Dressed in a doctor's uniform and clutching the Skull-Crushing Hammer,
"Which way did they run?"
Standing still at the intersection, Chen Ge pricked up his ears. Before long, a sound echoed from the corridor where the deep well was located.
"Gurgle… gurgle…"
A severed head rolled out of its own accord, pushed along by some invisible force.
"Wandering around again." Chen Ge walked toward the head, assuming it had become separated from its body and had rolled out to seek help.
But before he could get close, the head set off rolling in another direction — at a pace neither too fast nor too slow, perfectly matched to keep Chen Ge following.
"Is it leading the way?"
Chen Ge didn't hesitate. He followed the rolling head.
The foul wind whipped through his bloodstained doctor's uniform. Wearing the human-skin mask, wielding the crimson hammer, Chen Ge chased the rolling head deeper and deeper into the haunted house…
……
When Yang Chen saw Wei Wu and Kong Xiangming approaching, a spark of hope lit up in his chest. In his view, whether these two were tourists or staff, their presence could only be a benefit — not a liability.
"You just came out from inside?" Wei Wu cast a glance at the three medical students, his voice utterly cold. He seemed to have sensed a threat and had decided there was no point in continuing the charade.
"Yes." Yang Chen had originally intended to ask Wei Wu for help, but he quickly sensed something was off about the man's attitude. There was an unmistakable discomfort to it — nothing like how someone working in the service industry should behave.
"What did you run into in that room? How did you end up looking so shaken?" Kong Xiangming walked over as well.
The two men's demeanor left the three medical students confused. They had assumed Wei Wu and Kong Xiangming were haunted house staff, but their reaction planted a seed of doubt.
"Are these two genuinely unfamiliar with the haunted house layout, or are they messing with us on purpose?"
Before the students could come to an answer, Wei Wu and Kong Xiangming suddenly reacted — the two of them turned their heads in perfect unison, fixing their gaze on the glass door of Xicheng Private Academy.
"What are you looking at?" Yang Chen felt a prickle of unease and retreated toward his companions. The situation was growing complicated.
After a second or two, the glass door of Xicheng Private Academy swung open on its own, and a faint, strange smell wafted out.
"I knew the puppets weren't the only ghosts locked up in this place," Wei Wu said in a low voice. Unless it was absolutely necessary, they would never reveal their true identity to outsiders.
"The one on me has awakened — it's getting hungry." Kong Xiangming sounded even calmer. A pair of bony hands settled onto his shoulders, and then a gaunt, skeletal head poked out from behind his back.
"Are you insane? There are still other people here!" Wei Wu tried to stop Kong Xiangming, but it was already too late. The three medical students had seen everything.
"The one attached to me is quite powerful. When it's hungry, I simply can't hold it back." Kong Xiangming's voice remained steady — this clearly wasn't the first time he'd experienced this. "These three students seeing us doesn't really matter. We can deal with them all at once. It's just a shame about this cover identity."
Biting dogs don't bark. Wei Wu never expected that Kong Xiangming — the quiet, reserved one — would be so utterly decisive when he finally moved.
"Fine. The one on me is hungry too." Faint threads of blood writhed visibly beneath the skin on the back of Wei Wu's skull. He turned to look at the three medical students — and to his surprise, not a single one of them showed any fear. Instead, all three wore expressions that said, "So that's how it is."