Edited—

This narrow corridor gave people an extremely unpleasant feeling, to the point that when Zhou Jiayu saw that door, he didn’t think much before reaching out and knocking.

There was no response from the other side of the door. Zhou Jiayu knocked once more. Just when he thought no one would answer, a muffled male voice came from the other side: “Come in.”

Hearing this voice, Zhou Jiayu grasped the doorknob and gently turned it. With a crisp click, the wooden door before him was pulled open a crack, and everyone saw the scene inside the room.

The walls inside the room had all been painted black. The already not-very-bright lighting looked even dimmer in such a room. Zhou Jiayu saw a massive wooden table placed in the center of the room. Behind the wooden table sat a man wearing white clothes. This man wore a white mask on his face and glasses on his nose bridge. Because the lighting was dim, even with Zhou Jiayu’s eyesight, he couldn’t see his features too clearly.

“Hello.” The man spoke. “May I ask what business you have?”

Everyone walked from the corridor into the room. They had originally thought that after leaving that narrow tunnel, the oppressive feeling would ease somewhat. But what they hadn’t expected was that this dean’s office instead made people feel even more unable to breathe. Zhou Jiayu felt very uncomfortable just staying here for a moment. He truly couldn’t imagine how a normal person could sit here working for a long time and still maintain rational thinking.

“Hello.” Zhou Jiayu said, “May I ask if you are the dean here?”

The man nodded and said, “Yes, I am. May I ask what business you have?”

Zhou Jiayu repeated what he had said to Li Yihao, expressing that they had come to investigate a patient.

“Sit.” The dean spread his hands toward them, indicating for them to sit down. He said, “I can fully cooperate with the police investigation. May I ask which patient’s matter you would like to ask about?”

Everyone looked at the chairs but didn’t move. Zhou Jiayu also didn’t want to sit across from him. Although this looked quite impolite, this dean gave him a very bad feeling.

“Jiang Zhu.” Zhou Jiayu cautiously said this name, at the same time carefully observing the dean’s expression.

But unfortunately, the reflective glasses and the mask on his face concealed most of the dean’s face. Zhou Jiayu found it difficult to obtain any useful information from his expression.

Because of Li Yihao’s reaction earlier, Zhou Jiayu had originally been somewhat worried that after saying Jiang Zhu’s name, the dean would have some excessive reaction. But the dean’s tone was very indifferent: “Sorry, I already don’t remember this patient. If you want to know information about him, I’m afraid you’ll have to go search the archives yourselves.”

“You don’t remember?” Zhou Jiayu didn’t believe it. “Are you certain you don’t remember the name Jiang Zhu?”

“Yes.” The dean said very affirmatively.

Zhou Jiayu looked at him suspiciously: “But Dr. Li outside remembers very clearly. If you don’t mind, could you trouble yourself to accompany us to the archives?”

Hearing this, the dean didn’t speak but fell into silence.

At this time, Xu Ruwang reached out and heavily slapped the table, saying, “Dean, you should think carefully.”

After another brief silence, it was unclear whether the dean had figured something out or whether Xu Ruwang’s threat had taken effect. The dean slightly nodded, somewhat reluctantly agreeing to Zhou Jiayu’s proposal.

“Let’s go.” The dean said this. “I’ll take you over.”

Everyone followed him out of the office. As he walked, Zhou Jiayu noticed that this office was very strange. Besides that table and chairs, there was nothing else. There were no bookcases by the walls; they were all completely empty. There were no documents or items on the table either. It was simply as if besides the table and chairs, only the dean himself remained, quietly sitting in a room composed of black walls.

Everyone went around that long, narrow corridor. When they came out from inside, everyone lightly let out a breath of relief. This kind of construction inside really wasn’t for humans. Stay too long and even a normal person’s mental state would develop problems.

“The archives are on the fifth floor. We need to pass through the inpatient department.” The dean said, “Please everyone slow your footsteps. Don’t run or make noise, or else you’ll stimulate the patients.”

After coming out, Zhou Jiayu finally saw the dean’s appearance clearly by the outside light. His eyes were narrow, drooping lifelessly. The corners of his eyes hung down, making him look very spiritless. Normal people would face the person they were talking to when speaking, but from beginning to end he kept his eyes lowered, his gaze drifting from time to time, as if searching for something.

“Let’s go.” Zhou Jiayu said.

The dean lifted his feet and headed toward the fourth floor via the stairs. The paintings they had seen downstairs gradually increased in number, and their content grew stranger and stranger. In the end, there were practically no concrete patterns left, just messy scrawls, with red and black as the main colors.

Shen Yiqiong couldn’t hold back and opened his mouth to ask, “Dean, what’s the deal with these paintings?”

The dean turned his head to look at Shen Yiqiong and slowly said, “These are our hospital’s works of art. Very beautiful, very artistic. Inside, we exchange feelings with each other.”

Shen Yiqiong muttered that their feelings were truly complicated enough.

The dean glared at him.

Shen Yiqiong impolitely glared back.

Just when Zhou Jiayu was somewhat suspecting the two would start arguing, the dean withdrew his gaze and continued lowering his head to hurry along. They quickly arrived at the inpatient department on the fifth floor—according to the dean, the archives were at the end of the inpatient department; just pass through and they’d be there. As for why they would arrange the important archives on the same floor as where the patients were hospitalized… that was unknown.

Zhou Jiayu had thought the inpatient department was all patient wards. But upon reaching the fifth floor, he discovered that rather than calling it an inpatient department, it was more like a place where patients freely moved about. In the corridors, in the hallways, everywhere were patients wearing special patient gowns. Some sat on chairs, some sat on the ground. Some were talking with people, while others played some simple games.

Zhou Jiayu saw three patients gathered together playing cards. If it weren’t for them wearing patient gowns, just judging by their expressions, they looked even more normal than the dean leading the way before them.

“Keep your voices down.” The dean said softly, walking lightly and slowly, as if afraid of startling something.

Everyone involuntarily slowed their footsteps. When Zhou Jiayu passed by a patient, he heard him counting in his mouth: fifty-three, fifty-four, fifty-five…

Zhou Jiayu furrowed his brows and said softly, “What is he counting?”

Hearing this, the dean turned his head to look at Zhou Jiayu: “You can ask him yourself.”

Zhou Jiayu pursed his lips, leaned over, and asked that patient, “What are you counting?”

The patient looked up. He didn’t answer Zhou Jiayu’s question but said, “Shh, keep your voice down. Your voice is too loud. They’ll discover you.”

They? Zhou Jiayu’s brows furrowed even tighter.

The patients in the inpatient department didn’t have any excessive reactions when they saw outsiders. At most, they cast a glance, then immediately immersed themselves back in their own worlds.

Zhou Jiayu observed his surroundings and discovered that most of these patients were male. He only saw one or two female patients in the corners. And the male patients’ ages were mostly in the middle-aged range. He didn’t see anyone too young or too old.

The patients were almost as if they had been carefully selected—this thought popped into Zhou Jiayu’s mind.

“What’s wrong?” The dean noticed Zhou Jiayu had been looking around and suddenly stopped his footsteps to ask him.

“Nothing.” Zhou Jiayu said, “Just strange that I don’t see any doctors.”

“Oh.” The dean said, “At this hour they’re all doing other things.”

“Doing other things? Leaving the patients here like this, won’t something happen?” Lin Jue said.

“What could happen.” The dean muttered, “They can’t run out anyway. What could happen.” After saying this, he actually laughed with a hehe sound. This laughter sounded almost like he was happy about something, barely suppressing the joy in his heart.

No one spoke. Instead, they exchanged glances. Clearly, this dean was very abnormal. No, to be precise, this entire hospital was very abnormal.

They finally passed through the inpatient department and reached the archives. The dean took out a key and opened the archives door.

The moment the door opened, a smell of dust rushed toward them. The room was covered with gray traces everywhere. The corners were densely covered with cobwebs. It looked like it had been a very long time since anyone had cleaned it.

“There’s no one watching over this place?” Lin Jue asked.

“No, there aren’t that many people.” The dean said, “Where would that many staff come from? Every year they can’t recruit anyone, can’t recruit anyone. Having anyone at all is not bad.”

Zhou Jiayu listened to his words and discovered that when this dean spoke, he seemed to really like repeating a sentence multiple times. Once or twice was fine, but after too many times, it started to sound very neurotic.

After opening the door for them, the dean planned to leave. But Xu Jian reached out his hand and directly blocked his path: “Dean, you wouldn’t mind taking off your mask and letting us see your appearance, right?”

The air instantly stagnated. The dean’s eyes shot out an icy gaze. He softly muttered something, as if cursing. Just when Zhou Jiayu thought he would refuse, he saw him really reach his hand toward his mask and take it off.

When Zhou Jiayu clearly saw the dean’s appearance, he couldn’t help sucking in a cold breath.

The face behind the mask was traversed by several massive wounds. It was unclear what had caused these wounds. They were long and wide, crudely stitched together with rough technique. One couldn’t even make out the shape of his lips.

“See?” The dean asked.

Xu Jian was quite calm and didn’t show any surprised expression. Instead, he asked, “What kind of injury is this?”

“I was attacked by someone.” The dean said, “Someone attacked me and slashed my face. But it’s fine, it’s healed now.” He grinned, and that face that looked like it had been forcibly pieced together twisted along with it, revealing an extremely bizarre smile.

“Who attacked you?” Lin Jue asked, “It wouldn’t be a patient from this hospital, right?”

Hearing this, the dean didn’t speak. He only reached out and put his mask back on, seemingly unwilling to answer their questions.

“We’re not familiar with this place. Could the dean accompany us to search together?” Not knowing whether he had sensed something, Lin Zhushui suddenly spoke, and what he said was quite impolite.

The dean seemed to want to refuse. Lin Zhushui added, “Could it be that the dean is going to busy himself with something?”

The dean said, “Yes, I’m very busy. I don’t have time to accompany you.” He softly repeated, “No time to accompany you.” He wanted to turn and leave but was directly blocked by Xu Ruwang reaching out his hand: “Sorry, Dean. We’re not familiar with this place. Could you trouble yourself to give us a bit more time?”

The dean looked at Xu Ruwang resentfully, but judging by his build, he clearly wasn’t Xu Ruwang’s match. So after weighing the options, he still stayed.

The few of them walked into the archives. The moment Zhou Jiayu entered, he began coughing. At first he had thought it was a dust allergy, but after standing inside for a while, he felt like he was about to cough his lungs out. He really couldn’t take it and could only stagger back out of the archives. After breathing some outside air, he recovered.

“What’s going on?” Lin Jue said, “Guan’er, why are you coughing so severely?”

Zhou Jiayu shook his head, indicating he also didn’t understand. He took out a tissue, covered his mouth and nose, and shrugged his shoulders outside. Only after a good while did he force out that choking sensation in his throat.

“Perhaps he’s allergic to something inside.” Xu Ruwang said, “Just wait outside. We’ll search.”

It seemed they could only do this. Zhou Jiayu found a spot outside the archives and watched them flipping through things inside.

Although he had been forcibly kept behind, the dean showed no intention of helping whatsoever. He stood in the corner, watching the few of them with vigilant eyes, looking like he was ready to escape at any moment.

Zhou Jiayu planned to find a trash can to throw away the tissue he was using to cover his mouth and nose. But when he carefully looked at the tissue in his hand, he discovered that some black powder had appeared on the tissue.

“What is this?” Zhou Jiayu was a bit stunned. He reached out and wiped it, discovering this powder was somewhat like ash. He raised his eyes to look at the archives before him, suddenly having a bad feeling.

“What?” Shen Yiqiong was closest to the door and ran to Zhou Jiayu’s side.

“I was coughing just now and felt like I coughed up something strange.” Zhou Jiayu handed the tissue to Shen Yiqiong to see.

Shen Yiqiong glanced at the tissue in Zhou Jiayu’s hand but was completely baffled: “There’s nothing.”

Zhou Jiayu looked again and discovered that the black ash he had seen just now was gone: “How could that be? I really coughed up some black ash just now.”

The people in the room heard their conversation and all planned to come out and take a look. Lin Zhushui also walked in Zhou Jiayu’s direction. However, the moment he left the archives, an angry shout came from Xu Ruwang inside the room: “Where are you going??”

Then came the sound of a heavy object falling to the ground with a bang. Zhou Jiayu was startled and looked into the room, discovering that the window of the archives had been opened. The dean who had been standing by the window just now had disappeared without a trace. Without a doubt, he had jumped out the window.

This was the fifth floor. One wrong move and a person could die. Xu Ruwang rapidly ran to the window and watched with his own eyes as the dean climbed up from the ground, turned around, and ran.

Xu Ruwang: “Holy shit, he really ran!”

Zhou Jiayu said, “This is the fifth floor. He jumped down and is fine??”

Xu Ruwang said, “Damn, he’s fine. Running faster than a rabbit.”

“Is this dean a human or a ghost?” Lin Jue said. “Zhushui, what do you think?”

“Naturally a human.” Lin Zhushui said, “But those charred corpses that surrounded us at the Meng ruins were also living people.”

Everyone fell into silence, clearly remembering what had happened that night at the Meng ruins. Clearly, this psychiatric hospital’s abnormal situation had an inseparable relationship with Meng Yangtian and his lot. Strange doctors, bizarre patients, and the oppressive atmosphere throughout the entire hospital that had reached its extreme.

“Let’s continue searching the archives. The others go out and find other doctors to see the situation?” Xu Jian proposed.

“Sure. Zhushui, you go with Guan’er and the others. I’ll stay here with Ruwang and Xu Jian to search.” Although Lin Jue quite disliked these dust-covered archives, she still decided to stay.

Zhou Jiayu was allergic to the room, and Lin Zhushui couldn’t see. It was perfect for them to go out and find people.

“Alright.” Lin Zhushui agreed.

So the two of them left the archives and prepared to go to the floor below that looked somewhat like a doctor’s office area. This time, passing through the inpatient department without the dean leading the way, those patients who had originally been relatively friendly suddenly developed strong hostility toward them. At first Zhou Jiayu had thought it was his imagination. But when a patient threw a hard object in his hand at him, Zhou Jiayu confirmed that this wasn’t a misunderstanding.

Being eyed fiercely by over a hundred people, Zhou Jiayu quickly pulled Lin Zhushui downstairs.

But what he hadn’t expected was that the patients’ activity range wasn’t limited to the fifth floor. When they reached the fourth floor office area, he could still see some people wearing patient gowns wandering in the corridors, although their numbers were much fewer.

However, the doctors who should have been sitting in the fourth floor offices had disappeared without a trace. Zhou Jiayu searched the entire fourth floor and finally, with difficulty, saw a person wearing a white doctor’s coat in an office near the corner.

That person sat in the office, a computer placed before him, seemingly organizing documents. From his expression, he looked very focused. He didn’t even notice Zhou Jiayu and Lin Zhushui entering the room.

“Hello.” Zhou Jiayu greeted him.

That person didn’t raise his head and continued looking at the computer before him.

“Hello.” Zhou Jiayu greeted again. He glanced at the nameplate on that person’s chest. “Dr. Chen.”

Hearing the three words “Dr. Chen,” the motion of his hands finally stopped. He raised his hand to push his glasses and said, “Hello. May I ask what business you have?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “We want to understand something about the dean.”

Dr. Chen slowly raised his head and smiled: “May I ask what you would like to understand?” As he said this, he began typing on the keyboard again, continuing to input content.

Zhou Jiayu said, “May I rudely ask, what caused the scars on the dean’s face?” He didn’t quite believe the dean’s explanation, so he wanted to confirm again.

“He was attacked by someone.” Dr. Chen said, “By those damned patients.”

Zhou Jiayu’s heart grew slightly cold upon hearing this. He hadn’t expected the dean’s injuries to be related to the patients here.

When Dr. Chen said these words, he was practically gnashing his teeth, his expression terrifyingly ferocious: “Those wastes, they should all go die—”

Listening to what he was saying, Zhou Jiayu suddenly felt something wasn’t right. He suddenly leaned to the side and looked at the computer screen Dr. Chen was typing on—it was completely black, with nothing on it.

Zhou Jiayu’s expression slightly stiffened, but he didn’t show it. He said, “Alright, thank you.” He stood up, grabbed Lin Zhushui, and was about to leave. But Dr. Chen suddenly called out to them and said, “Who are you? Are you also a doctor?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “No.”

Dr. Chen instantly stood up. He pulled open a drawer and took out something similar to an electric baton. He flew into a rage and said, “If you’re not a doctor, why aren’t you wearing patient clothes? What do you want to do? Do you want to revolt? It’s all because of you, all because of you!” He roared and charged directly in Zhou Jiayu and the others’ direction.

Zhou Jiayu was startled. He rapidly took Xiao Zhi out from his embrace. Xiao Zhi landed on the ground, instantly unfolded his body, and charged at Dr. Chen. Then with one slap, he sent that electric baton flying.

A normal person seeing Xiao Zhi would definitely be startled. But the Dr. Chen before his eyes not only wasn’t afraid, his emotions grew even more agitated. He muttered something, turned around, and was about to go back to search for a weapon. His expression was more ferocious and terrifying than the patients upstairs.

Ever since entering this hospital, Zhou Jiayu had felt something was off. After encountering several doctors, he even began to somewhat suspect that there wasn’t a single normal person in this hospital.

Seeing that Dr. Chen seemed about to dig out another weapon, Zhou Jiayu didn’t go soft this time. He directly had Xiao Zhi knock this person out.

Xiao Zhi’s movements were very crisp, not giving him another chance to commit violence.

After this person fainted, Zhou Jiayu went behind the table to check and discovered that the computer this Dr. Chen had been typing on not only had a black screen, but it didn’t even have a main unit. So he had been randomly typing on the keyboard facing a black screen.

Zhou Jiayu: “…Sir, how does it seem like this person’s mental state also has problems.”

Lin Zhushui wasn’t surprised at all: “Is there a normal person in this hospital?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Just what is going on? Why are the doctors also like this? What exactly is the relationship with that Jiang Zhu?”

Lin Zhushui said, “Find the location of the surveillance room. Let’s go take a look.”

Reminded by Lin Zhushui, Zhou Jiayu remembered that hospitals generally had such a place. He raised his head and looked at the office. He indeed saw an open surveillance camera in the corner of the ceiling. “Okay, I’ll look for it.”

Fortunately, at the position of the stairs going up and down each floor, there was a map of the hospital. Zhou Jiayu quickly found where the surveillance room was located—right at the corner of the first floor, connected to the security room.

After confirming the location, the two headed toward the second floor.

Along the way, Zhou Jiayu saw the figures of patients. They were distributed on every floor. Some stood, some sat. The things they were doing were bizarre beyond measure. Among them were those talking to the air and those using spoons to knock on walls. In short, there was only what you couldn’t imagine, nothing you couldn’t see.

At this time, Zhou Jiayu even had the thought that these people before his eyes were more frightening than those dirty things. Facing these neurotic gazes for too long, it was as if his own spirit had been contaminated.

The surveillance room door was closed. The lock-picking master Lin Jue wasn’t here either. But it wasn’t a big problem. Zhou Jiayu directly had Xiao Zhi twist off the lock, and he walked into the surveillance room with Lin Zhushui.

All the hospital camera monitors were in this room. Zhou Jiayu saw the dean’s office, saw Lin Jue and the others currently flipping through archives, and saw the patients in the corridors.

“See where the doctors are.” Lin Zhushui said.

Zhou Jiayu responded with an affirmative sound and began searching for the doctors’ figures. However, after carefully browsing through the monitors, a layer of cold sweat involuntarily formed on his back. Before him, on over a hundred screens, he couldn’t see a single person wearing a doctor’s coat. Whether in offices, corridors, or the inpatient department, white doctor’s coats seemed to have completely disappeared from this building.

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Author’s Note:

Zhou Jiayu stated that his spirit had been contaminated and decided to hold Lin Zhushui’s hand to go out and rest, taking a one-day break from the mini-theater.

Speaking of psychiatric hospitals and such, the most classic one is still the game Outlast. The atmosphere building is truly excellent. I tried playing it for half an hour and my body was scared stiff. Those who like horror games can give it a try.