Double Happiness

The first time they went to the mountains for practical training, they encountered a funeral.

This time, they ran into a real Anomaly Event in their residential complex—and it was a wedding.

Yet the red that should have represented celebration was even more chilling than the funeral scene.

The class monitor, now wearing Embroidered Shoes, stuck close to Luo Di as they entered the hall.

An old Eight Immortals table stood in the center of the room, surrounded by several carved wooden chairs. Four paper effigies dressed in lavish clothes and wearing graying wigs sat on them, flowers pinned to their chests.

These paper effigies looked strange. Or rather, their bodies were stretched unnaturally full, as though they had been stuffed with living things.

All of the paper effigies were staring at an old television screen filled with static and constant noise.

Passing through the living room and the paper effigies, the two headed to the balcony first, hoping they could jump directly down through the window.

However, every balcony window had been sealed with messy wooden planks, with several Double Happiness Stickers pasted over them.

"I'll pry them open and take a look..."

Luo Di used the cleaver in his hand to pry at the planks. After putting in considerable effort to remove them, not only did he fail to see outside—the sight before him became even more despairing.

Beyond the planks, beyond the windows, there was no night view, only a wall of red bricks.

Just as the textbook stated, there were no gaps within a Corner Space through which one could escape.

When the two turned around to continue investigating the house, the paper effigies that had been watching television were now all staring directly at them on the balcony.

"Luo Di, should we deal with these paper effigies first?"

"Is it possible that's exactly what they want us to do? Or that there might be some kind of trap inside these paper effigies?"

Just as their discussion ended,

a small slit was forced open where one paper effigy's eye should have been.

A hairy spider crawled out from within. Looking through the opening it had torn open, they saw that the paper effigy was packed full of all kinds of spiders.

If they destroyed them, the swarm would pour out, causing no small amount of trouble.

Luo Di instinctively tugged his sleeves tighter at the sight of the spider swarms. "Let's check the kitchen first. If there's fire, we can try burning them."

When they searched for the kitchen according to the layout of his home, they discovered that this house did not have a kitchen at all. The entire layout seemed to have changed.

The greatest change was in the direction of the bedrooms.

An ordinary apartment in a resettlement complex like this was only a little over a hundred square meters, with the living room and bedrooms separated by just one wall.

Yet there was now an additional long corridor here, more than ten meters by estimation. An indoor passage of that length had long surpassed the dimensions of the building itself.

A Red Lantern hung every two meters along the corridor, providing plenty of light.

And at the end of the corridor was not a bedroom door, but a staircase that turned sideways and climbed upward, seemingly leading to a second floor.

Just as the textbook had said, the space had expanded.

Based on what they had observed so far, the first floor contained only the living room and this lengthy corridor.

"Let's go. We'll take a look deeper inside."

"Wait~"

The class monitor jogged back to the balcony and picked up one of the planks they had removed earlier. Several nails were still embedded in one end, making it barely usable as a weapon.

As the two stood at the entrance to the corridor lined with Red Lanterns,

the paper effigies all turned their heads as well, seemingly bidding them farewell—or perhaps... eagerly waiting for them to bring over the groom and bride so that today's joyous occasion could be completed.

The moment their attention was drawn to the paper effigies, a woman dressed in red and covered with a bridal veil appeared at the end of the corridor, walking up the stairs.

The class monitor reacted with incredible speed, immediately pulling a nail from the plank and throwing it forward.

The iron nail struck solidly at the end of the corridor over ten meters away, barely missing the woman climbing the stairs.

Luo Di was startled by the class monitor's reaction and throwing skill. He had assumed she was merely proficient with a sword, never expecting she possessed such a technique as well.

Perhaps sensing Luo Di's gaze, the class monitor explained, "Throwing improvised weapons is one of my supplementary courses too. Many times, using the environment to fight is more useful than the weapon in your hand. Too bad I was still too slow.

"Judging from her height, that woman just now was probably the Pseudo-Human's true body. Let's go."

"Yeah."

High above hung the bright red lanterns.

The two encountered no danger or environmental traps as they walked through the corridor,

but they still advanced back-to-back, watching both ahead and behind them.

Several paintings hung along the corridor, depicting a young man and woman spending every day together. Yet both the woman's and the man's faces were blurry.

At the very end hung a posed photograph from a traditional Chinese wedding.

Though the woman in the picture wore a red bridal veil, a bright crimson smile could still be seen... yet that smile felt more like it belonged to a young woman than to the Pseudo-Human itself.

At the end of the corridor, the staircase leading to the second floor was off to one side.

The staircase was no longer illuminated by lanterns, but by red candles burning on both sides. Many had already burned out, and the light level had fallen below what was safe.

The class monitor's electric lamp finally came in handy here.

Without stopping, the two climbed the stairs to a second floor that should not have existed.

There were even fewer candles above, and the light was dimmer, but the interior design still followed the Corner Law, dominated by curved edges.

There were three rooms in total: the master bedroom, the second bedroom, and the bathroom.

The master bedroom door at the far end was tightly shut, with faint red light seeping through the gap beneath it. The red-clad bride they had seen earlier was most likely inside—or rather, the Pseudo-Human's true body was waiting within.

Meanwhile, dripping water could be heard continuously from the bathroom beside them.

Before heading to the master bedroom, they needed to fully understand the environment here.

The two exchanged a glance, then headed first to the unlocked bathroom. The interior was completely dark, without even a single candle or lantern.

For the two of them, having grown up in the light, this absolute darkness placed tremendous pressure on their minds.

The class monitor quickly raised her handheld lamp forward, dispelling the darkness as the light outlined the structure of the entire bathroom.

As far as they could see, there was still no structure capable of creating a Physical Corner.

The bathroom floor was covered in bloodstains, and even the drain held remnants of tissue tangled with hair.

At the very back, the bathtub was concealed behind a shower curtain.

Drip, drip—the continuous sound of water came from inside the bathtub.

The class monitor moved her light source. When the beam shone upon the bathtub curtain, the shadows inside became clearly visible. It seemed that two people were sitting across from one another at either end of the tub, enjoying a bath.

Just as Luo Di was considering how to deal with it, a nail-studded plank flew over.

Crash!

The silence shattered.

The ruined curtain fell to the floor, revealing the hidden sight behind it.

Within the cold bathtub filled with water,

two heads floated one in front of the other.

The loose faucet continued to drip water.

These two heads were the Girl heads that had previously formed the spiders' tails. Their black hair floated across the water as they faced the two at the door, smiling.

Just as Luo Di was about to step forward with his cleaver and deal with the two heads that might pose a threat,

Creak—

The door to the second-floor master bedroom opened...

In that single moment of distraction, the heads floating in the bathtub vanished without a trace.

At this moment,

even the two who had undergone fear training felt the most primal emotion arise in their minds to some extent: fear.

But Luo Di quickly suppressed the feeling. In his view, a serial killer could not possibly feel fear. Such an emotion would be the greatest disgrace to him as a movie enthusiast.