My House of Horrors

Even Chen Ge, who stood at the door, was feeling embarrassed. “Should I tell them that the statue can verify the authenticity of their sentences? Oh well, it could be worse.”

Leaving the underground scenario, Chen Ge returned to the staff breakroom. He opened the door and crawled into bed. “Ran to three places in one night. I sure have a vibrant night life.”

Removing his jacket, Chen Ge fell asleep when it was almost dawn. Chen Ge was woken up by the alarm at around 8 am. He brushed his teeth and washed his face before starting to clean the Haunted House. Xu Wan arrived at the Haunted House with breakfast at 8:30 am. She had a brief conversation with Chen Ge before going to the dressing room. The moment he finished the breakfast brought by Xu Wan, Gu Feiyu arrived. The young man looked spirited and bright. Without make-up, one could not tell that he worked at the Haunted House.

“Good morning, boss!”

“Quick, go and get your make-up done. The visitors will be coming soon.” Chen Ge sat on the steps and put the finished breakfast away. When he saw the smile on Gu Feiyu’s face, he asked, “Did something good happen to you?”

“No, I just found something interesting.” Gu Feiyu squatted down next to Chen Ge and bounced lightly into Chen Ge. Then he asked in a conspiratorial tone, “Boss, do you have a thing with Sister Xu Wan? She brings you breakfast daily, and that one time, I even saw her arguing with the boss that sells breakfast, telling him to skip the spicy stuff cause you always sleep late so you cannot have anything spicy.”

“I always sleep late? How does she know that?”

“She cares about you.” The smile on Gu Feiyu’s face grew bigger. “Actually, I come very early every morning, but I walk very slowly because I don’t want to disturb you two.”

“That is not an excuse for you to be late. If you don’t report to work by 8:30 am next time, I’ll reduce your salary.” Chen Ge stood up.

“Please have mercy!” Gu Feiyu followed behind Chen Ge. “Boss, I just think you have many admirers, and I wish to be as popular as you.”

Xiao Gu followed Chen Ge into the Haunted House, and he sounded sincere in wanting to learn. “When my uncle got discharged from the hospital, he told me to learn from you, but I’m dumb, and I don’t know where to start.”

“You want to learn how to become a popular person from me?” Chen Ge thought about it for a while, thinking back to the stuff that he had done, and he felt like if he told Gu Feiyu everything, his image would crumble instantly. After some hesitance, Chen Ge patted Xiao Gu’s shoulder lightly. “Be calm, hardworking, and fearless; that’s all I can tell you.”

Gu Feiyu ruminated on Chen Ge’s words, thinking that Chen Ge had wisdom.

“You’re still young, plenty of things to learn.” Chen Ge looked at the young man. “Since you work at the Haunted House during the day, why don’t you go attend some classes at night. One day, if the Haunted House closes, at least you’ll have a skill you can sell.”

Entering the dressing room, Chen Ge helped Gu Feiyu get into the Doctor Skull-cracker’s outfit. After sending the man away, he started to do the make-up for Xu Wan. Looking at his employee in the mirror, Chen Ge’s lips moved like he wanted to say something.

“Boss, if you want to say something, just say it.” Xu Wan knew Chen Ge well. After all, they had been through the Haunted House’s hardest times together.

“It’s nothing serious. I just feel like it’s embarrassing for me as a boss to be taken care of by my employee daily,” Chen Ge said as he continued the make-up.

“I saw how tired you were and just wanted to help you, but I don’t know how to, so I can do something minor like bringing you food.” Xu Wan looked at her reflection in the mirror, and she felt satisfied. “I shall enter the scenario now.”

“Okay.”

Chen Ge sat on the chair that Xu Wan had just vacated and watched the girl walk away. “How did she know that I was about to talk about the food before I even said anything?”

Shaking his head, Chen Ge stood up. He did not think that Xu Wan would ever harm him—he just got an increased interest in the girl.

Exiting the dressing room, Chen Ge pushed the gate open, and the warm sunlight showered his body. He stretched lazily. The theme park opened at 9 pm.

Due to the new introduction of the horror app, many old visitors returned, and the ranking on the screen kept changing. The theme park’s workers handled the lines, and Chen Ge only needed to look after the underground scenarios. Each scenario had visitors, and Chen Ge was under great pressure. Director Luo was worried about Chen Ge, so he set up a special emergency rescue center at the resting tent. Regardless of whether they would need it or not, the fact that several doctors and nurses were standing on duty gave the visitors a different experience.

To facilitate the transportation of fainted customers, Director Luo even had someone design a special trolley, and it was painted with the words ‘Specially for Fainted Visitors’.

With Director Luo and Uncle Xu helping him with the admin stuff, Chen Ge was not worried. His focus was on unlocking new scenarios. The day flew by. After sending away the last batch of visitors at 6:30 pm, Chen Ge had Xu Wan and Gu Feiyu, who had been busy as well, get off work, and then he grabbed the tools and started to clean the Haunted House.

He busied himself until 7 pm, and the people at New Century Park had almost all left already. Compared to the rowdiness in the day, the theme park was scarily quiet at night. After cleaning, Chen Ge entered the scenarios to take a spin. Interestingly enough, whenever he entered the scenario, the ghosts would place the stuff that the visitors had left behind at the Haunted House at the entrance.

Chen Ge collected the items and labelled them before sending them to lost and found. This was something that he would do daily, but this time, when he was going to the lost objects, he found something weird. “A security pass?”

Staring at the picture and name, Chen Ge was shocked. “Why would Zhang Li’s security pass be here?”

Zhang Li was the security guard who had horrible reputation at Western Jiujiang Medical University; Chen Ge had met him once.

“He came to visit the Haunted House today?” After some contemplation, he pocketed the pass. After sending the stuff to lost and found, Chen Ge entered the surveillance room holding the security pass. He focused on the footage in Minghun and Murder by Midnight. Chen Ge knew everyone who visited the underground scenarios, so if Zhang Li had come to visit, he would have visited a one-star scenario aboveground.

Chen Ge glanced through the video, focusing on the faces. He spent half an hour before he found Zhang Li on screen. This guard who had a bad personality was together with a young girl. They visited Minghun and Murder by Midnight respectively.