Chapter 715: Doctor Zhang

The scene inside the rental apartment was eerie. The Doctor stood with his back to the dim light, his shadow enveloping me. His gouge-marked face grew steadily larger in my vision.

I stared at the Scalpel in his palm, my hands clenched into fists, my back pressed against the door.

Blood churned in the depths of my eyes. For a split second, I sensed a surge of killing intent from the Doctor. He hid it well; if I had not consumed the Flower of the Dream Realm to elevate my perception far beyond an ordinary person's, I would never have noticed.

'He dares attack me directly?' The killing intent definitely existed, but his reason for wanting to kill me remained a mystery. That was the most baffling part. We had only met for half a minute, and I hadn't done anything to harm his interests. Why would he harbor killing intent toward me?

Three meters, two meters...

When the Doctor was only half a meter away, he suddenly stopped. He opened the shoe cabinet by the door and took out a glass container wrapped in black cloth.

"Keep this with you. It can save your life at a critical moment." He pulled back the black cloth, revealing the corpse of a black cat soaking inside the glass jar.

"You want me to carry a dead cat around?" My gaze froze. The corpse in the jar had been soaking for a long time. Its flesh was dissolving, making the body look extremely small—no larger than an adult's fist.

"You will thank me." The Doctor didn't even look at me. He pried off the glass container's lid with his Scalpel, and a thick stench of formalin drifted through the room. "Make sure you put it away safely."

With a flash of cold light, the Doctor severed the black cat's head. He pulled a surgical suture from his pocket and threaded it straight through the cat's head, crafting a rather horrifying necklace. "Try it on."

Looking at the Doctor's serious expression, an indescribable chill surged through my body. I instinctively tried to step back, but I was already pressed tightly against the door. "This is how you help me? Can you explain why? As far as I know, black cats don't ward off evil."

"How will you know if you don't try? If you run into them in the hallway, throw this cat head at them. It could save your life." The Doctor held the newly made necklace out to me. A viscous liquid was seeping through his fingers.

It was just an unintentional gesture, but when I saw that viscous liquid, I suddenly remembered something.

This was the exact same liquid that had seeped from the black garbage bags in the Painter's apartment!

Formalin dissolved with corpse fluids. Could all those bags of garbage have been filled with processed corpses?!

I had also seen a similar liquid on the floor of Zhu Li's apartment. It seemed the Doctor and he were connected. They knew each other, and perhaps they were even engaged in some shady collaboration—like being accomplices to murder!

The Doctor held the cat head necklace out in front of me, its foul stench stinging my nose. I still wasn't sure where he stood, but one thing was absolutely certain: he had definitely harbored killing intent toward me a moment ago.

I couldn't accept this necklace! He definitely had ulterior motives.

I gently pushed his arm away. "I appreciate the gesture, but I'll pass. I don't like cats."

The Doctor froze. Gripping the freshly severed cat head, he stared straight at me. The gouge marks covering his face seemed to tremble. I could see his chest heaving as he desperately tried to suppress his emotions. This man didn't feel like a doctor to me; he felt more like a patient.

It took him over ten seconds to calm down. "You... don't like cats? It's fine, I have other things here. Trust me, I can definitely help you escape Pig Cage Apartments."

The Doctor shoved the Scalpel and the cat head back into his pocket, shot me a wide grin, and retreated into the bedroom, seemingly to look for something.

'What a weirdo.' I checked the digital clock in the living room. There were only four minutes left until midnight; my time was extremely tight. Just as I was about to call out to him and take my leave, I glanced down and noticed the shoe cabinet door hadn't been closed tightly.

The shoe cabinet in the Doctor's apartment was larger than those in Bai Ya'er's and Zhu Li's rooms. It seemed to have an extra layer of thickness.

'He took the jar with the cat corpse out of here just now.' Using my body to block the Doctor's line of sight, I reached behind my back and quietly pulled the shoe cabinet open. Once I was sure he couldn't see, I turned my head for a quick glance.

With just one look, my pupils trembled violently. This specially thickened cabinet was lined with rows of jars and bottles. Most were covered by black cloth or scrap paper, but a small portion remained completely exposed.

What shocked me were those uncovered jars. A yellowish-brown liquid washed around inside the transparent glass containers. Completely defying my expectations, they didn't hold animal corpses at all—they contained the skulls of young children!

The ghastly white bones wedged into the glass bottles had undergone secondary processing, making them look like exquisite works of art. They carried an indescribable cruelty, like something straight out of a dark fairy tale.

I reached out to shift the glass containers, tearing the paper wrapping off the adjacent jars. Just as I was about to check what was stored inside, my Judging Eye caught sight of some scrap paper plastered to the outside of a glass jar.

The paper was old and crumpled—just an ordinary piece of scrap. However, the words written on it took me by surprise once again.

"Jinghai City Mental Health Center, Emergency Hospitalization Observation Diagnostic Notice."

"Suspected Patient Name: Zhang Jiayi."

"Admitted By: Zhang Shuxue."

"According to Article 28 of the Mental Health Law: When a suspected mentally ill patient engages in behavior that harms themselves or endangers the safety of others, or poses a risk of doing so, their relatives, workplace, or local public security organs shall immediately take measures to stop them and transfer them to a medical institution for psychiatric diagnosis."

"Following examination and evaluation by the attending physician, the hospital hereby notifies you to process emergency hospitalization observation procedures for the suspected patient Zhang Jiayi..."

The information on the scrap paper could be summed up in a single sentence: a person named Zhang Jiayi had been sent to a psychiatric hospital by relatives for treatment, and the hospital had issued a medical evaluation.

This would normally be nothing, but attached to the very bottom of the paper was a printed photograph of the patient.

The person in the photo was tall and thin, and his face shape looked extremely familiar...

"What are you looking at?"

A sinister voice suddenly rang out from behind me, sounding like a venomous snake flicking its tongue right next to my ear.

Whipping my head around, I saw the Doctor holding his sharp Scalpel, his other hand dragging a black cloth bag. He had slipped out of the bedroom at some point and was now standing right behind me.

"Nothing." I forced myself to stay calm, keeping my tone perfectly steady.

The Doctor stood rooted to the spot. His eyeball, which looked as though it had almost been gouged out, darted rapidly around in its socket, giving off an extremely eerie vibe.

"It's almost midnight. If I don't leave now, I'm afraid it'll be too late." I squeezed out a smile and waved a hand at him. "You should keep that cat head for yourself. I'll be taking my leave."

"Wait a minute." The Doctor raised his arm. The Scalpel brushed past my face and pressed down against my shoulder. I could even smell the pungent, nauseating stench on the blade.

"What? You want to stop me?" I raised my arm. If the Doctor dared to make a move, I would strike him immediately.

"You don't have to trust me, but you need to take what I'm giving you. If you lose it, you're dead tonight!" the Doctor said, enunciating every word. He took a half-step back, lowered the Scalpel, and dumped out the contents of the black cloth bag.

I didn't turn my head. Just by smelling the heavy stench in the air and hearing the sound of the Scalpel cutting earlier, I could roughly guess what was in the bag.

"This is for you. Don't worry, this one will definitely work." After three or four seconds, the Doctor handed me a slightly smaller bag. His attitude was resolute, a wolf-like gleam shining in his eyes.

I didn't reach for the bag. I didn't even need to touch it—just from its shape, I could tell for sure that a severed hand was inside!

"Why are you giving me this?" I frowned. This live broadcast showed signs of spiraling out of control before it had even begun.

"Because you need it. Take it. You'll use it."

Everything the Doctor said was bizarre. After a moment of thought, I finally accepted the bag and glanced down. Just as I had suspected, it contained a preserved human hand.

Seeing me accept the severed hand, the Doctor's expression softened a bit. "When you run into them in the hallway, open this bag and throw it out. It should buy you a fair amount of time. I know you were probably terrified to see a human hand, but don't overthink it. I picked this up in the wasteland. The side of Pig Cage Apartments closer to the inner district is right next to a private hospital. If you're lucky, you can scavenge some of the hospital's trash there."

He patiently offered this explanation, trying to dispel my suspicions.

I nodded, putting on an act, and said against my true feelings, "I really was quite startled just now. This Red Building of yours really isn't a place for ordinary people."

My eyes shifted, and I quickly added, "If this thing really proves useful, I will definitely pay you another visit to thank you properly. By the way, I still don't know what to call you?"

"My surname is Zhang. You can just call me Doctor Zhang. It's almost midnight; you don't have much time left. Hurry up and go." The Doctor slipped the slime-coated Scalpel back into his pocket, the corners of his mouth curving into a tiny smile.

"So your surname is Zhang..." I took one last look at the clock on the wall. It was two minutes to midnight. "Farewell."

Carrying the bag, I opened the door and stepped straight into the pitch-black hallway.

Only after the Doctor fully locked the door behind me did I stop in my tracks. Standing on the dark staircase, my gaze flickered with uncertainty.

'The Doctor's surname is Zhang, and the patient on the diagnostic notice is also named Zhang. Plus, their face shapes are very similar. Thinking about it, this so-called Doctor Zhang's true identity is very likely the patient.' I stroked my chin, a sharp glint shining in my eyes. 'Interesting. A patient pretending to be a doctor, a model with a psychological illness, and a lunatic artist. Things sure are lively inside this Red Building!'

I ran through the information of all the tenants in the Red Building in my head. I still couldn't determine who the live show streamer was, but I had a general idea.

"It's about time to begin." Crouching at the landing between the fourth and fifth floors, I pulled the Good and Evil Asura Mask from inside my coat and placed it on my face. Then, I took out the Live Show Phone.