Combining this with the deduction from Gao Ruxue's father,
"I wouldn't dare make a rash judgment about this patient. If you have time, you can bring him to see me." Gao Ruxue's father had never encountered a patient like this before and wanted to diagnose him in person. "Psychological disorders are extremely complex. Their causes are riddled with uncertainty — they're related to one's living environment, personal experiences, and may even have some connection to genetic inheritance."
Chen Ge didn't respond. After arriving at the conclusion that Fan Yu liked staying with ghosts, something extremely terrifying suddenly flashed through his mind!
Pulling open his raincoat, Chen Ge took out Fan Yu's drawing from an inner pocket.
Inside the black house, several little red figures lived.
Before coming to Muyang Middle School, Chen Ge had assumed the drawing depicted one of the school's buildings. But once he actually arrived, he discovered that the three small buildings on campus bore absolutely no resemblance to the black house Fan Yu had drawn.
The run-down residential building where Fan Yu lived with his aunt, on the other hand, looked quite similar to the black house in the drawing.
"If Fan Yu has been drawing the house he currently lives in all along, then these red figures..." Chen Ge's hair stood on end. "Could it be that the house Fan Yu lives in is full of ghosts?!"
He recalled the scene from when he had visited Fan Yu during the day. The aunt's expression had been tense the entire time, while Fan Yu had shut himself in his bedroom, doors and windows sealed tight, hunched over the desk drawing.
Every time it was always the same — black and red, the black house and the red little figures, but each drawing was slightly different.
Chen Ge's lips had gone pale. He remembered clearly that across all the boy's drawings, the positions of the red figures were different.
He had originally thought it was just idle doodling by Fan Yu. Now that he thought about it, it was simply the filth inside that house moving around.
"Fan Yu can see them?"
Chen Ge drew in a sharp breath. He recalled several details from Fan Yu's time in the haunted house — the boy would look behind Chen Ge when speaking to him, his gaze settling on Chen Ge's shadow.
In the entire haunted house, Fan Yu had only spoken two sentences, and both were directed at Chen Ge. Chen Ge had originally thought he simply had a way with kids. Now he understood — the boy had probably mistaken him for "one of his kind."
"No wonder he's afraid of sunlight and loves playing in the haunted house. This child's perception of reality has already deviated severely." Chen Ge gripped his phone tightly. He didn't know what had caused Fan Yu to become this way, but based on the boy's myriad abnormal behaviors and the dark, thin woman's testimony, a horrifying suspicion had taken shape.
Several years ago, on another night of torrential rain, the little boy had gone missing. His parents were killed while searching for him. To murder two adults simultaneously in a downpour, complete with hiding the bodies and cleaning up the scene — without meticulous planning, it was nearly impossible.
Stepping back even further, even if someone had happened to develop murderous intent toward Fan Yu's parents on that rainy night, why would a killer capable of perfectly hiding bodies and erasing every trace at the scene specifically spare Fan Yu?
After the aunt told the boy his parents had gone to heaven, Fan Yu searched for heaven in the well. Clearly, he knew his parents had ultimately been hidden in the well. He had seen everything — he was one of the witnesses at the scene. The killer would have had no reason to let him live.
Chen Ge's eyes narrowed slightly as a chill crept through his body. "Unless the killer knew the boy... or the killer was the boy himself!"
Whichever of these two speculations proved true, both sent a shudder through Chen Ge.
The aunt herself was highly suspicious. There were inconsistencies in the woman's account, and there was something odd — when she went to the kitchen to pour Chen Ge a glass of water, she had rummaged through cabinets and drawers searching for something. If it were just a simple matter of pouring water, there would have been no need for such effort.
Additionally, during their conversation — including the moment just before Chen Ge was about to leave — the woman had deliberately or casually brought up water, hoping Chen Ge would take a sip.
At the time, Chen Ge had been preoccupied with the mission and hadn't been overly wary of the living. But looking back now, that glass of water very well could have been tampered with.
"If the aunt killed Fan Yu's parents, then what was her motive?"
The dark, thin woman doted on Fan Yu to an extreme degree. She was good-looking but had never taken care of herself — her skin was tanned dark, her frame gaunt. It was clear that raising Fan Yu alone as a single woman had not been easy. She had to look after his daily needs, take him to see psychologists, and had sacrificed her own life in the process. Could such a woman really be the killer?
Honestly, the dark, thin woman had left a very good impression on Chen Ge — independent, resilient.
However, comparatively speaking, Chen Ge found the second speculation far harder to accept. If the killer wasn't the aunt, then the primary suspect was the boy himself!
He was the only witness and sole survivor of the murder scene. Chen Ge hadn't suspected him before because he believed a child was entirely incapable of killing. But after seeing the drawings Fan Yu had made, Chen Ge realized he had severely underestimated this child.
Fan Yu possessed a pair of extraordinary eyes. He kept company with ghosts and lived well among them. There was something deeply wrong with this boy — Chen Ge even suspected he could command ghosts with ease.
Anyone else would never have considered this possibility, but Chen Ge was different. He himself was favored by a vengeful spirit.
"The probability that the killer is the boy is high, but what was his motive?" The motive for the killing was the one thing Chen Ge couldn't figure out. Neither the aunt nor Fan Yu had any reason to harm their own family.
"What happened that day? Fan Yu's parents ended up hidden in the deep well at Muyang Middle School. What connection does the entire affair have with Muyang Middle School?"
Chen Ge put away Fan Yu's drawing, and only then did he suddenly realize he hadn't hung up the phone. He hurriedly apologized to Teacher Gao on the other end. "Sorry, I got distracted just now thinking about something."
"That's all right. I was just looking through some materials. I'm quite interested in that patient you mentioned — how about we set a time, and you bring him to my office for a look?" Gao Ruxue's father had been waiting patiently on the line the entire time.
"Sure. When the opportunity arises, I'll definitely bring him over."
"Mm, this is my number. Contact me when you're ready. There's one last thing I need to tell you." Teacher Gao seemed hesitant, as if debating whether or not to speak.
"What is it?" Chen Ge was genuinely grateful to this warm-hearted psychiatrist for his help.