No one answered them.

After believing they had figured out the girls’ identities, the four people standing at the doorway all adopted an attitude of “let’s see what trick you’re trying to pull.” Shu Yuxin was no exception.

Many people have this kind of contradictory mindset. Even though they know something scary might happen, and even the timid ones understand that the smartest thing to do at such a moment is to close their eyes to avoid being frightened, their actions often go completely against their thoughts. Curiosity always drives them to widen their eyes and watch what happens next—only to get scared stiff.

Shu Yuxin had almost completely hidden herself behind Jiang Zixuan, yet she still couldn’t help poking her head out to observe the four girls. The couple nearby did slightly better; the two of them were tightly clinging to each other, their faces filled with both fear and curiosity.

When the four onlookers gave no response, the girl simply smiled and turned back around. Immediately afterward, almost at the same time, the four girls pulled out sharp little knives from their pockets. They toyed with the knives in their hands, the excitement on their faces growing more and more intense, even reaching a pathological level. Just looking at their expressions sent an inexplicable chill through Shu Yuxin.

Reason told her that she should close her eyes and cover her ears right now and wait for it to be over, but her eyes still seemed to have a will of their own, carefully observing every move they made. The girl’s voice reached her ears again:

“Do you know? I heard that… many patients died in this ward before… Their ghosts still linger here, waiting for a human they can possess… to become their substitute…”

“And if you want to summon those ghosts… the method is actually very simple… it’s just… hee hee…”

As her tone grew increasingly eerie, the four girls took their next step. They pressed the blades against their index fingers and gently slid them across. Blood immediately seeped out, flowing down their fingers and dripping onto the floor.

“Just drip your own blood onto the ground… and they’ll possess you…”

Shu Yuxin’s heart leapt into her throat. Following the usual套路, something terrifying was probably about to happen next. At this moment, she finally forced down her curiosity, closed her eyes, hid behind Jiang Zixuan, and covered her ears.

The air fell silent for a moment.

“Hahaha, you didn’t actually believe that, did you?” The girl’s laughter suddenly rang out. In such silence, even covering her ears couldn’t completely block it out. The abrupt shift in tone left Shu Yuxin stunned, and she couldn’t help poking her head out again.

The four girls in the middle of the room were laughing together. The knives in their hands were nowhere to be seen; at some point they had been replaced by thick bundles of tissue paper, which they were pressing against their fingers. They joked and laughed as if mocking the four people at the door for being cowards.

“Hahaha, how could there be ghosts in the world? It’s all fake! Relax~ Smile a little.” The girl who had spoken earlier laughed. This time, she turned fully toward the door. Because of where Shu Yuxin and Jiang Zixuan were standing, it looked as if she were sizing the two of them up.

The sudden change in atmosphere made Shu Yuxin relax instantly—while also feeling a bit annoyed.

This was a haunted house! What were they doing?! Weren’t they supposed to scare people? Could these four girls actually be visitors too? But they weren’t wearing any tags.

The couple ahead was equally confused. The girl murmured something while curled in her boyfriend’s arms. He nodded, and the two of them started walking forward. The four girls in the middle were still laughing, and the couple didn’t bother paying them any attention, clearly intending to just pass through the room and continue onward.

However, just as they drew close to the four girls, something strange happened.

The lights in the room and the corridor suddenly all went out. In an instant, it was as if the entire world had plunged into darkness. The four girls’ laughter stopped abruptly, replaced by a piercing, bone-chilling shrill laugh.

The heart Shu Yuxin had just settled felt like it was thrown onto a roller coaster, instantly shooting to another peak. This time she completely lost control and screamed at the top of her lungs:

“Ahhhhhhh—!!”

The scream briefly released the fear she had been holding in for so long and gave her just enough presence of mind to think of her next action—throwing herself at Jiang Zixuan, hugging him, and pushing him forward with all her strength.

Caught off guard, Jiang Zixuan stumbled from the shove.

As for why she pushed Jiang Zixuan toward the center of the room, she probably didn’t even know herself. When people are extremely frightened, their intelligence can briefly go offline, and the reactions they make during that time usually have no real reason behind them.

All of this happened in less than two seconds. Just as she began pushing Jiang Zixuan forward, the lights in the room briefly flickered on. In that instant, Jiang Zixuan was able to clearly see the situation inside the room. The four girls were nowhere to be seen. Only the terrified couple stood stiffly in the center of the room. But they didn’t catch Jiang Zixuan’s attention. In that brief flash of light, his gaze was completely drawn to a black shadow in the middle—

If he wasn’t mistaken, it was a half-transparent, white-faced female ghost.

In the final instant before the room fell back into darkness, Jiang Zixuan saw that white-faced ghost suddenly lunge straight at him!

“Holy shit!” Even someone as bold as Jiang Zixuan couldn’t help swearing in that situation, instinctively stopping in his tracks. Shu Yuxin was pushing him with her head pressed against his back, so she was fortunate enough not to see this scene. Noticing that Jiang Zixuan had stopped moving forward, she pushed him twice more.

Jiang Zixuan was also a bit stunned.

He was brave, but only on the premise that he knew the ghosts in games, movies, and haunted houses were fake. This itself was a kind of psychological suggestion—“ghosts are all played by people; they’re all human.” With that mindset, fear was greatly reduced, and even the way he perceived things in haunted houses differed from Shu Yuxin’s. This was the main reason he had never really been scared before.

But what he had just seen… there was no way a living person could act that out, right?! That ghost was half-transparent!

Shu Yuxin was still desperately pushing him from behind, making it hard for him to stand steadily. Without much thought, Jiang Zixuan reached back, grabbed Shu Yuxin’s arm, forcibly pulled her in front of him, and hugged her tightly.

This action was purely to keep her from moving around. At that moment, Jiang Zixuan truly had no other thoughts.

Then, the lights came on again.

The white-faced ghost from before had disappeared. This time, what appeared in the room were four corpses hanging from the ceiling. The dim lighting couldn’t illuminate their entire bodies, only enough to tell that they were female. The corpses swayed without any wind, their movements unnaturally rhythmic. At the same time, the shrill laughter in the room, which had never stopped, became even more chilling.

Then the lights went out again.

Unfortunately, before they went out, Shu Yuxin saw the scene inside the room.

“Ahhhhhhhhh—!!!” “Ahhhhhhhhh ghosts—!!!!” “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh—!!!”

The room instantly became lively. Shu Yuxin led the chorus, quickly joined by the couple, mixed with the room’s original horrifying shrieks. The powerful combination of male and female high-pitched screams was like demonic sound waves drilling into their ears, one after another.

This time, Jiang Zixuan wasn’t scared by the hanging corpses—but by Shu Yuxin in his arms.

After that, the room’s lights began flickering like a bad connection. Each brief moment of light revealed bizarre and terrifying scenes inside the room. Shu Yuxin no longer struggled; she just curled up in Jiang Zixuan’s arms and screamed nonstop. No one knew whether she was screaming out of fear or competing with the other girl to see who could scream louder. Either way, each scream was louder than the last, nearly reaching ultrasonic levels.

The other girl sounded like she had been scared to tears. After screaming for quite a while, the boy finally remembered that he had a girlfriend. When the lights came on again, he suddenly roared, scooped up his girlfriend, and sprinted out of the room like a hundred-meter dash. Jiang Zixuan had originally planned to see what other tricks the room had in store, but seeing the couple run off, he hesitated for half a second and then carried Shu Yuxin out as well.

Outside the door was still a long corridor, with a staircase at the far end. This time, the stairwell door was open. The emergency exit sign pointed downward—it should be the way out. After walking for so long, this haunted house route was finally almost finished.

The couple ahead stopped not far from the exit. The boy, though scared half to death himself, forced himself to stay calm and gently comfort his girlfriend. She clung tightly to him, burying herself in his arms without moving.

Jiang Zixuan lowered his head to look at Shu Yuxin.

She was also clutching him tightly, her head buried in his chest, completely motionless.

Ah… exactly the same.

“…Yuxin, we’re out,” Jiang Zixuan said softly as he held her and walked slowly.

The grip around his neck tightened even more.

Jiang Zixuan sighed and didn’t say anything else.

As they passed the couple, the boy suddenly spoke up, “Bro.”

“Hm?” Jiang Zixuan stopped and looked at him.

The boy forced a stiff smile, his face completely pale. “Hey, back there… weren’t you scared?”

“It was okay. It was definitely pretty scary.”

“Heh, those four hanging people almost scared me to death,” the boy said while gently stroking his girlfriend’s back. Jiang Zixuan noticed that his hand was trembling slightly. “Man, bro, how do you think they did that inside? That was seriously impressive.”

Jiang Zixuan thought for a moment and smiled. “My guess is holographic projection. I saw equipment racks and speakers in the room just now, in the corners near the beds. And there was no blood on the floor, so it was probably all fake.”

“Holographic projection? That advanced?” The boy took a couple of deep breaths. “Damn… it looked completely real. If someone had a heart condition, they’d probably be scared to death.”

“Hahaha, they did clearly say it’s not recommended for people with heart problems,” Jiang Zixuan said with a laugh, waving his hand as he prepared to leave with Shu Yuxin.

Seeing this, the boy looked surprised. “You’re still going?”

“Huh?”

“Your girlfriend’s been scared like that. Just forget it,” the boy said kindly, pointing at Shu Yuxin in Jiang Zixuan’s arms.

Jiang Zixuan glanced down at Shu Yuxin. She was still clinging to him without moving, leaving him a bit helpless. “There’s no choice. We can’t just stay here forever.”

“You can wait for security to take you out,” the boy said, suddenly removing the tag from around his neck and waving it high over his head. “If you don’t want to keep playing, you can have security escort you out directly. There are cameras everywhere here. Wave the tag a couple of times and security will come. Just wait. We’re definitely not continuing—we can’t handle it.”

Jiang Zixuan paused, about to say something, when Shu Yuxin suddenly lifted her head.

“I’m not playing anymore! Not playing! Zixuan, let’s wait for security, okay?!”

Jiang Zixuan: “…”

———

Aside:

Uh… don’t think too deeply about the holographic projection stuff. The background of this story is set several years into the future, so it’s normal for this kind of high-tech to gradually become widespread by then.

I’m even planning to mess around with some black-tech game devices later on…

Anyway, this isn’t some serious sci-fi novel. It’s just a normal slice-of-life story, so please don’t overanalyze the unrelated settings.