novelThe Number Three
| ← Ch.0432 | Ch.0434 → |
Translator: Lonelytree Editor: Millman97
Chen Ge was hit with a sense of familiarity when he read the treatment method. When I was invited to the society for the first time, one of the members told me this. All the pictures pasted here are victims of the society?
The pictures covered the entire room with no space left. Most of them were taken after the victims' death, recording their death in picture. The ghost stories society, the victims, the underground morgue, the central hub that is made from entirely human bodies...
Chen Ge linked all the clues in his mind. His eyes widened, surprised at the lengths that the culprit had gone to for his plan.
The owner of the underground morgue is the chairperson! He needed a large number of dead bodies, so he volunteered to help the crazies at the Third Sick Hall and used a much-crazier method to help with their treatment, to turn them into his helpers to create the endless string of ghost stories. When he was treating the members, he transported all the dead victims here to build a kingdom made purely from cadavers!
The Third Sick Hall had been abandoned five to six years ago, and it was then that the old director had disappeared behind the door.
According to the timeline, the society had been active in the city's shadow for about five to six years already. They had never brushed shoulders with the police but left many untraceable ghost stories around the city with their own creepy method. Chen Ge pulled down another picture from the wall. The victim was a woman who looked around twenty and had a smoking body. There were some notes on her picture as well.
"Wednesday, Patient 107.
"Diagnosis result: Depression and anorexia.
"Treatment method: Lowering estrogen and thyroxin, and raising corticosteroid hormone. Patient 107 suffers from both biological and mental pressure. Investigation reveals that she has been mocked by 'her best friend' since she was young. The solution is to make a special appetizer for the patient—the ingredient shall be her 'best friend'.
"Follow-up: Patient 107's anorexia has been treated, and the depression is recovering. However, it is suspected that now she is suffering from a new mental illness, and the symptom includes cooking all of her favorite things.
"Treatment method: To be considered. Suggest absorbing her into the society as a new member to start the second level of treatment."
The second picture was describing the DJ who arrived at the society with Chen Ge—Lychee. The DJ would be on the air every Wednesday to talk about cooking and food. The treatment by the society is indeed insane. They are not curing people but creating demons, slowing pushing living people into hell.
Lychee was the perfect example. She suffered from anorexia, but she eventually got turned into a monster. Standing in the middle of the room, looking at the pictures on the wall, Chen Ge suddenly realized that the craziest person of all was actually the chairperson. To be able to create so many crazy events and then maintain his rationality and calmness to come up with new treatment plans and diagnoses, the man's world was definitely different from a normal person's.
Half of the missing people in Jiujiang are probably here.
Each picture represented a victim, but most of the victims had it coming. For example, that middle-aged man who tortured his own adopted daughter or Lychee's childhood 'best friend'.
Every death had a reason behind it, and a case could be made that they deserved to die, but this was not applicable on the side of the law. If these people were allowed to live, they would be the demon in the hearts of the patients forever. Therefore, they used the most direct way to even things out.
Initially, the ghost stories society might really have been a support group for a group of mental patients, but as time went on, things changed. Those who were crazy did not get saved, and the twisted worldview got normalized. They slowly thought that they were the normal ones. The insane people who rationalized themselves as the normal ones were often the scariest.
Chen Ge's eyes swept the group of pictures, and he could see a completely different human history that was covered with pain and struggle. After the white cat entered the room, it ran to the left wall and continued to call after Chen Ge.
Knowing that the cat had discovered something, Chen Ge searched the wall that was covered with pictures closely. He eventually found a hidden door handle. Pushing the door open, Chen Ge entered the third room. If the rooms outside were like display rooms, then this innermost room was probably the chairperson's office. Two tables were joined together, and there were various books and files in the room. Everything was arranged neatly.
The clean and neat environment created an illusion that they were inside an underground office. Flipping through the data and notes, the handwriting was beautiful, but the content was chilling. They were filled with various ghost stories, and behind each story was a human life.
These should be the crimes that the chairperson has committed for the past five to six years.
Chen Ge did not have the chance to look closer when the cat called again. It stopped before the bookshelf and started to walk in a circle.
There's another door? Chen Ge moved the shelf away, and as he expected, there was indeed another door. Pushing the door open, the cat did not enter but called endlessly at the threshold like it was trying to warn Chen Ge.
Seeing the weird reaction from the cat, Chen Ge did not rush to go in. He stood at the door and looked into the room. The room had a double bed, and the wall opposite the bed had several pictures.
The first picture had been taken during summer, it was already so long ago, and there were three children of differing ages inside the picture. The girl looked innocent and cute. Standing in the middle of the two boys, she looked helpless as she tried to stop the boys from arguing.
The second picture was taken during winter. The three who were now older stood under a building. The girl looked at the burning building, and she was crying. She wanted to run back into the building but was stopped by the two boys and the nearby adults.
The third picture was much clearer. The three children had all grown up. The girl had grown into a beauty. She carried her textbooks and sat in the middle of the two young men. She was talking with one of them while the other young man, who appeared rather awkward, moved his head away to focus on the glass on the table. The picture had been taken from the side, and one could see the glass captured the girl's reflection perfectly.
The fourth picture was a wedding photo. The awkward boy had disappeared, and only the pair remained.
The last picture was next to the wedding photo. There was only the girl inside the picture frame. This was a black-and-white picture of the girl who had passed away.
| ← Ch. 0432 | Ch. 0434 → |