My House of Horrors

“I have never treated them as the enemy because I am very clear that from the beginning, my only enemy is the hospital.” Chen Ge was definitely was acting, after all, the man had not forgotten the things that had happened to him at the hospital. On the surface, the hospital claimed that it had been salvaging and saving the patients but in reality it was the hospital that was endlessly creating despair and pain inside this city. After a normal person was sent into the hospital, their worldview would be made twisted after their treatment. The seed of sickness and madness would be sewn in their heart and eventually they would grow and turn into a monster. Until now Chen Ge had no idea why the hospital would do something like that, it was as if their passion was to create different kind of patients.

“Other than the three scariest ghosts, there are many other ghosts hidden at the dark corners of this city. I have asked around. Before this, there aren’t that many supernatural presence at this city. But two months ago, the regulation was shattered, many different kinds of spectres and dead people with lingering spirit started to appeared and it was around that time that you woke up inside the hospital, therefore, I have my reason to believe most of the ghosts inside this city are related to you somewhat.” The author used to write detective novels, he had incredibly powerful logical thinking and power of observation.

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“How did you find out the time that I have woken up inside the hospital? At the time, there should only be doctors and nurses around me.” Chen Ge was confused.

“it was Zhang Wenyu who told me.” The author did not look like he was lying.

“There are upwards of ten thousands of you who are called Zhang Wenyu, your answer has not helped narrowed down anything for me.”

“Even though all of us are called Zhang Wenyu but there is only one true Zhang Wenyu. His ability is not weaker than Single Eye and the Cursed Lady, in fact he might be even stronger than Scarlet but he is currently hiding among the crowd.” The author had a barely discernible smile on his face. “When he realized we were in danger, he immediately transferred his memory onto all the lingering spirits that he was carrying. Because of that, he managed to survive the ordeal. He did not forget the promise that he had made you but for now he is unable to show himself.”

“Transferred his memory onto the lingering spirit that he was carrying?” This reason was unable to convince Chen Ge. After all, every ghost and human that he encountered had already lost their memory but Zhang Wenyu was the sole exception. Even the hospital could not figure this out much less Chen Ge.

“The people that you have once helped will one day become your salvation.” The author scanned the tenants around him. “Eventually you will understand that.” Chen Ge worked over the words that the author said. Now he could confirm that it was Zhang Wenyu who had been helping in the dark and the other ghosts in the city could be negotiated with to gain their help.

“The fact that you have chosen Ping An Apartment means that misfortune will come arrive. I hope you will be able to control yourself and try to buy as much time as you can.” The author called all the key makers at the apartment to gather. To Chen Ge’s surprise, the leader at the apartment was not the middle-aged man called Zhou who looked reliable but it was the boy who had been following behind him.

“Men Nan is the cleverest tenant among us and he has quite frightening power himself.” The author’s claim got the approval of nearby tenants. And thus the way Chen Ge looked at Men Nan had also become different. Honestly, he did not sense any treat from this boy, he just thought the child was just being naught. As if sensing the question in Chen Ge’s eyes, Men Nan huffed and turned his head away. He did not try to proof himself as if it was below him to argue for things like who was stronger than whom.

“We shall discuss what to do next. Since we have decided on resistance, then we have to give it our all, only then we have a chance at success.” The author said heavily. He had retained part of his memory so he knew how scary the hospital was. Compared to that mountain, the people at Ping An Apartment was like mere pebbles.

“From now on we will use Ping An Apartment as our mission centre. We will venture out to look for our friends hiding the shadows and invite them to come join us.” Even though Men Nan looked young, his mannerism and tone was no different from an adult. He was very experienced and would not hold back when faced with the enemy. He had helped the rest deal with danger many times in the past so he was given the leadership post at Ping An Apartment. Sometimes, the tenants at the apartment was also confused. The child was just a boy, just where did he learn so many ‘nasty tricks’?

1

“Other than the ghosts hiding at the corners of the city, we could try to befriend part of the patients inside the hospital as well.” Men Nan walked to the innermost part of the third floor. He looked at Zhang Jingjiu lying on the ground. “The hospital was a prison for a large amount of patients, if we can incite some kind of betrayal among them, then things will be a lot easier for us. After all, even the strongest fortress can be taken down easily from within.”

“Men Nan, this patient on the floor is my friend from the hospital, why is he here?” Chen Ge was very concerned about Zhang Jingjiu’s situation. At that moment, Zhang Jingjiu’s four limbs were fixed in places by wooden slates. His twisted bones had been corrected. Earlier Ol’ Zhou was using the saw to make some wooden splints for him.

“The doctors have abandoned this patient called Zhang Jingjiu because he has lost his uses, they have tossed him out like trash. He was thus discovered by Zuo Han who was hiding among the heap of trash at the time. It was Zuo Han was sneaked Zhang Jingjiu out with him.” Men Nan inspected the injury on Zhang Jingjiu. “Ever since he was brought out from the hospital, this patient had been unconscious. To save his life, we have ambushed a doctor but unfortunately this doctor does not seem to know anything.” Chen Ge realized that he perhaps had underestimated the power of the tenants at Ping An Apartments. Under Men Nan’s leadership, they managed to capture a doctor alive and was not discovered by the hospital, that in itself was already incredibly impressive.

“Then how do you guys plan to deal with this doctor? If you keep him around, perhaps the doctor might come to find him.”

“We will use him for some temporary experiments. The Cursed Lady appears to be very interested in the black threads on the doctors’ bodies. If we present her with this doctor as a present, she might be more inclined to help us.” Men Nan had been calculating and measuring the plan in his heart all along. He planned to squeeze the value out of this unfortunate doctor down to the very last drop.

The two parties chatted for a long time but even when the sun was about to come up, Zuo Han still had not returned. The author and Ol’ Zhou had a bad feeling about this. They had Chen Ge leave the apartment and then they made the promise to meet up again at tomorrow midnight at Li Wan Street on the eastern countryside of Xin Hai. Under the cover of the night, Chen Ge left Ping An Apartment. He had no idea after he left, the ghosts on the third floor were all watching him slither away.

“Are we really going to place all of our bets on him?” Men Nan glanced at the author. “You won’t be tricking us with him, right?”

“I will only ask you one simple question. When you showed up behind him earlier, you have more than enough time and chance to kill him but did that thought even cross your mind?” The author replied with a question of his own. After saying that, he turned to the rest of the tenants. No one spoke. In the end, it was Ol’ Zhou who stepped forward. “He gave me a very special feeling. For some strange reason, the first time I laid my eyes on him, I believe that he is someone worthy of our trust.”

“I have the same feeling as well.” The female teacher wearing the glass also gave her opinion. The woman standing next to her was hugging her own head and raised both of her arms. She was nodding her head manually.

“Then I guess it can’t be helped, we will trust him this one time.” Seeing everyone had the same feeling, Men Nan himself also sighed in relief.

…

After leaving Ping An Apartment, Chen Ge’s mind was surfeited with different kind of questions. “There are actual ghosts in this city, the answer given to me by Doctor Gao and the author are completely different.” Regarding whether there are actual ghosts in the world or not, Chen Ge had posed the same enquiry to Doctor Gao before. The people at the hospital wanted to create a normal world but they did not know how difficult it was to pull one over Chen Ge. For Chen Ge, the more challenging thing was not to see through the traps but how to ensure he was not discovered by the doctors from the hospital that he already had the knowledge that they were lying to him.

“Perhaps Zhang Ya’s dream is also real, how come she would keep making these recurring dreams after she met me? And in contrast I have never made any dream after that? Is it possible that Zhang Ya has taken away my ability to dream?” Before the last question was answered, the next question already surfaced. “The tenants at Ping An Apartments are all ghosts but how come I feel more comfortable spending time with them compared to living humans? In any case, they should be trustworthy people.”

Walking out from the abandoned village, Chen Ge took a long detour before he returned to the restaurant. Along the way, he did not encounter any taxi and a drizzle started to fall again, Chen Ge had no choice but to run under the eaves of the restaurant to take shelter from the rain. The lights of the small shop were not on. It was completely in the dark. Chen Ge did not plan to disturb the owner, his plan was to leave as soon as the rain stopped but to his consternation, once he got close to the entrance of the shop, a very strong stench of blood hit him.

“The owner is preparing wild game?” Chen Ge tried to use the back of his arm to push at the door, the door was not locked. He saw how the tables and chairs inside the shop were overturned. There were blood everywhere and there was a chopped arm lying near the entrance to the back kitchen.

“Chi Longtou?” Chen Ge’s heart started to race. He carefully avoided the blood trace on the ground, he took out the tool hammer from his backpack and slowly approached the kitchen. “There are too many blood on the floor. If I head inside there, I will definitely leave behind footprints.” Chen Ge did not continue to go further in. He found a corner instead and peered his head into the back kitchen. The fatty Chi Longtou was shoved inside a large jar, only his head was exposed outside the jar. “The man was about 1.9 metres tall and he was quite fat. His body could not fit into that one jar, this can only mean that his body has been dismembered.”

If the man still had breathing, perhaps Chen Ge would take the risk to go and save him and then call the police for help but now that he was sure the man was dead, if he went over now, he would only bring trouble for himself. This was at the countryside and there was no trace of anyone else around him, the chance of him being treated as the murderer was extremely high!

Chi Longtou had just conversed with Chen Ge several hours ago but now he was already a dead body. Chen Ge felt a chill slowly taking over his body. “Is this the tragedy that is mentioned by the author?”

He took deliberate steps back. He kept his eyes to the ground to ensure that he did not leave behind any accidental footprints. When he left the restaurant, Chen Ge looked at the door that he had touched earlier. “Thankfully, I opened it using the back of my hand so I would not leave behind any fingerprint but for the sake of security, I better wipe it down again.”

After wiping the small spot on the door that he had touched and giving it a close inspection, Chen Ge quickly left the scene of the crime. Chen Ge did not show much show after encountering Chi Longtou’s body, but this did not mean that he was a cold-blooded monster. In actuality, it was the total opposite. Chi Longtou’s death was a rude awakening for him. If he did not escape from this city as soon as he could, he might be the next one who was crammed inside a food jar.

To wash away any possible leads that might connect him to the crime, Chen Ge purposely took a long detour. He avoided most of the surveillance and then took a cab to head back to Xin hai Theme Park from a completely different spot. He rushed into the Haunted House to take a cold shower. After Chen Ge was ready with everything, he opened the gates of the Haunted House and started to prepare for the day’s business.

At around 8 am, Zhang Ya and her parents only arrived at the Haunted House and then they all started to busy themselves. They started to do the make up, but at around 8.30 am, the people from the theme park management suddenly came to visit and inform Zhang Ya’s parents that the Haunted House was to temporarily suspend their business that day. The business was only going back on trails for the past few days, now was the moment to rake in the money so Zhang Ya’s parents were utterly confused by this decision.

They found the management at the theme park to argue. The reason that was given the management was that the Haunted House had failed to pass the security check, part of the equipment still had hidden safety concerns to them. The Haunted House was thus prevented from doing business. Zhang Ya and her parents had no choice, but to return inside to the Haunted House to conduct more checks. The theme park opened for business at 9 am but the gates of the Haunted House were firmly closed. Many of the visitors voiced their displeasure, after all, they purposely travelled here to visit the Haunted House. Zhang Ya and her father tried their best to explain the situation to the visitors patiently. Chen Ge though squatted at the first floor and silently watched everything that unfolded below.

“Is this part of the tragedy?” Zhang Ya’s mother noticed the state that Chen Ge was in so she sidled over silently to ask, “Are you not feeling well?”

Chen Ge shook his head. “I am slightly afraid that our Haunted House might not be able to open its door ever again.”

“Don’t you worry too much about that. This is perfectly normal, the management has the responsibility to ensure the safety of each attraction. I am sure we will be back on our feet in another few days.” Zhang Ya’s mother was a very kind person. Even though she was also made worried by this situation, she still spent some time to console Chen Ge. “Everything will be fine soon.”

“Yes.” Chen Ge entered the scenario. As he dealt with the items inside the scenario, he formulated the next phase of his plan inside his mind. “I cannot act too out of the ordinary, I must not let the hospital suspect that I still retain part of my previous memory.”

The Haunted House was forced to close and it was unclear when they were allowed to open for business again, but this did not bring Zhang Ya’s family down. After all, they had been through similar things in the past. The theme park was noisy with the sound of visitors, the people came and went but it was back to fluttering leaves and squawking crows around the Haunted House again. The quick tempo of their lives was given a sudden stop. The closure of the Haunted House meant that there was no cash flow. The silver lining was this had given more time for Zhang Ya and Chen Ge to spend together. Even though most of that time was spent with Chen Ge silently making items and Zhang Ya helping beside him, just that was enough for the two of them.

When night came, Zhang Ya’s mother handed the key of the Haunted House over to Chen Ge. After they left, Chen Ge was left alone inside the enormous Haunted House. Theoretically speaking, if one was abandoned inside a Haunted House alone, one would feel some fear but Chen Ge realized he would only feel safe and more at ease when he was inside the Haunted House.

At around 9 pm, Chen Ge prepared his backpack and was ready to make his journey to Li Wan Street but to his surprise, Zuo Han flipped over the window in the bathroom again. During this second encounter, Zuo Han looked even more haggard than before. There were even more ghastly wounds on his body.

“Chen Ge, I need a favour from you.”

“Come here and let me bandage your wounds first. You can’t keep on going like this.” Chen Ge wanted to go and grab the first aid kit but he was held back by Zuo Han. “There is no time, I need you to come with me immediately.”

“Where are we going?”

“Xin Hai Private Academy at western countryside.” Zuo Han gritted his teeth, it appeared like he was trying to resist the pain on his body. “I have used my heart to exact a trade with Single Eye. If I have died from an accident, I hope you can take away my soul and complete what I wish to do next.”

“You have used your life in a bet? Have you lost your mind?” Chen Ge stood fixated at where he was.

“At least for now I could still bet using my own life. If I stay here any longer, I am afraid I might lose even the freedom to die.” Zuo Han’s eyes were shining with pleas. “Help me this one time, I will bring you to see the truth about this world.”