Qu Changlin had worked in the haunted house for three years and never imagined there would come a day like this.
That face was only a few centimeters from his own. He could clearly make out every detail on it — the slightly upturned corner of the lips, the sparse stubble, and those eyes that radiated a cold, sinister chill at every moment.
"My boss wants to see you."
The lips moved up and down as though speaking, but Qu Changlin couldn't hear a sound. Perhaps the nerves responsible for transmitting sound had already shut down, or perhaps his brain had lost all function entirely.
None of that mattered now. Qu Changlin didn't even think to question why there was a person hanging upside down behind him.
His heart took a full two seconds to recover. Blood rushed to his brain in an instant, and as his body gradually came back under his control, Qu Changlin did what any normal person would do.
"Who's there?!"
His vocal cords trembling, Qu Changlin lunged forward and slammed into the door panel in front of him. The thin mirror was pushed aside and he tried to run, but the door to the fourth stall had been shut from outside.
Trapped in the narrow space, Qu Changlin pressed his back against the stall door, eyes locked on the hidden chamber he'd been hiding in. The dark, cramped chamber was completely empty.
Clutching his chest, Qu Changlin was certain he had just seen someone — head downward, hanging upside down right behind him!
"Where did he go?"
What had just happened had already become a psychological scar. If he didn't find out the truth, he figured he would never dare be alone in a sealed, dark space for the rest of his life.
The haunted house had its air conditioning running. The temperature was low, but beads of sweat kept forming on Qu Changlin's forehead.
"The stall door is shut. That person should still be in here."
Misfortunes never come singly.
While Qu Changlin was wrestling with this very serious problem, the stall door behind him was suddenly struck from the other side.
Bang, bang — the knocking sounded like death knells, following a peculiar rhythm, once, again, as though the blows were passing straight through his chest and landing directly on his heart.
He wanted to move, but his calves wouldn't obey. His legs went weak, unable to support his body, and he slid down against the stall door until he was sitting on the floor.
It had happened too fast. The situation had changed in an instant — before he could even understand what was going on, he had already collapsed.
Someone new had appeared in the hidden chamber. He had tried to run outside, but the stall door was shut. There was nowhere to retreat. Qu Changlin realized, without quite knowing how it had happened, that he had been backed into a dead end.
He pushed against the ground with his legs, struggling to stand. "If the person knocking outside the stall is a visitor, then who was the person I just saw?"
Qu Changlin pressed his back hard against the door and reached into his pocket, searching for his phone to report the situation to his boss.
But the moment the call connected, before he could even speak, he heard a completely unfamiliar voice: "There's no use hiding. He'll follow you home, lurking in your shadow, crouching on your windowsill, crawling under your covers..."
The voice came from beyond the door. The knocker was standing on the other side.
The person wasn't using any exaggerated tone to deliberately frighten him. The voice was flat, calm, as though simply stating a fact.
Qu Changlin clamped a hand over his mouth. The call had already gone through, but he didn't dare make a sound.
He could feel a cold gaze fixed on him. He didn't dare turn around, didn't dare move. His body felt as though it had been frozen solid.
"What do I do now?"
...