Chapter 50: The Meaning of the Number
Adjusting his angle, Chen Ge struggled to make out the bloodstain on the bathroom mirror—it was an Arabic numeral: "2."
The number itself wasn't frightening, but being written in blood made it deeply unsettling.
"What does this number mean? Last night, after the mirror monster left, I saw a number '3' on the remaining shard of glass. Now it's changed to '2.' Is there some connection between them? Why is it decreasing?" Chen Ge was baffled. "Could this number represent a date? Is it a countdown?"
Staring at the bloodstain, which hadn't fully dried yet, Chen Ge leaned against the door, lost in thought.
"The mirror monster has already left and taken up residence in Zhang Peng's body. There's no reason for it to deliberately leave this number behind—unless it plans to come back and get revenge on me." Chen Ge couldn't figure it out. He knew too little about things from the other world to guess its intentions.
"If this number decreases every day, what will happen when it hits zero?" A bad feeling crept into Chen Ge's heart. He paced back and forth in front of the bathroom door. "Could the number be tied to my life? When it reaches zero, will something terrifying come for me?"
He stopped walking, thinking he might be overreacting. "I'll check again tomorrow night. If the number appears in the haunted house again, I'll take action then."
Letting out a sigh, he just wanted to run his haunted house well, lease the underground parking lot, unlock more scenes, and keep expanding. But things never went as planned—there was always some unexpected trouble messing things up.
Back in the staff break room, more police cars arrived outside the haunted house. The city bureau's criminal investigation team came in, asked Chen Ge a few questions, took some photos, and then threw themselves back into the intense manhunt.
Captain Li stayed with Chen Ge the whole time, but even as dawn began to break, there was still no news of Zhang Peng being caught.
Still, Captain Li assured Chen Ge repeatedly that, given Zhang Peng's current state, he couldn't have gotten far and would definitely be apprehended within twenty-four hours.
That wasn't what worried Chen Ge, though. He kept mulling over the number left by the mirror monster, so his spirits were low.
Captain Li assumed he was just shaken up and didn't think much of it. After offering a few words of comfort, he left with the other officers at daybreak.
Chen Ge sat alone in the haunted house, opening a window to let the cold morning air seep into his collar.
"I'm the owner of a haunted house—basically a leader among ghosts and monsters—so why do I feel like I'm scraping by?" Morning light streamed in, and the plush doll lying on the bedsheet seemed to be stirred by the wind, falling under the bed.
Chen Ge picked up the little thing and poked its belly. "The only vengeful spirit that listens to me, and all it can do is act cute. If a real fight breaks out, I'd probably have to protect her."
The doll in his hand seemed unhappy with his assessment, struggling to break free but unable to.
"Both rewards from those two nightmare-level missions were supportive—useful for the haunted house's development, but not much help to me personally." Chen Ge wasn't sure what would happen when the number hit zero. He was a cautious person and wouldn't put himself in danger without a plan.
Pulling out his black phone, Chen Ge scrolled through it for a while and realized his only real trump card was that seemingly powerful red-dressed vengeful spirit—Zhang Ya.
In the cabin on the back mountain of Ping An Apartments, Zhang Ya had helped him once, warning him that Wang Qi was behind him, essentially saving his life.
But later, during the nightmare mission, when the mirror monster pressed his head down and nearly drowned him, Zhang Ya never showed up.
Clearly, she acted entirely on her own whims.
"If I complete the favorability mission, I can order her to do one thing that doesn't go against her own will. Then I could ask her to help me deal with any potential danger." Chen Ge tapped on Zhang Ya's name, staring at the blood-red dedicated page. Even with his lifelong training in courage, he still felt a chill. "This lady likes me dead. If the favorability goes up too fast, what if she gets impatient and decides to kill me herself?"
A vengeful spirit's love wasn't something just anyone could handle. Chen Ge exited the dedicated page, feeling like the air had gotten fresher. "The favorability mission is my last card. If that number shows up again tonight and changes, I'll use it and go complete the mission."
With that decision made, Chen Ge felt more at ease and slowly drifted off to sleep.
Around eight in the morning, after Xu Wan came in for work, Chen Ge handed the haunted house over to her and took some money to go pick out surveillance cameras.
He was in a hurry to buy them, partly because the haunted house had too many blind spots, making it unsafe, and partly because one of the daily missions updated on his black phone specifically required him to install surveillance and sound-activated devices.
He finished the purchases in the morning and brought the installation crew back to the Horror House by noon. Under his personal supervision, the nervous workers set up cameras in every corner of the haunted house, creating a surveillance network with very few blind spots. As for the sound-activated devices, his budget was tight, so he only bought the cheapest kind and installed them in the wedding scene.
By seven in the evening, after the final successful test, Chen Ge received a notification from the black phone that the mission was complete.
"Balance is key to giving visitors the best experience. Congratulations on completing the easy-difficulty daily mission. Reward: background track 'Wedding Dress'!"
"Note: 'Wedding Dress' perfectly matches the wedding scene! The wedding scene's scream index has risen to one star!"
Seeing the notification, Chen Ge froze. The wedding scene's original scream index was only half a star, but now a single track had pushed it to one star—clearly, this song was even more spine-chilling than "Black Friday."
Out of a sense of responsibility to his visitors, Chen Ge gave it a listen. It felt different from "Black Friday"—one was slow-burning, like being slowly dragged into an abyss; the other was more eerie and jarring, turning a happy tune into a funeral dirge, sending chills down the spine from the very first note.
"It really does fit the wedding scene. But listening to this kind of music too often can mess with your psyche. Unless someone comes to cause trouble, I'd better use it sparingly." Chen Ge saved "Wedding Dress" to his phone and went alone to the third floor of the haunted house to start cleaning.
He didn't have extra money to hire workers. With a few cloth dolls stuffed in his pocket, he grabbed his tools and cleared out all the mirror shards from the haunted house.
By the time he finished, it was late at night. Holding his phone, Chen Ge paced between the bathroom and the staff break room.
He checked the mirror over and over, waiting until midnight.