"Does two Red-dressed sound like a lot to you?"
Hearing his words, Dr. Chen faltered for a moment. He recalled the rumors he'd heard about Chen Ge before and shook his head with a bitter smile. "To me, that's already terrifying."
"Dr. Chen, I have other things to take care of later. I came today specifically to ask you some questions, and I hope you'll answer honestly, considering I saved your life." Chen Ge set down his boxed meal and took a sip of water. His movements and demeanor were completely at odds with what he was about to say. "When we were in the underground morgue, you told me that your surname isn't actually Chen. You were acting on someone's behalf — they asked you to come to the western suburbs of Jiujiang and carry out a task under that name."
"I told you that too?" Dr. Chen hesitated briefly, then didn't deny it. "Yes."
"Who was that person? Why use the surname Chen? What did they ask you to do in the western suburbs of Jiujiang?"
Chen Ge fired off three questions in quick succession. After a moment of deliberation, Dr. Chen gave him his answer. "I knew the old director of the rehabilitation center and used to work there. When the door in the Third Ward first appeared, the old director and I discussed it. Later, I went to investigate near the door myself and even entered the world beyond it."
Dr. Chen lowered his head and thought for a while. "I believe I was the first person after
"The three of us initially decided to seal the door shut with cement, but it turned out to be mostly ineffective. The door kept reappearing. Blood would seep through the nearby walls, and once night fell, it would start spreading."
"Maybe because I'd entered the world beyond the door, I felt like something had latched onto me. After midnight, there were always fingers scratching at the underside of my bed. Nobody was in the bathroom, but when I looked through the half-open door, I'd see a dark figure standing in the mirror — facing my bed, as if it was about to step out of the glass."
"I'm a psychiatrist. When these things first appeared, my first instinct was to examine myself and confirm they weren't hallucinations of my own making."
"A psychiatrist ending up committed to a mental hospital really does happen, so at first I assumed something was wrong with me."
"But then something happened that completely changed my mind."
"On the third night after coming out through the Blood Door, I saw a man standing outside my window, his head lined up directly with my bed."
"I lived on the third floor. The second floor didn't have any security grilles installed, and the outdoor air conditioning unit wasn't positioned at that spot. I ruled out every possibility and reached the conclusion that this man had to be at least three meters tall."
"He stared at me for a long time, then climbed into the second-floor apartment below."
"I called the police immediately, but they couldn't find any suspicious man on the second floor. Amid the complaints of my downstairs neighbors, I was taken away by the officers for questioning."
"The next morning, I heard at the station that my downstairs neighbor had committed suicide."
"The victim's death was extremely disturbing — sunken shoulders, a look of sheer terror on his face. He had clearly been frightened to death."
"I suspected the neighbor's death was connected to the man I'd seen the night before. I told the officers everything, but the desk sergeant thought I should go see a psychiatrist."
"I remember clearly — I even showed him my own psychiatric certification."
"Some things are hard to explain, and the police didn't believe a word of it. There was one guy in the station, though — a cheerful-looking older fellow — who seemed really interested in what I was saying. At first I thought he was a cop too and gave him a detailed account. Only later did I find out he'd been brought in just a few days prior for filing a false police report, impersonating an officer, and speeding. He'd just finished his public security education and had only been released that very day."
Dr. Chen's voice carried a note of helplessness. "I didn't dare go home, so I tried every way I could to stay at the station a few more days. I only finally left when rumors started spreading at my hospital that I'd gone insane."