My House of Horrors

“This woman is Doctor Gao’s wife?” The woman’s face was extremely blurry, and as Chen Ge tried to study the picture, his gaze slowly fell on a different person. The two young men that stood in the middle of the phone—one was Doctor Gao, and the other also looked very familiar. “This person who is standing next to Doctor Gao looks like Doctor Chen from Jiujiang’s Children’s Home.”

On the night that he visited Coffin Village, Jiang Ling and Fan Yu had disappeared alongside Doctor Chen, so at the time, the police had suspected that it was the doctor who kidnapped the two children. “Doctor Chen and Doctor Gao are friends, and it looks like they have both worked at Jiujiang’s Mental Illness Research Center before.”

Looking at the picture in his hand, Chen Ge sat down in the chair. The old principal had really given him a surprise. The appearance of this picture solved a problem that had been troubling Chen Ge. “At Coffin Village, the Zhu woman said that No. 10 got into a fight with an outsider, and it was because of that outsider that No. 10 did not have time to enter the blood door with Wu Fei.”

Chen Ge thought back to how the Zhu woman described the outsider. He was wearing a white coat and looked like a doctor with children surrounding him. That mysterious outsider, Chen Ge believed, was Doctor Chen. “Looks like there is more than meets the eye about this Doctor Chen, but why would he get into a fight with Doctor Gao? From this picture, they should be friends.”

Doctor Gao and Doctor Chen seemed to be complete opposites. One was someone mature who could handle everything thrown at him perfectly while the other was a doctor who could not survive in a large hospital and was forced to take up a job at the children’s home.

“The old director mentioned a Doctor Chen in his letters, and that Doctor Chen is probably not my father but the Doctor Chen at the Children’s Home, but why would the old director address his letters to Linjiang New Schistosomiasis Control Station? Did Doctor Chen once work at Linjiang New Schistosomiasis Control Station? But wasn’t he a psychologist?

“The old director started the communication with Doctor Chen, so how did it end up with Doctor Gao liaising with the patients at the Third Sick Hall? Did the conflict between the two doctors started at the Third Sick Hall? Their opinions on how to deal with this issue split?”

Chen Ge wanted to ask the old director, who was now just a head, but the door only opened at midnight. Once he missed it, he would need to wait another twenty-four hours.

“My parents also left some information about Third Sick Hall. Director Luo once mentioned that he overheard them talking about the Third Sick Hall before they disappeared, so what is the role my parents play in this whole situation?”

Chen Ge had been looking for information on his missing parents, and he had a feeling that Doctor Chen and Doctor Gao should know something. Leaving the principal’s office, Chen Ge wandered around Mu Yang High School. He wanted to thank the old principal in person, but the man did not seem like he was going to show up. “Where else could he be hiding?”

With some regret, Chen Ge left Mu Yang High School. He arrived at the Haunted House around dawn, and as he stepped through the door, the black phone vibrated. It was to inform him that the set-up for the one-star scenario Wife’s Room had been completed.

“One-star scenarios are not that useful for me now.”

With the responsibility toward his visitors, Chen Ge entered the underground scenarios with his backpack. With the stairs as the center, to the left was Mu Yang High School, to the right was the Third Sick Hall, straight in front was Coffin Village, and behind the stairs was the new Wife’s Room. “The House of Horrors is starting to shape up. After the underground morgue has been completed, it will be about time to expand the place for the third time.”

The third expansion was a benchmark. After that, Chen Ge’s Haunted House would upgrade to become a Maze of Terror!

As for what kind of reward or functions would be added, Chen Ge had no clue. Based on the introduction on the black phone, he just knew that he would be heavily rewarded after the upgrade.

Standing in the underground tunnel, Chen Ge looked at the new scenario, the isolated room. Opening the door, the room looked similar to Room 3004. However, the walls, the kitchenette, and the coffee table were covered with blood, giving a huge visual impact. “The Wife’s Room should be a reconstruction of the crime scene for Ma Yin’s sister’s death.”

Chen Ge did not look uncomfortable. Holding the hammer, he walked around the room and soon discovered something weird about it. The room was decorated with many broken art pieces, and as he entered, the pieces seemed to turn to focus on him.

Chen Ge summoned Ol’ Zhou’s group to let them get a sense of the place, and the three ghosts’ reaction was weird. They were sure that there was a ghost hiding in the room, but they could not tell where the ghost was hiding. They could sense its weak presence like it was still asleep.

When Chen Ge heard that there was a ghost hiding in the room, his eyes lit up. He pushed open the bedroom door, and the expression froze on his face. There was a long noose hanging in the middle of the room, and there was a bloodied bedsheet poking out from the closet. There were some blood stains on the ground, and sitting on the headboard was a very ugly statue. “This room is completely identical to the room in Ma Yin’s video.”

Chen Ge walked to the bed and studied the statue for a long time. He held the statue’s chin and said the sentence that he had uttered several days ago. “You can verify the validity of my every sentence, yes?”

Hearing his voice, something inside the statue seemed to come alive—the presence around it was different from before, like a person had been wakened up from their sleep. The ugly face revealed a shocked expression, and blood tears fell down the statue’s eyes.

“This is such a coincidence. We meet again.” By then, Chen Ge already knew it was Ma Yin’s sister’s soul that was trapped inside the statue, so he did not want to torment her. “This will be your new home in the future. Don’t worry, I know what happened to you and will treat you like family.”

Fingers sliding across the cheek, Chen Ge helped dry the statue’s tears. His action was so gentle and soft. “The murderer who killed you has already been captured by the police. If you have any other needs, feel free to tell me.”

The blood tears kept falling, but Chen Ge could not tell whether it was due to fear or excitement.

“I feel like there’s a small misunderstanding between us. Actually, I’m not the kind of person you think I am.” Chen Ge knew that he should not force himself forward, but he had confidence that he could change the ghost’s impression of him. Was the Pen Spirit not the perfect example?

“Why don’t you three try to persuade her? I’ll wait outside.” Chen Ge tossed Ol’ Zhou’s group a look, and then he exited the bedroom. He closed the door and stood beside it, and soon Ol’ Zhou’s group’s voices came from inside.

“In the future, we’ll be colleagues, and you might not believe me, but this period when I’m at the Haunted House is the happiest moments of my life.”

“Our boss might look scary, but he is a good and kind person. He respects us and understands us.”

“You will slowly learn to like this place. We have many different types of ghosts here, and we are all friends. Everyone has their own unique power, but we are all honest and hardworking people.”