Switching to the classroom camera,
As she passed between two mannequins, one of the mannequin heads suddenly fell off. The other four people were startled, but Liu Xianxian, who was closest to the severed head, remained composed. She wore a smile on her face as she picked up the mannequin from the floor and reattached it.
Chen Ge paused the footage and stared intently at Liu Xianxian's smile as she picked up the mannequin head.
"Her smile is very stiff. Every time she smiles, the angle her mouth curves upward is exactly the same, as if she's practiced it for a long time."
"When someone gets scared, showing a terrified expression—that's perfectly normal, isn't it? Why would she deliberately train herself to do otherwise?"
Overcoming fear and smiling in the face of it were two completely different concepts. Liu Xianxian's behavior left even Chen Ge scratching his head.
"Her body trembles, yet she forces a smile on her face. Does this woman have some kind of psychological condition?" Chen Ge thought of the two previous unusual visitors to his haunted house—
He continued watching the surveillance footage. The five of them had already left the last classroom. Not long after they departed, several mannequins appeared to be blown over by the wind and tumbled out of the last classroom.
The rest of the footage wasn't worth watching. Chen Ge kept his attention focused on Liu Xianxian, and the more he watched, the more abnormal she seemed.
For example, at the West Suburb Private Academy boys' dormitory, the hanging mannequin suddenly lunged out of the room and bounced toward them.
The other four were scared to tears and sprinted for their lives, but Liu Xianxian stood trembling in place.
She still wore that smile on her face, yet tears streamed from her eyes. It was obvious she was terrified—her chest heaved as though she were about to pass out from fright.
The hanging mannequin naturally wouldn't actually harm her. After bouncing over to Liu Xianxian, it collapsed into her arms.
The death-like face stared up at her. Liu Xianxian could no longer hold back and screamed out an apology, though it was impossible to tell who exactly she was apologizing to.
She was clearly in a state of shock. Chen Ge didn't dare stay in the surveillance room any longer—his haunted house had just sent five people to the hospital yesterday, and if another visitor fainted today, it would be hard to explain.
He lifted the wooden panel and jogged into the scene. The other four medical students had already dragged Liu Xianxian outside.
They shouted toward the surveillance camera for help and chose to give up the tour.
"Don't worry, I was watching you from the surveillance room the whole time. If anything goes wrong, I come in and get you out," Chen Ge said in a reassuring tone. Less than a minute had passed since the incident, and he had already arrived.
"Boss, is Liu Xianxian going to be okay?" Ma Ying asked with concern.
"Hard to say for now." Chen Ge glanced at Liu Xianxian, who was slowly calming down. Her facial muscles twitched—even now, she was forcing herself to maintain that smile. "What I'm actually curious about is, why doesn't she run away when she encounters haunted house props? Instead, she just stands there like a fool."
"I don't know either. Something similar happened to Liu Xianxian back in the dorm, though it wasn't this severe." Ma Ying supported Liu Xianxian as the group walked toward the exit.
"Something similar happened before?"
"Yeah. Before sophomore year, Liu Xianxian was terrified of insects, but starting from one particular day, she suddenly stopped being afraid. She even dared to reach out and grab them sometimes."
"Starting from one particular day?" Chen Ge was now certain that something had definitely happened to Liu Xianxian during her time at school. There was something wrong with this person.
He understood the principle of not rushing things and didn't push too hard. "We have a professional doctor on staff. Let's get her outside first."