The memories of all humanity are awakening, except for mine.

The little girl didn't answer, but slowly walked towards them, each step seeming unusually heavy, as if carrying an invisible weight.

When she got close enough, the two of them noticed that she had no shadow.

The little girl's face appeared unusually pale in the dim light, and her eyes pierced through their souls, as if she could see into their every thought.

The corners of her mouth turned up slightly, forming an eerie arc that was neither a smile nor a sadness.

"There are no mom and dad here."

Her voice was clear yet chilling, each word seeming to drift from a distant tomb, icy and piercing.

Li Yi instinctively moved closer to Jiang Chuan, her palms sweating and her sleeves soaked through.

Jiang Chuan held her hand tightly, trying to give her courage with his actions, but his heart was also pounding like a drum, difficult to calm down.

Are you alone here? Do you need help?

Jiang Chuan tried his best to make his voice sound calm and friendly, even though his heart was in turmoil.

The little girl shook her head, her eyes, which didn't belong to this world, staring straight at him: "I've been waiting here for a long time, waiting for those who can see me."

"I saw you?" Li Yi couldn't help but repeat, a sense of foreboding rising in her heart.

“Yes,” the little girl’s voice was barely audible, “only those who truly enter this place can see me, and only they can help me find… what I’ve lost.”

"What's lost?"

Jiang Chuan and Li Yi exchanged a puzzled look; they began to realize that things were far more complicated than they had imagined.

“Yes,” the little girl suddenly stretched out her hand, a cold hand, pointing to the other end of the corridor, “Come with me, and I will tell you everything.”

The corridor lights seemed to grow dimmer as the little girl moved, and the shadows on the walls distorted and warped, as if something indescribable was quietly following her.

Although Jiang Chuan and Li Yi were afraid, their curiosity drove them to follow the little girl.

With each step, the surrounding temperature seemed to drop, and a faint sense of sadness and resentment permeated the air.

“A long, long time ago, this was a hospital,”

The little girl began to recount her story, her voice filled with memories: "I am here, forgotten by people because of an incurable disease. My heart was also taken away on that cold night."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Chuan and Li Yi couldn't help but think of the artificial heart model suspended in the glass bottle, and the unfinished record: "The real cause of the disease lies hidden in..."

“So what you found is not my heart,” the little girl stopped in her tracks. In front of her was a half-open door, from which a faint blue light emanated. “It is my only unfulfilled wish, hidden deep within this room.”

Jiang Chuan took a deep breath, pulled Li Yi along, and resolutely stepped into the room. In the center of the room stood an ancient medical device, its blue light emanating from within.

“There it is,” the little girl said, pointing to the equipment.

Jiang Chuan slowly approached and discovered a tiny groove inside the device, the shape of which perfectly matched the heart-shaped key in their hands.

"Open it, and you'll find out the truth." The little girl's voice echoed in the room.

Jiang Chuan nodded to Li Yi and carefully inserted the heart model into the groove.

With a soft click, the machine started, and a beam of bright light illuminated the entire room. Images appeared in the air—fragments of the little girl's life, her struggles on the hospital bed, and the horrific truth of what happened that night…

The final scene shows the horrified faces of medical staff and a pair of sinister hands taking away the heart that should have been protected.

"Take medicine!"

A shout suddenly rang out, startling Li Yi!
Jiang Chuan and Li Yi turned around abruptly, and the scene before them shocked them.

The nurse's image was twisted and grotesque, like a demon from hell, inflicting cruel torture on the little girl.

The two instinctively rushed forward, wanting to protect this fragile soul, but their hands passed through the nurse's body and touched only nothingness.

"This is...an illusion!" Li Yi whispered in disbelief, her eyes filled with fear.

As the nurse's figure disappeared, a large door slowly opened at the end of the corridor. The door was engraved with the ancient characters "The Terrifying and Trembling Maze" and emitted a faint green light, like an entrance to another world.

Jiang Chuan and Li Yi exchanged a glance.

They took a deep breath and stepped hand in hand through that mysterious door.

The world behind the door turned upside down in an instant. They seemed to be in an endless maze, with eerie blood-red handprints crawling all over the surrounding stone walls, and a suffocating sense of oppression filling the air.

Every turn in the maze concealed unknown dangers, and terrifying roars occasionally came from all directions, challenging the psychological limits of the two.

Jiang Chuan and Li Yi's footsteps echoed in the gloomy maze, each step treading on shattered hope.

Here, the aura of death is so thick it's almost tangible; every breath feels like a struggle for oxygen against countless undead.

"It seems... we must find an exit."

Jiang Chuan said in a low voice, gripping Li Yi's hand even tighter.

Their eyes gradually adapted to the darkness and they began to discern their surroundings.

In the passageway on the right, a mangled corpse leans against the wall, clutching a scalpel tightly in its hand, as if trying to save itself in its final moments.

"This road cannot be taken."

Li Yi trembled slightly as she looked past the corpse and saw that the wall was covered with strange symbols drawn in blood, seemingly silently telling the story of some evil ritual.

They chose a seemingly cleaner route, but soon, a pungent chemical smell assaulted their nostrils.

Turning the corner, one finds the ruins of an operating room. Various tools are laid out on the operating table, their rusty surfaces gleaming with an ominous light.

Most chillingly, there seemed to be human-shaped traces left on the operating table, even though the "person" had long since disappeared.

"What...what exactly happened here?" Li Yi covered her mouth and nose, her voice trembling with fear.

"Don't be afraid, we're together." Jiang Chuan tried to comfort her, while cautiously looking around for possible clues or exits.

Suddenly, a low sob echoed from the depths of the maze, sounding just like the little girl's earlier cries, but with an added touch of human despair.

The two exchanged a glance and decided to follow the source of the sound, as it might be the only clue to leaving this terrifying place.

As they ventured deeper into the labyrinth, they discovered that every path seemed to be changing, as if an unseen force was manipulating everything.

Around a corner, the hanged body of a nurse suddenly came into view. Her eyes were wide open, her expression was distorted, and her long tongue hung down from her open mouth, swaying gently in the breeze, as if showing them her resentment after death.

"Hurry!" Jiang Chuan pulled Li Yi tighter and quickly bypassed the terrifying scene, but he knew in his heart that this maze seemed to be testing their courage and will.

After a winding search, they finally arrived at the center of a circular room, surrounded by even more hanging corpses, while countless ghosts floated in the air.

They come in all shapes and sizes; some have a sorrowful expression, while others are filled with anger.

Among these spirits, the little girl's figure appeared and disappeared, her eyes still clear, but seemingly filled with pleading.

"Please help me find my heart," the little girl's voice rang out again, this time clearer and more direct.

Just as the two hesitated, the ground suddenly shook, and the walls of the maze began to slowly close. Clearly, this was a life-or-death test.

"What should we do? We'll be trapped here and die!" Li Yi's voice was filled with helplessness.

Jiang Chuan frowned, observing his surroundings, trying to find a glimmer of hope among these elusive ghosts.

"Calm down, Li Yi, we must have a way out. Look at these ghosts, they seem to have something to say."

Li Yi forced herself to calm down and followed Jiang Chuan's gaze to survey her surroundings.

Suddenly, a ghost pointing to the ceiling, seemingly giving directions, caught her attention. "That...is it pointing up there?"

The two looked up together, and sure enough, in the dim light and shadow, a thin ventilation duct was faintly visible.

“We can get through there!” Jiang Chuan’s eyes lit up, and he quickly devised a plan.

Just as they were about to climb, a withered hand suddenly reached out from the darkness and grabbed Li Yi's arm tightly.

Li Yi screamed and trembled all over, but Jiang Chuan reacted immediately, pulled out a knife from his backpack, and slashed fiercely at the hand—the hand vanished in response, it turned out to be just an illusion.

"Don't be afraid, it's the NPCs' doing." Jiang Chuan explained while helping Li Yi calm down, and the two of them climbed up the ventilation duct together.

The inside of the pipe was narrow and cold, but they could feel the outside air, and hope lay ahead.

During their crawl, the "ghosts" tried to create panic several more times, but Jiang Chuan and Li Yi were already mentally prepared and were no longer so easily frightened.

Finally, they found the exit of the pipe, carefully pushed open the cover, and there was the hospital morgue in front of them...

"The morgue... Jiang Chuan!"

As they spoke, the two slowly walked into the morgue.

Just as Li Yi called out to Jiang Chuan in a trembling voice, a cold wind blew through the morgue, carrying a tattered diary in the corner, slowly turning to a yellowed page.

The paper was inscribed in blood-red ink: "Remember, at midnight, it's either life or death."

Just then, the clock on the wall struck twelve heavy chimes, each one seeming to strike the hearts of the two people, making the atmosphere in the entire space even more somber.

"Li Yi, don't look at those things, let's look for another exit."

Jiang Chuan tried his best to appear calm and distract Li Yi, but a chill couldn't help but rise in his heart.

A chilling wind blew, fluttering the white sheeting of the morgue, as if ghosts were gently caressing the rows of empty beds.

Suddenly, a curtain, blown by the wind, revealed the words behind it: "What you see is not true, what you believe is not real."

Li Yi gripped Jiang Chuan's sleeve tightly, her face as pale as paper.

Seeing this, Jiang Chuan had an idea. To ease the oppressive atmosphere, he lowered his voice and said mysteriously, "Do you know, Li Yi, it is said that in this world, if you can see the real dead, you can ask them for help and escape this hellish place."

Li Yi suddenly looked up, her eyes filled with both fear and curiosity. "R-really?"

Jiang Chuan's lips curled into a barely perceptible smile, just as he was about to continue his "fabrication".

Suddenly, a corpse's hand reached out from under the bed, its cold fingers touching Li Yi's ankle, causing her to scream in fright.

"Jiang Chuan, save me!" Li Yi cried out in terror, tears welling up in her eyes.

Jiang Chuan quickly pulled Li Yi back to his side, only to find that the so-called "corpse" was just an extremely realistic model. He couldn't help but smile wryly, "It seems that what happened just now was a prank by the staff. Don't be afraid, we have to keep moving forward."

Just then, they noticed a worn-out notebook on a table. Opening it, the first page read: "Be careful, your companions may also turn into ghosts."

The handwriting was blurry, yet it was enough to send chills down one's spine.

Seeing Li Yi's face turn even more pale, Jiang Chuan suddenly had a mischievous idea. He deliberately made a face contort and his voice became strange, "Li Yi, actually... I've been dead for a long time."

Li Yi's eyes widened, her whole body stiffened, and just as she was about to collapse, Jiang Chuan finally couldn't help but laugh out loud, "Haha, just kidding! Don't be so easily fooled."

Li Yi breathed a sigh of relief and lightly punched Jiang Chuan, "You rascal, you almost scared me to death!"

The two exchanged a smile, briefly easing the tense atmosphere.

However, at that moment, the room lights suddenly went out, plunging the room into darkness. Only Li Yi's trembling voice could be heard: "Jiang Chuan, this is really not the time to joke..."

In the darkness, Li Yi's voice sounded extremely weak, as if it might be swallowed up by the surrounding silence at any moment.

Jiang Chuan immediately took out his phone, turned on the flashlight function, and the dim light barely illuminated the area within a few feet, but it also made the surrounding shadows even deeper and more unpredictable.

"Don't be afraid, I'm here," Jiang Chuan comforted, though his own heart was also racing.

Just then, a rustling sound of footsteps rose from the end of the darkness, slow and heavy, as if something was approaching them.

Li Yi pressed herself tightly against Jiang Chuan, her fingers gripping his arm so tightly that her nails almost dug into his flesh.

"Who's there?" Jiang Chuan asked loudly, his voice trembling slightly.

The only response they received was the clearer sound of footsteps and a low laugh that echoed in the small space, carrying an indescribable eeriness and sinister feeling.

"Looks like we won't be alone tonight."

Jiang Chuan tried to keep his tone relaxed, hoping to alleviate Li Yi's fear.

Suddenly, a pale hand reached out from the darkness, pointing directly at the phone in Jiang Chuan's hand.

Under the light, the skin of that hand was unusually transparent, with bulging veins faintly visible, as if it were a call from another world.

"This is a warning..."

A hoarse voice rang in my ears, and then the hand quickly withdrew into the darkness and disappeared without a trace.

Li Yi's face grew increasingly pale. "Jiang Chuan, what should we do?" (End of Chapter)