"Why didn't you two wait for me?" Qin Guang burst out of the side hall, panting as he caught up to Fu Bole and Wei Chaochao.
"Look at that courage of yours — do you really look like someone who does outdoor horror livestreaming?" Fu Bole's tongue was razor-sharp. "Those supernatural encounters you had outdoors — were they all staged in advance by you?"
"Some were set up by the studio, but some weren't."
"Like the time you were so scared you ended up in the hospital?" Fu Bole was genuinely curious about Qin Guang's experience, but Qin Guang clearly didn't want to revisit those memories. He ignored Fu Bole's remark entirely and changed the subject.
"I just saw a leather ball rolling on its own in the side hall. There seem to be a few invisible children in this place."
"Now that's amateur talk." Fu Bole shook his head. "I know you're a big-name streamer that Boss Ma values. I thought you had some real skill, but looking at it now, you're nothing special. Off the top of my head, I can think of six different methods to make a ball move by itself — it's not a big deal at all. Sometimes we even use these techniques on head models, making the skull roll around on its own for more visual impact."
"Like that one?" Qin Guang pointed behind Fu Bole.
"What?" Fu Bole and Wei Chaochao turned their heads simultaneously. They saw that the photograph on the offering table — which had been facing away from them — had changed its position. The old man in the black-and-white photo had turned around!
"Isn't that the old man who was just talking to us?" Wei Chaochao said, a little surprised.
"A man who's about to die, and he's still photoshopping his own memorial portrait — isn't that bad luck? What if one day the staged version becomes real." Fu Bole hadn't expected the person in the photo to suddenly turn around either. Every curse word he spat out was to cover his own nervousness. He had no idea how the other side had pulled it off, but in that moment, it had genuinely rattled him.
"There's a memorial portrait of the old man on the offering table, which means he's been dead for a long time. The information he gave us could very well be meant to mislead us."
"When we first came in, I noticed a bunch of pits dug in the courtyard. They're too big for planting trees and too small for burying an adult — do you think they were used to bury children?"
"Possibly. This orphanage is absolutely not what it appears to be on the surface. It must be the most critical place in the entire Dark Fetus scene… An orphanage, a deceased caretaker, child killing — this place might just be where the Dark Fetus was born!"
Wei Chaochao and Fu Bole started discussing back and forth, completely failing to notice that Qin Guang's gaze was fixed on the space beneath the offering table.
"Just now, a child's head popped up behind the offering table, but there was no child's body under the table. It felt like he climbed straight out of the photograph."
"Where?"
"Next to the offering table — gone in the blink of an eye."
All three of them stared at the offering table. At that moment, the scene changed yet again. Blood began seeping through the cracks in the ceiling, dripping down, sliding over the black-and-white photograph and pooling onto the table.
"What's happening? Is this because we uncovered the truth and triggered the haunted house's storyline?" Fu Bole and the other two looked around in all directions. By the time they refocused, something profoundly startling had occurred.
The old man in the black-and-white photograph was gone. All that remained in the photo was a chair and a smoking pipe lying on the ground. It gave the impression that he had left in tremendous haste, as though fleeing for his life.
"Have any of you ever played Red Light, Green Light? Every time you turn around, the person behind you is one step closer — from having their back turned, to turning around, and then running right out of the photograph. The haunted house owner is playing psychological warfare with us!" Wei Chaochao tried to analyze the situation, but before he could finish, a drop of blood landed on his forehead.
"Sticky, and it smells like iron. This fake blood is remarkably realistic."
Wei Chaochao rubbed the blood between his fingers against his cheek and noticed that the droplet was actually composed of countless tiny threads of blood — and every single one of them seemed to be moving.
"You've got to be kidding me — they're just spraying red paint from the haunted house ceiling? This haunted house owner is incredibly bold. Isn't he afraid of getting the tourists' clothes dirty?" Fu Bole was about to make a few more comments when Wei Chaochao stopped him.
"Brother Fu, this blood is really strange! It slides right off fabric, but when it touches skin, it solidifies almost instantly. It feels like some kind of force is controlling it — someone is using this blood rain to lock onto targets!"
*Boom!*
A massive crash echoed from the street outside the orphanage, as though a door had been violently smashed open.
Wei Chaochao and Fu Bole hadn't even recovered from their shock when they saw a small boy frantically waving at them, his face full of urgency, clearly urging them to run.
The boy gestured with his hands, then was immediately scooped up by the old man. The pair — grandfather and grandson — vaulted over the wall and fled.
"The ghost from the photograph is back? Was that child asking us for help?" Fu Bole felt he had found a crucial lead. He immediately shouted to Wei Chaochao: "Quick! After them! That child might be the Dark Fetus! The old man is a ghost! We need to save that child from his clutches!"
The three of them rushed to the storage room doorway but hadn't even stepped outside when they spotted Xiao Sun heading their way.
If Xiao Sun hadn't dodged quickly, they would have collided head-on.
"Move! Don't block the way!" Fu Bole yelled at the top of his lungs.
"What's going on?" Xiao Sun was startled.
"We found the child! The most critical person in the Dark Fetus scene — we've already found him!"
"What child?"
"The key to clearing this stage is that child! Don't let him get away!"
Before Xiao Sun could make sense of anything, Fu Bole, Wei Chaochao, and Qin Guang had already bolted through the back door and out of the white orphanage.
"Even newbies know not to go off alone — why won't they listen?" Xiao Sun watched Fu Bole and the others vanish from his sight. Rather than chase after them, he set his sights on Ma Feng. "Other people privately call him Boss Ma — that's probably a big fish. I need to seize this opportunity and figure out exactly what they're after."
Stroking his chin, Xiao Sun imitated Chen Ge's mannerism and narrowed his eyes slightly. "I've been at the haunted house for a few days now. It's always been very peaceful here, like a home for the spirits. But ever since this batch of tourists arrived, I've felt the entire atmosphere shift. My colleagues have all grown restless too. Sigh — they didn't come with good intentions. This batch of tourists is a real problem."
He held out his palm. Blood rain collected in his hand, and Xiao Sun could feel the emotions threaded through those droplets. "This rain carries anger and killing intent. It makes my whole body go cold, as if a knife is pressed against my neck and I could be killed at any moment. Terrifying."
As he spoke, Xiao Sun stepped forward — and the moment his body moved, something felt wrong.
Countless threads of blood rain descended upon him, binding him in place.
He turned his head in mild alarm, and the sight nearly frightened the soul right out of his body.
The Red Raincoat — her mouth sewn shut — had appeared behind him at some unknowable moment. Her skeletal hands hovered just above Xiao Sun's neck, and the murderous intent radiating from her red coat stimulated Xiao Sun without any restraint.
"S-Sister, when — when did you get here?"
"Have you seen my child?" The icy voice came from behind the Red Raincoat's sealed lips. Xiao Sun collapsed onto the ground, plopping down hard. He truly hadn't expected that even after becoming a ghost, one could still feel this kind of fear and terror.
"O-Other people told me. They just said they found the child." The words practically tumbled out of Xiao Sun's mouth on their own. "Do you know Fu Bole? The one with sunglasses in his pocket? And there's another one wearing a flashy shirt called Wei Chaochao — they're the ones who said it! They just left through the back door and went down the left path! Sister, how about I take you to find them?"
The blood threads slowly loosened their grip on Xiao Sun. The Red Raincoat's body dissolved into blood rain and vanished without a trace.
Xiao Sun sat on the ground, his mind still reeling. "What did I just say?"
He slapped himself in the face a few times, still sitting on the ground. By now, black fog had engulfed the orphanage, and within the thick mist, crimson rain mingled.
"Hey! What are you doing there all by yourself?" The couple from Xinhai stepped out of a different room. The man among them had been staring at the back courtyard gate the entire time — it seemed he had seen something.