"Xiaoge." A sweet, melodic voice stirred Chen Ge from the depths of slumber, coaxing his eyes to flutter open. What greeted him was bewildering: he found himself cradled in a woman's arms. Yet, the moment of tender familiarity quickly unraveled into something strange and unsettling.
This embrace was one Chen Ge knew better than his own heartbeat—yet today, it was different. Vastly, disturbingly different. The woman holding him was bare, not a thread upon her skin, and to his growing alarm, he realized he was just as naked. This was unprecedented, a stark departure from anything he'd ever experienced before.
A ripple of unease surged through him, urging his gaze upward to the woman who held him so intimately. What he saw stole his breath: a face so breathtakingly beautiful it dazzled the senses, skin glistening like polished jade, full and proud breasts that seemed to defy gravity, a slender willow-like waist, hips curved like ripe peaches, and long, alabaster legs that stretched endlessly. Every inch of her screamed one word—perfection.
Even knowing the boundaries that should exist between them, Chen Ge couldn't suppress the thought that crept into his mind: this vision before him possessed a beauty so absolute, it could drive any man to madness.
"What's on your mind?" That familiar, honeyed voice broke through his reverie, snapping him back to the moment. Her gentle smile—unchanging, warm—met his guilty eyes. Shame prickled at his chest, but before it could take root, a sudden wave of pleasure from below shattered his thoughts.
Only then did he notice: his erection, stiff and unyielding, was cradled in her delicate hand. She moved it with slow, deliberate strokes, transforming what had once been a mundane part of him into something pulsing with heat and hardness.
Before he could stammer a word, she smiled again, radiant and teasing. "My son, are you thinking about women?"
"N-No, I'm not!" Chen Ge's voice cracked, tripping over itself in denial.
"Oh? Then why's this little cock so hard?" She giggled softly, tightening her grip just enough to send another jolt of pleasure through him.
It's because of you! he screamed inwardly, though the words stayed locked behind his lips. Shock mingled with his flustered thoughts—he couldn't fathom that she, of all people, would utter a crude term like "cock." He'd only ever heard it flung around in the vulgar banter of his coworkers, a word rough and uncouth. Yet, spilling from her saintly lips, it didn't feel jarring. Instead, it ignited a strange, forbidden thrill deep within him.
His face burned crimson, but she showed no mercy. "It's okay," she continued, her tone light and playful. "Boys your age thinking about women—it's perfectly natural. Come on, don't be shy. Want to feel what a woman's like?" With that, she guided his hand to her chest, pressing it against the soft, bountiful swell of her breast.
So soft. So smooth. Chen Ge's fingers instinctively curled around the pliant flesh, marveling in silence. It was massive—his hand, though not small, couldn't fully encompass it, even with fingers splayed wide. Lost in awe, he kneaded it gently, feeling the nipple harden beneath his touch. A series of delicate, sultry moans slipped from her throat, each sound stoking the fire in his veins.
His curiosity swelled beyond mere touch. Leaning forward, he brought his lips to her chest, capturing the stiffened bud in his mouth. He licked and sucked with tentative care, savoring the sensation. She giggled—a tinkling, bell-like laugh he'd never heard before, stripped of her usual calm warmth and dripping with seduction… and something darker. Lewdness. The word clawed its way into his mind, unbidden, undeniable.
Though he fought to reject it, that lascivious laughter halted his ministrations. He lifted his head, staring at her. Her eyes were half-closed, her exquisite face flushed with a strange, unfamiliar heat. Her lips parted slightly, releasing soft, wanton moans as her tongue darted out to trace their rosy edges. That expression—it was more depraved than her voice, a sight so shocking he froze, the ember in his chest flaring hotter.
Suddenly, her eyes snapped open, autumn-water pupils locking onto his. His heart lurched, and he tried to look away, but she only smiled—a satisfied, indulgent curve of her lips. "Looks like my Xiaoge's grown up," she purred. "You're learning to appreciate a woman. Here, let me show you something even better."
With that, she nudged him upright, then reclined herself. Slowly, deliberately, she parted her long, graceful legs, revealing her most intimate self to his stunned gaze. Chen Ge's mind blanked, reduced to a vessel of instinct as his eyes fixed on that forbidden beauty.
Her mound was plump and pale, utterly hairless—a steamed bun fresh from the oven. Between its tender folds glistened a pink slit, the inner flesh peeking out, glistening and ripe. She slid a hand downward, parting the soft lips with her fingers, and asked with a coy laugh, "Pretty, isn't it?"
"Y-Yes… beautiful," Chen Ge rasped, swallowing hard. His eyes clung to the sight, unwilling to blink as her fingers widened the crevice, unveiling more of that rosy, dewy paradise. It beckoned him, tempting him to taste it.
"Then touch it," she coaxed, her voice a siren's call.
He gulped again, trembling with anticipation as he extended a finger toward that delicate wonder. But just before contact, he hesitated—its fragility seemed so profound, he feared he'd ruin it with a single touch. Then, her hips tilted upward, brushing her slick warmth against his fingertip. He flinched, but finding it unharmed, he began to explore—gently, reverently.
Tender. Silky. Soft. Words flooded his mind, yet none captured the sensation. It was perfection distilled, and he pressed deeper, tracing the slick folds, teasing the tiny nub at their peak with newfound boldness. Her body quivered beneath his touch, her moans growing huskier, more desperate. Her legs, once splayed wide, snapped shut, trapping his hand in their velvet vise.
But Chen Ge wouldn't let that vision vanish. Casting aside restraint, he pried her thighs apart with both hands, pinning them down with his arms. One hand mimicked hers, spreading her open, while the other resumed its dance across her glistening core.
"Ahh… oh…" Her moans escalated, her hips bucking upward in rhythm with his strokes. The slit grew wetter, slicker, and he noticed two openings within—one small, one slightly larger—both weeping crystalline droplets. Guided by instinct, he pressed a finger into the lower cavern, sliding in easily with the aid of her arousal.
Her body shuddered, the tight passage clenching around him, resisting further intrusion. Unable to push deeper, he wiggled his finger instead, stirring her into a frenzy of breathless gasps and escalating moans. The flood of her essence intensified, and as her grip loosened, he prepared to delve further—only for her hand to catch his wrist.
"No fingers inside," she chided, her voice a playful scold.
Disappointment flickered through him—she'd been so willing, so eager. Noticing his pout, she laughed, a mix of exasperation and amusement. "Silly boy, I didn't say you couldn't use something else."
"What?" he blinked, bewildered.
She pointed to his still-rigid length. "This, you little fool."
"Can I?" His mind reeled, glancing between her delicate slit and his own throbbing girth—far thicker than a finger. Could it really fit?
Impatient, she shoved him onto his back and straddled him, her lithe legs framing his hips. Grasping his shaft, she aligned it with her drenched entrance, the rough tip brushing her tender flesh. Both gasped at the contact, electrified by the mere promise of union. She paused, guiding his hands to her breasts—firm and unyielding despite her posture—then lowered herself, rubbing his tip along her slit while claiming his lips in a searing kiss.
Ecstasy overwhelmed him—her kiss, her friction, her pliant curves beneath his palms. Unable to bear the teasing, she positioned him at her entrance and sank down. With a wet, silken sound, he plunged fully into her tight, pulsing depths.
"Oh…" A shared groan escaped them. Chen Ge felt as though he'd ascended to the heavens, the crushing pleasure of her embrace eclipsing every sensation he'd ever known. Overwhelmed, his body betrayed him—years of pent-up desire erupted forth in a trembling release.
He clenched his eyes shut, savoring the aftershocks until they faded. Yet even then, he lingered in that hazy limbo between dream and waking.
…
At some point, his eyes opened.
The familiar ceiling of his bedroom stared back. It had all been a dream—a vivid, shameful illusion.
Sitting up slowly, Chen Ge ignored the sticky mess in his underwear. He buried his face in his hands, groaning incoherently into his knees. He'd seen enough forbidden films and porns to know what this was: a wet dream. For a single guy like him, it was hardly surprising.
But that wasn't what gnawed at him.
"Mom, where are you? And Dad? What happened to you both…?" Memories surged, drowning him in nostalgia. Yet, for the sacrilege of defiling his mother in that dream, he felt no guilt. Beneath his sunny, wholesome exterior appearance lurked an evil darkness.
—————
"This is the first time I've visited such an un-scary Haunted House."
"The props are too fake; I didn't feel scared. If anything, it all felt like a joke to me."
"Materialists like ourselves naturally have nothing to be afraid of! Ghosts aren't real!"
"I hate to say it, but I told you so. We should have stayed at the hostel; I was so close to gaining another level on my online game."
A group of students grumbled with disappointment in front of Western Jiujiang City's House of Horrors before they left on their motorbikes. Chen Ge, who held a stack of advertisement flyers for the Haunted House, shook his head despondently when he saw this.
The art of scaring was a skill, but with the introduction of scary movies, many modern-day citizens' threshold for scares had been increased. A visit to the Haunted House was no different from a stroll in one's own backyard.
"Boss!"
A clear female voice erupted from behind him. Chen Ge turned around and saw a slender 'zombie' in a nurse outfit, her curvaceous silhouette bristling with fury running out of the Haunted House.
Her pace was quick, too swift for the tight skirt clinging to her legs. As it rode up naturally with each step, Chen Ge's gaze inadvertently traced the line of her creamy, sensual thighs—straight to the shadowed juncture between them. In the fleeting instant before she yanked the hem down, he caught a glimpse of something soft and lascivious: delicate, pink petals nestled at the apex of her legs. She wasn't wearing underwear.
"What's wrong, Xiaowan?" The zombie's name was Xu Wan; she was one of the temporary actors hired by the Haunted House. Barely shy of twenty, her youthful frame boasted a chest so full and proud it could make even the most glamorous forty-year-old matrons blush with envy.
"Those few ruffians earlier, they tried to take advantage of me!" the girl hissed through gritted teeth, her fists gripped tight. Her cheeks flared red as she realized her boss had seen beneath her skirt, but indignation quickly overtook her embarrassment. Her small tiger-like fangs glinted as she clenched her fists, her puffed-out chest heaving with righteous anger.
So, it is merely to complain…
"That's horrible; they wouldn't even leave a zombie in peace." As her boss—and someone who'd long secretly claimed her as his own forbidden treasure—naturally Chen Ge was on Xiao Wan's side. "Later, I'll have the amusement park manager to pull up the surveillance footage."
Standing beside the girl, Chen Ge's six-foot frame loomed over Xu Wan by nearly a head, close enough to catch the faint, floral whisper of her hair. His gaze drifted downward, snagging on the way her Resident Evil-inspired nurse cosplay strained against her chest. The fabric stretched tight, barely veiling the elastic, snow-white swell of her breasts—a silken ravine of cleavage gleamed beneath, slick and inviting.
The skirt was no less a spectacle: a daring slit parted its side, revealing sheer stockings that clung to her sculpted legs like a second skin. With each step, the slit fluttered open and shut, teasing glimpses of lace-trimmed edges that hugged her tender thighs. Where the delicate filigree met flesh, the smooth, pale expanse of her upper thighs shone, a stark and tantalizing contrast.
"There's no need for that. When I realized their intentions, my punch went flying straight at the boy's face." Xu Wan pointed at the bloodstain at the edge of her outfit and exclaimed rather proudly, "See, this isn't fake blood."
"Good, good, a girl should learn how to protect herself." Chen Ge wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. As he turned to look at the setting sun, he said, "I suppose it's time to call it a day. We probably won't have any more visitors, so help me go and tell everyone that we can get off work early today."
-----
However, he realized the girl in zombie make-up didn't make an attempt to move away.
"Is there anything else?"
"Boss…" Xu Wan hesitated before pulling two letters out from her pocket slowly. "These are the resignation letters from Tao Ming and Xiao Wei. You've been a great boss to them, so they didn't have to the face to give these to you in person and had me pass them to you."
"Boss…" Xu Wan hesitated, stepping forward—only to falter with a soft "Oof!" Her plush, yielding frame toppled into his arms, her curves pressing against his chest in waves of warm, pliant pressure. His head dipped, and through her low neckline, he glimpsed half a bare, firm breast—round and alabaster, practically begging to be stared at. His eyes locked onto it, disbelief warring with desire. Not another dream, surely? His groin had no such doubts, hardening instantly and nudging against her soft belly.
Twin blooms of red flared across Xu Wan's cheeks, her eyes glistening like dew about to spill. She scrambled upright, feigning calm as she pulling two letters out from her pocket slowly. "These are the resignation letters from Tao Ming and Xiao Wei. You've been a great boss to them, so they didn't have to the face to give these to you in person and had me pass them to you."
"They're quitting?" Chen Ge asked the obvious question as he accepted the letters, then he added. His eyes lingered on Xu Wan's apple-red face, a spark igniting within him. He gave her pert backside a teasing pat, his fingers slipping beneath her skirt to graze her slick, petal-soft folds—wet and warm. He smirked. "Everyone has their own dream to chase, so be it. Xiao Wan, you can leave now if there's nothing else."
"Okay, I'll go remove the make-up first."
After the cute little zombie left, Chen Ge lit a cigarette silently. Half a year ago, when his parents mysteriously disappeared, the only thing they left him was this Haunted House. To keep their memory alive, Chen Ge had resigned from his day-job to focus on managing this Haunted House.
In the haunted house's thriving days, Chen Ge could get one or two opportunities to run his hands over the stunning female guests who fainted from fright.
Alas, times were changing. Despite the niche genre, there was huge competition among Haunted Houses, and there were plenty of limitations as well. A scary scenario would lose its scare factor after the initial experience, but a constant update would require plenty of resources and money.
Starting from a few weeks ago, the Haunted House had been in the red; the income from the daily ticket sales barely covered the electricity and water expenses.
"I wonder how long I can hold on."
After extinguishing the cigarette, when Chen Ge was prepared to return to the Haunted House, a middle-aged man wearing the uniform for New Century Park walked toward him. When he saw him, Chen Ge increased his pace like a mouse spotting a cat.
"You think you can pretend to have not seen me?" The middle-aged man clamped his hands on Chen Ge's shoulders. "Today, we definitely need to talk it out. You've owed the rent and utilities for two months already. The top brass are breathing down my neck to pursue it, so pay up!"
"Uncle Xu, it's not that I don't want to pay you, but I really have nothing to pay you with. Can you please give me another month?"
"That's what you told me last month!"
"I promise, this is definitely the last time!" Chen Ge patted his chest as he promised with sincerity.
"People have already moved on from Haunted Houses. Listen to me, it's no use being this stubborn." When the middle-aged man named Uncle Xu saw the letters in Chen Ge's hand, the force on Chen Ge's shoulders gradually lightened. "You're so young; you can still begin anew with a different career, so why are you doing this to yourself?"
"Uncle Xu, I know you're just looking out for me, but this Haunted House carries a different meaning for me. I guess I'm still unwilling to let the last memory of my parents go," Chen Ge uttered in a lowered voice as if he was afraid that other people might hear him.
As the amusement park manager, the middle-aged man knew about the disappearance of Chen Ge's parents. He didn't answer immediately. After a few seconds, he sighed and said, "Fine, I can understand how you feel. I'll try my best to talk to management for you and see if they can give you a few more weeks."
"Thank you, Uncle Xu!"
"Don't thank me so soon, you'd better make sure you can increase the ticket sales or the ending will just be the same."
After sending the amusement park manager off, Chen Ge returned to the Haunted House and started his daily routine of checking the equipment, maintaining the items, and cleaning.
"The fake blood in the maintenance room is almost empty; I have to buy a new batch.
"If this corridor could be made slightly more slanted to the side, it'll create a better blind spot to scare the visitors.
"Oh no, this puppet is broken already; I'll have to repair it later.
"F*ck! What happened to the lightbulb I installed here last week? Who has stolen it‽"
In the eyes of an outsider, he was the owner of a Haunted House, a young entrepreneur in a way, but only Chen Ge himself could understand the difficulty behind maintaining a Haunted House. Haunted Houses were a kind of entertainment. Caught within a scary environment, one's physical and mental situation would be maintained at a heightened state, but when the stress was released, it would lead to a sense of relief and satisfaction; it was not unlike a massage in a way.
At the same time, most Haunted Houses were one-trick ponies. The most effective business method for a Haunted House was to have it be mobile so that it would constantly attract fresh batches of visitors. A Haunted House that was stuck at a certain location like Chen Ge's had to have immense popularity to lure in the crowds, or else they wouldn't be able to survive for long. The fact that he had managed to hold on for so long was already, in a way, a miracle.
Dragging the puppet that was ruined, Chen Ge entered the maintenance room. He had studied Toy Design in college, and the machinery and traps used in the Haunted House had been all personally designed and built by him. The maintenance process, which included sewing and repainting, was dry and repetitive.
"Still missing some fake blood. If I remember correctly, there's still some stock in the attic." The Haunted House was separated into three floors; the first and second floors were for haunted scenarios while the third was a storeroom.
After pushing open the wooden door, behind the haze of wood chips and dust, there were various kinds of materials and unwanted ingredients left behind by Chen Ge's parents from when they had managed the Haunted House.
Unwilling to face the past, Chen Ge rarely came up to this place.
"Now that I think about it, it has almost been half a year already."
Looking at the various equipment, Chen Ge was reminded of his childhood. At the time, his family had managed a mobile Haunted House, so he had gotten the chance to travel the country with his parents. When the two adults were busy, they would leave Chen Ge alone backstage to accompany the various ghosts, so Chen Ge's unnatural guts had been trained since he was young.
After all, when his friends of the same age were playing with blocks and puzzles, he was running around with a fake human head.
"These are all precious memories."
Chen Ge wandered aimlessly before finding himself back at the wooden box that kept the few things that remained of his parents. Inside sat a black cell phone and a rough-looking doll.
The doll was the first toy Chen Ge made when he was a child, but he had zero recollection of the phone. Both of these items had been found in an abandoned hospital in the countryside, and regarding why Chen Ge's parents would go there in the middle of the night, even the police couldn't give him an answer.
"Where are the two of you?" Chen Ge picked up the doll and pinched its chubby face. Then, with a sigh, he told himself, "I'd better go find that fake blood. If I cannot survive this off season, I really will have to bid this Haunted House farewell."
Chen Ge was talking to himself, but when he said so, the black phone, which had been silent in the box, suddenly lit up with a dim, cold light.
"What's going on? Dark technology or supernatural phenomenon?" If this happened to someone else, that person probably would have raced out screaming bloody murder already, but in comparison, Chen Ge's reaction was much calmer. He picked up the phone and inspected it closer.
"This is weird. I've tried opening this phone more than a hundred times before, but it wouldn't work, so why did it open by itself today? This phone was found where my parents disappeared, so could it be that they know I'm in trouble and are contacting me to help?"
Chen Ge swiped the phone open, and on the front page with a black background, there was only one available app. It had the shape of a Haunted House as an icon.
"Wait… This looks so familiar, just like the front entrance of my own Haunted House!"
With a frown, Chen Ge clicked the app open, and a row of letters written in what appeared to be blood appeared on screen—Do you believe there are ghosts in this world?
Objectively speaking, this was a metaphysical philosophical question; for an engineering student like Chen Ge, it was practically unanswerable.
"There should be," Chen Ge mumbled to himself, and a few seconds later, a new sentence appeared on screen.
"What you believe is the answer. From this moment on, you will officially take over as the new owner of the Haunted House. Of course, this is not something worth celebrating. Before the end of the tutorials, please heed my last advice: suicide is the most cowardice of behavior, and try your best to survive!"
"What and what? But this pompous way of speech does resemble that father of mine."
Chen Ge clicked on the app again, and a new window appeared.
_______________
Western Jiujiang Haunted House
Status: Almost Closing
Good Reputation: Zero
Daily Visitor Number: Four
Monthly Visitor Number: Ten
My Team of Ghosts and Ghouls: None
My Item Storage: None
Unlocked Achievement: None
Current Available Scenarios [Set Pieces]:
– Night of the Living Dead – Horrible prop, untrained actors, the plot has no readable storyline or logic. Scream Factor: 0 Star
– Minghun [Nether World Marriage] – Couple torn apart in the living world, bound together forever in the nether world; sharing the same grave, pursuing happiness in death. Scream Factor: 0.5 Stars
Unlockable Scenarios:
– Murder by Midnight – A dangerous psychotic patient wandered about a fallen apartment. Scissors and mallets as hands, he is just wandering outside of your room. Scream Factor: 1 Star
– The Third Sick Hall – There are unexplainable noises coming out from this abandoned hospital building every night. As a newspaper reporter, you're tasked with getting to the bottom of this dark mystery. Scream Factor: 3 Stars
– The Haunted Hearse – Leaving with the hearse carrying the coffin, if you cannot escape within an hour, you'll stay forever inside the hearse. Scream Factor: 2 Stars
Daily Mission: Complete Daily Missions provided by the Haunted House to unlock more scary scenarios. The rewards correspond to the difficulty of the mission.
Haunted House Expansion Conditions: Monthly Visitor Numbers over 100. Good Reputation over 60 percent. (After 3 expansions, the Haunted House will upgrade to The Shivering Maze.)
Haunted Wheel of Misfortune (Expend Fright Points generated by visitors of the Haunted House to spin the Wheel): The Decree of Life and Death is never the decision of man; fortune and misfortune are only an inch apart. We have both Spirit Fruits to increase your life span as well as hatred-filled Baleful Specters!
Other functions: Yet to be unlocked