641 Bliss is a Monster

 

“Didn’t you see these things when you came in the day?” The players were shocked when they saw the cupboard full of human heads. They looked so real.

“I was targeted by a ghost. I didn’t have the time to examine the room.” Lee Guo Er technically didn’t lie.

“Thousand Nights, bring a team to guard the corridor. Others, come in. Do not miss out on any clue.” F enjoyed a higher position than Qiang Wei. Even Inmate followed his orders.

The candles lit up the room and No. 11’s former life. The room maintained the décor from the last century. The place hadn’t been cleaned for a long time, so it felt like a time capsule. Stepping over the scattered pills, Han Fei moved away from the window. Fear almost consumed him. Standing beside the window, he had this feeling someone would push him from behind. ‘Why would I think of death whenever I stood beside the window? I could even see my dead body.’

Han Fei picked up the pills and wiped away the surface dust. He noticed they were similar to the medicine Doctor Fu prescribed him. ‘No. 11 has the same disease as I do? Or we have the same doctor?’

Different from the other players who wandered about aimlessly, Han Fei felt a twinge of familiar fear once he entered the room. He had not only been here, but he had also died here. Han Fei avoided the other players and walked towards the innermost bedroom. He opened the door and was greeted by the deep red bedroom. The owner appeared to be a student. There were unfinished test papers on the table. Various children's shoes lay on the ground.

“How come it looks like you know what you’re doing?” F had been observing everyone. He approached Han Fei. “Have you been here before?”

Han Fei shook his head before entering the bedroom. The room didn’t look strange at first glance but there were many details that were out of place. For example, the shoes were all different sizes. Some were male shoes and others female shoes. Clearly, they didn’t belong to the same person. The styles of the shoes were varied too. The owner appeared to have the habit of collecting shoes, especially those worn by others.

Han Fei picked up a random shoe. He noticed that all the shoes had something stuffed inside them. Some had sharp thumbtacks, others had glass shards, and all had medicinal pills.

“How can one even walk in these?”

“This deep red room appears to be some kind of symbolism that represents the owner’s state of mind.” F held the black blade and commented. “Missing person flyers posted all over the corridor, and one of them stated that a girl around five went missing around here. She was wearing a pair of pink flats at the time. They sound exactly like the shoe you’re holding.”

“So you mean… the owner kidnapped those kids?”

“Accurately speaking, I suspected it was the owner’s adopted parents who had been stealing those children.” F scanned the shoes. “The shoes represent legs, but they symbolize running and motion. So many shoes are trapped here, and they are stuffed with pills and sharp objects. Don’t you think they represent control and imprisonment?”

“I think you’re right.” Han Fei studied F. The mysterious F had a rational brain, a black blade, which could harm monsters and a group of loyal followers. He could very well be the first-ranked player. In contrast, Han Fei lost everything but a stack of old scripts and an ugly cat.

Han Fei walked to the study table. He looked through the test papers, and a chill enveloped him. The owner appeared to have serious mental problems. He would comprehend things from a highly depressive angle. Even the most uplifting literature would be oppressive in his eyes. However, Han Fei noticed from the test papers that the owner was also a genius because there were many tests that he scored full marks in.

“A dumb madman is not scary. The scariest individual is a highly intelligent madman.” F walked over. He was uncomfortably close to Han Fei. “Don’t you agree?” F’s eyes appeared to look through Han Fei’s mask. Han Fei felt that F was different from the other players. Han Fei ignored F and pulled out the drawer. A bag of balloons was inside the drawer, and each balloon had a picture printed on them. Han Fei took a balloon out and blew it up. He was shocked. The picture on the balloon was a human head. As Han Fei blew into it, the human head came alive. The expressive face looked at him.

“What are you doing?” Lee Guo Er and Worm walked over. Inmate followed behind them. They saw Han Fei blowing up a human head in the dark.

“The owner appeared to love his parents a lot. He had made their heads into models and balloons.” Han Fei looked at the balloon in his grasp. “Think about it. The owner locked up his room and stayed in bed alone, accompanied by the heads of all his parents. Perhaps he did that so that he wouldn’t be so lonely anymore.”

Other than F, all the players’ gazes changed. They were stunned.

“How did you even come up with that?” Lee Guo Er realized she had underestimated Han Fei.

“You’d look up and see your parents. I suppose that is a kind of accompaniment too.” Han Fei let go, and the giant balloon wheezed through the air. It sounded like a child crying. Han Fei picked up the bag of balloons and handed it to F. He didn’t want to hold them.

Han Fei opened the second drawer. It had a sharp fruit knife. The drawer was clean and empty but for the knife. This was strange inside a children’s bedroom.

“The first drawer has balloons painted with his parents’ faces. The second drawer has a sharp knife…” Han Fei opened the third drawer. It had a journal. Han Fei pulled it out and flipped through it.

“January 4th, I realize I like playing with kittens. Ever since my kitten died, I wished to have another, but there was no such chance.’

“February 7th. The neighbor’s cat would always come to visit. The kitten was very obedient. I planned to buy it from its owner.

“July 7th. Collected a lost pet cat. It was strong and obedient. It wouldn’t make noise at home. Training completed. Sold for 150.

“August 9th. Caught a stray cat at the theme park. It looked dirty at first but it was quite handsome after a bath. Unfortunately, it seemed to be mentally impaired. Sold for 95.

“November 11th. Adopted a Garfield Cat at the cattery. It was obedient and knew how to make nice to its owner. Most importantly, it was very clever. Honestly, I couldn’t bear to sell it. 2500, unsold.”

The journal had much info. When Han Fei reached the last page, his eyes narrowed.

“The owner adopted a cat on November 11 and didn’t have the heart to sell it?” No. 11 was adopted by his last family on November 11. From this angle, the cattery might not mean a real cattery but the orphanage. Following this train of thoughts, the cats mentioned in the journal were not cats but children!

The thin journal contained the deepest sin. Han Fei finished the book without realizing it. There were details he had missed in the script.

The back of the journal had children’s drawings and several sentences written in uneven handwriting.

“The gardener plucked the fresh flowers and hid them in his pocket. He brought the flowers out of the wall and dumped them beside the muddy street.

“The passing wild dog bit on the flowers and brought them into the dark alley.

“The door to the outside world closed. The fresh flowers were dropped in the dark. Some of them wilted, and others took root. A few turned back into seeds.

“The seeds called their parent’s names. They were planted in different pots and brought into different darkrooms.

“One day, the seed buried deep inside the pot grew. People were afraid after seeing it because the flower didn’t look like the people expected it to.”

The sentences meant nothing.

“The last parents who adopted No. 11 should be human traffickers. They were satisfied with No. 11, but something must have happened before they could sell him off.” Lee Guo Er entered the room and read the journal too. “They deserved to die.”

“I agree with you.” F took the journal from Han Fei and kept reading.

“No. 11 was adopted eleven times, but he was abandoned every time. What was wrong with him?” The human traffickers adopted No. 11. After that, No. 11 didn’t return to the orphanage. In a way, he was a good ‘ghost’.

Just as Han Fei thought that he heard F say, “The last adopted child is the reason this place is like this. He took revenge on the human traffickers but also harmed others. He is quite a morally ambiguous ghost.”

F didn’t have any prejudice against ghosts. He saw things fairly.

“Was the woman earlier the children’s mother? Since they human traffickers, why would they prepare medicine for No. 11?” Worm was confused.

“The medicine might not be useful. Some medicine is not meant to heal but to turn people obedient.” F kept the journal while Han Fei took the knife from the drawer. Holding the knife, Han Fei felt more at ease. He felt like the knife was an extension of his arm. ‘Slice, dice, finding the weakest spot… Why would I know these things as a scriptwriter?’ Han Fei silently put the knife away. He continued to search and finally stopped before the only dresser in the room.

The dresser contained many masks, arranged from smallest to biggest. Every mask had a bloody message. The smallest mask had only two words, Huang Cheng. That appeared to be No. 11’s first name. The smallest mask was also the cleanest.

The name, Huang Cheng, had been covered up on the second mask. The mask was filled with the written character, laughter. But the mask was a crying mask.

The third mask had more words. As the mask grew larger, the owner became crazier and more unhinged.

“These masks appear to represent his experience of being abandoned eleven times, from the initial hope for life to the final transformation to a monster.” Han Fei scanned all the masks. He had a question. ‘No matter how unlucky a child is, he won’t keep running into bad families… unless the orphanage purposely chose these horrible families for No. 11?’ Han Fei shivered. When the person responsible for kindness became rotten, then heaven would become hell.

Starting from the sixth mask, the words became quite illogical. The child had put on the mask. He would take on different personalities to appease his adopted parents. However, the real him grew into a poisonous plant inside a darkroom.

Words and colors covered the facial features of the masks. He lost his face.

Han Fei looked at the last face. It was a clown face with many colors. It had an exaggerated smile and a blue teardrop at the corner of the eye. Behind the mask was a sentence written in black.

“Bliss is a murderous monster, but I still reach for it. What about you?”