My House of Horrors

Chang Gu agreed to cooperate with Chen Ge, and they had formed a basic consensus. After promising to meet up again the following night, Chen Ge pushed open the door of the private showing theater. The sky outside was brightening. The moment Chen Ge stepped out of theater, the black phone vibrated again.

“Congratulations, Specter’s Favored, you have finished watching a complete movie inside the dead’s theater. Congratulations for completing the first part of the two-star special Trial Mission—Left Oculus!

“For the second part of the mission, locate Wenyu’s elder brother, Chang Gu, and gain his affection!

“Congratulations, Specter’s Favored for completing the second part of the mission.

“For the third part of the mission, travel to Jiujiang Mental Asylum to see the color of Wenyu’s dream for yourself!

“Warning! This mission contains many uncertain factors. After completing it, you will greatly improve Wenyu, Qiumei, and Chang Gu’s affection toward you! It will unlock the two-star scenario The Dead’s Theater and equipment related to movie-making!”

Seeing the message on the black phone, Chen Ge’s desire to complete this two-star mission only grew. Other than giving him a new two-star mission, he was going to get plenty of valuable equipment. Previously, he had promised the suicide line operator to help him finish shooting a movie. Currently, he had the director and the actors, and after the mission was completed, he would have the equipment needed as well.

“Even though this Trial Mission is quite complicated, the reward is correspondingly lucrative. I wonder, what does the uncertain factor the black phone warned about mean?” Chen Ge had already discerned the rules to the mission given by the black phone—the reward was often proportional to the level of danger.

“Discern the color of Wenyu’s dream? One’s dream has a color?” The mission description was rather vague. Chen Ge could not even tell whether the Wenyu in question was the Wenyu in real life or Wenyu’s soul.

“Oh well, I’m sure it’ll all pan out in the end. There’s no point thinking about it. Tomorrow night, I’ll get Chang Gu to come with me to go visit Wenyu.” Chen Ge would never go back on his word. Be it Qiumei or Wenyu, Chen Ge valued them both.

With further insistence from Chang Gu, Chen Ge grabbed all of his employees and left Yong Ling Mountain Holiday Villa. He walked for a long stretch before he located a taxi that would pick him up.

Taking not even one second of sleep, Chen Ge did not feel tired. The appearance of Left Oculus brought a change to the four-star School of the Afterlife mission, and a brave idea appeared in his mind. Based on current situation, Zhang Ya would not have woken up before the time limit for the School of Afterlife ended. Without her, the mission’s difficulty would rise to an impossible level.

Chen Ge had been hesitating whether he should take this risk or not. The futuristic theme park was about to open. Without a new and exciting scenario, the popularity that New Century Park had gathered might be overtaken by the new theme park. He had worked so hard for the sake of this day, and now it was the last leg.

“If I can find valuable information related to the School of Afterlife during the mission for Left Oculus, then I will go scout around the phantom school before the time limit ends.” Giving up without even paying the place a visit was something that Chen Ge could not do.

Leaning against the seat, Chen Ge stared at his shadow and sunk into deep thought. He returned to New Century Park at 8 am. He had only entered the gate when he saw two figures walking around the entrance to his Haunted House.

“Uncle Xu? Jingjiu? You two sure are early today.” Chen Ge placed his backpack on the wooden bench, and the bench creaked noisily from the pressure.

“You wandered out alone last night?” Uncle Xu looked at the bench, which might collapse at any moment.

“I merely went for a morning jog.” Chen Ge gave a casual excuse.

“Jogging with such a loaded bag?” Uncle Xu sighed helplessly. “You are not young anymore. Stop wasting your life on those nightly activities. Better go and find yourself a wife to get your life back together.”

“Uncle Xu, did you come so early in the morning to introduce me to a prospective partner?” Chen Ge glanced at his shadow and wiped the beads of sweat that travelled down his face.

“I’m not that free.” Uncle Xu sighed. “Just now, I accepted the call from Director Luo. Last night, the people from Xin Hai’s Nightmare Academy opened several threads on the largest online forum about your Haunted House. They question the safety of your Haunted House, and the threads are fast gathering popularity. Director Luo believes that it is the people at the futuristic theme park who is behind this.”

“Nightmare Academy? Them again? I haven’t even gone to them to demand an explanation, and they’re coming after us already?” Chen Ge’s voice was laced with danger.

“What are you planning to do? Calm down! Don’t act recklessly!” Uncle Xu quickly stopped Chen Ge.

“Director Luo had me come early to remind you, to tell you to keep a low profile. Do not let them have any advantage on you. After we survive the opening of the futuristic theme park, everything will be fine.”

“We’ve always been open with our activities. What kind of advantage can they possibly have on us?”

“You are not wrong, but we cannot guarantee that they will not go below the belt and come up with false accusations.” Uncle Xu wanted Chen Ge to be more careful.

“You said it yourself, Uncle Xu, they will stoop to the lowest level to make trouble for us. In that case, I think we should adopt a different solution to deal with this problem.” Chen Ge picked up the heavy backpack and looked inside it.

“What are you planning to do?” Uncle Xu had a bad feeling.

“Since they will find flaws with us even if there are none, then if I can take them all down, there won’t be anyone who will find faults with us, right?” Chen Ge answered matter-of-factly.

“Take, take them down?” Uncle Xu took one step forward, like he could not hear Chen Ge clearly and wanted a clarification.

“It’s going to be easy. I’ll go to Xin Hai today.” Chen Ge patted Uncle Xu’s shoulders. “Don’t worry, now that there is an intercity train, the travel back and forth will only take two hours. I’ll be back before the night falls.”

“Do you really think I’m worried about that?” Uncle Xu pushed Chen Ge’s arm aside. “This is just a business problem. Please don’t elevate it into a…”

“Don’t worry, leave it to me, I won’t leave any evidence.”

“What evidence? Please don’t go creating trouble!”

After pacifying Uncle Xu, Chen Ge turned to Zhang Jingjiu. “Jingjiu, why are you so early today?”

“Boss, I wish to ask you for a day off.” Zhang Jingjiu took out his phone. There was a short message on it. “My father has been hospitalized, so I wish to visit him.”

“No problem.” Chen Ge agreed easily. “If I remember correctly, you said your father lives in Xin Hai City.”

“Yes.”

“Then, this is perfect. I will go with you to Xin Hai. We’ll see this as a field trip.” Chen Ge’s eyes moved away from the two and gazed down the horizon. “After we survive the opening of the futuristic theme park and have nothing else to worry about, we can consider opening a branch in Xin Hai. The people there will be overjoyed to know that they can finally experience the true meaning of horror.”