Chapter Ten: Lamentations, Rules, and Four Doors

As the groans shifted into wails, the enormous underground space was filled with nothing but his voice. The mechanical announcements and the clinking of glassware seemed feeble in comparison. Jiang Wan couldn’t bear to look and tugged at Chen Qing’s hand, but he was different—his gaze lingered on the newly grown, pale, tender bones with intense curiosity.

In his own words, when else would one get to witness the growth of human bone? As the granulation tissue at Sun Zhengyang’s joints slowly regenerated, in just over half a minute, all four of his limbs had reappeared. Once Sun Zhengyang drifted back into a gentle sleep, the two returned to the main hall, their expressions markedly changed. The floor was left filthy from the passage of that enormous creature, the trail leading directly to the tree at the center of the hall—only to vanish into thin air.

Chen Qing felt a wave of relief and immediately pulled Jiang Wan toward the second great door. He now understood the last line on the note… but what about the earlier lines? How were they to leave this back chamber? What secrets lay waiting, and why did this hospital send people in here at all?

His brow furrowed. Even stranger—why was there not a single hospital staff member in this back chamber? That made no sense.

Chen Qing and Jiang Wan slowed their pace as they entered the second door. The same instruments and apparatus were scattered throughout the room, but unlike before, the beds were tidy and immaculate, the white linen spotless.

“What’s going on here…”

Jiang Wan sounded puzzled. “Is there no one here?”

They approached the bed, Chen Qing shaking his head and muttering under his breath, “I’m afraid that’s not the case.”

He gently pulled back the sheet, revealing a skeleton on the bed. Jiang Wan’s face changed dramatically as she stumbled back two steps, only then looking up at Chen Qing.

“This… Are they insane?!”

He looked at the body on the bed and shook his head in response.

“They’re not insane… Perhaps this was their aim all along.”

On this bed, the deceased was rigged up to a full array of life-saving equipment. There must have been hundreds of needles, even more tubes, and metal probes that penetrated deep into the emaciated corpse, causing its withered form to bloat grotesquely.

“It’s like a sideshow giant,” Chen Qing muttered, glancing toward a pile of miscellaneous items. The heap was tucked behind the equipment; if one wasn’t looking for it, it would have gone unnoticed.

In the pile were two robes, a cane, and a knife about the length of a palm. Chen Qing said nothing, just shook his head at Jiang Wan, signaling for her to leave.

“Are we going? But clearly, this room hasn’t been searched yet.”

Jiang Wan frowned, her reluctance evident.

“It’s a bit dangerous. Let’s check the other two doors first, at least to get the lay of the land.”

Jiang Wan finally nodded in agreement at Chen Qing’s words.

Leaving the second chamber, they found the third room noticeably warmer. Unlike the previous two, this room was completely empty except for another door at the far end.

They walked to the door. Chen Qing pulled a wire from his pocket, and after a moment’s delicate work, the lock clicked open. Jiang Wan was surprised, staring blankly and pointing from the lock to him.

“You don’t expect a teenager who spends a lot of time online to know how to pick his own house’s locks?”

Chen Qing was almost amused by her reaction.

“Do you think a normal kid would know how to do that?”

“And do you think a normal kid would be here with you right now?!”

He scoffed gently, and finally, they saw what was inside the room.

People. All people.

In a room barely twenty or thirty square meters, over a hundred people were crammed together, shoulder to shoulder. Whether from the crush or for some other reason, they were all barely hanging on to life.

They heard the click of the opening lock but not one of them so much as twitched a finger. Each stood there, wooden and expressionless, mouths slightly open, drool running down their bodies.

“Hey! What’s going on with you? Hey!” Jiang Wan tried to check on them, but every person she touched only managed a feeble “ah, ah,” with no other response.

Chen Qing frowned, letting the light from outside spill in, but their pupils remained unnaturally dilated.

“Damn… damn it! How could they do this to people?” Jiang Wan gritted her teeth and reached out to drag one toward the hall.

“No.”

“What?”

Her brow furrowed, but Chen Qing’s grip was iron on her wrist.

“We can’t let them out… they’ll die.”

He glanced back at the hall. Jiang Wan’s hand gradually relaxed, biting her lip.

“If not for this door… they’d all be dead.” He shook his head and gently pushed the iron door shut again.

Inside, the people watched the door close, and faint smiles appeared on their faces. They relished the crush of the iron door, and, almost joyfully, began to howl in strange, meaningless voices.

“They don’t recognize! They don’t recognize!”

Just as Chen Qing was closing the door, he heard the shouts from inside and hesitated.

“What don’t they recognize?”

“They! They don’t recognize! They don’t recognize!!!”

“Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!”

Their clamor rose, as if it had turned to weeping behind the door. Jiang Wan’s heart ached, but she had no choice but to let Chen Qing close it.

She retreated to the hall, while Chen Qing fell into silent thought. He didn’t believe those words were meaningless.

“Dilated pupils… they must have been drugged. Lost the will to resist, but still have some… consciousness. Something like scopolamine?”

He frowned, as darkness slowly devoured all life inside the room.

…

After they left the third door, the two made their way to the fourth. Here they found, to their surprise, that the room was identical to the third, except its door was fitted with the latest high-tech combination electronic lock.

They stood before it, as if standing before hope itself.

Jiang Wan looked at him, and Chen Qing looked at her. After a long, awkward silence, Chen Qing finally couldn’t take it.

“Big sister, don’t tell me you expect me to crack this lock?”

“Otherwise? You mean you can’t… can you?”

Chen Qing pointed at his own nose, enunciating every word: “I’m a high school student!”

“Oh really? Good thing you’re not in elementary school, or I’d suspect the Black Organization was behind this door.”

He paused for a moment, then explained, “These kinds of electronic locks are basically unbreakable. Seriously, even a professional locksmith would need ages to get it open. You don’t really think I can do it, do you? If I could, you’d have already heard of me.”

Jiang Wan was silent for a moment, then had to concede. Yes, these independent, battery-powered, mechanically reinforced locks were nearly impossible to open without destroying them. He was out of options.

With a sigh, Jiang Wan asked, “So what now? I have no experience with this.”

“You police officers admit defeat so easily?” Chen Qing seemed to smile.

“What now? Shouldn’t we rely on experience to solve cases? I don’t have it, so I’m asking you. That’s the best choice.”

Chen Qing fell silent, pondering for a while. “Let’s hide in the first room and rest. We can think over all the information we have. To be honest, we’ve probably been here four or five hours already. I need a break.”

“Rest?” Jiang Wan frowned, but seeing the slight, weary youth before her, she relented.

Back beneath the bed, Chen Qing closed his eyes, exchanging idle conversation with Jiang Wan.

“How do we get out of here?”

“It should be simple… maybe the exit is behind the fourth door.”

“Why?”

“This place must have a lot of hospital traffic. If it were complicated, that wouldn’t make sense.”

“Traffic determines the rules?” Jiang Wan paused.

“What about those two sentences?”

“Maybe they’re about the rules here… though whether they’re about entry or exit, I don’t know.”

“You’ve been in before?”

Chen Qing smiled.

“You’re sure you’ve never ‘accidentally’ entered somewhere like this? Maybe once you wandered into a cemetery and couldn’t leave all night. Maybe you got lost in the zoo, or spent a night in your school dormitory unable to hear any footsteps but your own. Are you really sure you’ve never entered a place like this?

“As for me? Yes, I have. A place… even more revolting than this one.”

Jiang Wan was quiet for a while, but exhaustion soon sent her into a deep sleep. She trusted the young man wouldn’t be long behind her.

She slept soundly, but Chen Qing soon slipped from beneath the bed.

After witnessing that creature enter and exit the second door, he followed in its wake. He examined the pile of miscellaneous items behind the apparatus; the scent on the robe was fresh—a factory-processed smell. The cane was the same, carved with patterns but spotless, not a speck of dust in the crevices.

They hadn’t had these things for long… and they hadn’t left the factory long ago, either.

He propped his chin in thought, replaying several sentences in his mind.

“The dead must die as the living do.”

He turned his head, another line echoing in his thoughts.

“They do not recognize one another.”

Tossing the cane in his hand, Chen Qing once more pulled the non-legacy item from his pocket.