CH 95

Translated by: Crooked

Edited by: Dust Bunny 

Playing bumper cars for a few minutes was fleeting for Gu Xizhou, but it felt like an eternity for the others.

The five-minute game was like an endless, bitter winter for Zou Jue and the tall man. At first, they wanted to waste some time observing the vehicles the others chose, but the ghosts lined up at the entrance didn’t let them.

The ghosts glared at them with black and purple faces, as if they might pounce over and rip them to shreds at any moment. The two could only stiffly hold their breaths and get in their car very, very slowly, using this time to try to figure out the rules.

Zou Jue felt sick with worry, and he complained, “If I had known earlier, I wouldn’t have teamed up with you.” 

The tall man looked at Zou Jue with annoyance, but he didn’t argue with him.

He said to Zou Jue, “I’ll drive. You hurry up and put in a few good words with that girl teammate of yours. Sell pity. Women are likely to be kindhearted, and if she is, she’ll tell us the rules.”

Zou Jue agreed, and he moved halfway across the arena to call out to the girl and beg her forgiveness. He put on an innocent look and said to the girl, “Xiao Lu, help Ge. Earlier, when we were picking seats on the carousel, I also helped you. Forgive Zou Ge, alright? Just now Zou Ge was afraid… so I teamed up with someone else!”

Zou Jue’s expression looked really pathetic now. His hair was a complete mess, his expression was wan and sallow, and his complexion was pale, as if he were seconds away from fainting at any moment.

The girl sitting next to Mei Xiao hesitated. Earlier, when they were choosing seats on the merry-go-round, Zou Jue reminded her to pick a horse that had eaten someone and barely fulfilled his role as her teammate. However, thinking of Zou Jue’s later betrayal… she felt a little conflicted inside.

Mei Xiao saw the girl she’d teamed up with looking at her and said with a twitch of her lips, “You can help if you want to, but you’d better think carefully. There are some people you can’t afford to offend.”

As Mei Xiao spoke, her gaze flicked to Si Yu’s bumper car, gazing deeply at Si Yu and Gu Xizhou’s backs. Her meaning was clear. The people who offended him were already cold.

The girl was shocked and nodded resolutely. “…I won’t tell them the rule!” 

Zou Jue saw that his previous teammate had been moved, but after she listened to Mei Xiao’s words, she simply ignored him. He looked anxiously at the tall and muscular man in the driver’s seat. “What do we do? She ignored me! What about your teammate?”

The tall man pointed at a lone woman driving a car and said, “It was her. Do you think she’ll ignore me?”

Zou Jue wanted to cry, but he didn’t have any tears. He thought there was definitely a problem with his brain when he’d been captivated by this guy’s smarts. He actually agreed to form a team with him earlier.

The tall, muscular man hesitated, clenching his teeth for a bit before he said to Zou Jue, “Let’s follow them. Even if we have to die, we’ll take them down with us!” 

“Okay.” Zou Jue couldn’t think of a better plan. The two of them drove closely behind Ye Shu and Ma Qi’s car.

Ye Shu naturally noticed the big tail behind them. She briefly glanced at them out of the corner of her eye and raised the corner of her mouth. She drove around the field for a while, then, she suddenly gave up following the black bumper car ahead of her and began to follow a green bumper car.

“What are you doing? Didn’t Si Yu tell us to follow the black bumper car?” Ma Qi asked urgently as his heart gave a sudden lurch just like the bumper cars.

Ye Shu’s eyes were dull, and it seemed like she’d lost her soul. 

Si Yu didn’t want to explain the death conditions to the others, so he just told them to follow a bumper car of whatever color and there wouldn’t be an accident.

After Ye Shu changed directions, the tall and muscular man quickly followed and changed directions to keep up with Ye Shu’s path.

Ma Qi urgently reminded Ye Shu that she’d followed the wrong car when they suddenly heard two tragic screams from behind them.

Everyone subconsciously turned to look at the sound and saw two decapitated bodies, still in the car with its hands faintly twitching on the steering wheel. The arteries in the neck were spraying blood everywhere. It looked like a fountain as it sputtered out, coating the entire field. 

The two people’s heads were crushed under the bumper cars with their eyes wide open in grievance…

Ma Qi looked at the scene behind him and gulped. He turned back and saw that Ye Shu looked like she was about to lose her breath and faint the very next moment.

“Oh my god, my mind was wandering just then and I followed the wrong car…” Ye Shu covered her heart with two trembling hands, looking awfully thin and pallid. She seemed to have been terrified to the point of tears, and she directly began to yingyingying cry. As she cried, she caught up with the other black bumper car on the field with swift and ruthless efficiency.

Zj Hl: “……” Pr rtf gfjiis jogjlv, bg pera ojxlcu la? 

Fqbc rfflcu atlr, Vl Te rjlv lcvloofgfcais, “Obbx, yj, la’r gfjiis cba tjgv. Vbwfbcf oluegfv la bea pera ilxf wf.”

Xe Wlhtbe ibbxfv vffqis ja Tf Vte, ktb kjr qgfafcvlcu ab rtlnfg yfrlvf Zj Hl, jcv gfwjlcfv rlifca… Ufbqif ktb tjvc’a oluegfv bea atf geifr wluta yfilfnf rtf kjr abb cfgnber, gluta?

The tall and muscular man stole Ye Shu’s seat. It wasn’t unusual for her to deal with him…

Buy one, get one free! Gu Xizhou can only say——this was another ruthless person, ah! 

The music ended, and Gu Xizhou and the others got off one by one. This time, Mei Xiao’s bumper car found a piece of the student’s essay.

《My Dad》

My dad is very nice. He always gives me pocket money to buy food. He says boys can only grow tall if they eat well.

My dad loves me a lot. Sometimes he comes home very late. Mom says it’s because dad is very busy. 

My dad doesn’t make me breakfast in the morning, and he doesn’t tuck me in at night, but he is the best dad in the world!

The abstruse content of the essay was cut from the same mold as the《My Mom》essay. No one knew where to begin to complain.

“Is-is this a clue?” After looking at the paper, Lu An’s brows furrowed, and he couldn’t help but complain, “This is no different from the first one!”

Si Yu glanced over briefly but didn’t speak. 

After the others all took a look, Gu Xizhou took the essay. He looked at it for a moment and said, “This paper was erased an awful lot.”

He pointed to one of the letter squares and said, “Look, the paper here was scratched, and there are eraser marks in front, too.”

After everyone heard Gu Xizhou, they gathered around and examined it meticulously. They stumbled and groped around before they found some of the key words: ‘don’t care about me’ ‘very annoying’ and ‘play mahjong’. These words left behind some pencil traces. Clearly, this essay had been fixed.

The little boy clearly wasn’t fond of his father. 

After finishing with the bumper cars, their tickets didn’t change. This meant the little boy should still be in line. They split into two groups to scour the park, looking for the little boy’s figure.

As Gu Xizhou walked, he heard the sound of chains around him, and he frowned. The chains clanged off the ground.

Gu Xizhou looked around, following the sound and saw the little boy holding a balloon in front of the ticket gate for the haunted house.

The boy was wearing a white shirt with a pattern that looked like it was weeping blood and knee-length jeans. His complexion was somewhat pale. The boy’s face was abnormally white, but from a distance, he almost looked like a normal child, just a little pale. 

“Isn’t it him?” Gu Xizhou pointed at the child with the red balloon, asking a few of his teammates beside him.

A-Ke subconsciously followed his finger and saw the boy. Her eyelids gave a slight jump. “It is him!”

The boy grimaced and followed the other ghosts into the haunted house.

Gu Xizhou automatically gave chase, but Si Yu yelled at him to stop. “Wait!” 

“Eh?” Gu Xizhou said to Si Yu, “It has the sound of chains. The door must be on it!”

Si Yu’s eyes flickered, and he looked deeply at Gu Xizhou.

“I told you before that I can sometimes hear chains! It has it!” Gu Xizhou was afraid Si Yu didn’t understand what he meant and hastily explained.

Si Yu nodded and pulled Gu Xizhou to the side, saying, “You said it has the gate, so that’s further reason that we can’t simply go in.” 

“Why?” asked Gu Xizhou. “I’m not afraid of ghosts or those annoying rules.”

“Do you remember the kindergarten world?”

Gu Xizhou nodded.

“The white line of death, being caught by ghosts in hide and seek,” said Si Yu. “The imaginations of children are much richer than adults. They always come up with fascinating ideas… For example, a man-eating merry-go-round and bumper cars where taking the wrong route means being run over. A haunted house is a place where they can amply display their imagination.” 

Si Yu’s words deprived everyone of their courage to rush in, but they had no choice but to enter because their tickets had already begun to show the words ‘Haunted House (0/23)’.

Soon, the other teammates saw the words on the back of their tickets and nervously hurried over. After everyone reunited, Si Yu looked at the clock. It was 5:32; there were still over two hours until 8 o’clock.

Gu Xizhou repeated his old trick and walked into the office with his VIP ticket to find a haunted house employee and beat the ghost up——

Even the ghost of the haunted house whose soul was crying looked at Gu Xizhou and burst into tears.…… 

Gu Xizhou looked at its aggrieved expression and winked at it. “If you agreed earlier, I wouldn’t have beat you. As long as we can pass, you too can have an early death and early rebirth. What do you say?”

The ghost cradled its head in its arms and stared at Gu Xizhou for a moment. Apparently agreeing with Gu Xizhou, it resignedly followed him out. Its complexion was unsightly, and its uniform was a complete mess as if it were a sixteen year old girl who had been tarnished by others.

“Death Amusement Park’s haunted house is for lovers. There’s an old tale of romance behind it, where love conquers all. Ten people can go inside the haunted house. There are five different passages; two people can go in each passage.

“It’s very frightening inside the haunted house. When you go in, I suggest you avoid separating no matter what you meet.” 

Its mouth suddenly split open in a smile, and scarlet blood seeped down its cheeks. It looked terrible. Even Ma Qi, this masculine guy, couldn’t help but gulp, not to mention several women. A few girls were so frightened they jumped, instinctively recoiling by two steps, but they didn’t dare to scream. They could only tremble and shiver and look toward the men on the team for help.

“What sort of smile is that? You’re scaring people!” Gu Xizhou suddenly said.

“Oh…” The beheaded ghost looked at Gu Xizhou and, with no dignity, shut up. After all, it had just been beaten to a pulp… It was still in so much pain!

“There’s ten individuals each time, and two people per team, but we have twenty three people.” Gu Xizhou rubbed his forehead. He turned to look at the beheaded ghost and asked, “Can someone go in alone?” 

The beheaded ghost smiled silently, but its smile seemed a little sorrowful.

Gu Xizhou was silent for a while, then he changed the way he asked. “After going through the haunted house once, can someone go through again?”

“Yes.”

After the ghost answered Gu Xizhou, everyone immediately looked at each other. 

There were pros and cons to being the twenty third person. The benefit was that someone could help you figure out what the inside was like. The downside was, after going through the haunted house once, who would be willing to go again? That meant twice the danger!

The curly-haired girl without a teammate crossed both hands over her chest and rigidly hugged herself, biting her bottom lip.

“I… I want to go in first. I don’t want to go alone…”

This girl was clearly afraid to be left on her own, and she hastily declared her position, saying she wanted to go in first to ascertain the rules. 

The ghost looked at everyone silently, then glanced at the clock and said, “I already said the rules. There’s one minute left. Have you decided together who the first ten people to enter the haunted house will be?”

“The rules are very clear. Two people form a team and cannot separate after entering,” Si Yu told everyone. After speaking, he suddenly grabbed Gu Xizhou’s arm, pulling him to go to the haunted house. “We’ll go in first.”

“Eh?” Gu Xizhou was surprised.

What the hell? 

Si Yu had already figured out the rules?

Gu Xizhou still didn’t understand, but Si Yu had already dragged him inside the passage. The people outside, like Ye Shu, were still pondering over Si Yu’s final sentence.

After entering the passage, Si Yu didn’t let go. His wrist was held, and it was a little warm. In the dim light, Gu Xizhou winked at Si Yu and asked, “How long do we have to hold hands like this?”

Under the light, Si Yu’s deep eyes looked languidly at Gu Xizhou. “If nothing else, we have to walk out of this haunted house holding hands.” 

Gu Xizhou was shocked. He asked, “That’s a rule?”

Si Yu said, “I just said it outside. Did you completely ignore me?”

Gu Xizhou “……”

Seeing Gu Xizhou’s dumbfounded face, Si Yu reminded him, “The haunted house’s ghost already told us all the rules, including how to crack them.” 

“……” Gu Xizhou patted his face. He felt that his IQ was always insulted whenever he was with Si Yu. It was only when he heard Si Yu’s reminder that he suddenly realized it.

That ghost might have listened to him just now and helped them cheat, but due to the rules it couldn’t speak straightforwardly.

‘Death Amusement Park’s haunted house is for lovers. There’s an old tale of romance behind it, where love conquers all.’ Those words meant ‘if you have love, you can overcome everything’.

‘It’s very frightening inside the haunted house. When you go in, I suggest you avoid separating no matter what you meet.’ This sentence meant: ‘Don’t fucking separate! You’ll die if you split up!’. 

Gu Xizhou cursed and said, “Couldn’t it just hint straightforwardly?”

When he said this sentence, he didn’t notice that Si Yu’s gaze fell on him, whether intentional or not. When he heard his complaints, he found them a little funny.

As the two people spoke, a hand was suddenly placed on Gu Xizhou’s shoulder. The hand was pale and completely colorless. Gu Xizhou turned his head and saw a woman’s face stuck against the door, blood dripping from her two red eyes onto Gu Xizhou’s collar.

When Gu Xizhou and the female ghost looked at each other, Si Yu warned, “Don’t be scared. It can’t hurt us if we’re holding hands.” 

“I know, ah.” Gu Xizhou smiled cheerfully, bending his eyes in a grin. “That’s just right! I can still hurt it.” Even if this rule didn’t exist, I could still hurt it! Like the others!

Si Yu: “?” What the hell?

Suddenly, Gu Xizhou’s leg kicked the female ghost while he suddenly waved his left hand, and his fist smashed the female ghost into the air. The female ghost had yet to react when trampled it to the ground. The ghost was completely dumbfounded.

This person beat it! 

It was unpleasant to be struck by Gu Xizhou’s hard-as-iron fist, but the female ghost stared at Gu Xizhou and Si Yu’s locked hands. According to the rules, it couldn’t harm them.

It gnashed its teeth hatefully, but it couldn’t change the rules. There was nothing it could do. It was here to kill people, but it could only choose to flee with its tail between its legs in the end.

But Gu Xizhou didn’t allow it to, and he dragged Si Yu along to absolutely hammer the ghost and chase it the whole way.

In the darkness, the female ghost hid in a wardrobe, biting a little handkerchief and crying. 

These two people weren’t scientific! They used the rules to bully it!

“You scared it into hiding.”

“I just saw her run over, ya!”

“I found it!” Gu Xizhou looked around and finally found his target. He pointed at a piece of white cloth in the corner of the wardrobe and smiled at Si Yu. 

Watching the door open, the female ghost face was dull and lifeless: Why did I find this psychopath!

Si Yu looked at the happily hammering Gu Xizhou: “……”

Uh, it turns out the rules can still be used like this.