My House of Horrors

Chen Ge rushed forward when the investigator leaned back. The distance of three meters was like a gap that could not be crossed.

He did not make it.

The night breeze rushed through his ears, tearing his eardrums. The investigator’s face twisted as his body fell through the air. Those were his last three seconds in this world. The distance between them increased. The investigator seemed to say something, but due to the distance and the howling wind, Chen Ge could not hear anything. Through the shape of the man’s lips, Chen Ge roughly made out two words—Men Nan.

Chen Ge could not understand why the investigator would bring up Men Nan at the last moment of his life. Perhaps he was trying to confuse him, or he wanted to leave him a message.

“Yao Qinyi!” Lee Zheng’s deep roars came from the safety door. A few officers rushed to the edge.

The body landed with a thud. This was the first time Chen Ge had heard a life being lost.

Yao Qinyi landed on his head. Before he died, he kept his face looking at the roof. His eyes were smiling, and a wicked grin hung on his lips.

Half of Chen Ge’s body was hanging off the building, and his arms grasped at nothing but air.

“Ghost stories society…” The society made up from mental patients and killers had revealed its true face before Chen Ge. They had never been concerned about human lives.

“Chen Ge, what’s going on!” Lee Zheng demanded with red-rimmed eyes.

Chen Ge slowly retracted his arms and asked with a suppressed voice, “Who called you here?”

“It was the nurse who made the call. A patient saw Ol’ Yao escape from his room in the middle of the night. It looked like he was sleep-walking. Considering Xiao Jia’s condition, we were afraid some accident might happen to Ol’ Yao, so we rushed over from Fang Hwa Apartments immediately.”

“It was the nurse who called the police?” Chen Ge gripped the railing with both of his hands. He looked down at Yao Qinyi, at the smile on his face.

What he said before he died, was that the truth or a lie? Who is the real person behind these scapegoats? Wu Fei? Chairperson? No. 10?

There were three members left in the society, but if he did not remove the chairperson, the society would add more members soon. Tragedy and despair happened daily.

When pain pooled in one’s heart and was slowly allowed to influence the soul, the flyer from the ghost stories society would arrive.

I’ll need to destroy the ghost stories society before next Wednesday. Zhang Ya had gone into her slumber, so dealing with three members alone would be difficult.I need a new Red Specter!

The police cars had surrounded the People’s Hospital. Since Lee Zheng and many other officers were there when Yao Qinyi jumped off the building, they did not make things difficult for Chen Ge. He was sent back to New Century Park at around 4 am.

Chen Ge locked himself up inside the staff breakroom and placed the black phone on the table. He still needed to work tomorrow morning, but he did not feel tired. He sat on the chair to go through the mission message on the phone.

Daily Missions can get me rewards, but only the Nightmare Mission will improve my ability. Ever since the rules of triggering Nightmare Mission have been changed, I’ve never stumbled across another Nightmare Mission. Normal Missions are to focus on improving the Haunted House. I can do those when I’m free.

There are two Trial Missions inside the black phone. The Hearse, a two-star scenario, and School of the Afterlife, a four-star scenario. Unlocking new scenarios and completing their hidden mission will give me rewards that might include new ghost employees. Trial Mission will improve the power of the Haunted House, but a low-star Trial Mission won’t have much influence on me, and a high-star Trial Mission will be too dangerous.

Chen Ge was conflicted. After Zhang Ya went into slumber, he suddenly realized that he could be fearless before this only because of this Red Specter who seemed particularly interested in him.

The visitor’s screams from the past two days of work should be enough to exchange for two spins at the wheel. The Wheel of Misfortune is a method to increase my power, but there is too much uncertainty.

Chen Ge thought back to his previous lucky draws, and he shook his head. He decided to delay the activity to tomorrow afternoon when the sun was shining.

The situation is urgent. If the ghost from the wheel isn’t compliant, I’ll have to feed them to Xu Yin.

Xu Yin had the ability to become a Red Specter, and only a Red Specter would be a threat for the ghost stories society.

The society has owned their door for many years already, so they must have more than two Red Specters. The only reason they haven’t made a move is probably because they don’t know my bottom line. If they knew Zhang Ya is currently asleep and cannot wake up to help me, they would make use of this chance to deal with me.

He turned to look at his shadow. The long-hair woman’s shadow was still a shock to him then!

Zhang Ya has probably considered that already. Chen Ge took out the wooden box from his chest. He toyed with the doll and examined it closely. Why would Zhang Ya give this to me? Can this thing save me when the situation is dangerous?

Taking a doll made from a man’s soul everywhere was not a good experience.

Keeping it inside the wooden box was awkward to carry to places, so Chen Ge found a black plastic bag and tossed the doll inside.

He turned off the phone, lay on the bed, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

…

Chen Ge was woken up by his alarm at 8:30 am. He only had caught three or four hours of sleep for the past few days, but he did not feel tired. The only difference he could tell was that his body temperature seemed to drop lower than normal, but it did not seem to affect him.

The park opened to welcome a new day at 8:55 am.

Xiao Gu was still at the hospital, but Captain Yan said that he was mostly fine and had survived the fatal period. He would probably be released from the hospital in a few days.

Ol’ Wong though had the shorter end of the stick. Due to his old age and the great trauma, he fell ill, and the high fever would not recede. During his period of consciousness, he told the police that he planned to quit his security job. The police did ask him about what happened that night, but Ol’ Wong could not remember anything.

The visitors rushed into the park, and the number was greater than yesterday.

Xiao Gu’s absence meant that Chen Ge had to take turns dealing with two scenarios. He only got to rest during lunch.

The Haunted House’s reputation grew bigger. Even though Chen Ge’s workload had increased, he felt satisfied. At 12:30 pm, Chen Ge sat on the steps leading to the Haunted House to count his morning income. He was only halfway through when his phone rang.

He glanced at it and realized it was an unregistered number. He wanted to ignore the call as he was too busy to deal with it, but in the end, he still picked it up.

A woman’s voice came through. “I’m sorry, are you Chen Ge?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Good afternoon, I’m calling from Jiujiang’s Children Home. In the space for Fan Yu’s guardian, your name has been listed. Now that his aunt is currently in jail, we need you to come over to the Children Home to deal with some things.”

“Is it related to Fan Yu?” The boy who drew about ghosts had left a deep impression on Chen Ge.

“Yes, he has found an older sister for himself at our Children Home.”

“That’s a good thing; the boy doesn’t like to communicate with people. I’m glad that there have been positive changes…”

“But what if that sister is not a human but a spider?”

“A spider?”