There was a faint foul smell in the air, and it seemed that the closer you got to Ward 3, the stronger the smell became.

The corridor between Ward 2 and Ward 3 was locked, and an iron door separated the two wards.

Through the gap in the iron door, I could vaguely see the scene inside the third ward. The tables and chairs were overturned, and there was a pile of bedding thrown in the corridor. What was even more strange was that there was a bulge under the bedding, as if it was covered with something.

Chen Ge stood beside the rusty iron door, staring at the keyhole on it. He had been on the third floor for some time.

"Double-sided lock cylinder?"

Most of the passage doors in mental hospitals have double-sided locks. In an emergency, the iron door can be locked no matter which side you stand on, prohibiting access inside or outside and blocking a certain area.

Originally this was just an insignificant point, but it caught Chen Ge's attention.

He took out the key left by Wang Haiming from his pocket and tried it against the keyhole.

Maybe it’s because it hasn’t been maintained for a long time, the keyhole has become rusted and the key can’t be inserted at all.

"It seems that I thought too much. This key is not the key to the passage door." Comparing the tooth height and pitch of the key with the key, Chen Ge put Wang Haiming's key away again.

He had noticed when he entered the rehabilitation center that most of the ward doors had single-sided locks with very small key holes, so the key couldn't fit in at all.

"The key was brought out by Wang Haiming from Ward 3. The door corresponding to the key may be in Ward 3. Let me make another bold guess. There are only nine patients' information in Ward 3. Could the missing patient in Ward 3 be Wang Haiming?"

Chen Ge was not sure of his guess. If it was Wang Haiming, the hospital should have kept a discharge record, but Dr. Gao checked all the information and found no information about Ward No. 3.

"Wang Haiming alone should not be worthy of requiring the hospital to destroy all information and records."

There are some complicated issues in this ward. Chen Ge is not too interested in what happened here five years ago. He just wants to find the clues left by his parents and a way to close the "door".

Entering the corridor on the third floor, Chen Ge held a flashlight and walked carefully in front of each ward.

"Could the person I saw in the middle of the corridor just now be hiding in a room?"

Arriving at the end of the corridor on the third floor, Chen Ge stopped at the door of a room of unknown purpose.

The room was filled with a strong musty smell, and the door was different from the other wards, with a brand new big lock hanging on it.

"There is no rust on the lock. This lock is the same as the lock on the door of the first ward. Both are newly installed." Chen Ge took out Wang Haiming's key and tried it, but still couldn't open it.

He looked back at the dark corridor, and after making sure that no one was around, he raised the tool hammer and pried the lock directly off the door panel.

"Luckily it's a wooden door. If it was an iron door, I might not be able to get in."

When I pushed the door open, a strong musty smell hit me in the face. The room was filled with mountains of hospital gowns, sheets and blankets.

"This should be the laundry room of Ward 2." Chen Ge stood up straight. The camera on his chest recorded everything, including the words he said.

Being in danger, he didn't dare to relax and communicate with the fans. He just stood from his own perspective and said what he thought and saw, as if he was making a real horror documentary.

The musty smell in the laundry room diluted the stench of the ward itself, and the air in the room felt sticky and uncomfortable.

Chen Ge endured the discomfort and entered.

The room was very large, with several washing machines and special disinfection equipment placed against the wall. Apart from that, there were only piles of dirty clothes and moldy and smelly sheets and bedding.

"This room doesn't look like anything special, why does it have to be locked?" Chen Ge focused his eyes on the pile of dirty clothes. He endured the unpleasant smell and used a hammer to lift the outer bedding.

"I always feel like there's something hidden in there." Chen Ge quickened his movements. When he lifted up a stained coat, the tool hammer hit the iron bar, making a crisp sound.

"Iron cage?" He moved away the quilt covering the cage and was horrified by the scene before him.

There was an iron cage hidden under the bedding, and inside the cage was a young woman with a shaved head!

With a moldy pillowcase stuffed in her mouth and her hands tied to the iron cage, the woman's mental state was not very stable. She looked at Chen Ge and shook her head desperately, waving her hands and kicking the cage with her feet.

Chen Ge was unable to react for a moment. He did not expect to find a living person under a pile of dirty clothes.

The live broadcast room was also in an uproar at this time, with barrages of comments filling the screen. Because there were too many speakers, the live broadcast screen even had a slight lag.

Chen Ge stepped back quietly. He was still very cautious. He closed the door first, then pushed the washing machine against the wall behind it.

He was afraid of being attacked from behind, so he blocked the door before approaching the iron cage.

"Can you understand what I'm saying?" As soon as Chen Ge approached, the woman in the cage began to struggle desperately, and it was impossible to communicate at all.

"There are no wounds on her body, and no oil stains on her lips. This woman was not transferred from the iron cage in the first ward. There may be other people around her."

Chen Ge tore off the blanket next to him and found three iron cages hidden in the stench.

The three iron cages were arranged in the shape of a "品" (Chinese character for "product"), like three wards of a rehabilitation center.

The woman was in the middle. To her left was an old man with uneven hair. He looked to be in his sixties or seventies. He was skinny and had oil stains on his mouth and fingers. To her right was a middle-aged man with pale skin who seemed not to have seen the sun for a long time. When he saw Chen Ge coming in, his eyes were very strange, a mixture of excitement, disgust and fear.

"Three people?"

Things were beyond Chen Ge's expectations. His face was uncertain and many thoughts popped up in his mind.

Holding the tool hammer tightly, Chen Ge kept a certain distance from the three iron cages.

If you meet three strangers in a dangerous environment, the safest thing to do is not to believe what they say and not to approach them rashly, because it is very likely that the murderer is hiding among them.

Chen Ge walked around them. The cage was not big and was not prepared for humans at all. A living person couldn't even turn around inside.

"There are three iron cages, and only the woman's hands and feet are restricted, and her mouth is blocked." There are more and more puzzling things. If all three people are victims, why is it the woman with the least strength who is controlled?

The old man on the left and the middle-aged man on the right, one was stupid and dull, the other had an extremely expressive face. Their hands and feet were not bound, but no one asked for help. They just huddled in the iron cage and looked at Chen Ge.

Compared to the live broadcast room full of comments, Chen Ge seemed extremely calm. He stood in front of the three iron cages with a tool hammer in his hand and asked, "How long have you been locked up here?"

8)