Chen Ge had been to the old city that the morning, and the place looked familiar. “Wu Sheng used to leave in the old city? They didn’t move from Western Jiujiang to Eastern Jiujiang?”


  Rather than hurrying, Chen Ge turned to look behind him. He saw a large iron door that blocked the alley.

  “This door is similar to the iron door in Jiang Ming’s world.” He noticed one detail. “When I visited Jiang Ming’s old apartment, I didn’t encounter such a door at the apartment. It wasn’t part of his memory. Now that I’m in Wu Sheng’s world, this iron door has appeared again.”


  He studied it closer. Chen Ge did not notice anything off about the door. “This means that the iron door, which is the entrance and exit, probably has nothing to do with the children but everything to do with the ghost fetus.”


  With this in mind, Chen Ge studied the door closer. It did not have any writing or symbols on it, but once he leaned in, he could smell a very light scent of blood and disinfectant.

  “The world behind the door is made up from the children’s memories. This door carries the smell of blood and disinfectant in someone’s memory. Could the owner of this memory have once been locked up in a hospital? But even a normal hospital shouldn’t have a black iron door like this!”


  Chen Ge had visited two of the children’s worlds, and there were many things that he could not confirm. He looked at the door further before moving his eyes away.

  “I’d better find Wu Sheng behind the door first. This world is different from what I anticipated.” Chen Ge had chatted with Wu Jinpeng for a long time. The father was like an umbrella that shielded Wu Sheng. Theoretically speaking, Wu Sheng’s world should not be too dark, but after Chen Ge entered this place, he realized how wrong he was. The streets were permanently dark, and many scary voices came from the corner.

  “Looks like the ghost fetus has done something. That crazed man will not let his candidates live in happiness. He envies love and warmth the most.” Chen Ge communicated with the Pen Spirit and Xu Yin. They were unable to materialize quickly; this world was rejecting them. To Chen Ge’s consternation, compared to Jiang Ming’s world, Wu Sheng’s world rejected them even more. The resistance that the employees felt was harder.

  “I need to buy some time for them.” Chen Ge did not think that the ghost fetus would hide in this world, but he could not be careless. If ghost fetus was really there, he might lose his life due to his carelessness. “The doors next to the children’s beds are all flickering. They are far from real doors. I suspect that only one of them is real, and the other eight are made by the ghost fetus to fool others.”


  Taking out the hammer, Chen Ge walked down the street. Wu Sheng’s world was much bigger than Jiang Ming’s world; it included a whole street. Chen Ge took several steps when he frowned. The noises around him grew louder. They crawled into his ears like dancing bugs, and it unsettled him.

  “Sometimes it’s not a good thing to have overly sensitive senses.”


  Chen Ge held his breath and used his Yin Yang Vision. The darkness did not affect him too much.

  “I can’t even see a shadow, so where is the sound coming from?”


  He did not rush down the street. The place was complicated and windy; he could easily get lost if he was not careful. In any case, before Xu Yin and the rest could appear, Chen Ge’s goal was to survive. Pushing open the door of one of the nearest buildings, Chen Ge realized that the noises in his ears grew louder, and one of them became clear enough to be identified as crying.

  “The crying is coming from this place?”


  Chen Ge looked into the house. The houses in the old city were not big. Normally, they only had one to three rooms, and he soon found the source of the crying. There was a girl washing her hair in the bathroom. She was facing away from Chen Ge, and she looked to be in her teens.

  “Crying while washing her hair?”


  The girl collected a basin of water and placed it at the edge of the sink. She plunged her whole head into the water, and her hair was soaked in the water. The sound of water and crying were mixed together, giving off a chilling feeling. This was the first person whom Chen Ge had encountered in Wu Sheng’s world. For the sake of safety, Chen Ge gripped the hammer and slowly approached.

  “This girl is alone in the room. There’s no need to be afraid of an ambush. I should make use of this chance to get to know her.”


  Chen Ge moved lightly, but even so, he was discovered when he was halfway toward to the girl. The girl stopped washing her hair. Her hands were stuck in her hair as her whole person froze beside the sink. The hair was pulled back, and a pair of black eyes peeped through the gap in the curtain of hair. The girl turned around to look at Chen Ge. The head that was soaked in the basin slowly broke the surface of the water. The hair that floated in the basin was crusted with dried blood. Chen Ge only then noticed that the basin was not filled with water but blood that was drying. The blood slid down her hair and onto her clothes. The clean pink pajamas were dyed red by the blood.

  “Even in Jiang Ming’s twisted world, there was no sign of fresh blood. What is going on in Wu Sheng’s world? Why’s it so gory even at the beginning?”


  The girl’s face fully appeared. She had beautiful eyes, and her nose was small and cute, one that garnered a sense of protectiveness in others. Below it was her mouth. She had pretty lips, but her lips were sewn together by black threads. Chen Ge confirmed that the crying came from the girl, but the girl did not look like she was crying.

  “Can you hear my voice?” It was hard to imagine what had happened to the girl from her appearance and why she would appear behind the door in this state. Chen Ge tried to communicate with her, but the girl reacted strangely. The girl’s fair hands plunged into the water and picked up a dirty cat from inside the basin. Then, like she was wringing a towel dry, she gripped the cat’s head with one hand and its body with the other and started to twist with all her might.

  Tons of fresh blood squeezed out from the cat. Once the cat was dry, the girl picked up the dirty cat carcass and used it to dry her blood-soaked hair. When she was done, the girl tossed the mangled cat back into the water basin and turned to look at Chen Ge. She stared Chen Ge’s mouth. Her hands entered her pockets to pull out a long bronze needle and thick black thread.

  “What is she planning to do?” The girl’s eyes had not left Chen Ge’s lips. Holding the needle and thread, she walked toward Chen Ge. She walked faster and faster before she lunged at Chen Ge. The needle aimed at Chen Ge’s mouth like she was going to sew it shut!

  “You started this first!” Chen Ge was ready. He swung the hammer at the girl. The girl’s shoulder caved in, but it did not affect her mobility at all. In self-defense, Chen Ge kept slamming the hammer against the girl while he tried to evade. After nine consecutive smashes, the girl temporarily lost the ability to move. She crawled on the ground, still holding onto the needle and thread.

  “I haven’t done anything to her—why would she suddenly attack me and want to sew up my mouth?”


  Chen Ge put down the hammer. He looked at the girl on the ground and the mangled cat in the water basin, and a possibility occurred to him.

  “The girl was torturing the cat and was accidentally spotted by Wu Sheng—that’s why she wanted to sew up Wu Sheng’s mouth so that he would not be able to reveal her secrets to anyone else.”


  Since he had no idea what had happened in real life, he could only make predictions based on his observation of this absurd world.