"There was no other path. When I guided Xiao Bu past that bus, I saw a woman still standing at the stop—a woman wearing a red raincoat."
"The entire game interface was grey and dull, so the woman in the red raincoat stood out vividly."
"I clicked on her with the mouse, and a message popped up at the bottom of the screen—'Have you seen my child?'"
"That line must have been what the raincoat woman said. No matter how many times I clicked, that was the only thing she would say."
"The art style of the game changed drastically, and I was getting scared too. I only kept playing out of pure curiosity. I ignored the woman in the red raincoat and tried to move forward, but the girl Xiao Bu stopped obeying commands—her body suddenly couldn't move."
"I leaned close to the screen and saw that the raincoat woman had grabbed Xiao Bu's arm. What was even more terrifying was that the raincoat woman on the screen was trembling continuously, and the game seemed to glitch—the phrase 'Have you seen my child?' kept popping up at the bottom of the screen over and over again."
"I clicked the mouse like crazy, and finally I clicked on the bus. That was when the girl broke free of the raincoat woman's grip and entered the bus."
"The vehicle quickly started moving, driving along the road."
"I don't know how long it drove for, but Xiao Bu—still wearing her mother's pajamas—suddenly began pacing back and forth inside the bus. She had heard the sound of a child crying."
Fan Cong didn't continue. His emotions were getting a bit unstable, and his chubby hand clutched at his chest. "That was when I started having auditory hallucinations. By the time I reached that part of the game, it was already three in the morning. I was scared, so I shut off the computer right away. But after I got into bed, I could still hear a child crying. The sound seemed to come from the computer, but soon the crying started up elsewhere in the room—like that child had climbed out of the screen."
"When did all this start?" Chen Ge took out his phone and swapped WeChat contacts with Fan Cong.
"A week or two ago—no, I can't really remember anymore." Fan Cong looked like he was in pain. "Next time you can come find me in the eastern suburbs. We can sit down and have a proper chat."
"Sure. Where do you live?"
"Xiwu Street, Liwan Town, eastern suburbs. First residential compound."
Chen Ge wrote down the address, chatted with Fan Cong a little longer, then left.
"All the strange incidents lately have been clustered in the eastern suburbs. Looks like that area is pretty chaotic—not as calm as it appears on the surface." Chen Ge returned to the haunted house and resumed business. The visitors had been thoroughly terrified, but not a single one wanted to file a complaint or express dissatisfaction.
For people who genuinely sought thrills, they never complained about getting too scared—they only complained when it wasn't scary enough.
Still, such visitors were rare. Most people who tried the one-star and two-star scenarios would come to their senses. In their eyes, anyone who dared to challenge a three-star scenario now was a serious daredevil.
At six fifty in the evening, Chen Ge's haunted house closed for the day. After seeing off the last group of visitors, the employees could finally leave the scenes they'd been running.
"Good work, everyone. The forecast says rain tonight, and the weather's not great, so head home early."
After tidying up the haunted house, Chen Ge walked out with Xiao Gu and Xu Wan.
"Boss, where are you headed?"