Chen Ge was the last person to jump down from the second floor. When he stood on the windowsill, the surge of people below took even him by surprise.
"This time it seems like things have gotten a little out of hand."
To avoid drawing attention to himself, Chen Ge hesitated for a moment before climbing over the windowsill and jumping down as well.
"Someone's jumping off the building!"
The cries rose one after another along Xinhai's Central Avenue, drawing more and more people toward the scene.
A full ten minutes passed before the police arrived and restored order.
"Don't stay in place! Don't block the road! Let the ambulance through!"
Several officers dispersed the gawking onlookers, and they didn't take long to track down the people who had just "jumped off the building."
"Something from underneath the building broke out! Officers! I know this is hard to believe, but it's the truth!" Little Zhao kept jumping up, trying to catch the police's attention. "There are still visitors inside! Hurry! Save them!"
Several haunted house actors were still emotionally agitated and hadn't fully calmed down. After a brief questioning, the officers exchanged odd glances.
At first they thought a brutal murder had taken place, then they considered the possibility of a fire inside the haunted house that had forced people to jump. But after hearing the staff's account, the officers felt like these people were essentially pulling their leg.
"Something underneath the building? Do you have any idea what the consequences are for messing with the police?" The leading police captain wore a dark expression. Having learned the situation, he had begun to suspect this was a publicity stunt by Nightmare Academy — a self-directed farce cooked up to generate buzz and attention.
"We're not messing with you! It's real! That thing appeared out of thin air! It was wearing red clothes!" The surviving haunted house actors described the scene to the officers with vivid detail.
Fearful eyes, urgent tones, exaggerated body language — the haunted house actors looked as though they had gotten too deep into their roles and couldn't snap out of it.
"Alright, alright. Where's your person in charge? Get him out here. I have questions for him." The police captain felt he simply couldn't communicate with these haunted house actors.
"The person in charge?" Several actors looked at each other blankly. Then it suddenly hit them — their boss was still inside the haunted house!
"Oh no! The boss is still in there!"
…
Nightmare Academy's owner, Shangguan Qinghong, furrowed his brow as he swung the golf club in his hand. "A bit light. Oh well — can't find a better weapon in the short term. This will do."
He looked at the computer screen, reviewing a few surveillance clips he had captured. Every one of them featured Chen Ge — specifically, every clip showed Chen Ge fleeing in terror through his haunted house.
"Running a haunted house with such a cowardly boss — how is Hanjiang Horror House ever going to compare to my Nightmare Academy? Their own boss comes here and gets scared witless." Although many unexpected things had happened today, Boss Shangguan was still quite pleased. He felt he had defended his haunted house's reputation and crushed his rival's arrogance.
"So what if the real ghost underneath broke out? Any ghost that appears in my haunted house is part of my haunted house's strength." Compassion does not manage wealth, mercy does not command armies — Shangguan Qinghong felt he had done nothing wrong.
"I've already secured evidence of Chen Ge breaking down in terror. All I need now is to get out safely." Once all the clips extracted from the surveillance footage had finished downloading, Shangguan Qinghong put his phone away.
He donned a hard hat and knee pads, gripping the golf club in one hand.
"Time to head out. That thing downstairs may be strange and terrifying, but I've got plenty of staff. If we all stick together, even something unclean won't be able to stir up trouble."
Taking a deep breath, Shangguan Qinghong opened the principal's office door. "Everyone, don't panic! Follow my lead!"
The door swung open, but outside there was none of the crowd of staff he had expected. The pitch-black corridor was completely deserted — only the cold draft from the air conditioning blew aimlessly through it.
"Where is everyone?"
Standing alone in a corridor so dark he couldn't see his own hand in front of his face, Shangguan Qinghong couldn't help but start to panic. He pulled out his walkie-talkie and shouted, "Where are you? Little Zhao? Old Li? Xiaoxu?"
He cycled through several channels without anyone responding. The only sound in the entire corridor was his own echo.
"What's going on?"
No one on the walkie-talkie, no one answering his phone — it was as if he were the last person left in the world.
"Where the hell did all these people run off to?"
Gripping his golf club, Shangguan Qinghong calmed himself after the brief panic. "The moment something happened, I notified everyone. The actors on my floor were supposed to assemble right outside my office. Now they've all vanished. There are two possibilities."
"First, the unclean thing trapped downstairs is chasing them. They drew its attention and lured it away from me. This is actually a perfect opportunity for me to leave."
"Second, they're already dead. If that's the case, then there's no use in me worrying and being afraid. What will come will come. Panicking blindly will only make me lose my composure."
The fact that Shangguan Qinghong had built Nightmare Academy into the largest haunted house in Xinhai spoke to his capability — though his smooth sailing in business had perhaps given him some personality flaws.
"I've accomplished my goal. Now I just need to ensure my own safety." Shangguan Qinghong decided to leave right away. As for the safety of his employees, that was something he would only consider after securing his own first.
Creeping carefully toward the elevator, the short walk took him a full two minutes.
A scene he had known by heart every day was now saturated with a peculiar sense of terror.
Wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, Shangguan Qinghong pressed the elevator button, but the elevator seemed to be malfunctioning — it was stuck on the basement level.
"What's going on?" After pressing the button several more times, the display on the outside finally changed, and the elevator began to rise slowly.
"So slow!" Standing there at the elevator doors, Shangguan Qinghong grew increasingly afraid. He stared down the pitch-black corridor, feeling that something could burst out of the darkness at any moment. Fear took root and sprouted inside him like a venomous weed.
When the elevator reached the second floor, Shangguan Qinghong suddenly heard footsteps in the stairwell. The background music shifted at that moment, and he could clearly make out a strange man's voice.
"That thing is coming."
The footsteps in the stairwell grew closer and closer. Shangguan Qinghong stared at the numbers on the elevator display, both hands gripping the golf club tightly.
"Hurry!"
When the footsteps appeared on the fourth floor, the elevator finally reached it as well.
The elevator doors, splattered with all manner of paint, slid open. Shangguan Qinghong squeezed inside. The moment his front foot crossed the threshold, his body went rigid.
There was a person already inside!
The figure stood in the corner of the elevator, deathly pale. Seeing the haunted house owner come charging in with a golf club startled him too.
"Who are you?"
They spoke in unison, as if they had rehearsed it.