My ‘Healing’ Game
Chapter 437: Room Number Thirteen

Chapter 437: Chapter 437: Room Number Thirteen

Han Fei picked up the toy the boy had dropped and casually stuffed it into a plastic bag that had contained buns.

"Once the man goes out, I’ll use returning the toy as a reason to have a look at their place," he thought.

The toy the child played with and the one from the store where the victim shopped were from the same series, which puzzled Han Fei.

The Ten Fingers occupy the Shrine, and they had been exploring the world of the Master of Shrine for many years, surely possessing a wealth of information; they might have already seen what this world truly looked like.

"Could there be something different about the world as they see it from the world as I see it?"

Carrying the toy, Han Fei didn’t immediately follow after them. He intentionally kept a distance from the father and son, for it wasn’t yet the time to clarify their relationship.

After waiting a moment, Han Fei was about to enter the residential area when the rusty door to the stairwell was suddenly pushed open. A middle-aged man with a receding hairline and glasses was carrying several large bags of garbage out.

Seeing the other party struggling with the trash, Han Fei subconsciously wanted to help, and the middle-aged man looked startled at Han Fei’s gesture.

Following that, he gently shook his head, "Even if you help me with this, I can’t give you a discount on the rent. I know you’re a good kid and very kind, but these are tough times for everyone."

"You are..." Han Fei’s hand that he had reached out hung in the air.

"Standing in the doorway for what?! Always accumulating a ton before taking it out! You have to wait until it stinks, right?" The door at the corner of the first floor burst open, and the female landlord yelled at the middle-aged man, "Right after work you just collapse on the couch, as if dead, barely speaking. Is it only you who’s tired? I’m busy every day as well!"

The balding man sighed and walked outside with his trash, but as he passed by Han Fei, he said in a low voice, "I saw you earlier on the balcony picking up the toy from No. 7’s child. I advise you to throw away the toy immediately and don’t get involved with his family."

The man with the receding hairline spoke very softly, and after saying this, he left with the garbage.

The female landlord, seeing the man dithering, was so irritated she couldn’t contain it and slammed the door hard.

Normally, the man kindly informed Han Fei, and he should have taken the hint to leave promptly.

But Han Fei was not one to play by the book. He could feel that the brother with the receding hairline had no malice, that he was giving a kindly warning.

In the memory world of the Master of Shrine, good people were rare. It was crucial to seize this opportunity!

Without returning home, Han Fei carried the toy and followed the balding brother. This sudden move even gave the brother quite a scare.

"Uncle, what exactly is the deal with that No. 7?"

"You’re still following?" The balding man frowned, "Don’t ask too much. Anyway, it’s none of your business."

"But I picked up their toy, and what’s key is I detected a strong smell on their toy, a kind of stench I have never encountered before..."

"Shush!" The balding man walked quite a distance, then lowered his voice, "That stink isn’t just any stink, it’s the smell of a corpse."

"The smell of a corpse?!" Han Fei feigned surprise as if he had heard an answer he had never imagined.

"The male tenant in room number seven seems to be working at the hospital morgue, he’s a nurse, always dealing with corpses; his mental state is a bit abnormal, you’d better stay away from his place."

"A hospital nurse? Can I ask you which hospital he’s working at as a nurse?"

"It’s the same hospital where they treated your mother—the Third People’s Hospital. I’ve heard he’s had a lot of jobs before, but he never sticks with any for long. I guess he won’t be in that nursing job for much either." Brother Xie Ding piling trash next to the garbage bin, without anyone to clean or manage it, the bin was already overflowing, forming a mountain of garbage that attracted swarms of flies and stunk to high heaven.

After finishing his sentence, Brother Xie Ding went back into the building, but Han Fei stopped beside the heap of garbage: "Ten Fingers has gone to work as a nurse at the Master of Shrine’s mother’s hospital? There’s clearly something fishy about this!"

"Ten Fingers has switched between different jobs, it feels like he’s looking for something, encountering a wide range of people—what are they searching for? Are they looking for me?"

Han Fei also noticed something very noteworthy, in this Memory World, he directly stepped into the body of the Master of Shrine, experiencing the events the Master of Shrine had gone through. Yet Ten Fingers stepped into the bodies of others, and it seemed they were still searching for the Master of Shrine’s real body?

"Why is there such a big difference? Is it because of the existence of the Black Box, or is it due to the system? Or perhaps it’s because of the Mirror God?"

No matter what, Han Fei couldn’t forget the sacrifice Mirror God made to send him to the Shrine, the moment he touched the Shrine, the mirror exploded, its fragments glittering in the air like stars in the night sky.

"The Memory World of the Master of Shrine is neither particularly large nor small, everyone here has their own story. Without using the Power of Hatred and Grudge, let alone exploring the secrets of the world, just surviving is already quite difficult."

Han Fei had no idea how much power Ten Fingers possessed, but the man from room number seven seemed just like any ordinary person at first glance.

"Maybe they’re not incapable of using their Abilities, but using them might result in being rejected by the Memory World of the Master of Shrine."

Taking out the Blood-colored Paperman he kept close, this F-grade Curse Item was just a common piece of folk craft in the Memory World.

"Only by helping the Master of Shrine resolve lingering regrets can I get the opportunity to open the Item Bar. This also shows the Memory World’s strong repulsion towards foreign items, everything here is the last trace of the Master of Shrine’s existence, he too probably doesn’t want his last vestiges of persistence to be ruined by an outsider’s Power."

Ten Fingers possessed far greater power than Han Fei, but they have thus far been unable to inherit the Shrine, the key lies in their lack of acknowledgement from the Master of Shrine.

"This presents a very good opportunity for me." Bowing his head, Han Fei let a shallow smile cross his face, he was accustomed to disguising malice behind a warm smile.

Carrying the toy, preparing to leave, Han Fei was just about to turn when he suddenly saw a paper airplane falling onto the trash heap.

He looked into the distance and happened to see a woman standing by a window on the third floor.

Around the woman’s neck hung something that looked like a hemp rope; she seemed to be preparing to hang herself.

"A room on the left side of the third floor? When I went to work last night, someone was hiding in that room, watching me!" Han Fei remembered what had happened the night before, seeing the woman nearing her suicide, he rushed into the stairwell, carrying the toy.

He ran straight to the third floor and began knocking furiously on the door to the left.

"Is anyone there?! Is there anybody?!"

Dust scattered, and a ’Fu’ character posted upside down on the door was knocked loose.

Han Fei knocked for a long time without an answer, until finally, the door to room number eight near the stairs on the second floor opened.

"Are you sick? Can’t you let people sleep? I just finished a night shift and now you’re making a racket up there?" A young person in pajamas came out of room number eight, yelling upwards.

Han Fei saw that the neighbors were unhappy, so he hurried over to explain, "Someone’s committing suicide in room number nine! I just saw a woman getting ready to hang herself downstairs!"

His expression was one of panic and urgency, perfectly capturing the innocence of a young student.

"Suicide?" The young man laughed in disbelief and pushed Han Fei aside, "Are you messing with me? There’s nobody living in room thirteen."

"Really! I saw it! With my own eyes!" When Han Fei looked up, his gaze swept through the man’s room, "Let’s go find the landlord together and get the door open! A human life is at stake!"

"A human life is at stake, but what the hell does that have to do with me?" The young man was quite annoyed, "Go be crazy outside! If you disturb my sleep again, see these fists the size of a clay pot? One punch from me, and your frail body won’t withstand it!"

"Really, there’s no one living in room thirteen?"

"There are more and more lunatics in this building by the day, thankfully I’m moving out next month and won’t have to put up with these idiots any longer," the young man grumbled as he slammed the door shut.

When the young man opened the door, Han Fei had already taken the opportunity to see the layout inside, everything tidy and in order, with women’s shoes occupying most of the shoe rack, and the wallpaper and decor tended towards warm colors, not really matching the man’s personality. Pictures of the young man with a woman were hanging on the wall; he was probably living with his girlfriend.

When the young man was on the night shift last night, although he had a volatile temper, he seemed to really love his girlfriend and was a diligent person, but... Han Fei remembered hearing sounds of lovemaking from this room at midnight last night.

"Maybe I heard wrong."

Han Fei arrived on the first floor and knocked on the landlord’s door, bracing himself.

The landlady, thinking Han Fei was there to pay his rent, hurried over to open the door, but upon hearing about the situation in room thirteen, her face turned dark instantly.

"There’s nobody in room thirteen! You saw wrong!" the landlady said with a bad temper, "Instead of worrying about others, you better think of a way to pay back the rent you owe me!"

After saying this, she tried to slam the door, but Han Fei caught it first.

"Sis, wait a moment!" Han Fei pleaded pitifully, fumbling in his pocket for a long time until he finally produced six hundred yuan, "The boss at my job is a really good person, he saw that I work hard and skillfully, and he advanced me six hundred yuan. Here, I’m paying a part of it back now, and I will definitely make up the rest."

Han Fei was sweating on his cheeks, his hands holding the money were covered in small wounds, acquired from a recent scuffle that had also scraped his skin.

Through the crack in the door, the landlady look at Han Fei, then at the money in his hands, and her expression gradually softened.

She opened the door and took the six hundred yuan from Han Fei, let out a soft sigh, and then took out three hundred and stuffed them back in Han Fei’s hand, "You also need to eat and drink, just give back three hundred for now, and pay the rest at the end of the month."

"There’s no need, I’ve saved a bit for myself, barely enough for food and drink."

"Stubborn as a mule! Just take it!" The landlady was insistent, she took the three hundred from Han Fei and spoke with a tone of concern, "Just focus on your job, work hard to help your mom with her treatment, and don’t meddle in other unrelated nonsense, got it?"

"But I really saw a woman trying to hang herself in room thirteen..."

"Indeed, a woman did hang herself in room thirteen," the landlady said impatiently and waved her hand, "but that was three months ago, she was really pretty, worked as a counter assistant in the department store, seemed like a normal person, then suddenly, she was gone."

"She worked at the department store too," Han Fei felt a chill, "Sis, my new job is also at the department store, and it’s a night shift. Could you take me to that room to have a look? Otherwise, I won’t be at peace."

After much persuasion and insistence, the landlady finally agreed; she had her husband accompany them, and the three of them went upstairs with the keys.

As they walked, Han Fei and Brother Xie Ding fell behind, while the landlady walked ahead by herself.

"Useless men!"

The three of them arrived on the third floor, where the landlady personally opened door number thirteen.

The room was empty, with all the furniture covered in white cloths, seemingly to prevent dust from settling.

"We covered everything with these cloths after the young girl passed away, as we haven’t been able to contact her family. We had to preserve the room, and dared not discard anything carelessly," Brother Xie Ding, standing hesitantly at the doorway, was suddenly pushed inside by the landlady.

"Have you seen enough? We didn’t lie to you, did we? There’s obviously no one in this room," the landlady gestured for Han Fei to come out, but instead, he passed through the living room and pushed open the bathroom door—where he had previously seen a woman hanging from the window.

The wooden door opened slowly, and the scene that met their eyes surprised everyone.

The bathroom was full of crumpled papers inscribed with various strange symbols, all emitting a foul odor. Most incredulously, some of the writings on the papers were still moist and not dried, as if they had just been written on.

"Were these paper balls also in the room three months ago?" Han Fei turned and asked the landlady, who looked completely baffled with her husband.

"Not at all! I cleaned the room three months ago, leaving it spotlessly tidy. Could it be that someone sneaked into the room?"

"Someone must have stolen a copy of the key!"

The couple hadn’t even considered the possibility of ghosts and monsters, but they were certainly much nicer to Han Fei now.

Staring at the pile of paper balls, Han Fei casually picked up one and unfolded it. The symbols felt oddly familiar to him, but as he prepared to uncrumple another, his mood value began to plummet rapidly.

His heart almost burst from his chest as Han Fei hurriedly tore through the papers. By the time he reached the tenth one, he suddenly saw a dark, foul-smelling arm peeking out of the pile!

Without hesitation, Han Fei reached straight for the arm!

But as his arm came down, he grasped only a handful of paper scraps.

An ominous "thud," "thud," "thud" echoed in the room, as if a hanged person’s body was swaying back and forth, the tips of her shoes continually hitting the window glass.

"The sound is right beside me!"

As his mood value plummeted wildly, Han Fei found it hard to breathe, and just as he was about to lose his balance, Brother Xie Ding supported his arm and dragged him out of the bathroom.

"You’ve been on the night shift all night, I know you can’t take it anymore. Go back and rest, we’ll change the locks on this room as soon as possible."

Without further ado, the landlords escorted Han Fei back to his own room and then hurried away.

Lying on the bed, Han Fei’s mood value finally stabilized. He too wanted to uncover the truth, but he was just too exhausted now.

Slowly closing his eyes, Han Fei fell asleep in the Memory World for the first time.