My ‘Healing’ Game
Chapter 878: The Invisible Friend

Chapter 878: Chapter 878: The Invisible Friend

Controlling time seems almost impossible to Han Fei, yet it truly happened in Gao Xing’s Shrine Memory World, marking his first encounter with such troublesome ghosts.

After escaping the nurse’s pursuit, a shallow wrinkle appeared at the corner of Han Fei’s eye; he stayed too long in the ghost creature, and it felt as if some of his time had been stolen.

"If these bits of hatred were to breakthrough into the unspeakable, then they might be the most terrifying unspeakable."

Still anxious, Han Fei adjusted his state and arrived at his true destination—the security room.

Seemingly built in the most secluded corner to prevent disturbing the elderly, the corridors around the security room are particularly eerie, with all rooms sealed and inscribed with various times.

For example, midnight, three in the afternoon, and so on. These black-colored rooms don’t reveal their purpose, all doors locked, with no hint beyond the inscribed time on the door panels.

"Seems I didn’t find the wrong place."

As Han Fei passed by those rooms sealed with strips, he consistently heard the sound of footsteps behind him as though "they" were following.

Though it was merely a few steps away, Han Fei felt like he had been walking for a long time. He seemed to be navigating a temporal maze; when he turned back, he found a layer of dust had settled on the door.

Everything in this eerie nursing home is aging, except for the night that cloaks wickedness, forever unchanged.

"The temperature is dropping, and the surroundings are getting darker. Could the nurse have followed me again?"

While merely traversing one corridor, Han Fei felt immensely weary both in spirit and body. He dared not touch anything within the elderly care home, heading directly to the vicinity of the security room.

Through the service window in the corridor, Han Fei peered inside.

Though the security room was in a remote spot, its internal space was spacious, tantamount to three ordinary wards. It was equipped with various professional riot gear and items necessary for the security guard’s daily life.

However, these were not Han Fei’s focus; inside the security room, he saw a man wearing an Eternal Life Pharmaceutical trial uniform, wandering to and fro.

His expression was fearful, his pupils incessantly twitching, continuously muttering something under his breath.

"Anian?"

Han Fei didn’t expect to find the task target so smoothly. He gripped the handle of the security room door but dared not open it immediately.

The Shrine Random Task couldn’t be this simple; he worried he had overlooked the danger.

"The clock inside the security room is still ticking, the tick-tock can be clearly heard, yet the clock’s hands circulate between midnight and one past midnight, as though the person inside is trapped in that one minute!"

To prevent any unexpected occurrences, Han Fei tried calling Anian’s name from outside; the man inside couldn’t hear him, separated by one door, as if existing in two different worlds.

"It seems I must go inside to bring him out, but if I enter, can I come out?"

With the task target before him, Han Fei didn’t want to just give up; he slowly turned the doorknob and pushed open the security room door.

"Anian?"

A rotten odor surged into his nostrils; the security room was pitch dark, every item covered in a thick layer of dust, with no one inside.

"How could it be?"

Han Fei circled back to the window, Anian was clearly moving back and forth inside the security room.

The view through the window and what lay behind the door seemed to be on two different timelines.

"How do I rescue him?"

Han Fei attentively observed Anian’s every move, trying to infer what Anian might have encountered through his subtle expressions.

As a master-level actor and practical criminal psychology expert, Han Fei listed multiple possibilities.

"In that one minute, he seems to have encountered something beyond comprehension, rendered as if his soul was missing; he is terrified and hesitant. He should know the solution, but doing so requires paying a hefty price."

With his extraordinary memory, Han Fei etched all variations of Anian’s expressions into his mind. He entered the security room, stood at Anian’s initial appearance location, and began imitating Anian, moving around the room.

"I triggered this task only after obtaining the rescue bottle. The two photos in the bottle are not something ordinary people would acquire; it’s highly likely an insider stole them. What does he want to convey through those photos?"

With master-level acting, Han Fei perfectly replicated Anian’s every move, almost becoming Anian on another timeline, the two nearly coinciding.

Completely absorbed, Han Fei wasn’t aware of how long he had been walking, time gradually losing its meaning.

Whether it was a matter of minutes or an hour, when Han Fei next raised his head, he heard the ticking of the clock.

The security room’s clock was static, yet the ticking indeed echoed from the clock.

Slowly rotating his gaze, Han Fei looked at the security room’s window; the reflection on the glass was not his figure but Anian’s.

The counterpart stood dumbly at the original spot, seemingly observing Han Fei through the window glass.

Both were inside the room, both seeing each other through the window glass; it was a very special experience.

"Anian?" Han Fei softly called. He wanted to approach the window, but when he made a sound, Anian’s image disappeared: "He must have seen me."

Hastily running out of the security room, Han Fei stood outside, observing Anian through the window.

Anian’s expression changed noticeably. He seemed surprised by Han Fei’s appearance, but just a minute later, he reverted to his previous demeanor.

"How can I communicate with him? My voice can’t get through..."

Han Fei re-entered the security room, embracing the idea of trying anything, and he sliced a cut into Greed Abyss, dousing himself with the ghost blood flowing inside Longevity.

Longevity’s blood could reduce the effects of the Ghost Creature in the Elderly Care Home, dispelling illusions. Han Fei wanted to take a gamble.

He once again mimicked Anian, and Longevity’s ghost blood played a crucial role. As the sound of time passing echoed in his ears, both Han Fei and Anian looked up at the window.

They saw each other in the dust-covered glass. Although Anian was startled by Han Fei’s blood-covered appearance, he quickly realized something and walked straight to the window.

Han Fei mimicked Anian’s actions, and they both arrived at the window simultaneously.

Unable to hear each other’s voices, Anian lifted his hand first and wrote on the dusty window—Who are you?

Looking at the words appearing on the window glass, Han Fei wrote a sentence on it—I’ve found your rescue bottle, I’m here to save you.

Anian was trapped in the past. The words he wrote appeared on Han Fei’s side, but Anian couldn’t see what Han Fei was writing.

There was no way to communicate, but this didn’t stop Anian from seeking help. He had already realized something and continued to write on the window—In the drawer, there’s a book recording the sequence of flowers blooming. Go to the garden and find those flowers, pick them, and place them in the book.

Han Fei stared at the two words "those flowers" on the window. It seemed the flowers Anian mentioned were not real flowers.

Breaking open the locked drawer, Han Fei found an almost blank book inside, with individual pages marked with times.

"Time? Flower sequence?"

Han Fei looked back at the window, where the glass version of Anian retrieved a photo album from the drawer, filled with photos of relatives and friends.

Holding the album in one hand, Anian was writing on the window glass with the other.

"The Common Hop blooms at 3 AM; the Wild Rose and Dandelion bloom around 5 AM at dawn; then the Black Nightshade blooms at 6 AM; Peony at 7 AM; Barbed Skullcap at 10 AM; Sunflower at noon..."

"At 3 PM, the Marigold blooms; Purple Jasmine and Night-blooming Cereus bloom as the sunset falls; and the Moon Flower is the last to bloom at 10 PM."

Seeing the times Anian wrote for the flowers blooming, Han Fei immediately recalled those black rooms in the corridor. Every sealed black door was engraved with a time.

"Could those flowers be hidden in the sealed black rooms?"

Remembering all of Anian’s written instructions, Han Fei rushed out of the security room with the blank book, stopping in front of a black door, staring at the inscribed words on it.

"3 AM, the Common Hop Anian is looking for blooms at this time."

Drawing out the Rebirth Slaughter Saber, Han Fei destroyed the lock and pushed open the door.

The pitch-black room exuded an indescribable eerie atmosphere. The shelves were filled with flower pots as large as human heads, yet none had blooming flowers.

Upon a cursory glance, Han Fei also noticed each flower pot was engraved with a human name, as if these pots had been named after living people.

"Gao Xing always claimed to be the Garden Owner. In his shrine, flowers might represent souls, and these flower pots could have been filled with others’ memories.

Recalling every word Anian wrote, he was instructed to go to the garden and pick those flowers.

Gently closing the black door, Han Fei ran to another corridor.

On the map he’d seen before, the garden’s location was marked, located in the center of several buildings in the Elderly Care Home for Healthy Aging.

The wrinkles at the corner of his eyes deepened with two more lines. Han Fei’s body felt as if submerged in a swamp, every step sapping more energy.

Evading countless pursuits, Han Fei finally opened the door leading to the center of the Elderly Care Home, revealing an endless sea of flowers before his eyes.

"This Ghost Creature is too vast, isn’t it?"

From the outside of the Elderly Care Home, it was unimaginable how complex a world was hidden within. The intertwined timelines made normal investigative methods useless, no wonder it was labeled a Deceit Building.

"Once I find those specific flowers, I must leave immediately. It’s not safe to linger."

Entering the Flower Sea, Han Fei discovered that whenever his body touched the flowers, a surge of unfamiliar memories flooded into his brain.

Each flower in the garden represented a soul, a piece of memory.

The healing starlight sprinkled on the petals, Han Fei did his best to comfort those souls, walking a long distance before finding the Wild Rose and Dandelion.

Touching the flower stems, Han Fei heard the cries of two children, and a memory scene unfolded in his mind.

Anian, in casual clothes, was playing with his two children, the room brightly lit, with the TV showing news and the dining table set with delicious dishes.

Everything was so warm and harmonious, but the next moment a knock on the door interrupted, revealing Anian’s two children also standing outside, their eyes bleeding, with experiment numbers engraved on their chests, their skin dry and cracking like bark.

"Dad, didn’t you say you could give us eternal life?"

"Didn’t you say those uncles and aunts could cure our illness? So why does it hurt, it hurts so much?"

The children’s cries grew louder, and Anian seemed unable to differentiate between reality and his imagination, ultimately collapsing in despair on the ground.