The deep red blood vessels filled with despair crawled into Chen Ge’s soul, the black threads that represented pain and curse also bound around his body, the two forces used his body as the battlefield as they tore at each other, they were close to tearing him apart. From his physical body to his soul, the pain was indescribable but the most horrible thing was Chen Ge realized he was unable to faint even if he wanted to. His body’s self-protective mechanism had lost its use fully at that moment, there was no choice for him but to suffer that incredible pain.

  “Is it all part of your plan? Doctor Sun!” Chen Ge still had a clear head on his shoulders. In his most despairing and impossible moment, he knew resistance would be futile. So he had given up on resistance and voluntarily opened his arms to embrace the pain. He had committed into a decision that no one else would have done in his place. When the two forces were fighting against each other, he worked his brain to its maximum and he started to dig through the memory fragments in his mind as much as he could!

  Many sealed memories floated up in his mind, many familiar faces flitted before his eyes. Chen Ge was under such pain that he thought he would die on the spot. If he was still at the hospital, he would have fainted already but at this place, where his body and soul were taken over by two different forces, fainting was something that was deprived of him.

  Looking at the horrible state that Chen Ge was in, Doctor Sun touched the scars on his face. He was also flummoxed at that moment, he did not know what to do. “The brain maze is the talent of the night doctor, why would it leave such an intense stimulus on him? Is it the influence of Patient Number 1? Once memory of him is triggered, one will be influenced by him?” The pain on Chen Ge was so intense that the man would have willingly sought after death but death would not continue. Doctor Sun was flustered but there was nothing he could do. In the end, he could only stand there and look at Chen Ge with apology in his eyes. “But if this continues, he might die from the extreme pain. Even though dying will not cause any influence to him in real life, I think this situation is rather unique!”


  Doctor Sun reunited with his evil spirit. He did not dare to get close to Chen Ge himself so he had his evil spirit drag all the skulls to approach Chen Ge. His intention was to have his evil spirit bring Chen Ge out of the office but who would known once the evil spirit got close to Chen Ge, it was torn apart by the curse and blood vessels. Droplets of blood splashed on Chen Ge’s body. Combined that with the ghastly countenance that Chen Ge had at that moment, he had the perfect appearance of a demon who had just crawled out from the bowels of hell.

  “Oh…… damn……” Doctor Sun had no back up plan so he could only watch as things progressed. After who knew how long, under Chen Ge’s active cooperation the deep red blood vessels had completely suppressed the black threads of curse. Some unknown and strange memory fragments bubbled up continuously in Chen Ge’s mind. These memories did not belong to Chen Ge so they should belong to that child’s head. His memory was almost dominated by death. Different causes of death and every time he tried to find the way back. The boy wandered about a red city, as he kept pushing open doors that were covered in blood vessels.

  The child’s memory perfectly laid over the gaps in Chen Ge’s own memory. The pain slowly dissipated until there was only a single sentence that was left in Chen Ge’s mind—I will be waiting for you at the deepest part of the hospital.

  Lying supine on the ground, Chen Ge still had not lost his consciousness but he was so weak that he had lost the energy to even blink anymore. The glass jar inside the hospital director’s office was shattered. Chen Ge’s patient garb was covered in glass shards and blood stains. Several rolling human heads clustered around him, but if you looked closer, you would find there was not a child’s head among them. Doctor Sun looked through the entire office but he failed to find the child’s head. A chill ran up his spine. He tried to nudge Chen Ge and realized both the blood vessels and curses had already disappeared. He hurriedly dragged Chen Ge out of the hospital director’s office.

  “Can you hear me?” Doctor Sun collected the heads of the patients and then half dragged, half carried Chen Ge back to the fifth floor of the third sick hall. “Even though there was some accident, everything has gone mostly according to plan, you have to remember what I told you.” He used almost 15 minutes before Doctor Sun managed to drag Chen Ge and all the heads back to the door of the treatment room on the fifth floor. “It depends on this time whether you will be able to escape from the hospital or not. The hospital is filled with their people, I cannot afford to communicate with you anymore. You will have to rely on yourself to mount this escape.”


  Doctor Sun grabbed Chen Ge’s hand and used it to push open the sickroom door. And then he pushed Chen Ge and all the human heads back into the room. “You need to find back your real self.”
……

  Doctor Sun closed the door and the moment the door clicked shut, Chen Ge’s eyes flew open.

  “Ah!” Chen Ge’s horrible wailing echoed inside the treatment room. The chair toppled over and his body slammed heavily against the ground.

  “Chen Ge?”


  “Number seven?’


  The mechanical ticking of the watch slowly weakened. Doctor Gao and the other patients all turned to look at Chen Ge. At that moment, Chen Ge was like a crazy man, he kept on screaming at the top of his lungs. “Why are all of you still alive? Why are all of you still alive!” Chen Ge waved the newspaper in his hands wildly and during this process, he sliced his fingers. The blood soaked the paper wet and the paper peeled off to reveal the sharp glass shard inside the folds of newspaper.

  His eyes wandered until Chen Ge saw his own reflection inside the mirror shard. Then he screamed like he was given a huge trauma. “Killer! He is the killer! He has killed all of you!” The mirror dropped to the ground and shattered into even smaller shards and each shard had Chen Ge’s reflection looking back at him.

  Doctor Gao who was seated on the chair slowly stood up. He put away the mechanical clock on the table. The ticking sound then disappeared. The other patients slowly returned to normal. They were looking a little bit pale but Chen Ge appeared to have truly lost his mind. “Inside the hospital, it was you who have killed all those people.” Doctor Gao took out a file and started recording something on it. The other patients tossed Chen Ge terrified looks. “The treatment will end now. Chen Ge will stay behind and the rest of you should return to your respective rooms.” After all the patients had left, Doctor Sun and Doctor Gao tried to communicate with Chen Ge but Chen Ge was under so much pressure that he started to mumble incoherently. His condition was only getting worse.

  Staring at the maddened Chen Ge, Doctor Gao considered for a long time before he wrote down the statement ‘cured’ in one of the pages of the file. After writing that, he handed the report over to Doctor Sun, “You have been following him in the brain maze, you did notice anything out of place?”


  “Everything was going according to the treatment plan, you could say that everything has gone without a hitch.” The blood kept leaking out from Doctor Sun’s scars. At that moment, he looked no better than Chen Ge. Doctor Gao appeared to have heard some rumors about Doctor Sun. After he saw Doctor Sun also worked down the term ‘cured’ on Chen Ge’s files, Doctor Gao only sighed in relief. “You should take the file to the vice hospital director. Hopefully our first cooperation is successful and hopefully this will also be our last cooperation.” After he said that, Doctor Gao opened the treatment room door. Five hospital workers came out from the locked adjacent rooms. They worked together to drag Chen Ge to the quarantine zone. When Doctor Sun was the only one left inside the treatment room, he flipped through Chen Ge’s file as his finger casually knocked against the surface of the table, he knocked six times.

  Chen Ge who was struggling with his life heard the six knocks. He realized Doctor Gao’s expression was slowly changing but Doctor Gao himself did not appear to notice it. [The night doctor has a kind of talent that is called brain maze. That kind of power can only be activated through the medium of sound and that appears to be the ticking of the mechanical watch that Doctor Gao had inside his pocket……]

  A speculation rose in Chen Ge’s mind. When Doctor Sun first entered the treatment room, he knocked on the door six times, at the time, Doctor Gao still had not taken out his watch. In other words, Doctor Sun had already come after Doctor Gao before the former even entered the door. Doctor Gao used his own talent to conduct the treatment on Chen Ge but way before Doctor Gao used his own talent, Doctor Sun had already pulled one over Doctor Gao. One trick over another, it was very intricately designed. However even such a perfect plan still could not prevent the occurrence of an accident at the very end.

  Now the memory of a third person had appeared in Chen Ge’s mind. The child’s brain appeared to have settled into his mind through some kind of other method. To play up the role of the madman to fool Doctor Gao, Chen Ge continued to wail. He was acting crazier than an actual crazy person. He was finally strapped to the bed in the quarantine zone. Before Doctor Gao left, he poured out five white pills from the medicine bottle and tipped them all into Chen Ge’s mouth.

  After forcing them down Chen Ge’s throat, he and the other hospital workers left the quarantine zone. Chen Ge yelled until his throat was coarse before sleep came to claim him……

  The morning light showered on Chen Ge’s face. He looked at the scenery outside the window silently. Yesterday night was the most dangerous night that he had experienced since he was hospitalized. If not for Doctor Sun, he would definitely think he was a serial killer already. Human consciousness required some key elements to support it, if Chen Ge had started to suspect himself, then he would have practically no chance at winning anymore.

  “Even though it was very dangerous yesterday night, it was also extremely rewarding. I have gained a rough understanding of this hospital and when the blood vessels were fighting the black threads at the few final moments inside the brain maze, I have unlocked many memories from the past. Most importantly, I have memorized the location of the seven glass jars.” Many unknown names appeared in Chen Ge’s mind and there were some unfamiliar experiences as well. “I need to go and locate those seven glass jars as soon as I can so that I can leave this godforsaken hospital.”


  He had remembered many things but these fragments could not be strung together, they were merely images that seemed to have no correlation with one another.

  Bang! Bang! Bang! Knocking was on the door and then Doctor Gao as well as two hospital workers entered the room. The three of them stood at Chen Ge’s bedside. None of them said a thing, they merely looked at Chen Ge silently.

  “Doctor Gao……” Chen Ge acted like he was too ashamed to face Doctor Gao, “yesterday night, did i……”


  “I am afraid you will not be moving back to the normal sickroom for a long time in the future. I am sure you have not forgotten about your experience from yesterday night, right? You should still remember very clearly how it felt like to wield the weapon as it sliced through their skin.” Doctor Gao looked at Chen Ge with disappointment. If not for the fact that Chen Ge had seen Doctor Gao written down the term ‘cured’ in his file yesterday night, Chen Ge might truly buy Doctor Gao’s acting.

  “Please don’t say anything else anymore.” Chen Ge’s emotions started to fray away. It appeared like he was unable to accept the fact that he would have killed several people in one night.

  “I know you are in great pain but if you are unwilling to abandon the stories that you have created for yourself to protect yourself from the truth, the rest of your life will be ruined just like that.” Doctor Gao advised with extreme kindness. “your life is just beginning, are you going to stay as a monster that is avoided by everyone?”


  “I just want to be like everyone, I want to live a simple life and be spared from this pain.”


  “The source of that pain is the fake memory that you have created for yourself. When those memories disappear, you will be cured fully.” Doctor Gao poured out five pills from the medicine bottle. “From now on, every night I will come and conduct treatment with you, to help you wipe away your fake past. But I need your full cooperation during this treatment, in other words, you have to open up your heart to me and be willing to actively abandon the false past that you have created for yourself.” Seeing the pained expression on Chen Ge’s face, Doctor Gao sighed. “Falsehood and reality, you can only choose one, do not make the wrong choice again.”


  After feeding Chen Ge the pills, Doctor Gao left. Chen Ge was strapped into the bed. When the time came, Xu Wan would arrive to send him meal and wipe down his face and arms. Chen Ge was unable to see the theme park’s haunted house from the quarantine area. The only person Chen Ge could talk to was Xu Wan. Luckily Xu Wan never showed any impatience towards Chen Ge, she kept telling Chen Ge about the beauty of the world outside the hospital.

  That night, Chen Ge was sent into the treatment room again. Since Doctor Sun was not there, Chen Ge did not dare to open his heart that easily and allow Doctor Sun to travel into his mind. Whenever he heard the sound of watch ticking, he would be under great alert. Unable to drag Chen Ge into the brain maze, Doctor Gao could only try other methods and this continued for seven days. Chen Ge’s condition stabilized again. He was allowed to leave the quarantine zone. With the hospital worker’s help, he was accompanied to the hospital garden to take a rest.

  This was the first time he had left the building in seven days. Chen Ge slumped down on his usual chair to rest and soon a white cat leaped out from the flower bushes. The cat appeared to be really concerned about Chen Ge, once it saw him, it quickly ran over. When Chen Ge saw the white cat, he knew his opportunity had arrived.

  He avoided the worker’s gaze and hugged the cat by its head. “A cat has appeared inside this human world, you are the anomaly and also the key. Ol’ Bai, help me delay and distract that hospital worker.” Chen Ge subconsciously called out the name Ol’ Bai. This was a name that came to him yesterday night. Based on the white cat’s appearance, he believed that might be the cat’s name. Tilting its head, the white cat looked at Chen Ge with confusion. Its dual-colored eyes blinked as if saying, ‘erm, people with hands around me, have you lost your noodles?’


  The hospital worker saw the white cat and was coming over. Chen Ge did not want to miss this opportunity and he used the back of his arm to brush against the cat’s claw. To not harm Chen Ge, the white cat retracted its claw. But Chen Ge yelped as if in pain and threw the cat at the hospital worker. He covered the back of his arm with his hand like he was scratched. “Where did the cat come from?” Chen Ge yelled out the question in the hospital worker’s mind.

  When the hospital worker was busying himself to chase after the white cat, Chen Ge returned alone to the Third Sick Hall. Based on the route in his memory, he came to the seventh floor. “I do not have much time, I need to be fast!”


  Not many people ventured beyond the fifth floor at the third sick hall. The surrounding was incredibly quiet. Chen Ge did not run into another patient or doctor. Pushing open the door to the hospital director’s office, a stinging smell floated out from inside the room. Chen Ge slid into the room without any hesitation. The interior décor of the room was similar to Chen Ge’s memory, including the giant glass jar that sat in the middle of the office desk. Seeing the child’s head inside the glass jar, the memory that belonged to the third person in his mind was triggered. The world before his eyes changed in that second. The originally empty room was filled with endless black threads and various horrible curses surrounded Chen Ge. “That is how the hospital really looks like?”


  Chen Ge had lost the choice to turn back at this point. When he took the step forward, he realized the black threads and curse did not come after him but they stared at the space behind him. Turning back to look, Chen Ge realized the space where he was standing earlier had the shadow of a human head on it. The shadow looked just like the human head inside the glass jar from yesterday night.

  “The child’s head has followed me out from the brain maze? But doesn’t everything inside the brain maze are created from pure memory?” Chen Ge felt like the head behind him was just a shadow that was made from memory. Someone used this shadow to distract the curses inside the office to give Chen Ge’s the opportunity to enter it. “It feels like there is someone else who is helping me at this hospital other than Doctor Sun and perhaps Doctor Sun is even under their order.”


  In the blink of an eye, Chen Ge’s world returned to normal again. He took big strides towards the glass jar and reached out to touch it.