Chapter 1182: When I have Possessed All the Goodness (1) (2in1)
One hour after Doctor Sun left, Doctor Gao and Xu Wan walked into the room. They had a fairly good chat with Chen Ge and then Xu Wan led Chen Ge towards the storage room of the patients. They walked through the door and Chen Ge stood before his own locker. He looked carefully for the wedding ring that Doctor Sun mentioned but he did not find anything that fitted the description. “This is all your personal effects. You can change in here. I will go outside and wait for you.” Even though there was what Xu Wan said, she did not walk towards the door. Instead she hesitated for a long time before she suddenly handed Chen Ge a piece of paper. “This is my phone number and social media account. After you leave the hospital, if you ever feel like there is a relapse, feel free to contact me any time you wish.”
“Thank you.” After Chen Ge kept the paper in his pocket, Xu Wan only left. Closing the door of the storage room, Chen Ge started to undress to change. He found a black phone with a shattered screen inside the pocket of his s.h.i.+rt. Probably due to the lack of battery, the phone could not be switched on. Other than that, there were also identification card, recovery proof and a thick stack of doc.u.ment inside the locker. The doc.u.ment recorded his everyday dosage of medicine and his bodily reaction, according to the files, the treatment started from one and a half year ago. He even found a receipt at the end of the doc.u.ment. The treatment for the past one and a half year had exhausted all the savings that his parents had left for him.
“Where is the wedding ring? I was told it would be here.” Chen Ge gave his locker another thorough search when he was suddenly reminded of the message that Doctor Sun left him that morning. His gaze moved and Chen Ge found locker number 29 was located right underneath his own locker. The door was not locked and it appeared to contain the belonging of a female patient. It had her patient’s records and urn.
“It wouldn’t be hidden inside the urn, would it? If that is the case, just how important is the wedding ring that it has to be kept so far away out of sight.” Chen Ge opened the lid of the urn. He rummaged inside it and finally found the wedding ring. He silently slipped the ring inside his pocket and then returned everything into their original place. “This wedding ring should be some kind of memento. Now is not the time but I should take a closer look at it after I leave the hospital.”
The paperwork to leave the hospital was surprisingly complicated, Chen Ge spent a whole day dealing with it. After he ran through all the various departments to handle his doc.u.ment, that feeling of absurdity overwhelmed Chen Ge again, everything felt so real. He was just a simple man in the world and not the fact that this was his world.
Under the setting sun, Chen Ge carried his own backpack and left the hospital. He turned back to glimpse at the giant range of buildings behind him. He had the strange feeling that someone was watching him behind the curtained windows. “I have a feeling I will return to this hospital soon but I doubt it will be in the capacity of a patient anymore.”
Walking across the road, Chen Ge came to the theme park that was adjacent to the hospital. “It is already quite late today. Tomorrow morning, I shall go to the theme park’s Haunted House to go take a look.” The Haunted House was Chen Ge’s obsession. He too was also curious why he had so many fragmented thoughts related to the Haunted House in his own past memory.
“I only have a few RMB in my pocket now, I need to find a place to spend the night first.” Chen Ge sat on the shoulder of the road. He flipped through the doc.u.ment that he had brought out from the storage room. There were information about himself and his parents inside it. “My house is at Western Xin Hai?” Chen Ge had no impression of this at all. He looked at the key inside the file and stared at it for a very long time. “This is the key to my home?”
The file also had the address for his home. Before the sun darkened completely, Chen Ge hailed a cab and gave the driver the address to his own home. When he paid the fare, the driver gave Chen Ge a curious glance. After all, it was not an everyday affair where he would fetch a pa.s.senger like Chen Ge whose leg was encased in plaster and carried so many things with him.
“Do you need my help to carry your stuff up the stairs?” The driver offered kindly.
Chen Ge shook his head to reject the driver’s kind offer. “it’s okay, I can manage everything on my own.” After watching the taillight of the cab disappear down the road, the sense of déjà vu a.s.saulted Chen Ge again. It was as if he was often greeted with strange looks by taxi drivers in the past as well. “Such a nice and helpful man.” Chen Ge carried his own things and entered the residential area. He had no impression of this place at all. He was merely following the direction on the files and slowly found his way to the doorstep of his own home. “Third building, third floor, Room 303…”
He used the key to unlock the door. Chen Ge looked at the lavish furniture in the room and he shook his head lightly. “There is no sense of homecoming at all, it is as if this place is not my home.” After giving the place a quick cleaning, Chen Ge skipped dinner. He crawled into bed instead while hugging his own backpack. The night fell. Chen Ge did not switch the lights, he gelled with the darkness and glanced at the city down the distance through the window.
“There are next to zero stuff in this home related to my parents. The few photographs that do exist have nothing wrong with them. This means that I cannot use them to find more clues.” Chen Ge looked through the whole house and found nothing useful. Now his only hope was the black phone which screen had already shattered. He turned back to glance at the phone that was charging. Chen Ge realized the phone appeared to have broken from a terrible fall. It could not be charged or even switched on.
“Doctor Sun said that the real treatment is just beginning but I have already left the hospital, doesn’t that mean that treatment is already over?” Chen Ge reorganized the events that had transpired inside the hospital in his mind. He then came up with a plan for himself. “Tomorrow I will first go and visit my parents and then I will go to apply for a job at that Haunted House. After all to survive in this city, I will need a job and I have a feeling that Haunted House will be very suitable for me.”
Lying in the bed, the drowsiness came and Chen Ge slowly drifted off to sleep.
At 8 am in the next morning, based on some information on his own files, Chen Ge managed to gain contact with the policeman who was responsible for his parent’s case—Lee Sanbao. This aging police officer was very kind. After he found out about Chen Ge, he personally came to bring Chen Ge to go visit his parents.
“your parents have left too suddenly. At the time, you were in a coma and you could be reached. I had no choice but to contact your parent’s friend and ask him to help to deal with you and your parent’s issues.” Lee Sanbao led Chen Ge to the graveyard at the Xin Hai countryside. He placed the bouquet of flowers that he bought before the grave. Looking at the picture on the grave, Chen Ge slowly squatted down. He felt like the energy was being sucked out of his body and he collapsed to the ground.
Lee Sanbao sighed under his breath and walked away to give Chen Ge some privacy. Several minutes later, Chen Ge stood up again from the ground and he looked more like his usual self. “Uncle Sanbao, who was the friend that helped with the funeral arrangement after the accident that befell my family? I wish to thank him in person.”
“His name is Lou Jing. He is your parent’s best friend and the famous real estate developer at Xin Hai.”
“Luo Jing?”
“Yes, I can give you his phone number.” Seeing the stable state that Chen Ge was in, Lee Sanbao did not feel that worried any more. After giving Chen Ge Luo Jing and his own phone number, he left the graveyard.
“it feels like everyone inside this city is a good people, everyone that I have met so far are so ready to lend their help.” Chen Ge’s own black phone could not be used so he shoved the paper with the phone numbers into his pocket and then he took the public bus and headed towards the Xin Hai theme park. His leg had not healed completely but Chen Ge could not wait anymore. He used the money that he found at home to purchase a ticket for the theme park. He walked through various attractions and headed towards the haunted house that was at the western side of the theme park.
The more he headed towards the western side, the lesser the visitor there was. Eventually the laughter and conversation of the visitors faded away and Chen Ge was the only one walking on the road. Stopping beside the road sing inside the theme park, Chen Ge looked at the Haunted House that was situated at the end of the road. A woman dressed in red was standing in front of the Haunted House that was positively vacant. She was holding a thick stack of flyers while toying with a white giant that was enormous in size. The familiar scenario, the familiar people, the familiar cat, now Chen Ge felt like he had truly returned home. He walked away from the road sign. When he was still 10 metres away from the Haunted House, the giant white cat spotted him already. The white cat immediately lost interest in the woman and rushed towards Chen Ge.
“I had no choice when I had to throw you last time. I hope you will forgive me.” Chen Ge picked up the white cat and ruffled its fluffy head. “Honestly, the happiest time I had at the hospital was when I was ruffling your head.”
“Chen Ge? You have left the hospital?!” when the woman in red saw Chen Ge, she too jogged to his side.
“Yes, I am completely recovered already.” Chen Ge took out the proof that was given to him by the doctors from the backpack that he brought with him everywhere. He appeared rather shy around the woman in red like he had never communicated much with the opposite s.e.x in his life.
“Congratulations. I don’t know what to say.” The woman in red was truly happy for Chen Ge. But one moment later, she looked at the white cat with some sadness in her. “I have been feeding the white cat for so long already but the moment it saw you, it has forgotten completely all about me.”
“That was probably because it has not seen me in a long time.”
“Are you here to pick up this cat?” The woman in red reached out to touched the white cat which was curled up comfortably in Chen Ge’s embrace. “Of course, you are not out of the hospital. It is natural for you to bring it home. In the future, you must not leave it alone in the house anymore, even cats will feel lonely.”
“I am not here to pick it up.” After Chen Ge said that, both the white cat and the woman in red turned their heads to look at him.
“Then you are here for?”
“I am here to look for a job.” Chen Ge put down the white cat and a warm smile appeared on his face.
“You’re here for a job application?” Both the woman in red and the white cat were stunned. “Why so sudden?”
“Well, before the car accident, I was already working in a Haunted House, I have plenty of experience and I feel that with my addition, I can change the condition of our current Haunted House around, I have the confidence to turn our Haunted House into the most well known haunted House at Xin Hai.” Chen Ge carried his backpack and said confidently.
“Well, I do not mind that myself, but the problem is…” The woman in red smiled sadly. “I do not wish to lie to you. Currently my family’s Haunted House account is in the red. You can say that it is running on deficit, I cannot imagine we would have the budget to afford yet another employee…”
“Then can you give me a tour for now?” Chen Ge very naturally walked to the woman’s side. “I have bought the ticket for the theme park.”
“Okay, I don’t see why not.” The woman in red pushed open the gates of the Haunted House. She then pulled back the thick curtains that blocked off the light and led Chen Ge into the Haunted House. With his hands on the wall and his fingertips touching the props that fell at the corner, Chen Ge felt his whole person relax. Everything here he was familiar with, it was as if these were things that flowed through his blood.
“Currently our Haunted House only has two open scenarios, one is the Night of the Living Dead and the other is Minghun, which one would you like to visit?”
“Then we can start with Night of the Living Dead.” Without the need for the woman to lead the way, Chen Ge pushed open the door of the scenario and walked into the it. The Night of the Living Dead was the old scenario that the Haunted House preserved, later it was also the scenario that was first abandoned. Looking at the obsolete set up inside the room and the props that were poking out from their hiding spot, Chen Ge picked up the rubber head that had slid down to the ground and hugged it in his chest. “I have been here before. I feel like everything here is made by me and my family, they are like my own children.”
Hugging the human head, Chen Ge sunk back into his reminiscence. He did not notice a zombie who was watching him silently from a far. “Did my parents bring me here before? Why does this place give me such a sense of home?”
Even though his brain had forgotten about the past, his body still remembered that familiar feeling. I suppose this would be what they called branded into one’s soul. Walking down the path that was filled with blood stains and human internal organs, touching the inverted body that hung from the rooftop, and smelling the faded scent of red paint in the air, Chen Ge came to the first scare point. The zombie clump that was before him had an actor hidden inside it underneath the mountain of mannequins. After triggering the trap, the zombie that was played by the actor would come alive to chase after the visitor. Chen Ge stopped before the zombie mountain. He sidestepped the trap and something akin to hope rose in his heart.
“In my memory, when I was small, I used to play hide and seek here. My father would hide inside the zombie mountain and continue to play dead even after he was found.” Pus.h.i.+ng aside the different mannequins, when Chen Ge saw the zombie that was facing away from him in the middle of the mannequins, he could not help but raise his hand. His mouth moved faster than his brain and called out softly. “Dad?”
Everything before his eyes were overlapping with his blurry memory, he wanted to reach out to grab the man. But who knew the zombie inside the mountain would start to run without even turning his head around. The complicated path, the traps and props, be it the zombie or Chen Ge, they seemed to know this scenario as well as the back of their hands. Chen Ge stayed closely behind the zombie, this time he was not going to let this man slip away through his fingers again. The dark and b.l.o.o.d.y path slowly became wider and light appeared before them. Chen Ge and the zombie burst out of the scenario together.
“Dad? Why have you run out from the scenario? Is there anything wrong?” The woman in red holding the flyer was worried about Chen Ge but when she lifted her head, she saw her father run out of the Haunted House wearing the zombie costume.
“This man is even more familiar with the location of the props than I do! I can’t even find the chance to slow down and go into hiding at all!” A middle-aged man’s voice came out from under the zombie costume. Perhaps because he was running too quickly, after he said that, he coughed several times. Just as the middle-aged man finished saying that, Chen Ge who was hugging the human head ran out after him as well. When he heard the middle-aged man’s voice, his eyes dulled quite a lot because he knew the person inside the zombie costume was definitely not his father.
“Chen Ge, why did you bring the rubber head out with you?” The woman in red quickly ran over to grab the human head away from Chen Ge’s grasp. “You were not frightened, were you?”
She looked at Chen Ge who stopped at the entrance of the Haunted House. Currently Chen Ge’s eyes were glazed over with confusion and water. “You do not look like you have visited a Haunted House. Why are there tears in your eyes?”
“Zhang Ya, is he your friend?” The middle-aged man removed the headpiece of the zombie costume. He then gasped hungrily for air. “There is something wrong with this kid. Once he entered the scenario, he picked up the human head and he ran all the way with it.”
“Chen Ge, I mean he is…”
Zhang Ya was still trying to come up with an excuse for Chen Ge but Chen Ge voluntarily walked to stand before the middle-aged man. “Sir, I am here for a job application.”
“Sir? A job application?” The middle-aged man carried the headpiece of the zombie costume and his eyes wandered between Chen Ge and Zhang Ya. “Wait a minute. Let me clear my mind for a moment first.”