Chapter 14: Missing Person Notice
At 4:30 in the afternoon, Chen Ge stood alone in the haunted house prop room, staring at the cluttered table, uncertain of what to take.
"What do I need to prepare for staying overnight in a haunted house?"
"ID card, phone, power bank, lighter, fruit knife, multi-tool hammer... right, I should bring this doll too."
He stuffed the doll that had appeared in front of the mirror last night into his backpack. After making sure he hadn't missed anything, he zipped up the bag and walked out of the room.
"Xiao Wan, you can leave early today. Lock up for me later. I have something to take care of, so I'm heading out."
"Boss, it's not even five yet. Are you going on a trip?"
"The keys are on the prop room table. See you tomorrow."
Seeing Chen Ge looking like he was about to let loose, Xu Wan let out a resigned "oh," dropped the haunted house flyers, and dashed into the prop room.
"This girl." The evening breeze scattered the flyers. Chen Ge shook his head, picked up a stone to weigh one down. "Hope she doesn't see me on tomorrow's morning news."
Despite his relaxed demeanor, Chen Ge was actually very nervous. He had been restless all afternoon.
Last night's nightmare-level mission had opened the door to another world for him, and it had also made him acutely aware that the tasks issued by the black phone carried real danger.
"Trial missions are definitely harder than daily ones. I need to be extra careful tonight." To get through the night safely, Chen Ge rode a shared bike to Ping An Apartment before the sky even darkened.
The mission info only provided a location name. To find Ping An Apartment, Chen Ge combined that with a complaint message from nine months ago, asking for directions as he went. It took him over two hours to finally reach the place.
"An apartment building in such a remote spot—would anyone actually live here?"
A dirt road overgrown with weeds twisted and stretched deep into the woods. There were no streetlights around. Through the sparse tree branches, he could faintly make out a dark gray building in the distance.
On the way, Chen Ge had asked many people, but most had never heard of Ping An Apartment. Finally, an old man in his sixties pointed him in the right direction and kindly warned him off, saying that place had seen deaths before and was very unlucky—locals would go out of their way to avoid it even in broad daylight.
Chen Ge couldn't exactly explain his predicament. If it weren't for the black phone's mission, who in their right mind would go stay in a place like that?
"It's 6:50 now. The mission says I need to arrive before 11 p.m. I still have enough time to figure out the situation in this haunted house."
Following the winding dirt road, Chen Ge ventured deeper into the woods. After walking a few dozen meters, he finally saw the legendary haunted house.
The courtyard was enclosed by dark gray high walls, with only one entrance. The rusty iron gate stood open on both sides, a brand-new padlock hanging from it.
"The gate's so shabby, but the lock is new. Wait, what's this?" A piece of white paper was stuck to the iron gate. Chen Ge initially thought it was an ad, but when he shone his phone's light on it, he realized it was a missing person notice.
"Zhang Qing, female, 27 years old, 157 cm, slim, a black mole near the bridge of her nose on the right eye, prefers wearing red clothes and pants... Anyone with information, please contact Mr. Wang. Generous reward!"
At the bottom of the notice were the contact's phone number and address. What caught Chen Ge's attention was that Mr. Wang's listed address was this very haunted house.
"That's odd." He instinctively felt something was off. He took out his phone, snapped a photo of the notice, and then entered the courtyard.
The building was larger than he had imagined—three stories for the main structure, plus a warehouse and what looked like a boiler room nearby.
"The paint is peeling this badly—it must be at least twenty or thirty years old." Though the building was severely aged, it was kept fairly clean. There was no trash on the ground, and the weeds had all been cleared.
Parking his bike in the yard, Chen Ge shouldered his backpack and entered the main building. "Anyone here?"
The long hallway was pitch black. After a few seconds, a door near the stairwell creaked open a crack.
"Hello." Chen Ge walked toward that room, but the occupant seemed reluctant to face him, only opening the door half a finger's width before stopping.
The room was dark inside. Chen Ge could only see a woman standing behind the gap. Her eyes were bloodshot, as if she often stayed up late, and she looked in poor mental shape.
"I'd like to ask how much it costs to stay a night here?" Chen Ge kept his voice low, trying to appear friendly. But to his surprise, her reaction was strange—she just smiled at him and immediately shut the door.
"What does that mean?" Before he could figure it out, footsteps sounded from the second floor. The only motion-activated light at the hallway corner flicked on, and a limping middle-aged man came down.
He seemed to have overheard Chen Ge's earlier question and spoke up: "You want to stay here? How long are you planning to rent?"
"Are you the landlord?" Chen Ge walked over proactively. "Just one night."
"One night?" The limping man looked Chen Ge up and down, his gaze as if trying to see right through him. "Fine, let me see your ID. Come to the second floor to pay."
Just as Chen Ge was about to follow the man upstairs, the iron gate at the courtyard entrance made a noise. Hearing this, the limping man frowned, his expression instantly souring.
He stopped in his tracks, and Chen Ge had no choice but to wait.
Soon, a haggard-looking middle-aged man came in, dressed in shabby clothes, clutching a thick stack of flyers.
"Wang Qi, I told you your girlfriend isn't here. If you keep pestering me, don't blame me for being rude!" The limping man stood on the stairs, blocking the way.
The middle-aged man ignored him, lowering his head and heading upstairs.
"I'm talking to you!" The limping man shoved him hard. Caught off guard, the middle-aged man slammed into the wall, scattering the flyers everywhere. One of them landed right at Chen Ge's feet.
"It's a missing person notice, exactly like the one on the apartment gate." Chen Ge narrowed his eyes. He discreetly picked up the flyer from the ground, keeping an eye on the stairs above.
The middle-aged man didn't fight back. He got up from the floor and silently gathered the flyers, moving like a zombie.
"Don't mind him. He's crazy." The limping man waved at Chen Ge, signaling him to come to the second floor.
"Crazy?" As Chen Ge passed by the middle-aged man, he stole a glance at him. "The Midnight Escape scene description mentioned that a mentally ill person had infiltrated the apartment. If this guy is crazy, could he be the murderer I'm looking for?"