The Phone Ghost stared at
Chen Ge didn't sense that the Phone Ghost was a vengeful spirit. There was no hatred or malice about him at all. He was like a child who didn't understand anything.
"You want me to help you find your mother?"
The Phone Ghost nodded. He raised his gaunt arms and gestured at Chen Ge, trying to communicate something.
After a while, seeing that Chen Ge still didn't understand, he suddenly grabbed the phone hanging around his neck, typed out a message, and sent it to Chen Ge.
The phone buzzed softly. Chen Ge swiped his screen and opened the message the Phone Ghost had sent.
"My mom has been looking for me. I want you to use my phone and send her a message. My phone is in Liwan Town, on the east side of Jiujiang."
"Your wish is to send a single message to your mother?" Chen Ge nodded. Every ghost had its own story. It was precisely because they couldn't let go of what had happened when they were alive — because the regret was too great — that they lingered in the mortal world.
He put the Phone Ghost away, planning to fulfill the ghost's wish today. "Leaving such a unique ghost in the hands of the Horror Association is a complete waste. Only I can bring out the full extent of his abilities."
The Phone Ghost would be incredibly useful for Chen Ge's haunted house. As long as the Phone Ghost cooperated wholeheartedly, fewer and fewer visitors would dare to use their phones to take photos or record videos inside.
Chen Ge took a cold shower, changed into a clean set of clothes, and did a quick tidy-up of the haunted house.
At nine in the morning, the amusement park opened for business. The sky was somewhat overcast, but that did nothing to dampen the visitors' enthusiasm. Compared to the past few days, today's crowd had grown even larger.
The one-star scenes no longer held much appeal for returning visitors. Most had moved on to the two-star scenes, while the most adventurous few had begun tackling the three-star ones.
Over the course of a morning, six or seven groups of visitors had already toured the Living
Everyone had a fear threshold, and as they kept experiencing horror scenarios, that threshold kept rising — and Chen Ge felt the pressure that brought.
"The reward for the Third Ward trial mission was those ten mental patients. If I actually placed them inside the Third Ward, I wouldn't even need additional setup to make visitors cry on the spot. The problem is I can't guarantee their souls will obey my commands one hundred percent. They're far too insane."
To ensure visitor safety, Chen Ge had not used the patient roster from the Third Ward.
"There's no better option for now. When someone is about to clear the place, I'll have to send Old
Chen Ge's concern for his visitors manifested in every way imaginable. On one hand, he racked his brains trying to scare them witless. On the other, he worried about their safety. "Running a business these days is no easy feat."
Sitting inside the haunted house, once Chen Ge had ushered visitors into the underground scenes, he leaned against the wall and rested.
His schedule had practically merged with
He pulled out his phone and searched for information about Liwan Town online. It was just an ordinary little town.
"The Phone Ghost's phone is on the east side of Jiujiang, so he probably first appeared in the east side too. But how did he end up in the Horror Association's hands? Does the Horror Association have some connection to the east side of Jiujiang?"
Chen Ge shook his head, thinking it unlikely.
After a full day of work, the haunted house didn't close until after six in the evening.
Once
Li Zheng's answer was simple: don't make any moves yet. Wait for their signal.
Since the police had said that, Chen Ge naturally wouldn't go adding to their headaches.
He entered the staff break room, packed the Skull Crushing Hammer, the repeater, and other items into his backpack, confirmed nothing was left behind, locked the haunted house, and took a cab back to the east side of Jiujiang.
Unlike the night before, Chen Ge now brimmed with confidence. There was no fear in his heart — if anything, a hint of anticipation.
Liwan Town wasn't too remote. The cab took just over thirty minutes to get him there.
When he stepped out of the car, a light rain had begun to fall. Chen Ge hadn't brought an umbrella. He paid the fare and ducked quickly into a nearby phone store.
"Sir, can I help you with anything?" The clerk eyed Chen Ge's unusual attire and asked cautiously.
"It's nothing, don't worry about me." Chen Ge took out his comic book, found an empty corner, and contacted the Phone Ghost.
Before long, his phone received a new message from the Phone Ghost.
"The rooftop of Puming Apartment on East Street, Liwan Town? Is this the address?" Chen Ge stared at the message on his screen, then turned back to the clerk. "Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to Puming Apartment?"
"Straight down this street. It's one of the most run-down buildings." The clerk was quite kind — she assumed Chen Ge was an outsider looking to rent a place and even added a few words of advice. "East Street is a bit rough, and the sanitation isn't great. You'd be better off staying on West Street. The rent isn't that much more."
"Thank you." Chen Ge shouldered his backpack and headed through the rain toward Puming Apartment. He jogged the whole way, and after ten-odd minutes he finally found the building the Phone Ghost had mentioned. It looked like it was over thirty years old — thoroughly dilapidated.
"This is the place?"
Chen Ge entered the apartment building. There were virtually no tenants in sight. Thick dust coated many of the door locks.
He climbed all the way to the top floor in one go. The door leading to the roof was locked.
The padlock was encrusted with rust. The keyhole had seized solid.
"Looks like no one's been here in a long time." Chen Ge pulled the Skull Crushing Hammer from his backpack, smashed the lock off, and pushed the door open.
The rooftop was littered with trash. Along the wall sat rows of flowerpots, but the plants inside had long since withered and died.
"The Phone Ghost's phone fell here?"
Chen Ge looked around, and finally his gaze settled on several large water jars.
They appeared to be jars the tenants had used for pickling vegetables. Each one was sealed shut, with a stone placed on top.
Chen Ge approached cautiously, Skull Crushing Hammer in hand. He moved the stone off the first jar and lifted the lid.
It was empty. Nothing inside.
He then moved the stone off the second jar. The moment he did, a strange smell wafted out from within.
When he lifted the cover and peered inside, his eyelid twitched.
Inside the jar was the desiccated, skeletal body of a child. The facial features bore a striking resemblance to the Phone Ghost. Around its chest hung an old-fashioned phone.
Chen Ge stood beside it in silence for a long while, until the rain soaked through his hair. "Found you."
He pulled out his own phone, ready to call the police, when the Phone Ghost suddenly sent him a message.
"Before you tell the police, I want to use my phone to send my mom a message first. She must be worried sick."
"Does it have to be your phone?" Chen Ge didn't know why the Phone Ghost didn't want him to call the police, but he respected the ghost's wishes. "Alright."
Not wanting to disturb the scene, he took several photographs of the jar, then removed the phone from the boy's remains.