Men Nan

Men Nan is an identity shared across two sharply differentiated personas: the anxious psychology student who lives in the ordinary world and the childlike main persona who pushed open the Third Sick Hall’s blood door. The latter becomes a territorial Red Specter, an unwilling but dependable ally of Chen Ge, and eventually the natural leader of the memory-erased dead at Ping An Apartment.

Biography

The recurring hair-washing dream

When Men Nan first arrives at the House of Horrors with Doctor Gao, three weeks without proper sleep have transformed a cheerful, confident psychology student into a tense young man who seeks dark corners and keeps his head bowed as if something is pressing down on it. Every night he dreams that he washes his hair while an indistinct man advances from the apartment door, finally reaching his side and strangling him. Afraid that one more dream will kill him, Men Nan refuses to sleep and accepts Chen Ge’s offer to keep watch. (Chapters 110–116)

The vigil at Hai Ming Apartments reveals that his obsessive washing predates the current haunting and is rooted in childhood trauma: his biological mother was murdered when he was very young, and he was the first to find her. Once asleep, Men Nan walks to the basin with his eyes rolled back, allowing the hostile presence connected to Room 303 to attempt its final approach. Chen Ge interrupts the possession, while the investigation reframes the washing dream as both a repetition of trauma and a warning shaped by the protective presence associated with Men Nan’s mother. Men Nan survives, awakens feverish but grateful, and the rusted key and divided spirit behind the attack point toward the Third Sick Hall. (Chapters 117–125)

Two personas and the Third Sick Hall door

Inside the abandoned Third Sick Hall, Chen Ge learns that Men Nan spent his first years around its patients and that his mother had once been treated there. The ordinary-world Men Nan remembers only the life that began after age four. Under pressure, he admits that the original child persona remained behind the blood door after witnessing his mother’s death and later being taken back to Room 3. That child had discovered the door, closed it before, and warned the later persona that anyone entering its world should remain silent. (Chapters 169–178)

Chen Ge finds the five-year-old persona tied to an electroshock bed and wakes him despite the entities insisting that the boy must remain asleep. Blood vessels return to the child, his clothes turn red, and he retakes control of a world that had been exploiting his unconscious power. A photograph of his mother softens his hostility, after which he explains that his consciousness has fused with the Third Sick Hall and asks Chen Ge to protect the ordinary-world persona, whom he calls his only remaining friend. He then opens the exit for one minute and resumes guardianship of the door, establishing the continuing separation between the two personas even though both are Men Nan. (Chapters 179–184)

Keeper, rival, and reluctant ally

Years later, the child persona remains beside the damaged Third Sick Hall door, appearing as a small boy in blood-soaked clothes while speaking with a wary adult intelligence. He explains to Chen Ge that an ordinary Specter needs to recover or form a heart to become a Red Specter, whereas a door-pusher naturally becomes red after death and is strongest inside the world formed by that door. His knowledge makes him invaluable, but he resists recruitment because every expedition risks leaving the damaged threshold unattended and allowing blood mist to leak outward. (Chapters 408–410)

That territorial caution does not prevent Men Nan from helping when the balance becomes dangerous enough. In the underground morgue he dissolves into blood mist, uses Bai Qiulin as cover, and attacks Xiong Qing after saving Bai from the Red Specter’s needle. During the Li Wan City crisis he again joins Chen Ge’s coalition, helps oppose the shadow and Doctor Gao’s forces, and insists afterward that his first responsibility remains repairing and containing the Third Sick Hall door. His complaints therefore become part of a stable pattern: he argues against the risk, assesses it more accurately than most of the group, and still appears when Chen Ge truly needs him. (Chapters 450–455, 650–677)

Hunting the Ghost Fetus

The Ghost Fetus investigation draws Men Nan into regular House of Horrors fieldwork. He initially slams a door after seeing how many Red Specters Chen Ge has brought, but he participates once the plan is explained. He studies candidate door-worlds, memorizes apartment passwords, and temporarily shares a mobile phone with Tong Tong so the weaker child spirit can travel safely in daylight. These tasks emphasize that his principal contribution is not raw violence alone: he understands possession, doors, and hostile spaces well enough to turn small openings into safe routes. (Chapters 995–1000)

As the investigation deepens, Men Nan scouts rooms with Xu Yin and the red high heels, watches the House of Horrors’ toilet door, identifies curses around Yu Jian, and enters possessed bodies to trace threats that have escaped ordinary observation. Chen Ge repeatedly chooses him for work requiring judgment, including phone infiltration and surveying the dangerous underwater passage connected to the Ghost Fetus. Men Nan remains sarcastic about assignments and openly fearful of black fog that can suppress Specters, yet he stays with the team through the final retreat, demonstrating loyalty without losing the self-preserving caution that defines him. (Chapters 1020–1073, 1109–1110)

Leader of Ping An Apartment

When the Cursed Hospital erases the employees’ memories and builds a false Xin Hai, Men Nan’s personality survives even when his history does not. The tenants of Ping An Apartment recognize the young-looking boy as their strongest and cleverest resident, and he turns the building into a resistance center. He recruits other dead, plans reconnaissance with Ol’ Zhou, considers how patients inside the hospital might be turned against their jailers, and follows fragmentary instincts toward the Third Sick Hall. His authority is not imposed by remembered rank; it emerges from his ability to give frightened residents a workable plan. (Chapters 1187–1192)

Men Nan’s confidence is tested when the group encounters the Cursed Lady. Mistaking the emotional pull around her for a lost family connection, he asks whether she might be his mother and is swiftly overpowered, but he recovers and reassesses rather than abandoning the uprising. He stays near Chen Ge during the march on the hospital, recognizes when enemy doctors are buying time, and regains his place within the restored House of Horrors family. His later comic attempts to imitate the white cat around Zhang Ya show that the formidable Ping An Apartment leader remains proud, competitive, and very capable of childish embarrassment. (Chapters 1193–1195, 1206)

Appearance and personality

The ordinary-world Men Nan is a slight man in his twenties with prominent cheekbones, dark circles, and an exhausted, tense posture during his first case. Sleep deprivation makes him lower his head, roll his eyes upward, and avoid light or crowds, but Doctor Gao remembers him as cheerful, confident, and exceptionally gifted in personality psychology. His willingness to study psychology partly reflects a desire to understand and cure the damage within himself. (Chapters 110–117)

The door-pushing persona appears as a boy of about five, later still small enough to reach only an adult’s knees. Behind the door his clothes become saturated red, his skin is pale, and his eye sockets can look completely black and empty. He is intelligent, suspicious, territorial, sarcastic, and proud. The same boy who threatens intruders and bargains over survival also protects his other persona, complains theatrically about unfair work, and assumes responsibility for weaker residents when no remembered authority remains. (Chapters 179–184, 409–410, 995–1001, 1187–1206)

Skills and supernatural abilities

Blood-door authority

Men Nan’s child persona pushed open the Third Sick Hall door and became fused with the consciousness of its world. Within it, he can reclaim blood vessels, manipulate the blood-colored environment, control mist, restrain other spirits, and use the building itself as an extension of his will. This authority is territorial rather than limitless: stronger entities such as Zhang Ya can breach his defenses, and damage to the physical door forces him to remain nearby to contain leakage. (Chapters 179–184, 408–410, 450–455, 650–677)

Red Specter nature

As a door-pusher, Men Nan states that he naturally became a Red Specter after death instead of advancing by finding a heart in the ordinary way. His power is amplified inside his own door-world. He can disperse into blood mist, form restraints and attacks from surrounding vessels, withstand hostile spectral environments, and directly contest other dangerous spirits, although he remains cautious around Greater Red Specters, curses, and black fog. (Chapters 409–410, 454–455, 669–677, 1109–1110)

Possession, scouting, and analysis

Men Nan can enter or share electronic vessels, including co-inhabiting a phone with Tong Tong, and can use those routes for reconnaissance or escape. He detects curses, explores rooms without exposing Chen Ge first, and can enter possessed people to inspect the spirit inside. His psychology training and long experience with doors make him one of the group’s best tactical analysts; in the false Xin Hai, that judgment leads other memory-erased residents to recognize him as Ping An Apartment’s leader. (Chapters 997–1000, 1020–1073, 1187–1192)

Power progression

Relationships

• Chen Ge: Chen first saves the ordinary-world persona, then wakes the child behind the door. Men Nan distrusts his appetite for dangerous missions but repeatedly assists him and ultimately treats the House of Horrors as family. (Chapters 110–125, 173–184, 408–410, 650–677, 995–1110, 1187–1206)
• Doctor Gao: Men Nan’s teacher and clinician during the nightmare case. Doctor Gao’s later transformation makes him both a source of danger and a strategic counterweight in the conflicts around Li Wan City. (Chapters 110–125, 650–677)
• His mother: Her murder shapes Men Nan’s trauma, and her lingering protective presence is associated with the self-defending aspect that warns him through the washing dream. Her photograph remains the surest way to reach the hostile child persona emotionally. (Chapters 117–125, 169–183)
• The ordinary-world persona: The door-pushing child calls the later persona his only friend and asks Chen Ge to protect him. Their shared identity is cooperative but not interchangeable: each has different memories, motives, and access to the blood-door world. (Chapters 170–183)
• Bai Qiulin: A fellow employee and Red Specter whose growth becomes a recurring object of Men Nan’s wary comparison and envy. They fight within the same coalitions despite their bickering. (Chapters 454–455, 650–677, 1138, 1206)

Items

• Photograph of Men Nan and his mother: Connects the two personas to their shared childhood and calms the awakened child behind the door; Chen Ge gives it to him after the confrontation. (Chapters 169–183)
• Third Sick Hall blood door: The threshold Men Nan pushed, guards, and repeatedly repairs. It is the anchor of his territorial authority and the reason he resists long absences from the hospital. (Chapters 169–184, 408–410, 650–677)
• Rusted key: A clue recovered during the Hai Ming Apartments case that links the divided haunting around Rooms 303 and 304 to the path toward the Third Sick Hall. It is associated with Men Nan’s case rather than a permanent personal possession. (Chapters 120–125)
• Mobile phones: Temporary vessels used for covert travel, protection, and reconnaissance, including the phone he shares with Tong Tong. (Chapters 999–1000, 1053)