"Are you worried that I'll find out about your embarrassing childhood stories?" Chai Qianning chuckled softly.
"I didn't have any embarrassing moments when I was a child."
"real?"
"Yes, I was very obedient when I was a child."
"Okay, you're very obedient." Chai Qianning leaned over and gave her a loud kiss.
It just so happened that Ni Chujing, who was coming in from outside, saw it.
Sheng Muxi suddenly felt ashamed, as if she had been caught red-handed by her elders, and her ears burned like fire.
Ni Chujing glanced at them, shook her head, and walked away with a smile.
Chai Qianning, with her keen eye, noticed that Sheng Muxi's cheeks were slightly flushed, and couldn't help but lower her eyes to suppress a laugh.
"Still laughing." Sheng Muxi reached out and pinched her stomach.
Chai Qianning tilted her head back and laughed so hard she could barely breathe, pleading, "Stop laughing, stop laughing."
In the afternoon, the two went to play an escape room game.
It's a newly opened place that Chai Qianning saw on her WeChat Moments. She heard from friends who had been there that the experience was pretty good, with the feeling of being scared to death or not.
Chai Qianning asked Sheng Muxi if he was afraid, and Sheng Muxi shook his head.
"Aren't you afraid?"
“I’ve come here with friends to play similar games before.”
Will you scream?
"Won't."
“In that case,” Chai Qianning said, lowering her eyes, “we’ll choose one that’s a little scary.”
"OK."
It takes eight people to form a team, but they only have two.
I sat at the front desk and waited for a while. Several groups of people came later before we finally got a full group together.
The other six people consist of a couple, three female college students, and one male college student.
The game begins with eight people entering a room with a stage in the middle and a light that flickers above it.
Chai Qianning and Sheng Muxi, the couple, and four college students split into three teams to search for clues.
Sheng Muxi was very focused on finding clues. Chai Qianning searched under the cabinet but found nothing, so she walked behind Sheng Muxi and squatted down. Sheng Muxi turned around and was startled by the beam of the flashlight shining on her. "Why do you walk so quietly?"
Didn't you say you weren't afraid?
"I was scared by you."
On the other side, a girl screamed "Ah!" drawing their attention.
"What's wrong?"
"It's nothing. I just saw a pair of glowing eyes stuck in that corner, and it scared me to death."
"Is it hard to find?"
The male college student seemed very experienced: "Don't worry, I've done this many times, it's a piece of cake for me."
A few minutes later, they found the key in a pair of tattered boots and went into another room.
Someone must have bumped into something, because the old stereo made a crackling sound and started playing music intermittently, like the static on an old-fashioned TV screen, with hissing and a hoarse female voice mixed in.
The brown-haired girl had snuggled into her boyfriend's arms, the three female college students were huddled together, and another male college student was standing by the wall.
Sheng Muxi squeezed Chai Qianning's hand tighter, and Chai Qianning reached out and hugged her, pulling her into her arms.
Heat flowed between their bodies, a thin layer of sweat seeped from her back, and Chai Qianning's breath sprayed onto her neck.
One of the female college students' voices trembled slightly: "Can this be turned off?"
The male college student stepped forward, walked to the speaker, and studied how to turn it off.
Suddenly, a mournful voice rang out: "It's you."
The male college student slumped to the ground. A short while later, the stereo resumed its original hissing sound.
"Let's hurry up and look for clues."
“No, there’s something under that speaker,” one of the only two men in the team with buzz cuts said.
The male college student leaned against the wall and said, "Then go ahead."
The man with the buzz cut went over and moved the speaker aside. There was a dark hole underneath. He shone his flashlight inside and saw a button. He hesitated for a few seconds, then reached in and put his hand in. Then he froze, remaining motionless in his original position.
"W-What's wrong?" his girlfriend asked with concern.
"Something grabbed my hand."
The man with the buzz cut was pale, but with his girlfriend present, he couldn't show too much fear, so he pretended to be calm.
Chai Qianning pulled Sheng Muxi over, and everyone followed suit. The man with the buzz cut moved his wrist and finally reached out from inside: "There's a button inside, but I can't press it."
Next to the hole was a card slot. Chai Qianning found a small rabbit card that looked exactly like the one behind the painting, matched it, and then the man with the buzz cut reached in to press the button. He then retrieved the number plate from the recessed wall on the other side. However, before they could put the number plate in its place, a ghost suddenly jumped out of the side door.
A group of people screamed so loudly that they dropped their number tags on the ground. The male college student picked up the number tags with lightning speed, placed them in the designated spot, opened another door, and then everyone ran like madmen to another room.
The door was closed, and the NPCs were kept outside. They leaned against the wall and breathed a sigh of relief.
While the other girls were screaming during the run, Sheng Muxi and Chai Qianning didn't. However, Sheng Muxi's palms were sweaty because of the intense atmosphere, and now they were warm and damp in Chai Qianning's hand, with a few fingernail marks on them, probably because she gripped them too tightly while running.
"Did I scare you?" Chai Qianning asked.
Sheng Muxi breathed a sigh of relief: "It's alright."
The male college student then walked over and stood next to Sheng Muxi: "I'll protect you later."
“You’re scared yourself,” Sheng Muxi said.
"Who said I'm afraid?"
"You didn't even dare to move that speaker just now."
“I’m giving another guy on our team a chance to prove himself.” The male college student glanced at the man with the buzz cut: “Let him show off in front of his girlfriend.”
Upon hearing this, Chai Qianning scoffed from the side.
The male college student looked at Chai Qianning: "What's wrong?"
While they were chatting, the others had already found a clue. There was a bed up there, and a card said that someone should lie down on it.
Chai Qianning glanced at the bed, then looked at the male college student: "You'd better behave yourself."
The male college student was instantly encouraged and offered to lie down on the bed. At first, he seemed very relaxed, but after lying down, he boasted, "This bed is quite comfortable."
The next second, the bed slumped down several sections, and a blood-stained dress floated down and covered him. Before he could react, switches appeared on both sides, trapping him inside.
"Holy crap, let me out, help me—" the male college student shouted hoarsely, pounding on the lid.
The lid opened in less than a few seconds, but then the wardrobe next to it clicked open as well, letting out a burst of cold air that made everyone's hair stand on end.
A female ghost hanging from a rope descended from the sky, and the moment she appeared in front of them, her head was severed, and she fell to the ground and rolled a distance.
Ahhhh—
One of the girls had a particularly loud voice.
Chai Qianning felt like she was going deaf.
They ran back, and as the main gate opened, the side door opened as well, and the living ghost rushed in through the side door.
The male college student scrambled off the bed in terror and staggered toward the door. He accidentally kicked the head of the female ghost that had fallen to the ground, sending it flying a short distance before bouncing back and hitting him.
Amidst the gasps of surprise, Sheng Muxi heard Chai Qianning chuckle beside her. She wondered if the other woman had been scared out of her wits.
Upon exiting to the door, the male college student slumped onto the floor with his back against the wall.
Chai Qianning was trying so hard to suppress her laughter that her stomach hurt, and she couldn't help but bend over.
Sheng Muxi moved closer to her, looking puzzled: "What are you laughing at?"
Don't you think what just happened was a bit ridiculous?
"??"
"Its head is broken off."
".."
"It got kicked away and then bounced back."
".."
Chai Qianning genuinely found the scene hilarious, and wondered whether the model of the female ghost that fell from the sky was of poor quality or deliberately designed to have a severed head.
They were resting in the front desk lounge when a staff member came over to ask for their feedback, inquiring about the difficulty level and the level of panic.
The male college student said with lingering fear, "The difficulty was manageable, but it was a bit too scary."
The staff member chuckled and scratched his head: "Because the theme you chose is on the higher level of horror."
The staff saw the lingering fear on their faces and were quite satisfied, indicating that their horror theme was quite well done.
But he noticed that one of the girls looked relaxed, so he walked over to Chai Qianning and asked her, "What do you think of our horror theme?"
"It's alright." Chai Qianning thought for a moment, "But I want to know, in the last room, there's a female ghost who fell from the sky and her head suddenly broke off. Was that intentionally set up?"
"Huh?" The staff member was confused and pulled another staff member over to ask, then said to Chai Qianning, "I'm sorry, it was a mistake on our part. Thank you for your feedback, we will try our best to improve."
When Sheng Muxi was about to leave after resting for a while, the male college student came over and asked if she could add him on WeChat.
Sheng Muxi glanced at Chai Qianning, then, remembering what Chai Qianning had told her before, she said, "I have a family now, so it's not convenient for me to add you."
"Huh? You're married?" the male college student exclaimed incredulously.
Chai Qianning pulled Sheng Muxi along, adding fuel to the fire: "She has elderly parents to care for and young children to raise. The youngest is already in high school and will be the same age as you in a few years."
The male college student stood there stunned, as if struck by lightning.