Jiang Xiaohu clearly didn't want to be too close to Chen Ge, but with his hands and feet bound by rope, he could only watch as Chen Ge sat down beside him.
"You look nervous. Is it because there are too many people in this room?" Chen Ge looked at Jiang Xiaohu with genuine concern. "Relax. We're all here to help you."
He then turned to Dr. Pei. "Could you let me stay with him alone for a bit? This kid doesn't seem used to having so many people surrounding him."
Dr. Pei looked troubled. Truthfully, he didn't believe Jiang Xiaohu's abnormal behavior had anything to do with the number of people present. "I'm not sure that's a good idea. Jiang Xiaohu has a record of injuring others. If you stay here alone, I'm worried..."
"It's fine. Don't worry about my safety." Chen Ge set down his backpack, which was surprisingly heavy — who knew what was inside. "This kid just lacks an opportunity to communicate. There might be a tender side hidden deep within him that no one has ever seen."
The orderlies and the nurse both looked to Dr. Pei. Even when the police had come to investigate Jiang Xiaohu before, they hadn't made any request like this.
Dr. Pei wanted to refuse, but on the other hand, Chen Ge had been referred by Li Zheng, and the case they were handling involved several deaths.
After weighing it over, Dr. Pei finally nodded. "We'll be right outside the door. If the kid suddenly has an episode and becomes aggressive toward you, all you need to do is call out loudly and we'll rush in."
"All right. Thank you, everyone."
The hospital staff filed out of the ward one by one. Watching them leave, Jiang Xiaohu grew even more frightened. Strange sounds crawled up his throat, like a wounded beast sensing danger.
The ward door closed. Once Chen Ge was certain the doctors couldn't see what was happening inside, he pulled the tape recorder out of his backpack and pressed the switch.
The hiss of static filled the room. The sound seemed to burrow into the brain on its own, stimulating every nerve.
"A little soothing music. Doesn't that feel better?"
Chen Ge kept his eyes fixed on Jiang Xiaohu, observing his every reaction. After a dozen seconds or so, he suddenly spoke. "You've seen a ghost, haven't you?"
Jiang Xiaohu's pupils trembled. His eyes went wide, and he struggled even harder to move away from Chen Ge.
"Such a strong reaction — did I guess right? Let me think. You must have seen her corpse with your own eyes, and then a few days later, she came back to life — appearing somewhere else?"
Setting aside whether Jiang Xiaohu was truly mentally ill or not, just listening to the questions Chen Ge was asking, if Dr. Pei had been present, he would have definitely thought Chen Ge wasn't entirely sane either.
The rope tied to the bed frame went taut. Jiang Xiaohu's reaction grew even more violent.
"Whether you're genuinely crazy or faking it, I hope you understand one thing — out of a family of four, you were the only one who survived. Not because you were lucky, but simply because she deliberately let you go."
Chen Ge had long had a question while playing that game — how did Xiao Bu know her classmate's house had a hidden room?
At first, he'd assumed it was information left behind by her mother. But what her mother had been doing wasn't exactly something to be proud of, so it seemed unlikely she would have told her young daughter about it.
There was a detail in the game: Xiao Bu found the key inside her mother's nightgown. But think about it — for someone who was imprisoned, how could the key to the exit possibly be in a pocket of her clothing?