Chapter 146: Bizarre and Surreal

The contents of the videotape began to play.

The overall color tone of the footage was somewhat gloomy, making the viewers feel quite uncomfortable.

Judging from the perspective, this appeared to be a short film shot with a shoulder-mounted camera.

Everything within the lens carried a strong sense of a bygone era, yet the setting felt somewhat familiar to Li Tianque.

The filming location seemed to be a room on the first floor of this sanatorium—the very same floor where Li Tianque had previously encountered Ah Chu.

However, the furnishings inside the room on the screen were completely different from the rooms Li Tianque had passed by earlier.

Inside the room, a woman wearing a white lab coat sat upright at a desk, seemingly flipping through medical records. Beside her was an adorable domestic dog.

Upon spotting the cameraman, the woman smiled and said a few words, gesturing for the cameraman to come over and sit down.

Whether due to the recording equipment or the television set, her voice came across distorted like howling ghosts, making it impossible to discern what she was saying.

Next, the cameraman placed the camera on a cabinet in the corner and then sat down beside the woman.

The two sat facing each other and conversed, looking much like an interview.

The dialogue lasted for about five minutes before the image abruptly vanished, cutting to a black screen.

Li Tianque was completely bewildered, assuming the footage had ended just like that.

Yet the black screen did not last long, and the video resumed playing.

This time, the scene suddenly shifted, and the camera angle changed to that of a hidden surveillance shot.

In the frame, a worker dressed in classic workwear from the 1950s or 1960s was tuning a machine inside the sanatorium.

The machine somewhat resembled a modern CT scanner, featuring a platform where patients could lie down, but it was noticeably larger than a CT scanner, painted entirely in green, and looked rather bizarre.

The worker appeared to be repairing the machine. After repeatedly testing and adjusting it for quite a while, he finally seemed to finish the job.

He then stood up and called over a doctor in a white lab coat. The two walked around the machine for a moment, after which the doctor dismissed the worker.

The scene that followed made Li Tianque’s scalp tingle slightly.

After the worker left, the doctor actually rushed back to the machine immediately. For the next full seven minutes, the man licked the instrument like a dog, leaving no spot untouched, his expression one of absolute intoxication.

Sights like this stirred a sense of nausea in Li Tianque, making him feel profoundly disgusted.

Several times he wanted to press the fast-forward button, but in the end, he abandoned the thought.

Because the VCR lacked a fast-forward button, and Ah Chu was staring intently at the television screen with utmost seriousness.

The recording continued to play. After this segment ended, another three minutes of black screen followed.

Next, the screen showed a woman wearing the classic white-and-blue striped patient uniform playing a harmonica on a hospital bed.

Li Tianque found the room she was in familiar. Although the internal structure could not be precisely determined, judging from the room's size and layout, it was undoubtedly one of the rooms on the first floor.

The woman was bound to the hospital bed with iron chains, yet she looked remarkably at ease as she played the harmonica.

She must have played quite well, for even through the somewhat noisy and static-filled tape, the harmonica melody remained delightfully melodious.

Yet before she could finish playing a single tune, the expression on her face suddenly shifted.

She looked up at the ceiling in terror, as if she had laid eyes on something utterly horrifying.

Although she continued to play the harmonica, the sound of the instrument turned piercingly shrill and grating.

The woman played while looking upward, her facial expressions alternating between laughter and terror.

Li Tianque leaned in closer, wanting to see what on earth this female patient had witnessed to become so terrified, but at that exact moment, the screen plunged into darkness once again.

By now, the two had been watching for twenty minutes, and Li Tianque began to experience physical discomfort.

The footage on the videotape was retro and eerie, with colors and lighting shifting frequently, coupled with the muffled, chaotic noises, leaving Li Tianque unable to sit still.

He glanced at Ah Chu, only to find that this woman was so engrossed in viewing it as if she were watching a blockbuster movie. She refused to let even the pitch-black intervals pass her by, seemingly unwilling to miss a single frame or second.

"What kind of messy nonsense is all this? There is no connection between the parts at all, completely inexplicable," Li Tianque said, puzzled.

"Quiet. The latter part will definitely interest you," Ah Chu replied in a still-angry tone.

Li Tianque wisely shut his mouth at once and had no choice but to continue watching the contents playing on the videotape.

After another short while, the next segment of the footage began:

This time, it was the same room housing the large machine.

However, the figures on the screen had changed. This time, a man with his legs amputated, wearing a yellowish patient gown, was breakdancing. Although the sound was unclear, the background music felt like heavy, pounding beats.

A rigid smile hung on the man's face, a smile that looked as though it had been forcefully carved out, frozen unnaturally against his pale, ashen face.

The man appeared to have been dancing for a long time; sweat poured from him, and his wrinkled patient gown had plastered itself to his body.

Three minutes into the playback, the legless man suddenly collapsed from exhaustion, sinking limply to the floor.

Next, maintaining that eerie smile, he actually began to cry. He crawled on his stomach toward the cameraman, begging loudly, seemingly pleading for permission to rest for a moment.

Good heavens, this fellow was being forced to dance!

Li Tianque felt a slight pang of surprise. He had not expected this cameraman to be so cruel, coercing a disabled person to dance and even denying him the right to rest! This was simply sheer madness!

What was even crueler was that the cameraman completely ignored the legless man's request, coldly uttering what sounded like an order to get lost.

The legless man, seemingly spent of all his strength, collapsed flat onto the floor and began kowtowing to beg for mercy.

At this, the cameraman suddenly flew into a rage, roaring at the legless man to keep dancing.

The shout was deafening, causing the television speakers to buzz and vibrate from the sheer volume of the roar.

This segment of the footage ended abruptly with the image of the cameraman delivering a fierce kick to the legless man's lower abdomen.

"What kind of ghost-forsaken stuff is this! What on earth is this sanatorium, for such cruel things to have happened here!" This was Li Tianque's first time witnessing such brutal violence, and a wave of burning anger immediately surged in his chest.

Ah Chu offered no comment, let out a cold snort, and continued watching the recording.

After another black screen, the view switched to the room from the third segment.

By now, Li Tianque genuinely felt his stomach churning violently, accompanied by an indescribable sense of revulsion in his heart.

Yet a intense curiosity still seduced him into pressing on. More importantly, Ah Chu had also stated that he had to watch the tape with her; if he quit halfway, he would undoubtedly be forced to finish it anyway.

Enduring the severe discomfort, Li Tianque forced himself to keep watching.

At this point, the woman who had previously played the harmonica in the footage was now lying in the room in an indescribable manner, surrounded by onlookers who paid her no heed.

Meanwhile, the cameraman who had bullied the legless man in the previous segment was now wearing a tiger-head mask, hurling angry curses at the woman, seemingly accusing her of slacking off.

The only reason Li Tianque could confirm the cameraman's identity was because the man's voice was exceptionally distinct.

Li Tianque initially thought the man was wearing a tiger-head mask, but upon closer inspection, he realized that the tiger face on the mask lacked stripes, its teeth were longer and sharper, and its eyes were bloodred—faintly resembling the two fierce beast-like creatures he had encountered earlier.

The man wearing the fierce beast mask paced back and forth in the room, acting as though he were viewing an exhibition piece.

The masked man paced around the woman.

Near the end of this segment, a tiny beast cub could be seen darting swiftly past the cameraman, leaping up in a single bound onto the windowsill...