"You'll regret riding this—you'll be scared out of your wits," Xia Yichu retorted, feeling embarrassed as he responded to his girlfriend.
"No way!" she replied, nonchalantly shrugging off his comment. She pouted as she glanced at the empty seat next to her, disappointed he wouldn't ride with her. Then she stuck out her tongue and made a silly face at him.
As the couple bantered, a staff member walked by to secure the safety harnesses for each rider. Shortly after, the staff exited to a safe zone, and the ride's start signal rang out.
Xia Yichu's girlfriend waved enthusiastically at him, excitement etched across her face as the "Nightmare Flying Chairs" began to lift off the ground. Xia Yichu wanted to say something to mask his earlier cowardice, but before he could, something inexplicable happened.
One moment, he was standing outside the barrier watching her; the next, he found himself seated beside her on the ride.
"What's happening? I didn't want to ride this! I didn't even swipe my card! Why am I strapped in?" he shouted, panic setting in as he realized the harness had locked him in place.
"What's wrong? Didn't you say you'd ride with me? What's there to be scared of? It's only two or three minutes, and nothing will happen," his girlfriend said, trying to comfort him.
"I don't want to ride this!" Xia Yichu screamed, desperately yelling at the staff. But the ride had already lifted off the ground, quickly ascending to over ten meters as it began to spin.
"No! Stop it! I don't want this!" Xia Yichu trembled violently. With a fear of heights, even standing near a railing on the third floor made him uneasy. Now, suspended by a few cables in a tiny chair with his legs dangling in mid-air, he was utterly terrified.
And the ride had only just begun.
"Relax, it'll be over soon," his girlfriend reassured him.
"I'm going to die!" Xia Yichu's breathing became labored as the chair spun faster and rose higher. His heart raced at over 200 beats per minute.
Desperately, Xia Yichu squeezed his eyes shut, hoping the fear would lessen if he couldn't see the height. But to his horror, even with his eyes closed, he could still see everything clearly—the cables stretching taut, the spinning platform rising ever higher.
They were already over 40 meters high.
As he thought the ride was nearing its peak, the central pillar supporting the spinning platform suddenly extended skyward at an insane speed, soaring to hundreds of meters. The "Nightmare Flying Chairs" accelerated, leaving the park and its visitors below looking like ants. The only sound Xia Yichu could hear was the wind howling past.
His fear of heights pushed him to the brink of insanity. Xia Yichu's entire body trembled, and his screams echoed through the air. No matter how hard he tried to close his eyes or calm himself, the dizzying height and speed overwhelmed him. His heart felt as though it might burst from sheer panic.
When the ride reached its towering height, it began to tilt, spin, and swing unpredictably. The overwhelming terror caused Xia Yichu to lose control entirely, wetting his pants.
"Help me!" he cried hoarsely, clutching desperately at his girlfriend, who sat calmly beside him.
"You will stay here, spinning endlessly, until you die," she said coldly, her face devoid of emotion. Then, her features began to morph, her once-familiar face transforming into someone else's—a ghostly visage, pale and bloodstained.
"Y-you?!" Xia Yichu stammered, recognizing the terrifying ghost of a hanged girl sitting beside him.
"I'm Gu Ling. Surely, you remember me?" the ghost said in an eerie, hollow voice. At the same time, the ride suddenly stopped spinning, leaving Xia Yichu suspended hundreds of meters above the ground.
Trying to catch his breath, Xia Yichu noticed something even more horrifying: all the other riders were now staring at him. As he glanced around, he realized they weren't riders at all. They were identical to the ghost beside him—pale, blood dripping from their eyes and mouths.
This entire scenario was, of course, Derek's ghost domain. He had modeled the hanged girl's appearance after Gu Qin, whom he had learned resembled her sister. With her ghostly pale face and bloodied features, it was the perfect visage to terrify Xia Yichu.
"Xiao Ling?" Xia Yichu stuttered, his body shaking uncontrollably.
"The girl you murdered in the women's restroom on the fifth floor of Building 10 at Cangnan University—surely you haven't forgotten her?" Derek, speaking through the ghost, demanded, stretching out a skeletal, claw-like hand. With a chilling snap, the harness securing Xia Yichu clicked open.
"No! Don't! I didn't kill you! I didn't kill you!" Xia Yichu screamed, clinging desperately to the steel cables of the chair. Suspended hundreds of meters in the air, the open harness meant a single slip could send him plummeting to his death.
"You killed me and spread rumors that I was lovesick and took my own life. You used your connections to evade justice! Admit it!" the ghost roared, yanking the safety bar from Xia Yichu's grasp. The chair wobbled dangerously.
"No! I loved you! I could never kill you! It was Tingting! She was jealous and killed you! I only helped cover it up and staged your suicide!" Xia Yichu wailed, his face as pale as a sheet as he clung to the last steel cable holding the chair steady.
"Oh? Tingting? Your girlfriend? Explain everything, or…" Derek's voice pressed further, feigning the ghost's anger.
With a loud snap, one of the eight cables securing the chair broke, making Xia Yichu flinch in terror.
"I'll tell you everything! Just don't let me fall!" Xia Yichu finally broke down, revealing the full truth.
To Derek's surprise, the story he uncovered was far more complicated than he had imagined. Initially, the system had informed him that the ghost of the women's restroom was someone who had taken her own life due to a failed romance. Derek had accepted this narrative without much thought, believing his only task was to drive the ghost away.
But Gu Qin's insistence that her sister wasn't in a relationship, and her suspicion of Xia Yichu, had made Derek dig deeper. Now, Xia Yichu's confession overturned all his previous assumptions.