My House of Horrors

The two brushed shoulders, and Chen Ge turned around to look at the woman. There was a weird scent radiating off the woman. It didn’t smell like perfume, more like the smell of hospital disinfectant.

“Hey!” Chen Ge stood at the door of the elevator and called after the woman. The woman stopped and turned around. Through the small gap between her mask and the rim of the hat, a pair of beautiful eyes blinked. They were filled with confusion. Based on the eyes, this woman was different from the picture of the woman provided by the police, and she was not be the Patient No. 2 Chen Ge was looking for.

“Are you that celebrity from the movie? Can I take a picture with you?” Chen Ge knew that he had acted rather rashly. He did not know what to say, so he created a rough excuse.

“I’m sorry, but you’ve got the wrong person.” The woman’s voice was soft like she was sick or something. Then, she turned to walk away. Thinking of Chen Ge as some sort of bad buy, she practically jogged away.

She’s different from the picture, but Patient No. 2 suffers from Dorian Gray Syndrome. She has undergone plenty of plastic surgery, so looks cannot be my basis of comparison.

With technology nowadays, changing a new face was not difficult. Just in case, Chen Ge grabbed his backpack and ran after the woman.

Running out of the third building, Chen Ge followed the woman to the underground carpark. Chen Ge wandered about the place but realized the woman had disappeared.

“Where did she go?” There were cameras inside the parking lot, and afraid of being misunderstood by security, Chen Ge gave up on the woman and returned to the third building. He took the elevator to the 14th floor and knocked on the door to Wang Xin’s home.

“Is someone there?”

There were footsteps behind the door, and someone opened the door wearing slippers. “You’re looking for?”

It was a middle-aged woman wearing a black-and-white suit behind the door. She looked after herself well. Her skin was tight, and she looked much younger than her actual age.

“It’s me. I helped Wang Xin last time…”

Before Chen Ge finished, the woman recognized him. “Doctor Chen! Please come in, I’ve been meaning to thank you in person but didn’t have the chance.”

“Doctor Chen?” The way the woman addressed him made Chen Ge feel weird. Even though this was the first time he had been thusly addressed, it felt weirdly familiar. “I’m not a professional doctor.”

“To me, you’re the best doctor because you saved Wang Xin’s life. Don’t be so humble, I’ve heard so many good things about you from Doctor Gao. Please come in!” The woman practically pulled Chen Ge into the room.

“Sorry to disturb you. I came to visit today mainly to check up on Wang Xin and to ask you some questions.”

“There are apples and bananas on the coffee table. Take a seat while I go brew a pot of tea.”

“There’s no need to trouble yourself.” Chen Ge sat on the sofa. Visiting Wang Xin was just an excuse; the main reason Chen Ge was there was to find Patient No. 2 and complete the Tape Ghost’s affection mission. Of course, he would not tell Wang Xin’s mother that. Maintaining an image was important.

When Chen Ge was talking to the woman, the bedroom door opened, and a thin girl walked out. They had not seen each other for a few days, but Wang Xin already looked much better compared to before. She would not have been able to leave her room before this, but now she walked out to meet him voluntarily.

She had opened her heart before Chen Ge. When the girl hugged the Pen Spirit’s pen and cried, the words that she said were still fresh in Chen Ge’s mind. Chen Ge was genuinely happy seeing the positive changes in Wang Xin.

Wang Xin sat down across from Chen Ge. She did not seem like she had gotten used to conversing with people, and her voice was very low. Chen Ge had learned many things from Doctor Gao, including how to talk to patients. He did not interrupt Wang Xin but listened patiently and put himself in Wang Xin’s shoes.

Slowly but surely, a smile blossomed on the girl’s face. After the issue in her heart had been solved, the girl was also trying to interact with the outside world. After Wang Xin left, the woman came out with the tea. “There are many things kept inside the child’s heart, but she never tells us anything. It is because you’re here that she can smile so happily.”

Chen Ge accepted the cup but did not drink it. “Wang Xin’s condition is improving smoothly, and the effect of the treatment is showing.”

He looked at the time and said, “Actually, I’m here because I have a question for you.”

“Go ahead.” The woman was very cooperative.

“I hear one of the buildings in Fang Hwa Apartments is haunted? Is that true?”

The woman’s expression froze. She stood up and sidled to Wang Xin’s room silently. She listened for the sound before leading Chen Ge into the kitchen. After closing the kitchen door, she said, “Doctor Chen, I’m not lying to you. This is real.”

“It’s really haunted?” Chen Ge did not expect such confirmation from the middle-aged woman.

“I saw it myself.” The woman pointed at her feet. “The haunting happened in this building on the 13th floor.”

When the woman mentioned the 13th floor, Chen Ge was reminded of the woman he met earlier. Without prompting, the woman continued. “Fang Hwa Apartments was built around twenty years ago. Initially, the place wasn’t so huge. There were only the six older buildings in front. The three buildings behind were built four or five years ago, and I was one of the first tenants who moved in.”

The woman held the cup of tea and started to explain the weird events that happened two or three years ago. Her story matched with what Ol’ Wong said, but hers was scarier because she personally ran into the white shadow leaning outside her door.

She said, that midnight, she heard something weird coming outside the door, like someone was scratching it. Initially, she had thought it was a puppy or kitten, but not long after that, she heard someone talking. The first thought that came to the woman’s mind was burglary. She went into the kitchen to grab a cleaver before moving to the door. She looked through the cat’s eye.

The voice-controlled lights in the corridor seemed to have broken down because she could only see a cloud of whiteness. The woman called the police and used the cleaver to slash at the front door. She finally managed to scare the white shadow away.

The woman’s retelling of the white shadow’s escape was similar to Ol’ Wong’s. The white shadow ran very fast, but there were no footsteps.

“I have no idea what that thing is, but I heard from the police that it was a mental patient pulling some prank.” The woman put down the cup and sighed. “I bought this place on a loan, and all my life’s savings have been thrown into this place. If not, I would have moved already.”

“You’ve seen the white shadow at a close distance before?” Chen Ge mulled over what the middle-aged woman had said. His eyes swept across the woman’s face that did not fit her age and the white-and-black pantsuit she was wearing.

It was not that Chen Ge did not trust Wang Xin’s adopted mother, but he was curious why the woman seemed to love black and white. When they first met, she had also been wearing a white shirt and black pants.