"No." Captain Li shook his head and refused without a moment's hesitation. "Capturing fugitives is police business. We can't send you in there to take that kind of risk."
"Me staying in the haunted house serves a purpose — it creates an illusion, making Zhang Peng think he hasn't been exposed yet. That way he'll come looking for me according to his original plan, and the odds of him showing up near the amusement park will be much higher, making it easier for you to apprehend him."
"The specifics of the capture plan need to be worked out with the city bureau's criminal investigation team. The Ping'an Apartment massacre case falls under their jurisdiction — our Xicheng precinct is only assisting. I'll pass your proposal along to them." Captain Li closed his laptop, made a phone call, and left the central control room with the two plainclothes officers.
"Kid Chen, why don't you listen to the police and get out of here for a while? Lay low." Uncle Xu was worried, and only dared approach after Captain Li and the others had left.
"Running away won't solve anything. Don't try to talk me out of it." After finishing his review of the surveillance footage, Chen Ge headed back into the haunted house.
"Boss, today's lunch is stir-fried pork with green pepper over rice."
Chen Ge took the box, looked at Wanwan, and ultimately said nothing about Zhang Peng. Just like any other day, he wolfed down his meal and opened the haunted house for the afternoon.
Xu Wan took her position as the ghost in the arranged marriage scene while Chen Ge sold tickets outside. His head hung low, but his eyes constantly swept across the surroundings.
"Zhang Peng's appearance is both a bad thing and a good thing for me — it all depends on how I use him." After completing several missions on the black phone, Chen Ge felt his analytical thinking had sharpened considerably, and he had grown calmer and more composed.
"There's currently a creature from the mirror locked inside the haunted house. It can freely travel between mirrors and reality — as long as mirrors exist, it's essentially invincible." Chen Ge sold tickets with a casual air, but his mind was racing. "He Shan and He Feng were both attacked in succession, and their experiences were nearly identical. According to He Feng's account, the creature was trying to enter their bodies, overwrite their will, or possibly parasitize them. The creature's motive isn't yet clear, but there's something worth considering: if the monster enters someone's body, can it leave in a short period of time?"
This was a question Chen Ge had already noticed during his conversation with He Feng, but he had no way to prove it. Using any visitor as a test subject would be far too dangerous.
He had practically abandoned the idea — until Zhang Peng showed up that morning.
The moment he spotted Zhang Peng on the surveillance feed, Chen Ge locked in on the plan forming in his mind. He intended to use Zhang Peng as a guinea pig, lure him into the haunted house, and then find a way to let the mirror creature take over his body.
That way, he would eliminate Zhang Peng and get rid of the mirror creature in one stroke — killing two birds with one stone. That was the real reason he had insisted on staying in the haunted house as bait.
"That's the plan. It's dangerous, but if it works, two threats are dealt with at once."
Just past five in the afternoon, Chen Ge called Xu Wan out and told her to clock out early. He then began preparing everything inside the haunted house — Zhang Peng was going to get the full experience.
At five-thirty, Captain Li called again to inform Chen Ge that they had set up surveillance around the perimeter of the amusement park. If Zhang Peng showed up, he wouldn't escape.
After dinner, Chen Ge grabbed a blanket and the Skull-crushing Doctor costume and headed to the haunted house control room. He locked the door and settled in front of the monitors. Barring any surprises, he was going to be spending the entire night here.
"The number of cameras really is too few. There are plenty of blind spots in the haunted house. I can't afford to let my guard down."
The sun sank below the horizon. Unlike the daytime, the New Century Amusement Park at night was utterly silent.
As darkness deepened, Chen Ge huddled in the control room with his blanket, keeping vigil. He waited until midnight. The one who should have come didn't show up, but someone who shouldn't have arrived did.
Just like the night before, the eerie sound of something being cut echoed from the midnight chase scene.
"It starts up every night at the stroke of midnight. Is this thing trying to intimidate me?" Chen Ge tossed his blanket aside and walked to the door. After a moment's thought, he decided against going out to confront the mirror creature. "I'll let it run around a little while longer."
He put on his earphones, tucked the cloth doll his parents had left him into his shirt, and turned his attention back to the monitors.
Around one in the morning, just when Chen Ge was about to give up, the bathroom door on the surveillance feed suddenly moved.
"Someone?"
He snapped to attention, eyes fixed on the screen.
A short while later, the bathroom door cracked open, and a tall, thin man emerged clutching a twenty-centimeter boning knife.
"That bathroom is where I first completed a nightmare mission. The window connects to the outside — he must have cased the place beforehand and tampered with the lock." Chen Ge watched the feed with complete composure. The control room door was locked, and its location was extremely obscure. Anyone unfamiliar with the haunted house layout would have almost no chance of finding it directly.
On screen, Zhang Peng moved with exaggerated stealth — knife in one hand, phone in the other, creeping carefully along the haunted house corridor. He had no idea he'd been spotted and remained completely focused on avoiding obstacles and props scattered along the path.
It took a full fifteen minutes before Zhang Peng finally found the staff break room. He stood at the door, hesitating, his chest heaving, the hand holding the knife trembling slightly. He tried pushing the door several times, pulling his fingertips back each time they made contact with the panel. His inner conflict was plain to see.
Standing directly beneath the security camera, Zhang Peng dithered for dozens of seconds before finally making up his mind.
He raised the knife, gripped the doorknob, drew a deep breath, and threw the door open — bursting into the staff break room like a leopard pouncing on prey.
A little over a minute later, Zhang Peng walked back out with the knife, its blade now bearing a thin smear of blood. He had apparently cut his own arm by accident.
He switched the knife to his other hand. The expression on his face turned even more vicious. He glanced upstairs, then quickened his pace along the corridor.
The surveillance feed made it perfectly clear that Zhang Peng was heading straight for the control room. Chen Ge sent Captain Li a text message, then picked up the Skull-crushing Doctor's iron hammer — over forty centimeters long — and positioned himself behind the control room door.
He had been planning to deliver the most classic scene from a horror movie — the door-opening kill. But Zhang Peng simply walked past the control room door, knife in hand, and entered the staff corridor.
"What's this guy after?" Chen Ge couldn't immediately grasp his intentions. He hurried back to the computer. The feed showed Zhang Peng using his knife to pry open the wooden boards at the end of the staff corridor, then stepping through without a shred of hesitation.
"He went into the midnight chase scene?" Chen Ge pulled off his earphones, eyes wide. "There's been a cutting sound coming from that area all night — could he possibly think it's me in there sawing something?"