Theater 3

The two returned to the first-floor lobby. For once, Li Xijiu stopped hollering. Instead, he looked at the split skin between his thumb and forefinger and said quietly:

"Brother Qin, I really thought I was going to die back there."

Before Qin Manjiang could answer, he murmured, "This game... it really can kill people..."

Qin Manjiang glanced back at him.

People reacted very differently to fear. Some became hysterical, some feigned composure, some wailed in terror, and some fell silent in despair.

Qin Manjiang could clearly sense Li Xijiu's emotions. He was using jokes and banter to hide the unease and terror inside him. He was afraid, but even more afraid of holding Qin Manjiang back.

His calves had been trembling the whole time, and Qin Manjiang had noticed.

But he wasn't good at giving inspiring speeches.

"I'll get you out of here."

Once again, he said it with complete seriousness.

Li Xijiu grinned, as though his earlier gloom had never existed. "Of course you will. You promised to look after me!"

"Did I ever say that?"

"Trying to back out, huh? When we were kids, the year we turned nine, you..."

"Shh..."

Qin Manjiang covered Li Xijiu's mouth. Though he didn't understand why, Li Xijiu obediently fell silent.

Qin Manjiang slowly approached the ticket counter, his eyes fixed on a diagram.

"That's the cinema's floor plan, right? What's wrong?" Li Xijiu saw it too, but couldn't spot anything strange.

"It's only part of it. Some sections are missing." Qin Manjiang looked around.

Just then, the Vengeful Ghost's howling upstairs abruptly stopped.

Both men's breath caught. Was it coming?

"Quick, take down every floor plan on this floor. You take the left, I'll take the right."

By the time Qin Manjiang finished speaking, he had already vaulted over the counter and taken down the floor plan inside the ticket booth.

Li Xijiu hurried to follow his lead, running to the left side of the lobby to search.

Soon, his gaze settled on a pillar. "Found one! On the pillar!"

As he took it down, he muttered, "Why break up a perfectly good floor plan and hang the pieces all over the place? Is this supposed to be stylish...?"

One, two, three...

Between them, they took down five diagrams.

The ghost upstairs had gone silent. It would probably be coming down soon.

Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu crouched beneath the ticket counter. There really wasn't anywhere else to hide on the first floor; apart from this spot, practically everything was in plain sight.

"Brother Qin, look! A work log!"

Li Xijiu had found a small notebook beneath the counter and was holding it up for him to see.

Qin Manjiang nodded and pieced all the floor plans together. Li Xijiu helped hold them in place, and both leaned forward to study them.

"There's a restroom on the first floor too, directly below the one upstairs..."

"Huh? There used to be a fast-food restaurant on the first floor? And a clothing store?" Li Xijiu sounded as though he had discovered a whole new world. "Why are the restaurant and clothing store gone now?"

"They probably burned down," Qin Manjiang said. "Let me see that work log."

"Here."

Li Xijiu handed him the notebook.

While they were busy, chilling footsteps sounded from the stairs!

"Shff-shff, shff-"

Its feet dragged across the floor.

It had already come down the stairs and entered the lobby.

It stopped... as though searching for something.

Both held their breath, their hands going completely still.

Had it found them?

No... surely not. They were both out of sight. There was no reason it would spot them...

Despite their constant attempts to reassure themselves, their hearts pounded harder and harder.

"Shff-"

The footsteps shifted.

Had it moved farther from the counter, or closer?

They couldn't tell.

Just then, Qin Manjiang's expression suddenly changed. His hands were still, but his eyes had remained fixed on the work log...

At that same moment, Li Xijiu's hair stood on end!

Despite having no evidence whatsoever that the Vengeful Ghost had discovered them, he couldn't help grabbing Qin Manjiang and pulling him out, shouting, "Run! Brother Qin!"

They had barely scrambled out from beneath the counter when a thunderous crash erupted!

A terrifying cleaver split the counter in two!

Had they stayed underneath, the counter wouldn't have been the only thing cut in half.

Surprise filled Qin Manjiang's face. This was the second time...

He glanced at Li Xijiu, who was dragging him along at a sprint.

It had happened in the screening room earlier too. Li Xijiu seemed to have some ability to sense danger, always reacting in the nick of time.

What was this?

A Peter tingle?

Bang!

Another deafening crash rang out. The Tall Wraith charged after them, its cleaver striking half a meter behind them and sending shattered stone flying.

Li Xijiu leaped up several steps at once, but Qin Manjiang was struggling to keep up. His stamina had never been particularly good. He tossed the work log over.

"Read it! The key to solving this ghost story is in there!"

Li Xijiu caught the little notebook, but instead of continuing toward the second floor, he grabbed Qin Manjiang, who was trying to turn and run in another direction.

"Even if I read it, I won't figure it out! Don't run off! You solve it!"

Qin Manjiang's heart jolted, and he stopped struggling.

Li Xijiu was certainly no fool, and his stamina was far better than Qin Manjiang's. If this ghost kept chasing them together, they would die sooner or later. The best approach was for one of them to keep it occupied while the other unraveled the ghost story's secret.

Nor had Qin Manjiang forgotten that, besides this ghost, a smaller one was waiting upstairs. Compared to the large ghost swinging its cleaver, that smaller ghost was far more elusive.

No matter how he looked at it, Li Xijiu stood a better chance of surviving.

But Li Xijiu had seen through his intentions.

Li Xijiu shoved the work log back into Qin Manjiang's hands, saying, "You spotted a clue after reading just a little. Keep reading! I'll lead it around. I've got experience!"

The moment he finished, Li Xijiu's trademark trembling shout rang out again:

"Come and get me!"

He had always been good at drawing aggro.

The Tall Wraith swung its cleaver straight at him. Bracing his left hand on the stair railing, Li Xijiu vaulted over it and darted back into the first-floor lobby.

Qin Manjiang's brow twitched. Unlike the second floor, the first had no screening rooms to weave through. There were plenty of pillars, but overall, it was still far too dangerous.

Seeing the Tall Wraith turn to chase Li Xijiu, Qin Manjiang hesitated no longer. He immediately opened the work log and read as fast as he could.

The reason he had said that to Li Xijiu was a sentence he had spotted in the log-

"Following the fire, the cinema was rebuilt. The first-floor fast-food restaurant and clothing store were removed. The number of the second-floor screening room where the fire began was retired, and the screening-room layout was redesigned..."

The layout was the key.

The floor plan...

Listening to Li Xijiu's shouting downstairs, Qin Manjiang no longer found it annoying. At least it meant he was still alive.

No wonder this floor plan, divided into five pieces, had looked strange no matter how he examined it. It wasn't the current floor plan at all, but the cinema's layout from ten years ago, when the fire occurred.

"Theater 1 was here..."

"Theater 2 was here..."

"This was Theater 3..."

"Eleven screening rooms in total..."

Then the fire had occurred, and the entire cinema had undergone major renovations. The second-floor layout was completely different too. The most obvious change was that the screening room where the fire started had been abandoned, and the layout redesigned.

"The fast-food restaurant and clothing store were abandoned, and so was the screening room where the fire started. Which theater was it?"

Qin Manjiang rapidly searched the work log.

Li Xijiu's wails continued, as did the sounds of the cleaver smashing stone.

Qin Manjiang suppressed his anxiety and forced himself to remain calm as he flipped rapidly through the pages. One... two... three...

Finally, after going through more than half the notebook, his gaze sharpened!

"Theater 3. It was Theater 3!"

Wait!

An earlier entry mentioned that, perhaps for good luck, Theater 3, where the fire had once started, had been abandoned. But it wasn't just the room that had been retired-it was the name "Theater 3" as well!

In other words, although the current Threshold Cinema had eleven screening rooms, only ten were numbered, because Theater 2 was followed directly by Theater 4. There was no "Theater 3," nor any room bearing that name.

Yet when he had asked Li Xijiu which theater he had watched the movie in, his answer had been...

Theater 3!

There was no Theater 3 at all!

"Was this thing with the cleaver there when you were watching the movie in Theater 3?"

Qin Manjiang leaned out and called down.

"Huh?"

Whether Li Xijiu was hard of hearing or "huh" had simply become his catchphrase, Qin Manjiang couldn't tell. In any case, after a moment's thought, he shouted, "No! I only saw him in the hallway after the ghost in Theater 3 scared me out!"

That was it!

"Come up! Head for Theater 3! He can't get in!"

"Huh? Oh... okay!" Li Xijiu hastily changed direction, narrowly dodging a slash. He grabbed the stair railing, vaulted over it, and bounded up to the second floor in a few quick strides.

"Theater 3's this way!" Li Xijiu jerked his chin, pointing Qin Manjiang in the right direction.

The two hurried to regroup.

The short burst of intense exertion left both gasping. Even the energetic Li Xijiu was exhausted, while Qin Manjiang's throat burned painfully.

The three-meter-tall ghost charged up to the second floor and hurled its cleaver at the two men just as they were about to rush into Theater 3!

Li Xijiu's entire body prickled. Without even looking back, he instantly thrust his forearm behind Qin Manjiang's head.

Thud-

The cleaver sank into flesh, and blood gushed out!

Qin Manjiang's brow jerked violently. Had Li Xijiu not blocked that strike with his arm, it would have split his skull open.

"Hsss-"

Li Xijiu's face turned deathly pale. The Vengeful Ghost's strength was overwhelming. The cleaver had sliced through his flesh and lodged deep in the bone of his forearm!

Calling the pain excruciating would have been no exaggeration.

And... time was still slipping away. Midnight was when the fire had started in this cinema, and less than half an hour remained. Could they really escape this hellhole?

Qin Manjiang didn't dwell on that question. Grabbing Li Xijiu's other arm, he rushed into Theater 3 with him, just barely making it inside as the towering ghost reached out to seize them!

The instant they entered the Screening Room, Qin Manjiang turned around and fixed his eyes on the entrance.

If his deduction was wrong and the three-meter-tall Vengeful Ghost could enter too, they were both doomed!

He swallowed involuntarily, sweat sliding down his temples.

"Drip-"

A bead of sweat struck the floor.

The Tall Wraith paused at the doorway for a moment, then actually... left!

It really couldn't enter Theater 3!

But just as Qin Manjiang breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to find a seat for Li Xijiu so he could treat his wound, he felt several deeply unsettling gazes upon him.

Qin Manjiang turned to look-

The static-filled movie screen cast a pallid glow over every member of the audience.

Their bodies were all facing the big screen, but their heads... had all turned a full hundred and eighty degrees to stare at the two standing in the entrance to Theater 3-

Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu.

Bookmark the story and cast your votes, everyone! A vote from you, a vote from me, and this scholar will make his debut tomorrow!

(End of chapter)