Chen Ge was worried the Landlord next door might hear him, so he kept his voice low. He wasn't deliberately trying to create a tense atmosphere.
By the time he finished explaining, He Shan was dumbfounded. The earnest college student who had worked his way from a mountain village into Medical School had never imagined that his first phone call with an online friend would involve such an intense topic as a Massacre Case.
"You're in that haunted house right now?"
"Yeah."
"And the Landlord next door might be the murderer from five years ago?"
"Mm-hmm."
"I'm a little confused. Give me a moment to think." He Shan clutched his phone. The two ends of the call might as well have been different worlds. His dorm was buzzing with people playing PUBG and League of Legends, while the other end of the line was dead silent, filled with a suffocating tension.
"Boss, I think you should call the police. You don't have any proof, but your safety matters more than making a false alarm."
He Shan was telling the truth, but Chen Ge had his own concerns. The Haunted House Escape was a task the Black Phone had given him, and it required him to spend the night there. If the police got involved, there was a very good chance the task would fail. It would be a shame to give up when completing it could unlock a brand-new horror scenario. "It's not time to call the police yet."
"Your safety is the most important thing right now. How about this?" He Shan paused, then continued, "Turn on your phone's location services, and don't hang up all night. I'll listen for anything happening on your end. If there's the slightest sign of trouble, I'll call the police right away."
Staying on the phone was a good idea. Chen Ge looked at his own phone. The short-video app was still open, and an ad recruiting PUBG streamers was playing on a loop.
An idea suddenly struck him. Instead of staying on the phone, he had a more reliable plan. "I can livestream from the haunted house. If anything happens to me, the viewers in my stream can call the police, and the recording will be the strongest evidence. Of course, it'd be even better if everything went smoothly. I could also use the livestream to attract more attention and make a name for my Haunted House."
A short video the previous night had brought Chen Ge nearly a thousand followers, and the number of visitors to his Haunted House had multiplied several times the next day. He'd gotten a taste for it.
Besides, his real purpose in entering the haunted house was to earn the task reward and help his Haunted House grow. Livestreaming would let him stay safe while completing the task, and draw traffic and gain followers at the same time. Why not do it?
"Even the best wine can't sell if it's hidden away. I don't have the money to blanket the place with ads, but I can use livestreams and short videos to attract more attention."
What Chen Ge lacked was a way to reach people and a following. As for the content, he wasn't worried at all.
The people from that studio hadn't been very pleasant, but they'd been right about one thing: modern audiences wanted faster entertainment and stronger thrills. Across the entire platform, what could be more captivating and exciting than spending the night in a haunted house and facing off against a murderer?
Traffic came first, content was king. Compared with other streamers, Chen Ge had an advantage none of them could match.
Everything he filmed and everything he experienced was real. There was no script—not even he knew what would happen next.
He was completing the Black Phone's task. The livestream was just a way to record it all.
"He Shan, I'm going to hang up now. Come straight to my livestream later. The room name is the same as my short-video account ID."
After hanging up, Chen Ge turned on his phone's location services and set the speed-dial button to call the police. Once everything was ready, he opened the livestream software in the short-video app.
Short videos were usually only a dozen seconds long, couldn't include ads, and offered limited ways to make money. To get the most value from their followers and keep them engaged, many streamers went live whenever they didn't have a new video to post.
Short videos were easy to share and spread, making them ideal for creating buzz and grabbing people's attention. Then a livestream full of personality could turn casual viewers into followers. The two worked hand in hand. By sheer chance, Chen Ge had stumbled onto the best approach.
"Spending the night in a haunted house! Exploring it firsthand! I'll reveal a side of the world you never knew existed!" Chen Ge typed in the title, adding several exclamation marks to make his livestream stand out.
In truth, he didn't need to bother. The short-video app's livestreaming feature couldn't compete with dedicated streaming platforms, and it had very few categories. Most titles were things like "Sexy, naughty, adorable girl cures your loneliness with a chat" or "Sweet goddess lulls you to sleep." Compared with those, Chen Ge's stream was a raging torrent of mud. It was impossible not to notice.
Once he started the livestream, everyone following his page would get a notification, and an announcement would also appear on his short-video profile.
Within seconds, viewers began to join.
He Shan: "Boss, you're actually doing this! Are you sure you want to livestream it?"
Scumbags Must Die: "You're that bastard who posted a short video last night! I'm gonna fight you!"
"Holy crap! What's going on with the person above? Tell us your story!"
I Am A Little Green Worm: "You beast of a streamer. Followed."
"Anybody with a huge dick know what this stream is about?"
"Can you stop bothering us huge-dicked guys and read the announcement yourself?"
As soon as Chen Ge started streaming, the people waiting for his next short video showed up, and his viewership began to climb.
"Everyone, I think you've got me all wrong." Chen Ge set down the Tool Hammer and looked earnestly at his phone screen. "The short video from yesterday wasn't a joke. It was something I experienced myself. You can search for the original video on some Paranormal Forums. I didn't add any special effects. It was all real. There really was something in the mirror. I know it's hard to believe, but I'll reveal it to you bit by bit and show you a completely different world."
"Hello, 110? What's the number for the Center for Abnormal Human Research? I think I've found a wild mental patient."
"I love watching you spout nonsense with a straight face."
"Li Ming! I know you're watching the livestream. Pick me up some fried cold noodles when you get home tonight. No chili, thanks!"
"The whole third ward, bed eleven, at Fushan Psychiatric Hospital is cheering you on! We support patients returning to work!"
A few lonely comments drifted across the screen. Not one person believed Chen Ge. He didn't get angry. "It's fine if you think I'm crazy. I'll prove it to you."
As his popularity and viewership slowly rose, Chen Ge watched the night outside grow darker and darker, lit a cigarette, and began telling the viewers about the Massacre Case at Fu'an Apartment five years ago.
Before you continue