My House of Horrors

Stopping the worker, Chen Ge went forward. “Are you looking for me?”

Wang Shenglong was covered with sweat, and he gasped for breath as he pushed through the crowd. “My little brother spoke last night! He’s just outside the park; he says that he has something important to tell you!”

“Bring me to him.” Things were as Chen Ge expected. He looked at the long lines and gave Uncle Xu some simple commands. He opened the Minghun scenario to the visitors before leaving with Wang Hailong.

“I’m sorry to disturb your business.” Wang Hailing swiped the sweat from his forehead. “Life has been really difficult for Shenglong, and I couldn’t say no to him.”

“I understand.”

The two of them reached the entrance of the park. There was a van parked across the street, and the outside of the van was painted with a logo that read ‘Long Hu Fang’.

“In here.” Wang Hailong led Chen Ge toward the van. “You’ve seen how my brother looks. He’s afraid of scaring others, so he didn’t want to show himself in public.”

Tussling with the thin monster meant that Wang Shenglong’s mental age had not grown; he was no different from a child, but his body was seriously twisted. He stayed inside his room for most of the time, and he was so fat that he could not get on a bed, so he had to lie on the floor with a thin layer of mattress.

Chen Ge was reminded of the famous Disney movie—The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

When Chen Ge first met Wang Shenglong at Hai Ming Apartments, he had drawn a picture. Inside the picture, the monster had been standing on the boy’s shoulders, its eyes targeting the people around him like he was ready to jump on other people’s shoulders at any moment.

Wang Shenglong used that picture to tell Chen Ge of his difficulty. If he did not follow the monster’s instructions, it would jump to his other family members, harming them. Thus, he had taken on the suffering all by himself, playing this unfair game. He had not said a word for the past five or six years.

Wang Hailong opened the back of the van to reveal a mountain like shadow at the deepest recesses of the van. “Shenglong, I’ve invited Boss Chen. If you have something to say, please tell him now.”

Hearing that, the shadow moved forward slightly, causing the whole wan to shake.

“Don’t move, I’ll come in.” Chen Ge and Wang Hailong jumped into the van and closed the door. This was the second time he had been in such close contact with Wang Shenglong. It was impossible to tell Wang Shenglong’s age from his looks. His face was covered by folds of fat, and his body was impossibly wide.

“Wu…” The years of non-speech meant that Wang Shenglong had forgotten how to speak. He could only formulate the start of the word but not the complete term.

“Don’t worry. You can write the things that you want to tell me down.” Chen Ge had initially maintained a distance from Wang Shenglong. He had stood near the door, and if there had been something amiss, he would have jumped out immediately. However, after some observation, Chen Ge realized that Wang Shenglong was indeed different from before. The most obvious difference being that the stench around him had already disappeared. He grabbed the notebook from the seat next to him. Wang Shenglong held the pen and wrote down two words on the paper.

“I won.”

It was two simple words, but it took Wang Shenglong five to six years to complete them. It was because of these two words that his life had been ruined. The pen almost scratched through the paper; it was obvious how excited Wang Shenglong was feeling.

“Boss Chen, do you still remember the story I told you?” Afraid that Chen Ge did not get the reference, Wang Hailong leaned toward him. “My little brother got into this game with a monster when he was young called ‘Who Speaks First’. This game lasted for almost six years, but from the looks of thing, my little brother has won.”

Then, Wang Hailong added in a whisper, “Boss Chen, my little brother just recovered, so please go along with everything that he says.”

Chen Ge turned to glance at Wang Hailong. This large man was gentler than Chen Ge had expected.

“Your little brother is indeed impressive. I’ve met many who played this game, and your little brother is the only one who has won it.” Chen Ge held Wang Shenglong’s large hand. “You’re amazing.”

The pen moved, and Wang Shenglong added on the notebook, “It had only left temporarily. It said that it would return to find me.”

“It will return?” Looking at the words, a question surfaced in Chen Ge’s mind. “The monster has wasted almost six years on you, why did he suddenly leave?”

“It felt so threatened that it woke up from its slumber. It tried to forcibly take over my body, but it failed. Then, it left.”

“Threatened? Is it because the appearance of Doctor Gao and myself?” Chen Ge pressed. “When did the monster awaken?”

“At 3 am two days ago,” Wang Shenglong answered on the notebook honestly. Looking at the date on the paper, Chen Ge was shocked.

Two nights ago, he had been livestreaming inside Third Sick Hall. After I entered the world behind the door and awakened Men Nan’s main persona, it also woke up the slumbering monster?

Chen Ge thought about it. He was almost certain that the two were linked, but that should not be the main reason.

“That night, when the monster left, did you see or hear anything out of place?”

“There was the sound of people walking backwards in the corridor.”

“Walking backwards?”

Wang Shenglong wrote a lot of stuff on the paper, but Chen Ge still failed to understand him. This caused Wang Shenglong to start sweating profusely.

“It’s alright. That’s already a good enough clue.” Chen Ge did not understand the difference between people walking forward and walking backwards. Before the Wang brothers, Chen Ge called Captain Yan.

“Captain Yan, I just received new information about the Third Sick Hall. The escaped patient might have appeared at Hai Ming Apartments recently.” The monster on Wang Shenglong had come out the door in the Third Sick Hall. Instead of sticking around the other monsters, it had left the place’s control. To be able to scare the monster, it was probably the appearance of the other monsters from the Third Sick Hall.

The monsters had to possess living humans if they want to stay outside for a prolonged period of time. Therefore, the backwards footsteps that Wang Shenglong heard that night were probably the result of one of the patients from Third Sick Hall.

Watching the conversation between Chen Ge and Wang Shenglong, Wang Hailong thought Chen Ge was just humoring his little brother, but he panicked when Chen Ge called the police. “What’s happening? Why did you call the police?”

He suddenly realized the gravity of the situation, and he realized that Chen Ge was not kidding.

“Boss Chen, what have you been talking about? The police are coming to Hai Ming Apartments?” Wang Hailong’s face was filled with worry.

“Your brother’s story is related to another case; that’s all I can tell you.” Chen Ge chatted some more with Wang Shenglong before leaving the van.

Wang Hailong chased after him because he was worried. “Boss Chen, my brother has spent his whole life inside the house; he hasn’t done anything illegal.”

“That I know. To be precise, the case is related to the monster inside your brother’s story.”

“The monster?” Wang Hailong’s face shifted. After a long time, he asked, “Will my brother be affected? He has suffered too much, and it took him so much time to be ready to speak.”

“Don’t worry, it won’t affect your brother.” Chen Ge looked inside the van. Wang Shenglong, who was like a small mountain, sat in the corner. He hid in the shadows where the sun would not hit. He gripped the pen in his hands, and it looked like he was drawing.