The three tourists were tangled together, wedged tight in the passage. It was the first time
"Call 119? Forget it — I'll handle it myself."
He braced his leg against Song An's back and grabbed Du Chaojin's arm: "Hang in there!"
Leaning his body backward, Chen Ge pulled with both hands and yanked Little Du's arm free from the knot of limbs.
"It hurts! It hurts!"
After a good deal of effort, he finally managed to separate all three. He looked down at the tourists sprawled on the ground — pale-faced, limp, completely drained — and couldn't help but remark, "Visitors these days are in pretty rough shape, across the board."
Dressed in his blood-soaked costume and carrying the skull-crushing hammer, Chen Ge received no reply from the three. For them, this day would be etched into the depths of their hearts forever — an unforgettable, "precious" memory.
"Can you walk on your own? I'll escort you out." Chen Ge picked up the female mannequin's facial features and set them beside her head, then helped the group out of the director's office.
At the entrance to New Century Paradise's haunted house, the visitors had split into two groups.
One group consisted of genuine visitors, lounging in the rest hall and watching the spectacle unfold. the other was made up of Tianteng Hospital fans, standing outside waiting anxiously for results.
"Director Xu, it's been almost forty minutes — why haven't they come out yet?"
"We received a distress call! Director, are you sure nothing bad is happening in there?"
Uncle Xu stood at the haunted house entrance selling tickets, surrounded by three or four young people — men and women alike.
If Chen Ge had been there, he would have recognized them immediately: these were the other Tianteng Hospital employees.
"Um… nothing bad should be happening." Uncle Xu's forehead was drenched in sweat. The truth was, he had absolutely no confidence. The normal tour time was twenty minutes; once it exceeded that, something had definitely gone wrong.
"You've wiped your sweat a dozen times in under two minutes, buddy — seeing you like this is making us nervous!" The tall, thin man was surnamed Lin — the one who had played the corpse hiding under the nursery bed. Without his stage makeup, he looked far more weathered and mature.
"Don't worry." That was what he said, but Uncle Xu was even more panicked than they were. Last time Fei Youliang had visited, his tour ran eight minutes over, and they'd had to send the guy straight to the hospital. This time, it was nearly twenty minutes overdue!
They were going to wipe everyone out!
Uncle Xu didn't dare think any further. In fact, he had already alerted the park's medical office ten minutes ago — stretchers were standing by in the rest hall.
"Just wait a little longer. Maybe they're just having a really good time."
One more minute passed. The opaque curtain at the haunted house entrance was pushed aside, and a tall, lithe woman bolted out.
There wasn't a trace of color in her face. Her short hair clung to her forehead and cheeks. The moment she burst through the curtain, she collapsed to the ground, her chest heaving violently — as though she had just finished a long-distance race.
"Someone's coming out!"
"It's Ye Xiaoxin!"
"Isn't she supposed to be the country's most professional haunted house reviewer? How did she end up looking like that?"
"The stuff online is all hype — you can't trust it. She's not one of the professionals from Tianteng Hospital, after all. Getting scared like that is understandable."
Seeing that Ye Xiaoxin had run out, Uncle Xu felt an inexplicable wave of relief. "Good, good."
He unlatched the safety barrier and moved to help her to her feet — but just then, the curtain was pushed aside a second time.
Guo Miao stumbled out looking as though he had aged several years, his eyes vacant and unfocused. Upon spotting Ye Xiaoxin sitting to the left, he instinctively tottered over to the right side instead.
He crouched down in a patch of sunlight. Maybe it was from running too hard — he felt a faint urge to vomit.