The midnight ticket booth was still in a dilapidated state, and
"Boss!"
At the entrance to the amusement park,
Seeing the energetic Xu Wan, Chen Ge's mood brightened considerably. The girl was a bit scatterbrained, occasionally making mistakes and getting confused, but she possessed a natural infectiousness that made people feel the sunshine and beauty of life.
He took the steamed buns from Xu Wan's hand and dug in without any pretense, taking large bites. "How come you're here so early today?"
"Boss, look!" Xu Wan sat down on the steps next to Chen Ge and pulled out her phone, scrolling through it. On the screen were text articles and downloaded news videos about the Ping'an Apartment massacre case: "It's all about you! I feel like you're about to trend!"
"Let me see." Chen Ge looked at the articles one by one. He hadn't expected that yesterday's perfunctory interview would draw so much attention. "What a shame."
"Shame? I think it's great!" Xu Wan sat beside him, her cheeks flushed red, probably from the run.
"All I was worried about back then was the bounty. I forgot this was a great advertising opportunity!" He scrolled through the screen with a pained expression. "If I'd known so many people would be watching, I would have cut off Captain Yan's speech no matter what and plugged our haunted house! Look at these articles — they're not accurate at all. They didn't even include our haunted house's address! Xiao Wan, I'm giving you a task. Later, we'll go through the comments on every article, introduce ourselves, and leave the haunted house address. Anyone who comes because of these articles gets a twenty percent discount."
"That's a bit shameless, isn't it?" Xu Wan said, feeling a little embarrassed, but in the end she did as Chen Ge asked and left comments.
At nine o'clock the amusement park opened for business. The two put away their phones and got to work.
After opening the barrier, it wasn't until this point that Xu Wan noticed the ticket booth standing in the middle.
"You built this last night?"
"Yep. It's a little ugly, but it's practical."
"Mm-hmm. I think we really did need a ticket booth."
Seeing Xu Wan nod earnestly, Chen Ge couldn't help but silently marvel — what a great employee. She never contradicted him.
They entered the haunted house. Xu Wan headed to the dressing room to touch up her makeup, while Chen Ge dragged out a few wooden boards from the prop room and blocked off the entrance to the underground tunnel. The new trial scenario hadn't opened yet, so the area was temporarily unused.
After everything was prepared, they began the day's business. Before peak season had even arrived, a line had already formed at the haunted house entrance. It wasn't long, but compared to before, it was a qualitative leap.
Xu Wan played the ghost in the ghost marriage scenario, while Chen Ge carried his makeup kit, selling tickets and collecting money on one hand and playing the slasher in the midnight escape scenario on the other.
Maintaining such a large haunted house was exhausting work for just two people. It was worth noting that in the midnight escape scenario, Xiao Xiao occasionally interacted with visitors in surprise. This ultra-fierce plush doll seemed to particularly enjoy trailing behind living people, which actually made Chen Ge a little worried — he feared that one day she might get carried off by a visitor.
They stayed busy until noon before finally having a moment of peace. Chen Ge opened the black phone to check. Both the approval rating and visitor count had increased significantly. The second expansion wasn't far off.
"Two scenarios managed by two people is already the limit. If any more horror scenarios are unlocked, I'll definitely need to hire new staff." Chen Ge stared at the black phone. The nightmare-level tasks it posted each day were utterly unreliable, but the simple and normal-difficulty tasks pinpointed the haunted house's shortcomings with surgical precision. Completing them meant improving the haunted house.