"The main hall with side rooms,wing room, copy hand veranda, hanging flower curtain, Ruyi door, upside down lintel, Leigong pillar … The details of this haunted house were well done. It imitated the ancient quadrangle and had a sense of substitution." Gao Ruxue stopped and walked in the scene, looking relaxed and commenting from time to time.
"Senior sister, we're in a haunted house, not touring a Suzhou garden. Could you spare a thought for how I feel?" In the desolate courtyard, cold winds howled, and ghost money floated in the air. To He Shan, the haunted house felt utterly different from how Gao Ruxue perceived it. he was careful, afraid that the corner of the shadow would suddenly drill out of something: "Let's hurry to find the exit, I have a bad feeling about this."
"Since we're here, let's take our time and explore. We're here to play in the haunted house, not to be played by it."
"Do you remember what the haunted house owner said before we came in? He told us to find the exit within fifteen minutes. I can't shake the feeling he's up to no good. If we don't escape in time, something terrible might happen!" He Shan tried to persuade Gao Ruxue, but she didn't seem to care.
"There are only a few ways to scare people in a haunted house. At most, let the staff dress up as ghosts and chase us everywhere. We are not even afraid of the dead, but also afraid of the living." Gao Ruxue strolled aimlessly through the corridors, casually pushing open the door of the side room to her left.
The place of the ghost wedding was a standard quadrangle structure. The main room was for the elders and the head of the family to live in, the wing room was for the eldest son and the younger generation to live in, while the side rooms flanking the main hall were for servants.
Pushing the door and entering, the tables and chairs in the room were toppled, the bedding on the bed was torn, the cotton wool was scattered, and a white silk was hanging in the middle of the beam.
"Senior sister, I'm outside to meet you, you pay attention to safety." Heshan words did not finish being dragged into the room by Gao Ruxue. He had a bitter face, looking at the slowly fluttering white silk, his body was a little stiff.
"Interesting, white silk 1.5 meters from the ground, this height simply can not hang dead, tables and chairs toppled, there are still traces of struggle on the ground, the haunted house is deliberately creating a false impression of forced suicide... This side room, where maids lived, implies that the vengeful ghost didn't even spare the servants unrelated to the family. Looks like it's bent on tormenting everyone in the mansion to death." Gao Ruxue looked calm, with a trace of excitement hidden in the corner of her eyes: "The design of the haunted house is very fine, and maybe there are other detail hidden."
She rummaged through boxes and cupboards and lifted the bedding on the bed. Under the shabby quilt lay a paper doll.
"A paper figure lying in a human's bed?" Gao Ruxue casually tossed the doll aside and lifted the bed board. Underneath, it was empty.
"The higher the expectation, the greater the disappointment. I guess I overestimated this haunted house. Let's go, the exit isn't here." She waved her hand and strode out.
Heshan, who was left alone in the house, looked at the paper doll on the ground and felt his teeth clenched.
Trembling, perhaps because of the angle, he actually felt the paper doll smiling at him.
"The copper chicken bleeds, the paper doll opens his eyes... Wait for me! Senior sister!"
The door of the side room was closed again, and the white silk in the room stopped floating.
"Could you stop yelling? You're acting like a scared little girl." Gao Ruxue rolled her eyes at him and paused at the edge of the corridor.
"I'm not scared! This place just makes me really uncomfortable. The longer we stay, the stronger this unease gets, like it's drawing out my deepest fears!"
He Shan's words made Gao Ruxue pause. She realized something felt off.
As a forensic doctor, staying calm and steady was paramount, yet her tone just now when rebuking He Shan had clearly been uncharacteristically impatient. This was unlike her.
"Am I afraid? Why should I be afraid when everything in the haunted house is fake?"
Gao Ruxue's psychological defense line appeared a crack, they did not find the reason for fear, in self-doubt and psychological hints, the seeds of fear are taking root and sprouting.
"Do you think there's really something unclean about this place? The haunted house is built on an old mass grave and renovated from a hospital building..."
"Shut up! Isn't the morgue at our school creepier than this? You're a medical student; how can you be so spineless?" Though Gao Ruxue's words were dismissive, her speaking pace quickened. Sitting by the railing of the corridor, she scanned her surroundings: the ancient mansion, the funeral hall, the withered trees, and the scattered ghost money. None of these seemed truly frightening. "What exactly am I afraid of?"
Both were so drawn in by the eerie atmosphere that they didn't notice the background music looping endlessly.
The forbidden song named "Black Friday" had been wrapped around their hearts in a subtle way, like an underground river washing their souls and dragging them into a bottomless abyss step by step.
"Heshan, how long have we been here?"
"I don't know, but I feel like we won't make it out within fifteen minutes!"
"Don't panic, I thought about it carefully." Gao Ruxue ignored the dust and walked directly to the other side of the corridor: "There is nothing to be afraid of in this haunted house. The main reason is that the boss has been giving us negative psychological hints. From the beginning of entering the haunted house, he has been emphasizing words such as mass graves, live burials, female ghosts, etc. He wants us to frighten ourselves. The haunted house owner is cunning. He sets a time limit, but he didn't say exactly what we will encounter, which leads us to put pressure on ourselves and spread our thinking. Go to the brain to fill the scariest thing. "
"So what do you think we should do now? This haunted house always feels different from other haunted houses." Heshan was a very honest young man. He believed whatever his senior sister said.
"You're not wrong. Unlike typical haunted houses with actors and elaborate props to guide you through bloody and terrifying scenes, this place leaves you to explore freely, with no guidance or constraints. The uncertainty of what might happen next is what makes it so terrifying."
"Now I get it. Fear of the unknown is the scariest thing," He Shan said, as if enlightened.
"That's the only explanation for now." Gao Ruxue frowned slightly. "Alright, let's head to the next room."
The side room was adjacent to the main hall, the residence of the household head. Pushing open the wooden door, they found mourning clothes scattered on the floor. In the center of the hall stood a lacquered coffin.
The red coffin is in the middle, on either side knelt rows of paper dolls, neatly arranged.
Their backs bore names, their faces were painted with makeup, and their eyes seemed alive, each wearing a different expression. It was as if they were secretly watching the two people standing at the door.