The staff member playing the female ghost, hiding behind the door: "..."
"Come on, little brother, kick this hidden door open. I suspect that female ghost from earlier is hiding inside." Chu Yu's voice rang out from beyond the hidden door again.
Hearing that they were going to kick the door down, the staff member immediately panicked and hurriedly opened it, revealing a ghostly face slathered in a thick layer of deathly pale foundation.
"What... are you going to do..."
The female ghost who had been so formidable while chasing them earlier could now only tremble.
Chu Yu patiently explained to him, "We want to burn some gold ingots for you, but we realized we don't have a lighter. We'd like to borrow one from you."
The staff member playing the female ghost braced himself and offered a hint. "...If I remember correctly, you don't seem to need to burn anything in this stage."
The way to clear this stage was actually very simple. The guests only needed to unfold the gold ingots made from gold paper, and they would discover fragments of writing on the sheets that could be pieced together.
Using this writing, they could directly locate the mechanism that opened the third door.
But... the production team had never imagined that Chu Yu's train of thought would take such an extraordinary turn that she would actually try to burn the gold ingots containing the crucial clues.
If they really burned them, they probably wouldn't escape the haunted house even if they were given another eight hundred years.
Just as the staff member playing the female ghost was agonizing over whether to hand it over, an announcement rang out.
"Congratulations to Chu Yu, Chu Chen, and Gu Jinhuai on successfully clearing the Underworld Haunted House. The final stage's door is now open. Please leave promptly."
Chu Yu, who was still thinking about solving the puzzle: "??"
Huh? We cleared it just like that?
When Chu Chen heard the words announcing their successful escape, he instantly relaxed after having his heart in his throat the whole time.
"Quick, quick, quick, let's get out of here. I seriously can't stand this place anymore," Chu Chen urged excitedly.
Gu Jinhuai rubbed the space between his brows.
At last, he no longer had to worry about whether Chu Yu and her brother would suddenly start arguing.
Meanwhile, the director sitting backstage wiped the sweat from his forehead.
He wasn't deliberately giving Chu Yu preferential treatment. Rather, if he let her keep making trouble like this, his heart really wouldn't be able to take it.
He had seen plenty of people running all over a haunted house with a female ghost chasing them.
But this was truly his first time seeing someone turn the tables and chase the female ghost, then kick at a door and demand a lighter to burn things.
[I'm dying. Chu Yu and her brother finally made it out safely. Though I keep feeling like the production team got so scared they let them out early hahahahahaha.]
[That fucking "Are there any ghosts?" hahahahahaha.]
[Chu Yu somehow managed to turn a perfectly good haunted house into a mahjong parlor.]
By the time Chu Yu and the other two successfully cleared the haunted house and came out, the sun outside was nearly setting.
A gray Mercedes suddenly sped up to the previously quiet, deserted entrance of the amusement park.
The gray Mercedes stopped by the roadside, and a man in a dark blue suit got out. With a stern face, he solemnly took out a small mirror and tidied his appearance while looking at his reflection.
Before long, the amusement park manager came jogging over from a distance and stopped in front of the man in the suit.
"Mr. Zhao, what brings you here so unexpectedly?" The manager cautiously looked at the man addressed as Mr. Zhao, feeling somewhat uneasy.
Zhao Qirui's expression darkened, and he immediately reprimanded him. "You have the nerve to ask? Why didn't you notify me beforehand that the young miss and young master were coming to the amusement park to film a show?"
"If my assistant hadn't happened to see the livestream, I would have nearly missed my chance to meet the young miss and young master!"
The amusement park manager's mind instantly went blank.
What young miss? What young master?
Zhao Qirui couldn't be bothered with him. He turned and strode toward the Underworld Haunted House.
He was still thinking about how it had been many years since he last saw the young miss and her brother.
He hadn't expected that, in the blink of an eye, both of them would already be so grown up.
And from what he had just seen on the livestream, their relationship was still as "friendly" as ever.
It was good to be young.
Author's note:
The opera lyrics in this piece come from the Huangmei opera "The Heavenly Match."
Chapter 24
Chu Yu walked out of the haunted house looking completely relaxed.
Chu Chen and Gu Jinhuai followed side by side behind her, like bodyguards escorting her.
The moment the three appeared, confetti and streamers shot into the air together, drifting slowly down over their heads.
"Congratulations to all three of you on successfully escaping the haunted house. The staff have prepared refreshments and fruit for everyone in the lounge. You can head over and rest for a while first. The rewards for this haunted house challenge can only be handed out once all three sister-and-brother pairs have come out."
The staff soon brought Chu Yu and the other two to the lounge.
Platters of fresh, delicious-looking cut fruit sat on the clear glass coffee table, and the desserts and pastries all looked exquisite as well.
Chu Chen had exhausted his stamina running madly around the haunted house earlier. He didn't stand on ceremony, sitting down and digging straight in.
Gu Jinhuai also sat down on the soft, comfortable sofa, leaned back, and silently closed his eyes to rest.
Just as Chu Yu was about to take a break as well, a member of the production staff suddenly told her that her manager had called.
Chu Yu retrieved her phone from the staff member and ducked into a restroom without cameras before calling Zhang Yue back.
"Sister Zhang, did something happen again?"
In the past, whenever Zhang Yue called out of the blue, it was almost never good news.
Either Chu Yu was being mocked en masse by antis for her acting again, or she had been smeared onto the trending searches again and urgently needed PR damage control.
So Chu Yu didn't have particularly high hopes for this call, either.
Until Zhang Yue's voice, brimming with excitement, came through the phone.
"Xiao Yu, you're really going to be famous this time! And not infamous, but genuinely famous!"
"You know GI Magazine, the one that's pretty well known here in China, right? Their editor-in-chief, Xu Ruiqiu, personally called me just now and said she wanted to invite you and Chu Chen to be the cover stars for their next issue!"