“Watch your words,” The woman looked at him, “Or you’ll die.”
Chen Ran turned around and left. He walked to the door at the corner of the music hall. Chen Ran caressed the doorknob before suddenly saying, “If my memory serves me right, you’ve met him before, right, Number 7?” Chen Ran tapped his forehead and smiled, “Oh. I’m sorry. I forgot… I should be calling you… Miss Lee Lu now.”
“Alright. Stop crying.”
“Doctor… You have no idea.” Fatty collapsed on the ground. His snot and tears were all over his face. His body trembled as he wept. “It was so scary. You didn’t see how big that mouth was! It was this big!” He gestured with his hands. He cried harder. He had exhausted the roll of toilet paper Jiang Cheng had given him earlier. The rolled-up paper was everywhere.
“Doctor, can you get me another roll?” Fatty said through red eyes, “How could you be thinking about saving money at a time ? Don’t you feel bad?”
“Doctor, karma will eventually come for you.” Fatty curled up on the ground. He had figured it out. The Doctor probably was toying with him when he said he could only ensure one person’s safety. He was probably laughing on the inside. The more he thought about it, the angrier Fatty became. He pointed at Jiang Cheng, “You… are really horrible!”
Jiang Cheng shrugged again because Fatty’s words didn’t affect him at all. Jiang Cheng’s attitude only became better when Fatty went to the fridge and threatened to throw all the ingredients out. Jiang Cheng quickly ran to hand him another roll of paper. After some back and forth, Fatty got up from the ground, and the two chatted while sitting on the couch.
“Doctor,” Fatty asked, “So, being eaten by that ghost… No, by the thing summoned by the aged woman is the way to clear the mission?”
“Then, doesn’t that mean all of us have cleared the mission?” Fatty blinked. “Well, other than Liang Long.” Liang Long died to the strange statues. Other than her, the others died to the aged woman, including Su Xiaoxiao. Of eight people, seven survived… Wasn’t that a bit too generous? As scary as the process was.
“How is that possible?” Jiang Cheng picked up the water glass and took a big gulp. Then, he wiped his lips, “If that’s true, you can do nothing and wait to die to survive the mission.”
Fatty looked at him with confusion, clearly waiting for an explanation. Jiang Cheng narrowed his eyes and tapped his empty glass.
Fatty huffed, “Doctor, that’s enough. I still haven’t fully forgiven you for what you did to me!”
Jiang Cheng tutted and grumbled unwillingly, “Do you still remember the voice we heard?”
Jiang Cheng nodded. “Yes.” He smiled. “Not everyone heard it. I believe those who didn’t interact with the stone plate or the aged woman wouldn’t capture that elusive song.”
Fatty thought about it and lifted his head. Before he opened his mouth, he was interrupted by Jiang Cheng, “You wanted to ask why Su An was the first to hear the song, right?”
“To be honest, I don’t know.” Jiang Cheng shrugged, “Who can explain everything in this world?”
In Fatty’s eyes, the Doctor was quite easygoing about this. However, when he thought about what the Doctor did to him, the latter’s image became ugly.
“Doctor, does that mean the biker woman… and Liang Long has really died? But those who were eaten after them didn’t die?”
“Fuck. Then, we were too nice to Chen Ran. If I have known…”
Fatty’s whining stopped. He looked at Jiang Cheng. He knew that the latter was serious. Fatty was honestly quite scared of the Doctor when he was serious. “Do you really think we managed to catch him?”
Fatty slowly opened his eyes and gasped, “Doctor… do you mean he was purposely caught by you?”
Jiang Cheng held the glass. It was already empty, but he didn’t put it down. He played with the rim of the glass.
Fatty swallowed and said carefully, “Then, Doctor, he’s too scary. I mean more than his physical ability,” He paused, “There’s also his ability to manipulate the human hearts.” Fatty continued, “Wasn’t he worried that we’d really kill him? Even though we’d be targeted by the rules… this had happened in the nightmare realm before. Just look at our mission before this one.
“Why would he dare to bet…”
“That no longer matters.” Jiang Cheng glanced out the window. “The point is he has won the bet.”
Fatty knew the details he had to pay attention to when he communicated with the Doctor. Therefore, when the Doctor said that, he knew that the Doctor had realised something. “Doctor,” He came over to ask, “What have you found?”
Jiang Cheng looked at Fatty and then eventually said, “It’s impossible for him to know about our habits in such a short amount of time we’ve spent in the nightmare.”
Fatty swallowed nervously, “So…”
“Fatty,” Jiang Cheng looked at him seriously, “I suspect he knows me… he might have interacted with me in real life.”
“Impossible.” Fatty was stunned. “Doctor, you have such a great mind. If you’ve seen him, you wouldn’t have forgotten about him. Plus, it’s so hard to trick someone like you.” Fatty added with embarrassment. “Doctor, you saw what he looked like. He’s almost the same as you. It’s hard not to notice someone like him in real life.”
With Fatty looking on, Jiang Cheng leaned back on the couch, “As long as I was conscious, naturally, he wouldn’t be able to trick me.”
“Huh?” Fatty was confused.
“I have lost a part of my memory.” Jiang Cheng curled up in the dark, “I can’t remember it… no matter what.”