My House of Horrors

“That was to save you.” Chen Ge shoved the hammer back into his backpack. “The escape of the three shadows means that we’ve been exposed; we cannot stay here any longer.”

“We’re finally leaving?” Ol’ Wei had been wanting to leave for a long time already.

“Coffin Village is very quiet at night, so our fight earlier must have echoed very far. I’m afraid other monsters might hear that and come to surround us.” Chen Ge had his own plan. “The first reaction of the earlier three monsters when they saw us was to attack. This goes to show that it wasn’t out of kindness the old lady led us here. The villagers here are not as kind as Master Bai assumed.”

Master Bai disagreed with Chen Ge. “I haven’t been inside Coffin Village at night before, but I don’t understand this change. In my memory, Coffin Village’s real villagers would not do something like this; they’re no different from normal people.”

“Master Bai, you haven’t been back here for years already; you don’t know what happened when you were gone, so we’d better be careful.” Chen Ge looked around and bent over to pick up the paper doll on the floor. The paper doll that had been tormented by the boy had its limps almost torn off, and its expression was one of pain.

“Zhu Fengxi?” There was a name on the back of the doll. It was unknown what kind of ink it was, but based on Chen Ge’s experience, it felt like dried blood.

“This name is rather familiar.” Master Bai moved close to Chen Ge to take a look at the doll. “He sounds like one of the escapes from Coffin Village.”

“The dolls have the names of the escapees.” Chen Ge related this to the weird phenomena he had observed at Lin Guan Village. Many old houses had a cleaver behind the door and a rope by the window. Combining that with what had happened to them inside the house, he had a brief understanding why things were that way.

If a monster tried to crawl in through the window, then the rope was to tie around their neck, and the cleaver behind the door was for self-defense. The more isolated the village, the weirder the tradition—that was the only way Chen Ge could interpret these traditions.

Those who escaped from Coffin Village spent their days in fear. Could the thing that cause that fear be the ghost from Coffin Village? If they were captured, would they end up as paper dolls to be tormented eternally?

Chen Ge had another question that needed to be answer. Why did these people escape from Coffin Village in the first place? What kind of event transpired at this old village to cause a mass exodus?

To know all that, I’ll need to find a villager to ask. Chen Ge pocketed the paper doll. “I have a plan to discuss with you.”

“Tell me.”

“First, we leave this village.”

“Okay.” Ol’ Wei and Master Bai nodded. They also felt that the village was too dangerous.

“Then, we’ll inspect each house, starting from the ones near the entrance, moving inwards. No matter what we come across, we must detain them.” There was a sparkle in Chen Ge’s eyes. “As long as we don’t make too much noise, we should be able to take them down one by one.”

Chen Ge had given his plan much thought. Whenever Xu Yin consumed a ghost, the blood stain on his clothes increased. Based on this progression, there was a high chance of him turning into a real Red Specter that night!

There was a great power difference between a normal Specter and a Red Specter. Without a Red Specter by his side, Chen Ge did not feel safe.

“You’re planning to demolish a whole village?” Ol’ Wei was a police officer, so he frowned when he heard Chen Ge’s suggestion. However, Master Bai had gotten used to Chen Ge’s crazy ideas.

“We should leave the village first before we decide what to do.” Master Bai walked ahead, his hand holding the jade. A pale-faced Ol’ Wei followed behind Master Bai, but Chen Ge stood where he was. After the three monsters were consumed by Xu Yin, the white cat did not return to normal. It was still hissing and scratching the backpack.

Something is still nearby. Chen Ge looked around him. A human head seemed to flash across the left wall of the room with the coffins.

The room next door? Chen Ge did not stay and walked out.

White lanterns hung on both sides of the road, shining a pale light. For some reason, Chen Ge had a feeling the number of white lanterns had increased. What is the meaning of these lanterns? If there’s a white lantern, meaning the place is occupied?

“Chen Ge, why aren’t you coming?”

“Coming.” Chen Ge passed the door next door, and he turned to look. The wooden door was locked, and weirdly enough, there was not a white lantern on this door. The thing I saw earlier wasn’t a ghost?

Chen Ge maintained his distance from Ol’ Wei and Master Bai, but he kept his attention on the road behind him. When he turned the corner and Chen Ge would be lost behind the wall, he slowed down, leaned back, and glanced down the corner. The door had been opened, and bright red graveclothes dangled at the door.

To not expose himself, Chen Ge stopped for less than one second, but his heart was gripped with concern. “The graveclothes moved on their own?”

They continued walking through the weird village decorated with white lanterns, followed by the red graveclothes. The wind blew, and it carried out voices from the houses on both sides. It sounded like laughter and tears. If one paid more attention, there was also the sound of chewing. As the night deepened, the village became creepier.

Other places become quieter at night, but this place is completely different. The later it gets, the livelier it becomes. Chen Ge tried to remember the ghosts that he had met that night. The ghost who wanted to drag me into the coffin inside the valley and the family of three seem to be different. In comparison, the one inside the village is smarter.

They had been inside Coffin Village less than half an hour, but so many weird things happened already. Chen Ge suspected that a blood door was hiding inside this village, and it was a door that was wide open without anyone watching over it!

If we search the houses one by one, eventually, we’ll find that home in Fan Yu’s drawing.

When Chen Ge turned the next corner, he glanced behind him. The graveclothes were collapsed on the floor and closer to them.

Being chased by clothes worn by dead people doesn’t feel good. Chen Ge reached for the recorder, and he bumped into Ol’ Wei. “Why did you stop?”

“Something is wrong…” Ol’ Wei looked at completely unfamiliar street, and his face turned paler. “The road that we used earlier seemed to have disappeared.”

“We’re lost?” Chen Ge thought about it and patted Ol’ Wei on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, we only need to ask for directions.”

“This place has more ghosts than people; who are you going to ask?” Ol’ Wei said, but there was no reply. He turned around and saw Chen Ge walking away with the hammer.