My House of Horrors
Chapter 1000: Adoption

Every child that was selected by the ghost fetus had a defect to them. Chen Ge should be no exception, but what he had lost might be different from the other children. His memory, shadow, and even parents—Chen Ge had lost so much that he could not tell for sure.

There are seven nights left. I am getting closer to the truth.

Leaving the Pei Zhi Academy, Chen Ge returned to New Century Park. With everything that he could do for now done, he deserved a good rest. At around 8 pm, Chen Ge’s phone vibrated, and he got a message from ‘Jiang Ming’.

“I’m home.”

This was a code decided between Tong Tong, Men Nan, and Chen Ge. When Chen Ge received this message, he would take all the employees and leave the haunted house. Chen Ge arrived at the city center around 9 pm. He did not head directly to Jiang Ming’s residential area but found a nearby restaurant to sit and eat.

At 10:30 pm, Chen Ge received the second message from ‘Jiang Ming’. It was only then that he moved slowly toward his destination. He had scouted the place out the previous night, so he knew where the surveillance blind spots were.

At 11:20 pm, Chen Ge received the third message from ‘Jiang Ming’. He took immediate action. He leaped over the wall and took only few seconds to complete all his actions.

Chen Ge carried his backpack toward one of the buildings. At the same time, Jiang Ming rushed out from the stairwell, heading toward the underground parking lot. After Jiang Ming drove away, Chen Ge walked to the apartment entrance. The door that was installed at the stairwell was opened from the inside as Men Nan poked his head out. “The plan was successful; Jiang Ming was completely fooled by Tong Tong.”

“Is the boy asleep?”

“Yes, follow me.”

Chen Ge’s plan was simple. After the young Jiang Ming fell asleep, Tong Tong would mimic Jiang Jiu and send orders to him via his phone and have him travel all around the city that night.

“The stairwell and his home both use a password lock. I memorized the password when he opened them earlier.” Men Nan led Chen Ge to the fourth door and opened the door.

“Wait a minute.” Chen Ge took out plastic bags to wrap around his shoes and a pairs of gloves before entering the house.

Even though this was the silk-stocking district in Jiujiang, Jiang Ming’s house was sparsely decorated. A lot of furniture was old and dilapidated. It felt incongruent with the rest of the place. It felt like the old furniture had purposely been put there.

“This whole day, Jiang Jiu has not contacted Jiang Ming. He acted very normal, just like a normal employee at the theme park.”

“Is there any information about the boy on Jiang Ming’s phone? Like who the mother is and when the boy lost his hearing?” Chen Ge whispered.

“The phone has no incriminating information and no clues. There was not even a picture related to that boy.”

“Basically, the boy’s existence is a secret. If not for Jiang Ming’s girlfriend’s accidental discovery, probably no one would know about a boy who shared his name at his home.”

“You can see it that way.”

The information about the boy was a blank slate. Chen Ge conducted his search around the house. To save time, he released Ol’ Zhou and his friends to help. The lights were not turned on, and shadows moved across the room.

Several minutes later, Chen Ge really did find something. He found a crumpled letter inside the study’s trashcan. The content of the letter was as follows. The sender needed a lot of money, and if they were refused, they would come to take the child and not let him stay with Jiang Ming anymore.

“The child is a bargaining chip?” Chen Ge studied the letter. “The boy lives with the older Jiang Ming, but there is no information on his mother. Could the sender of this letter be the mother? Is the boy Jiang Ming’s biological son?” Chen Ge and his employees stood inside the study. Other than the letter, they found nothing else. “Whether the boy is his biological son or not, there must be something to prove the child’s identity inside this house. Jiang Ming can’t have moved all of that to Jiang Jiu’s place, right? Or, is there a hidden room inside this house?”

With another search, Ol’ Zhou finally found a hidden safe behind the bookshelf. Chen Ge did not need to open the safe. He only needed his employee to slip into the safe to check its contents. Ten seconds later, Ol’ Zhou crawled out from the gap.

“The boy is not related to Jiang Ming or Jiang Jiu by blood. They are taking care of him on behalf of someone else. There are adoption papers inside the safe. The husband and wife agreed for their child to stay here for the five thousand RMB that Jiang Jiu would pay them monthly. From the signature, it reads that the boy’s real father’s name is Jiang Dawu.

“There is a mud statuette inside the safe with the name ‘Jiang Ming’ on it. That confirms that Jiang Ming is one of the selected candidates. Other than that, the child’s real ID is stored inside the safe. His real name is Jiang Ming, but it turns that it’s the young man who works at the theme park that has changed his name.

“Jiang Jiu’s adopted son’s original name was Jiang Wei. It was after Jiang Ming was arranged to stay here that Jiang Wei changed his name to Jiang Ming.”

“Why would he do that? Does he want to use this to take something away from Jiang Ming? But there is nothing worth taking from the boy, other than the fact that he was selected by the source of misfortune, the ghost fetus.” There was no free love in this world. Jiang Jiu must want something from the boy, and that was why he had agreed to adopt the child.

“Perhaps Jiang Jiu wishes to trick the ghost fetus. He wants to become the ghost fetus’ father,” Ol’ Zhou analyzed.

“The evil spirit possessing Jiang Jiu and Jia Ming were both left behind by the ghost fetus. They probably wouldn’t dare infringe on the ghost fetus’ plan.” Chen Ge stood in their perspective, a normal person would not choose to have any relationship with the ghost fetus.

“That might not be true. What if Jiang Jiu has underestimated the ghost fetus’ power, or the ghost fetus has underestimated the greed of the living.”

“You have a point there.” Chen Ge nodded admiringly at Ol’ Zhou. He felt like Ol’ Zhou had a bright future. “Tong Tong’s plan to lure Jiang Ming away can only be used once. When dawn arrives and Jiang Ming meets up with Jiang Jiu, they will realize that something is wrong, so we only have one chance tonight.”

Since there were no other clues to find, Chen Ge decided to meet the boy. Pushing the door open, Chen Ge looked into the room. The boy was already asleep, and he did not notice the additional ‘people’ that had entered the house.

To prevent Jiang Ming from being scared awake, Chen Ge summoned Ol’ Zhou and the rest back into the comic. Only he and Men Nan entered the bedroom. On the surface, the boy looked normal, just like any other child. One could not make the connection to the scary ghost fetus.

Chen Ge and Men Nan walked to the window, and they waited for midnight. The atmosphere in the room started to change, and a door appeared quietly next to the boy’s bed.