My House of Horrors

Fan Yu likes to visit Haunted Houses because he likes the company of ghosts? Chen Ge came to this unlikely answer after listening to all of Teacher Gao’s reasoning.

“I don’t dare diagnose this patient so easily. If you have time, you can bring him to see me.” Teacher Gao also had not come across such a patient before, and he wished to inspect him in person. “Psychological illnesses are very complicated, and there are too many uncertainties to their causes. It could be related to the boy’s living environment, personal trauma, or even genetic inheritance.”

Chen Ge did not answer. When he came up with the conclusion that Fan Yu liked the company of ghosts, an extremely scary thought cropped up in his mind!

He peeled open his raincoat to retrieve Fan Yu’s drawing from inside his pocket. The black house and the red little humans.

Before arriving at Mu Yang High School, Chen Ge had assumed that this referred to one of the buildings at the school, but none of the building there fitted Fan Yu’s drawing. If anything, the squat dilapidated room shared by Fan Yu and his aunt had a closer resemblance to the drawing.

If Fan Yu is really drawing about the house he’s living in and these red people… Even the hairs on Chen Ge’s arms stood on end. Fan Yu’s house is filled with ghosts‽

He was reminded of the scene when he went to visit Fan Yu that morning. The aunt had been incredibly worried while Fan Yu locked himself up in his bedroom with the door and window closed, his head lowered, fully focused on his drawing.

Every time, he only used the two colors, red and black. All of his drawings were about a black house and red people, but each drawing had a slight difference. Chen Ge’s lips paled. He clearly remembered that the position of the red people was different in every drawing.

He had originally thought that was Fan Yu just scribbling, but now thinking back, they represented the dirty things moving inside the house.

Fan Yu can see them?

Chen Ge sucked in a cold breath, and more details from when Fan Yu was inside his Haunted House continued to surface. When Chen Ge was talking to the little boy, the latter had kept looking behind Chen Ge, especially at his shadow.

Fan Yu had said two sentences inside the Haunted House, and both of them had been directed at Chen Ge. At the time, Chen Ge had assumed that the kid had taken a liking to him, but now he realized that the boy probably treated him as kindred spirit.

No wonder he’s afraid of sunlight and likes to visit Haunted House. The boy’s perception has been seriously twisted. Chen Ge gripped the phone tightly. He did not know why Fan Yu had turned out that way, but the boy’s various curious actions and the testimony from the woman had led Chen Ge to a scary speculation.

In a similarly rainy night a few years ago, the boy had disappeared. Tragedy had befallen his parents after they went to look for him. To able to kill two grown adults and deal with their bodies and crime scene on a stormy night required plenty of careful planning and preparation.

Although, viewing this from another perspective, if someone did have the intention to harm Fan Yu’s parents, why would a killer with the ability to hide the bodies perfectly and clear their every trace from the crime scene let Fan Yu go?

When his aunt told Fan Yu that his parents had gone to heaven, Fan Yu had examined the well closely because he said that heaven was inside the well. This meant that he knew his parents’ bodies were inside the well. He had seen everything—he was one of the witnesses—so the killer had no reason to let him live.

Chen Ge narrowed his eyes slightly as a chill coursed through his body. That is unless the killer knew the boy or was the boy himself!

Regardless of which one it was, either possibility made Chen Ge’s heart cold with fear.

The aunt herself was also a prime suspect. There were way too many plot holes in her story, and when she supposedly went into the kitchen to pour water for Chen Ge, she should not have wasted so much time in there. Then, during the conversation, and even before he left, she had kept reminding Chen Ge to take a sip of the water.

At the time, Chen Ge had been too focused on his mission to be careful of her ‘kindness’, but thinking back, he suspected that something had been done to that glass of water.

If it was the aunt who killed Fan Yu’s parents, what was her motive? The woman loved Fan Yu to the extent of pampering him. She was blessed with beauty but did not seem to keep up her appearances. It was obvious that it was not easy for her to raise Fan Yu alone. She even spared no expenses to take him to see many doctors. She had put her whole life on hold for Fan Yu’s sake, would such a kind woman really be the killer?

To be honest, the thin woman had left a good impression on Chen Ge; he thought she was independent and strong.

Then again, if she was not the killer, then the next prime suspect would be the boy himself!

He was the crime’s only witness and survivor. Chen Ge did not suspect him initially because he was just a child, but after knowing the secret behind his drawings, Chen Ge realized he had greatly underestimated this child.

Fan Yu had a pair of unique eyes, and his constant company was only ghosts. He was not scared by their presence but, in fact, managed to survive just fine. Chen Ge even suspected that he had the ability to control them.

This would sound preposterous to others, but not to Chen Ge because he himself was the Specter’s Favored.

But if the boy is the killer, what was his motive? This was the question that stumped Chen Ge the most. Neither the boy nor the aunt had any actual reason to murder their close family.

What really happened on that day? Fan Yu’s parents were ultimately dropped inside Mu Yang High School’s well, but why Mu Yang High School of all places?

When Chen Ge placed the drawing back inside his pocket, he realized that the call was still connected, so he immediately apologized to Doctor Gao. “I’m so sorry, my attention was otherwise distracted.”

“No worries, I was just flipping through the journals to find out more about the patient. In fact, I’m really interested in his case. Do you mind bringing him to see me when there’s an opportunity?” Gao Ru Xue’s father had not hung up; he had waited patiently for Chen Ge.

“Of course, should the opportunity arise, we will definitely visit you.”

“Thank you, this number is my personal number, so call me when you’re coming. Lastly, I have something to remind you.” Teacher Gao sounded like he was hesitating on the phone, as if he was deciding whether he should say something or not.

“What is it?” Chen Ge was appreciative of any advice from this kind doctor.

“The way to treat a patient is with plenty of patience, but it is undeniable that serious patients carry with them a certain degree of threat. When you are in their company, please remember to try not to incite them.”