Chapter 227: Trust Me, I Can’t Be Wrong
Wearing a bloodstained doctor’s uniform and carrying a skull-crushing hammer, Chen Ge, with a mask stitched together from multiple faces, pried open the wooden boards.
“Ten minutes have passed, and there’s still no screaming from the scene. Looks like they’ve gotten used to the Third Psychiatric Ward.” Chen Ge felt he was becoming kinder by the day. He worried that the visitors might collapse if faced with too intense a scare right away, so he gave them a ten-minute buffer.
“By now, the people from Tian Teng Hospital should have found the tape recorder. Time to up the difficulty a bit.” Chen Ge stepped into the pitch-black underground passage. After descending the stairs, he glanced down the left corridor. Outside the last classroom, not a single mannequin was in sight. “These guys are being pretty well-behaved today. Usually, a few of them wander out.”
Clutching the faceless nurse uniform and carrying the skull-crushing hammer, Chen Ge pushed open the iron door of the Third Psychiatric Ward.
“The completion rate for the Third Psychiatric Ward trial mission isn’t high, and the hidden mission hasn’t been triggered either. The whole scene is only about half done—it can’t really be called a three-star scene. With professional haunted house actors accompanying the visitors, they might actually succeed.” Chen Ge strolled along leisurely, in no hurry.
“First, find the madwoman’s mannequin and try this nurse uniform on her to see how it looks.”
Turning the first corner, Chen Ge, lost in thought, suddenly stopped.
In the middle of the corridor, over twenty mannequins were piled up, nearly blocking the path. They lay scattered haphazardly, with model heads rolling around as if having a great time.
“What are you all doing here?!” Chen Ge stood in the middle of the road, hammer in hand. The rolling heads froze instantly, each one pretending to be dead.
“Is this your scene? Why are you running around in a hospital wearing school uniforms?”
The mannequins naturally didn’t reply, motionless like elementary school kids caught sneaking into an internet café by their homeroom teacher.
“Fine, you snuck in, but you got wiped out by the visitors!” Chen Ge spoke angrily, though he was actually a bit pained. He picked up a head from the ground, checked its number, and pieced a few mannequins back together. “These visitors don’t even spare the mannequins—pretty bold.”
With the dim light, progress was slow. After fixing five or six, he stood up and left. “Once I send them off, I’ll come back to put your heads on.”
His voice carried a hint of menace as Chen Ge grabbed the skull-crushing hammer and dashed toward the next corridor.
...
Inside the electrotherapy room, Han Qiuming pressed his ear close to the tape recorder. After listening for a long time, he heard nothing.
“Could this be a blank tape?” He could only come to that conclusion after thinking it over.
“Would the haunted house owner do something so boring?” Ye Xiaoxin felt something was off with the tape, but after listening for ages, all she heard was the faint hiss of static.
She reached out to press the buttons, but no matter which one she pushed, the recorder’s indicator light stayed on, and the tape kept spinning silently.
“This recorder must have been modified by the owner. The buttons on the outside are just decorations; the real switch is somewhere else.” Han Qiuming searched for a long time but couldn’t find the actual switch. His expression soured. Since entering the Third Psychiatric Ward, he’d embarrassed himself several times in front of Ye Xiaoxin. The more he tried to show off, the more the haunted house props seemed to work against him.
“Forget it, let’s get out first.” Han Qiuming checked his phone. “Three minutes left. If we hurry, we should make it.”
He and Ye Xiaoxin left the electrotherapy room at the end of the corridor and retraced their steps, planning to escape through the secret passage in Ward Three.
At the same time, on the other side of the corridor.
Guo Miao, Song An, and the others rushed frantically back into the depths of the Third Psychiatric Ward. They’d roughly searched the second and third corridors, including the director’s office, checking every room, but hadn’t found Han Qiuming.
“Boss! We’ve searched all the rooms on both sides—no sign of Han Qiuming!” Song An panted, his voice urgent and fast.
“The corridor is straight. If he’d come this way, we’d have run into him. Where the hell did he go?”
Guo Miao lightly slapped his own face. He hadn’t been this nervous in over a decade. “I’ve been thinking. There are three possibilities for Han Qiuming’s disappearance. First, he found a secret passage and went in himself. Second, he was hiding in a room earlier and, after we left, ventured deeper into the haunted house scene on his own. Third…”
He trailed off, a bloody scene of a psychiatric patient committing murder flashing in his mind. He couldn’t go on. He and Song An exchanged a glance, both seeing fear in each other’s eyes.
“This is bad!”
The two men communicated with their eyes, making Su Luoluo’s scalp crawl. “Maybe you two keep exploring? I’ll head out first?”
She was getting more scared by the minute. She felt her teammates were even more dedicated than the haunted house staff, jumping at shadows and saying things she couldn’t understand but that sounded terrifying.
“No! It’s too dangerous for you to go alone. We absolutely can’t split up now!” Song An’s voice was stern, as if something serious would happen if Su Luoluo left by herself.
“Song’s right. Splitting up gives them a chance to pick us off one by one. Only by sticking together can we keep them from acting rashly.” Guo Miao forced a smile at Su Luoluo. “Sorry for dragging you into this, but don’t worry—we’ll get you out safely.”
Hearing Guo Miao’s apology, Su Luoluo felt like crying.
Why are you apologizing out of nowhere?
What’s even happening?
I just won a lucky draw and got invited to tour this place. I haven’t done anything, just ran around blindly. Why are you putting flags on me?
She now suspected she’d been set up. Maybe she was the only real visitor, and everyone else was an actor—two haunted house professionals going head-to-head in a performance!
“No hesitation. The longer we wait, the more danger Han Qiuming is in. We can still find him in time!” Guo Miao made a snap decision. “Let’s go! Check the next corner!”
He and Song An led the way, with Xiao Du following close behind. Before leaving, he turned back to Su Luoluo. “Brother Song and the boss are reliable. With them around, you’ll be safe.”
“What danger could I be in touring a haunted house? Is that how you usually comfort people?” Su Luoluo stood alone in the blood-scribbled corridor, unwilling to follow Guo Miao deeper into the haunted house, but also afraid to head back alone. She was so anxious she’d pulled out a few strands of hair.
The group turned the corner onto the fourth corridor. They opened all ten ward doors but still found no trace of Han Qiuming.
“We’ve reached the end of the corridor. Where could Han Qiuming have gone?” Song An leaned against the wall, exhausted from the physical exertion.
“How does a living person just vanish?” Guo Miao’s heart pounded. He glanced around—the blood on the walls seemed to have grown thicker.
“We must have missed something!” Guo Miao grabbed Song An’s shoulder. “Every haunted house has staff-only passages. The Third Psychiatric Ward should be no exception. Some of those wards we entered had odd layouts—the secret passage is probably hidden in one of them.”
“Alright, let’s go together!”
Su Luoluo, trailing behind them, couldn’t run anymore. It was her first time touring such a haunted house. “I just got here. Where are you going now?”
“The staff passage and Han Qiuming should be in one of those rooms.” Guo Miao looked at Su Luoluo with a seriousness he hadn’t shown in a long time. “Trust me, I can’t be wrong!”