My House of Horrors

Chen Ge did not have the time to dawdle. He had just received the call from Captain Yan, and the news about the Third Sick Hall had unsettled him.

“Boss!” He San and Gao Ru Xue squeezed through the crowd to run toward Chen Ge. “What did you do to the Haunted House’s workers?”

“I’m just a visitor, what can I do to them?” Chen Ge raised his brow. “Also why aren’t you at least a little bit worried about my safety?”

He Sand Gao Ru Xue were baffled. Indeed, under normal circumstances, when a visitor was left alone inside the Haunted House, they should have been worried for the visitor. However, for some reason, when the two of them saw Chen Ge walk into the Haunted House, they became worried for the workers instead.

“Of course, we were worried about you.” He San flashed his signature smile, not at all awkward at his lie.

“Fine, remember to come to visit my Haunted House when you have time. I’ve created new scenarios, and I’m sure it’ll be very exciting.” Chen Ge hurried to leave. He reached into his shirt to remove the electrocardiograph monitor and the audio recorder. He turned to face the proprietor. “My heart rate hasn’t gone over 100, right?”

“Right, the lowest was 60, and highest was just over 90.”

“Just over 90? Why was it so high?” Chen Ge was a little surprised. He did not feel anything inside Tian Teng Medical School. It had felt as relaxing as returning home, but his heart rate had still jumped quite high. Looking at the dissatisfaction on Chen Ge’s face, the proprietor felt like crying as the despair in his heart started to overflow. “Brother, this is my first day of business…”

“Your Haunted House is not bad to be able to raise my heart rate so high. However, compared to the New Century Park’s House of Horrors, which you can reach by taking the number 13 bus, it’s still quite lacking,” Chen Ge said openly. “Actually, your Haunted House is good enough that you don’t need to rely on underhanded tactics like slamming our Jiujiang’s local Haunted House to bring up yourself and adopt real news to increase popularity.”

Chen Ge looked at the few Haunted House actors who had not recovered from the trauma, and his brain started to turn. “Your set design is very professional, and the story background is very interesting. You even have two storylines in place to include puzzle-solving into your scare. To be honest, I had fun today.”

Fun? You had fun inside the Haunted House?

The proprietor and group of actors were praised by Chen Ge, but they did not feel too happy. “The reality is, we lost. We will edit the unfair comment that we’ve levelled at your Haunted House online.”

“Thank you. If you come across similar trouble, feel free to come find me; I’m very impressed by your professionalism.” The ‘pregnant ghost’s’ expression and the ‘dead body’s’ gaze had both been practiced before the mirror many times before they got the expression down. Tian Teng Medical School’s actors had been in this business for many years, and they were Tian Teng Medical School’s biggest wealth.

“That’s all I want to say. Get back to work and remember to come pay me a visit when you’re free.” Chen Ge’s gaze scanned the proprietor and the actors, and he smiled before turning to leave. Chen Ge did not gloat when he won, nor did he say anything sarcastic.

Also, he had been left inside the Haunted House alone while all the workers were outside; this could be considered an accident already. If this was a personal visit, then perhaps it could be swept under the mattress, but this was in public. If Chen Ge insisted on making this big, then it would be over for Tian Teng Medical School. However, Chen Ge did not do that. In fact, he had praised the Haunted House, and this surprised the proprietor. He felt thankful.

The guy is not as bad as I thought. Perhaps like us, he is not in it for the money but the meaning of true terror.

The proprietor watched Chen Ge walk away and was reminded of his younger self who adored ghost movies and pranks. The bad economy for the past few years has caused me to focus on earning money, and I’ve forgotten the initial reason I opened a Haunted House.

The proprietor was too kind. Chen Ge did not treat them as competition from the beginning. The reason he said so much was because he was laying the foundation to swallow Tian Teng Medical School whole in the future to add to his terror-themed amusement park.

“Boss.” The security guard tapped the proprietor on his shoulder.

“I’m fine, let’s be ready to get back to work!”

“Erm…” The security lowered his voice. “He seems to have taken our Haunted House’s tape recorder with him.”

“What? When did that happen?”

…

When Chen Ge left the building and got on the bus, he realized that he was still carrying the tape recorder. I was too focused on making the speech that I didn’t realize I was still holding their tape recorder. Oh well, I’ll return this when they come over to visit my Haunted House.

Chen Ge returned to New Century Park. The moment he removed the sign from the door, the visitors started to swarm toward him. In less than a few weeks, the reputation and visitor number of his Haunted House had dramatically increased.

“We’ll be open in the afternoon. Don’t worry, we’ve designed a new scary scenario! Definitely will give you the scare of your life!” Chen Ge called Xu Wan before entering the Haunted House. He thought back to the tricks that he experienced at Tian Teng Medical School and tried to apply them in his own Haunted House.

“The update rate for my Haunted House is very fast, and it is still growing. When the hidden missions for the Third Sick Hall are completed, I’ll need to rearrange the scary scenes to add some scary items and mix in the real ghosts with fake ghosts. That will be more interesting.”

Visiting Tian Teng Medical School had given him plenty of inspiration. He wrote all his thought down in a notebook so that he would not forget them.

At noon, Chen Ge took out the information provided by the police and memorized the information of all the escaped patients. The information could prove useful at any moment. After a simple lunch, the doors to his Haunted House was open for business. Before completing the hidden missions, Chen Ge did not plan to open the Third Sick Hall for the public. That was not such a big problem because most of the visitors had not digested the earlier scenarios yet.

He kept himself busy until 6 pm. After sending the visitors away, Uncle Xu, who stood at the door selling tickets, flashed him a rare smile. Chen Ge’s Haunted House was driving the popularity of the entire theme park upwards, and the management was trying their best to cooperate with the Haunted House.

“Nice work today.”

Chen Ge waited until Uncle Xu and Xu Wan left before he returned to the staff breakroom. He put the tape and the cleaver wrapped in red cloth inside his backpack and started to search for the white cat.

He looked through the entire Haunted House and finally found the white cat on top of the tree at the entrance of the Haunted House. The white cat was very clever. It seemed to sense that a bad thing was about to happen, and it jumped up to the top of the tree. No matter how hard Chen Ge tried to persuade it, it refused to come down.

“What are you so afraid of? The place I’m going is safer than the Third Sick Hall! Come down!”