Wang Wenlong sat in the dry well, barely over a meter deep, his hands flailing at the air as though battling some invisible force.
"Don't move—I'll get him out,"
Those lifeless eyes swept over to Pei Hu, and his scattered pupils suddenly locked into focus.
Trembling with rage, Wang Wenlong seemed to break free of some invisible restraint and roared at Pei Hu: "You son of a bitch! You actually dare come back!"
"Listen to me—the situation back there was complicated! If I hadn't run, we both would've been in danger!"
"Bullshit!"
"I'm serious! I used myself as bait to lure the scariest one away! If you don't believe me, ask the haunted house owner!" Pei Hu was thoroughly aggrieved. Having those mannequin heads staring at him while he lay frozen under the bed for over ten minutes—an experience like that was something no one could truly understand unless they'd lived through it.
"If you two want to argue, take it outside." Seeing Wang Wenlong so full of energy, Chen Ge felt relieved. "Come on, give me your hand."
Noticing Chen Ge's presence, Wang Wenlong finally reined it in. "I can't—my lower half is completely numb."
"Numb?"
Chen Ge jumped into the well and, coordinating with Pei Hu, the two of them hauled Wang Wenlong out.
After getting him to safety, Chen Ge didn't rush to leave. He had already inspected the well that morning when hiding the school badge. Inside were nothing more than two mannequin props—not particularly frightening.
Outside the well, Wang Wenlong and Pei Hu were still bickering. Chen Ge crouched down and studied the mannequins' faces. The male mannequin's eyes were open now, different from how they'd been that morning.
The two mannequins buried in the well must be
Chen Ge recalled the scene from Fei Youliang's visit. At the time, the pen spirit had possessed his body and tried to escape, only to be stopped by over twenty residual impressions in the classroom. Later, several of those impressions had entered his body and guided him to the edge of the deep well. They seemed to have been preparing to punish the pen spirit, though they'd ultimately given up for one reason or another.
The pen spirit had offended first. The other residual impressions came to the well to punish it—were they planning to throw the pen spirit in? Chen Ge glanced at Fan Yu's parents buried in the sand and became even more certain of his theory. The dry well must be a place for sealing away errant residual impressions.
Now that he thought about it, the residual impressions in that classroom actually had a pretty strong sense of justice. All of them had been orphans in life. After being taken in by the old principal, they'd treated Mu Yang Middle School as their home. Now that Chen Ge's black phone had recreated the scenes of Mu Yang Middle School, these lingering spirits probably just wanted to live here in peace.
"As long as you don't do anything excessive, my haunted house will be a home that takes you in." Chen Ge spoke directly to the mannequins on the ground, then climbed out of the well without another word.
When he looked back down, both mannequins had closed their eyes.
"Alright—time to get you all out." Chen Ge propped up Wang Wenlong. The fear in this guy's eyes still hadn't faded. The only reason he'd snapped out of it moments ago was that the sight of Pei Hu had ignited his anger enough to overpower everything else.
Through sheer dragging and pulling, burning every ounce of strength he had, Chen Ge finally managed to get all five of them out of the Mu Yang Middle School scene.
When the light-blocking curtain at the haunted house entrance was lifted, the onlookers outside all gasped in horror.
They had been able to hear the screams pouring out from inside, but nobody had imagined it would be this devastating.