Chapter 1 The Beginning

Hearing the sound of footsteps downstairs, Fatty poked his head out of the kitchen, "Doctor, please sit down for a while, the food will be ready soon."

Jiang Cheng gave a vague "Mmm." He walked to the sofa and sat down, the experiences of last night sometimes clear, sometimes fragmented in his mind, giving him a faint headache.

He looked up and realized that the office seemed to have been renovated.

The shelf where patient files were stored originally had a side that was about to collapse. Jiang Cheng, wanting to save trouble, simply wrapped it with wide tape and made do with it.

But now the tape had been cleaned off, and two long nails had been hammered into the broken part to fix it, and the rust on the metal splints of the shelf had also been cleared away.

The messy wires along the wall and overhead had also been carefully separated and clearly fixed in their proper positions.

A folding ladder was folded up and leaned against the wall, with a piece of paper inserted in between, probably to avoid dirtying the wall.

On the floor next to the desk lay a piece of old newspaper, on which were a hammer, a pair of blunt-nosed scissors, a roll of black electrical tape, and metal nails of various sizes.

It seemed that this was the source of the clanging sounds in the early morning.

"Doctor," Fatty's voice from the kitchen was accompanied by the sound of rushing water, making it seem very busy, "Do you eat spicy food? I made braised pork ribs."

"Sure," Jiang Cheng replied, raising his voice, "But you should put less, I'm going through puberty recently, and I'm prone to acne."

Fatty's movements on the other side obviously paused for a moment, but quickly returned to normal.

Jiang Cheng leaned back on the sofa, and the phone in his pocket suddenly vibrated. He took it out, glanced at it, and swiped to the right to answer the call.

"Dr. Jiang," a man's voice came from the other side of the phone, sounding very young, "Are you at the studio now?"

"Yes."

"Then I'll come over now," the man said happily, "I'm nearby, about half an hour."

"Okay," Jiang Cheng nodded, then hung up the phone.

Fatty happened to be carrying the pot out, the edge of the pot was very hot, and he tore off some paper towels to wrap around the edge.

Even so, he walked quickly all the way, and couldn't help but immediately retract his hand after putting the pot down, and a few thick fingers were slightly red.

Realizing that Jiang Cheng was looking at him, Fatty smiled embarrassedly a few times, saying that he couldn't find a basin or anything like that, so he had to make do with it for now.

"There are rags in the kitchen," Jiang Cheng suddenly said.

Fatty was stunned for a moment, and after a few seconds, he realized that he was talking about his fingers being burned. He couldn't help but feel a little touched in his heart, and said with teary eyes, "Doctor, thank..."

But he didn't expect...

Jiang Cheng stared at the paper towels he had used, curled his lips and said, "Toilet paper is free, but you still use so much at once."

"......"

Even so, Fatty's cooking skills were indeed impeccable. Jiang Cheng ate most of the pot of ribs by himself, and also finished two large bowls of rice.

If Fatty hadn't been quick-witted and snatched the last piece of ribs, he might not have known what his own cooking tasted like.

"How is it?" Fatty looked at Jiang Cheng expectantly, "Doctor, are my skills okay? I learned this from the chef of Zui Xian Lou back then, I was his apprentice."

Jiang Cheng put down his bowl, pulled out a paper towel and wiped the grease from the braised pork ribs off the corners of his mouth, "So-so," he suddenly hiccuped, and after calming down, he continued, "But I think since you've been busy for so long, I'm afraid you'd feel bad if I didn't eat more."

The light in Fatty's eyes dimmed little by little, like a child who hadn't received praise from an adult.

He silently collected the pot and bowls and went back to the kitchen.

The sound of the water was no longer as cheerful as it was at the beginning, dragging on a long and complex undertone.

Jiang Cheng looked at the table in front of him, which was so clean that it almost reflected his image, and suddenly said, "Fatty?"

The sound in the kitchen stopped, and after a while, Fatty's voice came out, "Doctor, are you calling me?"

"I have a client coming over later," Jiang Cheng's voice was extremely calm, with a trace of unquestionable meaning, "So I need you..."

Fatty breathed out, and after 10 seconds replied, "I know, I'll leave after I clean up," he paused, "Anyway, I still want to thank you, Doctor, for helping me in the nightmare."

Not long after, Fatty dried his hands and came out of the kitchen. Jiang Cheng leaned on the sofa and opened his eyes when he saw Fatty approaching.

Fatty took the overalls hanging on the clothes rack and put them back on. He was about to open his mouth to say something when Jiang Cheng suddenly interrupted him. He said slowly, "There's a big supermarket nearby, with a wide variety of ingredients, and most importantly, it's cheap."

Fatty frowned in confusion, just like he always couldn't understand the man in front of him.

"I want to eat stewed ribs tonight," Jiang Cheng said shamelessly, "Because stewing takes a long time, I need you to go and come back quickly."

The confusion on Fatty's face was gradually replaced by excitement, and he repeatedly agreed, "Don't worry, Doctor."

Soon after, Fatty disappeared like a gust of wind in front of Jiang Cheng. Jiang Cheng stood up, walked to the file shelf, and ran his fingers over the files on it, quickly pulling one out.

The words "Hu Yan" were written on the cover of the file.

Opening the file, it recorded Hu Yan's performance here at the beginning, in great detail, even recording Hu Yan's leg-shaking movements, and that her gaze repeatedly looked in a certain direction during communication, appearing extremely alert.

The direction she was looking at was the door.

Hu Yan disappeared after dreaming of a door. According to her, her sister also did. This was the same as Jiang Cheng's experience, but there were also differences.

At least Hu Yan and her sister were able to pass on the message of dreaming of a door. Her sister told Hu Yan on the phone, and Hu Yan even told Jiang Cheng face to face, which meant that they did not immediately enter the door after dreaming of it.

But Jiang Cheng was different, and Fatty was the same. They entered the nightmare world the next second after dreaming of the door.

When the knock on the door rang, Jiang Cheng was sitting at his desk, flipping through another file in his hand. Without looking up, he said, "Come in."

The door was pushed open, and a very young man came in.

A full set of Armani suits, tortoiseshell-rimmed glasses, a gold-trimmed shirt, a blue and white striped tie, and a pair of brown leather shoes landed on the old floor, making a light and brisk "thump thump" sound.

It was filled with the Florentine style of Italian handmade leather shoes.

"Dr. Jiang," the young man with his own aura ruined everything with a smile. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, his hair was combed into a middle part, looking very much like a quisling in an anti-Japanese war movie.

He bent slightly at the waist, his face full of obsequiousness.

Jiang Cheng slowly put down the file in his hand, and then looked up at him, "Pi Ruan, is it still about your girlfriend?"

"Yes," the young man said with a smile, "I'm going to worry myself to death about this matter, so I'm here to find Dr. Jiang again."