My House of Horrors

“Fan Yu told other children weird things?”

The sensitive Chen Ge realized the source of the problem. Fan Yu had a pair of eyes that could see ghosts. The boy was not bad, and the things that he said might sound weird to adult ears, but they were most likely true.

“Yes, to not interrupt the other children’s treatment, we had to send them to an actual children’s psychiatrist for counselling. You have to understand that we’re a public institution; the budget we receive is limited. Most of the time, our operation depends on kind donations from the public.” The president sighed. “It’s fine if we need to send the children to a psychiatrist once or twice, but we won’t be able to afford it if this continues.”

Then, the president raised his head to look at Chen Ge like he was trying to gauge his attitude. He saw Chen Ge was in deep contemplation. He assumed Chen Ge understood what he was trying to say, so he sighed in relief. He said directly, “Based on Fan Yu’s condition, the chance of him being adopted is low, and since you’re Fan Yu’s only family, I feel like compared to an environment like the Children’s Home, Fan Yu is more suitable staying with his family.”

The room fell into silence.

After two minutes, Chen Ge came to a decision. “Fan Yu did not do anything wrong.”

The president was startled. He thought that he did not explain himself clearly enough. “I know this is not Fan Yu’s fault. We’re merely hoping he can have a healthy growth, so do not misunderstand.”

“What did Fan Yu tell these kids?” Chen Ge looked at the president seriously. “You have to tell me without missing a word; these kids might be in danger.”

“Danger?” The president stared at Chen Ge for a full three seconds. His lips fell open, and the speech that he had prepared was completely useless. They were not on the same wavelength. Looking at Chen Ge, he suddenly felt that Fan Yu’s condition might be hereditary.

“Yes, please tell me what Fan Yu has said and the names and contact information of those children. They might be in serious danger,” Chen Ge repeated seriously; it did not sound like he was kidding.

The president forced a smile. “Mr. Chen, I’ll be direct. Fan Yu doesn’t feel any sense of belonging to our Children’s Home; he probably wishes to stay with his family. He’s a very clever child, but he has some internal issues. If you have the financial power, we hope that you can bring him away with you and send him to an official and professional psychiatrist for treatment.”

“Temporarily, that is not possible. My place is not safe.” Chen Ge was telling the truth. At least until the ghost stories society had been taken care off, he could not take Fan Yu back to his Haunted House.

The president had heard many excuses when people refused adoption, but a lack of security was a first. “Okay, but you have to come see him often to communicate with him. We will try to do our best.”

“Thank you.”

The nurse led Chen Ge out of the president’s room. The nurse felt embarrassed, and she said, “It’s not our intention to chase Fan Yu away. The boy is obedient and clever; he just tends to do weird things.”

Chen Ge smiled but did not argue. “I know what you’re trying to express, but have you considered that what he says is the truth?”

The nurse slowed down. She glanced at Chen Ge. For some reason, she felt like this man was rather convincing. “We’re here.”

The nurse stopped at the door next to the room when they ran into the two boys earlier. Both rooms’ doors were open. “Jiang He and Jiang Jin are on the run again.”

She entered one of the rooms in a hurry. Then there came the sound of glass shattering from the bedroom. A girl started to cry, wailing the words, “Big Sister!”

It sounded like her sister was being bullied.

“Jiang Jin, Jiang He! Go and face the wall!” The nurse lectured the two boys while Chen Ge stood at the door. He looked at the painted card, and among all the children with the surname Jiang, Fan Yu’s name stood out.

This boy sure likes to make people worry about him. Chen Ge entered the bedroom and saw Fan Yu, who was seated at the table, drawing with his head lowered. He did not seem to mind the outside world. Beside Fan Yu was a little girl who could not stop crying. She used her small hands to wipe her eyes, but the tears would not stop falling. She kept calling for her sister.

After the nurse dealt with Jiang Jin and Jiang He, she hugged the girl to console her, but the girl only cried even harder. Her watery eyes turned red, and her finger pointed at Jiang He and Jiang Jin. “They killed sister! They killed my big sister!”

The girl was cute, and the clothes she was wearing was rather thick. Carried in the nurse’s embrace, she looked like a ball of cotton. But from the lips of the cute girl, cruel terms like killed and murder kept coming out.

“Jiang Jin, Jiang He! What have you two done‽” The nurse was angry, feeling pity for the little girl.

“We just wanted to take a look at her glass cup, but she refused to give it up. It accidentally broke, and someone accidentally stepped on the spider inside the cup,” the two boys grumbled with dissatisfaction.

“Spider? Big sister?” Chen Ge turned to look at the center of the bedroom. The glass cup was shattered, and amid the broken pieces, there was a flattened spider.

After the situation had been cleared up, the nurse had the two boys leave the room first, and she focused on consoling the girl. However, the girl refused to listen, and she cried even harder. She struggled from the nurse’s embrace and picked up the flattened spider from the ground. Without any disgust, she held the spider in her palms and ran to Fan Yu. With a despairing voice, she wailed, “They killed sister! Big sister is dead!”

The little girl looked like she was only four or five. Even when she stood on her tiptoes, she was just slightly taller than the table. Fan Yu, who was focused on his drawing, ignored the girl.

In the end, however, his patience was worn thin by the girl. He put down the pen and placed his hand on the girl’s head. “Sister is not dead—she just left temporarily.”

Fan Yu used his other hand to pick up the picture and showed it to the girl. “Your sister was just behind you.”

On the normal paper, a black coloring pencil drew out a little girl that was closely bound, and behind the girl was a large humanoid monster that was sketched out using a red pencil!

It was lying behind the girl, and its head was stretched to rest on the girl’s head. Its limbs were arced on the ground just like a spider. Looking at Fan Yu’s drawing, the little girl finally stopped crying.

He tussled the girl’s hair, and Fan Yu turned to look at Chen Ge at the door. “Look, Sister is now standing behind that man.”