My House of Horrors

The rain continued to pour, and the sight was blurred. Chen Ge sat across from the phone spirit and watched this silently. The phone spirit was one street away from his mother, but those several meters was the distance between two worlds, viewable but not touchable.

“Do you want me to bring you to meet her?” Chen Ge asked softly. The phone spirit shook his head quickly. He used his hand to wipe the tears from his face, but the tears just would not stop.

After a long time, he sent a message to Chen Ge. “Call the police, she has waited long enough.”

Through the window, the phone spirit looked at the woman who stood in the rain. His hand fell on the window lightly, and he said something before disappearing. The woman on the street seemed to have heard him because she turned toward the café as if subconsciously, but she could not see the person that she wanted to see.

After the woman left, Chen Ge walked out of the café. He looked at the city covered by rain, and his expression was complicated. He had been through many things lately; first it was Xiaoxiao and her grandfather, and now it was the phone spirit and his mother.

Some people had already departed, but the people living still missed them. Perhaps it was also because of this emotion that they had hope. Leaning against the wall, Chen Ge ignored the rain that fell on his body. He was contemplating a question that had been bothering him.

What exactly is a ghost?

After he gained the black phone, he had come across many different types of ghosts, but the more he encountered, the more confused he became. He glanced at Tong Tong florist, which had closed for the night, and walked into the alley with his phone.

“Captain Yan, I want to ask you for a favor. About seven years ago, a boy by the name of Tong Tong has disappeared in Eastern Jiujiang, the police suspected he was taken by human traffickers. Can you still find the file on that case?”

Captain Yan heard the unusual tone in Chen Ge’s voice, and he thought about it before replying, “The case was probably handled by Eastern Jiujiang’s police force; I’ll call them in a bit to ask.”

“Thank you.”

“Are you alright? You sound disturbed.”

“I’m fine.” After ten minutes, Captain Yan called Chen Ge again. “Found the case file. There was no suspect. The only information is that the car that captured Tong Tong was from Eastern Jiujiang’s Li Wan City. However, the police were unable to find Tong Tong there. They suspected that the culprit had already moved him elsewhere.”

“Did they investigate Pu Ming Apartments?”

“Pu Ming Apartments? Let me ask.” Captain Yan sent a message to the people at Eastern Jiujiang’s police station, and after a while, he replied, “They did, but they did not see the kid or hear any crying.”

“Okay, I understand.” Chen Ge stood in the alley, his body swallowed up by darkness.

“Are you hiding something from me?” Captain Yan sounded worried.

“It’s nothing serious, just that someone has wronged my employee.”

“Employee?” Captain Yan could hear the ruthlessness in Chen Ge’s voice, something that he had not heard before. “Chen Ge, no matter what happened, don’t act recklessly!”

“I will not act recklessly; I’m just asking for justice.” After hanging up, Chen Ge got the rest of the information from the phone spirit. The human trafficker stayed at Pu Ming Apartments. After the police entered Li Wan City, he panicked. The child was crying, so afraid of being discovered, he killed Tong Tong and shoved the body and the phone into the water tank at the rooftop.

…

At 11:30 pm, Eastern Jiujiang’s police station received a call saying that someone had discovered the human trafficker responsible for the missing child several years ago. The caller even reconstructed the whole case for them, including the capturing, the killing, and the hiding of the body.

The police mobilized immediately. When they left the police station, they discovered a man lying unconscious by the front door. After comparing details, they realized with a shock, this man was the human trafficker!

The police hauled the man away, and Chen Ge left in the taxi. He had completed the phone spirit’s wish. The phone spirit’s affection toward Chen Ge had greatly increased, and Tong Tong’s name appeared on the black phone as an employee of the Haunted House.

However, Chen Ge was not that happy. He had suggested to reveal certain information to Tong Tong’s mother several times, but he had been denied every time. The boy did not want to stop his mother from moving on.

Chen Ge finally had a good night’s sleep that night. The next day, sunlight shone into the room. He stretched and looked out the window. “It’s finally a sunny day.”

At 8:15 am, Xu Wan arrived at the Haunted House with breakfast. She looked like she had just woken up. Looking at Chen Ge, whose hair was cowlicked, she shook her head. “Boss, this is for you. Eat it while it’s hot.”

“Thank you.” Chen Ge brushed his teeth and started munching on Xu Wan’s breakfast offering.

At 8:25 am, Gu Feiyu rushed over from theme park entrance. He wore the new worker’s tag that Uncle Xu had given him around his neck. He greeted everyone that he met. It seemed he loved this job a lot.

“Go and start the preparation, the visitors will be coming soon.” Chen Ge personally helped them with the make-up and sent him into the scenarios.

There was still fifteen minutes to opening time when Director Luo came over with Uncle Xu. Accompanying them were several other park workers.

“Director Luo, why are you here?” Chen Ge had done quite a few things lately, giving Director Luo plenty of trouble.

“I came to give you something good.” Director Luo pointed at the workers, who were carrying several boxes. “Do you still remember the triangulation wristband and software app I told you about?”

Chen Ge nodded and then turned to look at the boxes. “The app is done?”

“It has passed the internal test; we can use them now.” Director Luo had the workers pull over a table and place the boxes on it. Many wristbands sat inside. “These one thousand wristbands can be given away for me. You can say it’s for the open beta test. In the future, the visitors will have to purchase the band on their own. The front of the box and the logo on the side has a QR code—they can download the app by scanning it directly. There’s a promotion going on: the first one thousand users can apply for a discount and enjoy a ninety percent discount when they come to visit next time.”

The workers were busy, and the people walked in and out of the resting hall. It looked like they were setting up some electronics.

“I’ll also help you aquire a bigger monitor that can show the progress of the visitors and a brief introduction to each scenario. The proposal for the multi-purpose hall has been approved, and work will start in three days.” Director Luo felt like he was playing a very serious game of chess. “I plan to remove attractions like the merry-go-round and some others, which should make it more convenient for you to expand in the future. Secondly, our current technical level is still a distance away from the futuristic park, so I plan to purchase a batch of new devices to try to narrow down this distance.”