“Huh? A haunted house?”
Guchuan Xing clearly didn’t want to go.
“Huanzi, why are you suddenly interested in going somewhere like that?”
Qin Huan tilted her head, revealing an innocent smile.
“Senior, if you’re scared, you don’t have to come.”
“Huh?”
Guchuan Xing tossed her head, her light red curly hair whipping into a cool arc.
“How could big sister be afraid of something like that? It’s just a tent set up by students. What’s so scary inside? Just a few juniors wrapped in white sheets going ‘wah wah wah.’ Big sister stopped being afraid of this stuff when she was three.”
The smile on Qin Huan’s face deepened.
She turned to ask Ju Zhenli, “Elder Sister Zhenli, are you scared?”
Ju Zhenli lowered her eyelashes, her brown eyes meeting Qin Huan’s for a moment.
Then she reached out, her cool fingertip lightly tapping Qin Huan’s brow.
“Little Huan can go wherever she wants.”
Hearing Ju Zhenli’s answer, Qin Huan directly pulled her forward, then glanced back to wave at Guchuan Xing.
“Senior, let’s go! Weren’t you not scared?”
Guchuan Xing stood still, holding that cup of green fruit tea, repeatedly choosing between cowardice and action.
In the end, she gritted her teeth and strode forward to follow.
‘Are you kidding? If Elder Sister Zhenli went and she bailed, wouldn’t she lose face in front of Huanzi?’
The haunted house tent was set up on the side of the playground near the stadium, made of dark gray canvas.
It didn’t look particularly special from the outside.
At the entrance hung a crooked wooden board with words written in red paint: 【Haunted Spirit Ward—Absolutely No Entry Alone!】 The red ink after the exclamation mark deliberately left a dripping trail.
“Haunted Spirit Ward?”
Guchuan Xing read the words on the sign, the corners of her mouth twitching.
“The name sounds quite convincing, but it’s just the name that’s scary…”
“Senior.”
Qin Huan stood in front of the entrance curtain, glancing back at Guchuan Xing.
“If you’re really not scared, then go in first.”
The student in charge of the haunted house booth was a tall, thin boy with round glasses and a pale complexion.
He sat behind a small table next to the entrance, with a registration book and a pen spread in front.
Seeing the three approaching, he pushed up his glasses and said in a flat voice, “Are the three of you together? Haunted Spirit Ward is an immersive haunted house with an abandoned hospital theme. The whole experience takes about fifteen minutes. The interior is dim, so watch your step. Do not run, do not touch the actors. If you really can’t handle it, you can shout ‘terminate’ and the staff will guide you out through the emergency exit.”
“Also, as a reminder, this haunted house is a collaboration of all school clubs, including scene construction by the Art Club, actor training by the Drama Club, fear point design by the Psychology Club… Last year’s feedback was that seventy-eight percent of visitors chose to terminate the experience midway.”
“Seventy-eight percent?”
Guchuan Xing’s expression turned a bit unpleasant.
“That was last year’s data.”
The tall, thin boy’s lips curled into a faint arc.
“This year, we’ve upgraded.”
Qin Huan tilted her head.
This haunted house was clearly very professional.
Even before the guests entered, it started applying pressure.
Qin Huan signed her name on the registration book and lifted the heavy dark gray curtain at the entrance.
A damp, musty smell mixed with disinfectant rushed toward her face.
The inside of the tent was much larger than it appeared from the outside.
At the entrance was a narrow corridor.
The walls were covered in yellowed tiles, with dark red streaks dripping down the tile gaps.
The fluorescent light at the end of the corridor flickered, emitting a faint buzzing sound.
“That’s it?”
Guchuan Xing’s voice echoed in the corridor, sounding somewhat forced.
“Isn’t it just a crappy corridor? A little red paint on the walls and you think you can scare big sister? Big sister used to walk home alone in the middle of the night all the time!”
Saying this, she strode forward.
When she reached the end of the corridor, she even reached out to pat the yellowed tiles on the wall.
“Nice workmanship. The Art Club students worked hard.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the slightly ajar iron door at the end of the corridor suddenly opened by itself.
Guchuan Xing stepped back.
“Senior?”
Qin Huan leaned out from behind, tilting her head to look at Guchuan Xing.
“Are you okay?”
“Fine, perfectly fine. Big sister is just appreciating the workmanship of this door. Look at the texture of this rust—it’s so realistic, truly an art.”
Ju Zhenli walked past Qin Huan and stepped into that iron door.
Qin Huan followed behind Ju Zhenli and also walked in.
As she passed Guchuan Xing, she didn’t forget to turn back and say, “Senior, if you’re scared, just wait for us outside. It’s okay, I won’t laugh at you.”
“Who’s scared!”
Guchuan Xing chased after her in three quick steps, grabbing Qin Huan’s arm.
Then, as if realizing that action was too cowardly, she quickly let go and switched to a hands-in-pockets pose.
“Big sister just wants to protect you. This haunted house is pitch black. What if you fall?”
Qin Huan didn’t call her out.
She just smiled, the corners of her mouth lifting, and turned to continue walking forward.
Behind the iron door was a scene resembling a nurse’s station.
An old wooden counter stretched across the center of the room, with several yellowed medical record books scattered on it, densely filled with writing.
Behind the counter sat a person in a bloodstained nurse uniform, face wrapped in bandages, only one eye exposed, staring straight at the three.
“New patients? Please register here.”
“N-no need to register, right? We’re just looking around…”
Guchuan Xing let out two dry laughs, but the smile was really forced.
Qin Huan, on the other hand, cooperatively walked to the counter.
The nurse stared at her with that one exposed eye for a long while, then slowly nodded, took out a set of rusted keys from under the counter, and handed them to her.
“Ward No. 3. The room on the right at the end of the corridor. Remember to close the door once you go in. No matter what you hear, don’t open the door…”
Qin Huan took the keys and turned to walk deeper into the corridor.
Ju Zhenli, on the other hand, maintained her elegant and composed demeanor, her exquisite face betraying no extra expression.
“Elder Sister Zhenli…”
“Hmm?”
Ju Zhenli turned around.
Qin Huan reached out and grasped Ju Zhenli’s hand that hung at her side.
Ju Zhenli’s fingers were colder than usual.
“I’m fine.”
“…Elder Sister Zhenli, are you really okay?”
“If Little Huan isn’t scared, then I’m not scared.”
On both sides of the corridor were rows of closed ward doors with number plates.
As they passed Ward No. 2, the door suddenly shook violently, as if something had slammed hard into it from the inside.
Then came a sharp scratching sound, nails scraping against iron, which was especially hair-raising in that environment.
“Ah!” Guchuan Xing jumped, staggering back two steps, her back hitting the corridor wall.
Qin Huan glanced back at Guchuan Xing with a cheeky smile.
“Senior, didn’t you say earlier that you stopped being afraid of this stuff when you were three?”