Chapter 13: Is Heaven Trying to Destroy Me?
Chen Ge stared intently at his phone screen. The wheel spun slower and slower until, with a soft click, the pointer stopped at a certain direction.
"Draw complete. Congratulations on obtaining a rare special item: Cursed Love Letter (probability 0.3%)!"
"With bulging eyes and a pale face, from the moment she fell from the high building, she became a taboo on campus. Red dancing shoes, bloodstained school uniform, even that name became topics that could not be mentioned. People pretended to forget, until one day, someone received her love letter again..."
"First draw lands on a vengeful spirit. Unlocked rare title: Vengeful Spirit's Favorite."
"Vengeful Spirit's Favorite: When wearing this title, there is a certain chance of gaining help from a vengeful spirit."
Seeing the notification on his phone, Chen Ge felt like he was suffocating. "A cursed love letter? A 0.3% probability? Vengeful Spirit's Favorite? I haven't even figured out the monster in the mirror, and now I've drawn a vengeful spirit! Is heaven trying to destroy me?!"
He now regretted jinxing himself before the draw. "Calm down! I can't lose my composure. Things haven't reached the worst point yet. Drawing a vengeful spirit doesn't mean it'll show up right now. I still have time to fix this. Maybe I should go to a nearby temple to draw a fortune slip."
He put away his phone and was about to slip it into his pocket when his fingertips suddenly touched something.
Looking down, Chen Ge found that a yellowed piece of letter paper had somehow been stuffed into his pocket.
A sense of foreboding immediately washed over him. Trembling, he pulled out the paper. On it, a sentence was woven from strands of hair—I like you.
"To hell with calm! What do you like about me? Tell me, and I'll change it!"
The characters on the paper were elegant and lively. If they hadn't been woven from hair, they would have been much more pleasing to the eye.
Standing in the west wing room, holding the letter paper, Chen Ge's face turned ashen. "Hard to imagine that the first love letter I've ever received in my life would come in this form."
"Boss! What are you muttering about by yourself?" Xu Wan entered from outside. She had just finished arranging the paper figures in the main hall.
"Nothing. I was just thinking that if a person knows their time is short, shouldn't they let go of all obsessions and do something meaningful?" Chen Ge looked up at Xu Wan, who was still wearing her funeral makeup. "For example, contributing to the continuation of the human race."
Chen Ge said it casually, but unexpectedly, Xu Wan showed a thoughtful expression, her demeanor gradually turning serious.
"Xu Wan, are you actually going to agree? No, I'm not ready yet. Isn't this a bit too casual? Although we have great chemistry and have worked together for a long time, if we really have to continue the race, it's not entirely impossible..." Chen Ge felt an inexplicable nervousness.
"No, boss, you misunderstood. I was just curious when I came in and saw you had two shadows." Xu Wan pointed behind Chen Ge. "Is this another new project for the haunted house?"
"Two shadows?!"
Chen Ge turned to look. Behind him, a large and a small shadow were slowly approaching each other, eventually merging into one.
"What the hell!"
Without a second thought, he grabbed Xu Wan and ran out of the haunted house.
Only after he was back in the sunlight did Chen Ge calm down. He didn't explain the reason to Xu Wan and simply sat down on the steps at the entrance of the haunted house.
"Boss, you've been paranoid lately. Are you under too much pressure?" Xu Wan sat down beside him. "Don't put so much pressure on yourself. Everything will work out. What do you want for lunch? I'll go get it for you."
Hearing Xu Wan's words, Chen Ge didn't know how to respond. He forced a smile. "Just get the same as yours. Also, go take off your makeup first. Don't scare the cafeteria chef."
"Mm-hmm."
After Xu Wan left, Chen Ge brought the love letter back in front of his eyes. "I saw with my own eyes two shadows merge. Does that mean I'm already haunted by a vengeful spirit, and it's now hiding in my shadow?"
Where there is sunlight, there are shadows. Chen Ge stared at his own shadow without blinking. "I have the title Vengeful Spirit's Favorite, which gives me a certain chance of gaining help from a vengeful spirit. If this title really works, then drawing a vengeful spirit might not be such a bad thing."
He could only console himself like this for now. In truth, he knew very well that vengeful spirits were called vengeful because they were filled with resentment before death, exuding malice and curses. Dealing with such a ghost, one wrong move could lead to a miserable end.
After lunch, Chen Ge sat at the entrance of the haunted house with a stack of flyers. Many tourists passed by, but few wanted to come in for a visit.
With nothing to do, Chen Ge opened his short video personal page and found dozens of private messages in the background.
After filtering out insults and ads, he replied to the rest one by one. Soon, he saw another message from He Shan.
The honest and simple forensic medicine student had secretly messaged Chen Ge, saying that the school forum had exploded. A group of male seniors, upon learning that their junior sister had been scared to tears, were sharpening their knives and preparing to storm the haunted house. Someone had even posted a call to arms on the forum, with over a dozen people already signing up.
"Youth is wonderful." Chen Ge smirked, already picturing a dozen hormone-fueled young men huddled together, trembling in his haunted house.
"Once I finish the trial mission, I'll let them test out the new scene first and see how terrifying a one-star horror scene from the phone review really is."
Thinking about the trial mission, Chen Ge grew serious. This mission could only be attempted once. If he failed, the corresponding horror scene would be permanently locked.
He pulled out the black phone and memorized the mission details.
Knowing yourself and your enemy ensures victory every time. After confirming the mission location, Chen Ge began searching online for everything related to that place.
"Ping'an Apartments, western suburbs of Hanjiang City..."
Typing just the location yielded nothing. After flipping through several pages, Chen Ge finally found something about the apartment building on a local second-hand housing website in Hanjiang.
It was a complaint comment, saying the seller had concealed the truth. The apartment building was actually a haunted house. After peeling back the wall, there were traces of mottled bloodstains, and every night, a strange stench could be smelled.
The complaint went unanswered and was eventually dropped. Chen Ge checked the time of the comment—it was from nine months ago.
"Spending a night in a real haunted house and having to find the hidden murderer... this mission is a bit tough for me." Chen Ge had majored in toy design in college. He was good at handcrafting but knew almost nothing about investigation or reasoning.
"This isn't easy. I'm not afraid of the haunted house itself, but I'm worried the murderer might be living next door, hunting me in the dead of night."