My ‘Healing’ Game
Chapter 325: The Reward of Zhuang Wen’s Humanity

Chapter 325: Chapter 325: The Reward of Zhuang Wen’s Humanity

The yellowed talisman paper bore blood-red characters, and beneath the peeling chunks of wall plaster hid a series of black symbols. Ash from the burning paper money was visible all around the living room, and the floor was strewn with various photographs.

Han Fei picked up the photo closest to him. In the image was a woman shackled by chains, her ankles fused with the rusted iron.

Her belly was slightly bulging; head lowered, hair covering her face; one hand propped up her body while the other reached out toward the camera as if resisting having such a photo taken.

The darkness of the blanket, the paleness of the skin; the thick chains, the slender arms; the despairing hand of the subject trying to block the camera, the photographer remorselessly continuing to shoot.

It was just a single photo, yet everything in it was so vivid and glaring.

"Bang!"

A metallic clashing noise came from the bedroom, pulling at the thin string on the door hinge, making the soul bell hanging on it jingle. A man’s hoarse, eerie voice emerged from within.

Within that man’s voice mingled another woman’s piercing scream, as if tearing lungs and heart apart, pain that couldn’t merely be described as hurting.

Clutching the photo in his hand, Han Fei slowly moved through the living room, now unsure if the building-jumping ghost was in the room.

"This room is really sinister."

The walls were filled with bizarre, horrifying phrases and were also inscribed with runes meant to soothe dead souls. The most uncanny part was the arrangement of the furniture in the room, which seemed to adhere to some kind of pattern, like a coffin laid open.

Han Fei had entered room 1244 in both the Death Building Game and reality, but those places were nothing compared to the oppressive and despairing room of the Deep World.

As soon as he stepped through the doorway, Han Fei immediately felt the difference in the room, each piece of decor as if laden with something terribly frightening and heavy.

The screams in his ears continued; the soul bell seemed determined to drive one mad, and yet, the man’s chanting sped up.

Avoiding the photographs on the ground, Han Fei quietly approached the master bedroom.

An Evil Exorcism Doll made of human hair hung above the door. The bedroom door was not tightly closed, and Han Fei stood outside, peering through the crack.

The largest master room inside had been set up like a memorial hall. A photo of Zhuang Wen’s mother hung on the wall and Zhuang Wen, not yet fully grown, cried and knelt on the floor. She was being held down by a particularly ugly middle-aged man who was writing evil-warding phrases on her back with a brush.

As the man wrote, he also uttered strange words, with a peculiar pronunciation, Han Fei could only understand parts of it, but the gist was that the ghost from Zhuang Wen’s mother had transferred to her, and Zhuang Wen herself was the malevolent being.

The scene before him was suffocating. When Han Fei saw the man take out a thin and sharp carving knife, he knew it should only be a false memory, but still pushed the door open, intending to intervene.

However, just as Han Fei opened the door, the voice of a little girl suddenly arose behind him.

"Who are you?"

Han Fei, highly strung as he was, jumped at the sound, swiftly turning around.

A little girl stood behind him, her appearance exceedingly cute, especially those bright, gentle eyes that seemed to gaze at everything in the world with immense curiosity.

"I want to save the girl who’s being bullied," Han Fei honestly replied, revealing what he had intended to do just then.

The girl, however, wore a face of confusion upon hearing this; "Is there another girl in the room?"

"Isn’t she right in..." Han Fei looked toward the master bedroom again. The photo hanging in the memorial-like setting was no longer of Zhuang Wen’s mother; it had changed to Zhuang Wen herself.

This black and white photo, unlike all the others spread on the living room floor, actually showed Zhuang Wen looking relatively normal.

Beneath the portrait were two lifesize Papermen, their bodies covered in all varieties of text.

In front of the Papermen, a man and a woman lay prone.

A middle-aged man in his fifties, with an extraordinarily ugly face, was carving something onto their bodies, similar to the text on the Papermen. It seemed the middle-aged man was attempting to have the Papermen die in place of the man and woman.

Murmuring words he once said to Zhuang Wen, the middle-aged man slowly took out a thin, long carving knife. He daubed it with vermilion before starting to carve evil-expelling characters onto the bodies of the man and woman.

The pair screamed in agony, and the middle-aged man’s ugly face was twisted with pain, but he had to do this.

Seeing the Demon Exorcist’s children punished, Han Fei’s expression remained very solemn.

The little girl beside him was somewhat puzzled; she thought Han Fei didn’t understand the key point, and she stammered, "They are all bad people, don’t be kind to them."

"My discomfort isn’t out of sympathy for them. I’m just reminded of the fact that the woman was once treated in the same way, which is upsetting," Han Fei silently closed the door to the master bedroom and continued to check the other rooms while chatting with the girl.

Soon, he discovered something very interesting. Upon opening a door, Han Fei would see Zhuang Wen’s painful memories, the terrible things she had suffered through.

But whenever the little girl appeared, the room’s scene changed, leaving only the sight of the Demon Exorcist’s family being punished.

The Atrium of the Death Building merged with the memories of the dead, but the little girl seemed unable to see those awful memories.

After checking all the rooms, Han Fei stopped at the balcony door; he recalled the conversation with the child in the Death Building Game.

Turning to look at the innocent girl, Han Fei opened his mouth but ultimately didn’t ask the preset question from the Death Building Game.

Raising his arm, Han Fei touched the little girl’s head, "Do you really feel happy seeing all this every day here?"

Blinking, the girl didn’t quite understand Han Fei’s meaning. She thought for a long time, then shook her head.

"If you’re not happy, then would you be willing to leave this place and see a different world? Outside the door are many things you’ve never seen before. I can’t promise they’re all wonderful, but at least some of them could bring you real happiness," Han Fei could do nothing to mend what had already happened in the real world, but in the Deep World, he could only pat the child’s head.

"Outside the house?" The girl hesitated, and as she began to waver, the multitude of Talisman Papers on the balcony door started to tremble; soon after, one of the Talisman Papers fell off.

As leaves fall to signal autumn, Han Fei understood that the source of the Building-jumping Ghost’s hatred lay on the balcony; he immediately took the little girl’s hand and retreated backward.

The Soul Bells adorning the room rang frantically. One by one, the Talisman Papers from the balcony door fell, and the once seemingly ordinary balcony door began to tremble, as if it could shatter at any moment.

"This room is too dangerous; I’ll take you away from here first." Picking up the little girl, Han Fei didn’t head towards the balcony but ran straight for the outside of room 1244!

As he left the room, a system notification voice echoed in his mind, "Attention, player number 0000! The reward you selected for the mission in room 1244 is—Zhuang Wen."

"Zhuang Wen’s child died, unable to accept reality, she turned her last bit of humanity into her child, and this last bit of humanity might be the real Zhuang Wen. It must be maternal instinct at play, even becoming a monster that loathes everything, she wished to leave the last bit of goodness for her child."

"Attention! You have taken away Zhuang Wen’s last bit of humanity; you will be perpetually pursued by Zhuang Wen; she will chase you endlessly, regardless of time or place! Undying and endless!"

Before the system notification voice ended, the Talisman Papers on the balcony door had all turned to flying ash. A suppressed and terrifying voice emerged from the balcony doorway.

"If I catch you, you will die!"