Could He Have Died Long Ago?

"Burnt Ward, Carnation, Room Thirteen, and the Computer Room. There are four scenes in total. We've completed two, and the Carnation and Computer Room scenes are left."

"It could only be in the Inpatient Department. With so many Inpatient Department, the Haunted House owner must have designed it specifically."

The female companion analyzed the situation carefully as she spoke.

The three left the ward where the fire had occurred. The first floor had been explored. They went up to the second floor through the corridor. The second floor contained several similar wards, and the layout of these wards was almost identical.

Some wards are slightly better.

There's a cabinet next to the bed, which contains items that weren't taken away many years ago. Of course, they're all moldy now and unusable.

"Su Ren, look, there's a diary here."

The female companion saw a small booklet on the bedside table.

She carefully picked it out, almost tearing the booklet, but luckily she moved very lightly, and even though the booklet was already yellowed and damp, she still managed to take it off the table.

"2016..."

"I hate this illness. I haven't eaten for a week. Even when I'm very hungry, I throw up immediately if I eat anything oily. The doctor prescribed all sorts of medications, and my parents brought me all sorts of medicines, but none of them have helped."

"I think I'm hallucinating from hunger. I keep waking up at night, half-asleep and hungry, but I can't move at all. I see a woman covered in burns, walking around my room. She's groping for something, looking for something, and talking, but I can't hear her at all."

"I told the doctor about this, and the doctor referred me to Dr. Yang Feikuang to apply for ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) treatment."

Page 2.

"I swear this was the most painful and agonizing treatment I've ever suffered. They made me stop eating the day before, which didn't matter since I wasn't eating anything anyway and my stomach was full of water. But the treatment they actually performed was to shock my brain with electricity."

"Even though I was given anesthesia, I was still in excruciating pain after the treatment. I feel like I've lost a lot of my memory; I can't remember anything. I can't remember what I wrote or read yesterday, or even whether I went to the bathroom a second ago."

"I hope the treatment is effective, otherwise wouldn't all this suffering have been for nothing?"

Page 3.

"2016..."

"The treatment is useless. I still dream about the burned woman. I asked other old patients about her background, but they were all very reluctant to talk about it and stammered and refused to tell me. My cell phone was also taken away, and the mental hospital doesn't allow pens, so I can only write it down with colored pens."

"Dr. Yang Feikuang seems angry. He's adjusting his equipment. I'm terrified because even the current is painful enough, it's making me panic. If they're going to increase the intensity, do I really think I can survive?"

There is no fourth page.

Su Ren looked at the news from that year again. "Could this be a prop specially set up by the Haunted House owner to coincide with the fire accident back then?"

"A mother and her son died in the fire years ago, so the woman kept looking for her son after she died, and the patients all saw her."

"If they were to create a burnt-out hospital ward just to recreate this scene, the cost would be far too high; it simply doesn't make sense."

Countless questions swirled in Su Ren's mind.

He shook his head, forcing himself to forget about it.

Turning a few pages further, it became clear that after this patient underwent the "Yang Feikuang" ECT treatment, there were no new entries in the diary, and no one knew what became of him.

But at the bottom of the booklet was an admission certificate.

The document contained the patient's name and a photograph.

The photo is of a patient, wearing a hospital gown. The person in the photo is extremely thin, emaciated, with skin clinging to the bones like a layer of mucus. The kind of person who could give someone a heart attack if they suddenly stood on the street.

"Use real photos?"

"Won't this infringe on the patient's portrait rights? Did you obtain the patient's consent?"

"No, what if it's an AI photo? Don't forget, the Haunted House owner is a virtual technology expert; creating an AI photo would be a piece of cake for him, wouldn't you say?"

Upon seeing the photo, Su Ren began to believe the contents of the diary, but he remained tight-lipped. So he asked his companion, partly to bolster his own courage.

As a result, both companions fell silent.

Last night, the Zhang Ze murder scandal broke out.

Police from West City Police Station found more than a dozen mentally ill patients identified as missing persons in the Inpatient Department of the Second Ward.

It's important to understand that many mentally ill people are seen as a burden by their families, and coupled with societal disapproval, they are easily abandoned or controlled for various reasons.

With so many mentally ill patients gathered in the Second Ward, who will manage them and provide for them?

There's clearly a problem with the Second Ward!

This is also why they gave up going to the Second Ward and opted to visit the Second Ward -themed haunted Haunted House instead. It's like finding a real Border Collie too smart and disobedient, so they bought a small black and white mixed-breed dog to raise as a Border Collie.

To determine whether the patient is genuine or not, why not simply check the mentally ill patients rescued by the police?

Do they dare?

Obviously not!

Both companions fell silent. Su Ren put down the photo in his hand. His intuition told him that this thing was not fake, nor was it Haunted House Way.

The marks left by the erosion of time cannot be faked.

"Huh? Su Ren, slow down."

Something fell out.

I don't know if I didn't hold it properly or if it wasn't held tightly to begin with, but a few more photos fell out of the diary booklet. They looked like photos of other patients in the same ward.

The female companion, afraid of being too slow, quickly bent down to pick it up and intended to put it back in its original place.

However, the next second...

Her female companion froze instantly.

"Damn it, what are you doing? Did you hurt your back?!"

"Don't scare me like that!!"

Su Ren was already nervous enough, but seeing his female companion's actions made him even more anxious. He snatched the photo and saw that, in addition to the thin patient he had just seen in his diary, there was another person who looked very familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before.

This person is... a bald man...

Su Ren and his remaining male companion were also stunned.

"Is that Baldheaded Boss mentally ill?"

We were just playing a game with a mentally ill person?

"No, no, no, it's not that simple. Those are mental patients in the Second Ward. Maybe that bald guy escaped when the police rescued him last night."

Her female companion's lips trembled, her mind racing with a multitude of thoughts. "Su Ren, Su Ren, this is really serious! We just saw that bald guy! He... he... he went into that bathroom and never came out!"

"If he's mentally ill, at least he's still a living person; we can still find him, right?"

"We can't even find him, could it be... he's already dead?"