My House of Horrors

Jiang Xiaohu obviously did not want to get too close to Chen Ge, but his limbs were tied down, so he could only watch as Chen Ge sat down beside him.

“You look so nervous—is it because there are too many people in the room?” Chen Ge looked at Jiang Xiaohu with concern. “Relax, we’re all here to help you.”

Then he turned to look at Doctor Pei. “Do you mind if I have some alone time with him? The child doesn’t seem like he’s used to being surrounded by so many people.”

Doctor Pei had difficulty written on his face. Honestly, he did not think that Jiang Xiaohu’s anomaly was because of the crowd. “I don’t think that’s wise. Jiang Xiaohu has the record of harming others, and if we leave you here alone, I’m afraid…”

“It’ll be fine. There’s no need for you to worry about me.” Chen Ge put down his backpack. The bag looked so heavy, but no one could tell its content. “The child just lacks a chance to communicate. There’s a kind-hearted side that is hiding within him.”

The nurse and workers turned to Doctor Pei. When the police came to investigate Jiang Xiaohu, even they did not have a request like this. Doctor Pei wanted to deny the request, but considering Lee Zheng’s introduction and the number of lives that were involved in the case, after thinking about it again, Doctor Pei nodded. “We’ll be just outside the door. If the boy suddenly acts up and comes after you, you only need to call, and we’ll rush in to save you.”

“Alright, thank you.”

The workers at the asylum filed out of the Room 1 by one. Seeing their departure, Jiang Xiaohu became more nervous. He made a weird throaty noise like an injured animal sensing danger. The door closed. When the doctor and workers left, Chen Ge took the recorder out from his bag and activated it. The sound of static filled up the room; it felt like the sound could crawl into one’s mind to play with one’s nervous system. “Don’t you feel better with a little relaxing music?”

Chen Ge looked at Jiang Xiaohu, watching his every move. Ten seconds later, he suddenly said, “You should have seen a ghost before, right?”

Jiang Xiaohu’s pupils shook as he tried to get away from Chen Ge.

“Based on your reaction, I suppose I’m correct. Let me think. Did you see her dead body in person but she came back to life several days later and appeared somewhere else?”

The sanity of Jiang Xiaohu aside, based on Chen Ge’s question alone, if Doctor Pei was present, he would have thought that Chen Ge was crazy as well. The ropes were pulled tight, and Jiang Xiaohu was agitated.

“Whether you’re real crazy or fake crazy, I hope you understand one thing—you are the only one who survived not because you’re lucky but because she allowed you to live.”

When Chen Ge was playing the game, he had a question in his heart. How did Xiao Bu know about the dungeon at her friend’s home?

Initially, Chen Ge had thought that there was a message left behind by her mother, but what her mother did was not exactly something to be proud of, and she should not tell that to her young daughter. There was a detail in the game worth noting—Xiao Bu found the key inside her mother’s pajamas, but upon closer inspection, why would someone who was trapped have the key to the exit inside her pajamas?

After meeting Jiang Xiaohu, Chen Ge had a speculation. Could it be this boy who stole the key and handed it over to Xiao Bu’s mother?

Xiao Bu could get into the dungeon probably because Jiang Xiaohu told her about it. After all, they were classmates.

“I will not side with either party. I just want to know what happened back then.” The static sound grew. The lights in the room flickered, and the room darkened. A red shadow materialized next to Chen Ge. Jiang Xiaohu was really scared. He could not control himself anymore and started to scream.

“You can sense his presence? Are you reminded of something?” Chen Ge had summoned Xu Yin not to scare Jiang Xiaohu but to have Xu Yin inspect Jiang Xiaohu’s body to see whether he was possessed or not. Jiang Xiaohu’s face was frozen in fear. He mumbled incoherently as he pointed at Chen Ge.

“Has he lost his ability of speech after a long period of zero communication, or has Xu Yin scared the boy?” Chen Ge turned off the recorder. Xu Yin had not found any signs of ghosts on the boy; he was just a normal child.

The static disappeared. Chen Ge grabbed Jiang Xiaohu’s hands that were tied by ropes. “I’m helping you and helping her in the process. I know that there’s a shadow in your heart. Tell me, treat me as someone that you will never see again. I can guarantee what you tell me will never be revealed to a third person.”

Several minutes later, Jiang Xiaohu slowly calmed down. His head was covered with cold sweat as his chest rose and fell, clambering for air. Chen Ge had just summoned a Red Specter; an adult would have been scared witless, much less a child.

Placing the recorder on the bed, Chen Ge said seriously, “If you don’t tell me, I’ll probably come back every day until you tell me the truth.”

Jiang Xiaohu finally relented and opened his mouth to speak. “What do you want to know?”

“Let’s start with your father. Why would he capture a living person? And why did accidents keep happening at Ming Yang Residence, which he was overseeing?”

“I don’t know what happened, but I remember that Jiang Long once said that the project at Ming Yang Residence was a faux. Someone forced him to do it. The four buildings weren’t for human tenants but for ghosts.”

He stuttered endlessly, and Chen Ge took a long time before he understood what Jiang Xiaohu said, “Who would force him to do something like that?”

“At the very beginning, Jiang Long said that someone was watching over him. He went to many doctors, and they all said that it was his work pressure, but his symptoms worsened. Eventually, he started to ramble nonsensical stuff. He said that he saw his shadow come alive. He believed that his shadow had its own consciousness and could communicate with him.”

“How did your father’s conditions get under control?”

“I’m not sure. Starting from one morning, Jiang Long suddenly became energized, but it was from that day onward that he became someone else and gained many weird habits…” Jiang Xiaohu paused and hesitated. “I stopped calling him father from that day because I had a feeling there was another person living inside him. I suspect he was taken over by his shadow.”

“Taken over by his shadow?” Chen Ge was reminded of the shadow at the fresh water plant. The monster had been laying seeds all over; it was an enemy that was more difficult to deal with than he had expected.

“Regarding the capturing of living person, that was his idea; it has nothing to do with my family. A few years before Jiang Long’s accident, he appeared to be doing that constantly. He would lead people to Li Wan City to torture them both physically and mentally to drop them into despair. I don’t know why he would do that. Perhaps it was his personal hobby.”

Jiang Xiaohu’s childhood experience had matured him. After he was done, he sneaked a glance at Chen Ge before going silent again.