Chapter 119: He’s a Madman (Third Update)
“What are you talking about? I don’t quite follow?” Dr. Gao was so flustered by Men Nan’s situation that he couldn’t keep up with Chen Ge’s pace.
To be fair, it wasn’t Dr. Gao’s fault. The prompts from the black phone were known only to Chen Ge himself, and the most crucial clue in this entire trial mission was its name—The Room of Three People.
Chen Ge would never reveal anything about the black phone to anyone else, so he didn’t explain to Dr. Gao and walked alone to the door of the rental unit.
Men Nan kept repeating the same dream, and that dream was the most vivid scene in his memory—washing his hair. The dream itself wasn’t a nightmare. Men Nan had said so himself during the day at the amusement park: the first time he had this dream, he wasn’t scared. It was only when the man got closer that he started to panic.
From this perspective, the real threat to Men Nan was that man.
Men Nan’s description of the dream also highlighted this point. During the hair-washing process, he wasn’t harmed at all, but when the stranger approached, he felt hostility. In his last dream, the stranger walked up to him and grabbed his neck, clearly intending to harm him.
Comparing the two, the problem becomes even clearer. Among the three people in the room, aside from Men Nan, one wanted to protect him, and the other wanted to harm him.
In dream interpretation, washing hair symbolizes cleansing away filth. Men Nan’s dream might be a warning, urging him to be cautious—danger was slowly creeping in!
After learning about Men Nan’s past, Chen Ge felt that the person protecting him in the room was likely his mother.
His father was rarely home, and mother and son relied on each other, so she had no reason to hurt him.
As for the one who wanted to harm him, it was probably the former resident of Room 303 in the apartment building.
The first time Chen Ge entered Haiming Apartments, he noticed red ropes tied to the corridor railings with special knots—a traditional method to ward off evil. From that moment, Chen Ge suspected there might really be something unclean in this building.
Combining that with his conversation with the slovenly man from Room 301 before entering Men Nan’s room, and the task prompts from the black phone, Chen Ge became even more certain of his guess.
“To find out who the man in the dream is and completely eliminate the threat to Men Nan, I need to go into Room 303 and take a look. Besides, that’s exactly what the black phone’s task requires.” If something in Room 303 could harm people through dreams, it was definitely no ordinary entity—likely similar to the mirror monster Chen Ge had encountered before.
“I’m facing those monsters again.” People could be good or evil, and the same went for ghosts. When dealing with these unclean things, Chen Ge wouldn’t show any mercy.
“The guy from Room 301 said that after someone died in Room 303, no one ever rented it again. The unclean thing lingering in the apartment building is probably the vengeful spirit of that deceased person.” Among the types of ghosts Chen Ge had encountered, the lowest level was residual thoughts—things with little power, just a lingering will. A step above that was Xiao Xiao, and stronger still was the mirror monster. He estimated that the unclean thing in the apartment building was about on par with the mirror monster.
“Back then, I wasn’t afraid even alone. Now, with so many people together, our yang energy is strong—there’s no need to fear ghosts.” Chen Ge walked over to Men Nan, asked which room the landlord lived in, then opened the door to Room 304 and left.
He dodged the pile of clutter in the hallway, went down to the first floor, and lightly knocked on the door of Room 101.
After a moment, a plump woman in her fifties opened the door. She looked Chen Ge up and down. “Looking to rent?”
“Yeah, my friend lives in Room 304. I want to rent the room next to him, Room 303.”
“Room 303 isn’t available. Pick another one.”
“That room is clearly empty, so why can’t I rent it?” Chen Ge pressed.
“There are empty rooms on the fourth floor. If you don’t want to switch, forget it.” The woman didn’t give Chen Ge a chance to speak and slammed the door shut.
“Is she just naturally bad-tempered, or did I touch a taboo? It seems Room 303 really is a big problem.” The landlord wouldn’t go into detail about a death in the building. Chen Ge changed his target and went back to the third floor, knocking on the door of Room 301.
The TV volume was turned down, and the slovenly middle-aged man reeking of alcohol opened the iron door. “You again?”
“Brother, can I have a word?” Chen Ge pulled a hundred-yuan bill from his pocket and slipped it to him.
The man grabbed the money and seemed to look at Chen Ge more favorably. “What’s up?”
“I want to know what happened in Room 303. The more details, the better.”
“Room 303, huh?” The man didn’t dare speak in the hallway. He gestured for Chen Ge to come inside.
The cramped rental unit was a mess, with stuff scattered everywhere, leaving no room to step.
After closing the door, the man turned up the TV volume and then said, “Kid, you’ve got some sense. For your sake, I won’t lead you astray. Take your friend and leave. This place isn’t for just anyone.”
“What do you mean? Are there taboos about living in this building?”
“It’s all tied to that Room 303 next door.” The man grabbed a bottle of beer from the table—already opened, who knew when—and took a big gulp. “Do you know the name of the person who used to live there?”
“How would I know?” Chen Ge endured the man’s alcoholic stench, unsure if he was just rambling drunk.
“His name was Wang Haiming. He built this apartment building.”
“But I saw the landlord is a woman in her fifties.”
“That’s his ex-wife.” The man glanced at Chen Ge, signaling him not to interrupt. “Wang Haiming made a fortune, dumped his ex-wife, and married some woman with a shady background. A few years later, that woman not only took all his money but also had him committed to a mental hospital. In the end, his ex-wife took pity on him, got him out, and arranged a room for him—Room 303.”
“Wang Haiming was in a mental hospital?” Hearing this, Chen Ge recalled the prompt on the black phone—He’s from the Third Psychiatric Ward.
“Yeah. Whether he was really crazy or faking it when he went in, after he came out, he definitely wasn’t the same as a normal person.”
“How so?” Chen Ge was curious.
“Here’s a simple example.” The man pointed to his head. “Wang Haiming would often bang his head against the wall in the middle of the night, like something was inside his skull. He’d scream in agony, arguing with himself. Sometimes he wouldn’t stop even when he was bleeding, and no one could hold him back. The police had to come to get him under control.”
I’ve made up for what I owed. Goodnight~