There was a faded stench in the air, and the closer he got to the Third Sick Hall, the thicker the stench became.
The corridor between the second and third sick hall was locked, and a steel door separated the two halls.
Through the gap, one could see the interior of the Third Sick Hall. The tables and chairs were toppled, and there was a pile of mattresses in the corridor. The weirdest thing was that the mattresses were bulging like they were hiding something.
Chen Ge stood beside the rusted steel door and stared at the keyhole. He had been on the third floor of the second sick hall for quite some time already.
A double-sided lock?
Most of the doors at mental hospitals had double-sided locks. In an emergency, no matter which side one stood on, the door would be locked, and the area would be locked.
This was supposed to be a small detail, but it attracted Chen Ge's attention.
He took out the key left behind by Wang Haiming from his pocket and tried the keyhole.
Probably because it had not been maintained for a long time, the keyhole was rusted, and the key would not fit.
"Looks like I've been overthinking things. This key is not the key to the door." Comparing the height and distance between the teeth of the key and the keyhole, Chen Ge put Wang Haiming's key away.
When he entered the rehabilitation center, he had noticed that most of the doors had single-sided locks, and the keyhole was very small. The key would not have been able to fit through it.
Wang Haiming brought the key out from the Third Sick Hall, so the door that corresponds to the key is probably inside the Third Sick Hall. If I make a bold guess, there are only nine patients in the Third Sick Hall, so could the missing patient from Room 3 be Wang Haiming?
Chen Ge could not confirm his speculation. If it was Wang Haiming, the hospital would have kept a record of his discharge, but Doctor Gao had looked through all the records, and there was no record of Room 3.
Just one Wang Haiming shouldn't be enough for the hospital to destroy all the records.
This sick hall was complicated, and Chen Ge was not that interested in what had happened here five years ago. He only wanted to find the clues left behind by his parents and the way to close the 'door'.
Entering the third-floor corridor, Chen Ge carefully walked past the sickrooms with the flashlight.
"Could the person I saw in the middle of the corridor be hiding in one of the rooms?"
At the end of the corridor on the third floor, Chen Ge stopped in front of a room of unknown use.
The room reeked of mold, and the door was different from the other sickrooms. There was a brand new lock on it.
"There's no rust on the lock. This lock is similar to the lock on the first sick hall's front door, new." Chen Ge took out Wang Haiming's key and tried it, but it still did not work.
He turned back to look at the dark corridor. After making sure there was no one around, he lifted the mallet and pried the lock off the door.
"Fortunately, it's a wooden door. If it were an iron door, I might not be able to get in."
Pushing open the door, a strong musty smell rushed out. There was a small mountain of hospital gowns, bedsheets, and bedding in the room.
"This should be the second sick hall's laundry room." Chen Ge stood up straight. The camera on his chest recorded everything, including the words that he had said.
Being in danger, he did not dare let his guard down to communicate with his fans. He only shared what he saw and what he thought from his perspective like he was making a real horror documentary.
The musty smell in the laundry room diluted the stench of the sick hall, and the air in the room felt sticky and uncomfortable.
Suppressing the discomfort, Chen Ge walked into the room.
The room was large, and there were several washing machines and specialized sanitizers against the wall. Other than that, there was only a mountain of dirty clothes and moldy bedsheets.
"This room doesn't look like much, so why is it locked?" Chen Ge focused his attention on the pile of dirty clothes. Resisting the horrible smell, he used the mallet to pry open the bedding.
"It feels like there's something hidden in here." Chen Ge moved faster. When he pulled open a dirty coat, the mallet knocked against the iron bar, creating a crisp sound.
"An iron cage?" He moved the bedding away, and what he saw made his heart skip a beat.
There was an iron cage hidden under the bedding, and inside the cage was a young woman whose head had been shaved off!
Her mouth was stuffed with a moldy pillow case, and her hands were tied to the iron cage. The woman's mental state was unstable. She looked at Chen Ge and shook her head violently. Her arms waved, and her legs kicked out from the cage.
Chen Ge did not know how to react. He did not expect to find a living person under a pile of dirty clothes.
The livestream also exploded with chatter. In fact, due to the large number of comments, the livestream started to lag.
Chen Ge retreated silently. He was still cautious. He closed the door and pushed the washing machine by the wall behind it.
He was afraid of being ambushed from behind, so he blocked the door before getting close to the iron cage.
"Can you understand what I'm saying?" Once Chen Ge got close, the woman in the cage started to struggle. There was no communication.
"There are no wounds on her body, and there are no oil stains on her lips. This woman was not moved from the first sick hall; there are probably other people around her."
Chen Ge pulled away the bedding next to him. There were three iron cages hidden in this Foul Odor.
The three cages were arranged like three sick halls at a rehab center.
The woman was placed in the middle, and to her left was an old man who looked to be in his sixties. He was as thin as a stick, and there were oil stains on his lips and fingers. To the woman's right was a middle-aged man with pale skin who looked like he had not seen the sun for a long time. When the man saw Chen Ge walk in, his gaze was strange. It was a mixture of excitement, disgust, and fear.
"Three people?"
This was beyond Chen Ge's expectation. His face was dark, and many thoughts appeared in his mind.
Gripping the mallet, Chen Ge maintained a certain distance from the three iron cages.
In a dangerous environment, when encountering three strangers, the safest thing to do was not to believe what they said, nor to approach them rashly, because it was very likely that the murderer was hiding among them.
Chen Ge walked around them. The cages were not big, and they were not prepared for humans. A living person would not even be able to turn around once they were inside.
Three iron cages, but only the woman's limbs are restrained, and her mouth is gagged. There were more and more puzzling things. If all three of them were victims, why was it that the one who was restrained was the weakest among them?
The old man on the left and the middle-aged man on the right had a blank expression on their faces. Their limbs were not tied up, but neither of them called for help. They just looked at Chen Ge curled up inside the cage.
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