My House of Horrors
chapter-1025

The more Shen Mengbing thought about it, the more nervous she became. Everywhere she turned, there was danger staring back at her.

“This place is too big. We won’t be able to check everything in one day.” Ling Feijie was frightened quite a bit as well. He felt like he had almost reached his limit already, but before Shen Mengbing, he had to put on a brave front.

“Take it slow, and pay attention to each door.” Shen Mengbing adjusted her breathing, and her expression slowly returned to normal.

“Mengbing, are you sure the thing that you are looking for is here? Why can’t we tell anyone else about this?” Ling Feijie stealthily went to grab Shen Mengbing by her hand. “How about we come back here at night? Without anyone else, our work should be much easier.”

Shen Mengbing flung Ling Feijie’s hand away. She kept telling herself internally, There is no need to be afraid. I can leave when an actual Red Specter shows up. Before then, everything is fine.

“Hey, your friend still hasn’t returned. He’s been gone for quite some time. Could something have happened to him?” The two medical students also noticed how strange Shen Mengbing and Ling Feijie were acting, and they subconsciously put some distance between them.

“There is no need to worry about him. I believe he will be back to join us soon,” Shen Mengbing answered without even turning her head. Hearing the reply from Shen Mengbing, the medical students’ suspicion toward her deepened. Her friend had just gotten lost inside a large haunted house. That was something so scary, but how could she manage to take it in such easy strike, like this was part of her plan? Something was up, and they wanted no part in it.

Slowing down his footstep, the one medical student pulled on the clothes of his friend silently. He tilted his head to the side and whispered, “Let’s go into this classroom to take a look.”

The two sneaked into the classroom nearest to them when Wu Jinpeng and Shen Mengbing’s group were not looking. Once they entered the classroom, the medical student closed the door and took out his phone.

“What are you doing? You are using the phone inside the haunted house? Have you forgotten the warning from our seniors?”

“I have a very bad feeling about this.” One of the medical students made a call. “The uncle with the ponytail said that he is an employee here, but he acted so cute and innocent. His whole act is intended to disarm and make you lower your guard.”

“Indeed, it is quite funny how he is acting. He is visiting his own workplace, but he got so scared and is now limping.”

“You still have not realized the deep water that we are in‽ Think of the place that we are currently in! This is a hell that has caused many of our seniors to lose their minds! You really think this place would have such a sunny and bright employee?” The medical student looked at his friend with deep disappointment, the expression on his face saying, How could you have not figured that out sooner?

“But didn’t he say this is his first day? Perhaps he is just getting used to the environment.”

“That might be so, but did you realize that after he said that, our full attention was drawn to him?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“We have been cautious around the uncle, but we have completely ignored the three other visitors! Did you not realize how much stranger those three are acting? One of them disappeared after we entered the scenario. Where do you think he could have gone?”

“You mean to say they are all actors?”

“That is very likely!”

The two medical students looked at each other, and they could see the fear reflected in each other’s eyes.

“But the two of us have no history with the haunted house boss. We are just very normal visitors. There is no reason for him to treat like this, is there?”

“The seniors who fainted all had thoughts similar to that.” The medical student made a call. “Let me ask He San. He is most familiar with this place. We will see what he has to say.”

“What are you two doing in here?” Before the call was connected, Wu Jinpeng pushed open the door of the classroom. He had chosen to go and find the two students. Actually, it was because it was too scary for him to stay out there alone.

“Nothing!” The two medical students were flustered, so flustered in fact that they almost dropped the phone. As if destiny was playing trick on them, the call was connected at that moment.

“Were you two on the phone?”

“No… actually, it’s like this. I wanted my friend to sign the attendance for us. After all, we did skip school to visit this place.” The medical student used his body to block the phone from view and silently ended the call. At the same time, he gave his partner a look. His lips moved slowly as he whispered, “See, I told you!”

“I have no objection to wanting to come to a theme park to relax, but it does not feel right to skip school. You students should pay more attention to your study.” Wu Jinpeng walked toward the two medical students. “Also, are you two okay? Why are you sweating so much?”

Before the two students could return, Ling Feijie’s heart-wrenching scream suddenly came from the deepest part of the corridor.

“What happened?” Wu Jinpeng looked out from the classroom. The corridor was too dark to see Ling Feijie and Shen Mengbing. “Let’s hurry after them. They might need our help.”

“I can bet that nothing will happen to them. We’d better take care of ourselves.” The two students stood fixed where they were, and the way they looked Wu Jinpeng was not as friendly as before.

“But the scream did not sound fake! I’m afraid something really happened to them!” Wu Jinpeng stood at the edge of the classroom door. Seeing that the two students refused to budge, he finally gritted his teeth and burst down the corridor to head deeper into Mu Yang High School. “Even though this is my first day at work, I am an employee here now. I cannot shrink back when the visitors might be in danger.”

Watching Wu Jinpeng run away, the two medical students confirmed their speculation even further. At that moment, one of the medical students’ phones started to vibrate. He glanced at the caller ID and chose to pick it up. “He San, we do not have much time. The situation is very dire. Now listen to us. We are now currently at New Century Park’s haunted house…”

The medical student dragged the other student to hide under the table and told He San everything they had seen and experienced so far.

Moments later, He San’s rather hoarse voice came through the line. “Based on my understanding of Boss Chen, since this is the first day for that employee, he must’ve arranged another experienced actor to follow him. I get it now! This must be some kind of test for the new employee, and you two are most likely his test subjects!”

“We are the test subjects?”

“Yes, it is not easy to become a haunted house actor. One must be talented and have a sharp observation skill, but the most important thing of all is that one must possess an exceptional mastery of acting! You two have been completely fooled by that uncle!” What He San said caused the two medical students to draw in a cold breath.

“You mean he has been acting ever since he joined us at the start of this scenario? Jesus Christ, just how twisted must one be to put on such a convincing and wicked disguise!”

“Just remember this. The evilest spirit is often hiding underneath the most harmless-looking appearance!” He San hung up after he gave his advice, leaving behind two figures that were shaking underneath the classroom table.

…

Deep within Mu Yang High School’s male dorm, Ling Feijie was hugging a dead body wrapped in tape. His pupils were dilated as his body lay supine on the ground.

When he first entered the male dorm, everything had been fine. But as he walked deeper into the dorm, he turned his head around and realized that Shen Mengbing had suddenly disappeared without a trace.

He pushed open the nearest door and a hanging mannequin. He called Shen Mengbing’s name again and again. But instead of getting an answer from the girl, he caught the attention of the hanging mannequin. He was followed by the mannequin as he went deeper into the dorm. If he could still accept this situation, what happened next completely shattered Ling Feijie’s mind.

He was already very afraid. To shake loose of the hanging mannequin who had been following him, he rushed down the corridor faster. He was running halfway down the corridor when he caught sight of the silhouette of a voluptuous woman. His heart leaped in relief and joy, thinking it was Shen Mengbing. He hurried after her. But when he got closer, before he even had the chance to say anything, he saw the woman’s head turned 180 degrees around. That was only the beginning. With a beatific smile on her face, the woman’s body crumbled like pieces of building blocks.

Ling Feijie was so frightened that he felt his knees weaken. Somehow, he crawled his way into the boy with the stench’s old room. He saw the big closet and believed that it was a good hiding spot, but just as he pulled the door open, a dead body that was wrapped in cellophane tape toppled out and crashed upon him. He came literally face to face with a dead body.

“Boss, the woman abandoned her male partner and ran away. Ol’ Bai is trying to track her down. I have trapped the abandoned man inside this room.”

“A job well done, Duan Yue. This proves that you can work independently already.”

The dorm room was pushed open, and one mannequin head after another rolled into the room. The pairs of lifeless eyes looked at Ling Feijie with curiosity. The scent of blood and a horrible stench permeated the small dorm room. Then an impossibly large person in red squeezed into the room. Behind him trailed a headless woman who was hugging her own head in her arms. Being surrounded by this group of ‘people’, Ling Feijie’s tears that he had been trying to hold in started to fall. He felt like he was about to suffocate and die.

But the Specters merely surrounded him. None of them touched him, much less harmed him. Soon, the echo of footsteps approached, and the dorm room door was opened again. The mannequin heads rolled to the side while the stench and the headless woman cleared a path for a young man carrying a backpack to walk into the room.

“Ling Feijie, is it?” Chen Ge knelt down before Ling Feijie. “What is your relationship with that woman? How did she contact you, and what did she tell you?”

Ling Feijie, who was lying on the ground, looked at Chen Ge. The mental defense in his heart had completely shattered. Once he opened his mouth, he started to blubber with tears.

“I only asked you a few simple questions. Why did you start crying?” Chen Ge frowned deeply as he took out Doctor Skull Cracker’s hammer from his backpack. “You are in your mid-twenties, but you are still crying like a child. Stop crying right now, or else I will figure out a way to make you unable to keep crying.”

Seeing the hammer that Chen Ge had taken out from his backpack, Ling Feijie cried even harder. He was not just crying anymore; he was weeping openly until his whole body was shaking. To prevent causing lasting physical or mental damage to Ling Feijie, Chen Ge had no choice but to order the boy with the stench to knock the man out. “Take him to the underground morgue to find Zhang Yi. The rest of you, follow him to go and find the woman.”

After leaving the male dorm, Chen Ge managed to contact most of the employees through the phone spirit, Tong Tong. He mobilized everyone to go search for that woman, Shen Mengbing. This meant that the visitors who were visiting the underground scenarios became unlucky sacrificial victims. Baleful Specters and lingering spirits wandered the place freely. Normally, it was the visitors who went looking for ghosts, but this time, the ghosts had grouped up together to go searching for a visitor.

About ten minutes later, Chen Ge received a message from Tong Tong. Ol’ Bai and the students from the School of the Afterlife had blocked Shen Mengbing inside the entrance of a classroom in School of the Afterlife.

“With so many scenarios to pick from, she chose to hide in a four-star scenario. She sure has a sharp intuition.”

Dragging the Doctor Skull Cracker’s hammer, with two Red Specters trailing behind him, Chen Ge did not hide his presence and appeared before Shen Mengbing in all his glory.

“What are you planning to do?” Shen Mengbing, who appeared weak and soft, cowered at the back row inside the classroom. She was cornered with nowhere to run. Shadows flickered at the front door, backdoor, and even the windows.

“Why is it always the thief who calls out theft first? I am sure you know what I plan to do.” Chen Ge summoned Xu Yin, and the Red Specters in the room increased to a staggering number of five. “Should I call you Shen Mengbing or Jia Ming? Which do you prefer?”

When Shen Mengbing heard the name Jia Ming, her hands that shielded her eyes slowly lowered. The panic and nervousness on her face faded away. She leaned against the hard wall behind her and slowly raised her hands above her head. “How did you discover it was me?”

Further argument would be pointless, so Shen Mengbing made the smartest choice.

“Why would you care, and why should I tell you?” Chen Ge had the four Red Specters surround Shen Mengbing in the middle. This was a rare treatment for anyone. “I’ll give you a choice. Are you going to come out on your own, or do you want me to force you out?”