The list contained the following requirements:
"Visitors are not to be received casually, and you must not go out casually." "When the bell rings in the morning, you must wake Tongtong up." "Three meals a day must be prepared at the specified times: 8 a.m., 12 p.m., and 6 p.m." "Never leave Tongtong alone." "Play music every day." "Play games with Tongtong." "Read a bedtime story at 9 p.m. every night." "Never let Tongtong leave the house."
Among all the requirements, there was nothing particularly difficult to do.
Earlier, Xiao Bai had been worried about what she would do if the list contained some bizarre demands or terrifying tasks that had to be carried out. Although these seemed like ordinary things, she couldn't afford to be careless, because this was, after all, a supernatural world within a story, and eventually, something terrible would happen.
Afterward, the two discussed the list further.
The first requirement was easy to understand—not going out casually was itself a basic rule of this mission. The only unclear part was where the line was drawn for "not receiving visitors casually."
Before this, they had tried to contact the outside world. Unsurprisingly, there was no cell signal or Wi-Fi, though they did find old landline phones in a few rooms. However, for this horror story, all participants had brought special phones from the mall. These phones could make calls even in places with no signal, unless the story deliberately blocked the道具. They could even connect to listeners outside the story. But at this moment, neither of them knew whether answering or making calls to external listeners would be considered "receiving visitors" and thus violate the list's requirements.
"Forget it. Unless it's an emergency, let's try not to test the story's limits," Xiao Bai finally shook her head and continued reading.
The other requirements on the list—playing music, telling stories, playing games—were all routine tasks for taking care of a child, with no obvious red flags. However, the two rules "Never leave Tongtong alone" and "Never let Tongtong leave the house" were somewhat concerning.
Just then, a sudden ringing echoed in the room. It came from the landline on the bedside table. Xiao Bai and Chen Cailing hesitated for a moment before Xiao Bai picked up the phone.
"Hello..."
On the other end came Ke Shufan's voice. It turned out that she and Ye Xiaomei had also found a phone and a list in the guest room on the first floor. After puzzling over the list's requirements and finding no clear issues, they decided to try using the guest room's landline to contact Xiao Bai, never expecting it to connect so easily.
"Ke Shufan, listen to me. Unless it's absolutely necessary, it's best not to use any communication tools, including the guest room's landline."
Hearing Xiao Bai's grave tone, Ke Shufan on the other end was clearly taken aback. "Why, Sister Bai?"
"Didn't you think carefully about the first requirement on the list? No going out, no receiving visitors. It's clearly the story's basic restriction on participants. But these landlines are usable. If a participant accidentally makes a call or receives one from outside, and the story judges it as violating the list's requirements, what do you think will happen then?"
"Ah! I see!" On the phone, Ke Shufan's expression tightened. "Thank you for reminding me, Sister Bai."
"In special situations, it's better to use the mall phones to contact each other. We're all participants in this story, so calls among us shouldn't be considered a violation."
Using the landlines in the manor was convenient, but they couldn't guarantee that their conversations wouldn't be overheard. The butler, Mr. Wei, was still an unknown—friend or foe.
"Oh, okay." Ke Shufan nodded. Beside her, Ye Xiaomei pouted. The special phones provided by the story could make unlimited calls, but each use consumed plot points, with one point only covering a minute of talk time. She had very few plot points and was reluctant to use them easily.
Still, she knew Xiao Bai wasn't exaggerating, so she said nothing more.
"Get some rest early. Tonight is the first night of the story, and the danger is relatively low. In a few days, we probably won't have time to relax."
"I understand." Ke Shufan replied and hung up. Although she knew this was just the first night, her heart was still tense. Ye Xiaomei felt the same. As soon as she closed her eyes, her mind involuntarily flashed back to the novice script in the cinema. Back then, she had heard eerie announcements in the hallway, and then every screening room's movie turned into a horror film—not the fake-scary domestic kind, but real stories of vengeful spirits killing people. When the ghost was about to crawl out of the screen, Ye Xiaomei, nearly paralyzed with fear, had a sudden idea. She ran into the projection room and turned off the projector, barely passing the trial and becoming an official listener of the Strange Tales Radio.
This showed that Ye Xiaomei wasn't too stupid. It was only after joining the horror chat group that she learned novice scripts were usually the simplest stories in the radio's tales. Once you became an official listener, every subsequent story was exponentially scarier than the novice script. Each listener had to go through at least ten such stories to completely break free from the radio's control.
And "at least ten" was an ideal scenario, assuming no real-life supernatural events were triggered and no random horror stories were generated.
The more Ye Xiaomei thought about it, the more afraid she became. After all, this was only her first story mission, and she had no idea what to expect. After a long while, too scared to stay alone, she grabbed her blanket and climbed into Ke Shufan's bed. The guest room bed was big enough anyway.
In fact, Ke Shufan hadn't fallen asleep either. Seeing Ye Xiaomei crawl over, she was more than happy to have company. The two squeezed onto the same bed, each harboring their own anxieties, tossing and turning for a long time before finally drifting off to sleep from exhaustion.
After hanging up, Xiao Bai folded the list and put it in her pocket. Then she and Chen Cailing checked the doors and windows, turned off the lights, and lay down on the bed fully clothed.
In the end, all four participants fell into a dazed sleep. In the darkness, a pale face stood silently at the doorway.
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PS: Thanks to the big shot from the Evil Nation World for tipping VIP points for this book. It might not be much to a veteran, but it's a huge encouragement for a newbie author like me. This is also the biggest tip I've received since starting on Qidian a month ago. Thank you. I got off work at 10:30 p.m. and decided to churn out another chapter as a token of my gratitude.