My House of Horrors

Qin Guang and Chen Ge’s livestreams were blocked at the same time, but Chen Ge had announced his return, whereas Qin Guang was still nowhere to be seen. A bunch of curious viewers swamped Chen Ge’s comments; they wanted to know what had really happened that day. Chen Ge did not even tell the police about what really happened inside the Third Sick Hall; naturally, he would not reveal the secrets to the viewers. He gave a few vague replies before going offline. It was then that his phone rang; it was a call from Liu Dao.

Since they were once partners, Chen Ge accepted the call.

“Chen Ge, has the platform approached you to inform when your livestream will be unblocked?”

“Not yet, but I believe it shall be soon. What’s wrong?” Livestreaming was just another promotional method for Chen Ge, he did not worry over the details. As the fame of the Haunted House grew, he had the intention of making the livestream a way of communicating with his fans, like releasing daily progression of the visitors and releasing information about new scenarios.

“It’s like this. Our previous cooperation was really successful, so I want to do something similar, but something easier to control.” Liu Dao had not given up yet. His cooperation with Chen Ge was the first time he had managed to faceslap Qin Guang’s studio ever since their falling out.

“What kind of idea do you have in mind?”

“I will arrange a few of my most popular hosts to enter your Haunted House to do a livestream. What do you think?” Liu Dao anticipated Chen Ge’s answer. Before asking Chen Ge, he had made multiple investigations already.

“It sounds like a great idea, but the timing is not right. You’ll need to wait for a while first.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll definitely give you a number that you’ll be satisfied with. Furthermore, the livestreams will help promote your Haunted House, won’t it?” Liu Dao was an experienced member of the business, so he knew Chen Ge’s concern. “Plus, we will never leak the content of your Haunted House. They’ll use phones to carry out the livestreams, so the quality will not be that clear.”

“I don’t have enough scenarios. I’ll get back to you.” Chen Ge did not want to expose the details of the Haunted House, so he rejected Liu Dao in a roundabout way. Even though there were many detailed guides to Chen Ge’s Haunted House online, reading the guide and experiencing it were two different experiences. One had to experience terror to know how it would grip one’s heart.

After ending the call, before Chen Ge put the phone down, another call came in. He thought it was Liu Dao, so he was surprised when he saw that the call was from Captain Yan.

“He won’t be bringing me good news,” Chen Ge grumbled, having no idea the other person was thinking the same thing.

“Captain Yan? How can I help you?” Chen Ge lay in bed and sighed. He was in a good mood that night.

“I heard from Inspector Lee that you went to Lin Guan Village last night.” Compared to Chen Ge, Captain Yan sounded serious. He used this tone whenever a case was involved.

“Is there a problem with that village?” Chen Ge sat up immediately. He did not think much of Lin Guan Village, which was at the foot of the mountain. After all, the real scary village was Coffin Village inside the mountain.

“Stay away from Lin Guan Village—don’t go there at night.” Captain Yan seemed to have talked to Inspector Lee before making this call and knew something about Chen Ge.

“Captain Yan, you have to be clearer than that, or you’re just going to make me more interested.”

“You should know about the poisoning case at Lin Guan Village, right? The only survivor of the family of four was a little girl.”

“I do. In fact, I just met the girl at the Children’s Home.”

“The girl’s previous caretaker was found dead inside an abandoned old house at Lin Guan Village.” Captain Yan’s voice was chillingly calm, but his suppressed anger could be heard.

“Why would the body be placed in Lin Guan Village?” The first suspect that came to Chen Ge’s mind was Jiang Ling’s sister, but he had interacted with her before. Even though she had a monstrous exterior, internally, she was no different from a normal person.

“That is a question that confuses me as well. At the time, the case came to a standstill because of this as well. We traced back all the victim’s words and actions for the few days prior and found something weird.” Captain Yan sounded like he was hesitating over revealing this sensitive information to Chen Ge. After several seconds, he sighed. “The victim utilized the channel she obtained through her career to purchase blood.”

“Human blood?”

“Yes, that was our only lead.” Captain Yan reminded Chen Ge again. “Do not go to Lin Guan Village alone at night, at least before we have a clearer idea of what’s going on.”

“Then how long shall I wait?” Chen Ge could wait, but the mission on the black phone could not. The three-star scenario, Coffin Village, would disappear in six days. The missions that passed their expiration date would not be unlockable in the future.

“At least until all the mental patients from the Third Sick Hall have been caught.” Speaking of this, Captain Yan felt a headache coming. “Initially, they still acted rather normally, but after that incident at Fang Hwa Apartments, we realized that we’ve greatly underestimated their lethality.”

Chen Ge heard the message that Captain Yan did not say. “Is there another related case?”

“I’m standing at the crime scene, dealing with the mess.”

“Crime scene?” Chen Ge slowed down. “Someone died?”

“Yes, two deaths to be precise, and the crime scenes are weird to say the least.

“The first victim was a burglar. According to the camera, the victim just committed a crime and escaped into the back alley, but he never exited it. A passing drunk called the police. The victim’s eyes had been gouged out, and he died from an unknown cause.

“The second victim was a fugitive hiding in Jiujiang. He was found hanging in his rental room. If not for the gouged eyes, we wouldn’t have tied the two cases together.”

Listening to the description, Chen Ge was confused. “Why would they gouge out the victims’ eyes?”

“We’re dealing with mental patients, so who really knows why? They’re operating on a different worldview.” Captain Yan sighed. “In any case, these kinds of similar cases are due to something in the killer’s history. The gouged eyes could be some sort of ritual, or the killer might have experienced trauma related to eyes when they were young. Or possibly this is just something to throw our investigation off.”

“The chance of childhood trauma is big. The patients at the Third Sick Hall were all traumatized when they were young.” Chen Ge remembered what Captain Yan said. The killer was most likely the chairperson; he wanted to try his best to understand this sick man.

“Instead of the eyes, I’m more curious about another thing.” There was a drumming on the table from the other side of the phone, Captain Yan’s habit when he was thinking. “Why would they purposely target these sinners? Are they trying to tell us they’re different from normal criminals?”