A dozen seconds later, Feng Ge finally came to his senses. He weakly pointed toward the bathroom. "The mirror..."
Those two simple words seemed to possess a strange power. Chen Ge's expression changed slightly. He dragged Feng Ge onto the bed, then went into the bathroom himself.
The mirror on the wall had been smashed, and shards of glass lay scattered everywhere.
After He Shan fainted earlier, Chen Ge had covered every mirror in the Haunted House with black cloth. Things had been peaceful for a while, but now that he'd opened a new attraction, he'd let his guard down for a moment—and this had happened.
Chen Ge knew all too well that once any entertainment venue was labeled a safety hazard, it would be difficult to keep it running.
He picked up a shard of glass and looked at his reflection in it. "I have to deal with this thing as soon as possible!"
There were black and white pieces on a chessboard, good and evil in people, and the same was true of ghosts.
The thing in the mirror was clearly hostile toward the living. Chen Ge could sense it. It was extremely aggressive and harbored some unspeakable purpose.
He Shan fainting and Feng Ge smashing the mirror out of fear—these two "accidents" had sounded the alarm for Chen Ge and filled him with urgency.
Covering the mirror with black cloth wasn't a long-term solution. The thing inside it had already become an obstacle to the Haunted House's rapid growth.
The mirror was smashed, and nothing suspicious had been left behind in the bathroom. After taking a look around, Chen Ge came back out.
Gripping the iron hammer in his hand, he sat down beside Feng Ge. "Can you tell me what happened just now?"
After resting for a few minutes, Feng Ge was finally breathing normally again, but his face was still frighteningly pale. "I'm not sure I can explain it clearly."
"That's fine. Just say whatever comes to mind." Chen Ge watched Feng Ge. Unlike He Shan, who had fainted on the spot, this man clearly had much stronger nerves. At least he'd dared to fight back.
Feng Ge tried to sit up on the bed. His complexion had improved, but the fear in his eyes hadn't diminished at all. "I was being chased by your staff, so in a panic, I hid in this room. At first, nothing happened, but later, I thought I heard someone calling me."
"Did it call you by name?"
"No, but I could tell it was calling for me." Feng Ge clutched at his hair. "The sound was coming from somewhere in this room. It took me a long time to figure out where it was coming from."
As he spoke, the fear in his eyes deepened. "The sound was coming from the mirror in the bathroom. I could sort of hear it, but I couldn't make out what it was saying. I didn't know what it meant, only that it had something to do with me."
"What happened next?" Chen Ge committed every word Feng Ge said to memory. This valuable experience could help him understand the monster in the mirror better.
"Then I stood in front of the mirror, trying to figure out how it worked. I tried to take it down, but as soon as I touched it, the sound in my ears suddenly grew louder, and my head started to feel fuzzy. I looked at my reflection, and the longer I looked, the less it seemed like me." Feng Ge had reached the most important part. He cast a fearful glance at the bathroom, as if a monster were hiding there, ready to leap out at any moment. "I was standing in front of the mirror, but the person reflected in it wasn't me. Normally, I would've been scared and wanted to get away, but what happened next is what still terrifies me the most."
"What happened?"
Feng Ge spoke very seriously. "At the time, I didn't feel any fear at all. Everything seemed perfectly normal. My body started leaning toward the mirror until my face was almost against it. I could clearly see the face in the mirror leaning toward me too. It looked exactly like me, but it felt completely unfamiliar. I couldn't say what was wrong, but I just felt that the face in the mirror didn't belong to me. My thoughts got more and more muddled. My brain didn't give any commands, but my hand pressed against the mirror anyway. I felt like I wanted to crawl inside it—or, no, it was more like I'd been trapped inside the mirror and was trying desperately to get out."
Chen Ge had experienced something similar during the nightmare-level daily mission. When he watched the phone footage afterward, he'd seen his body slowly lean toward the mirror. "How did you break free?"
"It was because of the mirror." Feng Ge gave Chen Ge an answer he hadn't expected. "At that point, I had no idea what I was doing. Just as my face was about to touch the mirror, I suddenly saw something through it. There was a ragdoll lying behind me."
"A ragdoll?"
"Yeah, the same kind I saw in the other rooms upstairs. It was about the size of my palm, and it even had a beard sewn onto it." Feng Ge nodded and demonstrated its size with his hands. "When a ragdoll suddenly appeared behind me, I started to get scared. The fear flared up like a fire, and I had just one thought: get out of here. But my body wouldn't listen. My will and my body started fighting each other. It felt like sleep paralysis."
Feng Ge described it calmly, but Chen Ge could hear how dangerous the situation had been.
"Then I suddenly heard He Shan screaming on the second floor, and I snapped out of it, like I'd woken from a dream." The fear in his eyes had faded somewhat. "I was absolutely terrified, so I grabbed a chair and smashed the mirror. It was purely instinctive. Your House of Horrors is way too scary. I even forgot I was touring a Haunted House."
At that, Feng Ge seemed to remember something. He waved at Chen Ge. "Everything I told you is true. I'm not exaggerating or trying to shirk responsibility. I'll pay you back for the mirror."
"You don't need to pay for it. The best outcome for me is that you weren't hurt." Chen Ge stood and paced around the room. "Where's the ragdoll you saw?"
Feng Ge hesitated. "I think I kicked it under the bed. That was one of your props, right? Sorry."
Chen Ge lifted the bedsheet and pulled out the ragdoll, which had a shoe print on it. He dusted it off. "You should thank this ragdoll. It saved you just now."
"The ragdoll saved me? Okay... Thanks. Can I leave now?" Feng Ge shrank back, his face growing paler by the second. He thought the Haunted House Owner in front of him was a little off, but he was in no position to argue, so he managed a very reluctant thank-you.
"Would you believe me if I told you that what you just went through wasn't a Haunted House prop or special effect, but something real?" Wearing a bloodstained Doctor Uniform and holding a worn-out Rag Doll, Chen Ge tilted his head and studied the college student before him.
Poor Feng Ge was nearly six feet two, yet now he was curled up in the corner of the bed with his arms around his knees like a little girl, looking utterly helpless. "So what do you think I should say? That I believe you, or that I don't?"
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