Chapter 1092 - Misery Is a Kind of Illness 2 in 1 (1/2)

“There are no other pictures in the drawer. This is the last one.” Chen Ge looked at the collage of pictures on the table. The family portrait that was heavily damaged and the picture of the rag doll being abandoned at the trash heap formed a stark contrast. “This should be the first time it was abandoned.”

Chen Ge was just speculating. The doll was willing to put its trust in others, so that proved, at least at that time, that it had not started down the path of the ghost fetus. It believed that it could really befriend the girl. Perhaps, even at a certain moment, the girl had treated it as her friend, but reality had delivered the doll a heavy slam.

“The girl’s family were probably all murdered by the doll, and the girl herself became the rag doll’s own doll.” Chen Ge closed the drawer and returned to the living room. The girl was leaning against the chair. She did not appear like she could stand on her own. If not for the white cloth that bound her, she probably would have had trouble sitting up on her own.

“Can you hear my voice? If you can, please blink or at least nod …” Chen Ge helped remove the white cloth from the girl’s body. Throughout the whole process, the girl did not resist or give any response. She allowed Chen Ge to handle her freely like a toy that did not have her own consciousness. When all the white cloth had been removed, the girl’s body tipped to the side. When Chen Ge reached out to catch her from falling, several bloody pictures fell out from her body.

These pictures were different from the ones that Chen Ge had found earlier in the bedroom drawer. The pictures there were all taken at midnight, and the backdrop was one of blood. The main focus of the pictures were the girl’s family members and the horrifying ways that they had died. In a way, they were a macabre collage of a tragedy that befell a family.

“These are the pictures of its revenge?” Chen Ge studied the pictures closely, and he noticed something very strange. In the bloody pictures, other than the girl’s family and the rag doll, there was another person that had not shown up before.

One of the pictures had a room number in it. It was taken at the door to Room 504. The girl’s father was lying on the ground, and the rag doll was dragging him along by his remaining leg. Other than these two inside Room 504, there stood a doctor wearing a white doctor’s coat.

“Is he the tenant of Room 504?” Upon closer inspection, Chen Ge noticed that this man had shown up inside almost all of the bloody pictures. However, Chen Ge was unable to recognize him because his face had been scratched out of them all. Nevertheless, the white coat that he wore set him apart. It was filled with small holes burnt out from cigarette butts, and it was stained with something that looked like fat.

“After the rag doll was abandoned, it looked quite pitiful, but it did not turn to revenge at the first given moment. It stayed on its own inside the trash heap. Could its change of nature be related to this doctor?”

Chen Ge felt that he had found another key clue. The shadow’s first change was probably because it had entered the world behind the door at the haunted house, and the second change might have been caused by its encounter with this doctor.

“Wen Qing, did a doctor once stay at Jiu Hong Apartments?”

“Yes, I think so, but I do not have a good memory of him.” Wen Qing gave it some thought. “I cannot be sure whether that person was a doctor or not, but when I first got the job at Jiu Hong Housing Agency, I often saw this man wearing a white doctor’s coat walking out from Jiu Hong Apartments.”

“There is such a thing?”

“Yes, but after me and Xiang Nuan moved to Jin Hwa Apartments, I rarely saw that man. The doctor in the white coat did not show up that often again.”

“I see.” A speculation arose in Chen Ge’s heart. He held the several bloody pictures in his hands. “We should go to Room 504. We should be able to find all the answers there.”

Ever since he discovered the presence of the cursed hospital, Chen Ge had been very sensitive around those in the medical business. Perhaps it was a force of habit, but whenever he saw someone wearing a doctor’s coat, he had an urge to follow them.

“Xiao Sun, how are you feeling? Are your wounds getting better?” Chen Ge suddenly turned to Xiao Sun.

“I feel like the wounds have worsened. The pain is becoming more and more intense, and they do not show any sign of recovering at all.” Xiao Sun shook his head. “Why would you suddenly care about me?”

“I actually wanted to ask you to carry this girl with us, but since you are still injured, forget about it.” Chen Ge laid the girl flat on the sofa.

“We are not bringing her with us?” Wen Qing felt quite sorry for the girl. The latter looked like she needed protection and love. She was no different from a doll who had been abandoned by her owner.

“The pictures that we’ve found have practically reconstructed what happened, but there are too many details in the middle that we’re clueless about. It’s too dangerous to carry her with us for no reason.” Chen Ge gave a very simple example. “What if we are in the middle of escaping but she suddenly wakes up, strangles you, and refuses to let go?”

“Okay then, we will leave her here for now.”

“After we have explored the whole building and ensured that there is no hidden danger, we can come back to fetch her.” Chen Ge took the few bloody pictures and exited Room 404. When he stepped out of the front door, he noticed the bloody handprints in the corridor had increased. The handprints appeared to be completely random, but at the same time, it appeared like the thing that left them behind was crawling around Chen Ge’s group.

“I have a bad feeling about this. We’d better speed up and head to the fifth floor!”

More broken toys appeared out of nowhere. No matter how lightly they tried to move, the toys would squeak and make noise when they were stepped on. These strange noises appeared particularly harrowing in the eerily quiet corridor. With Chen Ge leading the way, the group did not stop until they reached the fifth floor. The stench in the air thickened significantly. This floor had an obvious difference compared to the previous floors. The walls were filled with bloody handprints of varying sizes, and scratch marks as well as random doodles could be seen everywhere.

The doodles appeared like they were the handiwork of a child. They had very simple lines, but the content was extremely scary. This kind of contrast between innocence and horror left a scarring impact on the adults. Other than that, Chen Ge noticed something that was quite out of the ordinary. The walls of the fifth-floor corridor had the calligraphy of the character joy as well. However, unlike the previous floors, the characters were not inverted on this floor.

“It is customary during Chinese New Year to have inverted calligraphy of the Chinese character for joy because, in Chinese, it sounds like an invitation for joy. The few floors below us all have inverted calligraphy, but the calligraphy on this fifth floor is not inverted. Is it a way of telling others that ‘joy’ has already arrived at this floor?”

After seeing so many inverted ‘joy’s, the sudden sight of the whole wall of upright ‘joy’s stunned Xiao Sun quite a bit. They were something that he needed to get adjusted to. Chen Ge ignored him and walked directly to the door of Room 504.

The bloody handprints of different sizes in the corridor all congregated around this place. Chen Ge used his finger to trail along some of the handprints. He noticed that all the handprints crawled out from this room, and then they would crawl back into this room.

“The secret of this whole building should be inside Room 504.” Chen Ge stopped outside the door. He glanced at the half-open door, and his eyes scanned the door number. Xiao Sun and Wen Qing walked over to join him. The three of them stood together, and they were as ready as they could be.

Raising his arm, Chen Ge reached out to grab the door handle. Before he could push, however, the door was suddenly pulled open slightly from inside. Something reached out to grab at Chen Ge’s wrist. Wen Qing gasped in shock, and Xiao Sun retreated out of the fear. Even Chen Ge was jolted back by surprise. However, the man recovered and reacted as fast as he could. Just as he was about to turn around to grab at the door, a ball of cloth was shoved through the gap.

“You all saw it, right? The door opened on its own!” Xiao Sun pointed at the door. “Do we still need to enter it?”

Xiao Sun and Wen Qing stood behind Chen Ge, and they stayed far away from the door. Chen Ge inspected the spot of his wrist that had been grabbed earlier. He had lost complete sense of that part of his limb; it felt ice cold like it had turned into a block of ice.

“We’re already here. Of course, we are not going to stop here. We are going in to take a look.” Chen Ge knelt down to pick up the ball of cloth that had fallen through the gap. It was a bolt of fabric that was rumpled together. It had a bloody message written on it—’Do not kome in.’