You know, some people’s necks just aren’t suited for hanging.
Little Li was one of those people. After observing this result from the window, Xu Xiye had no choice but to run into the office and take him down from above, sternly informing him: “Little Li, you’ll die if you do that.”
“Hah… hah…” Little Li, pinned down onto the desk, made painful sounds from his throat as if it had sprung a leak. His eyes were unfocused, his mind unclear, as if he didn’t realize someone was standing right in front of him. His gaze was fixed somewhere behind Xu Xiye.
Xu Xiye noticed this and turned his head to look back. At some point, the three female corpses hanging from the ceiling fans had turned in their direction. Their thick, matted hair was blown aside by the wind, revealing faces that were deathly pale and tinged green.
Unlike the face he’d seen last time, which had been complete and clearly belonged to Little Li, this time the woman’s face was swollen and blurry, like a steamed bun, but faintly, facial features were growing underneath it.
She was watching them.
Or rather, watching Little Li. It was a silent urging, as if saying:
[Go die.]
[Go die.]
[Why haven’t you gone to die yet?]
Xu Xiye watched for a moment, then turned back to Little Li. A part of Little Li’s face had flattened; a part of the woman’s face had grown out. It seemed someone really had stolen his face.
How overbearing.
“Hah… hah… die…” Little Li was still rasping. He had recovered a sliver of strength and tried to sit up stiffly, only to be pushed back down by Xu Xiye.
Of course, he had to push him down. If he went up to hang there one more time, his tongue would loll out.
He tried to reason: “Little Li, listen to me. I know you feel that you are her, that you want to become the same as her. But think carefully about it. Carefully sort out the logic of this matter.”
Little Li’s face twisted, still struggling: “Same… hah… same…”
Xu Xiye had taken the part-time job from the Psychiatric Hospital and printed small cards. He was naturally clear on the content.
Rule 4: Patients may often believe they are “it,” and sincerely feel joy in helping more people become “it.”
In Little Li’s eyes, the “it” here was naturally the female corpses hanging above them.
Although Little Li seemed very happy to be hanging up there, Xu Xiye had no choice but to point out the flaw in his thinking.
“It’s not the same,” he said earnestly. “First, the face. After she stole your face, you have no face. Can a faceless corpse and a face-having corpse be the same? Second, the neck. Look at hers, then feel yours. Yours is really not suitable for hanging. When your tongue lolls out really far, it’ll be even less the same.”
“And another thing, people rot when they die. They won’t, but you will. Think about it: once you start rotting, will you still stay hanging up there?”
Xu Xiye was just an ordinary person. He didn’t have any grand ambition to save all living beings, but he wasn’t cold-hearted enough to watch someone die without trying to help.
Although Rule 5 on the card mentioned: “If a patient does not wish to trouble us or others, they may also kill themselves. We will come to collect your remains (if there are any).” That situation usually applied when a patient briefly regained lucidity and wanted to preserve their dignity and privacy.
Little Li’s current situation was clearly different.
He wasn’t lucid. He was being induced. His face had been stolen—what dignity was there to speak of? As for privacy, it was even less relevant. “It” did not originate from Little Li; the privacy being unearthed wasn’t his privacy.
In the dim office, terrifying female corpses hung from the ceiling. Little Li struggled grotesquely, rasping, while Xu Xiye prattled on.
Little Li felt as if trapped in a fog of cold, oppressive darkness. He couldn’t see Xu Xiye. All he saw were the corpses on the ceiling.
They were smiling at him. It was a kind of encouragement.
Three of the four ceiling fans already had corpses. It was just him missing now.
No shame.
What face did he have left to live in this world?
Why doesn’t he just go die?
Go die.
It hurts so much. So much hatred. As if something was lodged in his chest, choking his throat. He couldn’t vent, couldn’t confide. Only the pain and hatred swept over him like a tsunami. It was too painful. He could be freed as long as he slipped his neck into the noose. As long as he became the same as them, he would never suffer again.
He wanted revenge. He wanted everyone to witness his death, to make them live in terror day after day, just like him!
But something was holding him down. He clearly remembered he was about to succeed. Why was this happening? What voice was speaking in his ear? What was it saying?
“…not the same…”
No, nothing different.
“…tongue… loll out…”
“…die… rot…”
“…still stay hanging?”
…Still stay hanging?
Were they really the same?
Someone patted his face. “Little Li, do you really want to die?”
Did he really want to die?
A second ago, Little Li could have answered without hesitation: Yes, he wanted to die. But now…
As if something was gradually dispersing in his mind, Little Li saw the Xu Xiye in front of him. To be precise, he saw Xu Xiye’s eyes.
A pair of extremely pure and dark, strikingly beautiful eyes that could captivate the soul.
Little Li just stared blankly. All sounds in his ears faded away. Within those calm eyes, he found his sanity and saw reason.
In that instant, Little Li’s mind was clearer than it had ever been. Was he truly the same as Liu Lingling?
No, he was not.
He had already overcome the hardest times. He hadn’t died back then, so why should he die now?
Two streams of tears slid silently from Little Li’s eyes. Xu Xiye was shocked. It was the first time he’d seen someone cry right in front of him.
And it seemed he was the one who made him cry.
“Alright,” Xu Xiye stopped holding him down. “I won’t stop you anymore. Don’t cry, okay? Our tolerance level here is quite high. We respect your personal wishes. If you want to hang here, then hang here.”
After saying this, he fixed his gaze on Little Li, waiting to see what he really wanted.
Little Li’s throat burned with searing pain. Aside from hoarse exhalations, saying even a couple of words was a struggle.
For a moment, no one spoke. Xu Xiye and he stared at each other.
Xu Xiye: “…Do you want me to help you hang back up?”
That was fine too. He was the one who took him down; it was only right to put him back up. Just as he was about to make a move, Little Li became even more agitated. “Cough… no… don’t… don’t want to die, hah…”
He was coughing and crying at the same time, the two streams of tears flowing even more freely. He took a moment to catch his breath, then finally managed to force out a long string of words with great effort: “Xu… Brother Xu, can I follow you? I want to follow you…”
Xu Xiye had pulled him back from the brink of death and restored him to clarity. At this moment, in Little Li’s heart, Xu Xiye was no different from a spiritual guide. He had to follow him to find a direction for his continued survival.
“…Ah? Oh.” Xu Xiye momentarily couldn’t adjust to Little Li’s sudden enthusiasm. He turned his head and looked back at the things hanging behind them.
Still there. That meant the sickness wasn’t cured yet. It was just that the facial features were no longer growing out from those faces. It seemed the condition was temporarily under control.
Xu Xiye pondered. Could it be that he actually had the potential to be a psychiatrist?
“Brother Xu… Brother Xu, cough, where are we going now? Are we… are we waiting here until dawn?” Little Li looked up at Xu Xiye and asked carefully. He didn’t know why, but the current Xu Xiye looked somewhat different from usual, like a fast-melting ice cream cone, the dark chocolate kind.
It was very anomalous, yet Little Li didn’t feel fear. That saying was really true: sometimes, the human heart is more terrifying than ghosts.
And wasn’t Xu Xiye practically melting? When had he ever maintained his human form this late into the night?
But thinking about the quirks of these Outsiders—screaming at the sight of a baby crawling on the floor, or someone with bad eyesight getting close to a computer screen—Xu Xiye didn’t dare risk shedding his human form at this moment.
What if Little Li’s just-stabilized condition got scared back into a worse state?
Xu Xiye hadn’t figured out what to do with Little Li for the moment. Little Li was looking at him with an expression somewhat like a child looking at a parent. “Don’t you want that belt anymore?” Xu Xiye pointed at the thing hanging from the ceiling fan.
Little Li carefully studied Xu Xiye’s expression. He probably wanted him to take it down. Without another word, Little Li wiped his tears, obediently climbed onto the desk, and retrieved it. “Brother Xu, I took it down.”
Xu Xiye gave an “Mm.” “Forget it. Let’s just get out of here first. It’s suffocating in here.”
Probably due to the constraint of his human form, Xu Xiye felt something intangible pressing down on him, a heavy burden.
“You can follow me, but no wild thoughts, no going crazy. Otherwise, I’ll force you into the Psychiatric Hospital.” Xu Xiye threatened.
Little Li, following behind, nodded hastily. Realizing Xu Xiye couldn’t see him, he added: “Okay, cough, Brother Xu, I can do it.”
His voice was terribly hoarse and really wasn’t fit for talking, but he raised his voice anyway to make sure Xu Xiye heard him.
Little Li wasn’t blindly agreeing either. He was in a relatively stable state right now. He knew those female corpses suspended in mid-air were facing him, watching him. Their pale faces still wore twisted smiles.
But he didn’t look back. He kept his gaze fixed on Xu Xiye. In his mental world, the young man’s silhouette was more dazzling than those things.
It was good that Little Li was so obedient, but Xu Xiye had his own troubles.
Since he was already here, he definitely wanted to go upstairs to check. To see if it was really as Jiang Wuning said—the Boss hiding in his office, going crazy late at night.
Xu Xiye hadn’t seen the Boss for a very long time. In his impression, the Boss was an amiable, gentle person who just didn’t like socializing.
How could someone like that just go mad?
And after going mad, create things like Hanged Women and Peeping Men?
That doesn’t seem very likely.
Leaving aside the Peeping Man for now, the Outsiders all said the Hanged Woman was Liu Lingling. But when did Liu Lingling ever hang herself to scare the Boss?
No way. Even if Liu Lingling really did that, the Boss couldn’t possibly be scared by such a… display…
Forget it. He didn’t understand the world of a mental patient.
Now, assuming the madman himself was upstairs, and he was heading up while Little Li was following him… wouldn’t Little Li’s condition worsen upon getting closer to the madman?
If it worsened, he’d be clamoring to hang himself again. If it didn’t worsen, then Xu Xiye wouldn’t be able to see the madman’s world.
And he couldn’t borrow Jiang Wuning’s eyes.
He’d just take it one step at a time. Xu Xiye was melting even more, his footsteps becoming light and airy. Just as he was about to head for the elevator, a sudden, drawn-out shriek rang out, making his whole body jolt.
“AAAHHHH!!! Shoes! There are shoes!”
Great. That voice was unmistakably Wang Xiaodian’s. He’d come again.
They were on the fourth floor; the sound was coming all the way from the first floor. What kind of fine shoes had he seen to get him this worked up?
When would these Outsiders ever break this habit of shrieking at the top of their lungs for no good reason?
Xu Xiye looked toward Little Li with disappointment, then his gaze froze.
Little Li was baffled: “…” I didn’t do anything.
Xu Xiye wasn’t looking at him anymore. He was looking at the female corpses that had followed them out. The three corpses were lined up on the ceiling as if queuing. They didn’t even need the ceiling fans anymore; a single belt hung straight down from the ceiling for each of them, and they dangled there with crooked necks, staring straight at them.
