351 His 3 Children

 

“Why is there a door here?” The dark red blood soaked deep into the wood, like it was a part of the inner wall of the dresser. Han Fei didn’t touch it but instead used his phone to take a picture of it. While he did that, he discovered something else. In the middle of the ‘blood door’, there was a faded carving of a headless door guardian. A line was carved across the guardian’s neck.

‘Is this the headless guardian from Room 4044? Its head was decapitated by Fu Sheng?’ The dresser before him had witnessed many secrets. If not for the inconvenience, Han Fei wanted to carry the whole dresser home. Zhuang Ren’s tape didn’t show what happened inside this room but based on Han Fei’s experience, he could figure them out quite easily.

‘Fu Sheng said that Butterfly is a ghost so there is a good chance that Butterfly originated from the cryptic world, but what exactly is its original self? Would the Butterfly show itself on the Night of Resurrection?’ On the Night of Resurrection 14 years ago, many horrible cases happened at Xin Lu. Many innocent people died that night, they were probably Butterfly’s Living Sacrifices. But what confused Han Fei was, ‘What was the goal of Butterfly for killing so many people? What would it gain?’

Han Fei frowned contemplatively when he heard a wispy song come from somewhere inside the building. Hearing the melody, Han Fei instinctively moved to the corner to hide. He held the nunchucks nervously. He only realized he was in the real world when he thought about opening his inventory.

‘This building has been abandoned for decades already, there should be no one here but me so where did the song come from?’ Due to the distance, Han Fei couldn’t hear the song that clearly. He walked out the door and climbed up the stairs. When he reached the top floor, the song became much clearer. ‘It came from here?’

The top floor’s corridor was crowded with trash. A few boxes that were filled with books and old clothes caught Han Fei’s attention. ‘Why are these left behind?’ Han Fei took out the dusty books until 3 things were left inside the box. A broken music box, a wooden doll wearing a mask, and a children’s outfit spattered with paint.

The song came from the music box. Han Fei wanted to switch it off but as he examined the music box, he realized there was something written on the bottom—I hope that everyone in the world can hear your voice and that you can move their heartstrings, bringing them warmth and salvation. It was a very simple wish but the terms, ‘warmth’ and ‘salvation’ unsettled Han Fei. ‘Why would they need warmth and salvation? Unless the ‘they’ here is not referring to living humans…’

Han Fei then picked up the doll. He removed the mask and realized a sentence was written on the back of the mask—One day you will grow old, I hope you’ll build them a theme park, to teach them the meaning of joy and teach them how to smile.

‘The Singer was always patrolling around Happiness Neighbourhood and this wooden doll looks like the broken doll on the 9th floor of Building 1 at Happiness Neighbourhood…’

Han Fei spread open the children’s outfit and Han Fei found this written among the splotches of color—The world itself has no color, if you see darkness, then the world is dark; if you see rainbows, then the world is colorful. You are my first child, I wish to give you all the best blessing and hope that you will spread that blessing to others.

Han Fei focused on the phrase, ‘you are my first child’. A normal person might sigh with lamentation seeing these things. They were the blessing and hope of a father for his children. But Han Fei was different. He was the new manager at Happiness Neighbourhood. Through the mission, he obtained the landlord’s 3 cigarettes and from that, he knew that the landlord had 3 children. ‘Assuming that the landlord is the previous manager, does that mean his 3 children correspond to these 3 things? Does that mean the Singer is related to the previous manager?’

Holding the objects, Han Fei stood inside the corridor alone. He looked around and saw the old world around him. ‘There’s no reason for this broken music box to suddenly play, unless someone wanted me to find this. But there shouldn’t be anyone else here.’ Sitting on the steps, Han Fei’s heart slowly calmed down. He felt the presence of a kind old man around him. He had been watching Han Fei for some time.

‘I have too little information to go on.’ Han Fei stood up. As he prepared to put all these 3 things away, his phone vibrated. It was a call from Huang Yin.

“Are you awake?”

“I still haven’t slept, what happened?” After a simple exchange, Huang Yin sent over a video. “The police set up a surveillance camera at my home and they captured this.” Huang Yin in the video crawled up from bed at 3 am to open the dresser. He appeared to be choosing attire but nothing seemed to satisfy him. Moments later, he sat before the vanity chair and started to put on makeup. After he was done, he walked into the kitchen.

With his eyes closed, Huang Yin started to cook some porridge and simple meals to go with it. At 4 am, Huang Yin served the food on the dining table. He didn’t switch on the light but sat at the table, looking at the empty space beside him. His mouth kept moving. He spoke very slowly, like a mother consoling a naughty son. The whole process was eerie, it was scarier than actually seeing a ghost.

Around 4.30 am, Huang Yin stood up from the dining table. He started to pour out the untouched food from the pots and bowls. Then he started to do the dishes. After some more cleaning and returning everything back to their places, Huang Yin turned around and flashed a creepy smile at the camera. Then he returned to the bedroom to sleep.

At 4.44 am, the real Huang Yin woke up. He looked at himself in the mirror and had no idea what happened the night before. “If not for the police telling me this, I have no idea I had woken up the night before. It is definitely not me who was cooking.” There was a surprising calmness in Huang Yin’s voice, “It is trying to dominate my thoughts, as if attempting to replace me. It has gotten tired of torturing me in my sleep, and instead has started to influence my real life.”

“Brother Huang…” Han Fei could hear the change to Huang Yin’s tone. He didn’t sound like the man who Han Fei knew anymore. Han Fei decided that he shouldn’t intervene too rashly.

“My memory is like a faded photograph. Many things that should be mine aren’t mine anymore. I have a feeling that something bad will happen tonight.”

“What is it?”

“Someone will die.” Huang Yin wanted to say something else but there came the sound of the door opening. His tone slowly changed again. After a few more words, Huang Yin hung up.

“I’ve already told Huang Yin to not contact me for these few days. We would work on both ends to interrupt Butterfly but he seemed to have forgotten that… Was the person who talked to me really Huang Yin?” Han Fei thought back to the sound of the door opening near the end of the call, it didn’t sound like the dresser opening.

Putting away the things inside the boxes, Han Fei retraced his steps.

Zhuang Ren had finished cleaning up, he looked quite smart.

“Are we going to go now?”