Chapter 148: The White Cat's Approval
"Are you serious? That sounds like a personal attack to me." Liu Dao felt Chen Ge's tone wasn't joking. They didn't know each other well yet, and Liu Dao wasn't clear on Chen Ge's background—only that this man was... unusual.
"That's my advice to him. Just pass it along as is." Chen Ge's voice was calm, and inwardly he was already giving himself a thumbs-up for his kindness. "Qin Guang and I are just rivals, plain and simple. Even though he's shameless, I can't just watch him walk to his death. Besides, every time he streams, it's a big production involving several lives."
Rivals? Walking to death? Several lives? Are we even talking about the same thing?! Liu Dao felt like one of them must be drunk.
Telling Qin Guang that if he kept plagiarizing, he might end up getting himself killed—how could he even say that?
"Chen Ge, I know you're angry, but I hope you can calm down. Streaming is about content quality. We don't need to threaten him with other means; that could give him leverage over us." Liu Dao spoke earnestly. After all, the contract was signed, and they were about to start their first collaboration tomorrow. He didn't want Chen Ge to do anything rash at this critical moment.
"Forget it, you wouldn't understand even if I explained." Chen Ge walked to the haunted house entrance. "If there's nothing else, let's talk in person tomorrow afternoon."
"You'd better come early tomorrow. There are still many details to iron out."
"Got it."
Hanging up, Chen Ge felt weighed down with thoughts.
He wasn't really focused on the livestream. Qin Guang, the popularity contest—all of it was just a side note to him. The only thing he truly needed to care about was one thing: struggling to survive and finding the clues his parents left behind.
Reaching the entrance of the horror house, Chen Ge glanced at the tree canopy but didn't see the white cat.
"It's finally gone."
Chen Ge had a soft spot for that cat. "Heterochromatic eyes aren't something a stray cat would normally have. But it's a living creature after all; I can't force it."
Realizing the white cat had left, Chen Ge felt a pang of sadness. He opened the security gate and entered the haunted house.
The dark, eerie corridor was empty, with only Chen Ge alone. The haunted house at night lacked any vitality.
Turning on the hallway light, Chen Ge's shadow stretched long, looking a bit lonely, but he was used to it by now.
He went into the bathroom to wash his face, then headed toward the staff break room. A few steps away, he noticed something off. "Why is the break room door open?"
There were two keys to the break room. One he carried with him, and the other was hidden above the doorframe for other staff to use. Only those who had worked in the haunted house would know about this.
"If it were Xu Wan, she would have locked the door before leaving. Looks like an outsider slipped into the break room." Chen Ge ducked into the prop room and grabbed the Skullcrusher's iron hammer.
He gently pushed open the break room door. The room was dim, and no one was inside.
"The key isn't on the doorframe. Did that person steal it?" Chen Ge scanned the room and noticed the only difference from when he left was a jacket lying on the table, unwashed.
"This jacket was hanging by the bed when I changed this morning. How did it end up on the table?"
He turned on the break room light and used the hammer to slowly lift the jacket.
Beneath the mud-stained clothes lay a pure white cat. It irritably flicked its head aside, its heterochromatic eyes full of displeasure.
Looking further behind it, on its tail, clung a grimy little doll.
This tiny cloth doll seemed to be trying to hug the white cat's tail, but caught off guard by Chen Ge's sudden entrance, she froze stiff and instinctively began playing dead.
"Xiao Xiao?"
The scene before him was unexpected. Hadn't these two initially disliked each other?
"White cat, jacket..." Chen Ge glanced at the coat again, vaguely piecing together what had happened.
That night he took the white cat to the vet, it had rained heavily, and the cardboard box carrying the cat had soaked through. He'd ended up wrapping the kittens in his jacket to take them to the doctor.
"This old jacket still has the scent of those four kittens. The jacket and the basket that held the kittens are both in the break room. The white cat wanted to get in, but the door was locked." The key hidden above the doorframe was a secret to others, but not to Xiao Xiao, who ran all over the haunted house every day. By now, she probably knew the layout better than Xu Wan.
Thinking this, Chen Ge picked up Xiao Xiao by the leg and shook her in the air. A brass key fell out of her tiny pocket.
"Are you trying to become the little housekeeper of the horror house?" Chen Ge laughed helplessly. He set Xiao Xiao down beside the white cat and hid the key back above the doorframe.
Standing in the pitch-black, cold corridor, Chen Ge felt the break room was all the brighter and warmer.
On the table, Xiao Xiao snuggled up to the white cat. The white cat looked disgusted but didn't push her away. It lay lazily on the table, ignoring everyone with an air of indifference.
Watching this, Chen Ge's lips curled into a smile. "Before, it was just me living in this room. Now it's getting a lot livelier."
Closing the door, Chen Ge sat down in a chair.
He pulled out his black phone and checked the day's daily tasks.
The three tasks were: hiring staff, checking safety, and building a sturdy door for the Muyang Middle School scene.
"The tasks the black phone gives are all things the haunted house needs to address soon." Chen Ge updated the horror house's info on Dianping, added the new horror scenes, and included the prize money details. After that, he posted a recruitment ad online, with only one requirement: the applicant must have strong nerves.
"Hiring has to be done carefully. I need to personally vet them. If Uncle Xu handles ticket sales outside, the staff might just barely be enough. This can wait. With more and more visitors to the haunted house, safety can't be ignored. Today's daily task, I'll choose to check for safety hazards."
Chen Ge, who had barely sat down, stood up again. He spent the night checking every safety hazard in the haunted house and drafted new safety rules, but the black phone still hadn't notified him of task completion.
"What's the issue? I've checked all the scenes. Why isn't the task done?" Chen Ge stood in the haunted house, phone in hand. Tomorrow, he might have to undergo a three-star horror scene trial, which would take a lot of preparation time. He couldn't waste too much energy on a daily task.
"Bloody Mary, Midnight Escape, and Muyang Middle School—none of them have problems. Could it be the mirror in the bathroom?"