My House of Horrors - Chapter 1181
Chapter 1181: Kill the Past to Welcome New Life? (2in1)
There appeared to be some kind of unique connection between Chen Ge and the human head inside the glass jar. When both of his hands touched the surface of the glass jar, the child’s head that was floating quietly like a specimen started to slowly turn. Everything was going along quite according to what he had experienced inside the brain maze but the only difference was in real life, Chen Ge could not see the battle between the black threads and the blood vessels.
“I feel like you originally belong to me somehow.” Chen Ge looked at the human head inside the glass jar and a very strange feeling arose in his heart. It was as if he was staring at his own head that was placed inside the glass jar. The child’s incomplete face stuck to the surface of the jar. He had no eyes and the two hollow eye sockets stared closely at Chen Ge. The two stared at each other just like that. Gradually Chen Ge was surprised to see another version of himself inside the child’s dark eye socket. His consciousness slowly blurred. His memory that was related to the past was sucked away by the head inside the jar and in their place was the memories of a third person.
“What is he planning to do?” His memory fragments were taken away, in other words, Chen Ge was slowly losing himself but he did not feel any anxiety or nervousness at all, as if he had just done an equal trade with the other party. The gaps in his mind were filled up by the child’s memory while the child had obtained Chen Ge’s past memory. Chen Ge’s mind was slowly emptied. All the locked memory fragments had been taken away by the head inside the glass jar, all the remained inside his mind were the memory fragments that he had already unlocked previously.
“Is he trying to help me unlock the memories in my brain?” Whenever Chen Ge tried to force himself to think about his past, he would be overwhelmed by a splitting headache, most of the time, even if he resisted the pain, he would not be able to unlock the most instrumental memories. Now this head inside the jar had sucked away all the locked memories in Chen Ge’s mind. It felt like he was worried that Chen Ge might be exposed and he even voluntarily filled in the gaps in Chen Ge’s mind with other memories. These memories that belonged to a third person were buried deeply in Chen Ge’s mind, he had no idea what kind of purpose they might serve.
After he felt more like himself, Chen Ge felt like the shackle around his brain had been loosened and his whole person felt much lighter. It was as if there was another force who was helping him shoulder the pain and despair. Chen Ge used his hands to rub the glass jar up and down. After he was certain he was unable to trigger any more response, he retreated out of the office in a hurry and returned to the quarantine area.
“There are seven glass jars in total, I have only encountered one so far, it is too early to draw any conclusion for now.” Chen Ge was lying in the quarantine area for about several minutes already before the hospital worker arrived. When he saw Chen Ge was obediently resting in bed, he sighed clearly out of relief. “I am going to sleep now, please help me close the door behind you.” Chen Ge said after he pulled the cover over him and he drifted off to sleep. The hospital director did not notice anything strange about this so he decided to not report anything that happened that morning to Doctor Gao.
At night, Doctor Gao and Xu Wan entered the quarantine area. They both started to persuade Chen Ge again, hoping that he would voluntarily cooperate with the treatment. Only by opening his heart and deleting the negative memories brought upon by his delusions that he would be able to welcome his new life. This time Chen Ge did not resist. After touching the glass jar with the child’s head that morning, most of the memories he had about his past had already been sucked away, so now he had nothing to be afraid of anymore.
The treatment after midnight was very successful so successful in fact that Doctor Gao himself was surprised. The effect of the treatment was too good, they had managed to destroy most of the past memory in Chen Ge’s brain at one go. Doctor Gao culminated on this and decided the main reason behind this was because Chen Ge had already given up on his falsified past and had decided to embrace his new life. To be honest, Chen Ge was definitely the most determined patient Doctor Gao had ever encountered.
To fully ‘cure’ a patient at the hospital, the first step was to remove their past memory and the second step was to rebuild them according to the hospital’s requirement, there were a few more steps after that, this was a very long and arduous process. But Chen Ge, the patient, had taken almost half a month to complete the first step of removing his past memory and it was only completed in the end because Chen Ge had voluntarily cooperated with him. Only then there was some ray of hope. Not only Chen Ge, even Doctor Gao himself was tired already.
“The treatment has a wonderful effect. I am sure you will be able to leave the hospital soon if you continue to work hard like this.” After who knew how long, finally Doctor Gao had a smile for Chen Ge again.
…
The surveillance on Chen Ge inside the hospital gradually lessened but his request to move back to the normal sick hall was still denied and normally he was prevented contact with other patients as well. Most of the time, it was Xu Wan who accompanied Chen Ge and provided him with the best and kindest care. They always seemed to have something to chat among them. In this hospital, Xu Wan appeared to represent all the kindness and goodness.
During this period, Chen Ge had been finding opportunities to sneak into the offices of the previous hospital directors. Each time there was shock but no danger, it felt like someone had been helping him from the shadows.
After the third treatment Doctor Gao had given Chen Ge, Doctor Sun had appeared again to bring Chen Ge to go and meet the vice hospital director. The feeling that this vice hospital director gave Chen Ge was very strange, it felt like they had met somewhere before, but Chen Ge had no memory of that meeting at all. If Chen Ge wanted to leave the hospital, then he had to get the approval from the vice hospital director. In other words, the vice hospital director was the most important person at the hospital for Chen Ge. He needed to pass through the vice hospital director’s examination before he was allowed to leafve the hospital. Ever after multiple treatments by Doctor Gao and repeated examinations by Doctor Gao and Doctor Sun, and both of them thought Chen Ge was progressing fine, the vice hospital director was still not satisfied.
Chen Ge could not do anything about this except continue to stay at the hospital and two more weeks passed like that. He finally found the chance to touch the last glass jar. All of his past memories were all hidden inside the glass jars. Now the memory in his brain had already been swapped. The memories from the seven glass jars were embedded deep inside his brain and they bound together to form a child that was seriously wounded. Even though the seven glass jars were still inside the hospital, the memories trapped inside the organs inside them had already escaped. They used this opportunity to slip into Chen Ge’s mind. For now, Chen Ge still had no idea what this meant but he was certain that the day for him to leave the hospital would not be far away now.
On the seventh day after he touched the last glass jar, Doctor Gao conducted the 17th treatment on Chen Ge. The treatment this time was very special, he did not warn Chen Ge about it. It was not until Chen Ge walked into the room that he realized Doctor Sun and that vice hospital director were also standing inside the room. Without giving him any chance to speak, when he pushed open the door, Chen Ge appeared to have fallen into the brain maze already. He did not even know when he was subjected to the trick.
“Chen Ge, this will be the last treatment for you. If this is successful, you will be able to leave the hospital in the morning.” Doctor Gao looked at Chen Ge with a smile. He, Doctor Sun and the vice hospital director all stood at one side of the table.
“how shall I cooperate with you?”
“Very simple.” Doctor Gao took out a tray from under the table. On the tray sat a sharp surgical scalpel. “Your second persona is hiding inside your heart. Dig out your heart, he is the last remaining vestige of your own delusion.”
“Can I still live after I have dug out my heart?” Chen Ge was not expecting this to be the last treatment. He thought he would have been able to leave the hospital already. He did not expect the hospital would be so careful, they would not let him go even after they had cleared away all of his past memory.
“Among you and your second persona, only one will be able to survive. If you cannot make this decision, then have your second persona make the decision for you.” Doctor Sun said darkly. The scars on his face were twitching. Not only Doctor Gao, even the vice hospital director did not appear to wish to stand close to Doctor Sun, perhaps they both thought Doctor Sun’s methods were too drastic. Taking out a whole bottle of pills from his pocket, Doctor Sun flipped off the cap. It was filled with the pills bound with the black strands.
“Give me some time to think about it.”
“It is time to give up on your past. This is only beneficial for you and him.” Doctor Sun tipped out some pills from the bottle. He did not even seem to count the number of pills that closely before he shoved them down Chen Ge’s throat. “Swallow them!” This action shocked both the vice hospital director and Doctor Gao but it was too late for them to stop Doctor Sun already. Chen Ge believed he had swallowed seven pills in total, and his body reacted to them almost instantly. His capillaries popped and wiggled like poisonous snakes on his skin. His skin turned blood red and his eyes were bloodshot like they were about to explode. His rationality was completely consumed in that moment, a beast like roar escaped from Chen Ge’s throat. Seeing the pain that Chen Ge was in, Doctor Sun appeared like he was admiring the most beautiful painting in the world. He caressed the wounds on his face and he looked positively drunk on happiness. “Do not control yourself, let your second persona come out!”
Doctor Sun yelled at the top of his lungs. He grabbed at the bottle of the pills again. This time he was stopped by Doctor Gao. If not, he probably would have poured the rest of the pills into Chen Ge’s mouth as well. The curse’s black fire burned Chen Ge’s consciousness. Chen Ge started to hallucinate. He could feel his soul was being grabbed by multiple hands and his body was slowly being dragged into a sea of curses.
His consciousness started to blur and in that moment, he saw again that man who was facing away from him. In the waves of curses, he had taken on 90 percent of the pain for Chen Ge. This man who felt so familiar to Chen Ge, did not turn his head around. He was guarding a heart and stood among the sea of curses like an unweilding reef.
“You are my second persona…” When the last time he saw this man, Chen Ge was also at the verge of a mental breakdown. It was the same again this time. He was force fed too many drugs at one time, the waves of curses ravaged his mind but even if the world appeared like it was ending, the figure still refused to budge. All the memories were shaken loose. When Chen Ge’s memory and consciousness were about to collapse, a child covered in wounds walked out from the deepest past of Chen Ge’s memory.
The curse did not seem to be able to affect the boy much. The child was like a shadow. He slithered to the man who was facing against Chen Ge’s side and whispered something into the man’s ears. Chen Ge was too far away to hear what the child said. He merely saw after the man heard what the child had to say, his body shuddered lightly. He slowly turned around to look at Chen Ge standing behind him. This was the first time Chen Ge saw the man’s face. This man who was referred to as his second persona by Doctor Gao did not look like Chen Ge at all. There was a bottomless melancholy in his eyes and the front of his body did not have a part that was not injured. “Who are you? Why do you still help me suffer most of the pain even though you are already so heavily injured?”
It was unclear how much curses the man had already suffered, it was too much to count. He looked at Chen Ge silently as he slowly let go of his hands. He then handed the heart that he had been guarding all these time to the child. The child carried the heart and returned to the deepest part of Chen Ge’s mind. The man used the last ounce of energy that he had to smile at Chen Ge and then he turned to wade into the black sea of curses.
The unimaginable waves came to swallow Chen Ge then and he too was washed away by the curse and pain. After who knew how long, when Chen Ge opened his eyes again, he saw before his eyes there was a tray that had a bloody scalpel and a beating heart before him.
“Chen Ge, your last treatment is very successful! Congratulation!”
“When your second persona took over your physical body, he had voluntarily cut open his heart and left your body.” The vice hospital director and Doctor Gao talked over each other. The kind smiles on their faces formed a great contrast to the bloody and pounding heart on the tray.
With a pale face, Chen Ge looked at the beating tray on the tray. Then his body slowly slid backwards, “After losing his heart, can a person still survive?”
…
Chen Ge’s body collapsed heavily to the ground. Then his eyes flew open. Air seemed to flow into his chest then.
“You have completed your last treatment and have made the correct choice. You have killed the false version of yourself. From now on, you will be able to welcome a brand new life!” The vice hospital director personally lifted Chen Ge up from the ground. He and the two doctors repeatedly wrote down something on Chen Ge’s files. “bring him back to the normal sickroom, tomorrow we should be prepared with the papers for him to leave the hospital.”
With the order from the vice hospital director, Doctor Gao also sighed in relief. This most difficult patient he ever had finally was going to leave already. He carried Chen Ge to leave the treatment room. The vice hospital director and Doctor Sun though were arguing over something while presiding over Chen Ge’s file.
He returned to the normal sickroom and Chen Ge collapsed on the familiar bed. The extreme fatigue claimed him immediately and he soon fainted.
Early the next morning, the sun shone warmly on his face but he could only feel chill all over his body. “That was not my second persona at all. What kind of choice he has made inside the vice hospital director’s brain maze? And whose heart was that which he had given to the child?”
After a month plus treatment at the hospital, the doctors all felt Chen Ge had already fulfilled their requirement but in reality Chen Ge did not change at all, if anything, he had become more suspicious of this hospital. There was even a maddening thought in his mind. If there was a chance, he would have to level this place. Initially this thought was not that strong but after that last treatment, after Chen Ge saw the man who had been shielding him from the curses leave, now his brain was only filled with such thoughts.
“killing my past self to welcome a brand new life…” Chen Ge mumbled to himself. This appeared to be one of his old habits. He liked to talk to himself about things that others would not have understood.
Bang! Bang! Bang! The knocking came and the person knocked in total for seven times. The door opened and Doctor Sun walked into the room. He looked at Chen Ge in bed and he only said one thing. “Go and find locker 29, the real treatment only starts now.”
After saying that, Doctor Sun cracked his knuckles and then turned to leave.
“Creating a new memory for me, making it so that I almost murdered my roommate in cold blood, using hypnosis and medicine to cause hallucinations to torment me, and all that was just the first step of the treatment.” Chen Ge’s situation was extremely unique and he almost perished in this process. He had a hard time imagining what would happen to a normal patient after they were sent to this hospital.