Chapter 162: Xu Tong
Translator: Lonelytree Editor: Millman97
The ‘surprises’ Chen Ge gave the viewers were indeed too huge and too much. He looked at the popularity ranking. Qin Guang was number 1. When he started the livestream, he was at 96, and now he was 19.
This popularity ranking sat in the middle of the app’s front page, so those who managed to squeeze into the top twenty were big hosts with more than 400,000 followers and fans. The rocket-esque rise in fame attracted the attention of many viewers. They were confused. How could a newbie with fewer than 50,000 followers enter the arena meant for the most popular hosts?
To be honest, Chen Ge had no answer. He was merely playing the role of an ‘innocent victim’. He did not violate the law; it was all in self defense.
“Looks like my viewers are clever people. Under the corruption of money, a host like myself who pays such close attention to authentic content is a rare species.”
After inspecting the cameras on his chest and wrist, Chen Ge pocketed the phone and returned to the woman.
When he dragged the man into the room, the woman had gone crazy. She had knocked her head into the cage as she tried to escape. Chen Ge was afraid that she might have injured herself, so he picked up a thick layer of cloth to cus.h.i.+on her head.
“Just what has she seen to have made her so?”
His eyes scanned the three cages. The old man cowered inside the cage; his arms were s.h.i.+elding his head like an ostrich hiding its head in the sand. He did not dare look outwards. Of the three, the old man had been trapped there the longest and seen the most.
When he saw the single-armed man, he had closed his eyes. Obviously, he was afraid that he might accidentally see something that he should not.
The young woman in the middle had the most agitated reaction. She threw her head repeatedly against the cage, and the fear was practically pouring out of her eyes. The reactions of these two people were understandable. Chen Ge, though, was exceptionally cautious of the middle-aged man.
He was also showing signs of fear. His body was shaking, and his hands were gripped tightly together. His reaction and expression were flawless. If this was anyone else, they would definitely have been fooled—but not Chen Ge. It was not that Chen Ge had that great of an observation power, but he had managed to acquire the information on the patients of the Third Sick Hall before he arrived, and this middle-aged man was most likely Patient Number 5, Xu Tong.
The culprits came from the Third Sick Hall, so why did he end up as the victim? Starting from this point, Chen Ge slowly discovered more anomalies about the middle-aged man. For example, his relatively clean appearance. His head was not shaved, and his hands had been kept hidden under his clothes throughout. It was only when Chen Ge dragged the single-armed man into the room that the middle-aged man let it slip.
Chen Ge saw it clearly; there was a very deep wound on the middle-aged man’s left hand. It was a bite mark, and it was still bleeding.
“Your hand is injured?” Chen Ge walked to the last iron cage holding the hammer. When he entered the nurse’s station at the first sick hall, he had noticed the paint stain on the iron cage. Following the station, he had seen a splatter that was mixed with oil and blood on the wall outside of the nurse’s station.
At the time, he had thought that it was left behind by the victim inside the cage, but he had inspected the old man’s body, and he was uninjured, so now he believed that the blood came from the culprit who had dragged the old man away.
Oil was mixed with blood, so the most logical speculation was that the old man was gripping the wall, unwilling to be dragged away. The culprit tried to pry the old man’s hands off the wall but ended up being bitten by the old man. It perfectly explained how both oil and blood could be left on the same spot on the wall.
When the door opened, Chen Ge noticed that neither of the twisted face nor the single-armed man’s arms were injured. If there were no other residents inside this mental hospital, then Chen Ge could have guaranteed that the culprit who dragged the old man away from the first sick hall was this middle-aged man.
He was one of the culprits at the mental hospital.
When they discovered there were people outside the hospital, to prevent the old man from being discovered, they moved him to the second sick hall’s laundry room urgently.
The iron hammer swaying before him, the middle-aged man’s eyes that looked at Chen Ge were slowly filled with fear.
“I will not hurt you; I just want you to answer a few of my questions honestly.” Chen Ge looked at the middle-aged man, and the other party was still pretending to be dumb, too afraid to communicate.
“Don’t feel like talking?” Chen Ge removed the two cameras, placed them aside and blocked the cameras. He slowly turned back around and slammed the hammer into the iron cage. With just one knock, the iron cage became slightly misshapen.
“Still not talking?” Chen Ge continued to whack at the iron cage, and the rods twisted and turned until only three quarters of the moveable s.p.a.ce remained.
“What… What do you want to know?” The middle-aged man saw the iron hammer that came closer and closer to him, and his expression fell. How come this man feels like he is even crazier than I am‽
“I’m not one to force people to do things that they don’t want to. I just have some simple questions.” Chen Ge looked at the twisted iron cage and placed his hammer down. “What is your name?”
The middle-aged paused for about two seconds before speaking again. “w.a.n.g Haiming?”
“w.a.n.g Haiming?” When he heard this name, Chen Ge’s heart skipped a beat, and a huge wave proceeded to swallow it. This man knows w.a.n.g Haiming?
The man probably just wanted to fool Chen Ge by giving a random name. He did not expect Chen Ge to know w.a.n.g Haiming!
“You’re lying.”
Without leaving a chance for the middle-aged man to explain, Chen Ge swung his hammer at the iron cage. The hammer cut through the air, and the hair on the middle-aged man’s body stood on end. “My name is Xiong Qing! My name is Xiong Qing!”
Chen Ge was in no time for games and continued to rain punishment down on the iron cage. The s.p.a.ce within the cage continued to shrink, and the iron rods could have snapped at any moment. The middle-aged man screamed, “Didn’t you say you would not force people to do things they don’t want to‽”
Chen Ge ignored him. After a few more minutes of heavy work, the iron cage was completely misshapen. Even with the key, it could not be opened anymore. It would require some time before Chen Ge could smash the iron cage into smithereens, but Chen Ge was lacking time. His pupils narrowed as he reached out to grip the middle-aged man’s calf. “I’m asking you one more time, what is your name?”
The man did not know what Chen Ge was up to, and he hesitated. Chen Ge was trapped inside a mental hospital with more than one source of dangerous threats. He could not continue to be kind. He placed the middle-aged man’s calf before him and aimed the iron hammer right at it.
A shrill scream tore through the night. Chen Ge had no sympathy for those who shoved living humans into cages. He picked up the iron hammer and pulled out the middle-aged man’s other calf.
As the iron hammer went flying down, the middle-aged man screamed, and he shrank away from the hammer. “Xu Tong! My name is Xu Tong!”
“See, was that so hard?” Chen Ge stopped. “If you would had been honest with me from the beginning, we could have skipped all that.”
Then he squatted down beside the iron cage. “Just now, you mentioned w.a.n.g Haiming. What is your relations.h.i.+p with him? Has he stayed at the Third Sick Hall before? Is that how you know him?”