Strange game designer.

Chapter 858 The Vanished Family

"Yes, you're repeating things from the gardener's diary, saying that there's a deeper world in despair, a world of darkness and blood, full of shocks."

Chen Bing took a sip of tea and handed a document to Xue Se: "I've asked you everything you need to know. After Banban and Dr. Gao entered the forest, I kept people watching them. I'm the one who saved them from leaving alive. You'd be better off asking me than interrogating that silly boy."

"Then I should thank you?" Xue Se glared. He had a terrible temper, seemingly ever since. Even in his dreams, he was a very annoying guy.

Looking through the documents, Xue Se noticed that Chen Bing had also highlighted that Dr. Gao could have normal contact with core patients, and that the final procedure was completed independently by Dr. Gao.

"That guy can resist highly pathogenic infectious mental illnesses? Is he born with antibodies? Or did he take medication as Banban said?" Xue Se felt like he had grasped something. He took the documents and walked away. Only after he got to his office did he turn on his phone again to read the last message Dr. Gao had sent him.

"His secret is hidden in that cannibalistic room?" Xue Se didn't believe there was such a thing as a cannibalistic room in the world. He felt it was another hallucination caused by some kind of mental mutation, or perhaps a perverted cannibal was causing trouble.

"What exactly did that guy see when he shared the back of his head with the core patient?"

Xue Se was very curious. He even wanted to risk having his brain shared with the brain left behind by Dr. Gao, but considering the special nature of that brain, the police station probably wouldn't agree.

“Shared brain…” Xue Se unconsciously began to think about Dr. Gao. The man seemed to have some kind of magic. “Perhaps I can interrogate the gardener again, or have a shared brain session with Dr. Gao’s family.”

The gardener wasn't at the police station, so Xue Se rested briefly before driving to the neighborhood where the man had been strangled.

The fire had been largely extinguished, but thick smoke still lingered around the neighborhood. Xue Se quickly arrived at Dr. Gao's house and found the security door open.

Holding his sidearm, Xue Se slowly entered the house. The room was very quiet; it seemed that the family had installed some kind of soundproofing material on the walls, and the noise from outside could not be heard at all.

Xue Se turned on his body camera and took another step forward. He saw the kitchen curtain being lifted, and a strong, naked man wearing a saddle emerged, chewing on a carrot.

Xue Se's eyelids twitched slightly, and he lowered the muzzle of his gun: "Is there anyone else in the room?"

"They've all left," Old Ma said, chewing on a radish as he squatted by the wall. "They said they were going to see a doctor."

"What's wrong with you?"

"I don't know." Old Ma lazily crawled around on the ground, as if taking a walk.

How can I contact them?

"You're making things difficult for a horse."

"My patience is limited." Xue Se grabbed the old horse's reins and tied it to the ground. Then he searched the house for clues. The old horse, however, was very loyal and neighed loudly, saying that someone wanted to steal it.

A few minutes later, footsteps were heard in the hallway, and several people approached furtively, sneaking to the living room door.

"Stop! And who are you people?" Xue Se flashed his police ID, and the men immediately stopped in their tracks.

“Officer, don’t misunderstand! We’re Dr. Gao’s neighbors. We heard someone shouting, so we came to check.” The elderly woman at the head of the group had a full head of white hair, but she looked quite kind and was in good spirits. “You seem to have a good relationship with this family?” Xue Se didn’t find anything useful in the house, so she started asking the neighbors in the building.

“No, no, not good at all. This whole family is sick. Just because they live on the first floor, we try not to go downstairs.” The old lady and the aunties and grandmas following behind her shook their heads repeatedly.

"Can you tell me more specifically?"

"Anyway, his family is very strange. They are very harmonious during the day, but they will quarrel and fight at night."

"Yes, Dr. Gao has really had a tough time. His mother was turned into a mushroom by the forest, and his grandfather is paralyzed in bed, only occasionally being pushed out by his uncle to bask in the sun. His uncle is also a weirdo, seemingly suffering from paranoia, constantly talking to himself. The worst part is that none of them look alike; it's like a group of strangers playing house together." An older woman felt sorry for Dr. Gao, wondering how such an outstanding young man could end up with such a burden.

“Mom, Grandpa, Uncle, and this horse.” Xue Se kicked the old horse: “Why haven’t I heard you mention Dr. Gao’s father?”

Upon hearing Xue Se's question, the neighbors who had been watching the commotion all looked rather strange.

"Is there something that can't be said?"

“That’s not it.” The silver-haired old lady glanced sideways into the room. “Their family has mentioned Dr. Gao’s father, but we’ve never met him.”

"Dr. Gao said his father always got drunk and would only come out to buy alcohol in the middle of the night. But one time when I was taking out the trash in the middle of the night, I saw a person dressed in all black carrying two bags of empty bottles walking out of the building. I thought it was Dr. Gao's father, but guess what?" The old lady's eyes widened: "When I got closer, it wasn't Dr. Gao's father at all, it was just him!"

"I also saw Dr. Gao go out late at night!"

"No one has ever seen that father; he seems to live as a family member in their imagination."

"This family is quite scary."

"Yes, that's why I don't dare to pass by their house after dark."

"Let me tell you another secret. When the houses were being allocated, everyone judged them by the color of their tongues. Dr. Gao's family was the last to choose a house, but I don't know what method they used, they became the first to choose a house. Later, the administrator in charge of allocating houses, Li Shou, died!"

"I know! I heard he was transferred to that cannibalistic neighborhood, and he disappeared on the third day after he got there! His son, Li Zhi, even came looking for us!"

Xue Se recorded what the older women were saying, and they all mentioned the name of a neighborhood—Death Time Neighborhood.

This residential complex was previously very low-profile on Autopsy Avenue. There was only one super-large tower in the complex, and it was divided into ten time periods according to the changes in the body and the external phenomena of the body, representing the ten units in the complex.

Xue Se was quite familiar with this neighborhood because he was most wary of the rumors circulating in Shanghai that there was a man-eating red room in the neighborhood, and his colleague had been in charge of investigating it.

"It's that man-eating room again." Ever since Dr. Gao sent him a message, many things have revolved around that room. Xue Se also took out his phone and asked his subordinates to continue searching for Dr. Gao's family. He then led Lao Ma out of the building. Today, he was going to see what was hidden in that room.

As the car started and Xue Se drove away, the friendly neighbors who had been standing on the stair steps stood there, staring blankly in the shadows, their faces fixed on the direction Xue Se had left. They took out lit incense sticks and bowed to Xue Se while smiling.

(End of this chapter)