Blue Mountain Psychiatric Hospital 22

The newspaper was the one they had found in the security office. After Qi Chanyang brought it back, it had remained on the periodicals rack.

This time, Lu Xiaoqin happened to glance at it while passing by. A flash of glaring red caught her eye. When she picked it up for a closer look, she found that a new line of writing had appeared on the final page.

Whoever had written it seemed to have been in a tremendous hurry. Not only was the handwriting scrawled, but a thumbprint had accidentally been left on the paper beside the last character.

The thumbprint was strange. There was a gap roughly three millimeters wide across its middle, as though the thumb had been severed in midair.

Stranger still, only the five players who had taken the medicine yesterday could see the line. Jie Fangcheng and the other two could not.

Qi Chanyang analyzed the situation. "Han Qi said just now that 'without the medicine, the hysteria will worsen.' This must be what happens when it gets worse."

"So you mean that line doesn't actually exist in reality?"

Qi Chanyang shook his head. "I don't know. But if it's hysteria, then what we're seeing should be a hallucination."

At that moment, Lu Xiaoqin gritted her teeth, raised the newspaper to her nose, and sniffed. Her expression changed at once. "It smells like blood."

Everyone looked at one another.

If it was a hallucination, was the smell Lu Xiaoqin caught a hallucination too? Could a hallucination include smell?

Qi Chanyang frowned, unable to determine what exactly was going on.

"We still have too few clues. How about this?" Qi Chanyang looked at Jie Fangcheng beside him. "There are lots of books in the reading room. We'll look for clues here. You're strong and aren't afraid of NPCs, so if you aren't sleepy, look around elsewhere."

Then Qi Chanyang reminded him, "The unmarked room beside the cafeteria is Liu Hanyue's. I saw some of her things in there last night. You can check it out first, if you want."

"All right." Jie Fangcheng picked up his staff and was about to leave.

Xue Kai hurriedly stopped him. "What if an NPC suddenly attacks us? Brother Jie, don't go too far! It'd be best if you left the door open. What if we cry for help and you can't hear us?"

Jie Fangcheng considered it briefly. "Easy enough."

He opened the door and walked to the badminton court next door.

Before long, he came back out with No. 9 trailing behind him.

"If anything urgent comes up, call No. 9 and have him notify me."

Xue Kai was baffled. "How's he supposed to notify you?"

Jie Fangcheng patted his pocket. Only then did everyone notice that there was something inside it.

"I borrowed one of Little Nine's fingers. Call him, and he'll paw at me."

Everyone: "..."

Jie Fangcheng was solemn. "Nine! Any problem with that?"

No. 9's neck bobbed and bobbed as his head shook. "No..."

"Now that's reliable!"

With that, Jie Fangcheng slung his staff over his shoulder and swaggered out.

Behind him, the people in the reading room stood at the doorway with their heads piled one atop another, watching his retreating figure. Xue Kai could not help but marvel, "Brother Jie really is Brother Jie. Look at that stride that could flatten anything, that domineering silhouette, that free and easy staff... Uh, what's he doing in the security office?"

The security office was already empty. The security guard NPC who had died so miserably was nowhere to be seen; his body had most likely been disposed of.

Jie Fangcheng went into the security office and emerged again shortly after. This time, a commendation banner was hanging from his staff.

The red banner swayed behind him. As he walked, the shabby, eerie corridor took on the air of a country lane, and he looked just like an old farmer carrying a hoe down that lane to work in the fields. Even someone as rigorous and serious as Qi Chanyang felt his eyelid twitch furiously at that festive-looking back.

Xue Kai narrowed his eyes. "What does the banner say? Uh, 'Diligent Service, Thoughtful Care'... Brother Qi, why is Brother Jie carrying that banner?"

Qi Chanyang looked up at the ceiling. "It means nothing. He just found himself another rag ahead of time."

......

Jie Fangcheng walked up to the unmarked door and knocked on it very politely.

There was utter silence inside.

Creak—

The door was unlocked. Jie Fangcheng pushed it open.

The moment he stepped inside, he could not help saying, "Well, well."

In this hospital, where everything was white or gray, this room was decorated in an exceptionally soft, delicate pink. One look was enough to tell that whoever had arranged it had put great care into it.

The books on the desk were neatly arranged, and the floor was spotless, as if someone had been living here not long ago.

Jie Fangcheng went to the desk and flipped through the books on top. He found nothing.

Then he opened the drawers.

All the drawers were locked. Without another word, Jie Fangcheng tore off the lock and set it aside.

The first drawer contained stationery and the like. The little girl had clearly been doted on: there were two full rows of erasers, over a dozen sharpened pencils laid together, and a thick stack of pretty sticker sheets. They looked rather old, though; some of the stickers had yellowed.

Perhaps because no one had used them in a long time, this drawer looked too neat.

When he opened the second drawer, Jie Fangcheng found something unusual.

It was a photo album. Reddish-brown stains marked its cover and edges. They appeared to be dried blood.

Jie Fangcheng pinched it out with two fingers and opened it.

The first things he saw were several photographs of a baby.

In the photos, a chubby infant lay in a crib, dressed in blue-and-white baby clothes, eyes peacefully shut as she sucked her thumb.

The child looked adorable, but for some reason, Jie Fangcheng found her a little odd.

After turning another two pages, he finally spotted the problem.

The child in the photographs, still lying in her crib, always had her eyes closed.

Jie Fangcheng continued turning the pages. The album documented the child's growth.

She grew from a tiny thing no bigger than a few palms, small enough to fit in a stroller, into a three-year-old who could stand before the camera, eyes closed, smiling happily.

Then came the years when she was five or six, her hair braided into two adorable pigtails. Wearing a birthday crown, she clasped her hands before her chest and made a wish with her eyes closed.

Though she could not see, the photographs alone showed that the little girl was sunny, cheerful, and fond of smiling—a much-loved little princess.

Jie Fangcheng turned another page, and his fingertips suddenly caught.

The next page of the album had stuck to the one beside it, and his fingertips were inadvertently stained with a trace of reddish-brown blood.

Jie Fangcheng gave a gentle pull, separating the two stuck pages.

Blood.

What had glued the two album pages together was vivid scarlet blood that had not yet dried.

Jie Fangcheng frowned and looked toward the album.

Just then, the finger in his pocket yanked hard at him.

From far down the corridor came Xue Kai's heartrending shout.

"Brother Jie—behind you!!!"

Jie Fangcheng did not turn around. He twisted sharply at the waist.

A stench swept past the side of his face. Then the desk before him rang out with a thunderous bang as a mop slammed across it and into the wall, smashing a dent into the desk and sending all the books on it tumbling down.

Only after evading the blow did Jie Fangcheng turn around.

At the door stood Ge Juan, whom he had never been able to catch. Her eyes were scarlet, and she still held the posture of someone who had just thrown something.

Her voice was shrill. "What are you doing in Yueyue's room?!"

"Ah." Jie Fangcheng was a little embarrassed too. "Well, don't get mad. I'm just looking for clues."

He could understand it. Ge Juan was Liu Hanyue's mother, so it was only natural for her to be angry when she saw a strange man break into her daughter's room.

Natural or not—

Two seconds later, Jie Fangcheng had pinned her to the desk with his staff. He sounded helpless. "Why'd you have to start fighting? You can't beat me."

Ge Juan flailed her arms, her long nails trying to claw back at him, but Jie Fangcheng suppressed them too.

During the day, Ge Juan's strength had clearly dropped severely. After struggling for a while, she could no longer move and could only glare at him.

Jie Fangcheng said, "I really didn't mean it. I apologize, all right?"

Ge Juan's expression softened a fraction.

"How about this? I'll let you go, and you don't attack me again. Otherwise, I won't go easy on you!"

As he spoke, Jie Fangcheng slowly lifted his staff.

The moment she was free, Ge Juan took two quick steps back to the doorway.

Jie Fangcheng hurriedly called after her. "Hey! Don't you want to chat a little? Isn't it rude to start fighting the moment you meet?"

Ge Juan stared at him.

Jie Fangcheng thought for a moment. "I saw Liu Hanyue yesterday."

Ge Juan's eyes widened. "Is she all right?"

Jie Fangcheng was curious. "Aren't you her mom? You don't know whether she's all right?"

Ge Juan fell silent for a moment. "She can only come out and play at night, but I work at night."

"Cleaning?"

"Yes."

Jie Fangcheng was astonished. "You never slack off at work?"

Ge Juan only shook her head.

Half her face was hidden behind her hair. The remaining unblemished half looked clean, quite unlike her frenzied state at night.

Jie Fangcheng scratched his head awkwardly, uncertain how to continue asking questions.

He usually just chopped people up. Asking him to chat with someone to find clues really was difficult for him.

But just because he found it difficult did not mean everyone else would.

"Ahem... How about I find a girl to talk with you? All right?"

Jie Fangcheng was honest. "Either I search this room, or I get a girl to search it. Either way, it's getting searched."

Ge Juan glared at him.

"Glaring won't help. At least I'm giving you a choice between two options. If it had been Han Qi who dared to fight me, I'd have cut him into eight pieces by now."

Ge Juan: "..."

Jie Fangcheng made the decision. "I'm calling someone, then."

With that, he stuck his head out the door.

At the reading room, one head, two heads, three heads... ten heads in all were pressed around the doorway, looking over with concern. Even No. 9 had craned out his neck, his head swaying flamboyantly in the corridor.

Jie Fangcheng laughed. "It's fine. All of you, get back in. Shanshan, come over here."

Very soon, Gu Shanshan came over from the reading room, clutching a defensive item Qi Chanyang had given her.

Once she entered the room, Jie Fangcheng introduced the two women.

"Ms. Ge here is willing to have a chat with us."

With that, he folded his arms over his staff, evidently determined to observe from the sidelines.

The scene was rather bizarre. Gu Shanshan steadied herself and looked at Ge Juan.

"Hello, Ms. Ge. May I ask you a few questions?"

Ge Juan was silent for a moment before nodding.

"Ask." Then she added, "But there are many questions I can't answer. If the Director hears me, I'm finished."

Gu Shanshan quickly followed up. "Where is the Director? We've been here so many days, but we've never seen him."

Ge Juan gave her a meaningful look. "No. You've met him long ago."

Gu Shanshan froze. "Met him?"

Impossible!

So far, they had only seen the patient NPCs, two doctors... and the kitchen NPC.

Could it be the kitchen NPC? After all, he always wore a mask and cap, so they could not see his face.

Gu Shanshan continued, "Is he in the kitchen?"

Ge Juan fell silent.

Gu Shanshan could only change the question.

"What exactly is the medicine we take? Does it have consequences?"

Ge Juan smiled. "Haven't you already seen the consequences?"

"Those patients? If we keep taking it, will we become like them?"

Ge Juan looked at her, then at Jie Fangcheng, and corrected her. "No. You're patients too."

"Patients with what?"

Ge Juan said nothing again.

Gu Shanshan asked other questions, but Ge Juan only shook her head to every one of them.

By the end, she merely looked at the two of them. "The only thing I can tell you is that you're about to die. You can't go without taking medicine."

"But if we take three pills, we'll become like the other patients, right?"

Ge Juan smiled strangely and said in a low voice, "What's so bad about being like them?"

After that, she would no longer answer any question. She only urged them, "Find what you came for and get out of Yueyue's room!"

Gu Shanshan then searched the room for clues while Jie Fangcheng stood in the doorway with Ge Juan.

Gu Shanshan could hear him chatting with her.

"How old are you this year? Where are you from? You're in charge of cleaning? Did you fix the doors on the first, second, and third floors? No? Who fixed them? Han Qi? You wouldn't think it, but he knows how to fix doors. Oh, he changed the locks too..."

Gu Shanshan could only feel a headache coming on as she listened.

She also found the photo album and continued flipping through it.

The two pages stuck together by blood still showed that beautiful little girl, like a princess.

But unlike the bright, sunny child smiling in the earlier photos, Liu Hanyue finally opened her eyes from this page onward.

She stared at the camera with large, pitch-black eyes bigger than an ordinary person's, her face expressionless. She wore a lovely white princess dress and held a doll, but there was not a hint of a smile on her face.

From this page on, she never smiled again.

The final page of the album showed her at ten years old, still dressed spotlessly and beautifully.

But perhaps it was an illusion; Gu Shanshan felt that her eyes seemed to grow larger as she grew older.

Beyond that, there were no other clues in the room.

Ge Juan urged them, "You've finished looking, right? Then hurry up and leave!"

As the two left the room, Gu Shanshan seemed to think of something.

She tilted her head and glanced at Ge Juan from the corner of her eye.

Ge Juan was tidying the desk.

She put the fallen books back one by one, returned the album to the second drawer, and closed it.

As though sensing the gaze on her, Ge Juan suddenly turned, her eyes meeting Gu Shanshan's.

"Is there anything else?"

Gu Shanshan's heart skipped a beat. She shook her head.

Only after the two returned to the reading room and closed its door did Gu Shanshan speak.

"Ge Juan... she was lying!"

Qi Chanyang was startled. "What? What happened just now? What did you talk about with Ge Juan?"

Jie Fangcheng first recounted their conversation with Ge Juan in that room. Qi Chanyang frowned. "What's wrong with any of that?"

Gu Shanshan replayed everything that had happened in her mind over and over. The more she thought about it, the more certain she became.

"When I was searching for clues just now, the books on the desk had all fallen over, but they were clearly arranged in order from small to large. The erasers and pencils in the drawers were also neatly arranged from small to large. At first I thought Ge Juan had organized them, but she hadn't! When she tidied the desk just now, she didn't arrange the books at all. She just put them back on the shelf."

"And I noticed that although the frequently used parts of the desk had faded, all the less-used places were very clean. Whoever uses this room cherishes everything in it... but Ge Juan doesn't cherish it! Her mop smashed the desk!"

Gu Shanshan was certain. "Ge Juan doesn't care about that room nearly as much as she pretends to. But just now, even though she knew she couldn't beat Brother Jie, she still rushed out to put on that act... She did it on purpose!"

Qi Chanyang could not make sense of it. "Why would she risk her life to put on an act like that?"

Jie Fangcheng was dissatisfied. "Hey! Why are you making me sound so scary?"

Everyone said in unison, "You aren't scary?!"

Jie Fangcheng froze, then flew into a rage. "What do you mean by that?! When have I ever attacked an NPC for no reason? I always fight back in self-defense!"

Everyone looked sideways at him.

Gu Shanshan brought them back on topic. "I think... she did it just to tell us those things."

Qi Chanyang thought it over and quickly grasped the key point. "'You're about to die. You can't go without taking medicine'! In the end, she was trying to trick us into taking the medicine! We absolutely cannot take it!"

At that moment, Gu Shanshan looked at the newspaper.

"Maybe... 'Don't trust anyone' refers to Ge Juan? Then who left that message? Was it one of the patient NPCs?"

Everyone frowned in thought.

Ever since they entered the instance, every event had seemed like an unsolved mystery. Fear of death and terror of the unknown had hung over them all along. Everyone felt as if their brains had been stirred into mush, unable to make sense of anything.

As Qi Chanyang thought, he caught from the corner of his eye that someone beside him was missing. He froze. "Where's Jie Fangcheng?!"

At the door, Xue Kai gave an "Ah." "Brother Jie returned No. 9's finger just now, and now he's playing badminton with No. 9..."

Everyone: "..."

Qi Chanyang snapped, "Damn it!!"

It was just like a corporate drone working overtime until midnight, opening his social feed to discover that someone in his department had left early at five-thirty.

Gu Shanshan did not know whether to laugh or cry, but she tried to soothe him. "Brother Qi, don't be angry. He might be the one who has it hardest tonight, so it's all right for him to relax a little now! Besides..."

Gu Shanshan fell silent for a moment, recalling the way he had chatted with Ge Juan. "Brother Jie really doesn't seem very good at finding clues. Let him play."

Qi Chanyang felt his forehead throbbing. He could not help turning to emphasize to the novice players, "Game instances are terrifying! Every player should approach them seriously and earnestly!! Don't learn those bad habits from certain people!!! It's wrong! It's very easy to die in an instance that way!! It's also very easy to make your teammates extremely unhappy!!! Do you hear me?!"

The newcomers all nodded like frightened quail. "We hear you, we hear you."

In the badminton court, Jie Fangcheng sneezed.

He sniffed and continued teaching No. 9 the finer points of badminton while holding a shuttlecock. "Look, this is how you serve..."

With a bang, the shuttlecock shot out like a steel bullet and struck the floor, leaving a faint little dent.

Jie Fangcheng stuffed the racket with a hole in it back into No. 9's hands. "Give it a try."

No. 9 blinked slowly at the racket in his hand. "There's a... hole..."

"It's fine. So what if there's a hole?" Jie Fangcheng declared shamelessly. "A person with real skill can play brilliantly even with a hole in the racket, or even if all they're holding is the sole of a shoe. Come on! I have faith in your ability!"

No. 9's upside-down head nodded hesitantly, and he picked up another shuttlecock.

Jie Fangcheng felt not the slightest guilt about deceiving his roommate. He continued directing him from the side. "Raise your hand a little higher. Higher, higher. Good, hold that pose... Ah, it's fine. Try again."

Time flew by.

Before long, after dinner, everyone gathered in the reading room again.

Qi Chanyang looked solemn. "Is everyone ready?"

Everyone looked equally solemn. "Ready!"

Jie Fangcheng was bewildered. "Ready for what?"

Xue Kai quickly answered, "Aren't we going to tie up all the patient NPCs tonight and not take the medicine? We made a little plan first."

Jie Fangcheng was surprised. "You people have a plan?"

Qi Chanyang fumed, "There are nine patients! Haven't you thought about how to tie them up at all?! One at a time or all together?! What after they're tied up?! Where do we put them?! What if they break free because the knots aren't tight enough?! And what about the rooms that have to keep two patients in them?! Could you spend less time polishing that staff of yours and more time thinking about how to clear the instance?!"

Jie Fangcheng turned his head. "Everything was fine when I left. Why's everyone like this now? Who upset him?"

Gu Shanshan said helplessly, "All right, let's get to it."

The original plan was to use ropes to tie the NPCs to their beds, with two NPCs to a room and two players to a room.

It was no small amount of work, and no one wanted to pile it all on one person.

Qi Chanyang could handle two or three patient NPCs before they mutated. According to the plan, Jie Fangcheng was strong enough to tie up four by himself. That left two; the others together could use the item Qi Chanyang gave them to bind one, then once Qi Chanyang and Jie Fangcheng finished, they would bind the last one. They would try to deal with all the patient NPCs before the doctors arrived, lest they be attacked from both sides.

After Gu Shanshan finished explaining the plan, Jie Fangcheng said, "Is it really that complicated?"

Qi Chanyang roared, "What else would it be???"

"Ahem. You'll see tonight."

When night came, the players saw the patient NPCs standing in orderly rows in the corridor, quiet and docile.

Jie Fangcheng handed each patient a rope and reminded them, "Make sure you tie them tight!"

The patient NPCs conscientiously tied ropes around one another. Some even volunteered, "Tie a few more loops..."

After No. 9 tied up No. 1, no one was left to tie him up. Jie Fangcheng did it himself, binding him tightly and even tying a bow. Soon, tied-up NPCs lay all over the corridor.

Everyone was petrified.

Xue Kai's eyes sparkled. "Brother Jie, how did you do that?"

Jie Fangcheng answered vaguely, "Oh, I just mentioned it. Everyone was very helpful."

He really had only mentioned it.

While playing badminton that afternoon, Jie Fangcheng had told them, "I'm tying you up tonight. You won't agree? Then I'll knock you out and tie you up."

No. 9 had something to say about that.

Very quickly, everyone agreed with great understanding.

Jie Fangcheng had another request. "Since there are a lot of us, tie each other up. If you don't do a good job and the ropes come loose when you mutate, I'll have to take action."

No. 9 had even more to say about that.

Now that all the NPCs were tied up, Qi Chanyang had never seen a scene like this before, and his mind went blank. "Then... they'll, they'll just lie in the corridor?"

"Let them lie in the corridor for now." Jie Fangcheng drew out his staff, his expression calm. "It makes it easier for me to see whose ropes aren't tight, so I can kill them quickly... no, knock them out."

Qi Chanyang: "..."

"And now."

The staff struck the floor with a thud.

Jie Fangcheng planted it on the ground, both hands resting on the other end. It did not look as though he had planted a staff, but as though a swordsman had planted a sword.

Before him stretched a long, terrifying, pitch-black corridor. Somewhere within it, some creature seemed to be looking back in his direction.

Behind him were nine strange-looking patient NPCs twisted together.

In that eerie, horrifying atmosphere, Jie Fangcheng shouted at the creature across the corridor.

"Hey! Walk faster. Let's get this over with and go back to our rooms to rest!"