"It looks like Xu Zhenzhen is hidden inside the female corpse prop."
Every living person had entered under her gaze, and quite a few tourists had even touched her body.
"Now I need to figure out another question: why did the tape ghost actively seek out Xu Zhenzhen? Is there some hidden connection between them, or was the tape ghost simply hunting for other ghosts to devour?"
Whether Xu Zhenzhen was a lingering spirit or a vengeful ghost, Chen Ge wasn't sure. All he knew was that this woman had made her home in the Tendo Hospital a long time ago, and it was precisely because of her existence that Tendo Hospital had built up its reputation.
"During Tendo Hospital's operation in Xinhai, there were never any tourist casualties. That tells me Xu Zhenzhen doesn't hold much malice toward the living." Chen Ge would have liked to spare Xu Zhenzhen, but right now he had absolutely no way to control the vengeful ghost inside the tape.
The tape ghost's shrieks never ceased as it circled the hanging female corpse. The corpse seemed to sense the threat, its body swaying back and forth.
After a dozen or so seconds, the female corpse's body was suddenly torn by an invisible force, twisted into a grotesque angle as one of its legs was ripped clean off.
"The tape ghost wants to devour Xu Zhenzhen?" Whether it was a trick of the eyes, Chen Ge thought he saw the female corpse model's face contort in an expression of pain. And the moment the female corpse showed that pained expression, the tape ghost fell silent—it had been screaming nonstop, but now it went completely quiet.
"Is this thing trying to project its own suffering onto other ghosts, or is there something else going on?" In the brief moment Chen Ge was caught off guard, the "female corpse" model's other leg was torn away as well.
…
Third floor of the main hall, outside the haunted house entrance.
The tourists waiting in line buzzed with discussion. The manager stared at the several steadily fluctuating lines on the projection screen, his face growing more and more embarrassed.
The haunted house's soundproofing was mediocre, and several screams had leaked through the middle—unfortunately, all of them were female voices.
A male tourist had gone in, and the haunted house was producing women's screams. The Tendo Hospital manager was witnessing this legendary scenario for the first time.
"Too bad, so close." He stared at the peaks in the line fluctuations. The line representing Chen Ge's heart rate had topped out at ninety-six—just a hair away from breaking a hundred.
"Hey boss, how much longer does this event last? We've been waiting over ten minutes," a tourist beside him began to complain.
"Please be patient—another five minutes at most and that tourist should be coming out." The manager wasn't entirely confident either, muttering under his breath: "There's a secret route inside the haunted house designed specifically for the brave. He's in the haunted house business too—there's no way he wouldn't discover it, right? So what went wrong?"
While the manager was lost in thought, hurried footsteps suddenly echoed from the haunted house exit.
"He's finally coming out! Running that fast—he must've been terrified." The manager listened to the footsteps with satisfaction, then glanced up at the projector and told himself: "I said it—there's no way someone could walk into a haunted house and keep their heart rate under a hundred. The equipment must have malfunctioned."
He grabbed a megaphone and called out to the crowd: "The first experience-taker is about to emerge! We can compare his readings before and after, and then ask him about his experience."
With the manager's announcement, every pair of eyes locked onto the haunted house exit.
The footsteps grew closer and closer, until finally there was a loud bang as the wooden door and the thick cloth curtain at the exit were burst open.
Someone was coming out!
She was wearing an oversized hospital gown, black hair plastered against her neck, cold sweat smearing the makeup on her face. From a distance, all anyone could make out was a pair of terrified eyes.