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“Soul Bell?” He mentioned the words subconsciously. He stopped under the bells. Previously, before he entered any room, other than a sense of familiarity, he would feel an open hostility. The fear he felt was pure. He had died more than once in this building. However, the fear of death disappeared when he tried to enter this room. It suggested that this room was the only safe place in this ghost realm. “Why is that so? Is this room my home?”

Han Fei nudged his feet to enter the room. His eyes scanned the old furniture and the paper dolls. His mind was stimulated again. He grabbed a random paper doll. It was a cute little girl. She wore a dress covered in animal fur. Her eyes were closed, and she hugged an empty fishbowl.

“This girl…” It was a paper doll, but Han Fei’s fingers couldn’t stop trembling. “I remember there should be something inside the fishbowl.”

Every paper doll in the room had its own name. Han Fei turned the doll around and found this written on the girl’s back—First Anger. “First Anger? Why doesn’t this girl have a name? And what is the meaning of First Anger?”

Han Fei picked up the paper doll beside the girl. It was a boy who was all curled up. He was malnourished. He sat on a paper urn. His teary eyes were full of despair. “Why is he crying?” Han Fei looked at the boy’s chest. It was written—First Sympathy. “I do feel heartache when I see this boy. I don’t want him to cry anymore.”

Han Fei didn’t want to put down the two kids. Even though they were just paper dolls, Han Fei didn’t want to part with them. He even had the urge to take them out of this eerie room.

“There’s also an old lady doll. This artist is amazing. He perfectly captures the kindness of the old lady. She makes me miss home.” Xiao Jia pointed at a paper old lady standing inside the room. The lady was commonly dressed. She held a paper pot as she had just come out of the kitchen to welcome her family, who had just come home. Han Fei’s eyes narrowed as he studied the old lady. His heart was hit. He felt a rare sense of warmth. He walked behind the old lady and realized the word, First Warmth, was written on it.

“Warmth?” Han Fei slowly recognized the strangeness of the room. The words on the paper dolls corresponded to the first feeling Han Fei felt when he saw these paper dolls. “Are they my family? Has my family been turned into paper dolls?” Han Fei’s hand that touched the red doll’s eye tightened.

“Impossible. I don’t think anyone’s family looks like that.” Xiao Jia pointed at the corner. There was an old guard with a serious hunchback. The guard was smiling brightly, but his back was loaded with human heads and broken bodies.

Beside the guard was a terrifying paper doll. The doll’s spine was made from human heads. The ancestral heads were bound together to create this giant monster.

“If one burns such scary paper sacrifice for one’s ancestors, one’s ancestors will probably come at night to take revenge.” Xiao Jia’s legs wobbled.

Han Fei’s reaction was the complete opposite. He walked to the scary paper dolls to find the writing on them. The old guard was called First Respect, and the spine had the word, First Separation.

“If these paper dolls are really your family, then I quite envy you. There are so many firsts represented by these paper dolls. They seem to be recording your every growth. They are looking after you, accompanying you, teaching you.” Xiao Yu hung her mother’s phone across her neck. “Compared to you, my life is boring. I don’t have that many people caring for me…”

“I merely feel that they’re my family, but my actual life probably has nothing to do with them.” Han Fei gripped his head. “I really can’t remember.”

“Don’t worry. You haven’t found the key blood-red doll, right? We’ll take this slow. Perhaps you can remember something through these paper dolls.” Xiao Yu was very kind to Han Fei. When she was almost dead, it was Han Fei who saved her and her mother.

“No, wait!” Xiao Jia realized something. “The paper dolls are made by the paper artist. Since he can make so many paper dolls that are familiar to you, then it means he knows you very well! We only need to find him, and he can help you regain your lost memory!”

“You’re right, but the premise is that these paper dolls are really my family.” Han Fei walked through the parade of paper dolls. His heart was a mess. Therefore, he had to maintain rationality to consider various possibilities. Amnesiacs felt the least secure. He wanted to find his real self, and not a version painted for him. Without realizing it, Han Fei had reached the bedroom door. He looked through the paper dolls, submerged in his own world.

“Let’s help him.” Xiao Jia whispered. “After we find the red doll, we can leave. This place is too creepy.” He carried Han Fei’s backpack and looked at the paper dolls near the wall. Suddenly, he encountered a ‘paper doll’ wearing normal clothes. He looked up and saw an elder whose face was as white as paper standing among the paper dolls looking at him.

After a second of silence, Xiao Jia screamed and retreated, “There’s someone here!” Xiao Jia tripped and fell. He was really scared.

Hearing the scream, Han Fei rushed over. They gathered to look at the pile of paper dolls.

“Be quiet. You’re going to attract the ghosts.” The old man’s skin was as pale as paper. He had been standing there, looking at them quietly.

“You’re the artist?” Han Fei stared at the old man’s face. His mind churned, and his blood pumped. He was sure that he had not only met this old man before, but the old man had also taken an important role in Han Fei’s life. His eyes moved down and Han Fei realized the old man’s clothes had a writing too, First Meeting.

“The Soul Bells kept ringing. How did you three humans get here?” The old man was holding an incomplete doll. He slowly walked out from the corner and stood before Han Fei.

“Sir, we accidentally entered this place. Can you tell us how to leave?” Xiao Jia was very afraid, but he still asked the question. However, the old man ignored him but kept his eyes on Han Fei.

“We came here to save someone.” Han Fei then asked, “Is this really our first time meeting?”

“Don’t think too much of it. My shop is called First Times. I capture many first moments in people’s lives and then burn them so that the departed will have them as a company.” The old man seemed to recognize Han Fei, but he didn’t admit it. The way he looked at Han Fei was very complicated.

“No. Even though I’ve forgotten many things, I am certain this is not our first meeting!” Han Fei lifted his wounded arm to grab the old man’s hand. “You know the truth, right? The reason behind my amnesia. Do you know everything about me?”

Han Fei used so much force that the old man’s fingers bent out of shape. However, the old man didn’t seem to feel any pain. He was like a paper doll. He just looked at Han Fei silently.

“This is indeed our first time meeting. You might have met someone who is like me, but that person is not me.” The old man shook his head. “I am just a craftsman who can’t even leave this room. You got the wrong person.”

“You sounded very sure when you said that person is not you. Does that mean you know there is someone who looks exactly like you in this city? Can you tell me where he is?” Han Fei released his grasp.

The old man was surprised by Han Fei’s question. He looked at his misshapen fingers and smiled. “My name is Fu Sheng. There are many people in this city with that name. Even though we have the same name, our personalities vary.”

“Fu Sheng?” Han Fei repeated the name. “There’s a Doctor Fu at the hospital, there’s a Director Fu downstairs, and there’s F with the players… Fear accompanies me everywhere I go. My heart is filled with fear of death. Those people with the surname Fu have once killed me. But when I’m here, I’m at peace. You’re different from them.”

“What do you mean? People are all the same. Even the evilest person will have that bit of goodness inside; even the kindest people will have a flaw.” The old man lowered his head to make the paper doll. Han Fei noticed the paper doll was unique. It was blood-red in color.

“You said you can’t leave this room?” Han Fei sat down beside the old man. “Are you being watched? Or something outside the room wants to kill you?”

“I made a different choice from them. I insist on staying here.” The old man smiled as he pointed at the words on him. “I need to manage First Times.”

“First times…”

“This is our first time meeting too. Perhaps I can sell you one of the paper dolls at a discount.” The old man opened the radio beside him. He painted the clothes on the paper doll as he listened to the program. The radio was playing the one-man show of a comedy actor. The others felt awkward, but the old man enjoyed himself. The paper dolls in the room appeared to be listening in too.

Whenever Han Fei tried to ask something about his own identity, the old man would deflect the question. In the end, Han Fei had to change the topic.

“Elder, we were dragged here by a ghost. Do you know how to leave this place?” Han Fei glanced at the time, which had stopped. “What is the connection between this place and reality?”

“This place has no actual name. I call it the cryptic world.” The old man mixed the colors for the doll’s clothes and started to chat with Han Fei. “After a person dies, his emotions and memories will dissipate. But the strongest part of his memory has a chance to turn into a Lingering Spirit.

“The gathering and accruing of Lingering Spirits form a world normal people can’t see. This is the cryptic world where the ghosts reside. This world is where all the negative emotions collect. It is shrouded by the black mist of resentment. Things started to grow in the mist. No one knows when the cryptic world appeared. But many people have accidentally entered this place before. Some of them were lucky to survive and that led to many ghost stories. Others disappeared just like that.”

The old man used bamboo sticks to give the paper doll structure. The doll in his hands was coming alive.

“Can a normal person enter the cryptic world?” This question was very important to Han Fei.

“Yes, but there are many circumstances. Most of the time, they are dragged into the cryptic world by ghosts just like you were.” The old man continued to work. “The cryptic world is the world of the dead. When a ghost’s emotion and resentment reach their peaks, the two worlds will collide at that moment. People who are close will be drawn into the cryptic world.”

“Then, how can one leave?”

“A normal ghost can only affect a temporary moment in time. Most people will be released back into the normal world automatically. However, there are special places where many ghosts reside. They have influenced the whole area. If one wants to leave, the only way is to escape from their range of influence.” The old man took out his brush to paint the paper doll. “This neighborhood is one such location. For you, the best solution is to leave this neighborhood. I advise you to move soon. If you are late, you might find it impossible to leave.”

“Why? Will you turn into a ghost if you stay too long in the cryptic world?”

“No.” The old man shook his head. He painted the doll’s lips red. “Someone wants to completely separate the cryptic world from the real world. They want to cut off the channel between the two worlds so that the despair will stay in the cryptic world and the goodness of humanity will stay in the real world. They have already started their mission. The distance between the two worlds is growing. You’ll see the effect soon enough.”