Chapter 1075 - Strange Neighbour [2 in 1] (1/2)
Translator: Lonelytree Editor: Millman97
“Hey! Wake up!”
Her eyes slowly fluttered open. When she took in her surrounding, the woman sat up in bed immediately. “Where is Xiang Nuan‽”
“Calm down first. Do you still remember who I am?” Chen Ge silently put down Doctor Skull Cracker’s Hammer.
“Chen Ge?”
“Where did we first meet each other?”
“At the Eastern Jiujiang Dam. Why are you asking me these questions? Can’t you see that Xiang Nuan is missing? We need to go and find him before he injures himself!” The woman was desperate, but Chen Ge did not even budge from his position.
“What did I say specifically at the time that caused Xiang Nuan to finally stop causing all that fuss?”
“I do not think I heard you clearly at the time, but I believe it was ghost fetus?”
“One last question. Why would I want to kill Xiang Nuan?” Chen Ge stared closely at the woman’s face. His last question honestly scared and stunned her. The expression was clear on her face.
“You want to kill Xiang Nuan? No!”
“Okay, looks like you are not one of the monsters behind the door. You are Xiang Nuan’s real mother.”
2The woman’s reaction and expression were all completely normal. Chen Ge did not stop to explain the reasoning behind his series of questions. Instead, he turned to walk out from the bedroom, and the first thing he did was check the front door of the living room. The door and windows were tightly shut. Only Chen Ge and Xiang Nuan’s mother were inside the room.
“When I entered the world behind the door of the other children, there was a black iron door that gave off the smell of disinfectant behind me, but this time, that door has not made its appearance. From the moment I entered the blood door and when I opened my eyes, what really happened?”
Chen Ge was silently contemplating these questions when suddenly the woman’s voice came from beside him. “How did I suddenly fall asleep? And where is Xiang Nuan? In my blurry memory, I remember seeing him enter through a door, and then I followed behind him.”
The woman scratched her head. It appeared that she really did not remember what happened next.
“You sure are lucky. Only those who are dead and those who are dying are normally able to enter that door.”
“Then, doesn’t that mean my son is dying? Were those death notices all real?” The woman became worried and agitated again. It was clear that she was sincerely concerned about Xiang Nuan.
“Let’s not worry too much about Xiang Nuan at the moment. First, I will help you understand the logical reasoning behind all of this. If we wish to find Xiang Nuan, the first thing that we need to do is ensure that we will be able to survive long enough to find him, right? If we die, won’t the chance of Xiang Nuan surviving here all on his own become smaller and smaller?” Chen Ge planned to come clean with the woman just in case she did something brash and put both of them in danger. It would be too late to say anything then.
“Okay.”
“Only by keeping ourselves alive will we be able to find Xiang Nuan. And to do that, you have to promise me that you will listen to my every word from now on; do not act on your emotions.” Chen Ge lowered his voice. “This world is very different from the real world. In a way, you can see this place as Xiang Nuan’s nightmare.”
“Xiang Nuan’s nightmare?”
“Even though we are technically in his nightmare, if you die here, you will be dead in every meaning of the word.” Chen Ge gave the woman a quick and simple ‘101 course’ on the world behind the door.
“But how come I do not see much difference between this place and the real world?”
“When you see the difference, we will be in great danger.” Chen Ge stood inside the room and waved the hammer. He noticed that the physical exhaustion behind this door was incredibly high. He found his breathing catching from the simple exercise. It felt as if there was something lying on his back, madly sucking the life out of him.
“If this place is so dangerous, how can we leave Xiang Nuan all on his own? He is defenseless.”
“I know you want to rescue Xiang Nuan, but I hope you remember this one statement—only by ensuring that you are alive will you be able to save Xiang Nuan. I will not repeat this again, so I hope you will have that memorized in your heart.” Chen Ge took a deep breath. “Other than that, I have to tell you one more thing. If we run into any danger, if I can save you, I will try my best to do so, but if saving you is unfortunately not an option, I will choose to leave on my own. I hope you can understand that.”
Chen Ge was being really realistic. After hearing that, the woman nodded. She replied in a soft voice, “Thank you. The fact that you have volunteered to follow me into Xiang Nuan’s door has touched me greatly already. This is all because of Xiang Nuan actually. You could have stayed an outsider, but I have dragged you into this mess. I am so sorry.”
Once the woman phrased it like that, Chen Ge did not know how to reply. There appeared to be some misunderstanding on her side. She had treated Chen Ge as an innocent bystander who was dragged into this dangerous incident.
“We should stop discussing this for now. Even though the world behind the door is very dangerous, it does not mean that it is a dead end. You know Xiang Nuan very well and are familiar with all his memories. That itself will be invaluable information for us to navigate our way through this place.”
The world behind the door was weaved from the door pusher’s memory. Exploration the scenario behind the door was in a way reading the past experience of the door pusher’s despair. This time, Chen Ge had Xiang Nuan’s mother as help, so he had a feeling that if they played their cards right, they should be able to avoid most of the danger.
“We will start our exploration inside this room. I need you to go and take a good look around and see if there is anything that is different from your house in real life. Check every corner of every room. Do not miss a single detail. Even the smallest details will be able to help us find Xiang Nuan.”
After he said that, Chen Ge walked out from the bedroom. He looked through every single object in his backpack, and he noticed two things that were out of the ordinary.
The despairing diary entries in Zhang Ya’s bedtime stories had disappeared. Only the last entry remained. The other thing was related to the red high heels. The other objects in Chen Ge’s backpack appeared to be covered in a layer of dust, but the pair of red high heels was an exception. Under the blood red surface, it appeared like black threads were slowly congregating.
“The limitation upon the red high heels behind the door is weak. Is that because she has managed to consume a lot of the ghost fetus’ residual curses?” The ghost fetus had chosen nine children as his candidates, and the curses behind most of these children’s door had been consumed by the red high heels. Especially after Ying Tong’s door, her power had increased in intensity. She had become much stronger.
“This can be considered the only good news that I have for now.” Chen Ge was about to go and explore the other places when Xiang Nuan’s mother’s voice suddenly came from Xiang Nuan’s bedroom.
“Chen Ge! The chopsticks that I placed under Xiang Nuan’s bed have completely disappeared!”
Hearing that, Chen Ge rushed into the bedroom. He saw Wen Qing kneeling next to Xiang Nuan’s bed. Her hand was pulling back the bed covers to show the emptiness underneath the bed. Where there should be a huge bag of chopsticks, there was nothing.
“What do those chopsticks represent to the Xiang Nuan?”
“I honestly cannot tell for sure. The child has a problem communicating with others, and he does not know how to express himself. It feels as if he has been trapped inside his own world where the logic and rules are only understandable to him alone.”
“Other than the chopsticks, did you discover anything else that is out of place?” Chen Ge picked up the white cat and took out the death notice from the cursed hospital from his backpack. He gave the cat a good sniff of the document, but the white cat did not respond in any way. There did not appear to be any curse lingering on the cursed hospital’s death notice.