The middle-aged man looked honest and straightforward, and his wife didn't seem like the type who was good at lying either.
The two groups faced off in the corridor for a while. Bai Buhui didn't realize that the middle-aged man and the woman had been standing outside the camera frame the entire time.
"Little Ghost, go get the camera." Bai Buhui sensed something was off and wanted to get to the bottom of it.
"Why should I go?" Little Ghost had no idea who Bai Buhui was and couldn't be bothered to pay him any attention.
"Stop arguing, let's keep the peace." The bald security guard Liu Guangming picked up the camera. "It's not broken—this thing's been working fine the whole time. The lights on it are still on."
"Working fine the whole time?" Bai Buhui pulled out his phone and opened Liu Kang's livestream. The barrage of comments was so heavy that the stream was badly stuttering. He refreshed several times before he could see some of the comments.
The tide of opinion had already shifted. Growing anxious, Bai Buhui gestured for the security guard to move the camera aside, then dialed Liu Kang's number.
"Do you remember the contract you signed with us? You assured our park that absolutely nothing would go wrong—that's why we agreed to let you livestream the whole thing."
There was no response on the other end—only the sounds of heavy breathing and running.
"Liu Kang! Talk to me!" Bai Buhui was panicking now. He had wanted to use Liu Kang's livestream to expose the interior design of the haunted house's new scenario and maximize the damage to its playability.
He knew exactly how much blood, sweat, and tears went into crafting a horror scenario. Once it was leaked online, the number of curious visitors would dwindle.
That way, even if Liu Kang got scared, it would at least indirectly suppress potential visitors' desire to come.
His plan had been airtight. What he hadn't expected was that Liu Kang would abandon the livestream entirely and flee for his life on his own. Nor had he expected this scenario to be so massive that a single hour wasn't enough to explore it all! That kind of mid-broadcast cliffhanger might actually attract even more people to come visit.
After a long pause, Liu Kang's voice finally came through, halting and ragged: "Are you afraid I'll lose the bet? I won't. My mouth's my own—even if it's terrifying, I can still say it wasn't scary at all."
"If it wasn't scary at all, why did you throw the camera away?"
"We can blame it on the cameraman. He was the one who was too chicken—it has nothing to do with me, Liu Kang."
"As long as you can handle the fallout." At this point, Bai Buhui had no energy left to argue. "We've found the camera. Where are you guys? Wasn't the plan to regroup at the faculty apartments?"
"There's a female ghost chasing us—we can't make it to the faculty apartments anymore. Take care of the camera and let's meet at the library." Liu Kang's voice was gradually steadying, as if he'd shaken off the female ghost's pursuit.
"Why the library again?" Bai Buhui felt like he'd become Liu Kang's nanny, exhausting himself to protect this good-for-nothing loser.
"My assistant found a hidden passage in the library—it looks like a concealed exit."
"Why does it sound like you and your assistant aren't together? You split up again?"
"He ran into one of the haunted house actors in the middle and got separated from us. That's what he texted me just now. Stop yapping and get the camera over here! I've been off the stream for too long—viewers are going to start complaining." Liu Kang was getting impatient.
"Did your assistant tell you anything besides the hidden passage?" Bai Buhui was suspicious by nature. A person who'd gotten separated suddenly finding an escape route on their own? The odds of that were negligible. He had the distinct feeling that the male assistant had already been replaced—the one texting Liu Kang right now wasn't the assistant at all, but a haunted house actor!
Ever since he'd visited his colleague at the hospital, Bai Buhui had known that this haunted house had no bottom line whatsoever. They were absolutely unhinged—capable of doing absolutely anything.
"Now that you mention it, I almost forgot. My assistant also found something else. Of those tourists who came in with us, only that student couple is normal! The other tourists might all be actors in disguise!" Liu Kang's voice wasn't loud, but the corridor was deathly silent, and everyone nearby heard every word.
They all turned their heads at the same time, staring at the two tourists standing in the distance.