My House of Horrors

“I’ve memorized the name of the care unit. I will relay that to my superior now.”

“You’d better move fast; the patient’s condition is very unstable. If he stays in coma for too long, it’ll cause damage to his brain.”

“Understood.” The leader left an officer behind to manage to scene while he led the other people back to the police station.

…

Pushing open the glass door of the police station, a wave of commotion rushed at the captain. He frowned, looking at his place of work. The place was bustling with people, and they had exaggerated expressions as they unloaded their grievances onto the officers on duty.

“This has become such a lawless place! Is this how the rules work?” the captain yelled at the young officers who were on duty. His voice was stern.

“Captain Cai! You’re finally back. It’s not that we’re not following the rules, but the situation is very unique.” The young officer handed the compiled written record to Captain Cai.

“Red Specter? Ghost stories? Spirits underground? Knows how to play the piano? What is all this?” Captain Cai slammed the document heavily on the table. “Have you all gone insane? Have you lost your basic common sense?”

“No, captain. We’ve tried to understand it, and we even used the lie detector; it doesn’t look like they’re lying.”

“Horsecr*p! Toss that broken machine out then!” Captain Cai was angered. He took over the investigation personally, but after a long period questioning, he realized that he had spoken too soon. This group of actors that had escaped from the Haunted House were so into character that it appeared like they were no longer able to differentiate between ghost stories and the real world.

“Has that Haunted House hired a bunch of asylum patients?” Since he could not get anything from the Haunted House workers, Captain Cai decided to shift his focus to the visitors. The workers could have lied to protect the Haunted House, but the visitors would not. To prevent the workers from being influenced by the actors, Captain Cai purposely moved the three visitors to a separate room. “Follow me, please.”

After closing the door, Captain Cai, who maintained a severe expression, finally relaxed. “Calm down, you only need to answer honestly. There is no need to be concerned.”

This was Lee Yuan and Xue Li’s first time at the police station, so they were nervous. In comparison, Chen Ge looked as comfortable as if he was at his own home. He even got up to use the water dispenser to fetch himself a glass of water.

“When the accident happened, there were only the three of you inside the Haunted House, right?” Captain Cai’s eyes moved away from Chen Ge to fall on the couple.

“There were also three students and a young woman who didn’t like to speak,” Lee Yuan answered.

“We’ve verified the identities of these four—they are all temporary actors hired by the Haunted House.” Captain Cai had his men send in the written record, and he flipped through the details casually. “Give it some more thought. During your tour, did you come across other visitors or people that didn’t appear normal?”

“People that didn’t appear that normal?” Through the window of the room, Lee Yuan looked outside. “None of them look normal.”

He really did not understand what was happening. He merely went for a Haunted House visit but ended up at the police station. “Sir, me and my girlfriend just went to visit a haunted house, hoping that it would be a memorable date. We had no idea the place was hiding such a big secret. If we knew that, we would have demanded to be let out. Why would we stay there for so long?”

“Understood. In other words, the two of you didn’t come across the red monster mentioned by the actors during your tour.” Captain Cai very quickly caught onto the key. The visitors had no reason to lie, so they should be telling the truth. “The monster and spirits at the bottom of the building are probably a show designed by themselves. I suspect that this is their latest promotional method.”

“I guess so.” Lee Yuan and Xue Li were still shivering. They had only just realized that the three students and young woman were all actors. To have actors play visitors to get their trust before betraying them, that was a cruel tactic.

Captain Cai asked a few more questions, and they answered honestly. In the end, Captain Cai could not get anything new, so he moved his attention back to Chen Ge.

“What’s your name?”

“Chen Ge.”

“I hear you’re from Jiujiang, and you came here today to visit this Haunted House?”

“Yes, I operate a Haunted House myself, and I came to visit the biggest Haunted House in Xin Hai to study.” Chen Ge did not hide this information because he knew that the police could find it out easily.

“In other words, you are in the same business as the actors outside?” Captain Cai narrowed his eyes. Years of experience told him this young man was more than he seemed.

“My business is incomparable to theirs. I have a small budget business. They are much better than I am.” Chen Ge pouted sadly.

“According to witness accounts, you jumped down from the second-floor window alongside the actors, so did you see the red monster that they mentioned?”

“Honestly, I was made confused by them. At the time, everyone was screaming, and the speakers were broadcasting this strange noise. Everyone was running, so I was following them.”

No matter what Captain Cai asked, Chen Ge’s answers were perfect.

“Okay, the three of you, please follow this officer. After we complete some paperwork, you can leave.” After they left, Captain Cai stared at the chair that Chen Ge had vacated. “This young man’s mind is very sharp, and his answers were perfect; it was if before I asked the question, he already had the answer. He doesn’t appear that old but has a calmness beyond his age. During our conversation, there was not a ripple of emotion in his eyes. That is too scary. No, I need to look further into this. Perfection is a form of imperfection.”

Captain Cai used the computer to log into the law enforcement server. In the modern age, looking for criminal data was very simple. After he keyed in Chen Ge’s information, he was stunned when he saw the page that popped up.

The man was not only not a criminal, he had even been given a medal for his numerous contributions to the city of Jiujiang. He had received medal and award from the inspector of Jiujiang Station personally. He had also been a helpful aid in many police cases—just the information of his commendation was enough to fill up a whole page!

With his lips twitching, Captain Cai suspected that Chen Ge was an undercover police officer sent over by Jiujiang law enforcement. This kind of background was rare even in Xin Hai.

“There is short interval of time between each entry. Does this guy spend most of his time doing nothing but wandering about the various crime scenes?”

Captain Cai found that very hard to accept. After reading through everything, he took out his phone and called a number. It rang a few times before being answered. An impatient voice came from the other end. “Ol’ Cai, speak quickly. I don’t have time to waste.”

“Lee Zheng, after you got transferred to Jiujiang’s heavy crime unit, even your tone has changed!”

“We’re working on a homicide case, so I don’t have time to chat. I’m hanging up. After this case is over, I’ll treat you to a meal.”

“Wait, this won’t take up too much of your time.” Captain Cai looked at the computer screen. “I’m calling you because I want to ask you about someone.”

“Who?”

“Chen Ge.”

“Who? Say again.”

“He’s the boss of a haunted house in Jiujiang. His name is Chen Ge. I saw the page that you had on him inside the shared server.”

“He has gone to Xin Hai‽” Lee Zheng sounded worried.

“Yes, we got an emergency call this afternoon. People were jumping out from a Haunted House, and we found him there.”

“Was he the one who made the call?”

“No, he was one of the jumpers.”