couple who died horribly inside the haunted house? Their ghosts wander through the various scenes, refusing to leave."
"But I remember that in the couple, the man's surname was Zhou and he was older. When we entered the scene, I specifically checked their liability waivers — neither of them had the surname Zhou!"