My House of Horrors

“I’m curious about everything with regards to this child, but I am also worried about knowing too much. The kid is like a swamp; the closer you get, the greater the alert in your mind.

“The mother has bipolar disorder, and only when she is in the company of her son will she not act up. To facilitate treatment, the doctors bring the son to see her often. Every child has a natural reliance on their mothers. Even though he is so small, he knows that is his mother.

“However, the weirdest thing was, when the child saw his mother, the first thing he said wasn’t mom or his own name but ‘door’.

“Initially, I thought that I was mistaken, or maybe it was just a meaningless mumble by the child, but when the nurse carried him away, he used his tiny finger to point at the door to her mother’s room and repeated the same word—door.

“He seemed to be telling us that he wants to get close to that door. This is the most curious thing because I’ve asked the whole hospital, and no one has taught him that word before!

“Without guidance, he managed to vocalize the world and even knew what it meant. Who told him this? Is there really something else inside the hospital?

“Then, it became even weirder. When the nurse who carried the child and I entered Room 3 to see his mother, the child looked down the corridor and waved his arms like he was greeting someone. I was sure that there was no one other than us in that corridor.

“Of course, if that was all, I wouldn’t have been so worried. The nurse also noticed this, so she asked him what he was doing. Who was he waving at?

“At the time, the child stammered this name—He Yajun.

“The nurse didn’t know what it meant and assumed that the child was just working on his vocal cords. She did not take it to heart and continued to carry the child away. At the time, I really wanted to stop her because He Yajun was a real person. Before the third sick hall was built, a construction worker had an accident, and that person’s name was He Yajun.

“This was something even the doctors and nurses did not know, so how did he come up with that name?

“I stood at the door and saw the nurse carry the child away. When she went up the stairs, the child once again waved at the corner that was empty. Honestly, I’ve treated many children with mental illnesses, but I’ve never been afraid. However, that day, in that corridor, I was gripped by intense fear.

“After that incident, I paid closer attention to the boy.”

That was the end of the first letter. Until the end, the director did not mention who the letter was addressed to. Chen Ge finished the whole thing, and the only thing relevant to the identity of the addressee was the Doctor Chen at the beginning.

Surname Chen? Could it be Dad? But he’s a Haunted House operator, not a doctor!

Chen Ge was initially glad that he had found a clue related to his parents, but he thought about it and believed that he was being a bit too optimistic. He opened the second letter, and the content was even more unbelievable.

“Doctor Chen, we have to meet in person. Things are getting slightly out of control.

“When the child learned how to crawl, he would actively go find his mother. No one in the third sick hall knew how he managed to leave the office and end up outside the door of Room 3.

“The other nurses and doctors have also noticed the weird behavior of the child. He rarely cries and smiles at random places. He gets more excited as the day darkens, and he is very much not acting like a normal child.

“He has great learning ability, and even at such a young age, he can vocalize his words clearly even though the things that leave his lips often make chills run down peoples’ spines.

“Perhaps the world in the child’s eyes is different from ours. He sees the patients who take tranquilizers and sleeping pills as toys, and the way he looks at them is like they are already dead.

“He also waves and face patients who have lost their mind, but he never looks them in the face. Instead, he looks at the area above their shoulder like there is something about the patient’s shoulders.

“The weirdest thing is that he likes to go sit outside Room 3. He never goes into it; he just sits there, staring at the door. A whole afternoon could pass with him doing just that. Some doctors and nurses suggested that we send the child to an orphanage. They were spooked by this kid, but sending him away would influence the mother’s recovery. We have used a year to stabilize his mother’s condition, and we cannot give up now.

“I rejected the doctor’s suggestion, and after several months, there was good news from the police. Using the car plate as a lead, they found the boy’s biological father down south. At the time, the mother’s condition had mostly been cured. We hired a lawyer to bring the father to court, demanding that he pay for the hospital and treatment fee and, at the same time, give the child’s mother an official marriage and name.

“We won the case. It was unclear whether the fear of prison or guilt changed the father. Everything was improving positively, and the mother was getting better. The young woman showed exceptional strength when she was before her son.

“The treatment continued for another half a year, and the mother’s illness had fully stabilized. She did not have many friends or family, so other than the few doctors who sent her away, her departure did not cause much of an effect. The child left with his mother, but the three years growing up at the mental hospital have left their scars already. The night before he left, he snuck back to the corridor and kept saying things that people could not understand to the door.

“After they left, I assumed everything was over, but who would have thought things would progress down a completely unexpected route?

“Just one year later, when the child was four, he was sent back to the center by his father!

“According to his father, the woman was killed at home, and the child witnessed the whole process. When I saw the child again, he had changed a lot. The only pillar in his life had crumbled, and his condition was similar to how his mother was when she first arrived.

“Due to previous reasons and history, our center didn’t dare admit him. We persuaded the father to send him to an official hospital instead. On the night that we rejected him, right at midnight, the white door of Room 3 started to leak blood.

“This lasted for one whole minute before it stopped. When I found out about this, it was one week later, and within that one week, many unbelievable things have happened at the hospital.”

The second letter stopped her abruptly. Reading the letters’ content and the director’s description, Chen Ge was reminded of someone who experienced the exact same thing.

He opened the third letter urgently, and inside was a picture with the mother and her son. When Chen Ge saw this picture, he was overwhelmed by emotion. This was because he had seen this picture before; it was the same picture he had seen when he was helping Doctor Gao pack up Men Nan’s belongings at Hai Ming Apartments!

A woman with the patient’s garb was leaning on the bed, and a shy little boy sat next to her.