The woman surnamed Zhu shook her head, taking a long time to fully regain consciousness. She grabbed
"Person? Slow down, take it easy." Chen Ge patted her on the back and helped her to her feet.
"After you and the two children left, the six-headed monster beside the black-robed figure was torn to shreds by the village's ghosts. The black-robed figure never lifted a finger the whole time." The woman surnamed Zhu was weak, her words coming out in fragments. "After the village ghosts devoured that monster, they set their sights on the black-robed figure next. But the moment they got close, they all screamed and fled."
"The ghosts are afraid of him?"
"Yes. Red blood was seeping out from his body. When the black robe was thrown open, that's when I saw he was carrying a female corpse on his back."
The description given by the woman surnamed Zhu reminded Chen Ge of his own situation — only in his case,
"No. It felt like the female corpse herself had pulled the robe open."
"You're sure it was a corpse? Not a female ghost in red clothing?" In Chen Ge's mind, there was a huge difference between a female corpse and a female ghost.
"That much I can tell apart. But that corpse was special — completely different from any corpse I've ever seen before." The woman surnamed Zhu struggled to convey the feeling, but having spent most of her life in the relatively isolated Living
"The Ghost Story Society really is full of lunatics." Chen Ge suddenly thought of something and asked offhandedly, "Was that corpse beautiful?"
Up to now, among the patients from Third Ward, aside from
Her treating physician had once described her this way: God would only bestow this kind of beauty upon a person He was determined to destroy.
Chen Ge had taken particular note of that line when he'd first read it. "Xiong Qing was turned into a red-clothed ghost. Han Bao'er may have been turned into something else entirely. The world of madmen is nearly impossible for ordinary people to understand."
"That corpse wasn't exactly good-looking." The woman surnamed Zhu had no idea why she was even commenting on a corpse's appearance. At that point she suddenly froze. "I almost forgot — that corpse showed absolutely no signs of decomposition. But the skin color was strange, radiating death."
The more the woman surnamed Zhu talked, the stranger it sounded, leaving Chen Ge more puzzled than before. Whatever Number Ten was carrying on his back was unlike anything he had ever encountered.
"What happened next? Why does everyone keep saying 'it tore apart'?" That was what Chen Ge was most curious about.
"That female corpse's body was stitched together from countless red threads. She stuffed anything she could get her mouth on — ghosts, living people, didn't matter. When she ate, her mouth could split open all the way to here." The woman surnamed Zhu pointed to her own ear. "Every part of that corpse's body would crack open as well, each one like a gaping mouth."
Listening to the woman's description, this monster was probably at the Red Robe level. But if it truly was Red Robe, the woman surnamed Zhu and the villagers wouldn't have had a prayer of survival.
"Has that monster left?" That was what concerned Chen Ge the most.
"The black-robed figure had originally intended to capture the female ghost's child first, then deal with us afterward. But just then, someone walked in from outside the village."
"A police officer?"
The woman surnamed Zhu shook her head. "A doctor, wearing a white lab coat. He was surrounded by a whole bunch of laughing, playing children."
A similar scene flashed through his mind. The more Chen Ge thought about it, the more unsettling it felt. "A doctor surrounded by a flock of children?"