My Healing Games

Chapter 669 Family Portrait

"Han Fei! Have you finished watching?" Xiao Jia stared intently at the wedding dress puppet, his eyes glued to it. Watching a supernatural puppet so closely was a terrifying experience. He felt as if he had memorized everything about the puppet, and it was impossible to shake it off: "For a long time to come, I'll probably dream about this face. The worst part is, she's someone else's wife."

"Let's get ready to go downstairs."

Han Fei memorized all the steps of the wedding ceremony, covered the wedding photo with a black cloth again, and then left with the yellow paper.

"Let's go take another look on the fourth floor later."

Just as Xiao Jia breathed a sigh of relief after seeing Han Fei walk out of the bedroom, he heard Han Fei's reckless decision again: "Are you sure? Don't keep playing with your life! I didn't think you were a desperado before, so why are you acting so impulsively after entering this building!"

"You don't understand. This building feels like my own home. Would you have so many concerns if you were at home?" Han Fei knew, of course, that the fourth floor was dangerous. He had gone in with the Hanging Ghost before, and if the Hanging Ghost hadn't risked his life to pull him out, he might have been locked in that room forever.

But at that critical moment, he saw the girl in blood on the TV. The incredibly terrifying girl said something to him, and he had a vague feeling that those words were very important. If he missed them, he would probably regret it for the rest of his life.

Xiao Jia and Xiao You each stared at a puppet, while Han Fei led the way, and the three of them arrived at the corner of the stairs.

Just as their view was blocked by the stair steps, the sound of clattering footsteps rang out. By the time they realized what was happening, the disfigured chef puppet and the wedding dress puppet had already left the fifth-floor bridal chamber and followed them into the stairwell.

The two puppets are bound together by red threads, as if they will be bound together for all eternity, until death do them part.

"Red thread? You two wait a little longer." Han Fei told Xiao Jia and Xiao You to keep an eye on the puppets. He took out his companion, walked to the two puppets, cut a few red threads, and stuffed them into his backpack.

"Are you even going to take the puppet's red string?"

"This saves us the trouble of finding it ourselves." Han Fei stood in front of the two puppets, cupped his hands in greeting, and said, "I wish you a long and happy marriage and many children. I will remember your kindness and repay you when I have the chance."

Han Fei didn't care whether the two puppets could understand him or not, and he went straight to the fourth floor.

The door to the most eerie room was ajar. Everything in the pitch-black room had returned to normal, and the TV cabinet had been put back in its original position.

Are you really going in?

Xiao Jia felt it was better to avoid trouble, but he couldn't stop Han Fei at all.

As he spoke, Han Fei had already made his decision. He put away the knife called "Companion," picked up the blood-red paper figure, and went inside.

The rusty security door creaked and groaned, and even the sound of the hinges turning sounded familiar to Han Fei, as if he had heard it many nights before.

Upon entering the house, Han Fei did something that surprised everyone: he closed his eyes, stopped thinking about death and fear, emptied his mind, and let down all his guard.

If someone were to launch a fatal attack on him at this moment, he probably wouldn't even have time to react before being killed.

Han Fei focused all his attention on his mind, embracing the few remaining fragments of his memory in his thoughts, letting the paper figures and the words written on their bodies linger around his consciousness.

Everyone has their own home. Even if they haven't been back for a very long time and have forgotten everything that happened in the past, when they step into that place again, many forgotten things will be awakened. That's what makes home special.

It represents more than just a house made of reinforced concrete; it represents a flower that has been nurtured and grown by time and years. No matter how dark life may be, when you look back, that flower will bring color to your world.

“I have been here many times.”

Many emotions permeated his body's instincts. As Han Fei walked forward, he felt fear, loneliness, and unease, but he also felt a sense of happiness from being embraced and relied upon.

Even with his eyes closed, Han Fei walked to the sofa and sat in the corner, as if there were other people sitting in the empty space.

In a daze, a scene flashed through my mind: seven people with different appearances and personalities crowded on a sofa, watching TV together.

Han Fei opened his eyes. The sofa was empty; he was the only one sitting on it.

A sudden pang of sadness struck Han Fei; he felt he had lost someone very important.

Covering his cheeks, Han Fei rested his elbows on his knees. As he was tormented by amnesia and in pain, the television, which had been turned off, turned on by itself.

A hissing sound of electricity filled the air, and a black house slowly appeared amidst the black and white snowflakes.

The house was built deep within a dark forest, a place even the most skilled adventurers would find difficult to locate.

With no way out in sight, the house stood alone in the darkness.

Slowly, the door to the cottage opened, and a little girl dressed in blood-stained clothes appeared on the screen.

She was extremely agitated when she saw Han Fei again; her face was contorted and distorted, and she was filled with murderous intent.

Han Fei didn't know why the girl hated him so much; he had no recollection of what he had done to the child.

The girl in red wanted to walk out of the house, but several severed hands were hanging on her clothes, making it look from a distance as if those hands were blocking her way.

Driven by murderous intent, the girl screamed, her unwilling roar finally settling down to continue the terrifying game.

This was the first time Han Fei had ever looked into the dark room from the girl's perspective.

The floor, walls, and ceiling—everything was blood red as I looked at it.

The girl sat in the pool of blood, piecing together the pieces of the mutilated corpse. Even if the separated bodies were pieced back together, the person could not be reborn.

She tried again and again until tears streamed from her eyes, which were twisted with hatred. She collapsed onto the human figure puzzle, crying helplessly.

"Han Fei! Come back quickly!" Xiao Jia and Xiao You outside urged, but Han Fei was completely deaf to their voices. He didn't even realize that he had walked to the TV, squatted down in front of it, his face almost touching the screen, as if he wanted to lean into the TV.

That room was truly filled with despair; there wasn't a single glimmer of light in sight. Han Fei was also affected by that despair. He felt his body and soul sinking continuously, as if everything about him was about to be swept into the television screen by that despair, making him a part of that despairing room.

"My existence has not changed anything..."

A thought popped into his mind, and the voices of Xiao Jia and Xiao You were fading into the distance, but just then, he suddenly heard a cat meow.

The cat, covered in wounds, ran over. If Han Fei hadn't saved it, it might have died in that cabinet a few days ago.

"Xiaoba?"

As Han Fei looked down at the cat, the red-clad girl, completely consumed by murderous intent, trembled slightly and looked down at a certain spot in the dark room.

In the unchanging corner of the room, forever shrouded in blood and darkness, sits a small flowerpot.

The flowerpot was small and had not produced any flowers; it was only half-filled with yellowish-brown soil.

The seed had not yet sprouted, but compared to the entire dark room, at least the presence of the flowerpot represented a possibility.

The girl in red, driven mad, slowly rose from the pool of blood, her skirt trailing over the mangled corpse, and used her hands to lift the flowerpot placed in the corner.

The world was still dark, and the room was still filled with the stench of corpses and despair, but at least his arrival brought about a small change in everything.

"Will a seed in the human world bloom into a flower in the deeper world?"

The crazed girl in red stood in the dark room, clutching a flowerpot. She turned to look at Han Fei, and his figure appeared in her eyes, which were filled with murderous intent.

She moved the assembled corpses onto the sofa, one after another.

Seven corpses were soon placed on the long sofa. When only one seat remained, the girl raised her finger and pointed at Han Fei through the television screen.

The television screen froze, showing that tragic and desperate scene, like a special family portrait. I wonder how many deaths they went through to piece everything together.

"I think I remember now."

The television broadcast ended there, and a blood-stained videotape fell to the ground from under the TV cabinet.

Han Fei reached out and picked it up. As his fingertips touched it, that unfamiliar voice echoed deep within his mind again.

"Attention player number 0000! You have reached stage five!"

Ignoring the voice in his mind, Han Fei looked at the videotape, which had many words written on the cover.

"If you can see these words, it means you are still yourself, not Fu Sheng, and certainly not that laughing soul."

“These days I’ve been worried that we might slowly lose all the important people in the city and get lost.”

"But later I realized that we can't just forget everyone we meet. Many times, it is precisely because of those people that we have become who we are today."

"I hope you can hear our voices. Don't doubt, don't waver. At least we still remember you, remember your name, remember how you risked your life."

The image of one person and seven lonely souls sitting together watching television in Han Fei's mind became clearer and clearer, and more and more cracks appeared on the black curtain that obscured his memory.

“I saw the girl’s photo in Dean Fu’s room. In the normal photo, she was holding a flowerpot that hadn’t bloomed. When I left the room, I saw the photo after it was altered. The girl was crawling out of someone else’s flesh and intestines.”

“In this city, apart from the paper craftsman, there is no one with the surname Fu who can be trusted. You absolutely cannot believe what that Dean Fu says. The girl in the photo is probably not his family member, but my family member! That room is not his room, but my home!”

The videotape and the blood-red paper doll were very important to Han Fei. Just touching these two things made him feel at ease, as if his family was by his side.

"Han Fei, can we leave now? Are you planning to spend the night here?" Xiao Jia asked, somewhat worried as Han Fei disappeared into the darkness.

"Okay." Han Fei got up, looked around, then walked to the window and picked up a flowerpot.

He searched for a long time in the loose soil, and then pulled out a seed that looked like a heart, blood red in color.

"There really is something in the flowerpot?"

After putting away the seeds, Han Fei led his teammates downstairs, while the two puppets followed them.

The stairwell door was destroyed by the blood-red monster, and dark red light shone into the pitch-black stairwell.

Happiness Community has returned to the state it was when Han Fei first entered. The entire community is covered in blood, and there seems to be a huge scarlet eyeball in the night sky.

"The world where ghosts live is the Deep World. This neighborhood is located at the boundary between the Deep World and reality. If the person behind the scenes wants to completely sever the connection between the two worlds, they will definitely destroy this place."

Han Fei is not yet capable of participating in those matters; at this moment, he is more like a witness, observing history repeat itself in this city.

Quietly leaving the building, the puppet did not chase after them. Han Fei and his two companions entered the passage between Building 1 and Building 10. They left Happiness Community without any hindrance.

The crimson faded behind them, and the darkness of night enveloped them.

"We finally escaped!" Xiao Jia leaned against the phone booth, his hands trembling uncontrollably and his legs going weak.

"Now is not the time to rest."

Han Fei pulled Xiao Jia and Xiao You into a secluded alley. A black taxi slowly drove out. Li Guo'er had been waiting for them for a long time: "Why did it take you so long to come out?"

"We saved a child, we'll talk about it on the way." Han Fei sat in the passenger seat, still holding the blood-red paper figure in his arms.

"Is she reliable?" Li Guo'er is a wanted criminal and can't be brought to light for the time being.

"Let me ask for her opinion first." Han Fei patiently communicated with Xiao You in the car, and he was surprised to find that he seemed to have a talent for persuasion. It didn't take long to get Xiao You to join them.

Xiao You is just an ordinary person, but her mother is different. She is a "ghost" that can be taken out and about. Most importantly, she seems to be able to use her mobile phone to pull specific people into the deeper world.

After confirming that Xiao You could be trusted, Li Guo'er didn't say anything more. She simply handed the amusement park invitation to Han Fei.

Adjusting the angle, Han Fei used the car's interior lights to clearly see the number on the invitation—thirty.

"I remember my score was 23 before? How did it suddenly increase by so much?" The hanged ghost was weaker than the boy's corpse, so it was impossible for it to gain seven points directly. Han Fei suspected that the paper figures and the wooden puppet couple also gave him points.

"I was wondering the same thing. Sitting in the car and waiting, my points just kept increasing. It felt like I was winning without even trying." Li Guo'er put the invitation back down. "What are your plans now?"

"I've learned a lot on this trip, I need to process it all." Han Fei flipped through his script. "By the way, do you know any famous haunted houses?"

"A haunted house?" Li Guo'er raised an eyebrow. "What are you planning to do?"

"Marriage," Han Fei replied casually, head down.

(End of this chapter)