Chapter Eleven: Room 601
The instant the door closed, Shen Yuchuan heard his own heartbeat.
Not from his chest.
From behind the door.
Ding.
Ding.
Ding.
As if someone else were lying on the other side, breathing with his heart.
He didn't push the door open right away.
Because Su Wanqing's words from moments ago kept echoing in his mind.
—You're standing outside the door now.
—The one lying inside is the real you.
Shen Yuchuan lowered his head and stared at his hands.
His fingers.
His palms.
His nails.
They were all real.
He could even feel the coldness at his fingertips.
If the person inside was the real him…
Then what was the him standing here?
"Shen Yuchuan."
His own voice came from inside the room.
"Are you still there?"
Shen Yuchuan didn't answer.
"You should come in."
"Because you have nowhere else to go."
Shen Yuchuan slowly reached out.
His hand touched the doorknob.
Cold.
He twisted it hard.
But the door didn't move.
"Open the door," the person inside said.
"Haven't you always wanted to know the truth?"
"Then come in."
Shen Yuchuan gritted his teeth.
"Tell me first."
"Who am I?"
There was silence inside for several seconds.
Then the voice laughed.
"That's the wrong question."
"What?"
"You should ask…"
"Which one am I?"
Shen Yuchuan's pupils contracted slightly.
"Which one?"
"That's right."
"The first?"
"No."
"The thirteenth?"
"Not that one either."
"Then what am I?"
The person inside said softly,
"You're number zero."
Shen Yuchuan froze.
The next second, the door suddenly swung open.
Without warning.
There was no hospital room behind it.
Only a long hallway.
Doors lined both sides.
601.
602.
603.
604.
All the way to 613.
Every door was half open.
Red light seeped through the cracks.
Shen Yuchuan stood in the middle of the hallway.
"Where is this?"
No one answered.
He turned around.
The door that had been behind him was gone.
Only a white wall remained.
A line of writing covered it.
"Thirteen hospital rooms. Thirteen versions of you."
Shen Yuchuan walked toward 601.
A photo was taped to the door.
The person in it was him.
But younger than he was now.
Around seventeen.
Beneath the photo were the words:
The First: Remember Love.
Shen Yuchuan reached out and touched it.
A sudden burst of pain shot through his head.
He saw a girl.
She was sitting beside a playing field, her long hair blowing in the wind.
She was laughing.
"A-Chuan."
"Look."
She handed him a report card.
"I got first place."
Shen Yuchuan smiled and ruffled her hair.
"You were always smart."
"What about you?"
"Me?"
"What place did you get?"
"Second to last."
"Dummy."
The girl laughed and ran off.
Shen Yuchuan stood there, his heart aching for no apparent reason.
He knew who she was.
Su Wanqing.
But this time, she wasn't a patient.
She wasn't his older sister.
And she wasn't an illusion.
She was just an ordinary girl who had grown up alongside him.
"The first…"
Shen Yuchuan murmured.
"Remember love."
He continued forward.
602.
The photo on the door showed him at eighteen.
The Second: Remember Hate.
The moment the door opened, an overpowering stench of blood hit him.
Shen Yuchuan saw his father kneeling on the floor, covered in blood.
Su Wanqing stood in front of him, a knife in her hand.
"Why did you kill him?"
A young Shen Yuchuan stood nearby, his voice trembling.
Su Wanqing looked up.
"Because he killed Mom."
"You're lying!"
"I'm not."
"You lied to me!"
"A-Chuan."
She slowly approached him.
"You need to remember this."
"In this world…"
"The person you can trust the least…"
"is your father."
The scene vanished in an instant.
Shen Yuchuan opened his eyes with a jolt.
He braced himself against the wall, gasping for breath.
"It was fake…"
But his hands were shaking.
If all of this was just an illusion, why did every detail feel so real?
He continued forward.
603.
The Third: Remember Death.
Behind the door was an operating room.
Doctors.
Nurses.
White sheets.
And Su Wanqing lying on the bed.
Her eyes were closed.
The line on the heart monitor slowly flattened.
Beep—
"Time?"
"3:13 A.M."
"Confirm the time of death."
Shen Yuchuan stood outside the glass, pounding on it desperately.
"No!"
No one heard him.
Su Wanqing's body was wheeled out of the operating room.
It passed right in front of him.
At that moment, her eyes suddenly opened.
Through the glass, she looked at Shen Yuchuan.
Her lips moved slightly.
Shen Yuchuan understood what she was saying.
"Stay alive."
The scene disappeared.
Shen Yuchuan dropped to his knees, tears spilling down his face.
"I remember…"
he whispered.
"I really do remember."
But the next door was 604.
The photo showed him at only nineteen.
The Fourth: Remember Fear.
The moment the door opened, the entire hallway suddenly went dark.
Shen Yuchuan heard footsteps.
Someone was following him.
One step.
Two.
Three.
He turned around.
No one was there.
When he turned back, someone was standing in front of him.
Su Wanqing.
"Wanqing?"
She didn't answer.
Her face slowly split apart, like a sheet of paper being torn open.
There was no flesh or blood inside.
Only endless blackness.
"Are you afraid of me?"
Shen Yuchuan backed away.
"You're not her."
"Then who are you afraid of?"
The black figure walked toward him.
"Are you afraid of death?"
"Afraid of being forgotten?"
"Or are you afraid that…"
She stopped in front of Shen Yuchuan.
"You never lived at all?"
Shen Yuchuan opened his eyes with a start.
He was already standing in front of Room 605.
He began to gasp for breath.
Cold sweat covered his forehead.
The photo on the door showed him at twenty.
His eyes were hollow.
The Fifth: Remember Lies.
Behind the door was a classroom.
A sentence was written on the blackboard.
"Su Wanqing does not exist."
Shen Yuchuan stared.
"Impossible."
He stepped closer.
The words on the blackboard began to change.
"Su Wanqing does not exist."
became:
"Shen Yuchuan does not exist."
Then:
"No one exists."
Finally, only one sentence remained.
"Only number zero is real."
Shen Yuchuan stumbled backward.
"Who the hell is number zero?"
Laughter rang out through the classroom.
"You."
He turned around.
A little boy was sitting in the last row.
He looked about seven years old.
He was wearing a white hospital gown.
The boy raised his head.
That face…
It was exactly the same as Shen Yuchuan's when he was a child.
"You finally came."
Shen Yuchuan slowly approached him.
"Who are you?"
"You."
"Which me?"
"The earliest one."
"Number zero?"
The boy shook his head.
"No."
"Then what are you?"
"I'm the you who hadn't been numbered yet."
Shen Yuchuan froze.
"What does that mean?"
The boy smiled.
"Everyone who came after you…"
"was split off from me."
"The first."
"The second."
"The third."
"All the way to the thirteenth."
Shen Yuchuan stared at him.
"Then why is there a number zero?"
The boy didn't answer.
He only held out his hand.
"Do you want to see?"
Shen Yuchuan hesitated for a moment.
In the end, he took the boy's hand.
The next second, the world changed completely.
A hospital.
2001.
2:58 A.M.
A woman lay on a hospital bed.
Beside her stood a seventeen-year-old girl.
Su Wanqing.
Her face was pale, but she kept staring at the crib.
"That's my little brother?"
The nurse nodded.
"Yeah."
Su Wanqing smiled.
"He's so small."
She reached out and gently touched the baby's face.
"A-Chuan."
The baby didn't cry.
He only opened his eyes and looked at her.
Su Wanqing smiled.
"You know what?"
"Your big sister is going to die soon."
"But it's okay."
"You'll live on."
The mother on the hospital bed suddenly opened her eyes.
"Wanqing."
"Yeah?"
"Don't touch him."
Su Wanqing froze.
"Why not?"
Terror filled the mother's eyes.
"He's not my child."
The smile vanished from Su Wanqing's face.
"What did you say?"
"He's not my child."
"Then who is he?"
The mother stared fixedly at the baby.
"Number zero."
The room suddenly fell silent.
Su Wanqing slowly backed away.
"Number zero…"
"What is that?"
The mother didn't answer.
She only grabbed Su Wanqing's hand.
"If he wakes up…"
"everyone will die."
Su Wanqing looked at the baby.
His eyes were still open.
He gazed at her in silence.
Suddenly, the baby smiled.
Su Wanqing's face went white.
"He understands us?"
The mother nodded.
"He's always understood us."
The next second, every light in the room went out.
In the darkness, the baby spoke for the first time.
But the voice wasn't a baby's.
It was an adult man's voice.
"Wanqing."
"Don't let me wake up."
Su Wanqing began to cry.
"Who are you?"
The voice in the darkness answered:
"I'm your little brother."
"And the thing you're most afraid of."
"I'll make everyone forget."
"Until I'm the only one left."
Shen Yuchuan jolted awake from the illusion.
The boy was still standing in front of him.
"Did you see it?"
Shen Yuchuan couldn't say a word.
"What was that?"
"Your birth."
"No."
The boy shook his head.
"That was the first time you woke up."
Shen Yuchuan froze.
"Before I was born?"
"Yes."
"I woke up before I was born?"
"That's why you weren't born."
"You were awakened."
Shen Yuchuan felt his scalp prickle.
"Who woke me up?"
The boy raised his hand and pointed toward the end of the hallway.
A black door stood there.
There was no number on it.
Only a single character.
0
"The Zero Ward," the boy said.
"Go there."
Shen Yuchuan looked at the black door.
"Who's inside?"
"The person you least want to see."
"Who?"
The boy didn't answer.
His body began to turn transparent.
"Wait!"
Shen Yuchuan grabbed him.
"You can't leave!"
"I have to go back."
"Where?"
The boy smiled.
"Back into your body."
"What?"
Before the boy disappeared, he said one last thing.
"Because I've always lived inside your heart."
Shen Yuchuan suddenly clutched his chest.
His heart began pounding violently.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
It felt as if someone else inside his chest was waking up.
A child's voice emerged from the depths of his heart.
"Big brother."
Shen Yuchuan froze.
"Big brother."
The voice called him again.
Shen Yuchuan asked in a low voice,
"Who are you?"
"Have you forgotten?"
"I'm…"
The voice paused.
Then said:
"Your little brother."
Shen Yuchuan's pupils contracted sharply.
"I don't have a little brother."
"You do."
"I only have…"
He suddenly stopped.
An image flashed through his mind.
His mother.
His father.
Su Wanqing.
And someone who had never appeared before.
A little boy standing beside the window, holding a stuffed doll.
Shen Yuchuan's lips began to tremble.
"Impossible…"
"You remember now."
"I don't have a little brother."
"You do."
"What's his name?"
The voice in his heart laughed.
"Shen Yuchuan."
Shen Yuchuan froze.
"What?"
"His name is Shen Yuchuan too."
"Because you two…"
The voice suddenly turned cold.
"were originally the same person."
Shen Yuchuan staggered backward.
The black door at the end of the hallway suddenly opened.
A woman's voice came from inside.
"A-Chuan."
Shen Yuchuan looked up.
Su Wanqing stood behind the door.
She was wearing that white hospital gown.
Her face was expressionless.
"Come in."
Shen Yuchuan didn't move.
"Didn't you already disappear?"
"I didn't."
"Then who was that just now?"
"That was me too."
"What does that mean?"
She held out her hand.
"Come in."
Shen Yuchuan slowly walked toward her.
"What exactly is in the Zero Ward?"
Su Wanqing looked at him.
"Your birth certificate."
"And your death certificate."
"And…"
She paused.
"Your father."
Shen Yuchuan's footsteps stopped abruptly.
"My dad?"
"He's still alive?"
"Alive."
"Where?"
"Inside."
"He knows the truth?"
"He does."
"Then why didn't he tell me?"
Su Wanqing looked at him.
"Because he's not your father."
Shen Yuchuan was utterly stunned.
"Then who is he?"
Su Wanqing didn't answer.
Footsteps suddenly sounded from behind the black door.
One step.
Two.
Three.
A man emerged from the darkness.
The moment Shen Yuchuan saw that face, he was rendered speechless.
It wasn't his father.
It wasn't a doctor.
And it wasn't himself.
It was a face he had never seen before…
and yet knew with absolute familiarity.
The man looked at Shen Yuchuan.
His gaze was calm.
"A-Chuan."
"You finally found this place."
Shen Yuchuan stared at him.
"Who are you?"
The man smiled faintly.
"I'm what your father truly looked like."
Shen Yuchuan frowned.
"What does that mean?"
The man slowly raised a hand and pointed at his chest.
A deep scar ran across it.
"Twenty-five years ago…"
"your father gave you his heart."
Shen Yuchuan stared blankly.
"The heart again?"
"Because your body…"
"didn't have a heart of its own from the moment you were born."
Shen Yuchuan instinctively touched his chest.
The man continued:
"The heart beating inside you now…"
"isn't your father's."
"It isn't Su Wanqing's either."
"It's…"
He looked at Shen Yuchuan.
"Number zero's."
Shen Yuchuan's breath stopped.
"Number zero?"
"That's right."
"You've always thought you had only one heart."
The man smiled.
"Actually, you have two."
A second heartbeat suddenly sounded in the room.
Ding.
Ding.
Ding.
Shen Yuchuan lowered his head.
His chest was vibrating.
But on the medical monitor, two heart-rate lines appeared.
The first belonged to him.
The second…
also belonged to him.
Two heartbeats, completely out of sync.
One beat once every second.
The other…
once every thirteen seconds.
The man looked at him.
"Now…"
"you should understand why the world loses one person every thirteen days."
Shen Yuchuan raised his head.
"Because…"
The man nodded.
"Number zero is waking up."
"And you…"
"are the body it's waking up in."
Suddenly, every light in the hallway went out at once.
In the darkness, Su Wanqing's voice rang out.
"A-Chuan."
"Run."
Shen Yuchuan froze.
"What?"
"Run now!"
"Why?"
"Because it's already awake."
Shen Yuchuan turned around.
The man was gone.
In the darkness, only a pair of eyes remained, staring at him.
A pair…
of eyes exactly like his own.
The man's voice echoed from the darkness.
"Run."
"The farther you run…"
"the easier it will be for me to find you."
Shen Yuchuan turned and sprinted toward the end of the hallway.
But no matter how long he ran, the doors kept appearing beside him again.
601.
602.
603.
604.
And the photos on every door began changing into the same image.
Not him as a young man.
Not him at seventeen.
A newborn baby.
The baby had its eyes open and was smiling at him.
Shen Yuchuan suddenly stopped.
Because he saw that the same time was written in the lower-right corner of every photo.
August 17, 2001.
03:13.
But the final photo didn't show a baby.
It showed only a woman.
Su Wanqing.
She stood beside a hospital bed, holding a baby in her arms.
Her head was lowered as she spoke to it.
Shen Yuchuan stepped closer.
The Su Wanqing in the photo slowly raised her head.
Through the photograph, she actually looked straight at him.
Then her mouth opened, little by little.
Shen Yuchuan understood what she was saying.
"A-Chuan."
"Don't trust me."
The photo suddenly split apart.
A bright red streak of blood ran down from the center.
From deep in the hallway came the sound of a countdown.
"Thirteen."
"Twelve."
"Eleven."
Shen Yuchuan whipped around.
The man stood at the other end of the hallway, walking toward him one step at a time.
"Ten."
"Nine."
"Eight."
Shen Yuchuan backed away.
"What the hell are you trying to do?"
The man didn't answer.
"Seven."
"Six."
"Five."
Su Wanqing suddenly appeared behind Shen Yuchuan and grabbed his hand.
"Hurry!"
"Where?"
"Room 613!"
"Why?"
"Your final memory is there!"
"Four."
"Three."
Shen Yuchuan ran with her.
"Two."
The door to Room 613 suddenly opened at the end of the hallway.
There was nothing but darkness inside.
Su Wanqing shoved Shen Yuchuan through the doorway.
"One."
The door closed.
Every sound vanished at once.
Shen Yuchuan stood in the darkness.
"Wanqing?"
There was no answer.
He groped his way forward.
Suddenly, his foot stepped on a piece of paper.
He crouched down and picked it up.
It was a birth certificate.
Name: Shen Yuchuan.
Date of birth: August 17, 2001.
Time of birth: 03:13.
Mother: Su Wanqing.
Shen Yuchuan's whole body went rigid.
He stared at the last line.
Father: Blank.
At the bottom of the birth certificate, there was another line of red text.
"Mother died after delivery."
Shen Yuchuan raised his head.
In the darkness, a baby began to cry.
Waaah—
Waaah—
Waaah—
The crying drew closer and closer.
Shen Yuchuan slowly turned around.
A crib appeared in the darkness.
A newborn baby lay inside.
He stepped closer.
The baby stopped crying.
It opened its eyes.
That face…
was exactly the same as Shen Yuchuan's.
The baby smiled at him.
Then, in an adult's voice, it said softly:
"Big brother."
"You finally came."
Shen Yuchuan stood frozen.
The baby reached out a hand.
"Now it's my turn to live."
The next second, every light in Room 613 blazed on.
Shen Yuchuan saw the same sentence written all over the walls.
"Number zero isn't the first."
"Number zero isn't the thirteenth."
"Number zero has always been you."
At the very center of all the writing, Su Wanqing's name had been circled in bright red.
Beneath it was a single sentence.
"She's the first one."
Shen Yuchuan's phone suddenly vibrated.
The screen lit up.
No incoming call.
No message.
Only a countdown.
10
9
8
7
Shen Yuchuan looked up.
The "himself" in the crib was smiling more and more brightly.
6
5
4
Outside in the hallway, Su Wanqing screamed.
"A-Chuan!"
3
"Don't let him touch you!"
2
Shen Yuchuan lunged for the door.
1
Thirteen people stood outside.
Every one of them…
was him.
Thirteen Shen Yuchuans raised their heads at the same time.
They all looked at him.
Then, in unison, they said:
"Welcome back."
"Number fourteen."
End of Chapter Eleven