My House of Horrors

“He is taking revenge, with a specific plan and target in mind.” Chen Ge thought of many things in that moment. The middle-aged man’s story had revealed a lot of information, and it matched the clues that Chen Ge had kept in his mind.

The story fitted perfectly one of the patients who had been locked up in the Third Sick Hall. The once doctor who turned into a patient after witnessing too many tragedies. Similar to the main character of the middle-aged man’s story, he was highly destructive. Standing where he was, a name floated up Chen Ge’s mind—Xiong Qing.

This was Patient Number 8. He suffered from Hemineglect and was quarantined for treatment. He was diagnosed to be highly dangerous. Since Xiong Qing was once a psychiatrist, he had an intelligence that was higher than most, so the things that he did when he was crazy were also different from most.

“Could he be the killer hiding in the mental hospital?” This person was familiar with the layout of the hospital since he was both a patient and a doctor. He was fully capable of doing these things.

“The opponent has the geographical advantage, so this is going to be hard.” Xiong Qing was a dangerous person. Hemineglect itself was not dangerous, but to impose those perceived flawed perfections on others made Xiong Qing extremely dangerous. In his mind, everything was wrong and twisted. Even if a perfect man was standing before him, he needed to snap half the limbs off before he felt things were right.

Most patients with Hemineglect knew about their condition and would try their best to fix their flawed perception, but Xiong Qing was different; he wanted to change others to fit into his flawed understanding of perfection.

If someone had lost a limb or two, while trapped inside this mental hospital, it definitely was the end for them. Chen Ge had found the hair of four people, but he had only found three living individuals—the missing fourth was probably dead.

“Before midnight, and even before entering the Third Sick Hall, there are already so many problems to deal with. It’ll be difficult tonight.” The difficulty of the three-star Trial Mission overshot Murder by Midnight and Mu Yang High School easily. One false step, and Chen Ge could lose his life.

One of the killers had been confirmed, but Chen Ge had not seen Xiong Qing in person. He had no idea whether the man with the twisted face was Xiong Qing or the middle-aged man trapped in the cage was Xiong Qing. He was familiar with the old man’s past, so the possibility of him being Xiong Qing was high.

Squatting down before the old man’s cage, Chen Ge examined the lock. The locks on the three cages were similar. Even if the middle-aged man had hidden the key, with Chen Ge watching closely, he would not be able to ambush Chen Ge.

Toying with the mallet, Chen Ge looked the middle-aged man in his eyes. After some thought, he decided to ask the question outright, “How are you so familiar with the old man’s life story? Could it be that you are his son?”

“Me?” The middle-aged man could hear the suspicion in Chen Ge’s voice, but he answered with something very weird. “I knew you’d never believe me. All of you never trust me, just like how I don’t trust all of you! Please leave me be, I’ve hidden myself here, so how did all of you manage to find me? Stop monitoring my life!”

“Don’t trust all of us? Monitoring your life? What are you talking about?” Chen Ge had a hard time following.

“Whenever I exposed you, you all gave me this innocent look! This is why I am disgusted with all of you; you have been exposed, so why do you insist on lying to me?” The middle-aged man remained very calmly as he made this series of claims that Chen Ge could not understand. “I wonder, should I refer to you as Wang Xin? Or Xu Fei? Lee Yichang? Ma Yong? Or have you changed to a new name?”

“What are you talking about?”

Chen Ge tried to get the man to calm down, but it only had the opposite effect. “Next, you’re going to say that you don’t know any of these people, including me, right?”

“But I really don’t know any of you.”

“Stop lying! All of you are one single person in disguise! Your fake smile disgusts me; stop this pointless game!”

“One single person in disguise?” When Chen Ge heard the man say that, he was reminded of another patient given to him by Doctor Gao. Patient Number 5 was called Xu Tong; he suffered from Fregoli Delusion Syndrome. He thought that everyone around him was the same person in disguise, and he was living in a made up world.

This middle-aged man’s reaction was similar to Patient Number 5. He could communicate normally, but the moment Chen Ge showed some suspicion, his latent disease started to act up. This was the first time Chen Ge had dealt with a seriously mentally ill person. He was fine one moment but completely incoherent the next.

Looking at the man inside the cage, another question bubbled up in his heart.Why did all the patients of Third Sick Hall return to this place? Is something attracting them here? Or are they all controlled by ghosts and have to return?

The easiest way to find out was to ask the middle-aged man directly, but his current state was not conducive for communication. Chen Ge had no choice but to turn back to the young woman.

Noticing his approach, the woman kicked the iron rods and tried to get as far away from Chen Ge as she could. Chen Ge shone his flashlight on the woman’s face. She looked about twenty and had average looks, definitely not fitting the descriptions of the two female patients in the Third Sick Hall.

“This girl’s and the old man’s heads were both shaved; they should be the real victims.” Chen Ge still could not understand why the culprit want to shave people’s hair. If it was revenge, then something similar probably happened to the culprit once.

“Relax.” Chen Ge reached his hand into the iron cage. The girl evaded him with all her life. After three minutes, she tired herself out from the struggle and finally surrendered.

“I don’t intend to harm you, believe me.” Chen Ge pulled on the pillow case in the girl’s mouth and yanked it out.

The moment the gag was released, the girl screamed at Chen Ge crazily, “HAND! HAND! HAND!”

“What?”

The woman was loud and shrill. Chen Ge did not know what she had been through to react in such a manner. Hearing the girl’s voice, the dazed old man suddenly collapsed to the ground and played dead.

The middle-aged man also stopped acting crazy. He looked at the door with extreme focus, his eyes filled with terror.

“HAND! HAND…” The girl continued to scream, so Chen Ge had no choice but to insert the gag back into her mouth.

“She is also crazy.” There is not one normal individual at the mental hospital, and that unsettled Chen Ge.