My House of Horrors

“Misfortune will befall you once you start to have suspicion of this world?” Chen Ge shook his head lightly. “The fragmented memory in my mind told me that even if I am just living my life, I will be under the torture of misfortune and despair.”

“They are completely different thing.” Zuo Han touched the wound on his left eye, it appeared to be recovering already so it was pulsing with pain. “Your previous memory perhaps came from the real life and the real life had always been cruel, but everything that you are experiencing now is more like a dream, a dream that you will not be able to wake up from.”

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“Ever since I woke up at the hospital, I stopped dreaming at night. So from that point of view, your suspicion has some basis to it.” Chen Ge poured a glass of water for Zuo Han but Zuo Han refused to touch it at all, he was very cautious.

“Your body is recovering very fast and the sharpness in your eyes has gone. I know you actually understand many things but now you are unwilling to face them because you have possessed the goodness in the world, you have tasted the bliss and so you do not want to personally destroy them with your own two hands.” Zuo Han was not only clever, he had a very good observation skill. From Chen Ge’s various tone and expression, he could discern many things. Listening to Zuo Han’s accusation, Chen Ge did not answer. He had also been questioning himself but unfortunately he never reached any conclusion answer.

“But if this is just a dream and suspicion will trigger bad luck that will tear down all the goodness, then in the end, even if I wake up from the dream, wouldn’t I be thrown back to an even crueler reality?”

“But the bliss here is fake.” Zuo Han stood up and looked at Chen Ge seriously, “What have they done to you in the short amount of one month? What have you experienced? You weren’t like this at the hospital at all, back then, the feeling you gave me was more like a devil who was hiding a heart of revenge.”

“I have not experienced anything too special, I merely have been living a simple life. If you really want to pinpoint something, it would be my encounter with Zhang Ya.” Chen Ge sat on the chair, the emotions in his eyes were extremely complicated. “She is very special to me. When I am with her, I will feel very secure and safe.”

“I thought things will go smoothly but I guess I have wasted my time coming here tonight.” Zuo Han removed his gloves and took out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. “You will eventually wake up from the dream. The day you change your mind, you can come to this place to find me.” When Chen Ge reached out to accept the piece of paper, he noticed the fingerprints on Zuo Han’s fingers had been sanded off.

“I am now a wanted man, this is probably the last time I am coming to find you.” After Chen Ge kept the paper note, Zuo Han was ready to leave. “This city might look perfect on the surface but underneath its perfect cover, it is filled with boils about to burst with pus and blood. When you become unwilling to leave this place, it will slowly swallow you into its stomach.”

“I will think about this further.”

“Okay, there is one more thing that I have to tell you. I have once stolen a white phone out from the hospital, after I switched it on, I realized it was installed with various kind of cursed words and a bunch of apps related to curses. Initially I thought that was just a strange interest by the owner but after that, I have sneaked a look at all the phones of the hospital workers and the doctors at the hospital, everyone at that hospital with white phone had many curse-related games and apps installed in their phone. So if you encounter anyone using white phone in the future, remember to stay away from them.” After Zuo Han dropped that piece of advice, he did not stay any longer. He climbed through the window of the bathroom and left. Closing the window behind him, Chen Ge’s face was dark. He leaned against the door of the toilet cubicle and his brain was churning rapidly.

“There were originally many memory fragments in my mind, they described a completely different life, the doctors at the hospital told me those memories were all part of my delusion but after seeing the seven glass jars in all the hospital directors’ offices, I can be certain now that those experiences were absolutely real.” Chen Ge was actually very clear that, if those memory fragments were real, then the city that he was currently living in was most likely a fake one. “After the hospital realized all the memory fragments in my brain had disappeared, they only allowed me to leave the hospital but the key problem was when I was leaving the hospital, Doctor Sun had come to remind me that the real treatment is only starting now.

“Eliminating my past memory is the only the first step. The thing that they will do next is probably to reshape my memory so that I will stop suspecting this hospital and this world and become a living doll inside this city. They will use the fake bliss and happiness to numb me to everything, to have me desire everything, to make it so that I am unable to part myself from them and even turn me into a defender of this place and its rules.” Chen Ge’s gaze was cold. “They had a very good plan but there were too many accidents in this process, the escape of the patient Zhang Wenyu, the suspicion Zuo Han had towards this world, the help of Doctor Sun, and the most importantly, some kind of change had been happening to Zhang Ya as well.”

He could remember very clearly, when he encountered Zhang Ya at the hospital, there was blood droplets that had gathered from bloody words that had crawled into Zhang Ya’s body. “Initially Zhang Ya’s existence was probably to compensate for my real, to help fulfil my wish but under the influence of those blood words, Zhang Ya started to have some very scary nightmares every night. Those nightmares are probably the real world and those nightmares have been reminding me and Zhang Ya that under this bubble of bliss, there are many bloody faces looking to swallow us. This is a blissful world that is meant for people to sink themselves into but my life is more than me alone.” Many different figures appeared in Chen Ge’s mind. “The second persona that has gouged out his heart in the brain maze, the patients who are still in torment at the hospital, the child who was split into many parts and stuffed into different glass jars, Doctor Sun who was filled with scars and perhaps even Zhang Ya.”

Thinking back to their date, when Chen Ge was making the ceramic doll, both of his hands had moulded the version of Zhang Ya in his heart. Chen Ge who was a master dollmaker had already noticed a problem then, the Zhang Ya doll that he created wore a bloody dress and was wearing various negative emotions. That was not Zhang Ya under the spectre disguise, but a Demon God that was extremely scary. The version that Zhang Ya that he made from his memory was a different Zhang Ya that he spent time with daily, perhaps the version of Zhang Ya at the Haunted house was merely a part of the real Zhang Ya. With this thought in mind, Chen Ge lowered his head to look at paper note left in his palm. There were three words written on the front of the paper—Ping An Apartments. On the back, the location of Ping An Apartment was roughly jotted down.

“Doctor Sun helped me escaped from the hospital so that proves that the way to wake up from the dream is not inside the hospital but somewhere in this city.” The message that was left behind by Zuo Han and the author was one and the same. After giving it some thought, he turned back towards the staff breakroom and then came out carrying an old backpack. The white cat strode bouncingly behind Chen Ge. Just as they were around to reach the Haunted House door, Chen Ge turned back to place it back inside the room. “I am going to a very dangerous place tonight, I can’t let you follow me so tonight I will need you to watch over the fort for me.”

The pair of dual-colored eyes looked at Chen Ge with confusion, the white cat appeared as if it was in brutal shock. Moments later, it ran out again, as if worried that Chen Ge did not want it anymore. “I am not going out to play this time. I need to stay here and look over the place, I promise I will be back before sunrise.”

In the end, Chen Ge did not bring the white cat with him. Based on the instruction on the paper, he took a cab and came to a restaurant that was close to Ping An Apartment. Xin Hai’s taxi drivers apparently rarely got the direction to come to places outside of the city. When Chen Ge got out from the car, the driver even tried his best to advise him that it was incredibly unwise to come to the countryside alone at night.

Chen Ge walked past the restaurant. His original intention was to prevent others from following him on vehicle so he planned to walk the rest of the distance to the apartment. But incidentally, he had not had a meal since the start of the day, and he was already quite hungry so he turned and walked into the restaurant.

Ping An Apartment was at Xin Hai western countryside, this place was very secluded. Before he came here, Chen Ge also did not expect a restaurant that was quite popular could be found so far away from the city. The shop was famous for its ‘lu zhu’ (stewed food) and ‘wild game’. Due to the city’s rules for the banning of wild game, the restaurant had to move to the countryside even though the owner had been trying his best to explain that all the meat that was served at his shop was reared from home, they only had that unique taste because of the special recipe of seasoning that they used. The shop was not that big, it did not have any VIP rooms, there were only five to six short, wooden tables placed at the lobby.

“I am so sorry but we are already closed for business.” There was a fatty standing at the cashier, he had on a dirty apron and a very obvious scar was travelling his face.

“I have come so far from the city to visit your place, just serve me anything that you have left.” Chen Ge smelled the delicious scent of meat inside the shop and his stomach grumbled even louder. He found a seat and then casually flipped through the menu.

“There are still some vegetables but we have already run out of meat. The meat at this place sells like hot cakes.” The fat chef finished dealing with the work he was dealing with and took a menu and walked towards Chen Ge. “We still have some frozen dumplings in the fridge, how about I make some wild boar dumplings for you?”

“I do not like wild game that much, just some vegetables will be fine.” Chen Ge turned his head to look at the chef and the chef also happened to lower his head to look at them. When the two saw the other’s face at that moment, something incredibly absurd happened. The scar on the fat chef’s face started to wiggle. His body appeared to freeze and cold sweat slithered continuously down his forehead.

“Do you know me?” Chen Ge narrowed his eyes.

“Absolutely not!” The chef replied firmly. Then he turned and ran towards the kitchen like he was escaping for his life but his shoulder was grabbed by Chen Ge.

“Do you really not know me? If that is the case, then why did you run? What is your name?” Chen Ge might not like he was that thick in frame but he had powerful arms. His five fingers sunk into the chef’s shoulders like metallic claws. “Your body is shaking, are you afraid of me?”

“I am not afraid of you, I have merely mistaken you for someone else. He look similar to one of the police officers and I thought you were here to check on the wild game.” The chef did not dare to turn his face around and when he answered, he answered in the softest voice possible.

“You are lying.” Chen Ge pressed harder with his hand. “Tell me, what is your name?”

“My name is Chi Longtou. I am just a small chef, please let me go.” The chef started to beg.

“Chi Longtou of the Lu Zu shop?” Chen Ge felt like that information was rather familiar. He pressed the chef against the wall and reached out his finger to touch the scar on the chef’s face. From the body size, the chef was much larger than Chen Ge but in reality, the chef did not have the intention to even struggle at all. “The wound on your face has not scabbed over and the wound is not that deep, it looks like they have been slowly gouged out by some object, is this some kind of sick punishment?” Chen Ge’s finger trailed the edge of the wound, the pain caused the chef to grit his teeth. “The perimeter of the wound is extremely irregular, it feels like whenever it is about to heal, someone will come and injure you again. I cannot imagine the pain that you must be in.”

Listening to what Chen Ge had to say, the chef’s legs were as weak as noodle. He knelt down to the ground and his face was pale as ash. “Chen Ge, can we just pretend that we have not met each other? I have never seen you and you have never walked into my shop?”

“You even know my name?” Chen Ge pressed even harder. He could be sure that this was the first time he met Chi Longtou but the latter was able to recognize him so this could only mean that they had some kind of connection before and that connection was a proof for the validity of Chen Ge’s former memory. The chef wished that he could slap his mouth. With a bitter face, he did not dare to even utter a word anymore.

“I only need you to answer a few of my questions honestly. If I am satisfied, then I won’t bother you anymore and we can pretend that we have not met each other.” Compared to the chef, Chen Ge was even more desperate to know stuff but he did not show it on the surface.

“Ask me then, I will tell you everything that I know.” The chef crawled up from the ground as if he had surrendered to his destiny. He jogged over to close the door of his shop.

“My first question is from where did you know me?” This was the point that Chen Ge was the most curious about. He was there that night to go and ask Zhang Wenyu about it, but as fate would have it, he ran into this strange chef instead.

“It was at a Lu Zu snack shop at Xin Hai but not the one behind the door…” The chef said when the world before his eyes turned blood red. He felt like someone was about to tear his brain apart.

“Hey!” Chen Ge was given quite a shock as well. Seeing the wound on the chef’s face suddenly tear open for no reason, that was the understandable response. Then the blood poured out from the chef’s face. Holding his own face, the chef was rolling on the ground. He resisted the pain but did not dare to make too loud of a noise. He could only bite on the table cloth that he had grabbed earlier. There was blood everywhere on the ground. Chen Ge looked at the redness that was drying up but he did not feel any disgust or fear, it was as if he had gotten used to all these gore already. His fingers touched the blood stains on the ground. The sticky and warm feeling was very familiar to Chen Ge, a thought burst out from the deep part of his mind. [This is real blood.]

After about 10 minutes, the chef only slowly returned to normal. He reached out his bloody hands to grab at Chen Ge’s shoes. “I cannot tell you anything, I will die.”

“Actually in your current state, I feel like dying might be a better option than death, perhaps you still have something that you still have not finished.” Chen Ge picked the chef up from the ground. “If one day I can end the pain, I will try to find a way to help you. Please do not push yourself further, you can just tell me whatever that you can tell me.”

The chef’s body was shaking due to extreme pain. He used the table cloth, soaked it in his own blood and wrote down something on the ground. Whenever he finished writing a word, he would immediately wipe it away—this is the place where the patients are punished behind the door.

“The place where the patients are punished?”

With shaking hand, the chef wrote down another line—can’t escape, can’t die even if I want to, help me.

He wiped away all traces of blood on the ground. He held his bleeding face and headed back into the kitchen. After reading the bloody revelation by the chef, Chen Ge had a very bad feeling rising inside him.

Seeking the truth and misfortune would come, now it appeared like misfortune had already come knocking at his doors.