Is Heaven Trying to Destroy Me?

Chen Ge stared intently at his phone screen. The wheel spun slower and slower until, with a soft click, the pointer came to a halt.

Draw complete. Congratulations on obtaining a rare special item: Cursed Love Letter (0.3% drop rate)!

Eyes bulging, face deathly pale, from the moment she fell from the high-rise, she became a taboo on campus. Her red dancing shoes, blood-stained school uniform, and even her name became topics that could not be mentioned. People pretended to forget, until one day, someone received her love letter again...

First draw resulted in a Malevolent Spirit. Rare title unlocked: Favored by the Malevolent Spirit.

Favored by the Malevolent Spirit: When this title is equipped, there is a certain chance to receive assistance from Malevolent Spirits.

Seeing the notifications on his phone, Chen Ge felt a sense of suffocation: "Cursed Love Letter? A three-in-a-thousand chance? Ghost Favored? I haven't even figured out the monster in the mirror yet, and now I've pulled a vengeful spirit! Is heaven trying to kill me?!"

He felt a pang of regret for jinxing himself before the draw: "Calm down! Don't lose your head. Things haven't reached the worst-case scenario yet. Pulling a vengeful spirit doesn't mean it will appear right now. I still have time to remedy this. Maybe I should go to a nearby temple and draw a fortune."

He tucked his phone away, but as he moved to slide it into his pocket, his fingertips brushed against something.

Looking down, Chen Ge discovered that a yellowed piece of stationery had been slipped into his pocket at some point.

An ominous premonition gripped his heart. With trembling hands, he pulled out the paper, upon which a sentence had been woven out of human hair: I like you.

"Like hell I'm calm! What exactly do you like about me? I'll change it, okay?!"

The characters on the paper were elegant and fluid; if they hadn't been woven from hair, they would have been quite a sight to behold.

Standing in the West Wing Room, clutching the letter, Chen Ge's face turned ashen: "It's hard to imagine that the first love letter I've ever received in my life would appear in such a form."

"Boss! What are you muttering about to yourself?" Xu Wan walked in from outside, having just finished arranging the paper effigies in the main room.

"Nothing. I was just thinking, if a person knew their days were numbered, should they let go of all obsessions and do something meaningful?" Chen Ge looked up at Xu Wan, who was wearing her corpse makeup: "For example, contributing one's own strength to the reproduction and continuation of the human race."

Chen Ge had said it offhandedly, but to his surprise, Xu Wan wore a thoughtful expression, her demeanor slowly turning serious.

"Xiao Wan, are you actually agreeing? No, wait, I'm not ready yet. Isn't this a bit too casual? Although we have great chemistry and have worked together for a long time, if we really must contribute to the continuation of the race, it's not entirely impossible..." Chen Ge felt inexplicably nervous.

"No, Boss, you misunderstood. I just saw that you had two shadows when I walked in, and I was a bit curious." Xu Wan pointed behind Chen Ge: "Is this also a new project for our haunted house?"

"Two shadows?!"

Chen Ge turned his head to look. Behind him, a large shadow and a small one were slowly drawing closer, eventually merging into one.

"WTF!"

Without a second thought, he grabbed Xu Wan and bolted out of the haunted house.

Only after basking in the sunlight did Chen Ge calm down. He didn't explain the reason to Xu Wan, simply sitting down on the steps at the entrance of the haunted house.

"Boss, you've been acting paranoid lately. Is the pressure too much?" Xu Wan sat down beside him: "Don't put so much pressure on yourself. Everything will get better. What do you want for lunch? I'll go get it for you."

Hearing Xu Wan's words, Chen Ge didn't know how to respond. He forced a smile: "The same as yours is fine. Also, go wash off that makeup first; don't scare the cafeteria cook."

"Mm-hmm."

After Xu Wan left, Chen Ge brought the love letter before his eyes again: "I saw the two shadows merge with my own eyes. Does this mean I've been latched onto by a vengeful spirit, and it's hiding in my shadow right now?"

Where there is sunlight, there are shadows. Chen Ge stared at his own shadow, his eyes unblinking: "I possess the title of Ghost Favored, which gives me a certain chance to receive help from vengeful spirits. If this title is actually useful, then pulling a vengeful spirit might not necessarily be a bad thing."

He could only comfort himself this way. In truth, he knew very well that a spirit is called "vengeful" because it is filled with deep-seated resentment before death, radiating malice and curses. Dealing with such an entity, if one were even slightly careless, would lead to a miserable end.

After lunch, Chen Ge sat at the entrance of the haunted house with a stack of flyers. Many tourists passed by, but few were willing to enter and look around.

With nothing better to do, Chen Ge opened his short-video personal page and found dozens of new private messages in his inbox.

Filtering out the abuse and advertisements, Chen Ge replied to the rest one by one. Soon, he saw a message from He Shan.

The honest and simple forensic student had secretly messaged Chen Ge, saying that their school's forum had exploded. After learning that the department beauty had been scared to tears, a group of male upperclassmen were sharpening their knives, preparing to flatten the haunted house. Some had even issued a "crusade" call on the forum, and over a dozen people had already signed up.

"Youth is a wonderful thing." Chen Ge's lips curled upward. In his mind, he could already picture a dozen hormone-fueled young men huddled together, shivering in his haunted house.

"Once I finish the trial mission, I'll let them be the first to test the new scenario and see just how terrifying a one-star horror scenario rated by the phone really is."

Thinking of the trial mission, Chen Ge grew serious. This mission could only be attempted once; if he failed, the corresponding horror scenario would be locked forever.

He flipped through the black phone, committing the mission details to memory.

Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated. After confirming the mission location, Chen Ge began searching the internet for all information related to the place.

"Ping An Apartment, western suburbs of Hanjiang City..."

Searching for the location alone yielded nothing. After flipping through several pages, Chen Ge finally found something related to the apartment building on a local Hanjiang second-hand property website.

It was a complaint post claiming that the seller had hidden the truth: the apartment building was actually a "haunted house." After peeling back the wallpaper, traces of mottled blood were found, and a strange, foul stench could be smelled every night.

The complaint went unheeded and eventually faded into obscurity. Chen Ge glanced at the timestamp of the post; it was from nine months ago.

"Spending a night in a real-life haunted house and having to find the hidden killer—this mission is a bit difficult for me." Chen Ge had majored in toy design in college. He was skilled at manual craftsmanship, but when it came to investigation and deduction, he was essentially clueless.

"This is tricky. I'm not afraid of the haunted house itself, but I am afraid of the killer living next door, treating me as prey in the dead of night."