The rusty gate was tightly closed. Chen Ge took down the "Do Not Approach" sign and entered the abandoned children's playground.

A rainbow gate with peeling paint, a fountain without water, and a carousel that no longer turns.

No one had been here for a long time. Chen Ge walked around and finally stopped at the door of the warehouse.

In the moldy room, there was a worn-out Doraemon cartoon jacket.

"Hello? Are you still there?"

Chen Ge didn't hang up the phone, but until now, no one responded on the other end of the phone.

He walked into the warehouse, picked up the cartoon doll costume on the ground, and held up Doraemon's head with one hand.

"I'll put your clothes away for you first. You should have a good rest. I'll wake you up when it's daybreak."

Chen Ge found a big bag nearby and stuffed the cartoon doll costumes into it. When he was folding the clothes, he found a photo in the pocket of Doraemon's belly.

It seemed to be taken in a hospital. A young father was talking to a doctor, and there was a skinny boy hiding behind the young man.

After putting away the photos, when Chen Ge looked at his phone again, he found that the call had been hung up.

"I forgot to ask his name." Chen Ge thought about it and found that neither the online reports nor the landlady called the man's name.

He seems to be living in a cartoon doll costume, and people only know that there is such a robot cat who likes children in the park.

Holding the phone, Chen Ge looked at the phone number on it.

Two calls, two different lives, two different deaths.

"What does this number mean? Why does every deceased person call this number before they die? How can I find the evil spirit I drew?"

Chen Ge thought about it, but had no idea, so he decided to continue fighting.

Holding a large bag of cartoon costumes in one hand, he dialed a phone number with the other.

"From a probability perspective, the evil spirit drawn this time should be more powerful than Yan Danian, Lao Zhou and the others combined."

After the busy tone rang three or four times, the call was finally connected. With the experience of the previous two times, Chen Ge spoke directly this time: "Hello, how can I help you?"

The phone was noisy, and Chen Ge heard the sound of a train passing by.

After the sound of the train disappeared, the phone became quiet again, and I could vaguely hear the children reciting something.

"Hello?" Chen Ge walked out of the Children's Kingdom Park with a bag, hailed a taxi, and told the driver to drive wherever he wanted.

The sound of wind whirring came from the phone. Chen Ge did not rush the other party. He waited patiently. He didn't know how long it had been, but suddenly a violent coughing sound came from the phone.

"Are you... okay? Are you feeling unwell?" Chen Ge's voice was warm and could always give people strength: "Do you need me to help you with anything?"

"Thank you, but no thanks." The man on the other end of the phone sounded as if there was burning charcoal stuck in his throat. His voice was very unpleasant, and he started coughing violently as soon as he opened his mouth.

"Your condition looks bad. Don't stay outside. Go home quickly. Or you can tell me your location and I can take you to the hospital." Chen Ge summarized the previous two calls. He arrived only after the calls were hung up. This time he planned to find the other party before the call was hung up.

"Thank you for your kindness, but forget about sending me to the hospital. My illness can't be cured by the hospital." The man coughed for a long time before he recovered. He walked forward slowly, and the wind was a bit loud.

"Can't the hospital cure it?"

"Yes, I stayed in the hospital for a long time, but the disease just wouldn't get better. I even felt that it was not a disease, but a part of my body."

Chen Ge didn't quite understand what the man said: "Brother, what disease do you have?"

"Lung cancer, it's in the advanced stage."

The man seemed to be telling a very ordinary story, but Chen Ge's heart skipped a beat: "Then why are you still out here alone? Where are your family? I'll take you home, it's windy outside."

"The wind is really strong today." The man coughed from time to time. He was in very poor physical condition and seemed like he would fall at any time. "I ran away secretly without telling my family."

A patient with advanced lung cancer ran away secretly without telling his family. Chen Ge suddenly thought of the protagonists of the previous two calls. He immediately realized that something was wrong: "It's too dangerous for you to do this. Can you tell me where you are now? I won't interfere with any of your decisions. How about just walking with you?"

"I can just walk slowly by myself. Actually, ever since I knew I had lung cancer, I have always wanted to visit a certain place."

"Going somewhere?"

"That place is built high up. If you want to get there, you have to climb a lot of stairs."

"You want to go to Jiujiang World Trade Center? Why do you want to go there?" Chen Ge seldom went to the city, but he knew that the World Trade Center was the highest place in Jiujiang, and standing there he could overlook the entire Jiujiang.

Thinking of this, Chen Ge immediately gestured to the driver and asked him to drive to Jiujiang World Trade Center.

The man did not answer Chen Ge's question. He kept coughing. Just listening to him on the phone made him feel uncomfortable.

"Brother, why don't you just stay where you are and I'll pick you up later."

"No need." After the man finished coughing, he seemed to think that Chen Ge was a really good person. After a moment of silence, he took the initiative to speak: "You are very similar to my former attending doctor, whether it is the tone of voice or the style of doing things. You are not impersonating him, are you?"

"Attending physician?" Chen Ge was thinking seriously about whether he should play a certain role to get the other person to talk.

He knew in his heart that there was something wrong with his number, as every deceased person eventually called this number.

If you think about it carefully, the last person the deceased had contact with was most likely a doctor, so this number could belong to a doctor.

"Don't take it seriously, I was just saying it casually." The man had no sense of humor and his smile was forced. You could tell he was in pain.

"Brother, can you tell me about your story? Some things are hard to keep in your heart, so it's better to speak them out." Nanjiao is not far from the World Trade Center, and Chen Ge feels that he should be able to make it this time.

"I'm fine. I was an ordinary person in the first half of my life. Maybe it was because of my smoking and irregular work and rest schedule, I was diagnosed with lung cancer last year." The man's voice was very calm, and except for coughing, there were no major emotional ups and downs.

"I had three courses of treatment at the cancer hospital and then went home. I plan to enjoy my last moments and be a happy person."

"I am not a coward. I am also trying to fight it. This is a tug-of-war. I want to defeat it with the best attitude and the happiest things, while it wants to crush me with pain and fear."

"The war on my body was brutal. I told it I would never give up, but it used all sorts of tricks to make me give in."

"Breathing became difficult, constant body aches, low-grade fever, etc."

"My weight has been decreasing, my limbs are in so much pain that I can't lift them, and every time I cough, my whole body is affected, but I just bear it and don't take painkillers."

"I'm really not a coward." This is the second time the man emphasized that he is not a coward.

Chen Ge didn't ask why, he just nodded and said three words: "I understand."

The man seemed relieved. "About a month later, a lymph node appeared on my neck that I could feel with my fingers. At that time, I always felt that I couldn't breathe and couldn't even drink water."

"After seeing the doctor, they said it was because of the long-term coughing up blood that caused the throat to swell, and the lymph nodes continued to swell, which pressed on the esophagus."

"I failed to defeat my last enemy, and now I have a new opponent. However, I still won't give in." The man was very stubborn, just like he had been emphasizing to Chen Ge, a stranger, that he was not a coward.

The wind grew stronger, and the sound of the children reciting poems could no longer be heard, but the man continued walking forward.

"Brother, just tell me where you are now? Can I pick you up?" Chen Ge was really worried about the other party. He always felt that if he went there now, he should be able to change something, even if the hope was slim.

"I'm on a long flight of stairs." The man wanted to say with a smile, but as soon as he opened his mouth he began to cough violently.

"On the stairs?" Chen Ge felt something was wrong when he heard the whistling sound from the man's side.

Stairs built outside the building? Had he reached the World Trade Center? Had he climbed to the top floor?

Chen Ge had been to the World Trade Center before, and there were no outdoor stairs there. He realized that he might have gone to the wrong place.

"I'm walking up the stairs, climbing step by step towards where I want to go. I should be there soon." As the man spoke, the pain in his body did not disappear. Every cough was a torment for him.

Chen Ge asked the impatient driver to stop the car first. He took his phone and thought about the man's words again.

Stairs, the place you want to go is high up...

Chen Ge could hear the pain hidden in the man's words. He kept emphasizing his fierce battle with the disease, emphasizing that he was not a coward and that he did not escape.

Why would such a person secretly run away one day without telling his family?

Why did he have to go somewhere high when he was in so much pain?

Chen Ge listened carefully. The man was very weak and his steps were slow. It didn't seem like he was climbing stairs.

"Stairs built on flat ground? Is there such a place?" Chen Ge was thinking, and suddenly something flashed through his mind. When the call was just connected, he heard the sound of a train passing by!

rail!

There were sleepers in the middle of the railroad tracks, like steps laid on the flat ground. If you think about it this way, the high place that the man was going to was not the World Trade Center at all.

He is seeking death!

At the end of this staircase is death, which is also the place where all the pain ends for him.

It was precisely because he had given up that he kept emphasizing to Chen Ge, a stranger, that he was not a coward.

After figuring this out, Chen Ge immediately started searching the Internet.

He had also heard the sound of children reciting ancient Chinese texts before. There were two national academies in Jiujiang, one of which was built not far from the railway.

Raising his phone, Chen Ge signaled the driver to drive to this place.

After doing all this, he began to try to comfort the man and try to buy more time.