Chapter 210: Why Are You Always at the Scene?
Breaking free from its restraints, the white shadow retreated backward, moving swiftly.
"Don't run!"
Having finally seized an opportunity, how could Chen Ge let it slip away? He raised his knife and charged at the white shadow.
Without the woman's control, the white shadow's aura grew weaker, its face becoming more blurred and its body gradually turning translucent.
The monster sensed the threat. It darted over to the black leather suitcase, snatched something from inside, and fled out the door.
Chen Ge didn't catch what the white shadow had taken, but he figured that since they were adversaries, anything the white shadow wanted to take away, he had to keep.
The butcher knife inflicted limited damage on the white shadow. Chen Ge acted decisively, shifting his target to the object the white shadow had grabbed.
He swung the knife at the right moment, and as the white shadow dodged, he seized the item in its grasp.
During the struggle, the object tore apart. Half a page of white paper fluttered to the ground. The white shadow didn't bother to retrieve it, hastily rushing out of the living room.
Chen Ge chased it to the doorway. The dark hallway was empty. He thought rationally—without the tape-recorded vengeful spirit by his side, he might not be a match for the white shadow.
He didn't give chase. Chen Ge closed the security door, turned on the living room light, and the scene inside made his eyelids twitch.
On the cold floor, the woman's limbs were twisted into strange angles. Her eyes bulged outward as she screamed loudly, yet her bald face bore an expression Chen Ge couldn't comprehend.
It seemed like pain, like relief, and even a hint of joy.
"Does it hurt?"
How to handle the madwoman was the tape-recorded vengeful spirit's business. Chen Ge's task was only to find this woman and help the spirit fulfill its wish.
He turned around and picked up the half-page of white paper that had fallen.
It looked like a flyer. The half containing the specific content had been taken by the white shadow. What Chen Ge got had only four red characters and a short introduction.
"Bizarre Tales Association? Telling one true bizarre tale every week?"
This half-page flyer caught Chen Ge's attention, not just because the white shadow had tried to take it away, but mainly because the flyer's background image was a half-open blood-red door!
"About the world behind the door?"
The flyer belonged to the madwoman from Ward No. 2, who had once entered the door of the Third Ward Building.
"Could it have been created by those escaped mental patients? What does 'telling one bizarre tale every week' mean?" Looking at the crude flyer and the vague introduction, Chen Ge felt that even those scam ads for "heavy reward for a son" plastered on utility poles were more thoughtfully made.
"You have to tell true bizarre tales. What happens if you make up fake ones? And how do they verify the truth?" Chen Ge tucked the half-page flyer away, pondering that if he recounted his recent experiences, he could probably leave many people stunned speechless. Of course, that only applied to humans. Chen Ge was self-aware enough to know that if the audience were all ghosts, who would be scaring whom was anyone's guess.
The screams inside gradually ceased, replaced by a mechanical, repetitive female voice.
"It hurts so much..."
"Has the woman been stuffed into the tape?" Chen Ge walked over to her. Her gaze was vacant, devoid of color, as if her soul had been extracted.
He didn't know what the tape-recorded vengeful spirit had done to the madwoman—that was its own affair.
He placed the madwoman on the sofa and turned off the tape recorder. As he pressed the switch, the black phone vibrated slightly.
Swiping the screen, a new message appeared.
"Successfully fulfilled Xu Yin's wish. His impression of you has greatly improved. Would you like to hire Xu Yin as a member of the Horror House?"
"Is the favorability task already complete?" The tape-recorded vengeful spirit was far more powerful than the pen fairy. But recalling the task to hire the pen fairy, this one had already been quite perilous.
"Would you like to hire Xu Yin? If no choice is made within twenty-four hours, it will be considered automatic forfeiture."
"Yes!" Chen Ge tapped the screen. The excitement he felt was hard for a normal person to grasp.
"Lucky favored one of the vengeful spirits, congratulations on successfully hiring the special type of vengeful spirit—Xu Yin."
"Xu Yin (Vengeful Spirit): He possesses a very unique voice (can briefly control lingering thoughts, interfere with other vengeful spirits, ineffective against Red Clothes, usable only once per week)."
"Note: Tourists' screams will excite Xu Yin. Feeding him tourists' fear can make his abilities stronger. If Xu Yin remains in low spirits for a long time, he may leave you."
After reading the info, Chen Ge was generally satisfied with Xu Yin. Like the pen fairy, he was a special type of vengeful spirit with his own unique abilities.
"Not bad. I'll have another trump card for trial missions in the future." He took the tape out of the recorder and placed it with the ballpoint pen. "The only downside is that the tape-recorded vengeful spirit seems to only appear when played. Looks like I need to hit up a flea market for a portable cassette player."
After handling his own matters, Chen Ge remembered there was still a "victim" lying in the bathroom.
He ran in and found Gu Feiyu in the bathtub, completely unconscious.
"This kid must have been scared out of his wits." Chen Ge dragged Gu Feiyu out of the tub, covered him with the security guard uniform, wrapped the butcher knife in his backpack's bottom layer, and then sat on the scene, waiting for Captain Li to arrive.
Twenty minutes later, Captain Li and the community property manager arrived together.
To prevent the situation from escalating, they didn't make too much noise.
"Chen Ge!" As soon as he entered, Captain Li saw Chen Ge sitting in the middle of the room. "Are you hurt? Where's the suspect?"
"Already tied up. The victim is that security guard, currently unconscious."
Captain Li stepped inside, inspected the scene, and frowned. He glanced at Chen Ge. "The woman is the perpetrator? The man is the victim?"
"Correct."
"Then why are you at the scene? What role did you play?"
"I..." Chen Ge thought on his feet. "Coincidentally, there's a girl on the fourteenth floor with depression whom I treated. Tonight, I mainly came to check on her recovery. You can go upstairs and ask if you don't believe me."
"So you stumbled upon this murder case by accident?"
"You could say that." After Chen Ge spoke, he noticed the gazes of several officers toward him had changed. "Really, it was just an accidental discovery."
"You don't need to explain. I believe you." Captain Li waved to the people behind him. "A-Yong, call an ambulance. Get the victim to the hospital for treatment and examination first. You few, come collect fingerprints. Don't touch the drinks on the table. Women lack physical advantage, so murder often involves poisoning or similar methods. Protect the scene."
Captain Li was experienced. With just a rough look, he deduced part of the case.
Chen Ge stood silently to the side, saying nothing, still clutching the half-page flyer in his hand.