There are still three and a half hours before it gets dark. Before that, we have to find out where Doctor Fang has been before he disappeared! "
Chen Ge's attitude was firm. He was with Ol 'Wu. Those who did not know would think that he was the police officer and Ol' Wu was just the driver.
"We have to investigate before dark? Do you have anything else to do tonight? "Ol 'Wu asked with confusion as he drove.
"This city is not safe at night."
"Xin Hai is the city with the best security in the southern part of China. Some of the business districts here are open for twenty hours, and they are known as the city that never sleeps." Ol 'Wu gripped the steering wheel. "You young people should know more about this than I do."
Chen Ge smiled but did not explain.
Twenty minutes later, they arrived at Xin Hai Second Hospital.
There were eleven tertiary grade A hospitals in Xin Hai, and Doctor Fang's Second Hospital was ranked very high. It was located at the busiest part of Xin Hai.
"Hello, I want to ask about someone." Chen Ge and Ol 'Wu, who was wearing the police uniform, asked the receptionist. The nurse on duty initially did not want to talk to Chen Ge, but when she saw the uniform that Ol' Wu was wearing, her attitude became much better.
With the accompaniment of the nurse on duty, Chen Ge came to the ENT department. There was a doctor inside who was examining the patient's body.
"Doctor Fang has not come to work for many days already, so I do not know the details. The doctor inside is Zhao. He is Doctor Fang's colleague and good friend, so he should know some information." The nurse on duty left after saying that. Chen Ge and Ol 'Wu waited for Doctor Zhao to finish his examination before they entered the room.
"Which one of you is the patient?" Doctor Zhao was very busy. He had not been resting well recently. The dark circles under his eyes were heavy, and he looked rather lethargic.
"We are not here to see a doctor." Chen Ge pointed at Ol 'Wu next to him. "This is a frontline officer from the city's investigation unit."
He did not mention his own identity, and he did not say that Ol 'Wu was a police officer from Jiujiang. Everything he said was the truth, but it gave off the impression that they were both from Xin Hai's investigation unit.
"Police?" Doctor Zhao realized the severity of the situation. "Are you here because of Doctor Fang?"
"Looks like you do know something." Chen Ge sat down on the chair. The real police officer, Ol 'Wu, stood guard at the door.
"I've already told the people at the police station about the specific situation yesterday. I didn't expect the criminal police to come today. Could it be that Dr. Fang has really …" Dr. Zhao didn't continue, but the meaning he wanted to express was clear to everyone present.
"Don't ask what you shouldn't ask. You just need to tell me what you know." Chen Ge picked up the pen and paper on the table and prepared to take notes. He gave off a very professional vibe.
"In the past few weeks, Doctor Fang's condition has been very poor. There was also a problem during the surgery, and the number of patients complaining about him has increased. This was almost impossible in the past. Old Fang is our best otolaryngology-head and neck doctor.
"Is Dr. Fang's trance related to his family?"
"Yesterday, I also met Lao Fang's family. His wife and daughter are very normal. They are very worried about him. Oh right!" Doctor Zhao suddenly remembered something. "I heard from Ol 'Fang's wife that Ol' Fang often mumbles to himself, saying things like 'they're here, they're happy, they're already here.'"
"They're here? Someone is spying on Doctor Fang? " Ol 'Wu closed the door and walked over. He did not expect to run into such a strange case when he just arrived at Xin Hai with Chen Ge.
"A few days before his disappearance, Ol 'Fang often stayed up all night. He kept holding a knife and hiding at the window. Occasionally, he would look out the window like there was someone standing outside his home. His wife and daughter were very afraid. They would occasionally look out the window, but there was no one outside. " Doctor Zhao sighed. "Ol 'Fang's wife planned to hire a psychiatrist for him, but before the psychiatrist arrived, Ol' Fang had already disappeared."
"Doctor Fang's wife and daughter did not see anyone outside the window, right?" Chen Ge wanted to confirm this.
"Ol 'Fang's wife did not see anything, but his youngest daughter told the people at the police station yesterday that there was a woman who kept smiling at her home."
"A woman who kept smiling?" Chen Ge's eyes narrowed, and two words appeared in his mind — non-smiling.
"The people from the police station went to Ol 'Fang's home, but they could not find the woman. They believed that it was because Ol' Fang's daughter was under too much pressure that she was hallucinating."
"The occurrence of hallucinations is related to certain memories. They should have given it some more thought." Chen Ge did not comment on the police station's actions. He wanted to find Doctor Fang as soon as possible. "Doctor Zhao, do you know who was the last person to see Doctor Fang?"
"From the looks of it, it should be me." Doctor Zhao looked haggard. "Ol 'Fang applied for half a month's leave, but a few days ago, before his leave was over, he suddenly came back to work. I saw that he was fine, so I thought he had recovered, so I did not think too much of it. I even arranged to meet him for a few drinks after work. "
"Doctor Fang disappeared at the hospital?"
"From the looks of it, yes. After work, Ol 'Fang did not return. He locked himself inside his room. I have no idea what he was doing. When I came to work the next day, I received news that Ol' Fang had disappeared." Doctor Zhao was regretting his decision. "If only I had paid more attention that day."
"You don't need to blame yourself, this has nothing to do with you." Chen Ge frowned in contemplation. He thought back to the first time he called Doctor Fang.
Doctor Fang had mentioned that he was being monitored by the non-smilers. He even said that when the hospital's storeroom was being renovated, he found a letter inside the old storeroom. After opening it, it said that he was told to go to an abandoned hospital at midnight. If he did not go, something bad would happen to him.
"Doctor Zhao, some time ago, didn't your hospital's storeroom undergo renovations? At the time, did Doctor Fang enter the old storeroom? "
"How did you know that?" Doctor Zhao was surprised, but from his perspective, the renovation of the storeroom and Doctor Fang's disappearance were two completely different things, they could not be connected at all.
"Try to think back, did Doctor Fang's strange behavior start from the moment he entered the old storeroom?" Chen Ge put down the pen in his hand and shoved the note that recorded some information into his pocket.
"That … does seem to be the case." Doctor Zhao's expression became even more shocked. The feeling that Chen Ge gave him was completely different from the one that the officers from yesterday. "No wonder you're a detective. You're amazing."
"If it's convenient, can you bring us to the old storeroom now?"
"Sure, after all, that place is about to be abandoned." Doctor Zhao had a close relationship with Doctor Fang, so he was more than willing to help.
After greeting the other doctor, Doctor Zhao led Chen Ge and Ol 'Wu out of the hospital.
"The old storeroom is not at the hospital?" Chen Ge was confused.
"A few years ago, our hospital moved, and the old storeroom is still at its original location. Now, I think there are only one or two independent departments left."
Twenty minutes later, the three arrived at the original location of the hospital. After getting the key from the management, they entered the old storeroom.
The place had just been cleaned. The rows of racks were empty, and there was practically nothing inside the storeroom.
"When the storeroom was renovated, which area was Doctor Fang responsible for?"
"I think it was the few rooms at the very back." Doctor Zhao took out the key to open the steel door that led deeper into the storeroom. "Due to the old electrical circuit, there were no lights inside, and the light was very dim. The nurses who came with him did not dare go in. That day, I think Ol 'Fang went in alone."
"These few storerooms are separated by steel doors. Who designed that?"
"I have no idea."
The three entered the storeroom and found some things that did not look like they would be used at the hospital, like an old white wedding dress, pairs of shoes that were covered in dust, and so on.
In the dimly lit room, the broken old shoes alone had a particularly frightening feeling.
"I have no idea how these things ended up inside the storeroom. The old man who guarded the storeroom passed away a long time ago, and this place is locked up all year round. If not for the new hospital director's order to renovate the storeroom, I'm afraid no one would know that there are so many shoes inside the hospital's storeroom." Doctor Zhao held the flashlight and the key. He was feeling quite unsettled.
"There are all kinds of shoes here, and they come in different sizes. Do you think it's possible that one of the hospital's caretakers likes to collect the shoes of dead people? Perhaps he has stolen all the shoes from the patients and stored them at the deepest part of the storeroom? "Chen Ge mumbled to himself. He did not notice the darkening expressions on Ol 'Wu and Doctor Zhao's faces.
"That thought of yours, to put it mildly, is quite perverted." Doctor Zhao pointed at the surrounding racks. "So many of the shoes on the racks have been worn by dead people? I've realized that the way you investigators think is different from normal people. "
Ol 'Wu scratched his nose. He wanted to say something, but after hearing what Doctor Zhao said, he suddenly did not know what to say.
Chen Ge, who walked at the front, did not answer. He walked past two rows of racks before suddenly stopping. "The shoes on the first few racks are all neatly arranged, so how come only the shoes on this row have fallen down? Someone has fallen down here before! "
Narrowing his eyes, Chen Ge compared the spot where the shoes had fallen, and he had a general idea of what had happened.
"There was a person who was about the same height as me. He saw something at the spot where I was standing, and he was spooked. His body knocked into the rack, and his shoes fell apart." Chen Ge had a very sharp observation ability. Just from the spot where the shoes fell, he was able to deduce many things. "The thing that scared the victim should have suddenly appeared behind him. When he turned around, he lost his balance and knocked into the rack."
Chen Ge locked onto a direction and walked toward it. His Yin Yang Vision scanned the racks on both sides, and he soon discovered something.
"What is this?"
There was a small ball of paper hidden at a very inconspicuous spot at the bottom of the rack. Chen Ge opened it, and there was only one sentence written on it — Do not enter the last storage room!
"Doctor Zhao, can you take a look and see if this is Doctor Fang's handwriting?" Chen Ge handed the paper to Doctor Zhao, and the latter shook his head after reading it.
"It is not Doctor Fang's handwriting, but it appeared at the spot where Doctor Fang's accident happened. In other words, someone kindly warned Doctor Fang before he entered the storage room, but unfortunately, he did not pay attention to it." Chen Ge took the paper back. This was a very important clue, and he had to keep it for himself. "Doctor Zhao, can you still remember the people who entered the storage room with Doctor Fang that day?"
"Yes."
"Among them, did anyone have the same handwriting as the one on the paper?"
"I don't think so. The handwriting of a doctor is rather sloppy. It's a habit of writing prescriptions." Doctor Zhao confirmed it multiple times, and in the end, he said that the paper was not written by Doctor Fang's colleague.
"Was it not someone from the hospital?" Chen Ge frowned. After a while, he suddenly asked, "To enter the storage room, one has to get the key from the management first. Could this paper have been given to Doctor Fang by someone from the management?"
After failing to find any more clues in the old storage room, Chen Ge took the paper and hurried back to the management.
After comparing the handwriting, Chen Ge realized that the handwriting on the paper was very similar to the handwriting of one of the storage room's managers. The manager's surname was Chi, and it was a very rare surname.
Chen Ge put the paper away. Looking at the picture of the worker on the wall, he asked loudly, "Excuse me, is Chi Ren around?"
"Brother Ren applied for leave a few days ago. Do you have any business with him?" The manager also thought that Chen Ge and Ol 'Wu were from Xin Hai's Criminal Investigation Unit, so their attitude was very kind.
Hearing that Chi Ren had not come to work for several days, Chen Ge immediately had a bad feeling in his heart. "Can you tell me where Chi Ren is staying? We wish to go and ask him some questions in person. "
The manager hesitated for a while before giving Chen Ge the address of Chi Ren's rented apartment.
"Brother Ren is quite a loner. He basically does not talk to strangers. Be prepared for the door to be shut in your face." The manager also had a bitter smile on his face when he mentioned Chi Ren.
"Does he have any strange habits? Or has he done some strange things before? "
"There is nothing strange about that … By the way, Brother Ren lives alone. He does not have any family, but occasionally, he will talk to himself. He mumbles some very scary terms like eating hands, eyes, nose, and so on." Just the mention of these terms made the manager feel uncomfortable. "One time, I asked him why he kept saying these things, and he told me that those scary terms were all the names of his family."
"His family sure is strange." There was still half of the sentence that Chen Ge did not say. He had a feeling that this family with the surname Chi might have some kind of connection with the non-smilers.
After obtaining a useful clue, Chen Ge had Doctor Zhao go back first. He and Ol 'Wu went to the apartment that Chi Ren rented.
They knocked for a long time, but no one answered the door. In the end, it was the landlord who came out to tell them that Chi Ren had not been home for several days.
The landlord also revealed a very important piece of information to Chen Ge. When Chi Ren left the apartment for the last time, he was carrying a large backpack. It was filled with water and various kinds of food. It was as if he had predicted danger and was going somewhere to seek refuge.
"If my speculation is not wrong, Chi Ren wrote a note to Doctor Fang to save Doctor Fang, but he failed. He was afraid that the non-smilers would come after him, so he ran away that night."
From Chen Ge's perspective, even though this Chi Ren had a strange name, he should be a good person on the whole.
"To find Doctor Fang, we have to start with Chi Ren."
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