My Healing Games

Chapter 346 The Security Guard Who Has Survived to This Day
Han Fei was unaware of the previous building manager's plans, and he also wouldn't completely trust Fu Sheng.

The reason is simple: Han Fei chose a different path after obtaining the black box than Fu Sheng.

Fu Sheng wanted to completely destroy the deep world and seal everything out of reality, while Han Fei wanted to destroy what should be destroyed and redeem what should be redeemed.

If Fu Sheng considered the issue entirely from his own perspective, then Han Fei considered it from the perspective of fairness.

In a state of unconsciousness, Han Fei followed his instincts and opened the two sides of the black box, releasing the devil while also embracing hope.

No one has ever dared to be like Han Fei; even the previous building manager didn't have this kind of courage.

Because of the choice Han Fei made, he and Fu Sheng were no longer on the same path. Perhaps Fu Sheng will try to guide Han Fei now, but at some point in the future, they will definitely have a disagreement.

That kind of disagreement can't be resolved by one person convincing the other; everyone has staked their lives and future on it, and it's very difficult to turn back now.

Han Fei wrapped his hair back up with paper; he didn't dare go back to room 4144 immediately. Fu Sheng's memories were fragmented into countless pieces. Although the memory fragments in the Dead Building and the Happiness Community originated from the same person, the individual personalities formed by the memory fragments might also be different because of the different emotions they contained.

Everyone has a dark side, more or less, let alone someone like Fu Sheng who was chosen by the black box. The darkness he truly suppresses in his heart may be more terrifying than a butterfly.

"Leave the 14th floor first."

Han Fei carried the middle-aged man into the stairwell, but the woman remained standing still.

"Did you find anything?"

"How about we take the elevator? I have a feeling we'll die if we go down from here." The woman gripped the fruit knife tightly. "My intuition is usually right."

A faint light emanated from the dark stairwell. At first glance, it seemed ordinary, but upon closer inspection, one would notice that the light appeared to be closer.

It was as if it wasn't a light source at all, but a pair of huge, cold eyes.

Han Fei had no time to hesitate now. All the rooms on the 14th floor had two 4s in their room numbers, making this floor a veritable den of ghosts.

Just looking at the paper money scattered all over the floor made Han Fei's scalp tingle; it seemed as if all the owners of the rooms on this floor were performing a ritual to summon the spirits of the dead.

As the "light" slowly approached from downstairs, Han Fei carried the middle-aged man to the thirteenth floor: "Let's hide here first, the fourteenth floor is too dangerous."

Han Fei quietly closed the security door, leaving the middle-aged man and woman behind it, before entering the corridor alone.

The thirteenth floor was slightly better, but paper money was still scattered in the corridor, and every household had red couplets pasted on their doors, but the black characters on the couplets were all curses. Their security doors were also covered with various things, as well as broken red lines and fragments of mirrors, etc.

Soon, Han Fei arrived at the door of room 4134. Before he could even turn his head, he felt a chill in his ear!
Turn around suddenly!

Han Fei saw a security guard uniform covered in black and red paint pasted on the door of room 4134. There was a large hole in the chest and abdomen of the uniform, as if it had been torn open by hand.

He took half a step back, and the security guard uniform that had been pasted on the door slowly slid off. Then the door panel opened a crack, and a man's voice came out.

"It's almost time for the night of the return of the soul. No one can be in the hallway. Come in quickly."

"Return of the Soul?" Han Fei noticed that the person used "you" instead of "you all," indicating that the other person seemed unaware of the existence of the woman and the middle-aged man.

"It can't be explained in a few words. In short, if you don't want to die, come in now." The man's voice was serious as he urged, "If I hadn't seen you in a security guard uniform, I wouldn't have saved you. Hurry up! I'm taking a huge risk too!"

Han Fei was a master of acting; he couldn't directly tell if someone was lying, but he could tell if they were deliberately acting.

"I have two more friends right at the door, I can get them..."

"Are they security guards too? There are actually three security guards still alive this time? Come over here quickly!" The man's words were filled with doubt, but he still decided to take Han Fei in.

A moment later, Han Fei arrived with two other people. Seeing that the middle-aged man and woman were not in security uniforms, the man inside immediately tried to back out, but Han Fei was too fast. By the time he tried to close the door, Han Fei had already blocked it.

"Are you looking for death?" the man gritted his teeth. "If I'd known they weren't security guards, I wouldn't have even saved you!"

Despite muttering viciously, the man still opened the door.

The three entered the house, and as they closed the door, heavy footsteps echoed from the emergency exit outside.

"Shh." The man inside gestured for silence. He stood at the doorway, and no one dared to move, only staring at him.

The owner of room 4134 was wearing a clean security guard uniform, but the uniform didn't fit him well. What puzzled Han Fei even more was that there were a lot of security guard uniforms piled up in the room, some of which had holes in them and others that had been torn apart.

Apart from the one the homeowner was wearing, it was almost impossible to find another complete uniform.

Once the footsteps had completely disappeared, the homeowner breathed a sigh of relief, looking as if he had escaped death: "If I hadn't saved you, the three of you would have been dead just now!"

What were those footsteps?

"Don't worry about what it is, and don't be curious. Curiosity killed the cat." The homeowner spoke in a low voice: "Each of you three owes me a life. You better remember that."

"How could I owe you a life?" The middle-aged man was dressed in blood-stained clothes; at least he looked terrifying.

"Believe it or not, I'll throw you out right now. I never intended to save you in the first place." As the homeowner spoke, his eyes kept drifting towards Han Fei, seemingly unintentionally, as he looked at Han Fei's security guard uniform.

"You seem quite interested in my uniform? There are security guard uniforms all over this house. You don't happen to have a fetish for collecting these things, do you?" Han Fei spoke very bluntly, wondering how much of a chance he could have if a conflict really broke out.

“I don’t have a habit of collecting clothes. I’m just a security guard in this building.” The man took out his work ID from his uniform. His name was Hua Kui.

"Don't laugh at my name. My surname is Hua. My parents aren't very educated, so they consulted a fortune teller. He named me Kui, saying it meant leader and that having this name would extend my lifespan. My parents thought it had a good meaning, so they named me Hua Kui."

"A grown man calling himself a courtesan?" The middle-aged man clutched the wound on his lower back, looking as if he was laughing so hard he couldn't straighten up.

Unlike the middle-aged man, Han Fei thought that the fortune teller was actually quite skilled.

All the security guards in the building are like flowerpots used by butterflies to cultivate human pupae. Only those who can produce the most beautiful "flowers" will be kept until the end. In this sense, it is quite appropriate to call this male security guard the "Queen of Flowers".

"Courtesan, how long have you been working here?" Han Fei asked casually.

"Don't call me by my first name. I'm your savior, and we're not close enough to call each other by our first names." The man was a little annoyed, but his anger quickly dissipated. He looked at Han Fei and the others with a complicated emotion in his eyes, as if he were looking at dead people.

"Brother Kui, have you saved many security guards like me?" Han Fei changed his words and tone, using masterful acting skills to make every word sound warm and natural to Hua Kui.

“It sounds quite nice when you call me that.” The man gestured for Han Fei to come inside. He didn’t dare turn on the light, so after drawing the curtains tightly, he lit a candle. “Everyone in this building has gone mad. I entered this building fourteen days ago, and the security guards who were with me have all been taken away by the residents.”

"It was taken?"

“Yes, they’ve disappeared without a trace, neither alive nor dead.” The man’s voice was deep. “Every four days they hold a special ceremony called the Night of Return of the Soul. Everyone in the building goes crazy, as if the dead will return on that day. Anyway, that night is the most terrifying night in the building! If you hadn’t found this room, you probably wouldn’t have seen me.”

"Did any new security guards come in while you were running for your life?"

"Yes, whenever I see them, I try my best to save them, but unfortunately most of the time I can't. At most, I can only bring their uniforms back to this safe room for safekeeping."

The man spoke with such conviction that he himself believed his own words, but Han Fei did not.

It's not that the man deceived him, but rather that his memory might only be of fourteen days.

The room was filled with countless uniforms. The man said that he had only picked up a few of them, but Han Fei felt that he had picked up all of them; he just couldn't remember.

Every time a new flower came in, it died. The flowers in the same pot grew crooked and uneven. Only the most beautiful flower survived forever.

In other words, the man survived not because he was lucky, nor because room 4134 was safe, but simply because he best met a certain requirement of the butterfly.

If the butterfly encounters someone more suitable, it will kill him without hesitation.

"Why does this sound... like it's even more dangerous inside this building than inside the closet?" The middle-aged man ran out of the closet full of hope, only to be met not by reality, but by an even deeper abyss of despair.

"You'd better find a way to leave tonight. Tomorrow night is the night of the returning spirits. After midnight, you won't be able to escape even if you want to..."

Before the courtesan could finish speaking, funeral music suddenly filled the building. Upon hearing the sound, the courtesan's expression changed immediately. "Something's not right. This sound used to only come at the beginning of the night of the return of the soul, when every household welcomes the soul back. Then, in the latter half of the night, the most dangerous and terrifying part is the return of the soul."

"Is it ahead of schedule?"

"I'm not sure either!" The courtesan looked nervous and extremely anxious.

"The Night of Returning Souls shouldn't happen every four days. It should happen on the fourth of every month, and every year on April 4th. And April 4th should be the most terrifying day." Han Fei recalled the calendar he saw at Zhuang Qing's house, and the circled date on it. Tomorrow is April 4th. The Night of Returning Souls hasn't really arrived yet, but some things have already begun to emerge.

"The night of returning souls every four days isn't a true night of returning souls; it's just a minor disturbance. The real night of returning souls should be April 4th of the year, the day the ghost who jumped off the building and the female anchor died at the same time." Han Fei had always been curious about this date, as the deaths on that day were definitely not limited to the ghost who jumped off the building and the female anchor: "Why would the butterfly concentrate the killing of everyone on that day? Does it want to use everyone's resentment to help it break through some kind of constraint?"

Funeral music played inside the building, though it was impossible to pinpoint which floor it was coming from. Unlike the others, Han Fei also heard singing mixed in with the music, indicating that the unspeakable entity was outside. Unable to enter, it seemed to be searching for Han Fei floor by floor.

"On the night of the return of the soul, will the butterfly's true form also appear?"

Han Fei was exhausted, but he dared not log out of the game. He was afraid that if he left, he would face the most terrifying Night of Return of the Soul the next time he logged in.

"Zhuang Wen also ran into Building 4, but why is there no sound inside? Given her frantic state, she must have done something!"

"The room number of the ghost who jumped off the building has two 4s. Now that Zhuang Wen has merged with all the fragments, her strength has increased dramatically. She should now be somewhere between two 4s and three 4s."

Han Fei quickly devised a plan for himself. His primary task was to find Zhuang Wen, followed by Feng Ziyu. He needed to complete one objective before exiting the game.

"You two stay in this room, I'll go check outside." Han Fei possesses passive abilities and professional talent, making it quite difficult for ordinary residents of the building to keep up with him.

Quietly leaving room 4134, Han Fei noticed that the atmosphere outside was different from before.

As the funeral music played, the paper money in the corridor was blown by the wind, and the faint, harsh sound of fingernails scratching could be heard on the security doors with red couplets pasted on them.

If you get closer, you'll find that it's not an illusion at all; the security door is slightly twisted, as if it's under tremendous pressure.

Han Fei put away the landlord's ring, worried that it might crack if it encountered hatred. The item being destroyed was a minor matter; revealing his location was a much bigger one.

He tried to communicate with the Great Evil, hoping that the Great Evil could help him with early warnings.

The Great Demon in his arm agreed decisively, which made Han Fei a little worried. He wasn't sure if the Great Demon understood what he meant. What if the Great Demon was so excited that it might bite Han Fei's head before it gave a warning?

After all, the danger in the eyes of the Great Demon is different from the danger in the eyes of normal people; it only hopes that Han Fei is in a state of being on the verge of death.

"The layout of Building 4 is similar to that of Building 1." When Han Fei walked to the middle of the corridor, he saw an old-fashioned elevator. He had never ridden an elevator in Building 1.

The silver-gray elevator door was covered with graffiti, which vaguely formed a human face. Staring at it for too long felt like being sucked into the elevator.

"Let's stay away from that thing."

Just as Han Fei was about to leave, the numbers on the elevator display screen suddenly changed, indicating that someone was coming in the elevator.

As the funeral music grew clearer, Han Fei glanced at the elevator display one last time before quickly running into the emergency exit.

(End of this chapter)