My House of Horrors

The owner of the door at Third Sick Hall is Men Nan. There are not many with the surname Men ¹ . Perhaps the child’s name is a hint left for me.

Door represented the unknown, but it also represented the exit.

Now that I think about it, there have been plenty of clues. What kind of trouble have my parents gotten themselves into? Why is it that I must use this method to approach the truth?

Certain questions needed more probing. After the conversation with the old headmaster, Chen Ge knew that his parents were hiding many things; they were not as simple as they appeared. Problems that even Doctor Gao could not solve, Chen Ge’s parents could resolve easily, but even so, they did not dare to tell Chen Ge the truth. They only kept releasing hints and clues for him. This reaction caused unease in Chen Ge.

I have no idea what I need to be careful of, but now I can be certain my family has encountered something incredibly troublesome.

Chen Ge stood next to the table. His brain was spinning; every word mentioned by the old headmaster was important to him.

“Chen Ge, are you alright?” Seeing how frozen Chen Ge was, he wanted to go over to the young man but was afraid of the Red Specters surrounding him.

“I’m fine.” Chen Ge waved his hands. “The path you mentioned is too dangerous. I am not confident about leaving this place. The red city is filled with all sorts of monster.”

The happenstance of Doctor Gao had greatly impacted Chen Ge. A perfectly fine person became insane in a week—that was too much of an ordeal.

“I cannot risk my workers’ lives.” Chen Ge sat at the table. Perhaps due to the overthinking, his face was pale.

“But that is the only exit!” The headmaster did not expect Chen Ge to reject his idea.

“I actually know there’s another exit.” Chen Ge slowly raised his head to look at the old headmaster. “Every scenario has a door. We can leave from the School of the Afterlife’s door.”

“That’s impossible. The school will not allow any students to leave. It has provided the children a home, and the children have become a part to the scenario; there is not one without the other.” The headmaster pointed out the window. “Do you see the red eye out there? All the students’ negative emotions are gathered there. Once it realizes someone is trying to escape, they will be stopped by the school. It will not allow any students to leave, much less open the door for Xueyin to exit.”

“You don’t know this door well enough. Based on my knowledge, a girl managed to leave this school from that door a long time ago. Her name is Chang Wenyu.” Chen Ge was knowledgeable about the school’s limitations.

“Are you sure? How did she manage that?” The headmaster was shocked. This was the first time that he had heard something like that.

“Currently, this school is controlled by the consciousness of the collective student body. The despairing students will not let us leave, but if one of us replaces the school’s consciousness to become the new owner of the school, we will be able to control the whole school and open the door.” When Chen Ge spoke, his eyes were kept on the old headmaster, marking every single change to his expression.

“We?” The headmaster looked at Chen Ge like he was mad. “That’s impossible. Over the past few years, the school’s consciousness has kept growing; it has become a monster. Even a Red Specter is no match for it…”

The old headmaster added to stress as if worried that he had not gotten his point across, “Even if there are six Red Specters!”

He wanted Chen Ge to abandon that dangerous thought in his mind. From his perspective, trying to replace the school’s consciousness was a dead end.

“Aren’t you curious why I’d rather challenge the school than venture into the blood red city?” Chen Ge’s father’s shadow appeared in Chen Ge’s mind, but the image that he had of his father was completely different from the man whom the old headmaster had described. He had trouble seeing things from his father’s perspective. Honestly, he had no idea what his family was thinking—he merely believed that they would not harm him.

“Why?” The old headmaster was confused. He had come from that way. In his mind, that was a perfectly safe path.

“You have greatly underestimated the danger level of the city.” Chen Ge told the headmaster about Doctor Gao, not hiding anything. “I have many witnesses with me, like Xu Yin,; Bai Qiulin; and your student, the Pen Spirit. The past has stuck to us like a nightmare. Even now, when I close my eyes, I can still see myself back there.”

To prove that he was not exaggerating, Chen Ge summoned the Pen Spirit. She had been there when Doctor Gao showed up in Li Wan City. She had experienced everything that Chen Ge had. The Pen Spirit had a unique talent when it came to describing something. She drew on the paper, and the content was enough to scar the old headmaster for life.

“The city is so dangerous?” The old headmaster was shocked.

“Yes, I was surprised when I heard you managed to get here through the city. But perhaps it’s because you have done a lot of good things in your life, and a power has been guiding you in the dark.” Chen Ge put it in a subtle way.

“I was just lucky.”

“Luck is part of one’s power. I plan to treat the abandoned well behind the field as our back-up. If my plan fails, we will leave that way. With insurance like this, this should be the safest way.” Chen Ge was not prepared to enter the red city; the place was filled with too many unknowns. He did not take much time to convince the old headmaster, and the latter soon promised to follow Chen Ge.

“Sir, now that we’re a team, we have to clear up all the inconsistencies within us to prevent future misunderstanding.” Chen Ge pulled over Yin Bai, who was hiding among the ‘people’. “You are looking for Lee Xueyin, but why are there two ‘Lee Xueyin’s in this school? Which of them is real? Which one is fake?”

Yin Bai did not expect herself to be named. She was happy when she saw the old headmaster, but when her eyes landed on Yin Hong behind the headmaster, her heart became congested like the thing most precious to her had been stolen. When Yin Hong saw Yin Bai, her expression became nervous. She gripped the old man’s shirt from behind and did not dare breathe a world.

To prevent an accident, Chen Ge summoned all the Red Specters. This was to stun Yin Hong into submission. He did not wish to get into an altercation with the old headmaster for something small, so he used his landslide advantage to bulldoze the possible conflict from forming.