My House of Horrors

The corridor returned to normal. The old lady looked at the opposite door and sighed with pity. “Lost the house and the child, no wonder she went crazy. Poor Xiao Jia.”

Outside the building, the taxi driver heard the call being ended, and he still had not recovered from the shock.

“What is the meaning of this? Have I been dragged into a murder? What about the mention of mental illness?” The driver’s mind was blank. He had just woken up and found his car parked at an unfamiliar place. He did not even know where he was.

“I should call the police.”

With shaking hands, the driver called the cops and told them how he had been kidnapped.

…

Chen Ge rested outside the last classroom for a while before reentering the room. The dark winds had disappeared, and the bodies of the few mental patients were close to being transparent. However, they were still as ferocious as ever and refused to communicate.

“They sure are mad.” Chen Ge summoned them back into the patient’s list. He left Mu Yang High School and entered the Third Sick Hall. He found a random bed and went to sleep without removing his clothes. The next morning, Chen Ge was woken up by the alarm on his phone at 8 am.

“That was quite a good sleep.” Chen Ge rubbed his eyes as he opened the sickroom’s door. “It’s quite a waste to have so many empty beds. Perhaps I can open a hotel that only operates at night.”

Exiting the underground scenario, Chen Ge cleaned himself up and ran to the staff breakroom.

“It’s time for work.” Chen Ge was worried that Xiao Gu might have been bullied by the white cat and Xiaoxiao, but he realized that Xiao Gu was sleeping nicely. “The guy sure is brave, but this type of person will have an easier time accepting new things.”

After waking Xiao Gu up, the two worked together to clean up the Haunted House and prepared to start a new day of work. Opening the gates, the sun fell on Chen Ge. Ever since I came back from the underground morgue, my body temperature has still been dropping, but the rate seems to have lessened.

“Boss, you have been getting later at opening the gates.” There was a girl with impressive upper body that walked from the resting hall. She held a box of breakfast in her hands. “This is for you.”

“It’s barely 8:20 am; it’s you that’s too early.” Chen Ge accepted the breakfast when Xiao Gu exited the Haunted House.

“Good morning, Sister Xu Wan!” Xiao Gu was quite dim-witted at social events. He waltzed out from the Haunted House and looked at Chen Ge’s breakfast with some envy. Xu Wan greeted Xiao Gu, and she was about to walk away when her pupils suddenly danced. She stopped where she was as she glanced at Xiao Gu.

“The gates just opened. This means you did not go home last night.” Before Xiao Gu responded, her expression became weirder. “Why are you wearing boss’ clothes?”

“It was raining last night, and when I was going home…” Xiao Gu stopped himself when he was halfway through explaining because he suddenly remembered that Chen Ge had told him not to tell anyone what had happened the previous night. He turned to look at Chen Ge. Xu Wan also looked at Chen Ge with some complaint like she was asking for an explanation.

Sensing the curious atmosphere, Chen Ge was stunned. “Why are the both of you looking at me?”

The entire Western Jiujiang’s House of Horrors only had three living people. Chen Ge did not want any misunderstandings between them, so he quickly explained, “Xiao Gu was unable to find a taxi home last night, and it was raining heavily, so I had him stay at the staff breakroom for the night. I busied myself inside the scenarios. Right, I almost forgot. Xiao Gu, I’m giving you a half day off. You go back to pack your things and move to a place near the park. I’ll help you cover the down payment.”

“Thank you, boss.” Xiao Gu did not really understand what was happening, but he was glad. He went to the dressing room happily.

Hearing Chen Ge’s explanation, Xu Wan’s mood turned better. “Boss, I shall go to the dressing room as well. Remember to come help me with the make-up later.”

“Okay.” Seeing the happiness on his workers’ faces, Chen Ge felt comforted. The park opened at 9 am, and the visitors swamped the place. However, the curious thing was that no one dared to challenge the underground morgue again.

He kept himself busy until twelve noon. When the employees went for their lunch break, two shadows, one small and one big, came out from the resting hall. When Chen Ge saw them, he put down his lunch and rushed back into the Haunted House.

“Boss Chen! I have something important to tell you!” The large shadow used an agility that did not match his size to catch up to Chen Ge.

Knowing that he was unable to avoid them, Chen Ge turned back with a friendly smile as he grabbed the man’s arm. “Fan Chong? Why are you here? Come and take a seat, we’re considered friends now. What scenario would you like to challenge today?”

The ones who blocked Chen Ge were Fan Chong and his brother—the chef at New East International Hotel, Fan Dade.

Fan Chong’s hands were cold, and he had two large dark circles on his face like he had not slept for a long time. “Boss Chen, I really need your help this time.”

He sounded so serious and that caused Chen Ge to turn serious as well. “What happened?”

“Do you still remember the game that I told you about last time?”

In the park’s medical room, Fan Chong had described the weird game for Chen Ge before. He suspected that the game was based on a real murder.

“I remember, the main character’s name is Xiao Bu.” Chen Ge had a lasting impression of the game, and the reason was simple. Fan Chong had said that the style of the game changed after the main character opened the door to the basement. The first thing that the main character saw was a bus stop. There was a red shadow and an old bus at the bus stop.

This matched what had happened to Xiao Gu perfectly!

The red shadow represented the woman in the red raincoat, and the old bus was the last bus on Route 104. In other words, the game creator had perhaps experienced that.

“Good that you still remember it.” Fan Chong rubbed his hands. After a while, he added, “I’ve cleared the game, but…”

“Don’t worry, just tell me everything.” Chen Ge was more nervous than Fan Chong. By now, he was certain that the game was hiding a big secret.

“I’ve cleared the game four times, sacrificing my sleep for the past two days, and I got four different endings.” The flesh on Fan Chong’s face scrunched up together. “But the four endings were all bad endings. Xiao Bu died four times in different ways, but I suspect there are more endings, meaning more ways for Xiao Bu to die. This is a game without hope, or I can’t find the hope.”

“Don’t rush, take it slow.” Chen Ge had Uncle Xu take over, and he pulled Fan Chong to the resting hall. “Tell me the whole process, or if possible, you can bring me over to your place to see the game tonight.”