My House of Horrors

Cutting to the camera inside the classroom, Chen Ge made a discovery. Liu Xianxian was not without fear, but the way she showed it was different from normal. When she walked past two mannequins, one of the heads fell off. The other four were scared, but Liu Xianxian, who was closest to the human head, maintained her composure. With a smile on her face, she bent down to pick up the mannequin head and put it back. Chen Ge paused the video and studied the smile on Liu Xianxian’s face when she picked up the mannequin head.

Her smile looks forced. Whenever she smiles, the angle of her smile looks as if it has been trained. When a person is scared, isn’t it normal to show a scared expression? Why did she train herself to smile?

Overcoming fear and facing fear with a smile were two different concepts. What Liu Xianxian was doing confused Chen Ge as well.

The body is shaking, but the face is smiling. Is the girl suffering from some kind of psychological issue?

Chen Ge thought back to the first two special visitors that the Haunted House had welcomed—Fan Yu and Men Nan. When they first arrived, they had also shown weird reactions.

The video continued to play. The five had already exited the sealed classroom. They had been walking for some time when a few mannequins tumbled out of the sealed classroom like they were blown by the window. There was nothing interesting to see after that. Chen Ge paid special attention to Liu Xianxian, and the more he studied her, the more he felt she was acting abnormally.

For example, when they were at the male dormitory in Western Jiujiang’s Private Academy, the hanging mannequin suddenly jumped out from the bedroom and chased after the group. The other four screamed for help and ran at their top speed, but Liu Xianxian stood where she was with her body shaking. The smile stayed on her face, but tears were in her eyes. It was clear that she was afraid. Her chest rose unevenly, and it looked like she would faint at any moment.

Of course, the hanging man would not really hurt her. It jumped to stand before her before falling into her chest. The dead man’s face looked up at her. Finally, Liu Xianxian lost her composure, and she screamed a series of apologies. However, Chen Ge had no clue who she was apologizing to.

Chen Ge did not dare stay inside the surveillance room any longer. His Haunted House had just sent five visitors to the hospital yesterday. If another visitor fainted on his watch, it would be hard to explain. Pulling the wooden boards back, Chen Ge ran into the scenario. When he arrived, the other four students had already dragged Liu Xianxian out. They screamed at the camera for help, choosing to give up the tour.

“Don’t be afraid. I’ve been following you on the camera. If there’s an accident, I’ll come to save you.” Chen Ge was friendly. He arrived less than a minute after the accident.

“Boss, will anything happen to Liu Xianxian?” Ma Yin was worried.

“Hard to say for now.” Chen Ge looked at Liu Xianxian, who was calming down. Her facial muscles twitched. Even at a time like this, she did not forget to smile. “Actually, I’m curious; why didn’t she run when she saw something scary but stood there dumbly?”

“I don’t really know. She has acted similarly at the dormitory, but it was nothing serious.” Ma Yin held Liu Xianxian as they moved to the exit.

“Something similar happened before?”

“Yes, Liu Xian was very afraid of bugs, but one day, that fear disappeared. I even saw her use her bare hands to catch those bugs before.”

“It just happened miraculously one fine day?” Chen Ge was now certain that something must have happened to Liu Xianxian at school. However, he understood not to push it. “We have a professional doctor here at the park. Let’s bring her to him.”

Chen Ge personally led Liu Xianxian to the medical room. He wanted to take this chance to communicate with Liu Xianxian, to find out some information, but he was needed at the Haunted House, so he could not leave. He waited until 6 pm, but there was no message on the black phone, and Chen Ge started to suspect that he had got the wrong person. Neither of them was the special visitor?

He busied himself until 6:30 pm. Chen Ge closed the door and cleaned the toilet before he exited the park. He hopped into the taxi and sent Inspector Lee a message, telling him that he had something important to tell him and that it had to be done in secret.

Inspector Lee’s reply came very fast, and he asked to meet Chen Ge at the Purple Briars Park next to Western Jiujiang’s police station. At 7:10 pm, Chen Ge found Inspector Lee at one of the alcoves.

“Chen Ge, why are you acting so mysteriously? Why did you call me?” Inspector Lee lit a cigarette and leaned against the column.

“I need you to analyze something for me.” Chen Ge took out the seal bag from his backpack. “There’s an iron nail inside this. There’s a blood stain on the tip of the nail. Don’t the police have a DNA databank? Can you help me check if the blood stain matches anyone?”

Inspector Lee accepted the bag, but he did not make any promises. “Was this left behind by the killer?”

Chen Ge nodded.

“Then, why didn’t you send this to the police station? Why did you sneak this to me in private?” Inspector Lee snuffed out the cigarette and puffed out the smoke. He looked at Chen Ge with interest. “You suspect the killer is a police officer?”

Chen Ge did not deny it. “Uncle San Bao, this thing is too complicated. I don’t have the answer myself.”

“You only create problems for me.” Inspector Lee shoved the bag inside his pocket. “The results will be back by tomorrow night.”

“Thank you.”

“No need. It’s what the police should do.”

Inspector Lee turned to leave. Chen Ge called a cab to return to New Century Park. When he was inside the car, his phone rang.

Liu Xianxian? Chen Ge accepted the call. “Hello? Are you feeling better?”

“Yes.”

“Why are you calling?”

“It’s like this.” Liu Xianxian sounded rather flustered. “Can you come to Jiujiang’s Medical University tonight? I’ve asked the man out. I’m not sure whether he likes me or not, so I want you to give me your opinion.”

Chen Ge did not expect that Liu Xianxian would really call him about this. After some consideration, Chen Ge said, “Okay, I’ll be there in a bit.”

After he agreed to Liu Xianxian’s request, the black phone in his other pocket vibrated. He took out the phone and saw the new message.

“The third special visitor has left. You’ve successfully unlocked the mission information! Unlocked Hidden Trial Mission—The Missing Wife!”