Chapter 116: Room 303 (Third Update, 34)
The streetlight stretched Chen Ge's shadow long. The street was empty, with only the occasional stray cat scurrying past a trash can, rustling as it went.
"Behind the bustling city, there's actually such a quiet neighborhood." Chen Ge walked between the dark buildings, following the narrow concrete path to the deepest part of the residential area.
A faint stench hung in the air. The trash cans by the roadside hadn't been emptied in a long time, with various household waste piled up in plastic bags, and occasionally something scurrying out from among them.
Compared to the previous buildings, the one before Chen Ge looked more dilapidated. The first floor's walls were stained with all sorts of grime, and the entrance was cluttered with odds and ends.
"Found it." Chen Ge looked at the six-story apartment building in front of him—the one advertised on the billboard outside the residential area.
"The mission site assigned by the black phone is Room 303 on the third floor. Men Nan should be living there." Chen Ge checked the time; it was six minutes to eight in the evening. "Once Dr. Gao arrives, things might get a bit inconvenient. I'll go in first to scope out the situation."
Without calling Dr. Gao, he stepped directly into the stairwell.
The floors were low, each story only about two meters ten. The railings were iron, with red strings tied at intervals along them, their purpose unclear.
Once inside, Chen Ge caught a strange smell. It was faint, not exactly foul, and someone used to living there might gradually overlook it. Chen Ge, being a first-time visitor, was more sensitive to it.
"It smells a bit like spoiled food." Chen Ge paused on the first floor, trying to trace the source of the odor, but found nothing. It was as if the smell emanated from the building itself, seeping into every brick.
The stairwell had no lights, so Chen Ge used his phone for illumination.
The first floor housed four families, making it feel cramped. The building's soundproofing was poor, and he could clearly hear arguments from inside the units.
Moving quietly, Chen Ge reached the third floor. He didn't rush to knock on Room 303's door but first listened outside for any sounds from within.
On the third floor, the TV in Room 301 was blaring loudly; in Room 302, a man was on the phone, his voice unstable. Chen Ge caught the two phrases he repeated most: "Stop pushing me" and "Are you trying to drive me to death?"
Rooms 303 and 304 were utterly silent.
After waiting two or three minutes, Chen Ge gently knocked on Room 303's door. Interestingly, the moment he knocked, the TV in Room 301 was immediately turned down, and the man in Room 302 seemed to stop his call. The entire third floor fell suddenly quiet.
Chen Ge knocked for a minute, but the door didn't open. Puzzled, he called out softly, "Men Nan? Are you home?"
No response. Just as Chen Ge wondered if he'd made a mistake, the door to Room 301 opened.
A disheveled middle-aged man leaned against the doorframe, reeking of alcohol. "Hey! Who are you looking for?"
"Men Nan from Room 303. He's a student at Jiujiang Medical University. I heard he's not feeling well, so I came to check on him."
"You've got the wrong place. I don't know who Men Nan is, but he definitely doesn't live in 303." The man scratched his face, where a mosquito bite on his left cheek had been rubbed raw.
"But my friend told me he lives in this room." Chen Ge tried to fish for information from the man. "Besides, if you don't know Men Nan, how can you be sure he's not in that room?"
"Room 303 had a death. That place hasn't been rented out since the incident. What do you think?" The man brought his hand to his eyes, looking at the blood on his fingertips from the scratch he'd made worse. "Don't knock on 303's door again, got it? Bad luck."
With that, he shut the door, but Chen Ge noticed the TV volume didn't go back up. The man was likely still there, watching his every move from behind the door.
Chen Ge didn't knock again. He'd already gleaned a crucial clue from the man: Room 303 had seen a death, and it hadn't been rented out since.
The mission site from the black phone was found. Now the key was figuring out how to get inside and check it out before midnight.
"The black phone never makes mistakes. Men Nan's condition is probably tied to this room." Chen Ge glanced at his watch; it was already eight o'clock.
He called Dr. Gao, who had been waiting outside the residential area, afraid Chen Ge might get lost, and hadn't come in yet.
After explaining the situation over the phone, a few minutes later, Dr. Gao led Men Nan into the stairwell.
When Chen Ge saw Men Nan again, he was startled. The young man now looked completely different from a normal person, like a congenital deformity.
His head and spine seemed almost misaligned, his head drooping as if someone were pressing it down hard.
Chen Ge pointed at Men Nan and shot Dr. Gao a questioning look.
Dr. Gao immediately understood and shook his head slightly. "It's gotten worse. We only managed to stabilize him with medication. Let's talk inside."
Men Nan, head lowered, took a key from his pocket. The stairwell was dim, and he tried several times to insert it into the lock, failing each time. His arm trembled with frustration, as if he might have another episode.
Seeing this, Chen Ge quickly took the key and helped him open the door to Room 304.
The three entered the apartment. Dr. Gao and Men Nan were used to it and didn't notice anything, but Chen Ge, a first-time visitor, immediately smelled that strange, spoiled odor.
"It seems to be coming from the walls." Chen Ge looked around. The room was tidy, the trash bin empty, with nothing that could produce such a stench. "Could there be a body hidden in the wall?"
He quickly dismissed that idea. The wall at the end of the third-floor corridor in Ping An Apartments had been specially thickened by Wang Qi; a normal apartment wall couldn't fit a corpse.
"What are you looking for?" Dr. Gao noticed Chen Ge acting oddly since entering and asked.
"Do you smell a strange odor?" Chen Ge stopped by the wall between Rooms 303 and 304, where the stench was strongest.
"A bit. Old houses tend to develop some weird smells." Dr. Gao helped Men Nan to the bed, but Men Nan refused to go near it, preferring to stand rather than sit on it.
Chen Ge glanced at Men Nan and asked softly, "What's wrong with him?"
"He's afraid of falling asleep. In his last dream, that man had already grabbed his throat. If he sleeps again, he might never wake up."