Chapter 1186: Back to the Beginning Again
”All those caretakers in the hospital also have the last name of Eat, there might be some kind of connection between them, this place should not be stayed for a long time.”
Chen Ge looked at the bloodstains all over the ground, he couldn’t care less about his meal and left the restaurant.
Following the path out of more than a hundred meters, when Chen Ge looked back again, the lights in that store had all gone out, and the surrounding area was pitch black, nothing could be seen.
”A city that seems incomparably beautiful to me, and yet Eat Dragon Head says that this city is used to punish the sick, and also he mentioned the word ‘gate’, does ‘gate’ have some sort of special meaning in this city? ”
Chen Ge thought of the door in the bathroom of Zhang Ya’s haunted house, every time he opened the cubicle door, the next time he entered the bathroom, he found that the cubicle door would be closed.
Also when he was being treated in the hospital, the key turning point when Dr. Gao pulled him into the brain maze was pushing the door.
After pushing the door open, the hospital outside is eerie, and it’s like two worlds inside and outside the door.
”Perhaps the exit to escape this city is a certain door hidden in the middle of the city.”
According to the location provided by Zuo Han, Chen Ge finally found the Ping An Apartment at 11:40 PM.
It was a nearly abandoned old apartment building, located behind a certain deserted village in the western suburbs of Xinhai, in an extremely remote location.
”Why did both Writer and Zuo Han ask me to come here? Have they already met in advance?”
The leaves of the trees rustled as Chen Ge walked through the abandoned village without even a ghostly shadow around.
”It always feels like I’ve been to this place before.” Chen Ge looked at the patch of graves outside the village, as well as the old acacia tree at the entrance of the village that was as crooked as if it was a ghost, such a horrifying scene yet it didn’t cause any ripples within him.
”What exactly have I experienced before? Why is it that when I see these things that normal people should be afraid of, not only do I not fear them, but I even feel a sense of affinity?”
Chen Ge didn’t feel that there was anything abnormal about himself, he just felt that there must be a deeper reason for the formation of this mentality.
Arriving at the back of the village, Chen Ge was about to continue walking when he suddenly saw a man squatting on the grave beside him.
He seemed to have appeared out of nowhere and seemed to have been there all along.
When Chen Ge saw the man, he also saw Chen Ge, both sides glanced at each other, surprisingly, neither of them felt that there was anything wrong with this, neither of them spoke, and they directly staggered apart.
The man continued to squat on the grave, while Chen Ge walked out a few steps before suddenly realizing that the man squatting on the grave just now looked somewhat familiar to him.
When Chen Ge turned back to look again, there was only a lonely grave left behind him.
”Where is the man?”
”In the middle of the night, there is a man squatting on the grave, such an abnormal thing, why can I easily accept it? That person squatting on the grave didn’t make me feel very bad either.”
Ever since he had made up his mind to come to the Peaceful Apartment, Chen Ge gradually realized that the number of incomprehensible things around him began to increase.
To get to the Peaceful Apartments, one had to pass through the deserted village, and after Chen Ge passed through a graveyard, a dirt road piled with tree branches and garbage appeared in front of him.
There was also a sign next to the road with the words No Entry written on it.
Only after years of disrepair, the sign was askew and the writing had become very blurry.
”What kind of people insist on living in that apartment even though it’s in such a state of disrepair?”
Walking on the potholed dirt road, Chen Ge curiously looked to both sides, there were wreaths and soul streamers hanging on both sides of this road, and a lot of paper money scattered on the ground, some of which had been half-buried in the dirt, obviously sprinkled a long time ago.
The tree trunks were wrapped in white cloth, and tombstones could be vaguely seen in the woods, with one grave bag looming over the other, making people feel extremely uncomfortable.
If a different ordinary resident of Xinhai City came over, at this point, I’m afraid that they would have already turned around and left.
”The arrangement is so terrifying, it feels as if it’s deliberately hiding something and doesn’t want people to get close.”
The path in front of him seemed to be able to lead directly to the netherworld, and Chen Ge didn’t know how long he had been walking before he finally came to the end of the path.
In the depths of the dense forest there was a dilapidated apartment building with three floors, not too high, the windows on the third floor were all boarded up, and traces of the fire that had burned through could still be seen on the walls.
There seemed to have been a fire here, and the owner had only renovated the lower two floors, probably because of a shortage of funds, and the third floor remained almost intact.
”Peaceful Apartment?”
Walking through the small courtyard full of weeds, Chen Ge saw the sign at the entrance of the apartment building.
The building seemed to have had many names before, and the font on the sign was constantly modified, making it look messy.
”Is anyone there?” Chen Ge pulled the backpack zipper open, reached into the bag, and carefully entered the building.
The interior of the apartment was extremely dilapidated, the floor tiles were cracked, there were still gaps in the walls, and occasionally black bugs could be seen crawling in them.
”It feels quite small looking outside, I didn’t expect there to be so many rooms inside.” Chen Ge didn’t dare to casually move down the corridor, his eyes swept through the doors of the rooms and finally walked towards door 101.
Knocking lightly on the door of the room, Chen Ge stood at the door for half a day but no one opened the door, he lay down on the door panel and listened with his ears open.
The house was silent, as if there was no one living there at all.
”What are you doing?”
A man’s voice suddenly sounded from behind Chen Ge, startling Chen Ge, who immediately turned around to look behind himself.
”It’s you! That man who was squatting on the grave before!” Chen Ge instantly recognized the man behind him.
”This isn’t a place you should be in, hurry up and leave before you disturb the other tenants.” The man stood just a few steps behind Chen Ge, he walked without making a sound at all, Chen Ge had no idea when the other party came over.
”It’s too late, there are no cars leaving now, can I stay here for the night?” Chen Ge stared at the man, memorizing the other party’s every move in his mind.
”This place is already full.” The middle-aged man kept urging Chen Ge to leave, “Let’s go, even staying outside is better than staying here.”
”Full rooms? But how come I feel that all the rooms here are unoccupied?”
”No occupants doesn’t mean that there are no tenants in the rooms ……” The man hadn’t finished speaking when something seemed to fall on the third floor, rolling like a leather ball on the stairs.
Chen Ge twisted his head to look, but the man took a step ahead and blocked his view with his body.
”Did something fall just now?”
”A tenant dropped her belongings, I’ll go help her, you stand here and don’t move.” The man walked towards the corner of the corridor, Chen Ge didn’t listen to his words but followed directly behind him.
When he came to the corner of the stairs, Chen Ge saw the middle-aged man placing something on a woman.
”Thank …… you,” the woman stroked her neck with both hands and gave Chen Ge a somewhat curious look.
The weird thing was that after she saw Chen Ge’s face, she couldn’t take her gaze away, and it wasn’t until the middle-aged man coughed several times that the woman realized what was going on and turned away.
Being watched by that strange woman, cold sweat broke out on Chen Ge’s back.
Just now, he clearly saw the middle-aged man place something on the woman, but there was nothing on the woman’s hands or body that could make the sound of a leather ball collision.
Chen Ge’s gaze was fixed on the back of the woman’s neck, the other woman’s neck was unnaturally twisted, and her head didn’t seem to fit her neck completely.
”It’s time for you to go.” The middle-aged man stood on the stairs, looking down at Chen Ge, his face taking on an abnormal iron color, like a corpse in a morgue.
”Actually, I came here to look for my friend.” Chen Ge didn’t want to hide it, this place was too weird, he felt it was better to tell the truth.
”Your friend can’t be here, and the tenant who lives here can’t be your friend.” The middle-aged man walked over to Chen Ge: “This is the second time you, and I, have met tonight, I pretended not to see you the first time, and I can still pretend not to see you now. Leave now, there is no third time.”
”You’ve been pretending not to see me? What would happen if you saw me?”
”It will become a tenant here, and it will be hard to leave again.”
The middle-aged man and Chen Ge were in a stalemate in the hallway, and a few moments later, a door on the second floor near the hallway was opened, and a woman wearing glasses walked out of the room, and she happened to see Chen Ge and the middle-aged man.
This woman’s gaze also changed when she saw Chen Ge, she and the middle-aged man seemed to have a good relationship, she directly walked to the middle-aged man’s side, and inquired in a low voice in his ear, “Old Zhou, has this person come to Ping An Apartment before?”
The middle-aged man known as Old Zhou shook his head, “I’m in the process of kicking him out.”
”If more tenants see him, he might not even be able to leave if he wanted to.” The woman with glasses finished speaking as if she hadn’t seen Chen Ge at all, brushing past him and walking towards the third floor.
Chen Ge also noticed that the people in Ping An Apartment had a strange attitude towards him, and he guessed that it might be because of Zhang Wenyu and Zuo Han.
”That …… Brother Zhou, among your tenants here is there a person called Zuo Han, I’m a sick friend with him.” Chen Ge said Zuo Han’s name, his intention was to find out more, but who knew that when he said this, the middle-aged man’s attitude towards him immediately shifted.
”Patient friend? You’re from that hospital as well?” Old Zhou’s gaze was fixed on Chen Ge.
”We lived amongst the same ward, and his escape from the hospital can be said to be related to me as well.”
”Zuo Han hasn’t returned yet, if you’re his friend, then go wait for him in his room first.” Old Zhou changed his mind after he learned that Chen Ge was the one who came out of that hospital, he personally led Chen Ge to the deepest part of the second floor corridor: “Zuo Han lives here, the door lock of his room happens to be broken, so you can go inside and wait for him.”
Chen Ge was not polite, he pushed the door and saw blood-stained bandages and gauze all over the floor.
”These are all changed by Zuo Han, he went out to meet a friend today and hasn’t returned yet.”
”That friend he went to meet is me.” Chen Ge pointed at himself.
”Oh? He went to meet you, and as a result, he didn’t come back, and you came here to find him?” The man known as Old Zhou narrowed his eyes and smiled, “Before he comes back, you’d better not run around, this apartment building is more lively after midnight, whatever you hear don’t step out of your room, just plug your ears and sleep.”
After the middle-aged man finished speaking, he turned around and left, Chen Ge stayed in the room alone.
The room was simply decorated, but Chen Ge felt very familiar.
It felt like it was the first time he had come to some unfamiliar place, but it was as if he had once dreamed of this place in his dreams.
Sitting on the bed, Chen Ge gripped his backpack at all times, “It seems like I’ve been to this place before, I don’t remember exactly what happened, but the impression is that it was something very bad.”
Chen Ge waited in his room until the latter part of the night, Zuo Han still hadn’t returned.
Sleepy, Chen Ge rubbed his bloodshot eyes, “A normal apartment could never be opened behind a deserted village mound, there must be something wrong here.”
If according to the hospital’s original treatment plan, at this point, Chen Ge had already eliminated the effects that his past memories had caused him, then his current state should be just like that of an ordinary person who came to the apartment for the first time.
But unfortunately, Dr. Sun’s appearance had caused a loophole in the hospital’s treatment, and Chen Ge knew that he couldn’t completely trust his own eyes at any time, and he had maintained a calmness that exceeded the limits of humanity.
Around two o’clock in the morning, Chen Ge suddenly heard a strange noise coming from upstairs, as if someone was cutting something with a saw.
He remembered the words of the man surnamed Zhou and stayed honestly in the house, the cutting sound gradually weakened, the sound of wallpaper crumbs falling off and if not screams began to appear above his head again, vaguely Chen Ge also heard the name Zhang Wenyu.
”He must have a reason for not letting me go out.” Chen Ge remained sitting on the bed without moving, but after a few minutes had passed, he unexpectedly overheard a familiar name from the conversation upstairs – Zhang Jingju.
Thinking back carefully, the scream just now sounded very similar to Zhang Jingjiu’s voice.
Chen Ge couldn’t sit still any longer, so he carried his backpack and quietly slipped out of his room to the third floor of the apartment.
There were traces of burning everywhere, and a large amount of badly damaged furniture and all kinds of charred garbage were piled up on the ground.
The sounds of conversations and sawing things came from the depths of the corridor, Chen Ge slowly moved forward, a faint smell of blood drifted across the tip of his nose, and the world in front of him was gradually replaced by the color of blood.
The charred wall skin was covered with blood stains, and in the darkened corridor of the building, a few silhouettes could be vaguely seen swaying.
Chen Ge’s attention was highly focused, and there was so much clutter on the ground that the slightest bit of inattention would make a noise.
”What are they doing?” Chen Ge slowly approached, and when he reached the middle of the long corridor, he saw the wall at the end of the corridor.
His pupils instantly narrowed, and Chen Ge realized that a doctor in a white coat was nailed to that wall at the deepest part of the corridor.
That doctor’s coat was stained red with blood, and a patient with twisted limbs was lying at his feet.
”Zhang Jingjiu?”
Breathing became rapid, Chen Ge never expected that he would meet the hospital doctor and Zhang Jingjiu here.
”Did the people in the apartment tie them up? Impossible!”
Chen Ge’s brain raced, and before he could come up with a result, he suddenly heard a soft thud from behind him.
Looking back furiously, Chen Ge realized that there was a child standing behind him.
The kid was not tall and had a thin body, but his face carried a cunningness and maturity that did not match his age.
”My name is Men Nan, big brother, what’s your name?”