My House of Horrors

Chen Ge remembered the name Jiang Ming. He was about to ask something else when Qing Ming took out his phone that was inactive from his pocket and ran out as if he had to leave to take an emergency call.

“Is that necessary?” As a visitor, Chen Ge was abandoned at the theme park. It was as if a message had been given to all the futuristic theme park workers—they were to stay away whenever they saw Chen Ge, and they were not to talk to him. “I feel like I’ve been ostracized.”

Chen Ge’s livestream was still ongoing. The viewers who saw this felt tickled, and they kept mocking Chen Ge in the chatroom.

“Looks like the futuristic theme park has made the decision to ignore me. Does this count as a silent surrender?” Chen Ge felt like it was pointless for him to stay. He walked out from the Reincarnation Haunted House. The moment he left, his phone suddenly vibrated. “Everyone at theme park knows that I’m livestreaming. Who would be calling at a time like this?”

Chen Ge normally only used one phone. He glanced at the caller ID, and he quickly answered it when he saw that it was Lee Zheng.

“Inspector Lee, what can I help you with?”

“I heard that it was you who reported that there had been a hidden murder at Eastern Jiujiang’s Jiang Yuan Apartments?” Lee Zheng did not waste time on pleasantries and cut straight to the point.

“Yes.”

“We’ve found the body. Where are you now?”

“No wait, even if you’ve found the body, what does that have to do with me? I’m not the killer.” Chen Ge did not know whether the chatroom could hear his voice or not. When he accepted the call, he did not close the livestream. After all, a stream that had more than a million viewers could earn him a lot in donations.

“Come to Jiang Yuan Apartments now. We found your hair at the crime scene.”

“My hair? Impossible!” After Chen Ge thought about it, he believed that it was his hair that got stuck on the jacket when he lent it to the female ghost.

Last night, I kept my eyes closed. I have no idea what the female ghost looked like, and I have no idea what appeared before me…

“Stop wasting time. If you do not arrive in an hour, the next call that I’ll make will be quite different.”

“Understood. I am in Eastern Jiujiang, so I’ll be heading there now.” Chen Ge was still livestreaming. If the viewers saw him being taken away in a police car, he would not know how to explain that. After hanging up, the livestream returned to normal. Chen Ge ignored the chat, gave a few random words to the viewers, and logged off.

It felt right to have visited the futuristic theme park this time. It not only helps me relax, I managed to find clues related to the ghost fetus.

Chen Ge looked at the comic inside his backpack. When he entered the Haunted House for the second time, he finally found the windchime in the cursed house. It was possessed by a little girl’s lingering spirit. The spirit seemed to be related to the woman in the stage costume, so without wasting time, Chen Ge ‘invited’ the girl to join him in the comic.

“It’s time to leave.” Chen Ge turned to look at theme park behind it. The visitors were still coming. It was almost noon, but there were still buses coming to unload batches of visitors.

Without the haunted house, there is no chance New Century Park can even compete with this big beast.

Chen Ge put away his phone and took out the black phone.

Previously, I always make the lucky draw at my theme park. I should try it once at someone else’s theme park. Perhaps there’ll be a surprise.

Clicking open the Wheel of Misfortune, Chen Ge saw the familiar rules.

With the wheel, there’s a chance that I’ll get a Specter, but there’s a higher chance that I’ll get something else.

Walking to the entrance of the futuristic theme park, Chen Ge squeezed through the crowd. He lifted his head to look at the sun and purposely chose a spot where the sun would hit him squarely.

Time to try my luck.

Chen Ge spun the wheel. When the needle stopped, the black phone vibrated.

“Congratulations Specter’s Favored for winning a special item—a faceless picture!

“Faceless Picture: The first time I forget you is when I look at your picture. I cannot remember who is in the picture. I only know that he is important to me. I asked you, and you told me that it’s you. Later, I cannot remember how many times I’ve forgotten you until the day you stopped appearing, and I have forgotten what I should have forgotten.

“Congratulations Specter’s Favored for drawing your fifth Specter. Your title has been upgraded to Red Specter’s Favored!

“Red Specter’s Favored: Misfortune, bad luck, pressure, pain, and the embrace of a Red Specter equals to a shadow that you cannot shake for life. You will gain the truth and lose everything at the same time.

“Warning! Red Specter’s Favored, your title will upgrade again after you’ve drawn another ten Specters!”

The sun shone on Chen Ge’s body, drawing his shadow long. Chen Ge, who melted into the crowd, stood where he was, holding the black phone. No one paid him notice, and no one understood his feelings. For Chen Ge, being favored by Red Specters was a good thing, but the description that the black phone had for this title was again too ambivalent. Chen Ge knew that the title would influence both Specters and Red Specter, but the extent or nature of the influence, whether it was good or bad for him, Chen Ge had no idea.

“Based on the description alone, it sounds like a reward, but it could also be a hidden punishment. No wait, if this happened to a normal person, it would be the cruelest punishment.”

Chen Ge initially wanted to draw ten more times, but he decided against it after he calmed down. The Specter drawn from the black phone would be related to an object. To gain the help of said Specter, he had to personally find the Specter and help them complete their wishes first. Putting the black phone away, Chen Ge left the futuristic theme park and hailed a cab to get to Jiang Yuan Apartments.

Twenty minutes later, Chen Ge got out of the taxi, and two police officers headed toward him. Chen Ge had no idea who they were, but the officers recognized Chen Ge with one glance. In a way, Chen Ge could be considered a celebrity of sorts in a certain circle.

“Inspector Lee is on the twelfth floor.” Many tenants were standing outside their rooms. The two police officers led Chen Ge as they cut through them. The three reached the twelfth floor.

“Brother Zheng!” Chen Ge was quite happy to see Lee Zheng, even though they had just met each other two days ago. “Has the man who collapsed at the mental hospital woken up? The patient called Chang Gu, he only has one eye.”

“We can talk about that later.” Lee Zheng grabbed Chen Ge and led him to the deepest part of the twelfth-floor corridor. “Were you here last night?”

“I was.” Chen Ge did not know what Lee Zheng was going to ask him.

“Did you know about the murder that happened here before you came last night?”

“Is that important?”

“If you knew about the murder before coming here but chose not to report that to the police, instead opting to do your own vigilante investigation, I will drag you back to the police station now and have you reflect on what you have done for a few days.” Lee Zheng gripped Chen Ge by his shoulders. “The day before last, you fainted at the mental hospital, and last night, you came to this countryside apartment area to conduct an investigation on a murder case that no one knew about. I can understand your urge to look for your parents, but this is too dangerous, way too dangerous.”

“I did not know about the murder here before I arrived; I can promise you that.” Chen Ge patted Lee Zheng lightly on his shoulder. “Brother Zheng, I would only conduct my investigation when I am ninety to one hundred percent confident, so you do not need to worry about my safety.”

“I know that you won’t listen to my advice, and I do not know how to correctly advise you, but it feels like you are being constantly chased by something, and you have been using all the energy that you have to keep on running forward.” Lee Zheng had years of experience at his job, and thus, he could read people very well. “Actually, you can trust us. You can choose to rely on us.”