The old man's words, in essence, came down to this: the world beyond the door was nothing more than a nightmare belonging to Men Nan's host personality.
Once the boy woke up, the通道 connecting this world to reality could close — or simply vanish altogether.
If Chen Ge's own haunted house hadn't manifested a "door," he might have accepted the old man's explanation. But the fact that two separate locations both had a "door" was something a little boy's nightmare simply could not account for.
Chen Ge didn't reveal that his own haunted house also had a "door." He looked at the old man and posed a different question.
"You say this is the boy's nightmare, and that everything inside it is a manifestation of the child's subconscious. Then can you tell me — what role are you playing in this nightmare? Or rather, what do you symbolize in his dream?"
The expression on the old man's face stiffened slightly, but he didn't dodge the question. "I'm like you — I came in from outside the nightmare. We're both outsiders. Even within a nightmare, we play ourselves."
"Play ourselves?" Chen Ge had entered from the outside, and his appearance hadn't changed at all.
The old man, on the other hand, carried not a trace of the vitality of a living person. What caught Chen Ge's attention even more was the blood-red doctor's uniform he wore.
His gaze swept over the uniform, and a thought flashed through his mind.
Had the old man been wearing this coat when he entered the world beyond the door? What could he possibly have done to dye a white coat red?
From the very first moment he laid eyes on the old man, Chen Ge had already formed a suspicion.
The director of the Third Ward had disappeared several years ago and had never been found — no sign of him alive, no trace of him dead.
And this old man before him, whether in age or in bearing, bore a striking resemblance to that director. So he suspected that the old director hadn't truly gone missing — that for one reason or another, he had entered the world beyond the door.
He had read the letters the old director left behind. In the final letter, the old director had indeed shown a certain curiosity about the world within the door.
But precisely because he had read those letters and formed a favorable impression of the old director, he found it impossible to reconcile the image of the old director he had built in his mind with the red-robed vengeful ghost standing before him.
Shaking his head to clear the thoughts from his mind, Chen Ge regained his composure.
His knowledge of the old director came solely from those few letters written by the director himself.
No one would paint themselves in an ugly light when writing to an outsider, so the old director who appeared in those letters was not necessarily the real one.
Thinking of the electrotherapy room, the cramped and filthy first ward, and the second ward that sat empty rather than accept any occupants, Chen Ge took a quiet breath and doubled his caution.
"Did you understand everything I said? Don't wake the child. Put him down, and I'll lead you out of the nightmare." The old man's voice was pleasant to the ear, always making one subconsciously overlook the danger he posed.
Chen Ge walked slowly toward the door. "I won't harm this child. But first, you need to tell me the way out and show me you mean what you say."
"Leaving is simple — all you have to do is step through that door…"
Bang!
The old man's words were cut short as a deafening explosion erupted from within the Third Ward, as if one of the doors had been blown apart.
Hearing the sound, the old man's expression turned grave. His deathly pale face twisted, and he could no longer be bothered to maintain his kindly, benevolent demeanor.