The Newspaper

The fat man probably understood that he had only survived the mission this time because he'd run into Jiang Cheng. Next time, he likely wouldn't be so lucky.

The fat man looked embarrassed at being seen through. Jiang Cheng quickly searched him, found nothing unusual, and let him go. At the same time, he switched on the light overhead.

Leaning against the wall, the fat man rubbed his arm and looked around Jiang Cheng's office.

"Hey, brother." The fat man craned his neck to see the casebooks on the desk, then looked up at Jiang Cheng and asked, "Are you a... doctor?"

"Mm."

"What do you specialize in?"

Jiang Cheng walked over to the desk, sat down, and raised his head. "Treating all kinds of insubordination."

The fat man swallowed, as if he wanted to say something else, but he obediently kept quiet. At Jiang Cheng's instruction, he sat on the sofa opposite him.

The sofa looked rather old. The armrests were cracked and peeling, and the other side seemed to fold down, turning it into a bed.

Sometimes, Jiang Cheng would ask patients who came in for consultations to lie there and help them relax.

From their conversation, Jiang Cheng learned that the fat man's name was Wang Fugui. He'd done all kinds of jobs over the years, and his most recent one had been driving long-haul trucks.

But he'd quit for some reason. His home was in Goose City, quite a distance from Rong City.

The fat man said this was his first time entering the Nightmare World.

Jiang Cheng asked him why, then, he was so neatly dressed and had even thought to bring an umbrella. That wasn't how ordinary people dressed to sleep.

The fat man scratched his head and explained awkwardly that he'd had a huge argument with his boss over withheld wages. Afterward, he'd been kicked out of the employee dormitory. He didn't have money for a hotel, so he'd gone to a small park to get by until morning. But he hadn't expected—

Jiang Cheng knew what he'd meant to say: he hadn't expected to fall asleep and wake up in that haunted place.

"You went through a door too?"

"That's right." The fat man nodded, his expression growing grim. "The door was in a wall in the park, but I remember there wasn't a door there before."

It was much like Jiang Cheng's own experience. It seemed that everyone who entered the Dream Realm passed through a door that hadn't existed before; the only difference was where the door appeared.

Jiang Cheng glanced at the time. It was the middle of the night.

He turned back and said to the fat man very formally, "You can stay until dawn, but you have to leave once it's light."

The fat man looked at Jiang Cheng pleadingly.

But Jiang Cheng didn't waver in the slightest. After saying that, he ignored the fat man, sat in his chair, and took a piece of paper from his pocket. It had been folded over and over.

He unfolded it and smoothed it out on the desk.

The fat man craned his neck to look. In the end, he couldn't resist and wandered over for a closer look.

It was a newspaper. The paper had turned slightly yellow, and most of the print was blurry. Jiang Cheng flipped it over. In a prominent spot on the back, a line of large, clear text read: "Villa Massacre Case Solved; Murderous Family Dies in River."

The article went on to reveal the details of the case.

The couple who owned the villa and their two daughters were all cultists. The husband drove a bus disguised as a tour coach to lure unsuspecting victims to their villa in the woods. One daughter posed as a tour guide, while the other posted bait online. The mother coordinated the whole operation.

They imprisoned the victims they lured in and tortured them in the villa. In just one month, local police had received reports of multiple disappearances.

Among the missing were a pair of twin brothers.

In the end, the police pieced together the missing people's movements and followed the clues to the villa hidden in the dense woods. But the unusually perceptive family of criminals had already escaped, taking three victims with them.

Late that night, they sped away in the bus along a remote road. But after days of heavy rain, part of the road had collapsed. The bus was going too fast to swerve in time and plunged into the river beside the road.

When they were found, all four members of the criminal family and the three victims had drowned.

This must have been the background information for the previous mission—or, more accurately, the truth.

But that wasn't the only thing that caught Jiang Cheng's attention. Below it were several photographs. One showed the corpse of a person who had drowned. It had probably been published at the police's request.

The caption said the victim's identity had yet to be determined, and asked anyone who knew anything about the deceased to contact the police.

From the photo, the dead man had been tall and heavily built. His face was blurry, as if it had been deliberately obscured. His black leather jacket with its turned-down collar stood out. There were also photos of several belongings he'd carried.

The fat man's gaze moved slowly down the page until he saw a pocket watch. He froze for a moment, then suddenly grew agitated. "Doctor, this is—"

Jiang Cheng cut him off before he could continue. "Looks like Fan Li."

The newspaper was dated June 1, 2006. In other words, this case had happened fourteen years ago, and Fan Li had died in a time that belonged to the past.

No wonder the police back then hadn't been able to find any records about him.

"So every Nightmare World really existed, and those doors send us back to the past to experience what those people went through?" the fat man asked in astonishment.

Jiang Cheng thought it over before replying, "It's possible, but one example proves nothing. We've only experienced one nightmare so far, so drawing a conclusion now would be too hasty."

"And there's one thing you got wrong." Jiang Cheng put the newspaper away and folded it up. Looking at the fat man, he said, "Even if those doors really do send us back to the past, all we're experiencing is the tragedy suffered by the victims—or, in other words, another nightmare."

After thinking it over for a moment, the fat man realized Jiang Cheng was right. The people in the previous mission had called it a Nightmare World, which showed how terrifying that world was. Every time, they would face a life-or-death crisis.

Sister Nuan and Fan Li had clearly already survived at least one mission, but they had still died horribly at the hands of the ghosts.

"Doctor..." The fat man's lips trembled. "Do you remember how there were water stains wherever the ghosts appeared in the villa?"

Jiang Cheng nodded. "The family who committed the crimes all drowned, so even after they became ghosts, they kept that trait."

The fat man nodded, his face pale. Then, as if something had suddenly occurred to him, he stared at the newspaper in Jiang Cheng's hands with his round eyes.

Seeing Jiang Cheng's wary expression, the fat man hurriedly explained, "Doctor, don't get me wrong. I just want to know where you got that newspaper."

Jiang Cheng answered without hesitation. "Chen Xiaomeng gave it to me."

"Her?" The fat man looked suspicious. Then he said, "Doctor, I may not be as smart as you, but I'm not stupid. If she really had something like that, she'd burn it before she'd ever give it to you."