My House of Horrors

“Hey, student! You, why you are standing up? Sit down!” The middle-aged man glared at Chen Ge, but the later did not respond. He coughed twice before he caught Chen Ge’s attention, and Chen Ge quickly returned to his seat.

“Bro, what was that?” the round-faced kid whispered to Chen Ge, but he did not reply as he kept his eyes glued to Zhang Ya on the podium.

Western Jiujiang Private Academy was closed down six years ago. Zhang Ya died one year before that. If the timeline is correct and if that tragedy didn’t happen, she would look like this at twenty-five.

Being stared at by Chen Ge, the female teacher smiled at him before turning to other students. Taking a deep breath, Chen Ge forced himself to calm down. He hid the backpack under the table and opened it to inspect the item inside. Nothing had changed, but Zhang Ya’s bedtime story had once again ‘run’ out from the compartment and placed itself atop everything else.

The middle-aged man left, and Zhang Ya started her first lesson. Chen Ge, who sat by the window, was reading Zhang Ya’s bedtime story. The blood red book was filled with empty pages. All the gory stories had disappeared as if they had never been there in the first place.

After entering Fang Yu’s world, the words seemed to have disappeared as well. What is the actual use of this book? Why do the words disappear every time I enter the world behind the door? Where have they gone? When I first pushed the door open, it felt like I was dropped inside a sea of blood. I might have died from asphyxiation if not for a pair of hands that gripped me. I remembered hearing a strange man’s voice, asking me why I came to find him. Could that man be Yu Jian?

Chen Ge’s mind was a muddied mess. He collapsed on the table, leaning against the book that even Red Specters were afraid of.

I need to arrange my thoughts. This world is too unique. The chance of the ghost fetus hiding here is too high.

Picking up the pen from the table, Chen Ge started to write in the book.

“The school and the buildings outside the school are all from my memory. So far, of the people that have appeared, two of them are from my memory. I have no recollection of the rest of the student body. This is the first time I’ve seen that middle-aged man that brought Zhang Ya into the classroom. Therefore, the world was probably built on the framework of my memory, but it was mixed with the memories of another person.”

Chen Ge had encountered different memories creating a similar world before; it was the School of the Afterlife, a normal three-star scenario that turned into a four-star scenario after it kept on absorbing the students’ memories and combining the scenarios. But the world behind Yu Jian’s door was different in the sense that it did not feel oppressive. If Chen Ge was not certain that he had pushed open the door, he might have thought that he was still somewhere outside the door. Everything was too real, just like in reality.

“I seem to have missed something crucial. Currently, I lack too much information. I need to get more clues from Zhang Ya and the math class monitor…” Chen Ge listed down the known details in the notebook and planned what to do next when he suddenly realized that all the students had quieted down and were looking at him. Hands, on which his head rested, slowly moved down. Chen Ge looked to the side, and a flowery scent tickled his nose.

“Do pay attention during class.” Zhang Ya stood behind Chen Ge and used her book to knock Chen Ge lightly on his head before she walked away. Watching Zhang Ya walk away, Chen Ge touched the spot where she had hit him earlier. The woman before him overlapped with that woman in his mind, and a mixed feeling was born in his heart.

The class soon ended. Chen Ge had done nothing but stared at the teacher. “If Zhang Ya really was my teacher in high school, I would have scored at least another one hundred marks in my test.”

“Stop kidding yourself, bro. The class is already over, and you didn’t even take out the textbook.” The round face boy held his chin. “It’s time to wake up, bro. Stop dreaming. You should pay attention to your studies once in a while.”

“You don’t get it. It’s not me who’s dreaming.” Chen Ge grabbed his backpack and left to chase after the teacher. He knew that it was rude to call her name out in the corridor, so he purposely sidled up to the new teacher before asking, “Zhang Ya?”

Hearing his voice, Zhang Ya was startled before smiling at Chen Ge. “You have to call me Miss Zhang Ya. How can I help you?”

“You really don’t remember me anymore?” Chen Ge asked probingly. The world behind the door was made from the door pusher’s memoryies. Therefore, the people in it would remember the door pusher.

“Of course I remember you.” Zhang Ya looked at Chen Ge seriously, and her expression changed. “You were that kid who was not paying attention in class earlier and was too busy doodling.”

“Doodling?” Chen Ge looked at Zhang Ya before him. He had no idea what kind of impression he presented to Zhang Ya at that moment. Perhaps she had really forgotten all about him. “I was actually jotting down notes.”

Taking the storybook out from the backpack, Chen Ge showed it to Zhang Ya. “What do you think about it?”

“Is this a plan for the story that you’re working on?” Zhang Ya was surprised.

“When did I say that?” No matter what Chen Ge said, Zhang Ya treated him as a teacher would a student. She kept a smile on her face.

“Quick, head back to class. I support your novel writing hobby as long as it doesn’t affect your schooling.” The Zhang Ya before him had lost the shyness of youth and took on the maturity and gentleness that came with age.

“You really treat me like a child.” Chen Ge took back with storybook.

“But aren’t you a child?” Zhang Ya unintentionally revealed a cute expression.

“Since you’re the teacher, I’ll listen to you and go back to class.” Chen Ge carried the backpack and ran back to the classroom. Halfway through, he turned back to look and saw Zhang Ya enter the teacher’s lounge. “So, that is how Zhang Ya looks like when she smiles. It completely transforms her, and she is a bit ridiculously beautiful.”

Looking at his shadow, Chen Ge sighed. “It’s not often that I get to bully Zhang Ya, but she came as a teacher this time, and that is a bit of challenge.”

Returning to the classroom, Chen Ge spaced out during class. He used Yin Yang Vision to observe the small town from his seat. This was definitely Li Wan City, but it was different from the chaotic and maddening Li Wan City that he remembered. The people were kind, and the atmosphere was friendly. He could not sense a trace of negative emotions, much less the ghost fetus.

Is this place like School of the Afterlife? Will it change after midnight?

“You by the window, please come and solve this problem on the blackboard.” A man’s voice came from the podium.

Chen Ge respected the teacher. He stood up, glanced at the blackboard, and loudly declared, “I don’t know how to do that.”