My ‘Healing’ Game
Chapter 490: Healing-type Art Exhibition (6000 Votes for Monthly Ticket)

Chapter 490: Chapter 490: Healing-type Art Exhibition (6000 Votes for Monthly Ticket)

Aunt Li’s words instantly captured everyone’s attention. Han Fei was also a bit surprised, "Sister, are you saying that you’ve been to this place in reality?"

"Yes, I felt very familiar with it as soon as I escaped in here. It wasn’t until I saw this painting that I was sure I wasn’t mistaken," Aunt Li said, looking at the art paintings hanging on the seventh-floor hallway. All of the paintings on this level were related to the human body, most of which were incomplete or segmented models of the body, "My husband was a very famous doctor in Xinhu, and he had taken me to stay at this hotel for a while. I was startled by this painting at first, but my husband found it very beautiful. He even wanted to find the hotel’s manager to buy it at a high price."

"What happened later? Did the hotel sell it to you?"

"No, the painting was painted by the hotel owner himself, and it was not for sale," Sister Li began to recount her story from her younger days, "I can’t remember clearly, but I think this happened about thirty years ago. At that time, my husband had not passed away, and he had always loved me very much. It’s the happiest thing in my life to have met him. Even now, I still can’t forget him, but sadly, I will never see him again."

"Could it be... that he was unfaithful?" Tie Nan’s emotional intelligence was inversely proportional to his muscles. As soon as he spoke up, he was fiercely glared at by Aunt Li.

"My husband loved me deeply. Meeting him was the happiest thing in my life. To this day, I can’t forget him, it’s a pity I’ll never see him again." Aunt Li looked visibly distressed. It was clear that she was suffering from long-term low spirits, which left her in a mildly depressed state. This was precisely why her son had gone out of his way to purchase a game box for her—to make her happy.

The family was actually very good, with a loving couple and a dutiful child, but it was unclear where things had gone wrong, resulting in Aunt Li being trapped in this place full of ghosts and monsters.

"Sister, please continue," Han Fei gestured for everyone to refrain from interrupting. Originally, he just wanted to help save a few people—the act of sending players back could earn him hidden virtue and rewards—but now he felt that he had gained an unexpected finding.

"My husband had always worked at Eternal Life Pharmaceutical. Thirty years ago, Eternal Life seemed to be planning to build a high-level sanatorium in the suburbs, specially catering to wealthy people. My husband was among the first batch of doctors to go there. Strangely enough, that sanatorium was not far from Xinhu, but the employees were forbidden to leave without authorization. I couldn’t even visit my husband. All I could do was stay at this hotel next to the sanatorium." Aunt Li pointed to the painting on the wall, "It was in that hotel that I saw this painting. My husband’s taste in art started to get strange from that time."

Aunt Li took a moment to gather herself, "After we left the hotel, my husband was transferred out of his original position for secretly meeting with his family. He began to travel frequently, often not coming home for a week or two, and when he occasionally returned to Xinhu, he would attend some very strange gatherings. Later on, even more bizarre things happened. My husband sent our young son to live with relatives and cut off all contact with him. When I asked him why he would do such a thing, he just said that someone wanted to kill him."

"I felt that he was under a lot of pressure at that time, so I took great care of him. But after some time, he actually said he wanted to divorce me. The reason was ridiculous—he said he was afraid he might kill me."

"Despite my strong opposition, my husband eventually gave up. But then he started to harm himself. I asked him why, and he said it was the only way he could atone for his sins."

"I don’t even know how I survived those days, living in extreme pain every day, everything around me was gray and white, and my husband often held his head in agony, like a child, constantly confessing and begging for mercy in an empty room."

"It was heartbreaking to see him suffer, and I didn’t know how to help him."

"After about a month, my husband suddenly returned to normal. He cooked a lavish meal for me himself and reminisced with me about the past."

"At bedtime, he put on a suit with utmost seriousness. It felt as if he was saying goodbye to me."

"Before going to sleep, he said something to me, ’No matter what, never buy white shoes for the child to wear. If you see a child in white shoes in the house, then move away as soon as possible.’

"I still don’t understand what he meant by that, but I did do as he told me," Aunt Li pointed to her black shoes, "When I woke up the next day, my husband was gone, and our bedroom was covered in children’s shoe prints."

"Children’s shoe prints?"

"Yes, about the size of my hand, countless of them—on the walls, on the floor, on the blankets, everywhere. It felt as if a group of children had entered my house last night and taken away my husband." Aunt Li looked at the players, "I know it’s hard for you to believe, but this isn’t a story, it’s true. I don’t know if those shoe prints were made by my husband or what happened, but it really did."

"Sister Li, I believe what you said," Han Fei positioned himself in front of Aunt Li, memorizing her appearance, "You must still love him, right? Do you still miss him?"

Han Fei perhaps understood why the woman appeared in the Deep World—her mourning talent had been triggered. This woman might actually be able to see her husband in the Deep World, although it was very likely that her husband had already become something else.

"Of course I can’t forget him! I’ve always felt as if he wasn’t sick at that time but was doing everything he could to protect me and our child. So, no matter what, I want to find him." Aunt Li smiled with resignation, "I’ve searched for him for many years, but there has not been a single word from him. Now that my child has also gone to work elsewhere, sometimes I’m too lonely at home and even talk to his photograph."

As Aunt Li became a bit upset, Han Fei comforted her before standing up and taking down the art painting from the wall.

The painting that Aunt Li’s husband adored was very strange. It portrayed a person twisted into seven pieces and then beautified each piece in an extremely abstract manner.

"Sister Li, did your husband say anything after seeing this painting?"

"I don’t remember, he just kept praising these fragmented human bodies, saying how beautiful they were, and also said that the human body itself is a work of art." Aunt Li thought for a while; "That’s right, when my husband wanted to buy this painting at the time, he was taken to the eleventh floor by a staff member, and it seemed he also visited there with the hotel owner."

"The tenth and eleventh floors are the art exhibitions. I’m afraid the art exhibitions in this hotel are not meant for ordinary people." Han Fei asked again, "Sister Li, did you come to this hotel to look for your husband after he disappeared?"

"I’ve been here a few times, but unfortunately, this hotel is quite special; it only serves clients of Eternal Life Pharmaceutical Plastic Surgery Hospital. Outsiders, even if they make reservations in advance, can only stay below the seventh floor." Aunt Li was somewhat puzzled, "How come the game also features buildings that exist in reality?"

"This game itself was developed in cooperation between Eternal Life Pharmaceutical and Deep Space Technology, so it’s normal for there to be buildings related to them." In reality, the art hotel only serves that private plastic surgery hospital. In Deep World, the art hotel happened to be in the Plastic Surgery Hospital Area, which suggests a very close connection between the two.

Han Fei already had a new plan; he intended to become the new manager of this hotel.

"The Plastic Surgery Hospital harbors three hatreds, the white shoes appear most frequently, so I should start with them."

The Plastic Surgery Hospital built by Eternal Life Pharmaceutical was of special significance to Han Fei. As the investigation gradually deepened, he felt that his childhood experiences might also be related to this hospital, and he might even have received treatment there.

The Chairman of Eternal Life Pharmaceutical’s brother went out of his way to find him, the entertainment room of the orphanage from his childhood memories was reconstructed inside the hospital, plus all sorts of speculation regarding the Healing-type Personality...

These seemingly unrelated clues had all intertwined together. Han Fei felt that he was gradually uncovering what had happened in the past.

"Happiness Residental Community was the original home, the beginning of the personality change in the Plastic Surgery Hospital Area. When a child leaves their first home and undergoes the personality transformation, they are sent to ’Lost Paradise’ to play and spend their childhood until they grow up." A map left by Fu Sheng emerged in Han Fei’s mind, with the Death Building Area, the Plastic Surgery Hospital, and Paradise forming a straight line. It seemed Fu Sheng had explored it this way a long time ago: "What else is that old guy hiding? It seems there are also fragments of his memory left in the Plastic Surgery Hospital. This time I must make thorough preparations to capture and confine him."

Although Fu Sheng was Han Fei’s guide, Han Fei felt there was something off about Fu Sheng’s guidance for beginners. So, he planned to seize Fu Sheng’s memory fragments and write the strategy himself.

"Cough cough!" Tie Nan coughed twice, holding his stomach: "Guys, what do we do now?"

His abdomen had been touched by a Fierce Ghost, dark energy had entered his body, and now his life value was continuously dropping. In Tie Nan, Han Fei saw the vulnerability of the living, and he somewhat understood why Fu Sheng chose to become the Unspeakable.

Dragging a snakehead out from the shadow beneath Xu Qin’s feet, Han Fei placed the thing directly on Tie Nan’s stomach. In a little while, the dark energy in his abdomen was sucked away.

"How did you do that? Was that one of the special skills from the Hidden Map just now?" Tie Nan looked at his stomach and even touched it.

"It’s a pet raised by my family." Han Fei was thinking about other things; he took the art painting and entered the seventh-floor corridor again.

"A pet raised by your family? How did you manage to domesticate a pet? Are there any secrets to it?" Tie Nan’s eyes lit up, following closely behind Han Fei.

"There’s no secret, really, it’s mainly about being tough enough."

"Boss, then what kind of pet is yours?"

"Just a little kitty."

Han Fei couldn’t be bothered with Tie Nan, gathering all the art paintings from the seventh floor and presenting them to Yantang, "What can you see from these paintings?"

"Death, desire, and a kind of depraved beauty." Yantang observed them for a while, then assembled the art paintings from a different angle: "There are seven paintings on the seventh floor, each seemingly independent, but in fact, they can be put together to form a whole. I feel that these paintings are also narrating the same story."

"The people in the paintings on the fourth floor are all in pain, only the murderer at the end shows a twisted smile, but look at the paintings on the seventh floor."

"All the dissected people, they have expressions of repentance on their faces, as if they were voluntarily killed." Yantang placed the painting Aunt Li had seen together with another painting: "Especially pay attention to these two. The first one is Aunt Li’s husband’s favorite, the one he wanted to buy. In the second painting, the man is lying on a bed, and the bed covering is not a sheet but a white coat, suggesting he might be a doctor. Take a closer look at the clothes on the man, it’s exactly a suit. This fully matches what Aunt Li said previously, her husband himself was a doctor, he said goodbye to Aunt Li wearing a suit before disappearing, so I deduce that the deformed man in this second painting is Aunt Li’s husband."

Hearing Yantang’s analysis, Aunt Li shook her head repeatedly, seeming unable to accept it.

"When you put all these paintings together, you can discover a commonality, all the dissected bodies are those of doctors, and everything in the composition is related to hospitals: whether it’s surgical tools, white coats, or bandages. For the moment, I can’t understand why. All the doctors are repenting; they’ve all become subjects in the paintings. Could it be that the murderer was once their patient?" Just as Yantang finished speaking, an unusual noise suddenly came from behind the ordinary-looking security door, as if a blood vessel had burst.

Several people hurried over to check, and the wall was normal, except the pattern on it looked very much like a face.

Han Fei pulled out his Rebirth Saber and stabbed at the face, but there was no reaction.

"Little Yan, are you saying my husband also took someone’s life? His remorseful expression is because he felt guilty toward his patients?" Sister Li had never been exposed to virtual reality games. She never imagined a game could be so powerful, even evoking memories from deep within a person.

"Based on your description, I suspect your husband’s patient was a child who liked to wear little white shoes. Your husband’s death is related to that child, but the child’s death might also be due to your husband," Yantang said as he looked down at the seven paintings on the floor. "What I’m about to say might make you uncomfortable, but it’s very likely the truth."

"Go ahead, I want to hear your thoughts."

"I’m used to considering things from the worst perspective, and indeed, those worst things have happened," Yantang tried to continue his analysis, and this time Han Fei did not stop him. "Your husband might have loved you in the past, but from some point on, he had changed—not that he stopped loving you, but something inside him was replaced. He might have been a normal person, but judging from his frenetic reaction after seeing these paintings in the hotel, one can roughly guess his psychology."

"A normal person, upon seeing dismembered bodies, wouldn’t react with amazement as their first response because they too are human. An animal’s instinct would cause them to sense danger and become cautious after witnessing the gruesome death of their kind. But your husband’s reaction was the exact opposite; he was frenetic and excited. Such an instinctive response typically occurs in animals at the moment of a successful hunt, which means your husband considered himself to be a predator at heart, and others might just be prey in his eyes," Yantang said, looking at Aunt Li with sympathy. "I don’t deny he loved you, but loving you doesn’t mean he couldn’t harm others. These two feelings are not contradictory."

Aunt Li hadn’t expected this answer, almost pleadingly she looked at the other players, hoping someone would refute Yantang’s statement.

"You said he met with the hotel’s boss in private and went up to the roof to take a look together. Now you’ve also seen how many people have died in this hotel. What do you think they were inspecting?" Yantang continued without expression: "You also said he started attending some secret gatherings later on and would often go on business trips. What kind of gatherings do you think he was attending?"

Seeing Aunt Li looking overwhelmed, Yantang stopped speaking. "Of course, this is just my speculation, not necessarily the truth, so don’t take it to heart."

As he said this, Aunt Li almost burst into tears, overwhelmed. She only wanted to play the game to distract from her depression, and now it felt like she was about to break.

"Enough," said Han Fei as he walked over to Aunt Li. He could use the Soul-returning once tonight, "If I said that it’s possible for you to encounter your husband in this world, would you...?"

"Really?" Aunt Li interrupted Han Fei mid-sentence. Her eyes were slightly red and swollen, her body trembling lightly; it was unclear if it was out of fear or some other emotion.

"As long as you survive, it’s possible to see him. I’ll do my best to help you reunite with him, but if that day really comes, you’ll have to do something for me," Han Fei’s voice seemed to carry a special magic, in that moment he was like the devil tossing an apple in the painting, offering a deal no one could refuse.

"Okay!" Her husband’s disappearance was an unresolved issue for Aunt Li, her years of pain stemmed from his unannounced departure.

Han Fei had anticipated Aunt Li’s agreement; in fact, while shaking hands with everyone earlier, he had used a secret touch to reach deep into their souls, and he discovered that all living people who entered the Deep World unconsciously bore inner shadows.

The shadow in Aunt Li’s heart was her husband’s disappearance, Huang Ying bore the shadow of his mother dying while saving him from drowning, and that girl named Liuli Cat had vision problems, her soul fragile like a cat full of cracks, susceptible to shattering with just a touch—probably a result of violent abuse during her childhood.

As Han Fei met more and more players, he gradually discerned a pattern: aside from those who deliberately sought death to explore the Deep World, other players who entered needed to meet several conditions simultaneously.

Their Luck Value was lower than average, their Talent related to supernatural and ghostly matters, harboring inner shadows, and having contemplated death at some point.

"The Deep World may also have its purpose; some people find their way here for a reason."

Han Fei led the players toward the tenth floor, caught in the ghost wall; there was no point in hurrying now.

If this ghost wall was a trap laid by a Large-scaled Grudge, perhaps Xu Qin would have to release all the Curses to forcefully break through. Han Fei would not take such a risk with Xu Qin unless absolutely necessary.

With an hour left before the mission ended, Han Fei and the others reached the tenth floor, all wanting to see what this art exhibit was really about.

As they opened the security door, a chill wafted out from the room. The scene in front of them had nothing to do with art, at least that’s how Han Fei saw it.

The tenth and eleventh floors had been merged into one, the huge hall over six meters tall was filled with all kinds of fridges and freezers.

They were haphazardly stacked on top of each other, with cold air continually billowing out. It seemed as if these iceboxes were still working properly.

"The hotel owner likes to kill people, these iceboxes are most likely used for storing bodies..." Yantang’s words were cut off as Tie Nan covered her mouth.

Several players stood still, all turning their gazes towards Han Fei.

"This art exhibition isn’t quite what I expected, I thought it would be paintings, not refrigerators." Liuli Cat supported Aunt Li, the two of them walking at the rear of the group.

"Stick close to me, watch out for those gaps." Han Fei swept his gaze across the hall, gently touching the landlord’s ring, its chill was heaviest in this place.

Moving slowly forward, the hall was completely occupied by fridges and iceboxes, with crisscrossing wires everywhere and the air carried that distinctive stench that only dead fish emitted.

"Snap!"

A wire above suddenly snapped, and the crackling of electricity briefly illuminated the darkness. Han Fei saw a door of one of the fridges open, with what appeared to be a ghastly green face inside.

Drawing the Rebirth Saber, Han Fei stood beside Xu Qin, closely moving forward with her.

"Sis, don’t be scared, I’ll protect you."

The art exhibition hall was much larger than anticipated, and as Han Fei and his group had not walked far, the sound of footsteps became chaotic, as if something else had mingled in with the group.

When passing a corner, Han Fei looked back and saw Tie Nan and Yantang at the very end; darkness lay behind them.

"You two, pick up the pace." Han Fei beckoned them, feeling that something was off about Tie Nan’s back but couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

Opening those iceboxes one by one, most of them were empty, and gradually Tie Nan grew impatient. Just then, he heard Han Fei urging them on so he quickened his pace and ran forward.

As Tie Nan ran forward, Han Fei saw another pair of legs appear behind him. They moved in nearly perfect synchrony with Tie Nan’s steps, as if the upper body was leaning on him.

With a glance, Han Fei signaled Liuli Cat and Aunt Li to move ahead, and he directly confronted Tie Nan.

"Brother, when I say so, just do what I tell you," Han Fei took out the Rebirth Saber.

"What do you need me to do?" Tie Nan was eager to help, knowing that a person’s status in the group depended on their contribution.

"When I count to one, bend down as fast as you can." The warmth of the blade’s light chased away the cold, Han Fei gripped the Rebirth tightly and thrust fiercely at the figure behind Tie Nan.

Seeing the blade coming, Tie Nan quickly crouched down, and he could hear the sound of ice and snow melting by a hot iron from behind him.

"Didn’t you say you would count to one?!" Tie Nan held his head, his soul nearly flying out in fright.

He sat on the ground, but when he touched it, he found it was covered in black blood.

Turning his head, a frozen head had just fallen to the floor.

"It’s over now." Han Fei retracted the Rebirth Saber and began to examine the corpse.

"He didn’t tell you just now because he didn’t want to scare you," Yantang reached out to pull Tie Nan up: "Doesn’t it warm your heart knowing the reason why?"