"Senior, why do I get the feeling those paper figures are staring at us?" Heshan gripped the door frame, refusing to step inside no matter what. "I'm not kidding! There's definitely something wrong with those paper dolls! What if they're actually people in disguise? Damn it, I swear the second we get close, they'll just stand up from the floor on their own!"
The paper figures that had been processed with Chen Ge's mortician makeup skills each carried an indescribable eeriness about them. They were clearly inanimate objects, and yet a faint sense of vitality seemed to emanate from them.
Gao Ruxue shot Heshan a harsh glare, tempted to call him a deadweight. Fear was contagious — she hadn't been particularly frightened to begin with, but after listening to Heshan run his mouth, even she was starting to get spooked. "Can you shut up for once? Keep yapping and I'll leave you in here all by yourself."
She entered the room first and looked around. The windows on the main chamber's walls were purely decorative — there was no path to the outside.
"Senior, let's just go. This room is seriously off. It's completely sealed on all sides — the exit definitely isn't here."
"The haunted house owner is skilled at psychological suggestion and good at reading people. That's why we need to do the opposite of what feels natural. The place that seems most impossible is exactly where we need to search most carefully." Gao Ruxue moved through the room, and the breeze she stirred up set the paper figures on the floor swaying.
Heshan watched from outside the door, his heart in his throat. "But there's nothing to hide behind in here — the whole room is out in the open. Where could an exit possibly be hidden?"
"Nothing to hide behind? Who told you that?" Gao Ruxue stood in the center of the main chamber, raised her long, pale leg, and planted her foot squarely on the red coffin. "Come help me. I'm opening the coffin."
"Opening the coffin?!" The corner of Heshan's mouth twitched, and his whole body went stiff. "Isn't that a bit… inappropriate…"
"Are you planning to live in this haunted house forever?" Under Gao Ruxue's intimidation, Heshan inched into the room one agonizing step at a time, carefully steering clear of the paper figures on the floor. He bent down and gripped the other end of the coffin lid.
"I'll count to three. We push together."
"Okay."
"One, two—"
Thud!
Gao Ruxue had only made it halfway through the count before a strange noise rang out from inside the room!
"What was that?" Heshan, clutching the coffin lid, flinched in terror.
"Shh." Gao Ruxue raised a finger to her lips. She glanced left and right, then settled her gaze on the red coffin in front of her. "The sound seems to be coming from inside the coffin."
The moment those words left her mouth, Heshan's face turned a sickly shade of green. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed, and the hands gripping the coffin lid looked like they were clutching a red-hot iron plate. "Sis — you're practically my own sister — can we please just get out of here?"
"Think about it. We're in the middle of opening the coffin and a sound comes from inside. Don't you think that's strange?"
"Strange?! The coffin is making noises — this isn't strange, this is a death sentence!" Under the influence of Black Friday, Heshan's fear had been amplified to the extreme. All he wanted now was to leave as soon as possible.
"Just think it through. There are only two possibilities for a sound coming from inside the coffin: first, there's a staff member hiding inside, and the moment we open the lid he'll jump out to scare us. Second, there's some kind of mechanism or trap device — opening the coffin triggers it and introduces a third variable. Either way, the coffin is an important prop in the ghost marriage scene. If we want to get out, opening the coffin is a necessary step." Gao Ruxue patted the coffin lid. "Don't hesitate. Just open it."
"I don't really understand what you're saying, but it does make some kind of sense."
Heshan and Gao Ruxue pushed at the same time. The heavy coffin lid began to slide slowly. When they had opened it roughly a quarter of the way, a deafening bang erupted without warning from inside the battered coffin!
BOOM!