"How do you fall asleep during a haunted house tour?" Zhang Huang was still mulling over what Wang Yan had said when his body was already being pushed forward a good distance.
Now that he knew those creepy rumors were all made up by Wang Yan, Zhang Huang wasn't nearly as scared anymore. He was into extreme sports, so his mental resilience was already far beyond the average person's. Besides, he'd never believed in ghosts or anything like that in the first place.
Everything in the haunted house was fake. Compared to deep-sea diving and wilderness survival, a haunted house had the lowest potential danger of them all. He was perfectly well aware that a haunted house could never actually put a visitor's life at risk.
Since there was no real danger to his life, what was there to be afraid of?
Getting spooked a little wouldn't cost him any flesh.
Having reasoned this through, Zhang Huang grew even more confident. Even his posture changed from before — no more creeping along cautiously. "Nothing to be scared of. Let's pick up the pace and clear this as fast as we can. This haunted house, this whole amusement park — boring. Next time I get the chance, I'll treat you all to the new fifth-generation high-tech theme park they just opened in the eastern suburbs."
As he said this, Zhang Huang didn't forget to turn around and flash a smile at Wang Yan's girlfriend, as though hinting at something.
With the medical chart still stuck to his back, Zhang Huang was the first to reach the second basement level.
The lighting grew dimmer still. Without a flashlight, you couldn't make out a thing around you.
"Did Li Xu and that streamer already leave? Not a peep." Zhang Huang casually pushed open the door of a nearby ward. Stained sheets lay crumpled on the bed, and scattered on the floor were pieces of dried plaster and traces of blood.
"This room looks different from the others. Feels like someone's been in here." Zhang Huang wanted to try analyzing the situation the way Wang Yan did, but he couldn't come up with a single concrete reason. All he could chalk it up to was his gut feeling.
"Should we go in and take a look?" Wang Yan's girlfriend looked a bit rattled. She was still thinking about that pair of legs she'd seen earlier.
"If you think someone was here, it means Li Xu and the streamer found something in this room. Let's go in and check too." With that, Wang Yan pushed Zhang Huang inside.
The ward was tinged with the faint smell of disinfectant — a bit acrid.
Zhang Huang covered his mouth and wrinkled his nose, his expression full of distaste as he lifted the bedding on the hospital bed.
Underneath the sheet was a human-shaped bloodstain and a selfie stick.
"How is this thing here?" Zhang Huang picked up the selfie stick. "Doesn't look like a haunted house prop. Could the streamer have left it?"
While he was speaking, a soft noise came from the wardrobe beside him — like someone in a state of extreme panic accidentally bumping into something.
"Who's there?!" Even though he'd been constantly telling himself there was no reason to be afraid, actually finding himself in a tense situation still made Zhang Huang a little nervous.
He walked toward the wardrobe step by step and slowly pulled the door open. Inside was a tattered hospital gown and a torn journal.
"Jackpot! I found a clue!" Zhang Huang was thrilled. He was finally experiencing the thrill of a haunted house — that sensation of groping through the deepest fear and despair, your nerves stretched to the breaking point, and then finally discovering a clue, at which moment the brain floods with an unprecedented rush of satisfaction.
He flipped open the journal, but knowing his analytical skills were no match for Wang Yan's, he called him over to read it together.
The journal described a patient who had discovered something strange about this hospital — every night, a little boy would come to his room and ask him to play hide-and-seek.
The writing was plain and unadorned, yet it was precisely those few simple sentences that dredged up the fear buried deep in their hearts.
"Hide-and-seek?" Zhang Huang wasn't great at thinking, but that didn't mean he was an idiot. The moment he read the story in the journal, he immediately thought of the medical chart that had been stuck on Wang Yan's back.
If the chart was Wang Yan's prank, how did he know about hide-and-seek — such a terrifying game — being hidden away in this hospital?
The ghost town scenario was opening for the first time. They were the very first group of visitors. Wang Yan couldn't have prepared anything in advance.
Could Wang Yan have been in cahoots with the haunted house owner?
The terror that Zhang Huang had managed to suppress now surged back twice as hard — because now that medical chart was stuck to his own back.
Sensing something was wrong, Zhang Huang snapped the journal shut. "The detail work in this place is really something. We've been wandering around long enough — let's head out. I'm getting tired."
"We haven't even gone that far! A sports scholarship student, tired already? Are you feeling unwell?" Wang Yan looked at him with an expression of genuine concern — an expression so earnest it made Zhang Huang want to punch him.
"Oh, it's not that. Hey!" Zhang Huang grabbed the selfie stick from the bed. "The streamer must be getting anxious by now if he can't find his stuff. Let's take this outside and wait for him."
One hand clutching the selfie stick, the other reaching behind his back, Zhang Huang tried to peel off the medical chart. But something unexpected happened.
When his hand made contact, the chart that had been stuck to his back was gone.
"What the—?!"
He twisted his head to look behind him. A pair of bluish-black arms reached out of the wardrobe. A man wearing a tattered hospital gown and missing both legs was pressing yellowed medical charts one after another onto Zhang Huang's waist and legs!
On every single chart was written the same phrase — My turn to be "it"!
A dense, suffocating layer of medical charts had appeared on his body — he had no idea when they had been put there.
Zhang Huang's mind went blank. His undertrained brain was about to burst from the sheer volume of questions flooding it!
Where had this man come from? Why was he wearing the same hospital gown I just saw? What does "my turn to be it" mean?! When did I ever agree to play your game?!
His facial contorted in horror. His heart leaped into his throat. It took a good two or three seconds before his body finally reacted.
He let out a piercing scream and instinctively launched himself high into the air. His mind was still a complete blank. The moment he landed, he crashed straight into Wang Yan and bolted for the door.
While Zhang Huang had been reading through the journal, Wang Yan had already noticed something was off — he had seen the hospital gown inside the wardrobe seeming to move on its own.