Chen Ge walked to stand beside the sculpture and took out Yan Danian's comic. "I've identified your real killer, and as long as you're willing to be my employee, even if I put my life on the line, I will help you take revenge."
The statue did not understand what Chen Ge said, but Chen Ge could feel her body shivering like there was a change to her emotion. "The man who killed you is hidden at the deepest part of the underground morgue. The place is very dangerous, but if you are willing to join my Haunted House, I'll bring all the employees with me to demand a justice for you."
Chen Ge had come fully prepared, and he sounded confident and strong. It was obvious that he was not kidding; he really did plan to do this. The statue still felt that something was wrong. However, after she used her power, she confirmed that what Chen Ge had said was the truth; he was not lying to her. "I will take revenge for you. Tonight, I will enter the underground morgue to capture the culprit that once harmed you."
The statue's ugly face looked at Chen Ge, and blood tears started to fall from her eyes. Chen Ge was telling the truth; he was really prepared to go down into the underground morgue that night to risk his life. "Come with me, you are more familiar with the place. If you are willing to help me, things will be a lot simpler."
The statue was afraid. She really did not want to return to the underground morgue—the terror of the place was something unimaginable to outsiders—but she could not say no to Chen Ge's invitation. The man before her had helped her solve her problem and was willing to sacrifice his personal safety to venture into somewhere so dangerous. He intentions provided some semblance of warmth to her cold heart.
Seeing that enough groundwork had been laid, Chen Ge flipped open Yan Danian's comic. "Come with me. When we're there, I still have a lot more questions that I wish to ask you."
The statue had stayed in the underground storeroom for years, so she would be very familiar with the place. That was one of the main reasons that Chen Ge had to take her with him. The tears in the eyes stopped flowing, and the statue's ugly face started to change. The face that represented truth softened, and a 1.7-meter-tall girl appeared before the statue. The girl looked quite similar to Ma Yin—she was very reserved, and it was probably hereditary because both girls were very tall.
After the girl left the statue, she immediately crawled into Yan Danian's comic, and on the empty page, a female statue appeared. The statue was radiating sadness, pain, betrayal, and despair.
With the girl's aid, the chance of success for tonight's mission has increased a lot. Chen Ge left the Wife's Room and headed to Mu Yang High School. He transferred the boy with the heavy stench and the hanging man into the comic as well.
When the completion rate of the Third Sick Hall was over ninety percent, I was rewarded a patient's list of all the mental patients. Each record carried the soul of a mad person, should I bring that with me?
The mad people were originally members of the ghost stories society. Even after their deaths, they were controlled by their madness, and Chen Ge normally did not dare use them.
I should bring them with me. At the very least, I'll gain an additional trump card. Chen Ge thought about it and shoved the patient's list into his backpack. When the society's chairperson sees all of his members standing on my side, I wonder how he'll react.
Chen Ge also thought that he had perhaps crossed a line; he had not only inherited all the items that the ghost stories society collected over the years but also recruited all of its past members. The ghost stories society lacked good leadership, and that was why they all acted this way. After I take over as the chairperson, I will change everything so that the members can receive real salvation.
Carrying the bag and holding the hammer, Chen Ge left the Haunted House. He did not even have the chance to close the gate before Lee Zheng's phone call came. "After Doctor Gao's disappearance, Gao Ru Xue's emotional state has become very unstable. She seems to know something; we need you to go over to make contact with her immediately and try to dig for valuable information."
"Brother Zheng, I have something else to do tonight, and I'm afraid I won't be able to stay for long. How about you try to find other people to communicate with Gao Ru Xue?"
"It can only be you," Lee Zheng said firmly. "On the day, she was targeted by the eyes-gouging killer, and we have been through her phone. She had been calling you endlessly that day. I do not know the nature of your relationship, but I am sure it is not that simple. Chen Ge, I hope you'll be able to recognize the good from the bad and hold onto your principles when the situation calls for it."
By then, Chen Ge realized that Lee Zheng had a wrong idea about their relationship. That day, Gao Ru Xue's phone had been taken over by the phone spirit, and she could contact everyone but Chen Ge. Gao Ru Xue had kept calling him that day because she was feeling nervous and unsafe.
"Okay, I'll be heading over now."
From Lee Zheng, Chen Ge found out that Gao Ru Xue had been staying alone at Doctor Gao's practice. She did not want to return to the dormitory to stay with her roommates nor did she want to move back to Xi Xia Hu. Chen Ge arrived at Doctor Gao's practice, and when he got down from the taxi, he realized that the practice was very close to Western Jiujiang Medical University.
There were plain clothes looking after Gao Ru Xue twenty-four hours, and when Chen Ge got out from the car, the man in charge immediately spotted him. While Chen Ge's get up gave the man pause and his gaze settled on the white cat lying on Chen Ge's shoulder for a long time, he decided to follow the superior's order and went over to make contact with Chen Ge. The man gave Chen Ge some updates on Gao Ru Xue's situation, and then he handed him a recording pen before leaving.
He knocked lightly on the door, and after a long time, Gao Ru Xue came to open the door. She did not look like she had rested recently—she looked tired and spiritless. "Chen Ge, what are you doing here?"
"I heard you are not feeling well, so I came to visit you because I was worried." Chen Ge carried the heavy backpack, and he realized how awkward he sounded. To smooth things over, he picked up the white cat and said, "Do you like cats?"
The furry head with the multi-colored eyes turned to look at Chen Ge with confusion. The white cat's 'cute' reaction did make Gao Ru Xue feel a little better. She reached out to rustle the white cat's head and moved back. "I'm doing fine. Please come in. Do you want anything to drink?"
Gao Ru Xue had been trapped alone for quite some time already, and she actually wanted to find someone to talk to, but she did not know who.
"It's fine." Chen Ge followed Gao Ru Xue into Doctor Gao's office. What populated the room were books. There were many different kinds of books, and most of them were limited editions that could not be found online. "Is Doctor Gao really such a heavy reader?"
"Yes, he does not have any other hobbies. Other than reading, he likes to collect some weird art pieces." Gao Ru Xue brew two cups of coffee and placed them on the table.
Chen Ge took a small sip and rambled a bit before he commented offhandedly, "By the way, we have known each other for quite some time already, but I never once heard you call Doctor Gao your father. It feels like you two are quite unfamiliar around each other."
Gao Ru Xue had a private personality. She was not purposely trying to freeze people out, but perhaps she had gone through some experience to make her this way, and the type of experiences that she had been through, that was the thing that Chen Ge was tasked to find out.
After hearing what Chen Ge said, Gao Ru Xue did not answer immediately. She looked at the coffee inside her cup, and after a long time, she finally said the secret that she had hidden in her heart for a long time.
"A few years ago, one of the patients got into an accident in the middle of his session, and his condition suddenly worsened. No one knew whether it was his medication or my father's treatment method. Halfway through his session, the patient went insane and jumped out of the window. At the time, my father hadn't acquired his own practice yet, so he was practicing at home, and our house was on the 8th floor.
"The death of the patient naturally fell on his responsibility. The family hounded us endlessly. We tried to explain, apologize, but they would not accept it. Eventually, we moved, but it was still no use. At the time, my father was under great pressure, but thankfully, he had Mom to give him the support he needed. At the time, I thought it was just a hurdle and everything would be fine after we stepped over it. However, no one knew that the event would have such devastating repercussion.
"The patient's family went to the hospital to block my father. They created such a ruckus, and things were worsening. Worried about my father, my mother called a cab to get to the hospital, but she got into an accident on the way there. No one answered the call. My father did meet Mother at the hospital, but…"
Gao Ru Xue held the cup with both hands. Her voice was very low, and she looked just like an abandoned doll. "It was too late. The rescue was unsuccessful. Mom left us, and my father trapped himself at home for a long period of time after that. It seemed like he had sealed himself off from the world.
"He refused to communicate with the outside world. When I passed his room in the night, I could sometimes even hear him calling my mother's name. From then onward, my father seemed to change into a different person. He started to do weird things like going out at night and coming back smelling of blood and formalin. When they were preparing to bury my mother, he did something unimaginable. He stole her body.
"Only I knew about that. I once asked him about it, but he seemed to transform into a different person. I will never forget how he looked at me then. Despair, sadness, and a madness that was intent on destroying everything.
"About a month after the disappearance of Mother's body, my father slowly returned to normal. His gaze became dark and deep like an ocean that had no limit; all the negative emotions had disappeared within it. He became more mature than before, like there was nothing in this world that was going to stop him.
"Other people assumed that he had walked out from the grief and regained a renewed hope on life, but only I knew that he had only buried those emotions deeper in his heart. The calmer he presented himself, the greater the pain in his heart. From then on, my father rarely appeared at night. He worked in the morning and would leave alone at night. Since then, I learned to live on my own."
Gao Ru Xue had been hiding that in her heart for a long time, and this was the first time that she had shared it with another person. Chen Ge had saved her life in the nick of time, pulling her back from certain death, so she trusted Chen Ge a lot.
"Working in the day, going out at night and still very energetic." Chen Ge felt like Doctor Gao's condition was similar to his. He believed that Doctor Gao had also been influenced by a ghost to become like this. When Gao Ru Xue finished her story, she was tired and curled up on the couch.
Chen Ge did not disturb her; the girl did not seem to have realized that her father had gone missing. After all, her life would go on unchanged. She would survive the night alone since her father would never return at night. Looking at the time, Chen Ge went into the adjacent room to grab a blanket for Gao Ru Xue, then he picked up the white cat and tip-toed out of the place.
After the door clicked shut, Gao Ru Xue, whom Chen Ge assumed was asleep, slowly opened her eyes. She touched the blanket that covered her body and turned to look at the door that was closed.
…
After leaving the practice, Chen Ge walked toward Western Jiujiang Medical University. He needed to enter the underground morgue's central hub before midnight. On the way there, Chen Ge called Lee Zheng to report what he heard about Doctor Gao from Gao Ru Xue. After he hung up, he threw these thoughts out of his mind. He was completely focused on completing this Trial Mission.
The underground morgue was different from other three-star missions. It was perfectly preserved and not destroyed, so Chen Ge could not afford to be careless. He did not enter the university from the front entrance but took a long detour to the western gate. According to the map provided by Zhang Li, the real entrance to the underground morgue was near the western gate. Compared to the other gates, this place was very quiet; there were not even stalls lining the road waiting to do business with students.
Chen Ge looked left and right. After he made sure that no one was looking, he avoided the surveillance camera and hopped into the campus. It is 9 pm now. I still have three hours.
Even though there were street lights around the western part of the university campus, compared to other parts of the campus, this place felt quite deserted. Chen Ge walked through the bushes that lined the road and kept his back to the wall. Following the map that he had memorized, Chen Ge slowly sought his way to the entrance to the underground morgue.
The western part of the campus was the largest part of the campus. There were two lab buildings and several other buildings whose usages were unknown to Chen Ge. However, most of the buildings were sealed shut, and entry was not allowed. Chen Ge continued to move forward, and he came across three security guards who were patrolling the area. They were patrolling very far from Chen Ge. Even with his Yin Yang Vision, Chen Ge could only tell their general frame. Why are the three security guards just going around this small area?
According to the map, there were five entrances that one could use to enter the underground morgue. The three guards were patrolling the front door. When Zhang Li and the renovation team were expanding the morgue, they had used this entrance. Of the four remaining entrances, two were attached to the lab buildings, one was attached to the abandoned education block, and the last one was an emergency entrance. It was probably to prevent an underground emergency, so this entrance should lead outside of the campus.
The security guards had blocked the front entrance, so Chen Ge had no choice but to use other entrance. He walked to the lab building on the left. He pushed the window open and jumped into the room. He only walked a small distance before he saw a glass container that was placed on a shelf. There was something that looked like a human head being soaked within.
I heard from Liu Xianxian that when she was following Liu Zhe, she discovered the man talking to a human head inside a glass bottle inside one of the labs.