"Once one starts to doubt the world, misfortune will descend upon them?" Chen Ge shook his head lightly. "The scattered memories in my mind tell me that even if I am simply living, I will be tortured by misfortune and despair."
"That's not the same." Zuo Han touched the wound on his left eye. It felt like new flesh was growing, so it was slightly itchy. "Your previous memory might have come from reality, and reality has always been cruel. Everything that you have experienced now is more like a dream, a dream that you will not be able to wake up from."
"Ever since I woke up at the hospital, I have not had a dream at night. From this perspective, your speculation is not entirely wrong." Chen Ge poured a glass of water for Zuo Han, but Zuo Han did not even touch it. He was very cautious.
"Your body is recovering very quickly, and your eyes have become gentle. I know that you actually understand many things, but you are not willing to admit it now. Because you have a beautiful life, you have tasted the taste of happiness, so you do not want to break it yourself." Zuo Han was not only smart, he was also very observant. From Chen Ge's various expressions and tone, he could see many things.
Hearing Zuo Han's words, Chen Ge did not answer. He had been asking himself this question, but he had not gotten an answer.
"If this is just a dream, suspicion will lead to misfortune and tear apart all the sweetness, but even if I wake up from the dream, won't I still have to return to a crueler reality?"
"The sweetness here is fake." Zuo Han stood up and looked at Chen Ge very seriously. "In just one short month, what have you experienced? You were not like this when you were in the hospital. At the time, you gave me the feeling of a demon with a vengeful heart. "
"I have not experienced anything special. I have just been living the simplest life. If I have to point out something, it should be that I have met Zhang Ya." Chen Ge sat on the chair, and the emotions in his eyes were very complicated. "She is different for me. When I am with her, I feel very safe."
"I thought it would be very smooth. I didn't expect that I would come here for nothing." Zuo Han removed his gloves and took out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. "You will eventually wake up from your dreams. If you change your mind, you can come to this place to find me."
When Chen Ge picked up the note, he found that all the fingerprints on Zuo Han's fingers had been rubbed off.
"I am now a wanted criminal. This is the last time I will take the initiative to find you." Zuo Han watched as Chen Ge accepted the note and prepared to leave. "This city looks beautiful on the surface, but underneath its shiny exterior, it is filled with wounds that ooze with pus. When you refuse to leave, it will slowly swallow you into its stomach."
"I'll think about it."
"Okay, other than that, I need to tell you something. I once stole a white phone from the hospital. After I opened it, it was filled with various curses and a bunch of mini games related to curses. Initially, I thought that was a special case, but after I sneaked a look at the phones of the other hospital workers and doctors, I realized that everyone's white phone was installed with many mini games and apps related to curses. If you see someone using a white phone in the future, remember to stay away from them. "After saying that, Zuo Han did not stay any longer and left through the window of the Haunted House's toilet.
Closing the window, Chen Ge's face was dark. He leaned against the door of the toilet cubicle, and his brain was turning rapidly.
There were many memory fragments in my mind, and they were about a completely different life. The doctors at the hospital told me that they were all part of my imagination, but after seeing the seven glass jars in the hospital director's office, I can confirm that those memories are real. Actually, Chen Ge knew very well that if those memory fragments were real, then the city that he was currently living in was probably fake as well.
"After the hospital realized that all the memory fragments in my mind had disappeared, they only allowed me to leave the hospital. But the key problem was when I was about to leave the hospital, Doctor Sun reminded me that the treatment had just begun.
"Wiping away my past memory is only the first step of the treatment. Next, they should start to reconstruct my memory so that I will no longer doubt the hospital and this world and become a puppet that lives in this city.
"They used fake happiness and beauty to numb me. They gave me everything that I longed for. They made me discard them unwillingly and they even turned me into the guardian of the rules."
Chen Ge's eyes were cold. "They had a good idea, but there were too many accidents that happened in the middle. The patient Zhang Wenyu's escape, Zuo Han's suspicion of the world, Doctor Sun's help, and most importantly, there appeared to be some kind of change happening to Zhang Ya."
He remembered very clearly that when he saw Zhang Ya at the hospital, there were blood droplets formed from blood words that crawled into Zhang Ya's body.
"Initially, the purpose of Zhang Ya's existence should be to make up for my regret, to complete my wish but under the influence of those blood words, Zhang Ya started to have some very scary dreams every night.
Those dreams were perhaps the real reality. Those dreams kept reminding me and Zhang Ya that underneath this beautiful bubble, there were many bloody faces.
"This is a beautiful world that made me sink into it but I am not the only person in my life." Many blurry figures appeared in Chen Ge's mind. "The second persona who gouged out his heart inside the brain maze, the patient who was still being tortured at the hospital, the child who was cut up and placed into glass jars, Doctor Sun who had a face full of scars and even Zhang Ya."
Thinking back to the day when he went out shopping, when Chen Ge was making his mannequin, his hands instinctively made the Zhang Ya in his heart.
Chen Ge who was an expert in mannequin making had already noticed the problem at that time. The mannequin that he made, Zhang Ya was covered in blood and her body was carved with negative emotions. That was not Zhang Ya in Specter make-up but an extremely scary Demon God.
The Zhang Ya that was made based on instinct was different from the people around him or rather the Zhang Ya inside the Haunted House was just a part of the real Zhang Ya.
With that in mind, Chen Ge lowered his head to look at the note in his palm. On the front of the note were written — Ping An Apartments and on the back was the approximate location of Ping An Apartments.
"Doctor Sun helped me escape from the hospital. This means that the way to wake up from the dream is not inside the hospital but inside this city."
The message left behind by the author and Zuo Han for Chen Ge was similar. After giving it some thought, Chen Ge turned to enter the staff breakroom. Then he came out carrying an old backpack.
The white cat followed behind Chen Ge happily. Just as they were about to exit the Haunted House, Chen Ge placed it back inside the house. "I am going to a very dangerous place, I need you to stay here and look after the house."
The multi-colored eyes looked at Chen Ge with confusion. In fact, the white cat felt quite flattered. Moments later, it ran out from the house again as if worried that Chen Ge would not want it anymore.
"This time I am not going there to play. I need you to look after the house, I will be back before dawn."
In the end, Chen Ge did not bring the white cat with him. Following the hint on the note, he hailed a cab and came to a restaurant that was close to Ping An Apartments.
The taxi drivers in Xin Hai rarely came to this kind of remote place. When Chen Ge got out of the cab, the driver kept telling him not to wander around the countryside alone at night.
When Chen Ge arrived at the restaurant, his original intention was to prevent himself from being followed. Then he planned to walk to the apartment.
But since he had not eaten anything for the whole day, he was famished so he walked directly into the restaurant.
Ping An Apartments was located at the western countryside of Xin Hai. This place was very isolated. Before Chen Ge arrived, he did not expect that there would be such a famous restaurant in Xin Hai.
The store was famous for its "Braised Meat" and "Wild Game". Later, when the city banned the wild game business, the store owner hurriedly clarified that all the meat in his store was domesticated. It was only because of the unique seasoning formula that the taste was incomparably delicious.
The restaurant was not big. There were no private rooms and there were only five to six short wooden tables in the lobby.
"I am so sorry but we have already closed for business." There was a large fatty standing at the cashier. He was wearing a dirty apron and there was a very obvious scar on his face.
"I purposely came here from the city to eat. What do you have left here? Just get me something." Chen Ge smelled the fragrance of the meat inside the restaurant and he felt even hungrier. He found a seat and sat down and started to flip through the menu.
"There are still some vegetables but I have run out of meat. My restaurant sells like hotcakes." The fat chef finished his work and walked to stand before Chen Ge with the menu. "There are still some dumplings in the fridge. How about I make you some wild boar dumplings?"
"I do not really like wild game. You can just make me something else." Chen Ge raised his head to look at the chef and the chef happened to lower his head to look at him.
The two of them saw each other's faces and then something strange happened.
The scar on the fat chef's face started to move. His body appeared to be frozen and cold sweat slid down his forehead.
"You know me?" Chen Ge narrowed his eyes.
"I do not know you!" The chef answered immediately. Then he turned to run toward the kitchen like he was running for his life but his shoulder was grabbed by Chen Ge.
"You really do not know me? Then why are you leaving? What is your name? " Chen Ge did not have much flesh on his body but his hands were very strong. His five fingers were like steel claws that gripped the chef's shoulder tightly. "Your body is shaking. Are you afraid of me?"
"I am not afraid of you. I just mistook you for someone else. You look very similar to a police officer so I thought you were here to investigate wild game." The chef did not dare turn his head back and lowered his voice.
"You are lying." Chen Ge's grip tightened. "Tell me, what is your name?"
"My name is Chi Longtou, I am just a chef. Please let me go," the chef begged.
"Chi Longtou? Braised food shop? " Chen Ge felt that the name was familiar. He pressed the chef against the wall and reached out to touch the scar on the chef's face.
In terms of physique, the chef was much bigger than Chen Ge but in reality, the chef did not even have the thought to resist.
"The wound on your face has not formed a scab and the wound is not deep. It looks like something was used to scratch it bit by bit. Is this some kind of punishment?" Chen Ge's finger touched the edge of the wound and the pain caused the chef to grimace. "The outer part of the wound is very irregular. It looks like every time it is about to form a scab, I have to scratch it again. This must be very painful, right?"
Hearing Chen Ge's words, the chef's legs turned to jelly. He knelt on the ground and his face was ashen. "Chen Ge, can we pretend we have never met before? I have never seen you before and you have never entered my restaurant. "
"You know my name?" Chen Ge's grip tightened. He was sure that this was his first time meeting Chi Longtou but the fact that the other knew him meant that the two of them had some kind of interaction and that interaction was a kind of proof of their past memories.
The chef wished he could slap his own mouth. With a pained expression, he did not even dare to say a word.
"I need you to answer a few of my questions honestly. If I am satisfied with your answers, I will not pester you anymore, and we can pretend like we have never met." Compared to the chef, Chen Ge was more anxious, but he did not show it.
"Ask away, I will tell you everything I know." The chef crawled up from the ground like he had accepted his fate. He jogged over to close the restaurant door.
"First question, where did you meet me?" This was the thing that Chen Ge was most curious about. He had planned to ask Zhang Wenyu about his past that night but he did not expect to run into this strange chef.
"It was at Xin Hai Braised Cooking Restaurant, not behind the door …" As the chef said that, the world before his eyes was covered in a layer of blood. He felt like his brain was being torn apart.
"Hey!" Chen Ge was given a fright as well. He saw the scar on the chef's face tear open for no reason and blood flowed all over the chef's face.
Holding his face, the chef rolled on the ground. He resisted the pain but did not dare make too loud a sound. All he could do was bite on the rag on the table with his teeth.
The ground was covered in blood. Chen Ge looked at the blood that was slowly coagulating but he did not feel any disgust or disgust. It was as if he had gotten used to the color of blood.
His fingers touched the blood stain on the ground. The sticky and warm feeling was incredibly familiar to Chen Ge. A thought appeared deep in his mind. "This is real blood."
Ten minutes later, the chef finally came back to his senses.
He reached out his bloody hands to grab Chen Ge's shoes. "I cannot tell you, I will die."
"Actually, in your current state, I feel like I would rather die than live. Perhaps you have something to worry about." Chen Ge helped the chef up. "If one day I can end this pain, I will try my best to help you. You do not need to force yourself. You only need to tell me what you can."
The chef's body was shaking from pain. He held the rag and dipped it in his own blood to write on the ground. Every time he wrote a word, he would wipe it away — this was the place used to punish the patients behind the door.
"The place used to punish the patients?"
His fingers shook and the chef wrote down another line — If I do not escape, I will not die even if I want to, save me. "
He wiped away all the blood stains on the ground and returned to the kitchen with his hands over his face.
Ever since Chen Ge saw the bloody words on the ground, he had a very bad feeling.
If he pursued the truth, misfortune would come, and now the misfortune appeared to have arrived.
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