My House of Horrors

The crowd at the Haunted House only dispersed around noon. Seeing that no one dared to challenge four-star scenario, Chen Ge had parts of the ghost employees return to their own scenarios. As more and more scenarios unlocked at the Haunted House, there was a clear problem; Chen Ge did not have enough employees.

“I need living employees that are reliable and ghost employees that I can reason with.” Chen Ge sat in the staff breakroom and toyed with the black phone. He looked at the spinning wheel that operated based on the visitors’ scream, and his fingers wandered over it. “I’ve spun out four baleful specters. If I get one more, my title will upgrade. I desperately need employees now, but what change will happen after my title is given an upgrade?”

His fingers tapped on the table, and Chen Ge narrowed his eyes. “The Haunted House has collected an exorbitant number of screams already. Should I throw caution to the wind? After all, the title will eventually upgrade. If I use all the screams now and spin as many times as I can, I might get something other than a baleful Specter.”

That would be a good thing, but Chen Ge was worried that he might get all Specters, which would be big trouble!

“Never mind, I’ll wait for the visit to futuristic theme park to be over before I try anything else. These things can’t be forced.”

Chen Ge abandoned this dangerous idea and lay down in bed. He was about to rest when he got a call from Director Luo.

“Xiao Chen, are you sure you can handle the visitation to the futuristic theme park tomorrow alone? I thought you would take some employees with you.” Director Luo was worried about Chen Ge’s safety.

“Don’t worry, even though I am alone, I have many people who will lend me their support.” Chen Ge was not worried. “Director Luo, how was business today? How was it compared to the futuristic theme park’s?”

“The visitor number and turnover were not as high as theirs, but we’re not that far behind.” Director Luo sounded confident. “The next few days will be key! As long as we can successfully survive this holiday period, we will have enough assets to upgrade our equipment and do something else.”

“That would be wonderful.”

“But you have to be careful. The success rate of the futuristic theme park is not as high as they expected, and they lost face today; they might come after you tomorrow.”

“It’s fine. I’m not worried about them. If anything, I’m worried they won’t come after me.” Chen Ge smiled into the phone.

“As long as you have confidence. Other than that, I must remind you of something. The theme park is important, but you have to care about your health. Don’t think that you can do anything you want because you are still young.” After that, Director Luo hung up.

“Director Luo has always been kind to me. Is it because of the Haunted House or Luo Ruoyu?”

Chen Ge put down the phone and stopped thinking. He ignored the chaos that was happening on the internet. He hugged the white cat and fell into a slumber inside the staff breakroom. At 6:30 pm, New Century Park ended the day’s work. Everyone had worked their asses off for the day, but they did not feel tired or bogged down. The previous New Century Park was like an old man who was entering his twilight years, but that day, it was given a second breath of life. Everyone who treated that place as their home finally saw hope.

The employees at the Haunted House were tired to their bones. Chen Ge gave them an early break. He took the broom and mop as he cleaned around the Haunted House quietly. This was something that he had to do every day. Cleaning this old place would give him some semblance of stability and order. At around 9 pm, Chen Ge had a simple dinner. He was about to leave New Century Park to head to the mannequin workshop when he saw a student standing at the bus stop across from the road.

The child had been watching New Century Park. She stood alone in the shadows, and she wore a crumpled school uniform.

“Is that the uniform from the School of the Afterlife?”

After recognizing the outfit, Chen Ge immediately jogged over, but when he crossed the street, the girl disappeared. “Where did she go?”

Narrowing his eyes, Chen Ge soon discovered an old exercise book left where the girl had been standing earlier.

Turning it open, there was only one sentence written inside the book. ‘Now that the home is destroyed, I have nowhere else to go.’

“This is one of the students who left the School of the Afterlife with me!”

A small part of the students who left the ghost school managed to wake up from their coma, but most of them had nowhere else to go. Chen Ge held the exercise book and looked around. He said with sincerity, “If you don’t mind it, why don’t you follow me!”

The pedestrians thought that he was mad and walked away from him. Chen Ge did not think much of them; he held the exercise book and continued to scream. A few seconds later, the girl in the crumpled school uniform walked out from the shadows. Her hands were gripped together, and she looked nervous.

“It’s okay. I promised that if you guys have nowhere else to go, you can come and find me anytime.” Chen Ge extended his hand at the bus stop that was empty. “You can call me Chen Ge or boss, whichever you prefer. We have a big family, and everyone is very nice.”

“Er…”

“Would you like a glass of milk tea? There’s a new store that just opened near here. Come, I’ll treat you.”

Under the streetlights, the city flickered by. Cars rushed up and down the road. Chen Ge approached the pedestrian crossing, talking to himself, occasionally laughing like a child.