My House of Horrors

There was a detail that stuck out in the story told by Zhang Ju. A girl had confessed to her senior on his birthday but ended up being rejected. After that, the senior had joined his roommates to celebrate his birthday at the karaoke. When Chen Ge first met Zhang Ju, the latter had once said that his face had been scarred at a fire that started at a karaoke center. Initially, Chen Ge did not tie the two together, but now, Zhang Ju was acting too abnormally, so this thought surfaced in his mind.

All the club members’ memories during the summer holiday were blurry; in other words, someone had tampered with that period of their memories, and thus, what they recalled could not be trusted fully. Zhang Ju was very familiar with the school and knew the details between the senior and the girl very well. Other than that, his face had been injured in a fire at the karaoke center, which matched the story of the senior a bit too perfectly.

After connecting all the dots, several possibilities occurred to Chen Ge. First, Zhang Ju was that senior; he killed the girl in cold blood and was a crazed murderer who was good at deceit. Second, Zhang Ju was the senior; the girl had met her demise while she was waiting for him, and he happened to witness the murder. However, due to fear, trauma, or some other reason, he did not stop the killer and was wrought by guilt because of it. Third, Zhang Ju was just an outsider or the senior’s friend; he accidentally witnessed the senior kill the girl, but due to some reason, he did not expose the senior.

These filled up Chen Ge’s mind in several seconds. Despair, hatred, and ‘people’ who give off negative emotions are sent to the eastern campus, so Zhang Ju shouldn’t be the killer.

The killer not only murdered the girl but also used a very cruel method to do so. People like that would not be troubled by guilt.

“Sir, can I take this frame with me?”

“Does this frame mean something special to you?” Chen Ge asked probingly as he narrowed his eyes. “After all, this belongs to the autopsy room. If you take it with you, I will have to say something to the staff responsible for looking after this place.”

“I can’t tell why—this is the first time I’ve seen this mirror—but after entering the room, I headed to the curtain directly like I knew that this frame would be hiding behind it.” Zhang Ju’s face was eerie looking, but his expression was rather cute. From Chen Ge’s perspective, a young man like that could not be the killer.

“Okay, you have to promise me that you won’t break or lose this frame.”

“Of course!” Zhang Ju nodded sincerely. Before Chen Ge, he was only a child who had just finished high school.

Holding the frame tightly with both hands, there was a certain emotion in Zhang Ju’s eyes. This occurred so unconsciously that the young man himself probably did not notice it.

Bang!

When Chen Ge was talking with Zhang Ju, a loud crash suddenly came from the front of the room. Chen Ge turned to see that Zhu Long had just turned the entire metallic operating table over. He was not a medical student, so he did not know that the operating table could be adjusted with a dial by the side. Instead, the young man used brute force to turn the table around.

“What are doing? You’ll need to pay if you break school property.” Chen Ge walked toward Zhu Long. The latter was bent over the side of the table and had poked his head under the table.

“Zhu Long?” This devious-looking student did not reply, but his shoulders were shivering.

“Are you alright?” Chen Ge grabbed Zhu Long’s shoulders, and then the latter slowly turned around. His facial muscles were twitching, and two streaks of tears trailed down his face. His eyes were filled with panic and fear like he had just seen a ghost.

Chen Ge pressed on his shoulders firmly and glanced at the operating table. Zhu Long’s name had been carved by someone on the back of the table.

“Why would my name appear on the back of this table?” Zhu Long’s voice was shaking, and his body shook harder.

“I also wish to know why.” Chen Ge bent down to use his fingers to touch the carved name. “Just how much must the person have hated you to carve your name into the table so deeply?”

“I do not know anyone at this school! Why would they carve my name here‽” Zhu Long kicked the table harshly, and the echo was booming. Chen Ge ignored him and took out Lin Sisi’s phone to take a picture. His fingers touched the names that were carved repeatedly under the table before stopping at the bottom left corner. There was a sentence carved there. ‘I’ve come to find you. You promised that once we became students at this school, you would be with me forever!’

Zhu Long’s story was real? Seeing the sentence, Chen Ge shook his head. Zhu Long doesn’t look like someone who is calculative and cunning. A lot of hoops have to be jumped through to have one’s body donated to medical school. Most importantly, the university normally doesn’t take in bodies of suicide victims.

“Stop panicking. Take a breath and find the seating chart and duty roster for this autopsy room. One would need plenty of time to carve so much underneath a table. So, the culprit should be the one who normally occupies this table.” Chen Ge quickly calmed down. He and Zhang Ju started to look around while Zhu Long stood where he was as if frozen.

After a long time, he wiped away the tears from his face and used a very slow tone to say, “There’s no need to look; I am familiar with this handwriting. It… should have been carved by my hands.”

“You carved that?” Zhang Ju had initially been immersed in his own story, but once he heard Zhu Long say that, he snapped pout of it, and fear started to cloud his heart. “Zhu Long, what do you mean by that? Now’s no time to joke!”

“I cannot remember when I did this, but I know that these words were carved by my own two hands!” Zhu Long bashed his head heavily like he was literally trying to knock some sense into himself.

“It’s fine if you don’t remember it. Do you still remember what I said earlier? No one who has been selected by me to join this club is normal. I will help you remember everything.” Chen Ge took out the scalpel that he had used to gouge the door lock earlier from his bag. “Do not be influenced by these carvings. Why don’t you try and carve your name now? Perhaps it’s not what you think.”

Zhu Long accepted the scalpel. With shaking hands, he carved his name on the back of the table. The sound of metal scratching against metal was amplified in the quiet night. Zhu Long stopped after he finished carving the word ‘Zhu’. The Zhu was one hundred percent identical to the other ‘Zhu’s that covered the back of the table.

The carvings on the back of the operating table were done by him!

Ding!

The scalpel fell to the ground. Zhu Long suddenly grabbed his head as he rammed it against the table. Green veins burst on his face.

“Grab hold of him!”

Chen Ge and Zhang Ju grabbed Zhu Long by his four limbs. The latter struggled greatly. The documents inside the first operating table dropped to the ground.

“Sir, what came over him‽”

“We’re creating too much noise. We need to leave this place!” Chen Ge grabbed Zhu Long. As he prepared to leave, he noticed an old-fashioned mobile phone with a pink shell amid the documents.

Chen Ge used one hand to grab the phone and throw it inside his bag, but in that moment, Zhu Long managed to struggle loose.

He threw his head against the table and yelled, “Let me go! Let me go!”