"The door?" Men Nan's voice changed noticeably — he had clearly remembered something.
The photo Chen Ge had sent was one Men Nan possessed as well, except he had shoved his copy to the very bottom of his drawer, buried under several thick books.
When Chen Ge had seen that photo at the Haiming Apartments, he'd found it odd. It was the only keepsake Men Nan's mother had left behind — even if he didn't want to frame it, he should have at least kept it stored properly.
But Men Nan's behavior suggested he was deliberately avoiding it, hiding it somewhere out of sight.
He couldn't bring himself to throw it away, yet he didn't dare face it either. That was the deepest contradiction in his heart.
"Where did you see this photo?" Men Nan's voice was hoarse, his words coming slower than before.
The thing he had been dodging for so long had been placed squarely on the table by Chen Ge, and this time there was no escaping it.
"I'm right inside the hospital from that photo. I've entered the ward where your mother once stayed—"
"Get out of there right now!" Chen Ge hadn't even finished speaking before Men Nan shouted.
"Get out? Looks like you've already remembered a few things."
The phone went silent for several seconds before Men Nan's voice came through again: "I don't even know why I said that, but my instincts are telling me that place is extremely dangerous."
"The ward building is locked down — I can't get out now. If I had any other option, I wouldn't have called you." Chen Ge gripped his butcher knife, eyes fixed on the blood-red veins still spreading across Zhang Ya's body. "This isn't just about me and you anymore. Those abandoned psychopaths, the ones who gave up on treatment — they've come back here with their twisted worldviews. They're completely unhinged, imprisoning living people, carrying axes and saws. Can you even imagine what they've been doing?"
"Someone was killed inside the hospital?" Men Nan's voice was full of uncertainty. He seemed to be constantly second-guessing himself, wanting to say something but not daring to.
"I can tell you for certain — there's more than one victim. I've found a massive amount of human hair in here." Chen Ge didn't know what Men Nan was hesitating about. "My own situation is extremely dangerous. Monsters, patients — they're chasing me with axes, screaming hysterically. There's no reasoning with them."
After a long pause, Men Nan's voice finally came through the phone: "What do you want me to do?"
"Wake up the other personality inside you! He's the one I'm looking for!" The crimson light intensified, and the stench in the air began to thicken, as though some monster had opened its rotting maw wide.
"Can you tell me why you need him?" Men Nan's voice was very low, tinged with a complex mix of emotions.
Chen Ge laid everything out — he didn't have time to waste anymore. "I need to close the door to Room Three in the Third Ward. The method for closing it should be known only to your childhood personality. Bring him out. I've figured out everything that happened to you when you were little. I understand you — I know your pain — but there are things that both of you have to face!"
"Close the door…" Men Nan muttered as if speaking to himself. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I can't help you."
The refusal came so decisively that Chen Ge hadn't expected it: "Why?"
"Because he's not inside me anymore." Men Nan took a deep breath. "He locked himself inside the door."
"Your childhood personality is on the other side of the door?!" Chen Ge's brows knotted together.
"Yes. In fact, he was the original personality — my memories only begin from the age of four." Men Nan revealed a piece of shocking information. "The original personality was born in a psychiatric hospital. He took the abnormal for normal — his world was nothing like anyone else's. Before the age of four, he had been trying to transform himself into a normal person. His only pillar was his mother. But when he was four years old, his mother was murdered, and having witnessed everything, he gave up on the normal world entirely."