My House of Horrors
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chapter-1018
Wu Sheng sat next to Wu Jinpeng and kept crying as if he was making up for the tears that he had been holding in all these years. His small hands gripped Wu Jinpeng’s clothes, and his face was scrunched up in pain. He wanted to say something, but his voice was overwhelmed by his crying.
“It’s only a nightmare. Everything’s fine now. I am here.” Wu Jinpeng hugged Wu Sheng and patted him lightly on his back. The father and son embraced each other, and Chen Ge sighed in relief. He rubbed his knees and slowly walked out. When he pulled back the curtain, the black phone vibrated. Chen Ge took it out to read the latest message.
“You have completed 2/9 of the Ghost Fetus Trial Mission. The ghost fetus can no longer curse you through your voice. Red Specters’ Favored, you do not have much time left!”
“A curse can be inflicted through my voice? Meaning he only needs to hear me speak to curse me? That is such a powerful ability!”
In Chen Ge’s experience, curses needed a medium. To curse a person, one needed their hair, fingernails, or clothes, but the message on the black phone corrected his misunderstanding. The ghost fetus only needed to hear his voice to curse him. However, this must only be the tip of the iceberg. As a demon god, the ghost fetus must have more power than this. Even with the protection of the Red Specters, Chen Ge felt not so safe.“The ghost fetus has too many ways to hurt me. I might get harmed without even knowing it. No wonder the black phone claims that once the ghost fetus is born, I will definitely die.”
The crying inside the bedroom woke up Wu Kun, who was sleeping in the living room. He hugged the broken fan and looked at Chen Ge with fear. Initially, Chen Ge did not mind it, but the man did not stop staring at him, to the point Chen Ge felt quite unsettled.
“Why are you looking at me like this? Do you see something on me?”
Hearing Chen Ge’s voice, Wu Jinpeng’s brother grabbed the thin blanket to cover his head. He was at the verge of tears. Wu Kun was eight years younger than Wu Jinpeng. Being treated like this by a man over thirty, Chen Ge felt quite uncomfortable.
“Are you afraid of me?” Chen Ge walked toward Wu Kun.
Before he got near, Wu Kun extended his two shaking hands. “The fan, the fan…”
Wu Kun held the broken fan with both hands, as he knelt on the ground with his shaking body.“You want to give me the fan?” Chen Ge sat down before Wu Kun. When he was about to take the fan, he saw the wounds on Wu Kun’s arms. “Something does not feel right. Why does he keep mentioning fan? What is he trying to express? Now that I think about it, I did not encounter Wu Kun behind Wu Sheng’s door. As his father’s younger brother, it’s impossible that Wu Sheng has no impression of him.”
Chen Ge returned the fan to Wu Kun. After a long time, Wu Kun finally calmed down.
“Tell me, what are you so afraid of?”
Before Wu Kun could answer, the curtain was pulled back. Wu Jinpeng switched the bedside lamp off.
“How is Wu Sheng?”
“He fell asleep after he tired himself out crying.” Wu Jinpeng’s eyes were puffy, too. He stood before Chen Ge. “Brother, the biggest wish in my life is that Wu Sheng can grow up like a normal child, and I have already prepared to take care of him forever… thank you.”
“Brother Peng, to be honest, you’re the reason Wu Sheng could make this recovery.” Chen Ge planned to employ Wu Jinpeng, so he did not hide too many things. “What I’m going to say next, you can choose to not believe me, but I ask that you do not tell anyone else.”
“Don’t worry, you have my word.”
“Behind that door is a despairing, gory, and eerie world. After Wu Sheng falls asleep every night, he is trapped inside that world. Such a small child has to face all sorts of monsters alone.” Chen Ge lowered his voice. “As a self-defense mechanism, he conjured up a version of you in his dream. The dream version of yourself is no different from you in real life; you have been trying your best to protect him. It is because of you that he did not lose himself and his soul to the demon.”
“Wait, you’re suddenly giving me too much information. Let me process it first.” After a moment’s silence, Wu Jinpeng suddenly pinched himself. “Then, doesn’t that mean that if I went into the door sooner, Wu Sheng would have been spared from the torture earlier?”
“Not anyone can enter that door. If a normal person enters it, they will most likely unable to return.”
When Chen Ge turned to Wu Jinpeng, he narrowed his pupils as he used Yin Yang Vision. Wu Jinpeng wilted under Chen Ge’s gaze. He felt like he was staring at a dead person’s eyes.
“Are you afraid?”
“A little bit.” Wu Jinpeng nodded honestly. This handsome man was obedient like a child before Chen Ge.
“I lied to you earlier. I told you that there was a child of my relative that was like Wu Sheng, but that was a lie to get close to you.” Chen Ge put down the backpack and sighed. “In reality, there is no relative in this story. The child that has the same condition as Wu Sheng is me.”
“You?” Wu Jinpeng was baffled. “But you look so normal.”
“I grew up normally like other children because I have parents that love me dearly. They’ve entered a door for me.” Chen Ge slowly lowered his head. “But they have not returned from that door. I haven’t been unable to find them.”
“Is that why you have been looking for doors? To see if you can find them behind the doors?” Wu Jinpeng’s eyes became red again. He could empathize with Chen Ge. “Brother, if you don’t mind, let me help you in your endeavor! I’m sure you’ll need a hand. And you helped me save Wu Sheng. I have to repay you somehow!”
“That’s unnecessary. I came here due to my selfish reason. I just wanted to see whether my parents might be behind Wu Sheng’s door.”
“No matter what, it’s the truth that you’ve saved Wu Sheng! Brother, don’t make me beg you!” Wu Jinpeng pleaded.
“Fine, looks like I can’t win this argument.” Chen Ge raised his head. “My real occupation is the owner of a haunted house. Do you know what that is?”
“I used to visit them when I was a child. Now that I think about it, I’ve visited quite a number of them.” Wu Jinpeng appeared quite interested.
“Brother Peng, where do you work now, and how much you earn a month?”
“If you include the overtime, I get paid about four thousand a month, but with the current economy, I don’t know how long that’ll last. I’ve been hearing rumors of an imminent culling.”
“How about this? Come and work for me at my haunted house. I’ll pay you four thousand as a basic salary and a bonus at the end of the month.” Chen Ge’s haunted house desperately needed living employees, and most of the time, one employee had to take on more than one role. Chen Ge had no choice. His haunted house was too unique, and he would only hire actual people that he had one hundred percent confidence in.
“That is too much. I was planning to help you, but now you’ve turned around and helped me with my work problem. You’re being too kind to me.” Wu Jinpeng shook his head.
“After all, you have seen the ‘door’, that makes communication of certain things much easier. Other than that, you have a wonderful personality. I’m sure you’ll mix well with the other employees.” Chen Ge admired Wu Jinpeng greatly. This father who had been through who knew how much had a loving heart and a tough soul.