Gloomy Sunday

"Three courtyards, with a main room and side rooms, east and west wings, covered walkways, hanging flower curtains, wishful doors, inverted lintels, thunder pillars... This Haunted House has some nice details. It's modeled after a traditional courtyard house, which makes it feel pretty immersive." Gao Ruxue strolled through the scene, stopping now and then. She looked relaxed and occasionally offered a comment.

"Senior, we're in a Haunted House, not sightseeing in a Suzhou garden. Could you spare a thought for how I feel?" The empty courtyard was steeped in gloom, Soul Banners fluttered, and Spirit Money danced through the air. The Haunted House He Shan saw was nothing like the one Gao Ruxue saw. He moved cautiously, afraid something might suddenly crawl out of a shadowy corner. "We should hurry up and find the exit. I have a bad feeling."

"Since we're here, we might as well look around properly. We're supposed to be playing in the Haunted House. Don't let the Haunted House play you."

"Do you remember what the Haunted House Owner said before we came in? We have fifteen minutes to find the exit. That guy seemed like a real schemer. I have a feeling something terrible will happen if we don't get out in time!" He Shan tried to persuade Gao Ruxue, but she didn't seem concerned.

"There are only so many ways to scare people in a Haunted House. At most, they'll have staff dress up as ghosts and chase us around. We're not afraid of dead people, so why should we be afraid of the living?" Gao Ruxue wandered aimlessly along the covered walkway and casually pushed open the door to the side room on the left.

The Ghost Marriage venue was laid out like a standard courtyard house. The main room was where the elders and head of the family lived; the eldest son and younger generations lived in the wings. The side rooms flanking the main room were where the servants and maids lived.

When they entered, they found the tables and chairs overturned, the bedding torn apart, and cotton stuffing scattered everywhere. A strip of white silk hung from the beam at the center of the room.

"Senior, I'll wait outside and watch your back. Be careful..." He Shan hadn't finished speaking before Gao Ruxue pulled him into the room. He grimaced as he watched the white silk sway gently, moving as if in a breeze, though the air was still. His body had gone stiff.

"Interesting. The white silk is a meter and a half above the floor, far too low for anyone to hang themselves. The tables and chairs are overturned, and there are traces of a struggle on the ground. The Haunted House is deliberately creating the illusion of a forced suicide. A maid lived in this side room, and the Vengeful Spirit didn't spare even a servant with no blood ties to the family. Looks like it intends to torture everyone in this mansion to death." Gao Ruxue remained composed, though a hint of excitement lurked in her eyes. "The Haunted House is very detailed. There might be other hidden Easter eggs."

She rummaged through everything, then yanked the bedding off the bed. Beneath the tattered quilt lay a paper doll made in the shape of a girl.

"A Paper Figure lying in a living person's bed?" Gao Ruxue casually tossed it aside and lifted the bedboard. There was nothing underneath.

"The higher your hopes, the greater your disappointment. I overestimated this Haunted House. Come on, the exit isn't in this room." She waved a hand and strode outside.

Left alone in the room, He Shan stared at the paper doll on the floor. His teeth began to chatter. Maybe it was just the angle, but he could have sworn the doll was smiling at him.

"The Bronze Rooster bled, the Paper Figure opened its eyes... Wait for me, Senior!"

The side-room door shut again, and the white silk inside stopped swaying.

"Could you keep your voice down? Why are you yelling? You're a grown man, but you're acting like a little girl." Gao Ruxue rolled her eyes at He Shan and stopped at the edge of the covered walkway.

"It's not that I'm a coward! This place really makes me uncomfortable. The longer I stay here, the stronger that feeling of unease gets. It's like something's dredging up the thing I fear most deep inside!"

He Shan's words made Gao Ruxue pause. She, too, sensed something was off.

A steady mind and steady hands were essential for a forensic doctor, but when she'd just spoken to He Shan, her tone had grown noticeably impatient. That had never happened to her anywhere else.

"Could I really be afraid? I know everything in this Haunted House is fake, so why am I scared?" A crack appeared in Gao Ruxue's mental defenses. Neither of them could identify the source of their fear, and under the weight of self-doubt and suggestion, the seed of terror was taking root.

"You don't think there's really something evil lurking here, do you? This Haunted House was built on a mass grave, and they converted a hospital building to make it..."

"Shut up! Isn't our school's underground corpse storage scarier than this place? You're a medical student. How can you be so cowardly?" Gao Ruxue sounded unconcerned, but she spoke faster and faster. Sitting by the railing, she looked around at the old mansion, the funeral hall, the dead trees, and the Spirit Money scattered across the ground. None of it was all that frightening. "What am I so afraid of?"

Both of them were absorbed by the gloomy surroundings and failed to notice the background music that had been playing on a loop.

The forbidden song known as Gloomy Sunday had imperceptibly wound itself around their hearts, like an underground river washing over their souls and dragging them, step by step, into the bottomless Abyss.

"Xiao Shan, how long have we been in here?"

"I don't know, but I have a feeling there's no way we'll get out within fifteen minutes!"

"Don't panic. I've thought it through." Gao Ruxue didn't bother brushing off the dust. She headed straight for the other end of the covered walkway. "There's nothing to be afraid of in this Haunted House. The main thing is, the owner keeps planting negative suggestions in our minds. From the moment we entered, he's been emphasizing words like 'mass grave,' 'buried alive,' and 'Female Ghost.' He wants us to scare ourselves. The cleverest part is that he set a time limit without telling us what would happen. That puts pressure on us and sends our imaginations running wild, filling in the blanks with the scariest things we can think of."

"Then what do you think we should do now? This Haunted House feels different from the others." He Shan was an honest young man. He believed whatever his senior told him.

"You're right that it feels different. Normal Haunted Houses have professional actors dressed as ghosts, and all sorts of equipment to create gruesome, terrifying scenes for us to experience in a set order. But this one doesn't do that. The scenes are already set up, and they leave us to explore freely. There are no directions or restrictions, so nobody knows what will happen next."

"I get it. The unknown is what's truly frightening." He Shan looked as if he'd suddenly seen the light.

"At this point, that's the only explanation." Gao Ruxue knitted her brows almost imperceptibly. "All right, let's go to the next room."

The side room adjoined the main room, where the head of the family lived. When they pushed open the wooden door, they saw mourning robes scattered around the room and a lacquered wooden coffin in the center of the hall.

The coffin was red, with a large paper character for "double happiness" pasted across its center. A neat row of Paper Figures knelt on either side.

Their names were written on their backs, and their faces were painted with colorful makeup. Their eyes seemed lifelike, and their expressions varied. It was as though they were secretly watching the two people at the doorway.