Chapter 1135 Xin Hai Branch
The dead body carts’ wheels rolled across the ground. Ol’ Zhou hummed a merry tune and happily sent the carts of visitors out of the underground scenario. The longer he worked at Boss Chen’s haunted house, the more Ol’ Zhou enjoyed this occupation. He was glad that Chen Ge had decided to take the few of them with him when he completed his mission at the old apartment. Now, Ol’ Bai had become a Red Specter, Duan Yue had walked out from the mist of her depression, and even the most despondent Yan Danian had accomplished his biggest dream. All this was possible due to Chen Ge.
Turning back to look at Chen Ge, who was standing amid the group of Red Specters, Ol’ Zhou could not hide the smile that appeared on his face.
“I have already found out everything that happened. The reason this tragedy has occurred this time is because of me. I gravely underestimated your power.” Chen Ge and several Red Specters surrounded Xiao Sun in the middle.
Brother Sun looked as sad as anything. His watering eyes were upturned. “Boss, I know my mistake already. Can you please give me a chance to redeem myself?”
“Do you plan to do that?”
Xiao Sun crawled up from the ground and walked to the red raincoat’s side. He used both of his hands to grab the red raincoat’s wrist and then placed the red raincoat’s hands over his heart. “Big sister, I swear that whether your child is still alive or not, I will help you find him!”
After saying that, a thread that was entwining both red and black color crawled out of his heart and proceeded to curl around the red raincoat’s pinkie finger. If a baleful Specter wished to become a Red Specter, they needed to have a heart, and a heart was made up from threads of blood vessels like this, but strangely enough, the blood vessels within Xiao Sun’s body were all alternatively red and black like this. It was incredibly anomalous.
Staring at the thread on her pinkie finger for a long time, the red raincoat paused as if to think before lightly nodding.
“Xiao Sun, would you have pa.s.sed your misfortune to red raincoat just like that?” Chen Ge asked softly. He was really worried that this might happen.
Hearing what Chen Ge had to say, Xiao Sun felt so wronged that tears came to his eyes again. Chen Ge quickly moved to console him. “Since the red raincoat has forgiven you, the conflict between you two can be considered to have been resolved. But this time, you almost tore the haunted house apart. That is something that we need to deal with.”
“I did not mean to do it on purpose…”
“It wouldn’t have really mattered even if you had destroyed the haunted house, but the problem is you almost scared that person called Ma Feng to death. The man had already fainted so many time, so why did you insist on waking him up every time? When I saw that through the surveillance camera, my scalp went numb immediately. My heart even went out toward him. The man suffered more than enough.”
Chen Ge was telling the truth. Fainting was the body’s self-protective mechanism. The man had already fainted, but he was brought back to consciousness again and again. How was that different from bringing the tortured soul back to life to be flayed again and again?
Xiao Sun opened his arms and said with a helpless expression, “If I said I only wanted to save him, would you guys believe me?”
“When Ma Feng wakes up and hears you say that, I believe he will probably faint again from pure anger.” Chen Ge and the employees around him started to laugh. Xiao Sun always had the capability of doing the wrong thing out of kindness, but that could not be blamed on the young man. That was simply his natural talent.
“Laugh all you want. In any case, I do not plan to act as a visitor anymore. You guys have no idea how nerve-wracking it is to be surrounded by more than ten living people at the same time.” Xiao Sun leaned the wall and looked for all intents and purposes to have given up on his ‘life’ already. Actually, he knew about his own talent, but he only wanted to be a part of the big family.
“Xiao Sun, pretending to mix among the visitors indeed is a great waste of your talent, so I have a very important mission that I have arranged for you.” Chen Ge slowly drew back the smile on his face, and his expression turned severe and serious. “This mission is related to the survival of our haunted house.”
Noticing the change in Chen Ge’s tone, Xiao Sun also stood up straighter. “Brother, are you sure you wish to hand over such an important mission over to me? I am afraid I might screw it up again.”
“You are the only candidate that is suitable for this mission. Of course, the current you is still far from capable of accepting it, so the other employees at the haunted house and I will conduct intensive training for you.” Chen Ge planned to fully unleash Xiao Sun’s hidden potential so that this cursed seed would grow up into a large and powerful cursed tree. “Later in the afternoon, I will need you to come to the staff breakroom. Then, I will tell you the objective of the mission in more detail.”
“Okay.”
“Then, there is nothing else. Everyone, please try to recover the scenario as best as you can and then return to your own posts and prepare to receive the next batch of visitors.”
After giving all the orders, Chen Ge walked out from the underground scenario. Ol’ Zhou had already moved all the fainted visitors to the entrance. All Chen Ge needed to do now was wheel them all out.
Pulling back the thick curtains, following the creaking and cracking of the wheels from the body carts, all the visitors who were gathered outside the haunted house turned to look toward Chen Ge. The warm rays of the sun showered on his body, and Chen Ge pushed out the first cart of visitors.
“See, what did I tell you earlier? It is another group wipe situation.”
“Look at how peacefully they are smiling.”
“Do you still want that ice cream? Still dare cry? If you continue to cry, when you grow up, I will send you inside that haunted house!”
“Where have all those people who posted the thread about challenging the most difficult scenario gone? Quick, we need to split up and go bring them back!”
Before so many visitors, Chen Ge pushed out the other top haunted house designers. “Uncle Xu, I will need you to help me call over some theme park workers.”
“There are more after this?”
“After this cart, there are three more carts.”
Chen Ge moved all the visitors that had visited the ghost fetus scenario out of the haunted house. As predicted by some of the earlier visitors that knew Chen Ge’s haunted house well, all the visitors that went in had come out on the body carts. There were none that could still walk out on their own two feet. Uncle Xu had already called for help on his end, and they arrived to hurriedly take the visitors to theme park’s infirmary. If this happened at any other theme park, it could be something that would shut the place down, but at New Century Park, it happened so commonly that most of the visitors had even gotten used to it.
Even though more than ten people had fainted at the same time, the order within theme park was not disturbed at all. Everyone went about their day normally. Those who were lining up continued to line up, and those who were supposed to visit the haunted house continued with their tours. At most, some of them stopped to take one or two pictures or recorded a short video to keep as a memento. In less than ten minutes, everything had returned to normal.
At noon, the long queue was still waiting outside the haunted house. For the visitors who had waited for a long time already, Uncle Xu was kind enough to provide them with bottles of mineral water.
Back inside the haunted house, Chen Ge had already returned to the staff breakroom, and currently, there were four employees standing inside the room.
“Xiao Sun, the mission that I am going to give you this time is very important, but it is also very dangerous. Before you give me your word, I hope that you will listen closely to everything that I have to say.” Chen Ge sat down on the chair and waved at the s.p.a.ce beside him. The Red Specter Ol’ Bai understood the meaning of the gesture and placed a black, non-transparent plastic bag on the table next to Chen Ge.
“Our haunted house is currently faced with a very large threat. Behind the door of the ghost fetus’ world, we killed a Demon G.o.d sent by the cursed hospital in Xin Hai. That Demon G.o.d is probably being digested by Zhang Ya. That is an action that the cursed hospital will never forgive. The hospital will definitely try their best to take revenge on us.” This was the first time Chen Ge had revealed the information related to the cursed hospital to his employees. “The cursed hospital is situated at the borders of Xin Hai and Jiujiang, but geographically speaking, it is closer to Xin Hai. The place is incredibly dangerous because they likely have more than one Demon G.o.d at their disposal.”
Chen Ge did not hide anything. He shared all the information he had about the cursed hospital with his most trusted employees. He would have no problem putting his life in the hands of anyone currently standing inside the staff breakroom.
“This time, there were people from the cursed hospital mixed among the visitors. The enemy’s special power is very unique. It can help him avoid detection from even the Top Red Specters. But luckily enough, due to Xiao Sun’s presence, we detected them before they could do further damage.”
“Because of me?” Xiao Sun did not even know what he had done.
“Yes, because you turned the whole haunted house upside down to the point that the alarms went off everywhere, when I came in, I thought that the cursed hospital had infiltrated the place, so I hurriedly summoned all of the other employees to salvage the situation. To my surprise, there were indeed people sent over by the cursed hospital hidden among the visitors.”
After hearing Chen Ge say all that, Xiao Sun touched his nose embarra.s.sedly. “I did not do it on purpose…”
“Whether you did it on purpose or not is not important. The important thing is that it has helped expose your immense talent. Disguising yourself as an extra among the haunted house visitors is a waste of your talent; you need a bigger stage,” Chen Ge said as he opened the black plastic bag on the table.
There was a patient’s garb inside the bag. The garb looked rather normal. There was not even the hospital’s name on it. It only had a number on it—101. Other than the patient garb, there was a patient’s form inside the bag. There was no name on this patient’s form. Wherever the signature of the patient was needed, there was only written one number—101.
“Number 101?”
“Xiao Sun, this will be your number in the future.”
“Mine?” Xiao Sun picked up the patient garb with the utmost confusion. The question marks were viewable all over his head. “Brother, don’t tell me you wish for me to pretend to be a mental patient? But you know very well that I do not know how to act!”
“You not only need to act as a mental patient. You only have to infiltrate into the cursed hospital to obtain information for us.” Chen Ge then waved at Zhang Yi and picked out a lingering spirit that was almost dispersing from the slightly hunch-backed Zhang Yi. “This lingering spirit is the real Patient 101, but he has been turned into a simpleton. His only remaining memories have been tempered with by us. With Zhang Yi’s help, take it with you and practice as much as you can. Try your best to get to know it and then try to become it.”
“Big brother, are you sure I am capable of doing this?” Xiao Sun had very little confidence in himself. After all, he had almost ruined the ghost fetus scenario earlier.
“That is why I have found a few other teachers for you.” Chen Ge first had Ol’ Zhou come over. “You will follow your Brother Zhou. I have already arranged everything. Everyone will help you together to train you to become the most perfect actor our haunted house has ever seen.”
“Okay.” Xiao Sun took the patient garb and the lingering spirit of Patient 101 and was about to leave the room when he was stopped again by Chen Ge.
“Wait a minute. I have a few books here with me. Take them and try to read them as closely as you can.” Chen Ge pulled out several thick books from under his bed. Among them there were books on societal psychology, micro expressions, and social psychology. “The best psychologist of Jiujiang once recommended these few books to me, and now I have handed them over to you. These things might not be directly useful to you, but they will aid you in changing the way you face any difficult problems and expand your mindset.”
Chen Ge handed the books that Doctor Gao had once recommended over to Xiao Sun. The whole process had a ritualistic inheritance feeling to it. “Good luck, I have faith in you!”
After all the ghost employees had left, Chen Ge crawled into bed to rest for a moment.
“The cursed hospital has already made their move on me. I need to make the necessary preparation to counter them.” Chen Ge took out some paper and a pen and started to doodle on it. He arranged the things that he needed to do in order, from the most urgent tasks to the less important ones. “Zhang Wenyu is already very close to me. If I work harder, perhaps I can persuade him to join us. Before I depart for Xin Hai, I need to get him to side with me.”
Even though he already had plenty of Red Specters, the feeling that Zhang Wenyu gave him was very unique. He did not have the Yin energy unique to ghosts on him at all. If he did not know it from the black phone, even Chen Ge would probably have treated him as a living person.
“Other than Zhang Wenyu, there are still many more famous local ghost stories in Jiujiang. Over the next few days, I should take my employees to look around. Perhaps we’ll run into new friends who might have the same target as us.
“Other than that, I will need to fulfil the promise that I have given to help search for the backup that Chang Wenyu left behind. The siblings schemed against me at the School of the Afterlife. Once I have saved them, I need them to pay me back with interest when I am dealing with the cursed hospital.”
Due to Zhang Ya’s presence, Chen Ge could basically do anything he wanted in Jiujiang, but his overall power was still far lacking when in comparison to the cursed hospital.
“The cursed hospital is somehow related to me twenty years ago. They know my background immensely well, but I know so little about them. Before the real fight begins, I will have to depend on the surprises that perhaps Xiao Sun will be able to bring me.” Chen Ge had great faith in Xiao Sun because he had personally experienced Xiao Sun’s talent.
“Everything is in order except what is crucial. All I can do now is wait and try my best to turn all the extenuating factors into my supporting factors.”
…
At 2 pm, the special care unit at the Jiujiang People’s Hospital echoed with a particularly shrill scream. The doctors and the nurses rushed into the sickroom and saw the patient that had been delivered that morning rolling on the ground. His body was curled up in a ball, and his body was shuddering endlessly due to fear.
“Calm down! Shang Guan Qing Hong, you have already left the haunted house! You are now very safe! You are at the hospital!” Originally, the patient was only afraid, but once he heard the term haunted house, he started to wail again.
“Doctor, what should we do now?”
“Sigh, it took us so much effort to cure him of his illness, but people truly are stubborn creatures. He insisted on going back to traumatize himself again. I also do not know how to comment on this issue now. Oh well, it is a good thing that it did not take that long for him to wake up this time. Hurry and move him to a normal sickroom.”
The nurse pushed Shang Guan Qing Hong down the hospital corridor in a wheelchair and arrived at a familiar sickroom. Pus.h.i.+ng open the door, Shang Guan Qing Hong saw many familiar faces. The sickroom was filled with the victims of Chen Ge’s haunted house. At that moment, everyone was looking at Shang Guan Qing Hong in the wheelchair with shock and awe.
“Wasn’t he sent out from the hospital two days ago? Why is he back so soon?”
“Has he relapsed?”
“Qing Hong, didn’t you say you were going to teach Boss Chen a lesson he would never forget? How come…”
His friend only mentioned the word Boss Chen, and Shang Guan Qing Hong s.h.i.+vered involuntarily. He covered his ears, and his mouth mumbled incoherently, like a child who had been abandoned by the world.
“Brother Shang Guan, you have returned, but what about Qin Guang?”
“That man is in intensive care. It is still unknown whether he will return to us or not.” The nurse rolled her eyes at the other patients. “Shang Guan Qing Hong needs plenty of rest. Do not try to attempt to engage him in any conversation related to the haunted house. Whenever he hears the term haunted house, his illness acts up. Do you all understand?”
“Yes, nurse.”
The old patients looked at Shang Guan Qing Hong with pity. Everyone there had been scared until they fainted inside Chen Ge’s haunted house. Shang Guan Qing Hong was a repeat patient, and that was a badge of honor among the victims because at least he had resisted at least once. At the time, they still had not found out about Ma Feng’s situation, so they thought being scared until one fainted twice was already very impressive.
…
At around 5 pm, the day of business at New Century Park was reaching its end. Director Luo suddenly summoned Chen Ge to his office and placed a doc.u.ment before him. “Director Luo, what is this?”
“This is a contract that I have negotiated for you.” Director Luo opened the doc.u.ment, and there was a contract inside. “The boss of the haunted house in Xin Hai has completely given up this industry. Last I heard, he appears to have obtained this illness where he goes crazy whenever he hears the words ‘haunted house’, so his people immediately started to let go of his a.s.sets in Xin Hai. I remembered you mention this before, so the moment they started setting the sale sign, and once I saw the low price that it was going for, I snapped it up.”
“Shang Guan Qing Hong is finally willing to give up his haunted house? Has he lost his confidence already?” Chen Ge looked at the contract he was holding. Director Luo had basically used his own money to purchase the haunted house in Xin Hai and gifted it to Chen Ge.
“I cannot sign this contract with good conscience. Director Luo, you’ve used your own money, which is meant for New Century park, to purchase this a.s.set. If there is any income, I will be the benefactor, but if the Xin Hai haunted house loses money, you will be the one who takes the fall. This is very unfair to you and New Century Park.” Chen Ge did not want to sign this contract not because it was unfair but because he felt like he was taking advantage of Director Luo.
“Without your haunted house, New Century Park would have been crushed into the ground by the futuristic theme park by now. Consider this haunted house in Xin Hai a present from me to you, but I do have a very small request.” Director Luo revealed a smile on his face. “The branch that you build in Xin Hai must be named New Century Park as well, or at least the name has to be tied on somehow.”
“Naturally.”
After half an hour of discussion, Chen Ge signed his name on the contract. Chen Ge was going to pay full attention to dealing with the cursed hospital next. His intention was to turn the branch in Xin Hai into a safe second base.