"Stop! Hold on a second!" Liu Kang clutched at his lower back — he truly couldn't run anymore. "That female ghost isn't chasing us! Stop running!"
Hearing that the ghost hadn't followed, the young people who had been sprinting ahead finally slowed to a halt.
"Hey — where's Brother Dong?!" A-Li turned around, only to discover that Lan Dong had never caught up. A group of five had somehow become four.
"Did Lan Dong get snatched by the ghost? I heard him scream while we were running." The cameraman panted heavily, hands on his knees.
"Never mind Lan Dong — where's your camera?!" Liu Kang jabbed a finger at the muscular man and swore outright. "Damn it! Every one of you ran faster than the last! What the hell were you so scared of? There were five of us!"
"Brother Kang, you can't blame me — I wasn't the first to bolt." The big man pointed at Xiaochun. "That girl took off first. If I hadn't run, I might've ended up just like Lan Dong."
"Listen to me." Xiaochun's face was deathly pale. "I've always been sensitive — sometimes my body inexplicably goes ice-cold. When I was little, my dad took me to see the village elders, and they said I attract spirits. They said whenever I feel that chill, it means something is passing right beside me."
Her voice trembled. "Do you understand? When that headless woman in red appeared, my whole body went freezing cold — like being thrown into a pit of ice."
"You're saying that headless actress in red is an actual ghost?" Liu Kang's eyebrows knotted together. He simply could not believe such an absurd thing could exist.
"It might not be a ghost. Maybe the costume was worn by a dead person, and something attached itself to it. Either way — we absolutely have to stay away from that headless ghost actress!" Xiaochun's tone left no room for argument.
"Fine, we'll avoid her. But the key problem is the camera is still over there." Liu Kang shot a vicious glare at the muscular man. "I came here to livestream and expose fake hauntings, and you went and ditched the camera! What are the viewers going to think? It'll look like I'm the one who's scared!"
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He snapped open his folding fan and fanned himself furiously. "Before we came, every single one of you was acting tougher than the next! But the moment something actually happened, you all ran faster than the last!"
"Brother Kang, calm down. We did panic just now — how about we head back?" A-Li hugged the wooden box to his chest. He had decent stamina. "Brother Dong is still behind us. We can go back and help him."
"Go back if you want. I'm not going." The muscular man shook his head firmly. "We started as six. In less than ten minutes, two are gone. If we keep splitting up, this haunted house will eat us alive. To be honest — if it weren't for Brother Kang, I'd have quit already."
"Then what do you suggest?" A-Li was worried about Lan Dong.
"Contact Bai Buhui's group first. Everyone regroups. There's safety in numbers." The muscular man was still thinking relatively rationally. "Forget about Lan Dong for now. If he hadn't kept insisting we split up, we wouldn't be in this mess."
The cameraman deflected blame with reckless abandon, and the others didn't argue back — which was as good as agreement.
"Fine. I'll call Bai Buhui." Liu Kang pulled out his phone and dialed. "Bai Buhui, where are you?"
"What's going on?" On the other end, Bai Buhui's voice sounded perfectly normal. Their group apparently hadn't run into anything too terrifying.
"Get over here and regroup with us right now. We're currently at—" Liu Kang looked around, only to suddenly realize he had no idea where they were. After all that frantic running, they had gotten completely lost. "Forget it. Let's meet at the intersection of the teacher dormitory and the office building!"
"Teacher dormitory? Aren't you inside the laboratory building right now?" Surprise crept into Bai Buhui's voice, and Liu Kang was even more stunned.
"Are you dreaming? We just ran out of the teacher dormitory!"
"That's impossible! We were worried something happened to you, so we've been following right behind you — listening for your footsteps. Just now, the footsteps entered the laboratory building, and Little Ghost even saw your silhouettes." After Bai Buhui finished speaking, both ends of the call felt an inexplicable wave of dread.
"Those were haunted house actors in disguise! Get back here right now! We're going to the teacher dormitory together!" Liu Kang tugged at what little hair he had left.
"Hold on — why do you keep insisting we go to the teacher dormitory?" Bai Buhui was deeply suspicious. "I've heard there are actors in this haunted house who are good at mimicking other people's voices…"
"Mimicking my foot! Get over here now!" Liu Kang exploded with rage, practically vibrating with fury.
"Alright, alright. Don't wander off. We'll be there within ten minutes." Bai Buhui sensed Liu Kang was about to completely break down and hurried off.
After hanging up, Liu Kang's eyes had gone red. "The four of us can't split up again. No matter what we run into — nobody gets scared!"