Chapter 823

Chen Ge was shocked by his own thought . An ownerless door going on an endless search for a despairing child, and after several years, it transformed itself into a four-star scenario . That sounded impossible, so Chen Ge warned himself from getting ahead of himself .

“There are thirteen easels in the art room, so there should be thirteen painters . They know about the school’s secret . They might be the thirteen door-pusher candidates that the door has found for itself . “

A person’s energy would have a hard time supporting an entire four-star scenario, unless that person had surpassed the limitation of a Red Specter, or it was the cooperation between many Red Specters . No one knew how this would end . After all, Chen Ge had not encountered so many Red Specters in one place before .

“Thirteen, this sure is an unlucky number . ” Chen Ge glanced at Zhou Tu . He had been looking for the art club and had dreamed about the scene inside the room with the oil paintings . He should be one of the thirteen painters .

“The door should have its requirements . Zhang Ju obviously doesn’t fulfil those requirements, but Zhou Tu does . ” Chen Ge had not expected much from the art room initially, but now after giving it some analysis, he changed his mind . “Zhou Tu’s memory will be key . “

Of the club members, Zhou Tu was the most unique, and Chen Ge was going to face two possible developments . After Zhou Tu’s memory awakened, he might tell Chen Ge everything, or he might become Chen Ge’s enemy .

“This is a big fish . Perhaps I should pay him more attention . ” Chen Ge narrowed his eyes at Zhou Tu until the latter shivered from his gaze .

“Mr . Bai, I’m going to go there to take a look . ” Zhou Tu found an excuse and scurried deeper into the room .

“Why are you running away? I’m the one who should be scared . ” Chen Ge continued searching the room . He believed that the filing room had more surprises for him . Very soon, Chen Ge found more articles about fires inside the room . Flames seemed to have a special significance in the school . They represented destruction but also rebirth .

“There was a fire at Mu Yang High School . There were burn marks on the stairs, and the school used to house a crematorium . Now I’ve discovered that there was also a fire at Western Jiujiang Private Academy . Are these mere coincidences, or is there a deeper meaning behind it?”

Other than the articles about the fire, Chen Ge also found a few rather well-preserved student files . Two of them were quite unique . One of them had Lin Sisi’s name, and there were many comments given about him by the teachers and other students .

Other classmates refused to be his friend, and the teachers ignored him for the most part . The child had lost his mother, and his father was a murderer . He had been adopted when he was young, but for some reason, he always ran away from home and created a lot of trouble . From his perspective, the only person who sincerely wanted to help him was an intern at the children’s home . The young man who had just graduated from university sponsored Lin Sisi through primary school even though he had not settled down himself . He even attended Lin Sisi’s parent-teacher conferences .

Based on the teacher’s observation, only in the intern’s presence would Lin Sisi’s ‘hyperactivity’ improve . The document did not have any actual information or even a picture of Lin Sisi, but there was a handwritten signature—Gu Youjia . The document was moldy and been eaten by bugs . Only the spot with the guardian’s signature was clean and untouched .

“Gu Youjia, Jiujiang Children’s Home . If I can leave this place alive, I should go pay the place a visit . ” Chen Ge seemed to be talking to himself, but at the same time, his words appeared to be meant for other ears as well . Then he turned to the other selected document . This document’s date was earlier than every other file . There was no name, and there was no content; there was only one line written on it .

“Just one more minute, one more hour . It will get better . They won’t bully me forever . One day, I will grow up . ” The handwriting was uneven and tilted . They did not appear to be written by an adult, more like the handwriting of an injured child .

“Patience and refusal to fight back will only make the bullying worse . It is the same no matter what . Those who gain joy from inflicting pain on others will not practice empathy and self-reflection . ” Chen Ge used Lin Sisi’s phone to take a picture before putting the files back .

“The earliest file should have been left behind by the real door pusher . After he pushed open the door, perhaps his personality underwent a drastic change, and he shot down to the other end of the spectrum . If he was the person whom Zhang Ya had consumed, after he perished, the door that he opened might have continued to operate based on his lingering spirit . “If I wish to increase my survivability behind the door, I should try to follow his ideology . “

Bullying never happened to Chen Ge . The closest he had come to being bullied probably happened when he was still in primary school . The teacher had told the students to bring their old toys to school so that they could donate them to the local children’s home .

After everyone had made their donation, Chen Ge had been the only one left who had stood there wordlessly holding his bag . The naughtier kids in class had started to grab at his bag, and in that process, they had accidentally yanked down the zipper . A bloody intestine and a whole bag of decapitated fingers had burst forth like a foundation . The realistic fingers had rolled on the ground like hot dogs . The plastic bloody intestine had bounced several times on the table . It had definitely given the teacher and his classmates a day to remember .

When the vice headmaster came to the class, he had asked the teacher about Chen Ge’s family background . That afternoon, Chen Ge’s parents had been called to the school and then been led to the police station for some questions . In a way, Chen Ge should have been the only kid who got bullied in class but ended up with his parents interrogated by the police . Looking on the bright side, from then on, no one dared bully Chen Ge .

“One shan’t ever bow down to bullying . ” Chen Ge had another meaning in that statement . At this school, some of the victims had restarted the cycle . The School of the Afterlife kept expanding . The door that was not completely dyed red would approach all despairing children and incorporate them into the world behind the door . It would repeat their nightmare behind the door and use their souls as bricks to create a giant tomb that could capture real life .

They looked through the data filing room for a long time until the familiar stench returned . Chen Ge quickly led the members away from the room .

“Sir, our luck is not bad . The stench only came to find us after we’d looked through so many things,” Zhu Long whispered .

“It’s not luck . Someone distracted the monsters for us . ” Chen Ge was not sure whether Chang Gu was helping him or not . However, he knew that something was happening in the school, and those things were probably related to the Chang siblings .

“Let’s go . We’re heading to the lab building next . ” Chen Ge turned to Zhou Tu . “Have you come to a decision?”