My House of Horrors

Yin Hong hid behind the old headmaster, unwilling to come out. She looked very nervous, but Chen Ge did not see too much fear on her face. In other words, even when facing three Red Specters, Yin Hong was confident that she could run away. Chen Ge had no idea where her confidence came from, so he could only approach this carefully.

“Sir?” Seeing the silence from the old headmaster, it appeared like he had something to hide.

“Both of these children are Lee Xueyin; they are one and the same.” The way the headmaster regarded the two girls was filled with love and guilt. “I know one of them is Yin Bai and the other Yin Hong, but no matter what they’re called, they are my family.”

He reached out to touch Yin Hong’s head as he guarded the girl behind him. Being touched by the old headmaster, a trace of disgust crossed Yin Hong’s eyes, but perhaps she knew that the situation put her in too much of a disadvantage, and she knew that she needed the old headmaster’s support, so she did not resist and put forth an obedient persona.

“Actually, if we’re splitting hairs, Yin Hong is more like Xueyin. Facing the drunk father and a mother who was too weak to leave the wheelchair, she only had herself to rely on.” The old headmaster put the blame on himself. “This is all my fault. It was me who had the blind trust in Xueyin’s father, and it was me who pushed them into the fire pit.”

What the old headmaster said sounded new to Yin Bai; she looked at the old headmaster blankly. Her beautiful and clear eyes were filled with confusion, and her lips kept mumbling the word, “Grandpa.”

Yin Hong’s reaction was completely different from Yin Bai’s. She was trying her best to suppress the anger in her heart. There was no visible change to her expression, but a flash of red had already appeared in her eyes. The past memory hurt her, and her body was slowly changing.

“Sir, I’m afraid things are not as simple as you think.” Chen Ge did not want to hide anything from the old headmaster. He opened Yin Hong’s bag and took out the crumpled papers that he had found in Yin Hong’s drawer. Seeing those crumpled papers, the calm on Yin Hong’s face was shattered. She looked like a murderer whose victim had just been found. The papers were filled with Yin Hong’s dissatisfaction with the world and the desire to kill the old headmaster. Holding the papers in his hand, Chen Ge looked at the old headmaster, who would give everything to shelter Yin Hong, and Yin Hong, who was holding onto the old headmaster with tears in her eyes. He started to hesitate.

Shaking his head slightly, Chen Ge placed the papers back into the bag. “Sir, can you tell me in detail what really happened to Xueyin?”

After putting the papers filled with maddened claims away, Chen Ge noticed both Yin Hong and the old headmaster sigh in relief. It was then that Chen Ge realized that perhaps the old headmaster already knew everything.

“Yin Bai is the purest side within Xueyin’s heart. She is pure, kind, and innocent, but the only reason she is able to survive like that is because all the anxiety, fear, and hatred has been taken away by Yin Hong.” There was regret and pain in the headmaster’s voice. “Xueyin’s mother is the first child I adopted. Due to her physical limitation, she was unable to be pregnant, so she adopted Xueyin. At the time, it was me who accompanied them during the adoption. Xueyin was still so young. Seeing how happy the family of three was, I was glad. But later, I found out that things were not what they seemed.”

Chen Ge heard an undercurrent of hatred from the old headmaster’s story. It surprised him that such a kind person would feel hatred toward someone.

“You can’t judge a book by its cover. Xueyin’s father was a liar. He approached Xueyin’s mother not because he liked her but because he was after the few estates under my name. He knew that I have no biological children, so he purposely came into our lives. Even adopting Xueyin was just a performance that he did for us.”

If that was everything, the old headmaster might not have been that mad, but what he said next was the real reason behind his anger. “After he found out that I planned to donate all my estates and have already put that in my will with the lawyer’s help, he turned into a different person. Every day, he came up with a new reason to find trouble and even beat Xueyin’s mother. One time, he tried to turn his anger on Xueyin. Thankfully, she was discovered and rescued by her mother.”

The old man’s voice was shaking. He was a kind person, but that did not mean that he would not get angry. From another perspective, with the old headmaster’s personality, he probably would not consume another ghost, but he was still a Half Red Specter. That could only mean that he had a very deep reason to stay behind, and there was something that he needed to complete.

“I found out all this from Xueyin’s diary after she passed away. Do you know how much my heart hurt when I was reading that diary?” The headmaster gently guarded Yin Hong behind him. “Yin Bai would have been unable to survive in that kind of place, so that is why Yin Hong appeared.”

After hearing the explanation from the headmaster, Chen Ge was glad that he did not show the papers immediately. He studied Yin Hong and was suddenly reminded of something. Yin Bai had said that her father suddenly left home one day and then did not return. Chen Ge did not think much of it then, but now that he was looking at Yin Hong, he had a feeling that he knew what had happened to the man. He would not return; he would never return.

Yin Hong harbored resentment toward the old headmaster; she even wanted to harm him. But she did not expect what happened next. When facing three Red Specters, the headmaster guarded her and became her savior. This changed her perspective of the old headmaster. Then she saw how regretful the headmaster was. An unsettling feeling rose in her heart, and her cold, hard heart started to crack slightly.

“I didn’t expect that she would have such a past. I can understand it, but…” Chen Ge did not finish what he began. He put the headless woman and red high heels away. Those two could not be considered workers yet. The headless woman was there unwillingly, and the red high heels was there because of a contract. Even though the heels were placed inside the backpack, more bloody footprints appeared on the table.

Chen Ge was making a stance by putting the two Red Specters away. Chen Ge decided to hand this over to the old headmaster himself. Even though Yin Hong was a vessel of negative emotions, she was Yin Bai’s essential other half. With his hands on Yin Bai’s shoulders, Chen Ge’s eyes moved between Yin Bai and Yin Hong. He was about to ask the old headmaster some questions when something suddenly hit him.

How come this feels so familiar? Yin Hong and Yin Bai are just like me and my shadow in Li Wan City!

To be precise, Chen Ge was reminded of himself and the ghost fetus. One was a happy-go-lucky Haunted House owner, while the other carried an entire four-star scenario on his back.

Wait a minute… Chen Ge rubbed his temples. It was my parents who told the old headmaster that Lee Xueyin was in the School of the Afterlife. This means that they know about Xueyin’s condition. Could this be another clue left by them?