"Snail? The old lady just reminded me to be careful of snails, why did Jiang Ming take out a snail shell?"

Chen Ge was a little confused, but he knew that the old man would definitely not harm Jiang Ming.

Carefully putting the snail shell back into his pocket, Jiang Ming took Chen Ge's hand and walked out of the old man's hut.

The child took Chen Ge to run around in the shared apartment building. They went to the windowsill on the roof, the storage room where coal briquettes were piled, and the garbage compartment. Jiang Ming would be very happy as long as he found a snail.

Chen Ge didn't know why Jiang Ming was trying so hard to find the snail. He just looked at Jiang Ming's serious expression and couldn't bear to interrupt him.

Mo Mo accompanied Jiang Ming. They ran all over the apartment but only found four snails. Jiang Ming put them all in his pocket, then took Chen Ge's hand and ran to the first floor.

As long as they didn't make any noise, those strange neighbors wouldn't come over. Jiang Ming's father never showed up again after being beaten by the old lady.

"Are you going home?"

Jiang Ming nodded happily. He led Chen Ge to stand outside the rental house with a wooden sign and reached out to pull the light cord.

After the lights in the house flashed a few times, the door of the rental house was opened, and a slender woman with pale skin appeared behind the door.

She saw Jiang Ming come back safely with a gentle smile on his face. Then, when she saw Chen Ge, a trace of panic flashed in her eyes, as if she was frightened by the arrival of a stranger.

The woman used sign language to communicate with Chen Ge. She seemed to be deaf-mute as well.

Chen Ge couldn't understand the complicated sign language, so he could only keep smiling to make himself appear more approachable.

The door of the rental house slowly opened, and Jiang Ming ran to the woman excitedly. He took out snails from his pocket one by one as if to show off.

The woman touched the boy's head with a gentle smile on her face, and quietly watched Jiang Ming's happy expression.

"This should be Jiang Ming's mother."

After entering the house, Chen Ge closed the door.

Looking at the harmonious scene in front of him, Chen Ge couldn't fit in at all. The woman's face was the same as that of an ordinary person, but her body was covered with patches.

From a distance, Jiang Ming's mother looked like a rag doll. The only parts of her body that needed work and her face had no patches. The rest of her body was patched up, and her skin was like a tattered coat.

Chen Ge couldn't imagine what the woman had gone through to appear in such an image in the child's memory.

The woman gestured with her hands, as if praising Jiang Ming, but the happy atmosphere in the room soon disappeared.

The light at the door came on again. The doll's mother and young Jiang Ming both looked towards the door. Finally, Jiang Ming's mother walked to the door and opened it.

The pungent smell of alcohol rushed into my nose, and a drunk with a hideous face appeared at the door.

The muddy body was pressed against the door frame, and the arm that grew together with the wine bottle was pointed at Chen Ge. The drunkard glared at the rag doll woman fiercely.

The woman was using sign language, but the drunkard no longer had the patience to watch and pushed her away.

Seeing the drunkard coming in, Jiang Ming took out the snails from his pocket and trotted to the drunkard.

He held the snail in both hands and wanted to let the drunkard have a look, but before he could stretch out his hand, the drunkard slapped Jiang Ming's arm aside.

The snail shell fell to the ground, and the snail that Jiang Ming had been looking for so hard was crushed.

The drunk stared at the broken snail on the ground, his face turned red, his blood vessels bulged, and he seemed even more angry.

He had no place to vent his anger, so he overturned the small table in the living room. The water bottle on the table almost hit Jiang Ming, but fortunately the rag doll woman blocked it.

The hot water spilled onto the ground, and some of it splashed onto the drunkard. His entire body turned red, and he grabbed the rag doll woman's hair and pushed her down.

The woman's first reaction after falling was to wave at Jiang Ming, asking him to hide inside the house quickly.

The drunkard dragged the woman's legs, and his arm, which was connected to the bottle, kept falling down.

The boy stood in the messy living room. He didn't know what he had done wrong. The snails on the floor were crushed and his rag doll mother was pinned down.

His shoulders were shaking with fear and he didn't know who to turn to for help. He looked at his suffering mother and wanted to help the woman, but he was powerless and he couldn't even speak.

"Don't be afraid."

Chen Ge gently patted Jiang Ming's trembling shoulders: "I'll help you."

Chen Ge kicked the drunkard, and when the drunkard and the rag doll woman separated, he swung the skull crusher at the drunkard's shoulder.

“Bang!”

The drunk banged on the door of the rental house. Chen Ge did not give him a chance and chose to continue attacking.

"Jiang Ming, you see clearly, he is not invincible, he is just a weak coward, you don't have to be afraid of him!"

The body of the drunk who was knocked down was recovering quickly. His arms grew together with the furniture in the room and his expression became more and more ferocious.

"I'll lead him to the inner room. Once the door opens, you guys run away!"

In order to buy time for Jiang Ming and the rag doll woman, Chen Ge could only knock down the drunkard again and again.

Every time he was knocked down, the drunkard's appearance became more terrifying. His body continued to expand, his back pressed against the wall, and slowly merged into the entire room.

In Jiang Ming's memory, the words home and father were closely linked together, so Chen Ge was not surprised at all that such a situation occurred. The only thing that worried him was that Jiang Ming and the rag doll woman did not escape from the room.

Cracks appeared on the walls, large chunks of the ceiling began to fall off, the ground was shaking, and the light behind the door flickered a few times and then suddenly went out.

The light disappeared, and a strong stench wafted from above into the dim room.

The crack in the roof became bigger and bigger, and the drunkard's body, which had expanded several times, touched the ceiling, and at this moment the roof of the rental house collapsed completely.

The stench was overwhelming, and the thing that was going to crush this home appeared!

A giant blood-red snail with a whorled shell and a slimy body crawls above this home.

A steady stream of negative emotions was injected into the drunkard's body, and a crack appeared under the giant snail's smaller tentacle, revealing countless densely packed teeth.

The bloody snail stretched out its huge body from its shell and bit towards Chen Ge.

"Snail? Why would there be such a terrifying thing in Jiang Ming's dream?"

Chen Ge protected Jiang Ming and retreated. The entire world behind the door changed completely after the snail appeared. The walls began to bleed continuously and the apartment building seemed like it would collapse at any time.

"Go upstairs and find that old lady!" Chen Ge took Jiang Ming and the rag doll woman and ran upstairs. Those neighbors who looked like monsters also became crazy under the influence of the bloody snail.

At first, this world gave Chen Ge a sense of absurdity, just like a little child sketching with a paintbrush. But since the appearance of the bloody snail, this world began to become bloody and cruel, getting closer and closer to the real world behind the door.

After the three of them arrived at the room where the old man lived, Chen Ge knocked hard on the door.

"Grandma, I'm here to take you and Jiang Ming away! I know the way to escape!"

The door opened and the old lady stood at the door with a cane. She saw the crazy neighbors and the bloody snail crawling towards her.

"You are still obsessed and have things you care about. You shouldn't stay here. Come with us." Chen Ge had made a decision and took out the comic book.

The old woman hesitated. She opened her mouth and said a few words, but Chen Ge couldn't hear her at all.

"I'll take that as your consent." Chen Ge turned around and protected the old lady and Jiang Ming and his son behind him. He stared at the bloody snail that was slowly crawling towards him: "This snail is the culprit that crushed Jiang Ming's entire family. It is also the embodiment of all the negative emotions and disasters in Jiang Ming's mind. If we can kill this thing, Jiang Ming may not be confused anymore."

Pressing the switch of the repeater, Chen Ge called softly: "Xu Yin!"

The blood-red lines spread rapidly around Chen Ge. The blood-red snail sensed the threat, and all the crazy and deformed neighbors ran over here.

"Five red-clad ladies are enough to destroy this incomplete scene, so the extra red-clad ladies can be used to maintain the basic framework of this scene."

Flipping through the comic book, more and more blood-colored lines emerged. They were incredibly aggressive and spread throughout the entire scene in a very short time.

The blood-red snail had stopped moving forward, it felt threatened, but Chen Ge's hand that was flipping through the comic book had not stopped.

More and more blood-colored lines almost covered the entire world behind Jiang Ming’s door. Finally, at a certain moment, the critical point was broken, and the strong smell of blood surged in like a sea of ​​blood flowing back!

Figures began to appear around Chen Ge one after another, their red clothes were as red as blood. He didn't need to say anything more, those in red clothes pounced on the bloody snail like sharks that smelled blood.

Several red-clothed men joined forces to break the snail's hard shell. At this time, Chen Ge saw an extremely terrifying scene.

At the deepest part of the snail's hard shell, there is a baby's face with its eyes closed!

That face was exactly the same as the one he saw on the shadow in Liwan Town, it was the appearance of a fetus in the womb!

"Ghost fetus?"

The baby's eyes slowly opened, and there was pure evil in his eyes.

A sharp laugh sounded, and the snail's body inside its hard shell exploded instantly. The baby's face turned into blood, and only a wooden toy was left on the ground.

"It seems that the ghost fetus is not attached to Jiang Ming."

Although the ghost fetus was not found, at least one option was ruled out.

Chen Ge walked to the snail's corpse and picked up the toy on the ground.

He still remembers this toy, which was given to him by his father when he was very young, but one day he suddenly couldn't find it.

"Was it taken away by Shadow?"

After the snail exploded, the world behind Jiang Ming's door began to shake violently. The deformed neighbors slowly disappeared, and the foundation of this world was shaken.

Chen Ge asked the other red-clothed people to temporarily stabilize the shaking world. He walked to the old lady and Jiang Ming and said, "It's time to say goodbye to these pains. I will take you away."

Opening the comic book, Chen Ge wanted to include the old lady and Jiang Ming in it, but Jiang Ming grabbed the doll woman's hand and was unwilling to let go.

The woman who survived in the memory gently pushed Jiang Ming away. She waved at him tenderly, and her body gradually became illusory and finally disappeared.

"After we leave here, I will take you to find her in reality. She must miss you very much, too."

After closing the comic book, Chen Ge held Jiang Ming's hand and returned to the first floor accompanied by several people in red.

The scene collapsed and they opened the locked iron door.

When Chen Ge stepped out of the door, Jiang Ming, who was lying on the bed in reality, opened his eyes. He sat up from the bed and saw Chen Ge who was still raising his legs beside the bed.

The door behind him completely collapsed. Chen Ge held his backpack in one hand and looked at Jiang Ming quietly.

Jiang Ming, who was sitting in the bed, didn't cry or make a fuss. He seemed to recognize Chen Ge.

"Just think of what happened just now as a dream." Chen Ge said this before realizing that Jiang Ming couldn't hear him at all. He took out a piece of paper and a pen and wrote the word "mom". "Go to sleep obediently. I'll take you to find her tomorrow."

In order to prevent Jiang Ming from not knowing how to read, Chen Ge wrote while gesturing.

It took Jiang Ming a while to understand and a happy smile appeared on his face.

"Have a good rest. Good night."

Patting the boy's head, Chen Ge opened the comic book and released the old lady. "Grandma, can you hear my voice now?"

The old lady's eyes were always on Jiang Ming, and her body was almost transparent.

"There is a question that I have always been curious about. Why is there such a scary snail in the world behind Jiang Ming's door? Does he have a psychological trauma about snails? Could it be that when he was a child, he was teased by others with snails?" Chen Ge had many assumptions, but none of them were true.

"That snail is not a real snail." The old man's voice was filled with heartache: "Jiang Ming's mother was born deaf and dumb. Her family disliked her since she was a child. When she grew up, her family married her to Jiang Ming's father for a little betrothal money."

"Later, Jiang Ming was born. Although he was not born deaf and dumb, he also had hearing impairment. The doctor recommended a cochlear implant, but the cheapest cochlear implant costs tens of thousands, and the more expensive ones can cost hundreds of thousands."

"The doctor said the sooner the surgery is done, the better. But Jiang Ming's mother can't afford it, let alone his father."

"Since Jiang Ming's father found out that Jiang Ming also had a problem with his ears, his attitude towards them changed drastically. He even wanted to abandon Jiang Ming. Fortunately, he was stopped by Jiang Ming's mother every time."

"You've seen what happened afterwards. Jiang Ming's mother learned water embroidery from me and saved money to get Jiang Ming a cochlear implant. His father liked gambling and drinking, and he stole the money Jiang Ming's mother saved, and finally robbed her."

"Jiang Ming grew up in such an environment. He was too young to know what cochlear implant surgery was. Perhaps in his world, the snail represented the hope of being able to hear sounds. He tried his best to find the snail. He longed to be able to hear other people's voices, but at the same time, there was an unavoidable fact: his family was crushed by that snail."

After listening to the old lady's words, Chen Ge finally understood the world in the eyes of this child. The absurdity was mixed with the bloody truth.

"Grandma, do you know where this child's parents live?"

"What do you want to do?"

"I plan to teach the child's father how to behave, and I also want to help the child's mother." Chen Ge took out his wallet from his pocket: "If conditions permit, I also hope that Jiang Ming can hear sounds in the future."

"You want to sponsor this child's surgery?"

"What's wrong? Don't be fooled by my ordinary clothes. I am actually an entrepreneur."

After Chen Ge finished speaking, he unzipped his backpack and stuffed the skull crusher diagonally into the bag.