My House of Horrors

The tattooed man told Chen Ge everything that he knew, but whether he could be trusted or not, that was up to Chen Ge’s own discretion. Chen Ge narrowed his eyes as he scanned the five female skulls on the man’s arm. With Yin Yang Vision, he realized that the heads were wailing, and they probably represented five different spirits.

“I’m not the one who killed them; I’m merely their vessel.” The tattooed man quickly waved his hands. “Due to my unique body, I’ve been able to see ghosts since I was small, but that power weakened as I grew up. However, it is still there. Probably because of that, the shadow came after me and used my body to keep some unique spirits.”

The man pointed at his arm. “These five women were once the ghost fetus’ mother—they were personally handpicked by the shadow. They were living humans whose body features were different from others, but probably because there were too many negative emotions in the ghost fetus, it died five times in the womb. Its resentment was growing so much that sometimes I could feel it myself. Be it the mothers or the shadow, they seemed to be afraid of the ghost fetus.”

“Even the shadow is afraid of the fetus?” Chen Ge could not understand why someone would fear their own creation, but he did not focus on this topic. “I am willing to cooperate with you, but the premise is that you have to listen to my orders.”

“A wise choice. Actually, I still know some other secrets about the shadow. After we escape from this place, I will tell you more about them.” The tattooed man was worried that Chen Ge might kill him after he had outlived his usefulness, so he quickly explained that he still had other values to be discovered.

“Sure.” Chen Ge smiled lightly. He did not really care that much. After all, there was a momentous difference to his and the tattooed man’s goal. The tattooed man wanted to escape, and most of the locals probably had that goal in mind, but Chen Ge’s goal was to find a chance to kill the shadow. Of course, it would be better if he could capture the shadow alive.

Everyone understood the dangers of a door that had gone out of control, even Doctor Gao stayed away from this place, but for Chen Ge, once he had completed his preparation, even an uncontrollable door could be turned into a giant treasure.

Returning to the first floor, the tattooed man pushed the case to the corner. The bone whistle that he was holding earlier had disappeared—he had probably placed it inside his pocket. Seeing how obedient the tattooed man was acting, walking behind Chen Ge, the woman was confounded. She had met the tattooed man before and understood how powerful he was. “You two…”

The woman leaned forward and purposely brushed against the tattooed man when he passed her. She seemed to have something to say, but the tattooed man ignored her and walked on ahead. Considering the situation that he was in, he was not going to do anything to arouse Chen Ge’s suspicion.

“Scissors, go to the entrance to take a look. See if there’s anyone else out on the street and then close the door.” Scissors moved to oblige—he had complete trust in Chen Ge. There were flickering shadows in the fog, and there was even someone waving at them, but the shadows kept their distance like they did not dare wander too close.

“There are only some shadows on the streets—I don’t see anyone alive.”

“Then close the door. It’s their loss to not come in here.” With such a large commotion at the hotel, the locals of Li Wan City must have noticed it, so it was perfectly normal for them to come over to check out the situation.

After the door was closed, Chen Ge scanned everyone in the room. “Everyone, due to different kinds of reason, we’ve gathered here tonight. I suppose you can call it fate. I will not harm anyone and will not do anything disadvantageous to any of you. I merely wish for us to stick together to discuss some problems, like how to escape from this place.”

Once Chen Ge finished, the tattooed man started to fidget. He tried his best to meet Chen Ge’s eyes. “The more people we take with us, the less likely we’re going to succeed. The shadow can transform into anyone of us, and if he finds out about our plan, we’ll fail one hundred percent!”

“Yes, the shadow can transform into anyone of us, and that is the second thing I wish to tell everyone. I hope no one here will do anything irrational—I will not harm any innocent party, but that does not mean that I will not harm the shadow.” Chen Ge stood at the head of the dining table, holding his backpack.

“This is so like you…” The drunkard grumbled softly. Ever since he listened to Chen Ge’s advice and selected the correct antidote, the drunkard had developed loyalty toward Chen Ge that could not be shaken. Even though the man could be very scary at times, he was really trustworthy to his friends.

“This man here has stayed for a long time in Li Wan City—he knows where the door that will lead us out of here is. We’ll all follow him, and I will try my best to guarantee your safety and bring all of you out of this place.” Chen Ge was sincere with his words. If possible, he wanted to rescue as many people as he could. After all, for the black phone’s mission, the greater the number of innocent lives he had saved, the bigger his reward would be.

“I’m sorry, but temporarily, I don’t plan to leave this place. I feel like it’s not bad staying here,” the bespectacled high-schooler said shyly.

Chen Ge stared at the high-schooler and noticed that whenever the latter looked through the glasses, he would need to squint his eyes like his sight became worse after putting on the glasses. “If I’m not mistaken, the pair of glasses should belong to your younger brother, Bei Wen, and your name is Bei Ye, right?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about—you must’ve gotten the wrong person.” The high-schooler tried his best to keep his cool, but he was ultimately too young. Chen Ge could easily pick up the flaws in his acting.

“On the bus coming over here, I met one of your classmates, and he told me everything.” Chen Ge grabbed the high-schooler’s arm lightly. “You accidentally killed your own father, but to escape from the judgment of law, you murdered your younger brother who looked just like you in cold blood, and you made it look like you committed suicide. However, in reality, you’ve survived just fine, assuming the life and identity of your younger brother.”

With each of Chen Ge’s words, the male student’s face whitened by one degree.

“Initially, only I knew about this, but now everyone here knows about your secret. I wonder, with your personality, will you kill all of us to ensure that your biggest secret is not revealed to the world?”

Before Chen Ge even finished, the tattooed man next to him spoke. “If he refuses to leave, then he will become one of our impediments. Now that we’ve found out about his secret, he’ll definitely find a way to take revenge on us. He will report our movement to the shadow. I suggest we deal with him before he has the chance to betray us.”

Touching the tattoos on his arm, the man turned to peer at the knife left on the cart. “Remove all sources of danger before it has the chance to grow. We only have one chance at this—we mustn’t be too careless if we wish to escape.”

“Everyone here has their own secret. I understand if you wish to stay, but once you hear about our secret, the power of choice is taken from your hand.” The black phone had requested Chen Ge to rescue innocent victims to improve his reward, but Bei Ye was clearly not a victim, so Chen Ge was not going to go easy on the young student.

Being stared at by most of the customers inside the hotel, Bei Ye finally relented. “Alright, I will go with all of you.”