The corridor suddenly went so quiet that even breathing seemed to vanish.
The "ghost" inside the cabinet hadn't noticed
Around the corner, Chen Ge was silently counting his own heartbeats, calculating the timing.
Roughly thirty seconds passed. A faint scraping sound came from inside the iron cabinet—probably the haunted house actor getting tired from holding the same pose for so long.
By comparison, Chen Ge was far more like a seasoned hunter. He bent down and inched forward, closing to within mere centimeters of the cabinet.
Forty seconds passed. The "ghost" inside still hadn't seen the tourist appear and was growing confused. He leaned forward, adjusting his angle, trying to find Chen Ge.
The silent standoff reached its final stage. With only three seconds remaining, Chen Ge took a step forward, sidestepping the gap in front of the cabinet and planting himself right against the door.
At the exact same moment, the sound of the bride ghost's singing erupted from inside the iron cabinet without any warning.
Unlike "Gloomy Sunday," the Wedding Dress hit its crescendo from the very first note.
*Boom!*
Completely caught off guard, the haunted house actor—who had been laser-focused on tracking Chen Ge—heard the ghost's piercing song ring out behind him while his nerves were already stretched to their limit.
He slammed straight into the cabinet door. In his panic, he somehow stepped on one of his own props and went sliding down into the bottom of the iron cabinet with a heavy thud.
"What is that sound? What is that sound?!"
The dark, cramped cabinet had become a prison of nightmares. The female ghost seemed to be lurking right there in the darkness.
He hammered at the cabinet door like a madman. But Chen Ge, having anticipated all of this, had already been kind enough to brace his back against the door a step ahead.
"What's that noise?! Let me out!"
Worried that too much physical exertion would spike his heart rate, Chen Ge held the door for a moment, then stepped aside.
*Bam!*
The cabinet door burst open, and a "male ghost" wearing a patient's gown, his face caked in artificial blood, came scrambling out in a disheveled heap.
He gasped for air, clutching his chest, and sat right in the middle of the corridor with a look of someone who had just had the life scared out of him.
"Don't be scared, I'm just a tourist," Chen Ge said casually into the microphone, then picked up his phone and turned off the alarm—as if he'd just done something utterly trivial.
Cold sweat had mixed with the still-wet artificial blood on his face. The male ghost stared at Chen Ge with a look of utter despair, his expression as pitiful as could be.
"How did you fall just now? You didn't hurt yourself, did you?" Chen Ge turned and peered inside the iron cabinet. Two specially made gloves lay on the floor, each topped with a model head. One of the heads had had its long hair ripped off. "You guys actually use props this terrifying? That's vicious."
Chen Ge reached out to help the "male ghost" up, but the "male ghost" scrambled half a meter backward. "Don't touch me! Just go, I can get up on my own."
"Are you sure? Your face looks really pale."
"This is makeup! Just go enjoy the tour, forget about me!" The male ghost stubbornly crawled back into the iron cabinet and shut the door behind him.
"Then be careful," Chen Ge said, switching the alarm tone to something else. That song was a bit too intense for certain occasions.