"Your leg hasn't fully healed. Let me see you home." With the vengeful spirit makeup removed, Zhang Ya possessed a different kind of beauty.
"Let me see you home instead. It's too late — I can't feel at ease if you go home alone." Chen Ge flagged down a taxi and climbed in with Zhang Ya.
They both sat in the back seat. Perhaps because the driver was present, neither of them spoke again.
One stared silently out the window, the other looked down at her own hands.
When they arrived at the entrance to Zhang Ya's residential complex, Chen Ge walked her out of the car and didn't leave until he saw her disappear into the stairwell.
Watching Zhang Ya's retreating figure, Chen Ge felt something indescribable welling up inside him. It wasn't entirely affection — amid the sweetness, there seemed to be a thread of pain.
"Reality is too beautiful. I haven't had a dream in so long."
Walking along the sidewalk, Chen Ge didn't want to hail a cab. He wandered aimlessly.
The city before him was vibrant and gorgeous, yet he always felt like he didn't belong here — like a lonely, forgotten outcast.
"I won't work tonight. I'll just get a good night's sleep."
It was past midnight when Chen Ge finally returned to the haunted house. He skillfully unlocked the safety barrier, lifted the blackout curtain, and stepped into the employee break room.
The white cat was lying on the table, gnawing at a box of cat food. The moment it spotted Chen Ge, it jumped aside, as if trying to say it had nothing to do with the cat food scattered all over the floor.
"I feel like I've done this exact thing countless times before. I think I once lived in this room for a long while."
Beauty was intoxicating. At first, Chen Ge had thought he could handle anything calmly, but now he realized he wasn't nearly as strong as he'd imagined.
He could face all manner of deranged killers and eerie curses without flinching, yet sitting in the same car with Zhang Ya made him nervous.
"What have I been chasing all this time?"
Lying on the wooden bed, Chen Ge felt as though his body was sinking into the bedding, wrapped entirely in warmth. His exhaustion gradually dissolved and drowsiness crept in.
Early the next morning, Chen Ge was woken by his alarm. He went into the bathroom, washed his face, and stared at himself in the mirror: "I didn't dream again last night."
This was the first time since waking up that Chen Ge had truly looked at himself. Sometimes he could barely recall his own features.
"Back at the hospital, Dr. Gao would ask me every single day whether I'd dreamed the night before, and what I'd dreamed. Are dreams really that important to me?"
Chen Ge didn't quite understand. In his mind, a dream was just a dream — neither part of delusion nor deeply connected to reality.
Water splashed onto the mirror as he washed his face. When Chen Ge reached out to wipe the glass, he suddenly noticed from the reflection that the bathroom stall door was open.
A bolt of lightning seemed to flash through his mind. He spun around and stared at the stall door.
Pushing it open with slow, deliberate force, Chen Ge found nothing inside.
He let out a breath of relief as his heart dropped back into place: "Everything in this world seems normal, yet somehow nothing feels right."
He left the stall door open and walked out of the bathroom, ready to begin a new day of business.
The amusement park opened at nine in the morning. Before operations even began, a long line of visitors had already formed outside. A number of young people had come specifically to play through the haunted house.
"Xiao Chen, from now on let's clean the haunted house together. Your leg hasn't healed yet — don't try to do everything by yourself. You'll collapse if you exhaust your body." Zhang Ya's mother took great care of Chen Ge, treating him almost like her own family.
"It's fine. The doctor said physical activity helps with recovery." Chen Ge brought the white cat into the third-floor scene. The midnight killer he portrayed had become the haunted house's signature attraction.
Strangely enough, many visitors had gone through the third-floor scene, but different guests described the killer in entirely different ways.
Some said they'd seen a bloodthirsty madman on the third floor — hysterical, deranged, looking as though he wanted to tear anyone apart the moment he laid eyes on them.
Others said they'd encountered a strange fellow visitor on the third floor. After kindly teaming up with the person, they'd ended up getting wiped out as a group.
Still others claimed there was no killer on the third floor at all — but the third floor was supposedly haunted.
Chen Ge had mastered several different killer personas and could switch between them at will. The very same person gave off a completely different impression every time, and combined with the dim lighting in the haunted house, most visitors assumed there were multiple actors hidden in the scene.
During the midday break, Chen Ge stepped out of the haunted house, planning to ask Zhang Ya about something.
He had just lifted the blackout curtain when he saw a group of young people surrounding Zhang Ya, seemingly arguing about something.
"What's going on?" Chen Ge walked over to Zhang Ya and glanced at the young people. They seemed inexplicably familiar.
"We heard your haunted house had a promotion — clear three scenes in a row and you win ten thousand yuan. So we bought tickets and came specifically to try it." The young man who spoke had an honest, straightforward face. "But she told us the promotion already ended."
"The promotion did end, but if you really want a stake in something, I can put up five thousand yuan out of my own pocket to play with you." Chen Ge wore a warm smile, the very image of a well-mannered, sunny big brother from next door. "If you can clear the scene without letting out a scream exceeding one hundred and twenty decibels, I'll reward you with five thousand yuan. And if you fail, just do a good job promoting the haunted house to your friends and family."
Win and get five thousand, lose and face no penalty — guaranteed profit. The young people all agreed.
"Chen Ge, don't be reckless." Zhang Ya quietly tugged at his clothes. "They're students from Xinhai Medical College. Some of them have even dissected real cadavers. They're all very bold."
"Xinhai Medical College?" Chen Ge thought for a moment, then looked at the two leading students. "Could you tell me your names?"
"I'm He Shan. This is my senior, Gao Ruxue."
Chen Ge's gaze swept over the students before finally settling on Gao Ruxue.
The instant he saw her, a strange wound on the back of Chen Ge's hand began to bleed. Searing pain lanced through his hand in waves, as though someone were driving nails into it.
"Chen Ge, your hand is bleeding!" Zhang Ya pulled Chen Ge to her side.
"I probably scraped it inside the haunted house without realizing." Chen Ge had always found the wound on the back of his hand puzzling. The fractured bone in his leg was nearly healed, yet this small wound on his hand had never recovered — and now it had suddenly started bleeding again. That was far from normal.
"Gao Ruxue is connected to the wound on my hand?" He buried that thought deep in his mind, his expression quickly returning to normal. With great enthusiasm, he ushered the students into the third-floor scene.
Half an hour later, Chen Ge rushed out of the haunted house with a face full of distress. "Zhang Ya, come help me out."
Seeing his furrowed brow, Zhang Ya sensed something was off. "They didn't scream?"
"No." Chen Ge scratched his head. "They all fainted from fright. I can't drag them all by myself. Can you help me?"
The corners of Zhang Ya's eyes twitched, and she and the gawking onlookers all sucked in a sharp breath.