My House of Horrors

Director Luo’s words inspired Chen Ge. “I have a streamer’s account myself with about 400,000 followers. Should I start a livestream or upload a video later to prove that we’re not lying?”

“Do whatever you want. Just make sure you do not say anything too incendiary. It is best if they can come, but it’s fine if they can’t.”

“I don’t care much about the others, but I have to lure that streamer known as Liu Gang here somehow. That guy has released so many unsavory and untrue statement. I believe he has received quite a large sum of money from the futuristic theme park.” Chen Ge was not one to hold onto grudges, but this time, the man really had crossed the line.

“Kill the cock to scare the monkey—that is not a bad idea. The streamer himself will be a walking attention generator. If he can come, it will satisfy the curiosity of many internet users, but the problem is… how are you going to make him accept our invitation?” Director Luo still had something else to do. After a few more words, he hung up. Chen Ge reminisced on his conversation with Director Luo. After some contemplation, he logged into his video platform account and decided to go head on against that Liu Gang.

Opening the livestream function of the platform, the moment he switched on the camera, the online viewing number jumped up from zero to over five hundred almost instantly, and with every new refresh, the number of viewers doubled. Ever since his livestream was unbanned, this was the first time that he had used this function. All his previous livestreams had been to promote his Haunted House, and now that the goal had been achieved, livestreaming and making videos were only Chen Ge’s hobby.

“Long time no see, guys.” Chen Ge bit his lips, feeling like he just said that to someone earlier. After a brief greeting to the public, Chen Ge went straight to the point and named the streamer, Liu Gang. From the start, he laid the truth on the table. Liu Gang himself had not been to Jiujiang, so how did he know the situation at New Century Park? He was a man with no responsibility to his words. Those who followed Chen Ge’s accounts were people who liked his videos and visitors of his Haunted House, so there were many comments in support of Chen Ge. But soon, there came another voice in the chatroom. Some unknown accounts slandered Chen Ge by calling him out for being a heartless businessman, a scammer, and for employing the disgusting advertisement method.

“Those coming to Haunted House seek excitement. If my Haunted House is not scary, then you can say I have scammed my visitors, but everyone who has visited my place has left a good comment, so how can you claim that I have scammed my visitors?” Chen Ge fired back with truths, trying to flood out the falsehood that was released by these uncouth internet users. “Has my Haunted House failed to scare you, or is the price of forty per ticket too expensive? My Haunted House has been in Jiujiang for more than a decade, and I have only increased the price once. The word heart and care for the visitors is plainly written on my face, so how am I a heartless businessman?”

Be it from quality or price, Chen Ge’s Haunted House was indeed a unique existence on the internet.

“Boss Chen, that Liu Gang also released a video on his account! He has stated a lot, but mainly, it’s about how he has seen through your trick and has gone to great lengths to slander your name.” Some users liked to watch the world burn and helped release news from both sides.

“There is something like that?” Chen Ge was livestreaming from his phone, so he flipped open the comic to call over Ol’ Bai, who was teaching the newbies, and had him summon Zhang Jingjiu. Ten minutes later, Zhang Jingjiu, who had not removed his make up, entered the room. Chen Ge used his phone to watch Liu Gang’s video. It was unclear where the man got the information about the Haunted House, and one of the pictures from Night of the Living Dead had been placed by Liu Gang on the front page. There was a sentence underneath it—’This is it? Now I understand why he only dared to raise his ticket price once in the past ten years.’

The platform was Liu Gang’s territory. He had more than a hundred thousand fans there, and the few who supported Chen Ge were overwhelmed practically instantly. Everywhere, there was mockery and sarcasm, and more and more members of the public were fooled. There were many users who had been to Chen Ge’s Haunted House, and there were many who supported Chen Ge, but the man had the power to ban people from commenting, so Chen Ge’s supporters were powerless in his territory. Seeing that the man was being proactive, Chen Ge felt reactive. He whispered a few words to Zhang Jingjiu and then spoke to his own livestream.

“I have seen Liu Gang’s video. The whole thing is a bunch of nonsense. He used a picture from ten years ago to lie to others, and miraculously, a bunch of idiots still fall for it. Truth speaks louder than words. The visitors who have come to my Haunted House before know the quality of my Haunted House.

“Here, I wish to ask to Liu Gang a question, since you said my Haunted House is trash and not scary, would you dare accept my invitation to come visit?”

Chen Ge knew the man probably still would not come, so he lowered the difficulty.

“Tomorrow, my new scenario will open to the public. I will allow you to bring ten people with you to visit it together! If ten of you are still afraid, that’s fine. I will even allow you to livestream the whole process and allow you to interact with your fans throughout. If you still don’t feel relaxed enough, how about we make the bet bigger? After eleven of you have visited my Haunted House, as long as one of you can say honestly that my Haunted House is not scary, I will immediately openly apologize to you on my livestream.”

Chen Ge’s words stunned all the users in his chatroom. Even if they were afraid, surely they could say that they were not afraid. Furthermore, the more people who visited the Haunted House, the less scary it would be. Allowing eleven people to enter at the same time and giving him the chance to interact with his fans on livestream… it looked like Chen Ge was bound to lose.

Those kind users persuaded Chen Ge not to do anything so rash, but those who had challenged the Haunted House before all revealed sneaky smiles. For those who jumped directly to a high difficulty scenario without trying out a low quality ones first were simply seeking death.

“You heard what I said. Liu Gang, don’t make me look down on you, and don’t disappoint the many fans that you have.”

When Chen Ge said those things on his livestream, there was a user called Wine for Moonlight in Liu Gang’s comment area who started a thread with many crazy comments that slandered Chen Ge’s Haunted House. He claimed that he had visited the Haunted House before, that it was not scary, that it was all a lie, and that he supported Liu Gang to visit the place fully. Seeing that, Chen Ge was not mad at all because that Wine for Moonlight was Zhang Jingjiu. This post was lighting fire under Liu Gang’s bottom, forcing him to accept the invitation.

The thread initially did not have much popularity, but soon, another big streamer and blogger appeared in that thread, and that person was the Haunted House reviewer who had reviewed Chen Ge’s Haunted House before—Ye Xiaoxin.

When the Third Sick Hall first opened, she had visited and almost fainted, but she was now good friends with Chen Ge. She not only shared this thread but had her followers all go to push it up and leave comments for Liu Gang. They all campaigned for Liu Gang to take a break and visit Chen Ge’s Haunted House, using a professional angle to analyze how unscary Chen Ge’s Haunted House was. With the help from big name like Ye Xiaoxin, Zhang Jingjiu’s thread soon became the top thread in Liu Gang’s comment area. As long as someone saw his video, they would see the thread.

“This girl sure is wicked, but I quite like it.” Chen Ge’s lips curled up into a smile. He realized that more and more people were leaving comments in the thread, and most of them were his allies. They said things like Liu Gang was not a man. If he did not take the challenge, they would unfollow him and so on.

All the comments stated that Chen Ge’s Haunted House was not scary. The manager of the comment area did not know who to ban, and honestly, they too were quite confused.

After an hour, Liu Gang finally released a second video. He had a fan in his hand and showed the tickets that he had bought to the camera. “If certain people are too foolish to see the truth, then I will go and help them understand the level that they are at.”

Then he handsomely opened the fan, which had on it—’Such buffoonery!’

“We’ll see you tomorrow at 9 am. Good night.”

The video was short, and there was cheer on Liu Gang’s side. Everyone praised Brother Gang for his manliness, and that included Ye Xiaoxin and Zhang Jingjiu and the many other allies of Chen Ge. Seeing that Liu Gang had purchased the ticket, Chen Ge also laughed gaily.

“Is it too simple for eleven people to find thirteen paintings? Should I add some other missions?”