The first person to muster the courage to step forward was still Yan Zhikai. He walked straight up to the counter, craned his neck to look at the nurse for a while, then began examining the surroundings.

After he moved ahead, the others followed one by one. During this time, Shu Yuxin glanced back at the main entrance several times, but in the end, she still didn’t make a run for it.

Aside from Jiang Zixuan’s earlier threat, she also felt that turning around and running away after coming this far would be far too embarrassing.

She was exactly that kind of contradictory person. Before entering the haunted house, she had been scared out of her wits and hadn’t thought about embarrassment at all. But now that she was inside, she suddenly started caring about her pride.

The nurse behind the counter still sat there without moving an inch, making people wonder whether she was even alive. Her head was bowed so low that even standing right at the counter, they still couldn’t see her face.

Not far to the right of the counter was the entrance to a stairway. There was a faint light source inside the stairwell, barely enough for them to make out what was there. Above the entrance hung an emergency exit sign—but the direction it pointed to was actually inside the stairway.

This was the haunted house’s wayfinding system. There were several different routes inside, all guided by these “emergency exit” signs. Visitors could freely choose their routes; as long as they followed the signs, they would eventually make it out of the haunted house.

Just as Yan Zhikai was considering whether to head in directly, the dim, old desk lamp on the counter suddenly went out.

“Ah!” In the darkness, someone suddenly let out a short, distorted scream. From the sound of it, it was barely recognizable as coming from a guy.

That scream successfully stopped Shu Yuxin from screaming herself, but the sudden darkness still made her panic. She instinctively grabbed Jiang Zixuan’s hand beside her.

Before even a second passed, another sound emerged from the darkness—but this time, it didn’t belong to the group of visitors. The voice had a very strange tone, paired with deliberately lowered volume and an unknown source of whooshing wind sounds, making the atmosphere even more eerie.

“Patient number forty-four… please proceed for treatment…”

As if to match those words, the lights in the stairway beside them flickered twice.

Shu Yuxin almost screamed again—this voice was coming from behind the counter!

The surroundings were still pitch-black, and no one else made a sound, which only made her more panicked. The only thing giving her any sense of comfort was the hand she was holding onto.

Perhaps because they had been standing still for too long, the voice rang out again:

“Number forty-four… why aren’t you leaving yet?!”

As soon as the words fell, the desk lamp on the counter suddenly lit up for a brief instant. In that instant, Shu Yuxin clearly saw the woman behind the counter standing up and staring straight at them. The horrifying part was that her face had no features at all.

“Ahhh!!” Shu Yuxin screamed at once, desperately urging, “Go, go, go, go!!”

“Go, go, go!” “Let’s move in!” …

The others, who had been mentally offline, finally snapped back to reality and all started urging at once. In a situation like this, Yan Zhikai couldn’t exactly refuse. He waved in the darkness and headed straight for the stairway. “Let’s go.”

The stairs were just as run-down, with every step covered in thick dust. Out of curiosity, Yan Zhikai nudged it with his foot and found that it was real.

“Tsk, that female ghost just now—was that from Silent Hill?” Peng Xiaoxiao showed no fear at all. Walking up the stairs, she even discussed the nurse from earlier with interest.

“There are still some differences—this one’s figure is obviously not as good as the ones in Silent Hill,” Yan Zhikai said in his uniquely serious tone.

Peng Xiaoxiao couldn’t help but laugh.

Shu Yuxin’s face was a little pale. “Hey… how long is this haunted house supposed to be?”

“Hard to say,” Yan Zhikai shook his head. “They probably changed the layout. It wasn’t like this the last time I came. As for walking… there are long routes and short routes. You choose for yourselves—though I don’t know which is which either.”

Shu Yuxin suddenly felt a sense of despair.

The haunted house at Lighter Paradise Amusement Park was indeed excellent.

Its scare tactics weren’t limited to ghosts alone. As long as something could be done in real life and could scare people, it could throw it at you. Overall, it might feel a bit mismatched in style, but its ability to frighten was undeniably strong. And the haunted house updated its routes from time to time, so even people like Yan Zhikai, who had been there before, would still get a different experience on return visits. It also offered many different routes, including some with especially terrifying content. Routes varied in length, and the scares on each route were different, so even playing multiple times in a short period wouldn’t feel boring—though who would really subject themselves to that kind of self-torture…

Ahem. In short, this haunted house truly lived up to its high reputation.

The reason for explaining all this was simple: they got separated.

Further along, several forks appeared, mixed with two routes marked as special scare routes. With so many choices, disagreements arose. Peng Xiaoxiao was very brave and hadn’t been scared much along the way. Although she found the haunted house interesting, not being scared yet made her a bit disappointed. So when she saw the special scare route, she suggested taking it. On the other hand, Shu Yuxin had already been scared half to death just getting this far. Entering the haunted house at all was already her limit—asking her to deliberately choose such a route when there were other options was simply too much. After some discussion, Shu Yuxin and Jiang Zixuan split off from the others.

They had clearly said they’d play together earlier, so this development left Yan Zhikai feeling a bit helpless.

But the one with the worst experience was Shu Yuxin.

As the saying goes, there’s strength in numbers. When everyone was together, it was still manageable. But now, she was scared to the point of feeling dazed.

Besides the haunted house’s own scare setups, the occasional screams from other visitors wandering around added even more terror to the atmosphere.

Hearing those screams, sometimes near and sometimes far away, Shu Yuxin’s expression never improved. Her voice even took on a sobbing tone. “Zixuan… can we go back…? I really can’t stay here anymore…”

Jiang Zixuan smiled helplessly. “Going back the way we came would still take a long time. If we keep going forward, maybe we’ll be out soon?”

“I really shouldn’t have come to the haunted house…” Shu Yuxin clung tightly to Jiang Zixuan’s arm, her tone filled with regret.

Jiang Zixuan secretly glanced at her.

This girl… her courage really was tiny.

They were currently in a dim corridor. At the end of it had originally been a stairway entrance, but the door was now sealed shut. A sign hung from the door handle, with a red arrow painted on it pointing toward a room nearby.

The sign made Shu Yuxin’s scalp tingle.

It was the marker for a special scare route.

Seeing Jiang Zixuan about to lead her inside, Shu Yuxin hurriedly grabbed him. “Hey!! I’m not going in!!”

“…But this is the only way.”

“Let’s go back and find another route!! I’m not going in!!” Shu Yuxin squatted down on the spot, gripping Jiang Zixuan’s arm tightly to stop him from moving forward.

Jiang Zixuan sighed. “Trust me, there’s really nothing scary…”

“I don’t believe you!! I’m not going in!!”

He tried gently tugging her, but she wouldn’t budge. After thinking for a few seconds, he squatted down in front of her and met her gaze. “If you can’t handle it, how about you close your eyes and I’ll lead you through? Staying here isn’t a solution either, right?”

Shu Yuxin looked like she was about to cry. “I really don’t want to go anymore…”

“Alright, alright, let’s rest for a bit before moving on, okay?” Seeing her like this, Jiang Zixuan couldn’t bear to force her. He patiently used his other hand to gently pat her back, coaxing her softly. “Later, just stay behind me. If you’re scared, close your eyes and think about something else. I’ll lead you out, okay?”

Shu Yuxin still clung tightly to his arm, saying nothing.

“You can’t expect me to carry you through, can you?” Jiang Zixuan said helplessly.

She still didn’t respond.

She really didn’t want to continue the haunted house. She wanted out.

Without any response from Shu Yuxin, Jiang Zixuan couldn’t move forward, so the two of them just squatted there in the corridor, staring at each other.

After a while, a couple appeared in the corridor behind them. They were also wearing the green visitor tags. The couple was clearly frightened too, but the guy was still putting on a brave front, holding his girlfriend as they slowly moved forward.

Their gazes first landed on Shu Yuxin and Jiang Zixuan, then on the sign ahead. After whispering a few words to each other, the girl buried her head directly into the boy’s chest, and he gathered his courage and led her into the room ahead.

Jiang Zixuan looked at Shu Yuxin.

“…Let’s go.” Shu Yuxin took a deep breath and stood up.

She couldn’t be worse than a real girl, right…

Uh, that sounded a bit strange.

“If you’re scared later, just close your eyes. I’ll lead you,” Jiang Zixuan said softly again, then led Shu Yuxin into the room, following behind the couple.

Contrary to Shu Yuxin’s expectations, there didn’t seem to be anything scary in the room—at first glance.

It was an abandoned ward, with four filthy hospital beds placed haphazardly. In the center of the room stood four young women dressed very fashionably.

For some reason, Shu Yuxin felt that these four girls were a bit strange, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what exactly was strange.

“They’re not wearing tags, so they should be staff,” Jiang Zixuan whispered in Shu Yuxin’s ear.

Shu Yuxin didn’t say anything, still gripping his hand tightly.

The couple ahead also didn’t rush through the room, but stood to the side, curiously watching the four girls.

The girls were gathered together discussing something, looking rather excited. After a few seconds, they finally noticed the four people at the door. One of the girls turned around, looked at them, and smiled.

“Hey, are you here to catch ghosts in Ward Forty-Four too?”