The next day, the weekend.
Xu Ye hadn’t even woken up yet when Qin Zhiwei was already out of bed. Coming out from washing up, seeing Xu Ye still asleep on the next bed over, he walked up and smacked a hand down on the blanket.
“Xu Ye, Xu Ye.”
Xu Ye opened his eyes, saw Qin Zhiwei standing beside the bed, rolled over, reached a hand down to adjust himself, and said flatly, “What?”
“I’m going to buy breakfast now. Any preferences on what to get?”
Xu Ye pulled the blanket up over his head and said loudly, “No preferences, just grab a bit of everything.”
“Oh.”
Qin Zhiwei sensibly put on his shoes and left the hotel. Xu Ye lay there another dozen minutes before realizing he couldn’t fall back asleep. He fished his phone out from under the pillow and saw it was only just past seven-thirty. Furious, he cursed at once, “Damn that Qin Zhiwei, I really must have owed him in a past life.”
Xu Ye threw off the blanket and got up. Luckily the AC had run all night, so even in his long underwear he didn’t feel cold. He went into the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face, and looking in the mirror, found his hair had slept itself into a bird’s nest, so he washed that while he was at it.
By the time Qin Zhiwei got back, it was nearly eight. He’d genuinely listened — baozi, mantou, fried dough sticks, soymilk, flower rolls, sesame balls… he really had bought a bit of everything.
Seeing him back, Xu Ye sent a message straight to the Room 205 dorm group: “If you ladies are up, come to my room for breakfast.”
Not long after the message went out, Zhang Ruowei and Jiang Yu came over first, and a few minutes later Chen Qingqing and Shen Xinyi knocked and entered too.
“How’d you all sleep last night?”
“Fine.”
Shen Xinyi glanced at Chen Qingqing, then couldn’t resist saying, “Last night, Qingqing, you talked in your sleep again.”
Chen Qingqing was just about to bite into a baozi, and hearing this, her open-mouthed motion froze.
Zhang Ruowei asked, “What’d she say this time?”
Shen Xinyi was about to speak when Chen Qingqing immediately stuffed the baozi in her hand into Shen Xinyi’s mouth, warning fiercely, “Don’t you say it!”
Shen Xinyi took the baozi out of her mouth and gave a very sweet smile.
And at that moment, that dog Qin Zhiwei was over there making the bed!
Xu Ye was dumbfounded. Damn it, this is a hotel — we’re checking out after breakfast, what are you making the bed for? But Xu Ye also knew Qin Zhiwei was trying to show off in front of Shen Xinyi. He was clumsy with words, couldn’t say the kind of things that make a girl happy, so he could only do it through this hands-on labor, showing Shen Xinyi in an attempt to leave a good impression.
Xu Ye called out, “Zhiwei, come eat first. You went out first thing to buy all this breakfast — don’t end up not getting a single hot bite yourself.”
Qin Zhiwei smiled. “It’s fine, I’m not picky. I didn’t know what you all like, so I bought a bit of everything. Pick what you like, and whatever’s left is mine.”
Hearing this, Xu Ye felt relieved, thinking the kid could be taught after all.
After breakfast, they packed up, took the elevator down, checked out, and the group headed to the nearby subway station, riding it amid laughter and chatter until they arrived outside the mall where the haunted house was.
Coming in through the main entrance, the basement level was all food, drink, and entertainment, and the haunted house was tucked in the far corner.
The haunted house was called Faint Dream Manor. It wasn’t large in scale, but it had several themes.
Xu Ye had already placed the order on his phone. The group walked in through the main entrance, the corridors on both sides plastered with horror wallpaper — bloody handprints, white eyes, vermilion coffins, zombie robes, red bridal gowns… and the lighting inside was very dark. Outside it was a clear, bright day, but inside the atmosphere was thoroughly eerie.
The front-desk staff of the haunted house, seeing customers arrive, smiled. “Welcome. Which of our haunted house themes would you like to experience?”
“What themes are there?”
“We have four themes total — Fujino Ghost School, Silent Hospital, Phantom Chapel, and Coffins Rising, Fortune Rising.” [TL: 升棺发材 is a pun — literally “raising the coffin brings fortune,” playing on 升官发财 (“rise in office, get rich”), which sounds identical; 棺 (coffin) swaps in for 官 (official). A darkly auspicious wordplay.]
“Which one gets the most players?”
“Fujino Ghost School and Coffins Rising, Fortune Rising. The former’s a modern theme, the latter’s a period theme, but both have live NPCs inside.”
Xu Ye turned and asked with a smile, “Which do you want?”
“Anything’s fine.”
The moment they’d walked in, several of them, Qin Zhiwei included, had lost their composure. Some, though scared, still wanted to give it a try. Others hadn’t even started and already didn’t dare look around.
While Xu Ye was still talking to the front desk, Chen Qingqing had already edged over to him on her own.
“Then let’s do Coffins Rising, Fortune Rising — I already ordered it on my phone.”
“Please let me scan the QR code.”
After scanning, the front desk went over the rules with them — mainly no photos or recording, don’t get stuck in the corridors or doorways, don’t grab the NPCs or other guests…
“You can go in now.”
“Okay.”
Xu Ye took the lead and walked in first. The moment they entered, the lights instantly went out, then slowly came up in a dim yellow glow. As dark as the lighting was, the speaker at the entrance also played a stretch of terrifying audio…
“Welcome to Coffins Rising, Fortune Rising. You have now wandered into an underground tomb. The entrance has been sealed. You must escape within thirty minutes. Wishing… wishing you… you… good luck.”
During the announcement, you could faintly hear wind and soft weeping inside, and combined with the low temperature, it sent a chill through you.
The moment the voice started, Chen Qingqing had stepped up and grabbed Xu Ye’s hand. She looked left, then right, her eyes full of fear — at home, after all, she slept with the light on.
Xu Ye said, “I’ll lead the way up front, you all follow behind me. Zhiwei, you bring up the rear.”
“Zhiwei?”
“Zhiwei!!!”
“Huh?” Qin Zhiwei finally responded.
Xu Ye said flatly, “I lead, you bring up the rear, any problem with that?”
Qin Zhiwei said, incredibly uneasy, “No… no problem.”
“Everyone stay close, we’re setting off.”
Xu Ye led them forward. There was only one main path inside, so there was no getting lost. After a long corridor, they came to the first room.
Both sides held incense altars, spirit tablets set upon them, cobwebs everywhere, white silk hanging from the ceiling, and lights flickering on and off — even to Xu Ye, it created a somewhat frightening atmosphere.
The moment Chen Qingqing walked in and saw the room, she shut her eyes. She’d been holding Xu Ye’s hand; now she hooked her arm through his and leaned her whole body against him, head down, not daring to say a word.
The three girls behind her were all thoroughly frightened too. Zhang Ruowei put on a show of composure, but her heart was already pounding. Jiang Yu didn’t dare look at the altars and tablets on either side, gripping the hem of her clothes and sticking close to Zhang Ruowei ahead of her. Shen Xinyi behind her was exactly like Chen Qingqing — one look and she immediately lowered her head, daring only to watch the path at her feet.
As for Qin Zhiwei, entrusted with the rear guard, his legs were already a little wobbly.
“This is pretty realistically done, huh.” Xu Ye was the only one of the six who could speak with a smile at this moment.
Seeing no one answer, Xu Ye stopped talking, just reached out to wrap an arm around Chen Qingqing’s waist and kept walking.
There were several more rooms ahead, each set with its own scene. A dozen-odd minutes later, the group finally reached the theme’s largest room, and the one most fitting to its motif.
In this room, more than a dozen coffins were packed densely together, red light cast over them, making the coffins look all the more eerie and terrifying.
All four girls had their eyes shut, while Xu Ye idly took in everything in the room. Because Xu Ye had stopped, everyone behind him stopped too. Qin Zhiwei, standing at the very back, had been on edge for ages. Just as he was about to ask Xu Ye why they weren’t moving forward, he saw, clear as day, the coffin to his right suddenly begin to tremble.
Qin Zhiwei’s eyes went wide, watching with his own eyes as the coffin lid was pushed open. Then a zombie NPC in Qing dynasty official’s robes sat up out of the coffin. Qin Zhiwei’s bell-wide eyes met the NPC’s for three full seconds—
“MOMMY!”
Qin Zhiwei suddenly let out a scream and threw his arms around Shen Xinyi in front of him.
(End of Chapter 150)