My House of Horrors

“Xin Hai Ghost Stories Ranked 19—Midnight Delivery. There was a horrible homicide that occurred at Xin Yue Towers Room 444. When the murderer was dealing with the dead body, the food delivery ordered by the victim arrived. The deliveryman had no idea what had just transpired inside the room; he was just hoping to complete his job and get a good review from the customer. The room door creaked open, and the deliveryman was pulled into the room to face his death. From then on, as long as someone ordered food from Xin Yue Towers after midnight, one would have a chance of running into that poor food deliveryman.”

After reading the information on the phone, Chen Ge gently shook the door handle of Xin Yue Towers Room 444. To his surprise, the door was not locked. He entered it directly and took out his own phone to order some beer and food. Probably because the address that he filled in was Xin Yue Towers Room 444, even after the eatery had finished his order, there was no deliveryman who was willing to pick up his order. He waited for half an hour, but the food still had not departed from the eatery when suddenly footsteps came from the corridor outside room. Chen Ge peered through the peephole. There was a man standing outside the door of Room 444. He was carrying a red box that appeared to be overflowing with blood.

Chen Ge took out the comic and flipped through it while he shouted at the door, “I am sorry, but did you get the wrong address? My delivery app shows that the food is still at the eatery. No deliveryman has gone to collect it.”

“There is no mistake. This is the address that I was given.” The man outside the door had his head lowered, and his body leaned very close to the door.

“Then it appears like there is something wrong with the app on my phone.” Chen Ge appeared to convince himself. He opened the door and looked at the man with a smile. At that same time, the three Red Specters behind Chen Ge also turned to look at the deliveryman. When the door opened, a wicked smile appeared on the corner of the man’s lips, but soon, the smile froze on his face. The red box that he was carrying suddenly appeared to weigh a lot more. His Adam’s apple quivered slightly as he took a subconscious step backward. “I am so sorry. It appears like you were right. I’ve probably got the wrong address. This isn’t what you ordered.”

Hugging the red box, the man turned and attempted to run but was stopped by the water ghost. “The address is not wrong. The delivery that we have been waiting for is you.”

With the Red Specters surrounding him, the delivery man had nowhere to run, but Chen Ge did not feed him to Chang Wenyu. This baleful Specter was very conscious of his actions; there was no trace of a curse on his body. Chen Ge also did not discover any information related to the cursed hospital on the man.

“He is not even a Half Red Specter; it would be a waste to feed him to Chang Wenyu. Furthermore, he looks quite clever, and he even knows how to make deliveries. I suppose you can consider that a unique talent.”

Chen Ge pulled the delivery man into the comic and had him stay together with Men Nan.

“The ability of the delivery man was worse than the crying ghost in the well, but the atmosphere of horror he created was much stronger than the crying well. I’m struggling to make a decision. For now, this ghost story should be ranked lower than the weeping well.” After leaving Xin Yue Towers Room 444, Chen Ge hurried without pause to the next ghost story. He had already visited seven ghost stories that night, and of the seven, three of them were fake; there was no presence of ghosts. From the remaining four, only the Half Red Specter inside the crying well was made into food. The other three ghost stories had only normal lingering spirits and baleful Specters. There was no point in consuming them.

“Xin Hai is so large. There is not even one ‘wild’ Red Specter?”

Looking through his phone, Chen Ge arrived at a place situated in the old part of Xin Hai known as Cards Archway. This used to be the most raucous location in Xin Hai’s old city, but due to a big fire, the place was abandoned directly. A development company bought the land at a very low price, but not long after that, for some unknown reason, the construction to bring this part of the city back to the life did not start. Thus, the place continued to be abandoned to the wilds just like that. The street was surrounded by cement walls. After Chen Ge leaped over the wall, he immediately sensed that something was not right.

The world inside and outside the cement wall could be said to be two completely different worlds. There was a scent of decay in the air, and the air pressed heavily on Chen Ge’s lungs. “There is no sense of human spirit in this place at all. Just how long has this place been abandoned?”

Oftentimes when a place in a big city was abandoned, it would soon become a paradise for squatters, but Cards Archway appeared to be an exception. With the training from the black phone, whenever Chen Ge entered a place, without even checking it too closely, purely based on the lingering presence in the air, he could tell whether the place was truly haunted or not. He had experienced so much that this had become one of his habits. He had mastered techniques that most people would not even dare to imagine.

Flipping through the comic and switching on the recorder, Chen Ge approach the nearby building whose entrance was burned to a crisp and entered the interior.

“Why is there a scent of blood in the air?” Chen Ge titled his head back to take in a big breath, using his Spirit Sniff talent. “It drifts out from the interior of the building.”

Walking through a corridor filled with old cards tables and wooden cards, Chen Ge noticed something was wrong just as he turned the corner. Following the sound of ticking, he saw someone hanging at the end of the corridor inside the lobby. The horrible smell and the stench of blood radiated from this person, and just as Chen Ge discovered that person, the dead carcass, which had many fatal wounds on it, suddenly opened its eyes!

“Not good!” Chen Ge wasted no time in summoning his employees. Before the dead body managed to get close to Chen Ge, the water ghost and Xu Yin appeared to guard him. Black and red blood leaked out from the body’s wounds, and black insects that looked like centipedes dropped down from the dead body. It did not know fear and pain; even facing the two Red Specters, it did not evade or run, instead charging headfirst at them. The water ghost easily blocked the dead body, but just as he touched the body, the fresh blood that leaked out silently behind the body morphed into a red shadow to gnaw at Chen Ge’s face!

“Xu Yin!” The sound of static echoed in his ears, and a pale arm pierced through the blood shadow. A shrill wail echoed inside the lobby, but soon, something even scarier happened. The floor in the lobby started to crack and a face peeked through the gap. Black worms crawled out from the gap, and the floor not far from Chen Ge started to budge, as if something huge was moving rapidly underground!

About one second later, a face filled with wounds appeared next to Chen Ge’s shoes. “There’s another one?”

The face was about to burst through the ground but was stomped back underground by the boy with the stench. The stench with the giant body morphed into black mist and used his own body to envelope Chen Ge. The sound of wailing multiplied in the lobby. The paint on the ceiling started to flake like skin, exposing the many black and white pictures that covered the ceiling. The many faces stared closely at Chen Ge. Their faces were twisted in resentment and anger.

It was as if they had been given some kind of order. An endless stream of evil spirits rushed out from the pictures, and they all surged at Chen Ge like the latter owed them their lives. Xu Yin, who had torn open the red shadow, appeared again. He made easy work of the evil spirits that attempted to get close to Chen Ge. While Xu Yin was occupied by the wave of evil spirits, a tight web of blood appeared on the ground. A black red shadow whose body was charred ran out from the innermost part of the building. Its target was very clear—Chen Ge. If Chen Ge only had the protection of two Red Specters, then he would have been dead already. The ghost inside the building was very cunning. It waited until all the Red Specters around Chen Ge were preoccupied before it showed itself. But unfortunately, it had seriously underestimated the number of Red Specter that Chen Ge had with him.

After the Red Specter with the burnt body appeared, Chen Ge stopped hiding his true strength, he summoned out the rest of the Red Specters. Then, something very strange happened. The Red Specter whose body was burnt to a crisp appeared to lose his mind, and he started to fight several Red Specters like he had gone mad.

“Is he cursed as well?” For the sake of security, Chen Ge summoned out the red high heels. Once the Top Red Specter showed up, the whole building started to shake. The ground split open to reveal many charred bodies that were buried deep around. The battle was over once the red high heels showed up. The black and red shadow revealed its true appearance; it was an amalgamation of many vengeful spirits. When the archway was caught in the big fire, many people had failed to escape. The resentment from before they died was deeply buried underground, and they collectively formed a monster that was stronger than a normal Red Specter.

This monster itself felt deep resentment toward everything, and it was a victim of a curse. It would indiscriminately attack anyone that entered the Cards Archway at night. It was extremely dangerous. It could be said that Chen Ge had helped Xin Hai deal with a dangerous criminal. The collaboration of several Red Specters murdered the black and red shadow and fed all the resentment of Chang Wenyu’s blood stone. It was a mystery how many people had died in the big fire. There was no actual report, and Chen Ge could not find much more information on it.

As the blood stone continued to feed on the resentment, the black and white photos on the ceiling started to peel. The pictures yellowed and faded away, and the human faces became ever more blurry. Many cracks appeared on the ground, and even the outside wall of the building started to break. This old building that had survived for decades appeared to be on its last legs.

Over the course of fifteen minutes, Chang Wenyu’s blood stone finally swallowed all of the monster inside the Cards Archway. The stone had doubled in size, and it kept on pulsing like the beating heart of a living person.

“Let’s prepare to leave. This place is about to crumble.” Chen Ge was about to leave when the red high heels jumped into the mass grave where the victims were buried. Moments later, she returned with two objects from inside the mass grave, an envelope that was half burnt and an earring. Initially, Chen Ge did not care much for this discovery, but after he gave the items a closer look, his expression changed immediately. The earring, he was sure, belonged to his mother.

Putting the earring into the compartment of his backpack, Chen Ge tore open the envelope. His brows were then heavily creased together. The letter was half burnt, so only a few words were still visible—’This is a sickened world.’

The handwriting is very similar to my dad’s. Did someone copy his handwriting? But why would someone do that? And why would my mom’s earring be found inside the mass grave?

Chen Ge had encountered the sentence in the letter before, so even though the latter half of the sentence was burned away, he knew what the full sentence was.

‘This is a sickened world. Why have you not discovered that fact? I swear to cure you!’

Is this a message that my dad tried to leave me, or is this a hint for me?

Chen Ge looked at the familiar handwriting on the letter and contemplated the meaning behind it for a while. His finger touched the edge of the letter that was scorched. Then he pulled out the patient record that had the same statement on the back of it.

No, wait! The letter might be written by my father, but the message might not be the same! The handwriting on the patient record is different from the handwriting on this letter. They were written by different people.

Narrowing his eyes, Chen Ge compared the handwriting of the full sentence on the patient record and the half-sentence on the letter.

Someone is purposely trying to mislead me, hoping for me to fall into some kind of misunderstanding!

He placed everything inside the compartment of his backpack, but he did not share his thoughts with anyone else.

The person behind this managed to acquire my father’s handwritten letter and my mother’s earring so the chance of them being related to the cursed hospital is very high.]

A sense of desperation arose in his heart. Chen Ge summoned back all his employees and left the Cards Archway.

“It’s time to move to the next location.” He had brought his habit that he had cultivated at Jiujiang to Xin Hai. He would not sit down and rest until the sun came up. At 3:55 am, Chen Ge arrived at an abandoned school in Xin Hai’s countryside. Inside the school, he found a cursed Red Specter. After feeding the Red Specter to the blood stone, the hibernating Chang Wenyu finally awakened.

The beating blood stone was actually half of this Top Red Specter’s heart. In the School of the Afterlife, she did not go after the painter with full force because she had kept half of her power in this stone as insurance. When the blood red heart started to beat again, all the animals and insects around the abandoned school became quiet. This place appeared to have become a zone of the dead. The single eye opened, a sea of blood hidden within!

With a twisted smile on her face, Chang Wenyu’s bloody dress started to spread around her. She took slow and deliberate steps toward Chen Ge until she was stopped by the red high heels.

“I know you are very happy that you have come back to life, but I hope that you will rein in your power a little bit, or else I will feed you to the other Red Specters.” Chen Ge had encountered many big events in his life. “You tricked me and used me, but I have repaid it with kindness. I not only did not take revenge on you, but I even brought you back to life. Aren’t you supposed to give me something in return?”

“That does not sound like something an honorable person would say,” Chang Gu whispered softly behind Chen Ge. After he saw his little sister, he was very excited.

Chang Wenyu slowly calmed down. Her remaining eye studied Chen Ge and her bloody lips slowly opened. “I once saw your phone at the innermost part of the red city. Only I know about that place. I can take you there.”

When he was doing the mission at the School of the Afterlife, Chang Wenyu had stolen Chen Ge’s black phone. Because of that, the black phone had purposely given a mission related to Chang Wenyu.

“Is that it? That’s all you can offer?” Chen Ge was not satisfied. He had his employees surround Chang Wenyu. “For you, I have purposely come to Xin Hai and accidentally offended the scariest cursed hospital in Xin Hai. The hospital has at least two Demon Gods! After I have paid so much for you, what you have in return for me is a single sentence?”

Her single eye blinked. Chang Wenyu had just woken up. She had no idea whether Chen Ge was telling the truth or not, but she did know that she was at her weakest.

“What do you want from me then?”

“Until the cursed hospital is levelled to the ground, I need you to become an employee at my haunted house and listen to my orders.” Chen Ge gave his request.

“You just said it was you who accidentally offended the cursed hospital, so why would you want to level them? What have they done to you?”

“Since the offense has been made, the only reasonable step now is to vanquish the enemy to remove a possible threat.”

Being surrounded by multiple Red Specters, whenever Chang Wenyu’s single eye blinked, the madness and cruelty in her eye would increase. But at the final moment, she decided to bend the knee.

“Okay, I promise.”

“I swear this will be the best decision you have made in your life.” Chen Ge had the red high heels leave an imprint on Chang Wenyu, and he then untied the hair around the headless woman’s wrist and tied Zhang Ya’s hair around Chang Wenyu’s wrist instead.

Through the whole process, Chang Wenyu did not resist. After Chen Ge ensured that everything was fine, Chang Wenyu spoke. “I still have some of my own things to do. I will give you an eyeball. Whenever you need my help, just squeeze it until it breaks, and I will appear.”

The blood sea in the single eye boiled, the aura around Chang Wenyu was as reddened as the rising sun. She took out a bloody eyeball from inside her dress and handed it over to Chen Ge. Then, she dissolved into a blood mist and disappeared. Looking at the bloody eyeball sitting in his palm, Chen Ge’s face was twitching.

Chang Wenyu was an actual Red Specter; she was surrounded by resentment and was at the edge of lashing out at any given moment. She was not afraid of anything, and the parting gift that she gave was a bloody eyeball. The false Red Specters often bullied the weak and would run whenever they encountered Red Specters of the same level. They would not dare kill a chicken, much less harm a person.

“Where shall I put this eyeball? If I shove it inside the backpack, it might accidentally get crushed. If I put it inside my pocket, it might be discovered. People will treat me as a madman; it will only become worse if they call the police.”