"Little Underworld?"
Chen Ge watched the taxi until the last faint glow of its taillights was swallowed by the night.
The outskirts of Xinhai were desolate, with almost no pedestrians on the road.
He flipped open the comic book, told all his employees to get ready, then set the white cat down on the ground.
The naturally cautious white cat pricked up both ears, its mismatched eyes filled with unease. It clung tightly to Chen Ge's side, wishing it could burrow right into his clothes.
"You sense the danger too?"
Chen Ge stroked the white cat's head and drew a deep breath. He left the main road and followed a small path deeper into the outskirts.
Past one abandoned building after another, the surroundings grew quieter and quieter. No insect calls could be heard, and no light was visible anywhere.
"This unfinished area was supposed to be a residential district. Why did construction stop after only building the outer shells?" Using his Yin Eyes, Chen Ge could see that the exterior walls of the buildings had been spray-painted with all kinds of messages in red paint — it looked like some workers had gone to the rooftops of the unfinished buildings to pressure the developers over unpaid wages, and an accident had occurred that very day.
Not far from the unfinished residential district lay a vast expanse of abandoned factories — chemical plants, pharmaceutical factories, and more, though most of the industrial compounds didn't even have names anymore. The mottled rust on the guardrails proved they had been there for a very long time, with no one looking after them. All kinds of machinery had turned into massive pieces of waste that were nearly impossible to dispose of.
The outskirts of Xinhai were far larger than Chen Ge had imagined. The driver had only gone as far as the outer edge before stopping, never venturing inside. To avoid getting stuck on the main road, Chen Ge hadn't dared walk inward along the major thoroughfare either, so he could only grope his way forward like this.
His prior communications with the police hadn't been entirely useless. At least during his previous visits to the precinct, he had studied the layout of Xhai's outskirts in detail. The outskirts had been abandoned for so long that the locations of the various factory zones and derelict buildings only showed up on police maps.
"Residential districts, various factories, a cinema, supermarkets, small parks — there's quite a diverse collection of abandoned buildings out here, like a forgotten city." Chen Ge had always wondered why the hospital built on Xinhai's outskirts was called Xinhai Central Hospital. Now he was beginning to understand. If you compared the outskirts to an abandoned version of Xinhai, then the Cursed Hospital really was right in the center of it.
"The mission requires me to reach Xinhai Central Hospital before midnight. Time is tight — I need to speed up."
If Xinhai proper was the Cursed Hospital's territory, then the outskirts were their lair. Chen Ge had to be extremely careful here.
Around ten forty-five, a sliver of light suddenly appeared in the darkness-shrouded outskirts.
Chen Ge looked toward the source. It was a vehicle speeding along the main road.
"That looks like the Hanjiang Forensic Medical College's car? Did Old Wu and Zuo Han come here too?"
Chen Ge knew all too well how dangerous the Cursed Hospital was. He immediately pulled out his phone and called Old Wu.
"Old Wu! You've come to Xhai's outskirts too?"
"It was Zuo Han — he took the car! I'd parked it in the original apartment complex's lot, and then Zuo Han and I checked into a hotel downtown. But half an hour ago, while I was in the shower, Zuo Han took my car keys! He's gone too, and I can't get through to him no matter how many times I call!"
"Zuo Han isn't the type to act impulsively. Check the room — did he leave you any clues?" Chen Ge grew anxious. In a confrontation between the Horror House and the Cursed Hospital, no matter how clever Zuo Han was, if he got dragged in, he was dead for certain.
"While I was showering, he seemed to be reading... found it, it's this book." The sound of pages turning came from Old Wu's end. "Huh?"
"Find something?"
"There are a few characters circled in pencil." Old Wu read them out in a low voice. "Person, house, have, inside?"
"Person house have inside?" Chen Ge's eyes snapped wide open. "Someone's in the house! Old Wu, get out of that room right now!"
The moment Chen Ge shouted those words, the line had gone dead. No matter how he yelled, there was no response.
"The Cursed Hospital has made their move. What exactly are they after from the people around me?" Chen Ge's relationship with Old Wu was ordinary, and Old Wu knew very few secrets — yet even so, the Cursed Hospital hadn't let him go.
Old Wu's memories of accompanying Chen Ge out of Hanjiang had been erased by Zhang Yi. The Cursed Hospital couldn't have gotten anything valuable from him. That was the only piece of good news right now.
"Could it be that everyone connected to me is their target? That hospital excels in curses — could they be trying to curse me through every person connected to me?"
Most curses required a medium, and the more terrifying the curse, the more was needed. A very bad premonition stirred in Chen Ge's heart.
"Completing a curse takes time. They've only just targeted Old Wu. If my guess is correct, their curse shouldn't be finished yet."
Chen Ge watched the car vanish into the darkness and quickened his pace.
At eleven thirty, Chen Ge finally arrived near Xinhai Central Hospital.
The abandoned hospital sat at the center of Xhai's outskirts, several buildings connected together in the shape of an inverted cross. It looked lifeless, like a realm of ghosts.
"Is this where my parents disappeared?"
Chen Ge did not use the main entrance. He summoned the Red High Heels and Xue Rong to scout the hospital's perimeter in secret.
Xue Rong had not expected that after all her effort to escape the Cursed Hospital, she would end up returning to this nightmare place today. The curse within her was being triggered, and had it not been for the Red High Heels restraining her, she might have lost her mind on the spot.
"Have you lost your mind? Why come here to throw your life away? Wouldn't it have been better to stay put in Hanjiang?" Xue Rong struggled to maintain her composure.
"Save the excuses. You worked as a night-shift doctor at the Cursed Hospital — you should know what's inside."
"I'm not going back in there. Forget about it!" Xue Rong showed signs of losing control, and Chen Ge had the Red High Heels place a new curse on her.
"The Cursed Hospital has captured one of my employees. They're using multiple lives as leverage. I'm not negotiating with you right now. If you won't help me, I'll have my employee devour you right here." Chen Ge's tone was icy. At a time like this, indecisiveness would not only fail to save anyone — it would cost him his own life.
The black threads on Xue Rong's body multiplied steadily as the Red High Heels layered one curse after another onto her. Back when Xue Rong had treated the Red High Heels, she had also inflicted different curses upon her — it was a cycle of karmic retribution.