Chapter 517: Death Trap (1)

"Someone in the orphanage wanted to kill you? You were just a child back then. Why would they want to kill you? What was the reason?" Chu Men blinked, a hint of surprise breaking through his usually calm expression as he fired off the string of questions.

Ye Bing sat on the bed, wearing a rather nostalgic expression as she stroked the blankets. "We went to the director's office earlier. You saw it yourself—two vicious murders happened at Heaven's Gate. The police never caught the killer, and the cases remain unsolved to this day."

"What do you mean?" Chu Men had already anticipated what she was going to say next. "Are you saying you know who the killer is?"

"That's right. I saw him commit the murders. That's also why I had to escape Heaven's Gate. If I hadn't left, I definitely would have been the next to die." Ye Bing spoke with absolute certainty, as if stating an undeniable fact.

Chu Men fell deep into thought. Outside the door, my mind was reeling. What Ye Bing had just said was completely different from what I had seen in the Hunchbacked Boy's dream.

'Who is lying?' If I hadn't experienced the Hunchbacked Boy's dream, I certainly wouldn't have doubted Ye Bing's words. But just moments ago, I had witnessed everything as a bystander and clearly understood her relationship with the boy. 'Why would she say this? Aren't she and the Hunchbacked Boy friends?'

Wearing my mask, I stood outside the door and continued to eavesdrop.

"The orphanage was built in the remote suburbs, isolated from the rest of the world. You could only see the city if you stood at the highest point. This place was named Heaven, but in reality, it was more like a prison." Ye Bing's eyes grew hazy, as if she were recalling the past. "Some people tried everything they could to get in and find sanctuary, while others desperately wanted to escape, or even completely destroy this place."

Those seemingly irrelevant words successfully caught both Chu Men's attention and mine.

Ye Bing looked up, her gaze drifting far away as if lost in memory. "The killer who murdered our classmate and the teacher was exactly that kind of person. In his heart, the orphanage wasn't heaven, but hell. He endured bullying and humiliation here that ordinary people couldn't even imagine. Eventually, he chose to fight back using extreme methods."

"To be able to kill a teacher, judging by physical strength alone, the killer should have been an adult. How did you get involved with someone like that?" Chu Men grasped the crux of the issue. Ye Bing had only just arrived at the orphanage and had barely interacted with more than a handful of teachers. It should have been impossible for the police not to track down the killer.

"It wasn't an adult. The killer was a child named Chen Jiuge, the same age as me." Ye Bing drew back her gaze and looked at Chu Men. "I know this is hard for you to understand, but it's the truth. That boy was very strange. He had no friends and was hated by everyone. He probably had some sort of psychological disorder, too. Someone once saw him smash the director's pet bird to death, and others witnessed him dismembering rats and frogs in the backyard. He was very antisocial, hated talking to people, and always carried around a giant, foul-smelling plush toy..."

One harsh word after another spilled from Ye Bing's mouth. Inside the room, Chu Men listened intently, but outside the door, I found it incredibly hard to remain calm.

'This is the Hunchbacked Boy's image in Ye Bing's mind? Impossible. There's no reason for her to forget what happened in her childhood. When she was taken away by Teacher Hu, it was the Hunchbacked Boy who stepped forward to save her. Knowing Ye Bing's personality, she wouldn't have forgotten that kind of favor.' People change, but Ye Bing's personality had changed far too much. I frowned, staring at that familiar face. 'Is this the Ye Bing I know?'

The conversation inside the room continued, but I stopped listening. Where there's abnormality, there's a monster. Between what Ye Bing was saying and what I had encountered in the Hunchbacked Boy's dream, only one could be true.

'Who should I believe?'

There had to be a reason why the Hunchbacked Boy had pulled me into his dream to experience everything in advance. It definitely wasn't just to make me believe him. He likely wanted to give me a subtle hint through this method.

'The little boy's brief life was a tragedy, yet I felt something from him that was more passionate than hope and more profound than despair. That incredibly pure feeling might just be his love for Ye Bing.' I could only think of the word "love" for now. Setting aside the origin of this love and whether it was twisted, just looking at what the Hunchbacked Boy had done for Ye Bing showed that he deeply cherished her as a friend. Whether facing Teacher Hu, the vice director, or anyone else, he had stood beside Ye Bing without hesitation, silently sacrificing for her.

In fact, there were times when I even felt that the Hunchbacked Boy himself was like Ye Bing's Plush Bear—lacking his own emotions and existing solely to stay by that girl's side.

'How could someone like that ever harbor murderous intent toward Ye Bing?' My mind was made up, and the gaze I directed at the Ye Bing inside the room was no longer friendly.

'A massive crisis is probably hidden within Ye Bing's dream. It's precisely because of this crisis that the Hunchbacked Boy doesn't dare to show himself easily. And the greatest crisis in the Middle Dream Layer is nothing other than a nightmare.' I had never seen a nightmare before, but that didn't stop my speculation. 'Chu Men used a different method than I did to enter Ye Bing's dream. He has neither the Paulownia Mulberry Talisman nor the massive pile of items I have on me. Yet, he has already spoken more than a few sentences in her dream. The fluctuations caused by an outsider to the dream are very likely to attract a nightmare.'

At that thought, I peered inside the small room. If a nightmare truly existed within this dream, then the most likely place for it to appear right now would be around Chu Men!

I glanced at the Ye Bing inside the room, and a chill ran down my spine. If I hadn't been pulled into the dream by the Hunchbacked Boy earlier, I probably wouldn't have doubted this "Ye Bing's" identity at all. I would have unconditionally trusted everything she said, and then, under her direction, I would have walked step by step straight into the abyss.

'Thank goodness!'

I didn't rush to reveal myself. The conversation between "Ye Bing" and Chu Men inside the room was already drawing to a close. Under "Ye Bing's" deliberate guidance, the two had deduced a way to escape the dream: find the real killer and kill it within the dream. This might untangle the knot in "Ye Bing's" heart from all those years ago, allowing her to escape the dream.

Once the two finished their discussion, Chu Men left the Rehabilitation Area with "Ye Bing" leading the way, beginning to search the orphanage for any clues the Hunchbacked Boy might have left behind.

'What is she scheming?' I was well aware that it was impossible for the Hunchbacked Boy to have left any clues about the murders, because he wasn't the killer at all. The one who killed those people was the Plush Bear—a completely different, evil soul.

Upon leaving the Rehabilitation Area, the sky in the dream seemed to grow even dimmer. A misty fog appeared to rise between heaven and earth, reducing visibility to barely a dozen meters.

Chu Men and "Ye Bing" pushed open the iron gates and headed toward the dormitory building. On the way, Ye Bing told Chu Men about the first murder case that had occurred in the orphanage all those years ago: the bathroom hidden-corpse case.

The version "Ye Bing" told was completely different from what I had seen. She didn't even know the dead child's name. She only knew the location of the crime and the victim's identity as Chen Jiuge's roommate.

Up to this point, Chu Men still hadn't developed any suspicions about Ye Bing. The two arrived at the second-floor bathroom in the residential area. Because someone had died there, the place had been sealed off and banned from use, with a lock installed on the door.

"This is it. Should we go in and take a look?"

"We definitely have to look, but I'm not too good at solving crimes and puzzles. If only that guy were here," Chu Men muttered. I knew the person he was talking about had to be me. He had watched my livestream and knew I had a wealth of experience in this area.

"Which guy? Is there someone else who entered Ye Bing's dream besides you? How come I didn't notice?" "Ye Bing's" tone was completely normal, but upon hearing this, Chu Men stopped in his tracks and turned to cast a glance at her.

"Is there something on my face? Why are you looking at me?"

"No, it's just a bit strange." Chu Men stuffed both hands into his pockets. "You just said, 'Is there someone else who entered Ye Bing's dream besides you?' But aren't you Ye Bing? A normal person would phrase it as 'someone who entered my dream,' instead of using 'Ye Bing' as the subject."

"To be honest, before I met you, I didn't even realize I was in a dream. You were the one who called this place Ye Bing's dream, so I just said it out of habit." Ye Bing's explanation was a bit far-fetched. "I've been fully cooperating with you. I answered whatever you asked. You suddenly appeared and found me, and I didn't even suspect you. Yet here we are—you're suspecting me first."