The rusted door was tightly shut. Chen Ge removed the 'do not approach' sign and entered the abandoned children's theme park.
The rainbow door that had lost its paint, the fountain that had no water, and the merry-go-round that could no longer move.
No one had been here for a long time. Chen Ge wandered around before stopping at the door of the warehouse.
Inside the room that was covered in mold was an old Doraemon jacket.
"Hello? Are you still there? "
Chen Ge had not hung up, but until now, there had been no reply.
He walked into the warehouse and picked up the costume from the ground. He held Doraemon's head with one hand.
"I'll help you put the costume away. Take a good rest. I'll wake you up when the sun comes up."
Chen Ge found a large bag next to him and stuffed the costume inside. When he folded the costume, he noticed a picture inside Doraemon's stomach pocket.
It appeared to be taken at the hospital. A young father was talking to the doctor, and there was a thin boy hiding behind the young man.
After putting the picture away, when Chen Ge turned to the phone again, he realized that the call had been hung up.
"I forgot to ask for his name." Chen Ge thought about it and realized that be it the reports online or the landlady, he had not called the man's name.
It was like he was living inside the costume. People only knew about this Doraemon who liked children at the theme park.
Holding the phone, Chen Ge looked at the number.
Two calls, two different lives, two different victims.
"What is the meaning of this number? Why would every victim call this number before they die? How am I supposed to find the Specter that I've drawn? "
Chen Ge thought about it but could not come up with anything. He decided to continue the fight.
Holding the large bag with the costume in one hand, he used his other hand to call the number.
"In terms of probability, the Specter that I've drawn this time should be more powerful than Yan Danian and Lao Zhou combined."
After the dial tone rang four times, the call was finally connected. With the previous two experiences, Chen Ge said directly, "Hello, how can I help you?"
It was very noisy over the phone. Chen Ge heard the sound of a train passing by.
After the sound of the train disappeared, the other side of the phone quieted down again. He could vaguely hear the children reciting something.
"Hello?" Chen Ge carried the bag and walked out of the Children's Kingdom Park. He called a taxi and told the driver to drive straight ahead.
The sound of wind whistling came from the phone. Chen Ge did not rush the other party. He waited patiently. After who knew how long, there was a sudden violent coughing sound from the phone.
"Are you … alright? Are you not feeling well? " Chen Ge's voice was very warm, and it could give people strength at any time. "Do you need me to do anything for you?"
"Thank you, but it's okay." The man on the other side of the phone seemed to have his throat stuffed with burning charcoal. His voice was very unpleasant, and every time he opened his mouth, it was accompanied by a violent cough.
"You don't look well. Don't stay outside. Go home, or you can tell me where you are. I can take you to the hospital." Chen Ge summarized the previous two calls. He had arrived after the call had ended, but this time, he planned to find the man before the call ended.
"Thank you for your kindness, but I don't need to go to the hospital. The hospital can't cure my illness." The man coughed for a long time before he recovered. He slowly walked forward, and the wind was quite strong.
"The hospital can't cure it?"
"Yes, I've stayed in the hospital for a long time, but the illness just won't go away. In fact, I feel like it is not an illness but a part of my body."
Chen Ge was confused by the man's words. "Brother, what kind of illness are you suffering from?"
"Lung cancer. It's late stage."
The man sounded like he was talking about something very normal, but Chen Ge's heart skipped a beat when he heard that. "Then why are you still outside alone? Where is your family? I'll take you home. It's very windy outside. "
"The wind is indeed quite strong today." The man coughed occasionally. He was in a bad condition like he could fall at any moment. "I sneaked out without telling my family."
A patient with late-stage lung cancer sneaked out without telling his family. Chen Ge was reminded of the main character of the previous two calls, and he immediately realized that something was wrong. "What you're doing is too dangerous. Can you tell me where you are now? I won't interfere with any of your decisions. I'll just accompany you. How about that? "
"I can walk slowly on my own. Actually, after I found out that I have lung cancer, I've been wanting to go to a place."
"To a place?"
"The place is built high up. To get there, you'll need to climb many stairs."
"You want to go to Jiujiang World Trade Center? Why do you want to go there? " Chen Ge rarely went to the city, but he knew that the World Trade Center was the tallest place in Jiujiang. Standing there, one could look down on the whole of Jiujiang.
With that in mind, Chen Ge immediately gestured for the driver to drive to Jiujiang World Trade Center.
The man did not answer Chen Ge's question. He kept coughing, and just listening to him over the phone made Chen Ge uncomfortable.
"Brother, why don't you stay where you are? I'll go get you in a bit."
"There's no need." After the man finished coughing, he seemed to think that Chen Ge was not a bad person. After a moment of silence, he voluntarily said, "You are very similar to my previous attending doctor, be it the way you speak or the way you do things. Don't tell me you're an imposter?"
"Attending doctor?" Chen Ge was thinking seriously about whether he should play a role to get more information out of the man.
He knew that there was something wrong with his number. Every victim had called this number.
Thinking about it, the last person they had contact with was probably a doctor, so this number probably belonged to one of the doctors.
"Don't take it to heart, I'm just saying." The man did not have a sense of humor, and his smile was forced. It was clear that he was in pain.
"Brother, can you tell me more about you? Sometimes, it's hard to keep things buried in one's heart, so it's better to share them. "Southern Jiujiang was not far from the World Trade Center, and Chen Ge felt like he would be able to make it this time.
"I'm fine. I was a normal person for the first half of my life. Probably due to my smoking habit, I was diagnosed with lung cancer last year." The man's voice was even. Other than the occasional coughing, his emotions did not fluctuate much.
"After three treatments at the cancer hospital, I went home. I planned to enjoy the last moments of my life and be a happy person.
"I'm not a coward, and I'm trying my best to fight against it. This is a war of attrition. I need to use my best attitude and the happiest things to defeat it, but it wants to use pain and fear to crush me.
"This war that happened on my body was very intense. I told it that I would not admit defeat, and it used many methods to make me lower my head.
"It became difficult to breathe, and there was constant pain all over my body, low fever, and so on.
My weight kept dropping, and my limbs hurt so much that I couldn't lift them. Every cough affected my whole body, but I refused to take the painkillers.
"I'm really not a coward." This was the second time the man had emphasized that he was not a coward.
Chen Ge did not ask for the reason. He only nodded and said, "I understand."
The man seemed to sigh in relief. "About one month later, a lymph node that could be touched with my finger appeared on my neck. At the time, I felt like I couldn't breathe, and I couldn't even drink water.
"After seeing the doctor, they said that it was due to the swelling of my throat and the swelling of the lymph node that was pressing on my esophagus.
"I failed to defeat my last enemy, and now I have another one, but I will not admit defeat." The man was a very stubborn person, just like how he kept emphasizing to Chen Ge that he was not a coward.
The wind grew louder, and the sound of the children reciting their poems could no longer be heard. The man continued to move forward.
"Brother, can you just tell me where you are now? I'll go pick you up, okay? " Chen Ge was really worried about the man. He had a feeling that if he went there now, he might be able to change something, even if the hope was small.
"I'm on a long flight of stairs." The man wanted to say it with a smile, but once he opened his mouth, he started to cough violently.
"On the stairs?" Chen Ge listened to the howling wind on the man's side and felt that something was wrong.
A staircase built outside the building? Has he already reached the World Trade Center? Has he climbed to the top?
Chen Ge had been to the World Trade Center before, and there was no outdoor staircase there. He realized that he might have found the wrong place.
"I'm climbing the stairs, climbing toward the place that I want to go. I should be there soon." When the man spoke, the pain in his body did not disappear. Every cough was a torment for him.
Chen Ge had the somewhat impatient driver stop the car first. He held the phone and thought about what the man had said.
Stairs, the place that I want to go is high up …
Chen Ge could hear the pain hidden in the man's words. The man kept emphasizing the intense battle with his illness, emphasizing that he was not a coward, emphasizing that he had not run away.
Why would a person like this sneak out one day behind his family's back?
When he was in so much pain, why did he want to go to a place high up?
Chen Ge listened carefully. The man's body was very weak, and his footsteps were gentle. It did not look like he was climbing the stairs.
"A staircase built on flat ground? Is there such a place? " Chen Ge was thinking when a memory flashed across his mind. When the call was connected, he had heard the sound of a train!
Railroad tracks!
There were wooden ties in the middle of the tracks, and they looked like stairs on flat ground. If that was the case, the place that the man wanted to go was not the World Trade Center at all.
He was seeking death!
At the end of this staircase was death, and for him, it was the place where all the pain ended.
It was because he had given up that he kept emphasizing to Chen Ge, a stranger, that he was not a coward.
With that in mind, Chen Ge started to search online.
He had heard the sound of children reciting ancient Chinese. There were two Chinese schools in Jiujiang, and one of them was built not far from the railroad.
Raising his phone, Chen Ge signaled for the driver to drive there.
After doing all that, he tried to console the man, trying to buy as much time as possible.
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