"I don't have much time left here. Let me tell you one last thing — the hospital has already discovered that Zhang Ya has been replaced." Dr. Sun's expression was more serious than Chen Ge had ever seen. The moment he mentioned Zhang Ya's name, his body trembled.
"Zhang Ya has been replaced?" Chen Ge was confused. "What do you mean by that? The Zhang Ya beside me is one of the hospital's people?"
"The haunted house's female boss Zhang Ya was originally created by the hospital to deceive you, woven from your own dreams. Her purpose was to make you indulge in beauty, to believe in the reality of this world, and to be unwilling to leave from the bottom of your heart. But no one expected that this Zhang Ya, woven from your memories, would develop her own consciousness! Not only did she fail to follow the hospital's instructions and make you indulge in a false, beautiful life, she kept pointing out the flaws in this world! The hospital discovered traces of the real Zhang Ya in her, and those traces are gradually increasing!" Dr. Sun spoke in a hurried rush.
"So you're saying the Zhang Ya beside me right now is the Zhang Ya from my memories?" Chen Ge's heartbeat began to quicken. From the very first time he had met Zhang Ya, he had felt a spiritual connection with her.
"She's slowly spiraling out of control! No one knows why this is happening!" The scars on Dr. Sun's face looked savage and terrifying. "The hospital might not kill you anytime soon, but now every single night-shift doctor has taken an interest in Zhang Ya's situation. They will definitely target her!"
Every last night-shift doctor in that hospital was rotten to the core. Chen Ge vaguely remembered how Doctor Gao had treated him — to drive him insane, the man had even come up with a "treatment plan" involving switching his medication so that he would kill his own roommate.
A group like that taking an interest in Zhang Ya — the moment Chen Ge heard Dr. Sun say it, veins bulged on the backs of his hands.
"After I came into contact with the tenants of Peace Apartment, I noticed they have a very particular attitude toward Zhang Ya. What does that name represent?" Chen Ge forced himself to stay calm.
"It represents a ghost — the most important ghost in your life. Without her fighting to the death, you would never have had the chance to wake up." Dr. Sun's words were cruel, but the truth often was. "You could say she paid the price of having her soul scattered to dust to buy you one narrow chance at survival."
The surrounding walls began to warp. Dr. Sun rapped on the door. "That's all I can tell you. You have to survive."
He knocked on the door seven times. On the seventh knock, he pushed the door open, and at the same moment, Chen Ge left the brain labyrinth.
Opening his eyes, Chen Ge saw that the bathroom window was open. As for Dr. Sun, he had long since vanished — as though he had never set foot in the haunted house at all.
He drew a deep breath and stared at his reflection in the mirror, his hands slowly clenching into fists.
"I had just begun to feel happiness, only to be told it was all an illusion. I had finally found joy, only to be about to lose everything."
His pupils slowly contracted. Chen Ge's eyes were shot through with bloodshot veins. He had been holding it in this whole time.
"First, I need to warn the tenants of Peace Apartment. The plan has changed."
Without wasting a single moment, Chen Ge grabbed his backpack and left the haunted house.
They had originally arranged to meet at the abandoned hospital in the outskirts, but since Dr. Sun had tipped him off ahead of time, Chen Ge couldn't wait any longer.
He took a taxi to Peace Apartment, then sprinted all the way, and just barely found the tenants before the hospital made its move.
He relayed part of what Dr. Sun had told him. After everyone confirmed their communication methods, they decided to split up and scatter, hiding in corners of the city to bide their time.
Midnight was approaching. After most of the tenants had left—
Tang Jun drove the van, leading Chen Ge, Zuo Han, Men Nan, and Old Zhou toward the abandoned hospital on the far outskirts.
"The hospital seems to hold a special significance in this city. Xinhai covers a massive area, but the only operating hospital is Xinhai Central Hospital. Don't you think that's strange?" Zuo Han always had a knack for noticing things others overlooked. He possessed a mind that harbored suspicion toward everything — in a sense, he really did lean toward paranoid delusions.
"The most terrifying ghosts retain some of their instincts. One-Eye choosing the abandoned school and Crimson choosing Liwan Street both had their reasons. By that logic, the Cursed Woman is very likely connected to the hospital. She may well be another patient who escaped from that place."
"Good point."
They bypassed the front entrance, scaled the wall, and made their way through the hospital grounds.
"Why does this place feel familiar?" Men Nan walked at the front, staring at the pillows strewn along the corridor and the faces drawn on each one. His expression gradually changed. "I think I've been to this psychiatric hospital before."
"You've been here?"
"Mm." Men Nan nodded. He didn't stop at the first two buildings, running straight toward Building Three.
Building Three, deep in the heart of the hospital, was utterly bizarre. The walls were covered with all manner of curses, and the rooms held cages welded from steel bars. This was nothing like a hospital — it was more like a prison built to hold convicts.
"Doors… windows…" Men Nan followed the fragmented memories in his mind all the way to the third floor of Building Three.
The corridor was pitch black, without a sliver of light. A bone-piercing cold seeped through, as though they stood inside the gullet of some deep-sea leviathan.
"Don't make me go first! I'm just a kid!" Men Nan, who had been leading the group all along, suddenly stopped in his tracks. He grabbed Old Zhou and Chen Ge by the hand, and a long-absent, innocent expression surfaced on his face. "Let's go in together."
Chen Ge didn't refuse. Every fiber of his being was wound tight.
Stepping into the corridor, time itself seemed to slow. Countless screams and wails seeped from within the walls. This place gave Chen Ge a feeling of danger that surpassed even the abandoned school and Liwan Street.
After walking for an unknowable length of time, Men Nan stopped before a door inscribed floor to ceiling with curse characters. Sensing something, he raised his hand and gently pushed the door.
But the instant his fingers touched the door panel, the black characters all seemed to come alive, surging toward Men Nan.
Watching the frail-looking Men Nan, one would never have expected the decisiveness he now displayed — he severed his own finger with a thread of blood without a moment's hesitation.
The severed finger was swallowed by the black characters before it even hit the ground. Men Nan watched, his face pale, then waved his hand. Threads of blood wove together to form a new finger.
"She's a little stronger than me." Clutching his hand, Men Nan retreated behind Old Zhou and Chen Ge.
Men Nan had already pushed the door open a crack. Having learned his lesson, Chen Ge picked up one of the face-drawn pillows from the floor and used it to push the door open the rest of the way.
As the door slowly swung wide, every curse character in the corridor boiled to life. They transformed into black-red threads, spreading outward like a web woven by some colossal spider, sealing off all of Building Three.
Doors and windows were completely sealed. Their path of retreat was cut off entirely.
Just as panic gripped the group, every scream and wail within the building fell silent.
In a deathly hush, the sound of a single set of footsteps emerged.