CHAPTER 221: SHADOWING (1)
"Boss! Teacher Han! Look behind you!"
Xiao Du ran over to the other tourists, panting, his face slightly pale.
"Behind?" Guo Miao glanced back. On the dim, oppressive corridor, nothing unusual appeared.
"The dolls! The dolls are chasing us!"
At Du Chaojin's shout, the group, who had barely managed to advance a few meters deeper, stopped in their tracks.
"Could you have misseen it?" Song An said softly, trying to comfort Xiao Du, but he himself edged closer to Guo Miao.
"No! They really moved!" Xiao Du caught his breath. "Come see for yourselves. When we first saw those dolls, they were at the end of the left corridor. Now they've moved to the intersection of the left and right corridors!"
"Don't panic." Teacher Han remained calm. "Dolls moving on their own—I saw that three years ago. It was a Japanese haunted house with a doll theme. Small dolls had mechanical parts inside that let them move and change facial expressions. Large dolls were four-fifths props, with the remaining fifth being actors mixed in."
"Real people playing them?" Xiao Du grew more confused at Han's words, his own certainty wavering.
"When we first came in, I noticed the dolls in the left corridor." Han crossed his arms. "Those dolls are one-to-one scale with living people, as if they were cast from real humans. You need to understand one thing: including our Tian Teng Hospital, the dolls used as ordinary props all have physical or facial flaws, because perfect dolls are too expensive—around thirty thousand yuan each, requiring top-tier masters to make. Few haunted houses can afford that."
"Then why would this haunted house invest so much in making such dolls?" Ye Xiaoxin kept jotting notes in her small book, though no one knew what she was writing.
"Simple. It means those dolls are a key scare point in his haunted house!"
Han Qiuming stroked his chin, his gaze passing through thick lenses to land on Ye Xiaoxin. "Live actors mixed in with lifelike dolls can have a surprising effect at critical moments, like what Xiao Du just encountered. At first glance, the dolls seem to move on their own, but it's actually the actors among them carrying the dolls forward. If we hide and observe secretly, we might just catch that scene."
Song An nodded beside him. "Teacher Han is right. A year ago, our Tian Teng Hospital tried a similar scare tactic, but the dolls were too fake and were spotted by visitors immediately."
"So that's it." Xiao Du's expression brightened a bit. "That really scared me just now. Those dolls were so lifelike, I thought they were moving on their own."
"Use your head—it's impossible." Han's tone was firm and his reasoning sound. "If time weren't limited, I'd hide in this building and record the actors moving the dolls for you."
"Alright, let's keep moving. Find the recorder first." Guo Miao felt things weren't that simple, but he couldn't find a reason to refute Han.
"Old Guo, there are two things we need to watch out for regarding that recorder." Han spoke boldly but was already deeply wary of Chen Ge's haunted house. "That bastard Chen hid our recorder in the Third Ward scene ahead of time, so he's definitely prepared. There's bound to be something scary waiting near the recorder."
"You don't need to tell me that." Guo Miao led the way, stepping over haphazardly piled bedding on the floor, which gave a strange sensation, like treading on bundled hair.
"That's the first point. I have another thing to tell you. Have you noticed how strange his game rules are?"
"Strange how?"
"Finding the recorder isn't the end. You have to take it out of the Third Ward for the game to be over."
"The recorder is ours anyway. Isn't it normal to bring it out?" Xiao Du interjected.
"I feel like you're all underestimating how cunning this haunted house owner is." Han Qiuming took out his glasses cloth and wiped his thick-lensed glasses. "The recorder itself is probably the trigger for the scene. In other words, from the moment we find it, all the various horror setups in this scene will come flooding in. Until then, we're safe."
"That's one way to put it, but no one can be sure." Song An, the burliest, was also the least brave.
"In short, I think there's no need to be scared right now. The most important thing is to get a feel for the surroundings and memorize the paths. After all, his haunted house is an open scene with a complex interior. That way, when we find the recorder and all the ghost actors go berserk, we can escape as fast as possible." After Han Qiuming's analysis, whether others believed it or not, he believed it himself.
"Makes sense. No matter how scary a haunted house is, it's just living people playing tricks. As long as we stay calm and don't get too immersed, we won't feel fear." Ye Xiaoxin tucked her notepad tightly into her pants pocket against her thigh.
With Ye Xiaoxin's agreement, Han Qiuming grew excited, and the last trace of fear in him slowly dissipated. He was about to quicken his pace to walk alongside her when someone tugged at his clothes. Turning back, he saw it was the youngest, Du Chaojin.
"Teacher Han, look over there." The group turned to look outside the Third Ward. At the center of the iron gate stood a female doll in a school uniform, a school badge around her neck, head drooping, joints twisted and slightly deformed.
In that moment of distraction, the dolls had drawn closer.
"Perfectly normal. It's a basic psychological trick. That bastard Chen is probably in the surveillance room right now giving orders to the actors. He wants to pressure us by having the dolls close in, because when people are anxious, they're more prone to fear and unease."
Han Qiuming told Xiao Du not to be afraid. "Fake is fake. I used similar tactics years ago. Relax, those dolls definitely won't come within five meters of us. Five meters is a safe distance. Once they get too close, the actors can't operate them. I can guarantee it with nearly ten years of experience in this industry."
After saying that, he ignored Xiao Du and went over to Ye Xiaoxin, critiquing the various setups in Chen Ge's haunted house.
"This guy." Guo Miao sighed, then said to the others, "Stay close to me. Don't touch anything in the corridor, and don't enter any sickrooms alone."
"Got it." Xiao Du brought up the rear of the group. He didn't notice that as he took a step, the dolls outside the door also began to move.