My House of Horrors

After that, Chen Ge had Xu Yin hand the middle-aged woman to the woman in the red raincoat. “I’ll wait for your news.”

He did not stay at the bus stop but led Xu Yin back onto the bus. The woman’s screams came from the bus stop. Blood pooled around the raincoat, and it crawled into the middle-aged woman’s body like snakes. Hearing the cries for mercy from the woman, the lady in the red raincoat did not appear happy. Her red eyes looked at Chen Ge on the bus, and the emotions in them were complicated.

Chen Ge did not use the middle-aged woman as a bargaining chip to force her to do something but handed her over to her directly. This action made the woman in red raincoat’s impression of him improve by a lot.

The bus left the stop and headed directly for Fan Chong’s home. The rain started to lighten, and Chen Ge carried the e-bike from the bus and up the building. After an eventful journey, Chen Ge arrived at Fan Chong’s place at around 2 am. He was afraid that Fan Chong would already be asleep, so he sent him a message first. After some time, Chen Ge’s phone-started to vibrate. Fan Chong called him directly after seeing his message. “Boss Chen, are you downstairs?”

“Yes, I hope I didn’t wake you up. I guess you aren’t sleeping yet.”

“It’s raining outside! I’ll come get you immediately.”

“There’s no need. I came today to ask you some things.”

The phone hung up, and Chen Ge placed the e-bike at the parking lot and then entered the building with the keys. He reached the top floor, and the door to Fan Chong’s place was open.

“My brother is sleeping in the other room; he needs to work tomorrow morning.” Fan Chong was excited when he saw Chen Ge. “Boss Chen, I got a few other endings. The game has quite a few Easter eggs ¹ .”

“This time, I’m not here for the game.” Chen Ge had not forgotten what had happened at Jiujiang’s Mental Asylum. He wanted to go take a look at Jiang Long’s apartment. In the game, after Xiao Bu opened the door behind the closet in her classmate’s home, the style of the game changed. If the game was a reflection of real life, then the ‘door’ that had gotten out of control in Li Wan City was probably in Jiang Long’s home. Chen Ge wanted to see the difference between the door that had gotten out of control and a normal door.

“You’re not here for the game? You came so late at night just to return the e-bike?” Fan Chong was confused.

“That is one of the reasons. Let’s go in first, and I’ll tell you.” Chen Ge stood in the corridor, and he had a bad feeling about the place like something was eavesdropping on them. After closing the door, Fan Chong handed Chen Ge a towel. “You’re so soaked. Why don’t you change into some of my clothes first?”

“Thanks, but it’s fine.” Chen Ge cut right to the chase. “Fan Chong, you have played the game before. Did you realize that the building where Xiao Bu’s classmate lived was very similar to the first building of your residential area?”

Initially, that did not even cross Fan Chong’s mind, but once Chen Ge brought it up, his eyes slowly widened. “Now that you mention it, the residential area where Xiao Bu’s classmate stayed is rather similar to the layout here.”

“I plan to visit Xiao Bu’s classmate’s home tonight.” Chen Ge stood. Because his clothes were wet, he did not want to stain the furniture.

“Xiao Bu’s classmate’s home? In real life?” Fan Chong had trouble following Chen Ge’s thought.

“I’ve already contacted the police. Xiao Bu’s classmate is now a mental asylum patient, and I know his home’s exact location.”

With that, Chen Ge confused Fan Chong even more. “Boss Chen, aren’t you a Haunted House operator? Why would you have a relation with the police?”

“Don’t worry, I didn’t reveal anything about the game, and the connection to the police is due to a dismemberment case.”

“Dismemberment case?” Fan Chong’s face paled immediately.

“Yes, it’s at Ming Yang Residence not far from here.”

“It’s not far from here?”

“Yes, the murderer is still currently on the loose, but I already have a few suspects in mind.” Chen Ge did not consider Fan Chong’s feelings when he said those things. He forgot how terms like murder, dismemberment, and killer might affect a normal person.

Fan Chong also got nervous hearing what Chen Ge was up to. “What do you need from me?”

“Based on my previous investigation, I confirmed that Xiao Bu’s classmate’s home was this residential area’s first building’s first floor, and first unit. You and your brother have stayed here for so long already, did you notice anything weird?”

The first building was just opposite from Fan Chong’s building—he only needed to pull back the curtain to see it.

“I don’t think there’s anything weird about the place, but now that you put it that way, it does look quite creepy,” Fan Chong answered with a bitter smile.

“There’s no need to hurry, give it time to think. When your brother wakes up tomorrow, you can ask him as well or ask the other old tenants at the area.” Chen Ge did not expect to have a result on day one. “This is the key to your bike; I’ll place it on the table. Your bike was the MVP tonight.”

Fan Chong did not know what Chen Ge was talking about. He thought about it and then waved at Chen Ge. “Come with me. I’ve thought about it and realized that there was something weird about that building.”

The two entered the bedroom, and Fan Chong pulled back the curtain.

“Li Wan City is the easternmost side of Eastern Jiujiang, so the traffic here is very inconvenient. Many people have moved away because of that, and the tenancy rate here today is only one third.” Fan Chong pointed at the building opposite. “When we first moved here, we planned to stay at the first building because the rental there is much cheaper compared to the three other buildings. However, our current landlord told us that the place is not safe, and many tenants that moved into that building would disappear due to mysterious circumstance.”

“Disappeared?” Chen Ge was immediately reminded of the ‘door’; he suspected that these people had entered the ‘door’.

“Yes, we saw people move in, but one day, they stopped appearing. No one knew whether they had moved or something else happened.”

“Did no one call the police?”

“It’s no use calling the police. Eastern Jiujiang is near the countryside, and most of the people here are not locals, so they move about a lot. The police would come to check whether it was a big case like murder. They realized that there was no sign of fighting inside the home, and everything looked normal, so they left. After this carried on for a while, everyone sort of got used to it.”

“Other than that, what else happened?” Chen Ge looked at the first floor of the first building. All the windows had tape seals on them. “Was it the police who put those seals up?”

“Yes, there was once someone who lived on the first floor. It was an old lady who lived alone. She often said that there was a little child standing outside her window at night. The people around her knew that she was not a liar, and they even came up with a group to ambush the child who wanted to scare the old lady.”

“And then what happened?” Chen Ge was intrigued. The mention of the child connected his thought to the ghost fetus directly.

Fan Chong shook his head. “There was no child. The old woman was probably too old and confused. The people squatted there for a whole night and saw no child. In the end, they entered the old woman’s room to inspect and realized that the window in her room was caked with grease and grime, so standing inside, there was no way she could have seen anything that was outside.”

“Couldn’t see out the window?” Chen Ge thought about it and asked, “Could it be that the child has been standing inside the room?”