Trigger warning: mention of suicide
Chapter 35
It was indeed a burned down rehabilitation center. The walls of the first floor lobby were mottled and covered with scorched black marks.
More than half the ceiling had collapsed, exposing the curved keels within.
According to the map at the entrance, on the first floor, aside from the reception hall, there was the canteen on the left side, which led to the playground in the back; and to the right, were the public toilets and bathing center.
There were heavy iron doors on the left and right sides. The times for eating, bathing, and going to the toilet were posted at the entrance.
Bathrooms were for girls’ use on odd-numbered days and boys’ use on even-numbered days.
Si Chen felt that eating or bathing every other day would be manageable but limiting when one is allowed to use the toilet was simply too perverted.
Directly facing the main doors were the elevators and stairs.
The stairway was sealed with a fine iron mesh. The both of them tried but failed to open it.
The elevator had long gone out of commission.
Si Chen held the lamp and stopped at the entrance of the corridor. The iron gate here was open, leading to a seemingly bottomless depth.
Yu Lian looked at the sign to the corridor and gulped. “Are we really going in there? It’s haunted.”
Si Chen pondered for a moment, then took out the smartphone he had stolen from the food cart ghost. He dialed Doctor’s landline number.
In the middle of the night, the sound of a ringing phone rang out harshly in the silent rehabilitation center.
“Rrrrrriiiiinggg! Rrrrrriiiinngggg!”
Si Chen and Yu Lian both turned to look towards the source of the sound.
It was deep in the corridor on this side leading to the bathing center and public toilets.
Si Chen hung up the call but the annoying ringing still didn’t end.
He held up the red lamp and shone it into the corridor.
It was very quiet inside. Probably because of the humidity, the vestiges of the fire weren’t as severe.
Numerous door frames lined both sides; but there were no doors. Faint moonlight shone in through the iron windows. They could see the showers and toilets separated by concrete walls.
Si Chen raised his leg, making to go inside.
Yu Lian was so frightened that his soul almost left his body. “Ge! What are you doing! There are ghosts in there!”
Si Chen replied, “There’s no other place to go. Besides, we can’t just let the phone keep on ringing.”
Yu Lian wanted to cry. “Why can’t we let it keep ringing?”
“It’s too noisy.” Si Chen paused, “If you’re scared, you can wait for me here.”
Yu Lian: “…”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Yu Lian rubbed his chest, over his thumping little heart. “I always knew you could be killed with a closing door. Now, we’ve been caught by a ghost. Ge, I’m sorry to tell you but according to normal horror movie routine, the shower in the bathroom will suddenly turn on and…”
Almost as soon as he spoke those words, they heard splashing sounds from a shower on the left.
The shower sprayed out bloody dark red water that had a strong raw smell.
The temperature in the corridor dropped suddenly, like they were entering a morgue instead of a bathroom.
Yu Lian followed behind Si Chen. His body stiffened. “…Damn my smart mouth.”
A child’s laughter came from behind them. It sounded like it came from the hall.
Yu Lian said, trembling, “Father, you can’t turn your head to look back. There are three fires on a person’s shoulders and they’ll go out if you look back.”
Si Chen turned a blind eye to the rebellious shower and went straight to the deepest part of the corridor.
On the wall of the corridor, was a wired telephone. The piercing ringing echoed in the empty corridor.
Si Chen pressed the hands-free button.
Doctor’s voice was unhurried. Coming from the loudspeaker, it was a little distorted. “Welcome to the House of the Mind, my dear patient.”
“Today, we shall hear the story of a patient named Xiao Zhou.”
“Xiao Zhou suffered from a severe case of bipolar disorder. Almost every week, he was sent to the hospital to be bandaged because of self-inflicted wounds.”
“En, Xiao Zhou, because of the medicine, was 180cm tall and weighed 180kg. The thick layer of fat kept him from successfully committing suicide.”
“One day, after bringing Xiao Zhou back from the hospital once again, his parents were finally defeated. Instead of taking him home, they sent him to our rehabilitation center.”
“When he hadn’t been sick, Xiao Zhou was a somewhat introverted and shy boy who liked swimming. He was once the champion of the city’s children’s swimming competition.”
“Only by digging out the cause, can we treat the symptoms. After a period of interaction with the patient, I learned that Xiao Zhou had shown amazing swimming talent since he was a child. High hopes had been placed upon him by his parents and coaches. Everyone hoped that he could enter the provincial swim team and then go on to the national team, bringing fame and glory to these adults… However, when he was 12 years, competing to be a member of the provincial team, he lost due to a sudden cramp while in the water.”
“No one showed him any consideration. His parents said that he had shamed them.”
“In his second year and the third year, Xiao Zhou continued to fail for various reasons. All his teammates had successfully joined the provincial team and some had even managed to join the national team for training. Only he was still trapped in the shallows.”
“He then made a decision that he would regret for the rest of his life. Wanting to get a better ranking, he obeyed his parents and took steroids during a competition…. As a result, he was exposed and kicked out of the city’s swim team. He was then transferred from a sports school to an ordinary school.”
“Xiao Zhou had severe auditory hallucinations. He felt like everyone was talking about him behind his back, saying that he got those honors by taking steroids, that he’d deceived the world…”
“He gradually grew to fear the water. Whenever he saw water, he became nervous and nauseous. Xiao Zhou knew that he would never be able to swim again.”
In the bathroom, the sound of falling water continued. Now, dozens of shower heads had begun to release water together and a layer of sewage quickly accumulated on the ground.
“So, in order to help Xiao Zhou overcome his psychological shadow, I encouraged him to reestablish contact with the water once more.” Doctor said with a smile, “In the bathroom, he had a special bathtub.”
“I showed him a video of one of his swimming competitions. At the time, a reporter praised him as a ‘young genius’. Everyone dreamt and hoped to see him on a bigger stage one day. He watched as his past self stepped onto the podium for the first time. What could have been running in Xiao Zhou’s mind at that moment?”
On the phone, the doctor’s voice paused.
“I wouldn’t know. Because one day, he drowned himself in his beloved water. Drowning oneself is no easy feat but Xiao Zhou managed it.”
“This is the case I want to share with you today. In the end, Xiao Zhou was still too fragile. Don’t you agree?”
After speaking, Dr. Xiong hung up the phone.
Yu Lian’s fist tightened. “That son of a bitch. When I get my hands on him, he’s going to get a taste of my fists!”
Even Yu Lian, who had never studied psychology, knew that this kind of treatment would only drive people mad.
The drainage system here must be broken. In just a few minutes, the bloody water had already reached their calves.
It didn’t seem much like a shower; it was more like a flood.
At this rate, in another 15 minutes, the entire place would be submerged in bloody water.
Si Chen said, straight to the point, “Look for the bathtub.”
It was obviously Xiao Zhou who was bringing about this bloody water.
According to the guide on how to survive a supernatural disaster, solving the “ghost” itself would also resolve the accompanying phenomena.
Although the Eternal Life Abyss is an amphibious species, Si Chen obviously hasn’t evolved the ability to breathe underwater.
Si Chen activated his prosthetic eye and turned on scanning mode. He walked directly towards the place in the bathroom where the energy fluctuations were highest.
The bloody water had already reached their knees and the layer at the bottom had already turned to sludge, making it extremely difficult to walk.
Yu Lian gritted his teeth and used his Rubber Man abilities to elongate his legs by half a meter. Instantly, he was walking briskly.
He squatted down in front of Si Chen. “Get on my back, I’ll carry you.”
As time went on, the faster the water rose. It was almost to their waists.
Si Chen did not refuse.
Although he was allergic to the skin of living people, at times like this, life is more important.
When the two arrived at the door of the bathroom with the bathtub, blood had already reached halfway up the walls.
Yu Lian’s head was pressed against the ceiling. His two-meter-long legs made it difficult to walk in the current.
Smelly blood spilled from the crack of the door, it was bitingly cold.
Yu Lian kicked the door open.
In this small bathroom where everything was old and broken, the bathtub appeared shiny and brand new.
The faucet was wide open, red liquid overflowed from the bathtub.
There was no need for Si Chen to say much, Yu Lian strode forward, stretched out his hand and fished in the bathtub.
This bathtub was very deep; they could even see the bottom. Yu Lian’s arm stretched nearly two meters before he reached the bottom.
In the midst of this bloody floor, Si Chen leaned on Yu Lian’s back. He could feel the cold sewage up to his waist.
Yu Lian’s forehead was covered with cold sweat. “Xiao Zhou, are you there? Xiao Zhou? This is not the time to be playing hide and seek!”
He bent down, groping in the bathtub with both hands.
Yu Lian could feel something slippery slipping past his fingers; he couldn’t grab a hold of it.
Malicious jeers resounded in the bathroom.
Si Chen lowered his head. A figure was clearly reflected on the surface of the water, but it was not his face.
It was a pale, resentful face.
The energy fluctuations coming from Xiao Zhou’s body were stronger than either the suicide ghost or the food cart ghost.
His energy fluctuations were at least at the peak of Second Step.
Si Chen asked him, “Do you really want to help your murderer kill more victims? Do you want to be trapped in this bathtub forever?”
Anger and struggle appeared on the boy’s face.
Si Chen: “Your world must be over, otherwise this Space Fold wouldn’t have occurred, but don’t you want revenge?”
The young man’s gray, pupil-less eyes fixed on Si Chen’s face.
“Can’t you feel it? We’re not from this dimension. We’re here to deal with Doctor.”
Unexpectedly, the teenager spoke, “He is… a member of… the House of the Mind. He’ll be difficult… to kill…”
Si Chen felt that the “House of the Mind” that he referred to wasn’t this rehabilitation center.
However, to be on the safe side, Si Chen didn’t ask any more questions, he just said, “We can kill him.”
In the bathroom, the sound of the water flowing from the showers gradually diminished and finally stopped.
The drainage system, shut down for a long time, finally started working. The bloody water receded like a tide as the drains made gurgling sounds.
Yu Lian collapsed on the side of the bathtub, panting heavily.
In his hand, he held a cotton doll wet with sewage.
This cotton doll had a gloomy expression and looked a bit fierce; its lower body was a light blue fishtail, and it held a miniature trident in its hand.
Yu Lian was so fascinated that he reached out his hand to take the trident. After all, this weapon looked much cooler than a kitchen knife.
Unexpectedly, the merman suddenly jumped up and the trident shot straight and pierced his palm.
Yu Lian bleed out white latex and half of his arm shriveled, leaving only a layer of skin.
A Rubber Man can stretch any part of his body at will but was very weak against sharp objects.
Yu Lian wanted to cry. Having been poked like this, he temporarily lost the ability to stretch his right arm until he recovers from the injury.
Si Chen got off his back and took the stinky-faced cotton doll.
Although it was edible, in terms of ingredients, this thing wasn’t part of the Eternal Life Abyss’ diet.
Not bad, teammate affinity +1.
Ai, finally a teammate that doesn’t look like a snack~
No, seriously though, I think a little trident-holding mermaid Xiao Zhou doll would look cute.
Thank you for the chapter!
+1 I wonder if he’ll get more ‘cute’ teammates along the way.
cute
This chapter was quick to read. This arc really focuses on itself!
Thanks for the chapter 🌹
Thank you for your translation 💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
Nothing dripping sewage is cute. Just saying. I wouldn’t want to eat it either Baby Abyss! Hahahahaha! Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️🤢
thanks for the chapter!!