The System Arrived Four Years Early, but the Anomaly Is Still a Juvenile - Chapter 194

It was almost 11 p.m. when Shen Ge left the Chief’s office. Cheng Shengnan was waiting for him at the front desk, flipping through a magazine.

Although the sacrifice of He Jiayu’s squad had cast a pall of suppression and grief over the Special Countermeasures Department’s New Year’s Eve, for Shen Ge, this was the first time since the childhood accident in Haiya that someone was waiting to celebrate the New Year with him. It brought a touch of warmth amidst the gloom, making him feel his efforts and sacrifices were worthwhile.

That trip to Haiya at age ten was the start of Shen Ge’s nightmare. Betrayed by relatives and subjected to three years of torment at Rongshan Mental Hospital, his mind and memory were severely affected.

Adopting the principle of “if you can’t beat them, join them,” Shen Ge also became a “madman,” successfully blending into the group at Rongshan Mental Hospital, and then… set fire to all the pain and memories.

Shen Ge had always been alone until he met Cheng Shengnan and integrated into the Special Countermeasures Department. It made him feel that living wasn’t so bad after all.

Shen Ge was quite satisfied with his current life. As for the idea that having “emotional ties” meant having weaknesses, his thinking was simple: just burn away any threats to his peaceful life, solving the problem at its root.

Right now, the biggest threat to his life came from the “Twelve Branches.” Regardless of their ultimate motives, their repeated “interferences” had worn thin Shen Ge’s patience. He decided to take the initiative, to root out these rats and capture them all in one net, even if it meant using himself as bait.

Shen Ge didn’t tell Cheng Shengnan about the plan he and Deng Yuqi had devised. It would only add to her worries. Moreover, whether the plan could be implemented depended on whether the Twelve Branches would “take the bait.”

Waiting—Shen Ge never lacked patience. He could wait years for Rongshan Mental Hospital; waiting a bit for the Twelve Branches was no issue.

“Why wait here?” Shen Ge had thought Cheng Shengnan would order some late-night snacks in the cafeteria and celebrate the New Year with her mother.

Cheng Shengnan smiled. “My mom is used to resting before 10:30. She said she didn’t want to disturb our first ‘New Year’ together.”

“I heard fireworks are allowed this year, set off at designated places. Do you want to see them?” Shen Ge put his arm around Cheng Shengnan and walked towards the building entrance.

“What about you?” Cheng Shengnan countered.

“I know a good spot.” Shen Ge and Cheng Shengnan packed some snacks from the cafeteria, then went to the dormitory entrance. Shen Ge tapped his foot, and the armor automatically attached to his Anomalous Leather Boots.

“Ah!” Cheng Shengnan let out a startled cry as Shen Ge swept her up into a carry and “flew” upwards.

Using the jumping power of the Anomalous Leather Boots, Shen Ge leaped from the dormitory entrance directly to the rooftop terrace, landing in the open area in the middle.

After being set down, Cheng Shengnan let out a long breath and glared at Shen Ge. “I’m curious, how much time would it really take to walk into the dorm, take the elevator, and go up to the rooftop?”

She truly hadn’t expected Shen Ge to give her such a big surprise (scare) just to save a few steps.

“If I have the armor, why not use it? Otherwise, why upgrade it?” Shen Ge said matter-of-factly.

Cheng Shengnan said helplessly, “Is that what the armor is for?”

“Otherwise? The armor is for my convenience. Showing off… ahem, the conveniences needed for daily life are included. Iron Man likes cruising around the city in his armor because it’s ‘cool,’ right?” Shen Ge earnestly expounded on the meaning of the armor to Cheng Shengnan.

But Cheng Shengnan was sure he had been about to say “showing off and being cool” was the fundamental purpose of the armor’s existence!

“…Whatever makes you happy.” Cheng Shengnan said with a blank face.

They spread a blanket in the middle of the rooftop, set out snacks and drinks, ate, chatted, and waited for the midnight fireworks.

In that short hour, Shen Ge felt a long-lost sense of relaxation. As the countdown ended and the clock struck midnight, fireworks lit up all over Rong City.

The sky filled with fireworks, painting the dark night sky in brilliant colors. The excitement and joy of the moment made people momentarily forget the fear brought by the recent Anomalies.

Shen Ge and Cheng Shengnan quietly watched the fireworks for over ten minutes, chatting about amusing stories from their student days. Suddenly, a series of “whooshing” sounds came from the comprehensive building opposite, as dozens of fireworks shot towards them from its rooftop.

Little Seven immediately controlled the Red Mist Armor to form a blood shield for defense, but the fireworks exploded high in the air above them.

Cheng Shengnan glanced towards the comprehensive building and said, “It must be people from the department.”

“Wang Han, of course. Who else would dare play like that?” Shen Ge said.

Little Seven chimed in, “Report, Master. Detected seven life forms on the rooftop of the comprehensive building. Requires further detection?”

“Unnecessary. They’ve already shown themselves.” Shen Ge looked towards the edge of the comprehensive building’s rooftop, where several familiar faces led by Wang Han were waving at him.

Then they saw Wang Han holding a firework Gatling gun, spraying fireworks in their direction while laughing boisterously. “Hahaha! Happy New Year!”

“…”

When Shen Ge and Cheng Shengnan came down from the dormitory rooftop, Deng Yuqi and the Special Countermeasures Department’s team leaders and cadres were waiting below.

The ominous situation hangs like a sword of Damocles over the Special Operations Department. After a year of hard work, they deserve a proper rest. Moreover, everyone is still immersed in the grief of losing their comrades and needs a break to adjust their emotions.

“These guys originally wanted to go up and find you at midnight. I did my best to hold them off for thirty minutes,” Deng Yuqi said with a smile.

“Hahaha! It’s New Year’s! It’s only festive with more peop… Whoa! Lao Shen, are you trying to blow me up?” Wang Han had just emerged from the comprehensive building when several fireworks came flying at him.

Shen Ge said calmly, “You’re thick-skinned; it won’t kill you.”

“Fine! I told you Lao Shen holds a grudge, but you all didn’t believe me!” Wang Han laughed and scolded.

The Special Countermeasures Department members gathered for a late-night meal. Besides investigators and soldiers, there were also researchers like Li Xiang and Jiang Wenpei. Even the Yoona sisters were invited by Deng Yuqi to join the fun. However, alcohol was prohibited during the alert period, which made many feel something was missing.

But with Anomalies looming and Aberrants lurking in the shadows, the Rong City branch was essentially caught between two fronts. Even though Deng Yuqi wanted the soldiers to relax, she didn’t dare be careless in this matter.

Everyone stayed until late before returning to rest. Wang Han didn’t seem to plan on going back to the dormitory and headed towards the branch exit.

“Where are you going?” Shen Ge asked curiously.

Wang Han smiled. “I rented an apartment across from the branch. Ahem, hehe, I arranged for her to live there. You know, I’m a deputy team leader now. Can’t just bring unvetted family to live in the department, so I set her up across the street. Do you want to come over and sit for a bit?”

Shen Ge then remembered Wang Han had told him before that he had gotten back together with his first love, the one who had “washed away the mud” for him. He had even borrowed money from Shen Ge to help her pay off debts.

Shen Ge and Cheng Shengnan exchanged a look before he said, “It’s so late today, we won’t disturb you. Another time. But it’s a special period now; you must be careful about safety. Especially… don’t expose your family, or it could be troublesome if those guys target them.”

Wang Han nodded. “I understand. I’ve been very careful with the arrangements, and I rarely go there… but after all, it’s New Year’s Eve today, so it’s better to go.”

“Alright.” Shen Ge nodded and didn’t say more. Everyone had their own life, and he couldn’t interfere.

Wang Han had indeed rented an apartment in the commercial building opposite the Special Countermeasures Department for his first love. Standing at the Special Countermeasures Department’s main gate, you could even see him entering the building across the street.

Shen Ge and Cheng Shengnan returned to the dormitory to rest. To his surprise, the Twelve Branches were unusually “quiet” tonight and didn’t cause any trouble.

Early the next morning, Cheng Shengnan, as head of the Internal Affairs Department, had an important meeting, so she got up and left before dawn.

Shen Ge slept until 9 a.m. when he was woken by the intercom at the entrance. He got up to answer and found it was a call from the guard post, informing him he had a package.

A package?

Shen Ge frowned slightly. If it was something Cheng Shengnan bought, she usually told him in advance to pick it up. As for himself, he hadn’t shopped online in a long time.

Puzzled, Shen Ge went to the guard post and saw a delivery guy registering information. The package wasn’t large, a box about a foot long.

Shen Ge didn’t take the box. Instead, he picked up the registration information and the delivery guy’s ID, confirmed his identity, then waved for the guards and the delivery guy to step back. His hand covered with the blood-red Decaying Blood Armor, he picked up the box and walked to an open area.

“Report, Master. Detected life form reaction inside the box. Weight approximately 1300 grams. No anomalous energy reaction detected,” Little Seven reported.

Shen Ge placed the box on the open ground. The surrounding guards and soldiers, seeing his strange actions, immediately understood the box might be problematic and stepped back to take defensive positions.

Shen Ge used decaying blood tentacles to open the box. Inside was a lump the size of an adult human “brain.” The cerebrum, diencephalon, brainstem, cerebellum, and other parts were packed in a preservation bag.

No anomalous energy reaction, no signs of mutation.

Bloody, as if freshly removed from a head.

“This is…” The guard team members, approaching cautiously after seeing the contents, also darkened their expressions. “Sending” something like this during the New Year was rather abnormal.

“Get the Inspection Department over here,” Shen Ge said to the guards.

“Yes, sir.”

Soon, the head of the Inspection Department personally brought a team, and together with Shen Ge, they took the “brain” to the Inspection Department for examination.

The Inspection Department staff “dissected” the brain. Bizarrely, the inside was hollowed out—or more accurately, being eaten away by black centipedes, each about a finger’s length.

Strangely, neither the centipedes nor the brain itself showed any anomalous energy reaction; they weren’t related to Anomalies or Aberrants.

However, when Shen Ge saw the finger-length black centipedes swarming out of the brain, his face turned somewhat pale.

Li Xiang, who had come to assist, happened to see this. He asked the Inspection Department staff to attend to other tasks, then picked up the inspection report and glanced at it before asking Shen Ge, “Is there something special about this brain? The report suggests it’s an ordinary brain, nothing special. But you can dissect things while eating without batting an eye, and your expression doesn’t change facing Tier 4 or 5 Anomalies or Aberrants. It’s rare to see you react to a piece of brain.”

Shen Ge said, “It’s nothing. Just brought back some bad memories. Speaking of which, why did you come personally?”

“The head of the Inspection Department called me, said you received a package containing a human brain. He was worried the Twelve Branches might be targeting you with something, so asked me to take a look.” Li Xiang spoke while walking to the main control console to operate the instruments for a secondary scan of the brain.

“No anomalous energy reaction from the brain. Strange, these centipedes don’t have any either… Besides the cut made by the Inspection Department, no other wounds are found. So how did these centipedes get inside the brain? I’ve never heard of centipedes being parasites.” Li Xiang observed the centipedes in the brain, puzzled.

Shen Ge said gravely, “I’ve seen a group of people before who conducted strange experiments on human bodies. For example, feeding people to centipedes, scorpions, venomous snakes, and other insects, then refining these insects into poisons, using these poisons on patients for deeper experiments.”

“Feeding humans to centipedes, scorpions, venomous snakes? Then making them into poisons to use on humans? What kind of experiment could that be?” Li Xiang was somewhat confused.

“Not sure. I only remember…” Shen Ge paused, suddenly realizing that the memory, which should have been terrifyingly clear, had become somewhat blurry.

“Remember what?” Li Xiang asked curiously.

Shen Ge raised his hand, signaling Li Xiang to wait. He seemed to be straining to recall something, his expression growing increasingly grave.

“…If I remember correctly, after age 6, people selectively retain long-term memories. Usually, deeply impressive or painful memories are the hardest to forget. But why is it that I remember some things, but when I try to recall the details, I can’t remember anything?” Shen Ge looked at Li Xiang, his expression very serious.

Li Xiang adjusted his glasses, thought for a moment, and replied, “If a memory is too painful, people might selectively forget it. But once a memory is forgotten, it should be the entire segment forgotten together. It’s unlikely to remember the outline but forget the details.”

Shen Ge’s current situation was somewhat abnormal. He clearly remembered undergoing three years of torment at Rongshan Mental Hospital; those painful memories were vivid.

For example, the scene of “centipedes devouring a brain from the inside” – he remembered seeing it multiple times at Rongshan Mental Hospital.

Bizarrely, when he tried to recall the details of this memory, not only did the specifics not come back, but the memory itself gradually became blurry.

It was like being beaten by your parents as a child. If the beating was severe, you might even remember whether they used a clothes hanger or a belt, whether it was a solo or double team.

But Shen Ge’s current situation was: he remembered being beaten severely, vaguely remembered a clothes hanger being used, but when he tried to recall the event carefully, the clothes hanger in his parents’ hands became blurry, indistinguishable. More terrifyingly, initially, his parents’ faces were blurry, and later, even their entire figures became blur.

At first, he remembered doctors in white coats at Rongshan Mental Hospital carrying two large buckets of insects into the wards, using those insects to torment patients.

Later, he wasn’t even sure if it was Rongshan Mental Hospital, if those in white coats were doctors, or if the place they entered was a ward or a prison.

“Shen Ge? Shen Ge?”

Shen Ge suddenly heard Li Xiang’s voice calling him. He snapped out of his daze and realized cold sweat was beading on his forehead.

“Are you okay? I’ve never seen you like this before. You don’t look well. Maybe you should go back and rest. The Inspection Department and I will run more in-depth tests on this brain and let you know the results later?” Li Xiang looked at Shen Ge’s pale face with concern.

“Alright. Notify me if anything comes up.” Shen Ge left the research department feeling a bit dizzy and asked Little Seven to run a check on him.

“Report, Master. All your vital signs are normal,” Little Seven said.

Since Shen Ge had focused all his points on mental energy, worried about not being alert enough, he rarely experienced dizziness or drowsiness. But just now, when he tried to recall those buried memories he never wanted to remember, he inexplicably felt a deep fatigue.

Shen Ge had Little Seven connect to Deng Yuqi’s dedicated line and briefly explained his situation. When Deng Yuqi heard he intended to go back to sleep and wanted her to sound a full branch alert, she was momentarily stunned. Hearing the “reason,” she immediately became alert, even recalling Lin Yin, who was on patrol, and having her personally lead a team to assist Li Xiang with the “brain” inspection.

After returning to his room, Shen Ge put on the Red Mist Armor, had Little Seven enter high alert mode, lay down on the sofa, and gradually fell asleep.

Although Shen Ge was very tired, his consciousness remained extremely clear, making the process of “falling asleep” incredibly difficult.

After struggling for nearly two hours, Shen Ge finally drifted off.

Even after falling asleep, Shen Ge initially felt disoriented, as if floating in the ocean, rising and falling, gradually drifting towards the boundless sea.

…

…

Thump.

Thump, thump.

Shen Ge was jolted awake by vibrations. Hazily, he found himself bound, hands tied behind his back, a cloth stuffed in his mouth, and several layers of duct tape wrapped around it.

“Mmph, mmph mmph!” Shen Ge struggled hard. His hands and feet were tied, his hands bound behind his back with multiple loops, making it impossible to exert any strength.

During his struggle, he bumped into someone next to him, and then heard a deep male voice curse, “We’re almost there. Keep moving, and I’ll throw you out of the vehicle.”

Hearing this, Shen Ge struggled even more, thinking being thrown out would be better.

“Little Seven.”

“System.”

Blindfolded, unable to see the situation inside the vehicle, and gagged, Shen Ge tentatively called out to Little Seven and the system in his mind.

No response from Little Seven wasn’t strange, but the system also gave no response, which made Shen Ge feel something was wrong.

Most importantly, he remembered he had just returned to his dormitory and was sleeping on the sofa. Leaving aside the fact he was wearing the Red Mist Armor and had Little Seven on alert mode, even with Deng Yuqi’s full branch martial law, it shouldn’t be possible to be abducted so quickly.

“Static Anomalous Domain!”

Bullet Time!

Misfortune!

Intangible!

Silent!

…

Shen Ge kept trying to deploy his anomalous domain and use his trait abilities, but strangely, none of them responded.

Since he had defeated “Silent,” devoured it with the system, and obtained his first trait, using trait abilities had become like an innate instinct, like blinking, opening his mouth, or bending fingers—a natural expression of his body.

But now, that ability had suddenly vanished. It was like knowing how to snap your fingers, but when you try, you find your entire hand is gone!

Just as Shen Ge was bewildered, he heard the vehicle stop, followed by the sound of doors opening. Then a large hand grabbed his shoulder and dragged him out of the vehicle.

“Mmph mmph! Mmph!” Shen Ge struggled briefly, but the person dragging him out threw him forcefully to the ground. The pain was so intense he nearly passed out.

This long-absent sensation of pain puzzled Shen Ge even more. Even without the protection of the Red Mist Armor or the system’s attribute bonuses, his current physical fitness was nearly twice that of an ordinary person. Being thrown to the ground by one person, or even falling from three to five meters, shouldn’t hurt this much unless he landed on his head.

“Making noise the whole way, causing trouble the whole way! Aren’t you annoying!” The man’s voice was full of impatience.

As soon as he finished speaking, Shen Ge felt himself being hauled up from the ground. The rag blindfolding him was ripped off. The man pointed at a rusted iron gate ahead and a sign with peeling paint, saying, “This is your home from now on. If you behave, we guarantee you can live like a normal person. If not, we have a hundred ways to make you wish you were dead!”

Boom!

A flash of lightning crossed the sky, followed by a thunderclap. In the momentary illumination, the bloody red words on the peeling sign beside the iron gate were particularly eerie—

Mental Hospital.

“Mental Hospital?” Shen Ge was stunned, but before he could think further, the nearly two-meter-tall, exceptionally burly man dragged him into the mental hospital.

Inside, a group of doctors and nurses in white coats came forward, took Shen Ge to a sealed room, and untied his ropes.

The room was small, only about ten square meters, containing nothing but a bed. There wasn’t even a ventilation window, like an isolated prison cell.

Shen Ge wanted to observe the doctors and nurses, but his body seemed out of his control, struggling and screaming agitatedly, yelling things like “I’m not sick, let me go,” “I’m not mentally ill,” “They framed me,” “Let me go.”

The doctors and nurses ignored Shen Ge’s struggles and anger, silently injected him with a sedative, then locked him in the room and left.

Shen Ge lay on the hard wooden bed. The sedative made him feel disoriented. He didn’t know how much time passed before he gradually regained consciousness.

He sat up on the wooden bed, instinctively raised his left hand, and subconsciously tried to check the armor wristwatch on his wrist.

But his wrist was bare, nothing there. What shocked Shen Ge even more was… his hand had shrunk, like a child’s hand.

Not just his hands, but his feet, his body—his current body seemed like that of a young child.

“Mental hospital, prison cell… Wait, am I… Ah!” Just as Shen Ge’s consciousness was about to clear, a sharp pain, like needles stabbing into his head, made him pass out again.

Such clear “pain” didn’t feel like something a dream or illusion could produce.

Huff.

Huff.

Shen Ge sat on the edge of the bed, panting heavily. He felt his consciousness was blurry; he wasn’t even sure if this was his own consciousness.

Just then, his gaze fell on the tightly shut door to his left and the observation window above it, only the size of a palm.

Bizarrely, looking out through that window was like seeing several pale faces squeezed together, staring at Shen Ge inside the room.

When Shen Ge met one of those gazes, he felt like he couldn’t breathe, as if a hand was choking his neck. His body felt weak, and he almost collapsed.

He didn’t know how long he endured. Hazily, he heard the sound of someone opening the door. Then doctors in white coats pushed a hospital bed in, tied him to it, and wheeled him into a sealed operating room.

There, the doctors either asked him strange questions, making him repeat the process of seeing his father turn into a monster and bite off his mother’s head, or injected him with various drugs and performed all sorts of examinations.

And so, for the next few months, Shen Ge’s consciousness remained in a semi-conscious state. Every day, he was either locked in the pitch-black ward or wheeled into the operating room for various experiments—blood draws, tissue extraction, or injections of various drugs.

Shen Ge had grown numb. After being returned to his room this day, he lay on the bed, not wanting to move a finger, his gaze vacant towards the door.

Through the observation window on the door, he again saw the terrifying pale faces outside, staring back at him through the glass.

Thump!
“Found you.”

Suddenly, with a loud noise, a sinister voice seemed to whisper in Shen Ge’s ear. Shen Ge felt his body trembling uncontrollably. His attention was fixed on the faces outside the observation window when he suddenly realized the voice didn’t seem to come from outside.

Fear shot through Shen Ge like an electric current. Even though he hadn’t felt fear in a long time, at this moment, he was utterly terrified.

Almost instinctively, he turned his head to look beside him. There, at the foot of the bed, “crouched” a child, about ten years old. The upper body was on the bed, the lower body kneeling on the floor. His face was deathly pale, wearing a creepy smile as he stared at Shen Ge, as if looking at a exquisite toy.

“Who are you?” Shen Ge asked subconsciously.

The boy tilted his head and grinned. “I forgot my name. They call me Number Three. People who like me call me ‘San-Zai’.”

Shen Ge swallowed hard, suppressing his fear. “The door is locked. How did you get in?”

“Hehe, come here.” The boy, San-Zai, beckoned to Shen Ge, then crawled towards the foot of the bed.

Shen Ge bent down to look and saw that against the wall under the wooden bed, there was a “dog hole” about half a meter in diameter, seemingly leading to another room.

“I dug this. I’ve dug lots of holes. Come on, I’ll take you out to play.” San-Zai enthusiastically invited Shen Ge.

Shen Ge instinctively looked towards the door. “But… I just saw lots of people outside the window. Aren’t you afraid they’ll find you?”

“People?” San-Zai moved a chamber pot from the corner, placed it upside down by the door, stood on it, and peered out the window. “There’s no one. Oh, did they inject you with that medicine? After getting that injection, you see all sorts of weird things. Don’t worry, it’s all fake. No need to be scared. Come on, I’ll take you out to play. Even though there are lots of guards outside and we can’t escape, nobody really watches this building closely.”

“Ah?” Shen Ge was still hesitant, but San-Zai pulled him off the bed, and they crawled through the dog hole into another room.

San-Zai led Shen Ge crawling through one room after another. Eventually, they emerged from the wards into a dimly lit corridor.

“Shh.” San-Zai made a silencing gesture, pulled Shen Ge behind a large money tree plant, and waited quietly.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

The sound of heels clicking on the floor echoed in the corridor. Then, from around the corner ahead, a tall, thin figure walked past.

San-Zai whispered in Shen Ge’s ear, “That’s the floor patrol. There’s one on each floor. They really like eating brains and internal organs. You have to stay far away from them.”

“…” Shen Ge felt a chill hearing this, but San-Zai said it so casually, as if introducing him to a family bulldog that liked raw meat.

San-Zai led Shen Ge through the corridor, down the stairs, and finally stopped in front of a double-door operating room. “I heard they’re researching new materials. Want to go see?”

“Ah?”

Before Shen Ge could respond, San-Zai made a “be quiet” gesture, pushed the door open a crack, and slipped in first.

Shen Ge had no choice but to follow. He found this place different from the operating rooms he’d been wheeled into over the past months. It was large, filled with many incomprehensible instruments. It looked more like a laboratory than an operating room.

On the operating table in the center of the lab lay a woman, bound, naked, her skull removed. Her bloodshot brain was visible, pulsating slightly.

San-Zai circled the operating table with interest, then pushed over a chair, climbed onto it, and stood observing the woman.

Seeing Shen Ge hadn’t moved for a while, he turned and waved at the petrified Shen Ge, urging quietly, “What are you standing there for? Come on!”

His demeanor wasn’t like urging Shen Ge to look at a terrifying dissection, but more like sharing a novel thing, an interesting toy.

Shen Ge, suppressing his fear, climbed onto the chair, held onto it trembling, and cast his gaze towards the person on the operating table. The woman’s eyes were open, vacant, staring at the ceiling.

She was a beautiful woman with fair skin, but from her jaw down to her lower abdomen, there was a horrific wound with obvious stitching.

The scar gave the impression the woman had been sliced open and then sewn back up. Her “stomach” area bulged, about twenty centimeters high.

It was like a pregnant woman, but the “pregnancy” was in her stomach.

Shen Ge stared intently at that scar. He couldn’t remember where he had seen this kind of “scar” before, but it looked familiar.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Just then, hurried footsteps sounded, as if a group of people were approaching the operating room. San-Zai, startled, quickly grabbed Shen Ge and pulled him away.

“Not good, we’ve been discovered! Let’s go! If they catch us, they’ll definitely feed us to the bugs. You don’t want to eat bugs, do you?” For once, a trace of nervousness showed on San-Zai’s pale face.

They had just reached the operating room’s front door when they heard footsteps outside. San-Zai pushed Shen Ge under a hospital bed, then crawled under himself.

Hiding under the bed, they heard a group enter the operating room and gather around, discussing something.

“Embryo implantation, no signs of rejection yet.”

“How much black mist was injected?”

“Increase the dosage.”

“If rejection occurs, use Antibody 3.”

“…”

Shen Ge felt he didn’t understand a single word, yet each sentence seemed vaguely familiar, like a distant memory hard to recall.

“Who’s there?” Suddenly, it seemed a doctor noticed two people hiding under the bed and exclaimed in surprise. Then a hand reached under, trying to grab Shen Ge and San-Zai.

Arms, shoulders, bodies, feet—Shen Ge felt several hands grabbing him simultaneously. Terrified, he struggled violently, even biting at the hands.

San-Zai also helped, scratching, biting, kicking. He pulled out a scalpel from somewhere and stabbed fiercely at the hands, cutting their skin. Black blood flowed from the wounds.

San-Zai seized the chance to free Shen Ge, pulled him out from the other side, helped him up, and they ran out of the operating room.

Bizarrely, the “doctors” didn’t chase them out of the operating room, but the “tap, tap, tap” footsteps sounded again inside.

The footsteps echoed in the corridor, each step seeming to tread on Shen Ge’s heart.

San-Zai led Shen Ge running upwards, but on every floor, those footsteps could be heard, as if searching for them.

When San-Zai took Shen Ge to the top floor, trying to go down through the rooftop ventilation shaft, a desperate realization struck them: the door to the rooftop was sealed shut, wrapped in chains, and the surrounding windows were boarded up.

With the strength of two ten-year-olds, it was impossible to tear off the boards sealing the windows.

The footsteps from downstairs grew closer.

“This way!” San-Zai, evidently calmer than Shen Ge, pulled him back down one floor and ran towards the depths of the corridor.

However, as the heavy footsteps from the stairwell faded, the sound of high heels clicking on the floor emerged from the depths of the corridor.

Hearing this sound, San-Zai’s face changed. Usually “calm,” he now showed terror, muttering, “The Director? How is that possible? Why would she be here!”

“What director?” Shen Ge asked.

San-Zai said urgently, “No time to explain! Run! If the Director catches us, it won’t be as simple as eating centipedes and scorpions!”

“?”

Hearing this, Shen Ge’s face turned even paler. In his view, eating centipedes and scorpions wasn’t simple either.

Clutching at their last hope, San-Zai led Shen Ge into the restroom in the middle of the corridor. However, of the six stalls, three had red lights on, indicating occupied.

San-Zai froze.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Just then, Shen Ge faintly heard a dripping sound in the restroom. Subconsciously following the sound, he saw a pale-skinned boy curled up under the sink.

Horrifyingly, the boy had the exact same face as San-Zai.

“S-San-Zai, you, you…”

Shen Ge was just a ten-year-old boy. Though months of experimentation had built some resistance to pain, he had never seen such a scene. Trembling, he pointed towards the sink.

“Shh.” San-Zai also noticed the boy under the sink. He covered Shen Ge’s mouth to prevent him from screaming, dragged him to the sink, urged him to climb up, then pushed Shen Ge into the ventilation shaft above the mirror.

“Remember the holes I showed you? Find your way back. Remember, don’t tell anyone what happened tonight.”

“What about you?” Shen Ge asked.

San-Zai grinned, showing a creepy smile. “Don’t worry about me. I’m used to eating bugs. I actually miss them if I don’t have them for a while.”

“I can pull you up after I get up.” Shen Ge said anxiously.

San-Zai shook his head. He could see Shen Ge could barely pull himself up; pulling someone else up was impossible. He jumped down from the sink and ran towards the door.

“Don’t mind me. I know how to escape.”

“Wait!”

Tap, tap, tap.

Just as San-Zai opened the door, Shen Ge faintly heard the sound of high heels in the corridor outside. Without time to think, he quickly crawled back into the ventilation shaft.

But as he left the restroom, he instinctively glanced at the occupied stalls. Through the gaps above, he saw they were “packed” with people—all pale-skinned boys identical to the “San-Zai” under the sink, piled up in the stalls like discarded trash.

“Gag.”

Upon seeing that scene, Shen Ge instinctively gagged. He dared not linger any longer and climbed deeper into the ventilation duct.

After many twists and turns, Shen Ge found an exit that seemed to lead to a records room. As he opened the sealed exit to climb down, he heard a “creak”—the records room door slowly opened.

“Found you.”

An old woman’s voice sounded. A woman poked her head into the room to look around—literally “poked her head in.”

Because her body remained standing at the door, but her neck stretched several meters like a snake, supporting her gray-haired head as it looked behind the door and into corners.

Shen Ge, lying in the ventilation shaft, didn’t dare breathe loudly, covering his mouth tightly to prevent any sound. After the old woman finished inspecting the room and left, he carefully climbed out of the ventilation shaft, went down the dim corridor, and returned to his room.

Shen Ge lay on the bed, panting heavily. When he returned, San-Zai’s room was still empty, meaning he hadn’t come back.

But Shen Ge didn’t dare search for San-Zai. Lying on the bed, he recalled the heart-stopping events of the night.

Unknowingly, he stayed awake the whole night. Shen Ge woke from a nightmare, gasping, sitting up in bed, feeling his memories were chaotic.

“Where is this… Rongshan Mental Hospital? Am I… dreaming, or…?” Shen Ge felt his adult memories and ten-year-old memories mixed together, threatening to burst his head.

Yesterday.

The Director.

Thinking of the boy who took him “touring” the inpatient building last night, Shen Ge gradually overlapped him with the distant memory of San-Zai.

“San-Zai!”

Shen Ge, in his daze, seemed to hear San-Zai’s agonized scream. He remembered that last night, he had escaped, but San-Zai hadn’t.

Although Shen Ge felt the situation was somewhat “anomalous,” as if trapped in an incredibly realistic dream where his consciousness was retrieving memories through the dream, now wasn’t the time to dwell on whether it was a dream or reality. Finding San-Zai might help clarify the blurred memories.

The current Shen Ge wasn’t the timid “ten-year-old Shen Ge” from last night. Calmly, he got off the bed, crawled through the dog hole to the next room.

Passing through room after room, the closer he got to San-Zai’s room, the clearer his agonized screams became.

Shen Ge reached the room next to San-Zai’s, crawled under a bed, and peered through a dog hole. He saw several people in black boots and white coats surrounding a bed.

At their feet were several iron buckets filled with various disgusting insects. A gloved hand reached into a bucket and grabbed a handful of centipedes.

Then, the sounds of San-Zai’s struggling and gagging came from the bed. “Mmph mmph mmph!”