Chapter 185: Uncontrollable Feelings (Part 1)
Chen Ge still had many questions, but the boy didn’t give him a chance to ask, starting a countdown instead.
It was clear the boy was barely holding on. His body hadn’t fully recovered, and the red robe on him was gradually fading. “Don’t dawdle! Hurry up!”
Stepping closer, Chen Ge noticed that the door panel was covered in fine cracks, with countless blood vessels weaving through them, rapidly repairing the damage.
He recalled the loud bang when Zhang Ya arrived and found it odd: “The old man sent Zhang Ya outside the door, and Zhang Ya broke back in. That means the door can be destroyed, but it can also repair itself.”
Pushing the door open, the world outside was no longer a sea of blood. The pitch-black corridor now seemed almost welcoming to him.
“Meow?” A white cat crouched at the doorway. Seeing Chen Ge, it tilted its head, its heterochromatic eyes full of curiosity.
Stepping out of the room, Chen Ge wanted to turn back and say something to the boy, but the other slammed the door shut with a bang, not giving him a chance to speak.
“I feel like that kid is hiding something. Is he afraid of Zhang Ya?” The image of that red robe flashed through his mind, and Chen Ge shivered involuntarily. This three-star trial had given him a new understanding of Zhang Ya.
The vengeful spirit Zhang Ya’s personality was the complete opposite of her living self—cruel and violent, fighting her way from outside the door to inside, devouring anyone who stood in her way, tearing apart anyone she didn’t like on sight.
“Zhang Ya should have followed me out, right?” Chen Ge turned around. Zhang Ya stood a foot away from him, her red robe even more vivid than before.
His fingers twitched as if cramping, and Chen Ge forced an awkward smile to mask his unease: “Look at how this turned out. I went in worried about you, determined to find you, but in the end, you still saved me.”
Zhang Ya remained silent, her eyes fixed on Chen Ge’s face.
He felt stiff all over under her gaze, not daring to move. He racked his brain for a way to ease the tension, but after thinking for a long time, he realized that in over twenty years of life, he had zero experience talking to women.
“What the hell was I doing for the first twenty-plus years of my life?!”
Struggling, Chen Ge finally squeezed out a sentence: “Everything here is handled. Let’s go home.”
Zhang Ya didn’t reply. She took another step forward, her face nearly touching Chen Ge’s, then suddenly accelerated, passing through his body and diving into his shadow.
The black phone in his pocket vibrated. Chen Ge sat down against the wall, his forehead already soaked with cold sweat. The pressure Zhang Ya put on him was immense.
“A vibration—does that mean the task is complete?” Catching his breath, Chen Ge pulled out the phone and opened the notification.
“Zhang Ya’s favorability has slightly increased! Approaching the next stage—Uncontrollable Feelings!”
The words on the screen made Chen Ge inhale sharply: “Uncontrollable Feelings? Why does that sound so dangerous? Intense emotions beyond control—would Zhang Ya get so worked up she’d just tear me apart?”
Chen Ge held his head, torn and troubled. Beside him, the white cat lay lazily on his backpack, seemingly used to its owner’s various oddities by now.
“When the cart reaches the mountain, there’s always a road. I’ll worry about that later.” Chen Ge stood up and checked his phone. All communication had been blocked after he entered the door.
Only then did he remember he’d been live-streaming. Opening the platform’s homepage, he saw his stream had been temporarily suspended, but his account wasn’t frozen—he could still operate and post.
“What happened?” He checked his follower count. In one night of streaming, his fans had skyrocketed by 150,000. Entering any larger stream, everyone was talking about him and Qin Guang.
Calming down, Chen Ge also checked Qin Guang’s stream and found that guy was suspended too.
“What’s going on?” Chen Ge called Liu Dao. The phone rang six or seven times before connecting. “Liu Dao? Why are both my and Qin Guang’s streams suspended? Because the screen was black too long?”
After a few seconds, a stranger’s voice came from the other end: “We’re from the city bureau’s criminal investigation unit. State your location immediately. Stay where you are and don’t move.”
When did the police get here? How did they know I was at the Third Psychiatric Ward?
Chen Ge instinctively checked the time—it was already 3:50 AM. He felt like he’d only been in the door world for a short while, but it had actually been hours.
He guessed that after his stream cut out when he entered the door, Liu Dao and the others had called the police.
Unlike the online crowd stirring up trouble, Liu Dao knew the severity of the situation and the exact location of the incident.
“I’m on the first floor of the Third Psychiatric Ward at the Rehabilitation Center. There are two victims in the laundry room of the Second Ward. I’m still gathering more evidence related to the suspect.”
“The two victims have been rescued. Don’t disturb the scene. We’re on our way. Stay in touch.”
“My phone’s almost dead, so I can’t talk long.” Chen Ge paused, then hung up. He hurriedly hid the butcher knife and skull crusher.
“I need to stash the stuff from the director’s cabinet too.” He sprinted to the director’s office on the second floor, packed away the materials from the wardrobe, and while grabbing the letters, he accidentally discovered another secret of the cabinet.
The back panel of the wardrobe could be opened, revealing a hidden passage. Going down the passage, he reached a dead end with an iron door.
The lock on this door matched the key Chen Ge had. Opening it and pushing aside the obstruction behind it, Chen Ge was stunned to find himself back in Ward Three.
“This must be the secret passage Wang Haiming mentioned. It connects to the director’s office, known only to the director.”
Looking at the hospital bed directly opposite the passage entrance, recalling the mother of Door Nan who once stayed here, Chen Ge vaguely understood another reason the boy had tormented the old director.
“Wang Haiming also stayed in Ward Three. This key was probably stolen from the director by him and the mirror ghost working together.” The police would arrive soon. Chen Ge put away the key, tidied everything up, and waited quietly by the ward door.
At 4 AM, the door to the Third Ward was forced open. Chen Ge, who had been waiting, walked over proactively. He carried a backpack, held a rooster in one hand, and had a white cat perched on his shoulder.
“I’m on your side! I’ve found some items left behind by the suspect here.” Before Chen Ge could get close, the police surrounded him—all unfamiliar faces.
After questioning, Chen Ge led the police into the Third Ward. Omitting anything related to ghosts, he recounted how he had chased the deformed face and ended up locked inside the Third Ward.
“There are fingerprints from the suspects on the iron door on the fourth floor. There are three of them, all former patients of the Third Ward.”
He dragged it out until dawn. Only after receiving the black phone’s task completion notification did Chen Ge leave the Rehabilitation Center with the police.