The wheels of the corpse cart rolled over the pavement as Old Zhou hummed a little tune, cheerfully ferrying cart after cart of visitors out of the underground scenes.
The longer he worked here, the more he loved his job. He counted himself lucky that Chen Ge had picked them all up back then.
Now Old Bai had become a Red-Robed, Duan Yue had walked out of her grief, and even the most washed-up of them all — Yan Danian — had realized his dreams. All of this, you could say, was thanks to Chen Ge.
He glanced back at Chen Ge standing among the Red-Robed, and a smile spread across his face unbidden.
"I've worked out the whole situation. The main reason this incident happened was on me — I underestimated your abilities."
Chen Ge and several Red-Robed had Little Sun surrounded in the center. Brother Sun looked the picture of misery, his big watery eyes blinking up at them.
"Boss, I know I was wrong. Can you give me a chance to make it up?"
"How exactly do you plan to make it up?"
Little Sun climbed to his feet and walked over to Red Raincoat. He grabbed her wrist with both hands and placed her palm against his chest. "Sister, I swear — no matter whether your child is alive or dead, I will help you find them!"
After those words, a thin thread of intertwined black and crimson light emerged from his chest. The thread wound itself around Red Raincoat's little finger.
For a fierce ghost to become a Red-Robed, it needed to possess a heart — and a heart was composed of threads of blood-silk just like this one. The only difference was that the blood-silk inside Little Sun's body was all black and crimson in alternating colors, which gave it a deeply unsettling appearance.
Red Raincoat stared at the thread on her little finger for a long while, then gave a gentle nod.
"Little Sun, are you going to pass your bad luck on to Red Raincoat?" Chen Ge asked quietly. He was genuinely worried that might happen.
Hearing this, Little Sun looked so aggrieved he was on the verge of tears. Chen Ge quickly offered a few words of comfort: "Since Red Raincoat has forgiven you, the matter between you two is settled. But you nearly tore the haunted house apart this time, and that debt needs to be settled separately."
"It wasn't on purpose…"
"The haunted house getting torn apart wouldn't even matter — the problem is you nearly scared that guy Ma Feng to death. He was already knocked out cold, so why did you keep waking him up over and over? I was watching the surveillance footage and it gave me goosebumps. I was starting to feel sorry for him." Chen Ge was being completely honest. Fainting and passing out were the body's self-protective mechanisms. The guy had already been scared unconscious, and then Little Sun kept pulling him back — how was that any different from making someone wish they were dead?
"If I say I was trying to save him, would you believe me?" Little Sun spread his hands wide, his expression the very picture of helplessness.
"Once Ma Feng wakes up, if he hears you say that, he'll probably pass out again from rage." Chen Ge and the surrounding employees all burst out laughing. Little Sun always meant well but ended up making things worse. You couldn't entirely blame him, though — his ability was just like that.
"Go ahead and laugh at me all you want. I'm never pretending to be a visitor again. You guys have no idea how nerve-wracking it was being surrounded by over a dozen living people." Little Sun leaned against the wall, looking thoroughly defeated and ready to give up on himself. He actually knew what his ability could do — he just wanted to fit in with everyone.
"Little Sun, having you pose as a visitor really is a waste of your talent. I have a very important mission to give you." The smile on Chen Ge's face slowly faded, replaced by a serious expression. "This mission concerns the very survival of our haunted house."
Noticing the shift in Chen Ge's tone, Little Sun straightened up. "Brother, you're sure you want to give me something this important? I'm afraid I won't do it justice."
"You're the only one suited for this mission. That said, you're not quite ready yet. I'll be running special training for you along with the other haunted house employees." Chen Ge planned to fully unleash Little Sun's potential, letting this Curse Seed grow into a towering tree. "Come by the employee break room at noon today — I'll go into the details then."
"Got it."
"That's everything for now. Everyone, get the scenes restored as quickly as possible and head back to your posts. Prepare for the next batch of visitors."
After finishing his instructions, Chen Ge walked out of the underground scene.
Old Zhou had already transported the unconscious visitors to the entrance. All Chen Ge had to do was push them all out.
He pulled aside the thick light-blocking curtain, and as the corpse cart creaked and groaned, every visitor gathered outside the haunted house turned to look in his direction.
Warm sunlight fell on his body as Chen Ge pushed out the first cart.
"Good lord! Looks like another no-survivors run!"
"Look how peacefully they're smiling."
"Still want ice cream, huh? Cry some more and when you grow up we'll send you into the haunted house for a real visit!"
"Where'd all those people posting online about challenging the hardest scenes go? Learn from the cart before — the cart before!"
Right in front of so many visitors, Chen Ge rolled out the top designer from another haunted house. "Uncle Xu, could you call some more people over?"
"There are more behind this?"
"After this cart, there are three more."
Chen Ge wheeled out every visitor who had gone through the Prenatal scene. Just as some visitors had guessed, every single one of them was unconscious — not a single person could stand on their own.
Uncle Xu had already contacted people, and the visitors were rushed to the amusement park's medical center. If visitors fainted at any other amusement park, it would be a major incident.
But at New Century Amusement Park, many visitors had already grown used to it.
Over a dozen people knocked out all at once, and the park's order didn't so much as waver. Everyone kept queuing, kept visiting, kept snapping a photo or two or recording a little video as a souvenir.
In less than ten minutes, everything was back to normal.
At noon, the line outside the haunted house was still as long as ever, and Uncle Xu began handing out water to visitors who had been waiting the longest.
Inside the haunted house, Chen Ge had returned to the employee break room. Four employees stood inside.
"Little Sun, the mission I'm about to give you is extremely important and extremely dangerous. Before you agree, you'd better listen carefully to every word I say." Chen Ge sat in a chair and gestured to the side.
Red-Robed Old Bai understood immediately and placed an opaque black bag on the table.
"Our haunted house is facing a serious crisis. In the world behind the Prenatal door, we killed a Malevolent God belonging to the Cursed Hospital of Xinhai. That Malevolent God has probably already been devoured by Zhang Ya by now. This is a blood feud that cannot coexist — that hospital will definitely retaliate with everything it has." This was the first time Chen Ge had ever told his employees about matters connected to the Cursed Hospital.
"That hospital sits on the border between Xinhai and Hanjiang, though it leans more toward Xinhai. It's extremely dangerous, and they have more than one Malevolent God." Chen Ge held nothing back, sharing everything he knew about the Cursed Hospital. The people in this room, he trusted with absolute certainty.
"Among the visitors who came to tour the haunted house this time, someone from the Cursed Hospital had infiltrated the group. Their abilities are very special — they can even evade detection by top-level Red-Robed. But fortunately, because of Little Sun, we spotted them early."
"Because of me?" Little Sun had no idea what he had even done.
"That's right. You kicked up so much commotion in the haunted house that I thought the Cursed Hospital had attacked our core area directly. I called every employee, armed everyone, and rushed in to save the day — only to find out there actually were people from the Cursed Hospital hiding among those visitors."
After Chen Ge finished, Little Sun sheepishly rubbed his nose. "It wasn't on purpose…"