Chapter 187: Tianteng Hospital

After Xu Wan got off work and left, Chen Ge returned to the haunted house alone. There was still a lot he needed to do.

First, he wrapped the Pen Spirit's body up in tape, then buried the big rooster next to the haunted house.

Chen Ge had no idea who had killed the rooster. There were no wounds on its body at all — the culprit might have come from behind the door.

Just to be safe, Chen Ge didn't simply discard the rooster's corpse. Instead, he chose to bring it back to the haunted house and bury it nearby.

After taking care of the miscellaneous tasks, Chen Ge headed into the underground parking lot. Ward Three had been perfectly replicated there — its floor area was equivalent to two Muyang Middle Schools, located directly across from the school.

All the horror scenes had been stitched together, with passages crisscrossing in every direction. It was already beginning to take shape as a maze.

Chen Ge wandered around inside for several rounds. After confirming there was no danger, he installed the remaining surveillance cameras from the tool room in key areas. Only after finishing everything did he step out of the scene.

"Muyang Middle School comes with two hidden quests. Ward Three is a three-star horror scene, so there should be even more hidden quests — but I walked all the way around and nothing unusual happened. Looks like hidden quests aren't that easy to trigger."

Back in the employee break room, Chen Ge had just lain down and plugged in his phone charger when he saw a text message from Captain Li.

He thought about it for a moment, then called Captain Li back: "Uncle Sanbao, everything's fine on my end now. No need to worry."

"You're quite the optimist." Footsteps could be heard on the other end of the line. Captain Li walked to a less crowded area before speaking: "I saw what happened last night. The moment you discovered those victims were being held captive, you should have called the police immediately."

"I understand. I'll be more careful next time."

"You're planning on there being a next time?" Captain Li was utterly exasperated with Chen Ge. "Forget it. I'm just giving you a heads-up. There are two other things I need to tell you. Based on your statement this morning, three people were directly involved in the captivity. All three are currently on the run. You need to watch your own safety — they suffer from mental illness, and they're capable of anything."

"Got it. I'll be careful."

"The second matter is about the West Suburb Private Academy." Captain Li seemed to be flipping through some documents on his end. "We've screened every male who had contact with the West Suburb Private Academy within the past five years. We've narrowed the range down to twenty-one people. I estimate we'll identify the real culprit who drove that girl to her death within a week at most."

Zhang Ya's case was finally going to see the light of day. Chen Ge clenched his fists: "Captain Li, when you catch that killer, please let me spend five minutes alone with him."

"We'll see when the time comes. But don't get your hopes up too high."

Captain Li hung up. Chen Ge stared blankly at his phone. He didn't even know when he had fallen asleep.

…

In the blood-red room, Chen Ge sat on the bed board. Fine red threads floated across his legs. He stared blankly at his surroundings, and the voice of the host personality of Door Nan reached his ears: "You're running out of time."

He looked up. The boy from behind the door of Ward Three stood in the center of the room, his body pierced through by strands of red thread.

"Door Nan?"

"You're running out of time." The boy's face was expressionless. Just as he was about to repeat that line for the third time, the red threads pulled taut — and his body shattered into pieces.

"Hey!"

Chen Ge's eyes snapped open. He jolted awake from the nightmare, his forehead drenched in cold sweat.