My House of Horrors

The old man’s knife came at the woman’s neck. Before the knife fell, the woman quickly evaded, and the knife fell on her shoulder. Blood splattered on the dining table, and the old man, the woman, and the student got into a physical altercation.

The old man wanted to kill the woman, but the woman resisted. The student tried to grab the knife. Since the old man did not kill the woman with one cut, he had already failed, so it was now his chance.

Of the four guests, only Xiao Bu stayed away. “They’re really a bunch of crazies. If we could just sit down and talk this over, even if the owner has a gun, we would still have chance of survival. Such a shame.”

The owner and the chef watched happily as the three guests tried to kill one another. Chen Ge made use of this chance when their attention was distracted to walk to the entrance and click the cursor madly on the door.

He let the female ghost holding her head in. “This hotel can operate at night, so there has to be a dark secret hiding at this place. When the ghost chased Xiao Bu to the hotel, she hesitated for a long time before coming in. This means that she felt threatened.”

Standing in the dark street, the ghost who knocked her head against the door for a long time was filled with anger. When she saw Xiao Bu, she rushed directly into the hotel.

“What did I do to deserve such resentment? Could her death be related to Xiao Bu’s step-father? Since the man has already died and her resentment cannot find any release, is she channeling it toward Xiao Bu?” Chen Ge felt like the female ghost’s presence was more like a game mechanism aimed to make sure that the player did not stay in one place for too long.

Moving the mouse, Chen Ge controlled Xiao Bu to run deeper into the hotel to introduce distance between them. He calculated the distance between himself and the hotel entrance. If there was a change to the situation, he would leave immediately. Three gunshots shattered the background music—the hotel owner fired at the female ghost.

“Fight, have fun fighting among yourselves.” Chen Ge controlled Xiao Bu to hide in the corner. The female ghost’s head rolled on the ground as it chased the group of crazed murderers.

“Boss Chen, what should we do now? Leave the hotel now?” Fan Chong’s reasoning had really improved that night. After seeing Chen Ge work the controls, he had realized that there were different ways that the game could be played. The originally quiet hotel was now a mess, and Xiao Bu, who Chen Ge controlled, was the source of that mess.

“You told me earlier that the old man is the owner’s father, and he has the spare keys to the hotel, right?” Chen Ge controlled Xiao Bu to lean against the wall and moved toward the guest rooms.

“Our plots are completely different. When I arrived at the hotel, the old man was already shot dead, and I found the keys in the drawer inside his room.”

“Let’s get the keys first then.” Chen Ge controlled Xiao Bu to enter Room 1. The room belonged to the old man, and there were many pictures on the wall. There was a picture of the old man with the hotel owner as well as a picture of the old man when he was young standing next to a woman. “Is the woman the old man’s wife?”

Chen Ge used the cursor to click on the drawer, and the chat box appeared—’You saw a rusted key, many human teeth, and an old notebook.’

“The old man has the weird habit of collecting people’s teeth?”

Chen Ge clicked on the notebook, and the chat box scrolled down.

‘1st March, my husband has gone mad. He trapped me inside the hidden room behind the kitchen refrigerator and only gave me three pieces of bread and one glass of water each day. He forbade me from leaving and forbade me from interacting with the guests. He has lost his mind.

‘2nd March. The chef is making something tasty. I smell meat. So hungry. The mad man is purposely torturing me!

‘1st April. I’ve been hungry for so long. I need to escape this place. Right, I’ll sneak out tonight.

‘2nd April. I was discovered, and we had a fight. The madman is so scary when he’s angry. Like a crazed brown bear, he tackled me and pulled out my teeth.

‘5th May. So hungry. I’ll be tortured to my death if I stay here. I must find a way to leave!

‘6th June. Who can save me? My husband is a devil. He tried to pull out all of my teeth, this insane man!

‘1st November. I will never taste meat again. So hungry, so hungry…’

The content of the notebook was very weird. On the surface, it recorded the madness the old man when he was young, but after reading it closer, Chen Ge realized that things were not so simple. However, before he could figure it out, another gunshot went off again. Then three options appeared on screen—’You finished reading the diary of the old man’s view and found out the hotel’s biggest secret. Please choose one of the following to bring with you, the item that you think is most important.’

1. You choose the rusted key because you believe that this is the spare key to the hotel entrance.

2. You choose the human teeth because you believe they are valuable mementoes.

3. You choose the notebook because you believe it is hiding an important clue.

Looking at the options, Chen Ge frowned. “Fan Chong, have you been given these choices before?”

“Yes, these three options pop out after you open the drawer. Back then, I chose the hotel key because you can enter and leave the hotel whenever you want with it even if it’s locked.” Fan Chong thought about it before shaking his head. He had a feeling that he might be thinking the same thing as Chen Ge this time.

“Looks like we can remove option one.” Chen Ge seemed to be talking to himself. The cursor alternated between option two and three.

“Let’s choose three. The notebook probably has its unique usage. I’ve seen many scary movies, and the notebook usually contains a message left behind by the murderer or victim.” Fan Dade could only use his own life experience to make the choice.

“The notebook is indeed important, but haven’t we already read its content?” Hearing what Fan Dade said, Chen Ge shook his head and chose the second option.

“The teeth? What use could they have?” Fan Dade and Fan Chong were confused, but they did not dare challenge Chen Ge openly, so they just whispered among themselves.

“It should be the teeth,” Chen Ge explained. “When the options showed up, the question also attached the statement, ‘you finished reading the diary of the old man’s view and found out the hotel’s biggest secret.’”

“But what can that prove?” Fan Chong still thought the key was the most important.

“The biggest secret at the hotel is about the old man’s wife. In other words, the reason the hotel has become like this is because of his wife.” Chen Ge used the cursor to click on the notebook to read it again.

“The old man’s wife should be innocent.” Fan Dade also could not understand Chen Ge’s choice. “Both her husband and her son are maniacs. She was captured, detained, and had her teeth pulled out. She was tortured; she was just a victim.”