CHAPTER 188: Tateno Hospital
After Xu Wan left work, Chen Ge returned to the haunted house alone. There was still much to do.
He first used tape to wrap up the Ouija board spirit's body, then buried the rooster next to the haunted house.
Chen Ge had no idea who had killed the rooster. There wasn't a single wound on its body, and the culprit might have come from behind the door.
To be safe, Chen Ge didn't just discard the rooster's corpse. Instead, he brought it back to the haunted house and buried it nearby.
After handling the miscellaneous tasks, Chen Ge entered the underground parking lot. The Third Psychiatric Ward had been perfectly replicated, covering an area equivalent to two Muyang High Schools, located across from Muyang High School.
All the terrifying scenes were pieced together, with crisscrossing passages already taking on the shape of a maze.
Chen Ge wandered around inside a few times, making sure there was no danger, then installed the remaining surveillance cameras from the tool room in key areas. Only after finishing all this did he step out of the scene.
"Muyang High School comes with two hidden tasks. The Third Psychiatric Ward is a three-star horror scene, so it should have even more hidden tasks. But I walked all over and nothing unusual happened. Looks like triggering those hidden tasks isn't so easy."
Back in the staff break room, Chen Ge had just lain down and plugged his phone into the charger when he saw a text message from Captain Li.
He thought it over and still called Captain Li back: "Uncle Sanbao, I'm fine now. Don't worry."
"You're pretty optimistic." Footsteps came through the phone as Captain Li walked to a quieter spot before speaking: "I saw what happened last night. When you found the victim imprisoned, you should have called the police immediately."
"I understand. I'll be sure to do that next time."
"You want there to be a next time?" Captain Li had no patience left for Chen Ge. "Forget it. I'm just giving you a heads-up. There are two other things I need to tell you. Based on your statement this morning, three people were directly involved in the imprisonment. All three are now on the run. Watch your back—they have mental illnesses and could do anything."
"Got it. I'll be careful."
"Second thing is about the West Suburb Private Academy." Captain Li seemed to be flipping through some documents. "We screened all men who had contact with the West Suburb Private Academy in the past five years and narrowed it down to twenty-one people. We should be able to find the real culprit who drove that girl to her death within a week at most."
Zhang Ya's case was finally about to be solved. Chen Ge clenched his fists: "Captain Li, when you catch that killer, let me have five minutes alone with him."
"We'll see. But don't get your hopes up."
Captain Li hung up. Chen Ge stared at his phone, not even sure when he fell asleep.
...
In a blood-red room, Chen Ge sat on a bed board, fine red blood vessels surfacing on his legs. He stared blankly around him as the voice of Men Nan's main personality echoed: "You're running out of time."
Looking up, the boy from behind the door of the Third Psychiatric Ward stood in the center of the room, his body pierced by red threads.
"Men Nan?"
"You're running out of time." The boy's face was expressionless. Just as he was about to repeat the words a third time, the red threads pulled taut, and his body shattered.
"Hey!"
Chen Ge's eyes snapped open. He woke from the nightmare, his forehead drenched in cold sweat.
Checking the time, it was 3:40 in the morning—exactly when he first came out from inside the "door."
"Why did I have a dream like that? What happened to Men Nan's main personality in the hospital?" Chen Ge was wide awake. He put away his phone, grabbed his toolbox and backpack, and took a taxi to the Third Psychiatric Ward.
At five in the morning, Chen Ge arrived there for the second time. The sky was already brightening, but the building still looked eerie and terrifying.
Climbing over the wall into the rehabilitation center, the lock on the Third Psychiatric Ward's door had been broken by the police. Chen Ge went straight to the door of Ward Three.
Pushing it open, everything inside was normal, just as he had left it.
Finding nothing, Chen Ge pondered for a moment, then walked deep into the ward to retrieve the hidden skull crusher and butcher knife. Next, he went to the director's office, took out various tools from his toolbox, and spent over ten minutes pulling out the four blood-red long nails from the corners of the wardrobe.
"They look like ordinary iron nails."
Chen Ge tore a piece of cloth from the curtain, wrapped the nails in it, and stuffed them into his backpack.
It was already light out. Remembering he had things to do during the day, he hurried out of the ward, walked a long way before catching a taxi back to New Century Park.
Putting down his backpack, Chen Ge wrote a sign saying "Temporarily Closed in the Morning" and hung it at the entrance. Then, carrying the Ouija board spirit and a bunch of random stuff, he headed to the city center.
"Third floor of Shengyuan International Plaza." Chen Ge was waiting for the elevator with an ad in hand. A group of young people stood nearby, chattering excitedly.
"I never thought Tateno Hospital would come to Hanjiang! Last year when it was in Xinhai, I was already planning to buy a train ticket to go see it."
"Is it that serious? Su Su, I heard our Jiujiang has its own haunted houses that are pretty famous online."
"Oh, come on. Our local haunted houses just throw in a few mannequins and call it a day. They can't compare to Tateno Hospital at all. You're not in the scene, so you wouldn't get it."
The girl called Su Su was quite cute, around 1.6 meters tall, so slender it was hard to tell front from back.
Next to Su Su was a tall, shy-looking guy: "Don't haunted houses all boil down to the same thing?"
"Other haunted houses are just about making money. Tateno Hospital is about pursuing terror. The level is completely different." The girl was clearly a hardcore haunted house enthusiast. "I can't explain it to you. Just follow me when we go in later."
The girl was amusing, and Chen Ge couldn't help but glance at her a few more times.
The elevator doors opened, and they all went up to the third floor.
Exiting the elevator, the hall was packed with waiting visitors.
"Is Tateno Hospital really that famous?" Chen Ge had worked his tail off promoting online, streaming like crazy, just to boost his own haunted house's popularity. In comparison, Tateno Hospital could draw such a crowd just on its past reputation—pretty impressive.
"Of course it's famous! It's the biggest mobile haunted house on the market right now! They've hired designers and makeup artists from Japan with ten years of professional haunted house experience, and all the props are custom-made." The girl named Su Su enthusiastically explained to Chen Ge: "Mister, the ticket price is a bit steep, but it's totally worth it! The mechanisms combine sound, light, electricity, and air—it's the top-tier Japanese-themed haunted house in the country."
"Mister?" Chen Ge's eye twitched slightly. After all these days of running around, he really did look a bit haggard.
Composing his expression, Chen Ge didn't finish listening to the girl and walked forward slowly: "I've never tried a Japanese-style haunted house. I wonder how it compares to the Third Psychiatric Ward in terms of scariness."