My House of Horrors

“The Missing Wife (One-star Mission): Find Liu Xianxian before midnight.

“Mission Hint: Perhaps he doesn’t love me.

“Do you wish to accept this mission? Warning: Trial Missions are only available for twenty-four hours. If they are not accepted within these twenty-four hours, the scenario will never be unlocked.”

Naturally, Chen Ge accepted it. Since this was just a one-star mission, he didn’t think it would that difficult. I only need to find Liu Xianxian? There’s no other requirement?

Chen Ge had a feeling that the sentence had another meaning, but temporarily, he had no idea what. After hanging up, Chen Ge returned to New Century Park to grab all of his equipment before rushing to Jiujiang Medical University. At 7:40 pm, Chen Ge arrived at his destination and found Liu Xianxian at a nearby teahouse.

“Why are you here?” Chen Ge was curious. The things there were expensive, and Liu Xianxian did not look like she was much of a tea-drinker.

“He prefers a quiet place.” Liu Xianxian was embarrassed. She had put quite some effort into her appearance, but she looked rather pale. “I’ve booked the private room for you next door, you can hide in there.”

Chen Ge moved to oblige. From his vantage page, he could look clearly into the room next door. Then it was a long wait. Liu Xianxian asked to meet the man at 8 pm. Combining the time Liu Xianxian waited for Chen Ge, she had been waiting for at least half an hour already.

She checked her appearance again and again as she looked out the window carefully. She was both fearful and excited. The man did not show at 8 pm. She took out her phone to call the man, but when she found the man’s name on the contact list, she hesitated. “Did something happen to him?”

Liu Xianxian was completely different from when she was with her friends. She asked the waitress for a cup of water. She picked the cup up but, worried that it might ruin her lipstick, she put it down again. She wanted to show the man her best. The man still had not arrived at 8:20 pm. Liu Xianxian looked at the food on the table, but she had no appetite.

She held her phone, and after some hesitance, she finally called the man’s number. The call rang, but no one answered.

“Something must have happened to him.” Liu Xianxian looked out the window. The crowd was starting to thin because it was getting late. She waited until 9 pm, and he was still a no-show.

“Let’s stop waiting, he won’t be coming tonight.” Chen Ge walked out from the room. “From how he treats you, it looks like he doesn’t care about you that much.”

“Let’s wait a little longer.” Liu Xianxian waited until the teahouse closed, but the man did not show up. They left the teahouse together, Liu Xianxian looking quite devastated. Due to the mission by the black phone, Chen Ge stuck close to Liu Xianxian. “Can you tell me the story between the both of you? Perhaps I can give you some advice.”

Liu Xianxian shook her head, but it was uncertain whether she did not want to share the story or had something that she could not say.

“If you don’t tell me anything, how am I supposed to help? If you hold something within your heart for too long, it might ‘decay’. Now you need someone to talk to. Your roommates are a close part of your life—you walk in the same circle—so telling them might affect your friendship, but I’m different. I’m an outsider who has no interaction with your life; you don’t need to worry about me interrupting your normal life.”

Chen Ge kept trying to loosen Liu Xianxian’s lips, and Liu Xianxian was slowly convinced. The stuff in her heart was piling up so high that she had trouble breathing.

“Say it out loud, you’ll feel much better.” Chen Ge sounded like the boy next door, very warm and friendly.

She paused in thought, and after one last struggle, Liu Xianxian began. “I was brought up by my mother, and I’ve never seen my father. Sometimes, I wonder what my father looks like. Perhaps due to that, when I first saw him, there was a very special feeling.

“With or without the romantic feeling, I just feel safe around him.” Liu Xianxian looked up at the streetlight, the soft light falling on her pained expression. “I was like a child lost in the field, finding a hunter with a torch and a gun.”

“That’s quite an interesting analogy, what happened next?”

“He is much older than I am and has all the good qualities of a mature man. In my eyes, he is a perfect man, and I cannot prevent my heart from falling in love. However, as our interaction increased, I realized that he is rather different from normal men.”

Liu Xianxian’s eyes were wavering. “Liking someone means knowing everything about him. I heard from his close family that his wife died in a car accident seven years ago. It was because I found out about that news that I started to pursue him. Initially, he rejected me, but with my tireless approach, the distance between us closed. It was also at the time that I found out the biggest secret about him.”

Liu Xianxian paused for a long time before she continued. “He is under the impression that his wife is still alive. There are two sets of everything at his home, and he sometimes talks to the air like his wife is standing there.”

“That’s an obvious sign of trauma.”

When Liu Xianxian heard Chen Ge’s assessment, she shook her head with hesitance. “I don’t think he’s sick. He just loves his wife too much.”

“Your mind is muddled from love—that’s why you’re coming up with all these reasons for him. If you really have his interests at heart, you should bring him to a psychologist.”

“You’ll understand what I mean when you see him. I’m not lying to you.” Liu Xianxian saw the number on her phone, and she thanked Chen Ge. “Thank you for everything today. I’ll deal with this myself. I hope that you’ll keep this to yourself.”

“Of course, you have my word.” Seeing Liu Xianxian’s back, the smile on Chen Ge’s face slowly disappeared. He caught a deep hint of despair when she spoke; he had heard the same trace of despair when he interacted with members of the ghost stories society.

“The man Liu Xianxian likes thinks his dead wife is still alive. This is similar to No. 10. In the Pen Spirit’s ‘will’, she overheard No. 10 calling the body on his back his wife.”

Chen Ge was increasingly curious about Liu Xianxian. While no one was watching, he carried his backpack and sneaked into Jiujiang Medical University.