Fan Cong was in a highly unstable state, clearly having suffered a massive psychological blow. "Boss Chen, that game is just too despairing. Every time Xiao Bu dies, I feel like she's staring at me—as if I'd killed her with my own hands."
After catching his breath, Fan Cong took out his phone. "Every time I clear an ending, I record the process. Next time, I'd change my choices and try a new ending."
He scrolled through the screen and opened his phone's notes app, the screen packed wall-to-wall with text. "After I unlocked every achievement in this dress-up game, the system rewarded me with a piece of clothing called 'Mom's Nightgown.' The dungeon key was found inside the nightgown, and it was only after discovering the key that the game's protagonist was renamed Xiao Bu."
"The dungeon entrance was hidden behind a wardrobe in a classmate's house. After using the key, the healing-style game visuals changed completely. What happened next—I've already told you about that."
"I controlled Xiao Bu as she walked out from underground and saw a train station. To escape the Red Shadow monster, she was forced to board a bus."
The top portion of his notes was largely consistent with what Fan Cong had described earlier.
"The bus quickly started moving and drove along the road."
"Xiao Bu, wearing Mom's Nightgown, would wander back and forth inside the bus. Before long, the sound of a child crying could be heard in the game. After enduring it for a while, two options would pop up on the screen: find the source of the crying, or ask the driver."
"The first time, I chose to ask the driver, but when I reached the cockpit, I discovered the bus was completely empty—there was no driver at all."
"The crying grew louder and louder, as if it weren't coming from the computer anymore, but was ringing directly inside my head."
"The bus soon arrived at the first stop—Liwan Town. At that point, a line of text appeared on screen: 'I need to get out of here quickly.'"
"I controlled Xiao Bu to get off the bus. After stepping out and looking back, a horrifying sight greeted me—the windows were packed with human faces, all of them staring at me through the screen."
"Before I could react, a red shadow dashed over from the platform—it was the terrifying woman in the red raincoat."
"To escape her pursuit, I ran into the nearby Liwan Town."
"This town was the same one where the dress-up game's protagonist did tasks everywhere. The building layout was identical, but the style was completely different—from cheerful, warm, and sunlit, it had turned gloomy, gray, and filled with unease and dread."
"The red raincoat was right on my heels. I controlled Xiao Bu as she sprinted wildly through the streets. The words 'Help me' kept popping up at the bottom of the screen, but not a single person in the town came out."
"Eventually, I was cornered inside a dilapidated residential building with nowhere to run."
"The red raincoat drew closer and closer. Her face on the screen kept enlarging, slowly filling the entire display."
"The matted black hair parted to both sides, and the red raincoat woman revealed her true face. Her eyes were bloodshot, her mouth had been sewn shut—it was absolutely terrifying."
"A horrible laugh came from the computer, and then a line of text appeared on screen: 'Xiao Bu has become her new child.'"
"Xiao Bu's head was enveloped by the red raincoat woman's hair. I could no longer control her at all."
After finishing his account, Fan Cong took a deep breath. The game's imagery was so oppressive that just recalling it seemed to make him feel ill.
"Was that one of the bad endings?"
"Compared to the other endings, that was actually the best one." Fan Cong didn't take the water. His face was pale as he continued recounting the other endings.
"After Xiao Bu was taken by the red raincoat woman, the screen went black. The sound of a child crying and laughing came from the computer, and after a moment, a line of grayish-white text appeared: 'Why did you kill me?'"
"That text looked just like a child's numb, desperate eyes—it was gut-wrenching to look at. After a long time, the text faded, and the screen returned to normal. Xiao Bu was still lying in her own room, wearing Mom's Nightgown."
When Fan Cong reached this point, Chen Ge raised a hand to interrupt. "Lying in her own room? So after the character dies, the save point is her own room?"
"Exactly. She was lying in bed as though everything that had just happened was nothing more than a nightmare. Outside the window, the sun was still shining, people were working hard, greeting one another." Fan Cong didn't find this strange at all. "The game restarted, and I controlled Xiao Bu to enter the classmate's house dungeon again and board the bus—only this time, I made a different choice from before."
"You chose to search for the child's crying yourself on the bus?" The Eastern Suburbs were different from the Western Suburbs—every horror scene and urban legend seemed to be connected by something, forming a single interconnected whole where pulling one thread could set everything in motion. That was why Chen Ge had carefully recorded every word Fan Cong said; he felt the game was hiding important clues.
"Yes. I controlled Xiao Bu to walk to the very last row of the bus, where I found an old, tattered schoolbag. At that point, a line of text popped up at the bottom of the screen: 'Xiao Bu found a waterlogged phone inside the bag.' In the game, Xiao Bu turned on the phone, and a dialogue box appeared with several more lines—it seemed like Xiao Bu was reading aloud what was on the phone's screen."
"There was a phone in the schoolbag in the last row? What did it say?" Chen Ge recalled something Xiao Gu had mentioned the previous night. On the last run of Route 104, he had seen a high school student sitting in the very last row, clutching a schoolbag, with one hand constantly reaching inside it as though gripping something.
"I wrote everything down. Those lines are exactly why I came to see you today—because I think this may have already gone beyond the scope of a game. There's definitely a real-world murder case hidden inside." Fan Cong held his phone in front of Chen Ge's eyes. Three sentences were written in his notes.
"September 1st. Mom and I just moved into a new apartment. The neighbor is a young man who lives alone. He has a big dog that looks very gentle. Its name is Xiao Bu."
"September 7th. When I came back from surfing the internet, I saw the neighbor carrying a large black bag downstairs. He looked sad, saying his pet of many years was gone. The beloved dog had apparently eaten something unclean and died at home."
"Late October, the neighbor moved out. The landlord found a freezer full of dog meat in the neighbor's apartment. Xiao Bu must have made the neighbor very sad when it died."
The three sentences might seem unremarkable at first glance, but reading them in sequence revealed the problem. The neighbor, looking sorrowful, carried a large black bag downstairs and claimed his pet had died—yet the landlord later found a freezer packed with dog meat. So on the night of September 7th, what had really been inside that black bag the phone's owner had seen?
Fan Cong's finger continued scrolling down the screen. "I looked up last September's news briefs for Jiujiang. A similar murder case really did occur at that time, and it took place in the very Liwan Town mentioned in the game."