My House of Horrors

Even then, Chen Ge was still trying to get over the aftereffects of holding his breath for too long. His head was light, but even in that condition, he still grabbed onto the coffin lid and the rope that strung the dolls through their hearts tightly. After taking several deep breaths, Chen Ge finally felt well-adjusted enough to glance at the phone.

“The two-star mission Twin Water Ghost has been completed. Completion Rate: one hundred percent. Unlocked this mission’s hidden item—the Shirt of the Drowned.

“The Shirt of the Drowned (Malice Points: 17): There are things underwater that crawled into my clothes, and they pulled me deep into the water.”

The mission has a completion rate of one hundred percent. Looks like the hole in the dam is not counted by the black phone as part of the Twin Water Ghost mission.

Chen Ge put the black phone away, and there were many questions left in his mind.

Was the coffin purposely placed there to block the way into the hole?

Earlier, Chen Ge had noted that Xu Yin did not dare get close to the end part of the coffin, and he felt the secret to that would be hidden on the coffin lid.

After putting on his clothes, Chen Ge laid the lid vertically down on the boat.

It’s impossible for me to physically carry this back home with me, but no taxi will allow me to put this inside their car. I’ll need to come up with a solution.

The coffin lid that Chen Ge had salvaged from the dam was much smaller than a normal coffin. It was decayed and was stained with patches of red. It was unclear whether those patches were dead bugs or a type of water plant that had dried up. After removing the thing that covered the surface, Chen Ge made a startling discovery.

A Specter was carved on the decayed wooden board. The monster was wrapped in chains and had six eyes, looking almost similar to the monster that the ghost stories society had left on the door in the Haunted House.

The ghost stories society committed many ritualistic murders and gouged out the victims’ eyes to create something like this on the door in my Haunted House. At the time, they wanted to dominate the door, so the carving of this ghost should possess the power of guarding a door.

Chen Ge took out his own phone and snapped a picture of the carving.

The coffin was stuck near the entrance of the hole, and the ghost was carved onto the lid—could this be a device to guard the hole inside the dam? To prevent the thing inside from coming out?

Only Chen Ge would come up with the idea of using a coffin to guard a hole.

The black phone gave me the mission to come salvage dead bodies, so technically, it should include the possibility that I would carry the whole coffin away with me. Then this means that no matter what kind of scary presence is hiding inside the hole, it should pose no threat to me.

Since he already had the coffin lid, going back underwater was impossible; Chen Ge was merely finding an excuse for himself.

The coffin was probably placed here by the mastermind. Then the enemy of my enemy is my friend. If it doesn’t want the thing inside the hole to come out, then I should find a way to release it.

Chen Ge was unsure what was inside the hole and had no idea where the hole led to. Honestly, at that moment, he was not at all interested. He just wanted to leave that place as soon as possible. What if something really did slip out and vented its anger from being trapped onto him?

When Chen Ge prepared to row away, a blob of dark shadow floated onto the surface of the water.

I’d almost forgotten about her.

The shadow stuck to the side of the boat. Strands of black hair crawled up from the water, and they grew like vines on the side of the boat before slithering onto the boat and slipping into one of the dolls.

Picking up the doll, Chen Ge noticed that it was different from others. She was wearing a little dress with blood spots, and the hair was real human hair. The name that was carved on the back was red in color.

“Zhao Shuang’er? This doll is Wen Wen’s big sister?” The mission had been completed, but there were too many dolls on the boat. “Every doll has a name carved on the back, so each of them represents a life.”

When he was underwater, Chen Ge could sense the anxiety and fear from the children. They were all still so young, and most of them had not even experienced life before.

“Too many things are involved in this case. I’m afraid I won’t be able to handle this alone. I should inform Captain Yan about this.” Ninety percent of the Jiujiang’s disappearances happened in Eastern Jiujiang. If they were all due to the shadow’s plan, then the number of deaths would be astronomical.

Chen Ge decided to hold onto the doll that Wen Wen’s sister possessed. There was another unique thing about this doll—her clothes were always wet. Afraid that she might wet the comic, Chen Ge placed her in his pocket. Summoning all the ghosts, Chen Ge rowed the boat back to the bank.

When Zhang Dabo saw Chen Ge return safely, he sighed in relief. He had really been concerned for the man. Who could blame him when Chen Ge came alone to the dam at night to come salvaging for dead bodies, and without any safety gear at that! Just watching it from the bank, he could not help but feel anxious, afraid that the King Fish might show up to assault Chen Ge.

“Brother, mind giving me a hand?” The boat moored, and Chen Ge lifted the coffin lid up.

“What is this?” Zhang Dabo was an honest man. He gripped the other end of the coffin lid and started to pull.

“This is a coffin lid. I found it at the bottom of the dam.”

“A coffin?” Hearing Chen Ge’s answer, Zhang Dabo almost slipped and fell to the ground. “Didn’t you go searching for dead bodies? Why did you come back with a coffin lid?”

“There are four dead bodies in the dam, I couldn’t handle all that alone. We should call the police and leave this to the professionals.”

“Four… four bodies?” Zhang Dabo could not imagine that the dam that he was tasked with guarding over would hide so many dead bodies. Chen Ge moved everything onto solid ground and right then his phone rang.

“Shall we call the police now?” Zhang Dabo looked at the coffin lid, and he felt incredibly uncomfortable.

“There’s no need to rush. Let me answer this call first.” It was Lee Zheng who called Chen Ge. When Chen Ge saw Huang Ling’s husband earlier, he had messaged Captain Yan and Lee Zheng, but they did not reply immediately probably because it was already too late.

Accepting the call, before Chen Ge could speak, Lee Zheng’s voice came through. “Chen Ge, are you telling me Huang Ling’s husband is the murder suspect? How confident are you?”

“One hundred percent confident, I suggest you detain him as soon as possible. The man is extremely dangerous. The longer you let him roam free, the more dangerous he’ll be,” Chen Ge said confidently, “Also, there’s another thing. I found four female dead bodies in Eastern Jiujiang Dam.”

“Eastern Jiujiang?”

“Yes, they’re underwater. When I was investigating the dam earlier, Huang Ling’s husband was also around the area.”

Lee Zheng did not question why Chen Ge would go to the dam searching for dead bodies in the middle of the night; he just answered Chen Ge instantly, “Wait there, our people will be there in a minute.”

“Okay.” After the call ended, Chen Ge looked at the dumbstruck Zhang Dabo. “Brother, the police will be coming soon. I might need to trouble you again later.”

“It’s no trouble. Do say if you have any use for me.” After all that had happened, the way Zhang Dabo looked at Chen Ge changed. At 3:10 am, the police from both Eastern Jiujiang’s police station and the main police station arrived at the same time. As if on cue, Chen Ge also received the call from Lee Zheng.

“Chen Ge, something’s wrong. I personally went to Huang Ling’s home. Huang Ling is mentally unstable, completely out of it, and her husband is nowhere to be seen.”

“Follow the surveillance around Eastern Jiujiang Dam—that should give you the lead to follow his trail. This man is very important and very dangerous, be careful when you conduct the search.”