"He looked a lot like me, the task he asked you to do was related to me, he smoked, and he had a cheerful personality." Chen Ge felt that the person Dr. Chen described sounded a lot like his father, but after a second thought, he felt something was off. "I'm so helpful and law-abiding — there's no way my dad would impersonate a police officer or speed in a car. There's probably some misunderstanding."
Dr. Chen glanced at the blood-colored tape slowly rotating inside the repeater, didn't argue, and nodded gently. "My thoughts are pretty much the same as yours. Whether or not that was your father, the task he entrusted does concern you."
"Let's hear it."
"It all goes back to the Third Ward. I followed the method that man taught me, sent Men Nan's dominant personality through the door, and successfully closed it. But after more than half a year, I discovered that the door had been opened again."
"Was it the director's doing?" When Chen Ge had completed the Third Ward mission, he'd learned that the director had cancer and didn't want to die, so he'd entered the world beyond the door.
Dr. Chen shook his head. "The director was too old and too cowardly for that. The door was opened by Dr. Gao — and he was the one secretly egging the director on behind the scenes."
Dr. Chen let out a soft sigh, a complicated emotion flickering in the depths of his eyes. "I considered Dr. Gao my closest friend, and I understood why he did what he did. If I'd been in his shoes, I would have done the same — because I know just how much he loved his wife."
After finishing the water in the bottle, Dr. Chen recounted everything that had happened over the past few years.
"Dr. Gao and I disagreed on how to handle the door. I believed the 'door' was an ill omen, a catastrophe — once it appeared, every possible effort had to be made to shut it immediately."
"But Dr. Gao saw it differently. He believed the 'door' could be harnessed. Despair, pain, anger — all of those emotions could be put to use."
"At that time, I didn't know he had also pushed open a 'door' of his own. Because of our irreconcilable views, we eventually fell out completely."
"When I resorted to force and fought him, that was when I realized not only did he understand the 'door' inside and out, but he even possessed a Red Coat ghost."
"I was no match for Dr. Gao, so I had no choice but to seek help from that man. But in his eyes, Dr. Gao and I probably looked like two children squabbling."
"He didn't go after Dr. Gao. Instead, he entered the world beyond the Third Ward door directly. In that world, he seems to have made an important discovery — and that discovery is directly connected to his later disappearance."
Dr. Chen stopped halfway through, looking at Chen Ge as if considering whether he should say this part out loud.
"Don't hold anything back. Just tell me everything you know." While listening to Dr. Chen's account, Chen Ge had already finished his boxed meal.
"You've probably entered the world beyond the Third Ward door too. I don't know whether Men Nan's dominant personality ever told you — the window in one of the wards can't be closed."
"A window?" Chen Ge thought carefully. Every time he'd returned to the Third Ward afterward, Men Nan had always been repairing a window. "I know about that."
"That man fought a monster in the world beyond the door, and the window was smashed during their battle. I don't know the exact details of what happened — I only know that when the man came back out of the door, he had a pensive look on his face. After that, he gave me a task."
Dr. Chen stood up from the hospital bed, his expression grave. "He described three scenarios, each corresponding to a different course of action. If you hadn't run the haunted house and had chosen a different career instead, I was to watch over you quietly from the shadows. If you insisted on running the haunted house but it never gained traction, I was to send you a letter once a year under the name 'Mr. Chen,' urging you to give up. And if you insisted on running the haunted house and it kept growing better and better, I was to find you in person and deliver a single sentence."
"What sentence?" Chen Ge felt as though his parents had somehow anticipated that he would succeed with the haunted house.
Dr. Chen's expression became more serious than Chen Ge had ever seen it. He stared into Chen Ge's eyes and spoke eight words: "Never go looking for them."
"Never go looking for them?" Chen Ge narrowed his eyes, smiled faintly, and said nothing.
"Frankly, not only did I fail to help you — you're the one who rescued me." Dr. Chen didn't know what to say. This situation was something even Chen Ge's parents probably hadn't anticipated.
"What did they do in the period before they disappeared? Any abnormal behavior? Did they say anything strange to you? Tell me everything you know, word for word." Chen Ge's tone sounded more like a statement than a question.
Dr. Chen, not even knowing where he himself currently was, was afraid Chen Ge might do something rash, and obediently answered his questions. "After they told me those things, they never contacted me again. All I know is that before they disappeared, they frequently went to the Eastern Suburbs, apparently searching for something."
"If they didn't contact you, how do you know they went to the Eastern Suburbs?" Chen Ge rested his fingers on the repeater, where the blood-stained tape rotated slowly inside.
"Oh, those things were easy to find out. The Eastern Suburbs used to be peaceful, but in the period before your parents disappeared, all sorts of strange incidents kept cropping up — the ghost fire burning buildings, the man-eating highway, the abandoned hospital curse game, the ghost bus in the tunnel, water ghosts, phantom fetuses, and more." Even recounting it now made Dr. Chen's scalp tingle. "Every time it got late and quiet, something would happen in the Eastern Suburbs. After your parents disappeared, the Eastern Suburbs went back to being calm again…"
"You think those strange incidents were all connected to my parents?"
"Almost certainly."
"You've got to be kidding." Chen Ge held the repeater, a slight frown on his face. "Our whole family are honest, law-abiding people — there's no way they'd do something like that. They probably got dragged into some enormous conspiracy."
"That shouldn't be it. The Eastern Suburbs used to be just like it is now — very peaceful. Nothing major ever happened there, no strange tales or anything." Dr. Chen instinctively lowered his voice.
"There's definitely something wrong. Once we're done with what's on our hands, the two of us will go check out the Eastern Suburbs together. There's bound to be a storm hiding beneath that calm." Chen Ge waved a hand at Dr. Chen. "Stay here for now. I'll send you out tonight."
"Alright." Dr. Chen snuck a glance at the repeater. "I won't run around — you can rest assured and take that repeater with you."
"A guest is a guest. How could I leave you sitting in a room all alone?" Chen Ge stepped out of the ward, set the opened repeater down by the door. "If you need anything, just ask the Red Coat. I'll come send you off around seven tonight."
"Then… thank you for your trouble." Dr. Chen sat on the edge of the bed with his boxed meal and began eating, watching Chen Ge's retreating back with a bitter smile as he shook his head gently. "That familiar feeling…"