The two chatted briefly on their phones, agreeing to stay in touch if anything came up.
Su Cheng ran into Gao Xiaoyun, who was holding up her phone, as she went out.
Gao Xiaoyun walked over enthusiastically, "Hello, are you here to tour the hotel?"
"Um."
Gao Xiaoyun winked playfully, "Can I come with you?"
Su Cheng glanced at her wrist. "Okay."
"Thanks! I heard there's a gym upstairs, would you like to check it out first?"
"Good."
Gao Xiaoyun pressed the button for the 5th floor, still smiling, but inwardly she felt a little resentful that Su Cheng was aloof and didn't speak with any enthusiasm.
"Could you take a picture for me later? I'm a blogger who documents my life; you can follow my account. My videos are on a platform called Star Moon..."
Gao Xiaoyun said, wanting Su Cheng to open the app and follow her right now.
Su Cheng smiled but made no move, her refusal was quite clear.
Gao Xiaoyun, having been rebuffed, didn't bring it up again. After the elevator doors opened, she pulled Su Cheng into the spacious gym.
The gym was empty, the equipment looked clean and new, and there was a row of treadmills near the window.
Su Cheng first took a few photos of the gym, then started looking for detailed shots in the corners.
She hadn't forgotten that she was now a sleep tester and had to write the evaluation report.
Gao Xiaoyun rested her hands on the treadmill, took a few selfies, and then asked Su Cheng to take a full-body photo of her.
She took off her coat, revealing a floral dress underneath, which she had changed into a tight-fitting sportswear outfit, perfectly matching the current scene.
"I'm standing on the treadmill, take two pictures of me exercising, from a nice angle, something that looks super casual."
Su Cheng paused for a moment, then said, "I'll try my best to take good pictures of you."
With two "beep" sounds, the treadmill started.
Gao Xiaoyun jogged slowly, looking very serious and natural, as if unaware that there was a camera next to her.
Su Cheng snapped a few photos, and suddenly two facial recognition frames appeared on her phone screen.
One was Gao Xiaoyun, and the other was in front of the treadmill control panel, but her face was nowhere to be seen.
The treadmill suddenly accelerated the next second.
"Ah!" Gao Xiaoyun was caught off guard and fell heavily onto the running track with a thud.
In a flash, her hair got caught in the machine, but the treadmill suddenly stopped!
Su Cheng pressed the treadmill switch with one hand and gripped her unseen wrist with the other.
"Sizzle sizzle"
A wisp of black smoke drifted by, and the figure vanished.
Su Cheng didn't chase after it, but looked at Gao Xiaoyun, who still looked shaken, "There was someone next to you just now; it was the one that started the treadmill."
"Ah?" Gao Xiaoyun got up from the ground, touched her intact hair and scalp, still shaken. "Thank you, I'm so grateful to you!"
"But it's just the two of us, where did a third person come from?"
She kicked the treadmill angrily, "What a lousy hotel! The treadmill is broken! It scared me to death! I've been to the gym so many times and never encountered anything like this. It deserves a bad review!!"
A note from the author:
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Chapter 130
Gao Xiaoyun got angrier and angrier as she spoke, kicking the boy several more times before finally sitting down when she was tired of yelling.
Seeing her nonchalant attitude, Su Cheng deeply understood the terrifying nature of amnesia. "You'd better not come here alone again, and don't leave your room at night."
Gao Xiaoyun frowned. "I didn't realize you were such a cryptic person."
She waved her hand. "Anyway, you helped me just now. I'll treat you to lunch tomorrow after the evaluation work is finished."
Where's my phone? Did you take any pictures?
Gao Xiaoyun considered the sudden crisis just now as an accident, and thought that the "third person" Su Cheng mentioned was just a figment of her imagination. She then turned her attention to taking pictures.
Su Cheng picked up her phone and handed it to her, "The treadmill is fine. I recorded a screen recording; you can see for yourself. The camera recognized two people."
"You even recorded the screen? Did you know I wouldn't believe you?" Gao Xiaoyun was surprised for a moment, then opened her photo album and saw the video, which was only a few seconds long.
She paused the moment the two images appeared, zoomed in on the recognition frame, and could vaguely make out a blurry face.
Gao Xiaoyun gasped, then her eyes brightened slightly, "If there really is a ghost... that would be wonderful! I could become famous!"
Things took an unexpected turn for Su Cheng. She thought that after Gao Xiaoyun finished reading it, she would at least feel scared, if not have some terrifying memories evoked.
Why is becoming famous the first thing you think about...?
Gao Xiaoyun gripped her phone, growing increasingly excited. "Thank you so much! This video has been a huge help! Whether it's a camera malfunction or not, I'm definitely going to post it on Star Moon; it'll definitely gain me followers."
"Maybe I can become the most famous ghost-hunting blogger on the platform, just like Lu Heng and Yun Xi!"
Upon hearing the familiar words, Su Cheng repeated, " Lu Heng? Which Lu? Which Heng?"
Gao Xiaoyun, oblivious to the presence of the phone, shoved it in front of Su Cheng's eyes, "It's him, the paranormal streamer who suddenly became a sensation on the Star Moon platform."
Su Cheng looked over and, sure enough, it was Lu Heng.
In this instance, he works as a self-media streamer with nearly a million followers, but he has only posted two videos.
Su Cheng clicked on it, and the first video was of Lu Heng peeling an apple in front of a mirror late at night.
The room was dark, except for a red candle burning in front of the mirror. Lu Heng was peeling an apple with great concentration.
He was peeling very steadily, but unexpectedly, the face in the mirror suddenly lifted up and smiled. He jerked, and the apple peel broke.
The candlelight went out abruptly.
In the darkness, a pair of withered, dark, and aged hands could be vaguely seen reaching out from the mirror!
Suddenly, she grabbed Lu Heng by the neck and dragged most of his body into the mirror.
Lu Heng gripped the glasses frame tightly with both hands, his feet scraping the ground with all his might.
In the chaos, he seemed to pull something white and shiny from his pocket, and the mirror shattered with a "bang," before everything returned to calm.
In the dim light of the camera, Lu Heng lay on the ground, panting heavily, and the video ended there.
This video is so realistic, from the hand in the mirror to Lu Heng's near-death reaction. It quickly garnered over a million likes.
The second video shows Lu Heng performing a Soul Summoning ritual at midnight at the intersection where the car accident had just occurred.
He held a photo of the car accident victim, muttering requests to see him, while a layer of white incense ash covered the brazier at his feet.
Before long, a row of footprints appeared on the incense ash, and in the blink of an eye, they were in front of him.
Lu Heng shuddered, as if something had crashed into his body. A strange smile appeared on his face, his expression shifting between normal and bizarre, sometimes crying and sometimes laughing.
The body seems to have become a container that anyone can use.
This time, Lu Heng did not escape his predicament as easily as before; his limbs twisted and cracked.
He appeared to be struggling desperately, with veins bulging in his neck and in obvious pain.
"Heng-ge, are you alright?" The camera shook twice, and the photographer's questioning voice came through.
He vomited mouthfuls of black blood when the video recording ended; the blood extinguished the fire in the brazier, and he returned to normal.
Apart from soot, there wasn't a trace of blood in the brazier...
Su Cheng could tell from Lu Heng's unprepared behavior that he had not regained his memory; otherwise, he wouldn't have gotten himself into such a sorry state, narrowly escaping death twice.
"Look at his second video, he's coughing up blood and has broken a bone. I heard he's working so hard for his seriously ill father; he's such a filial son," Gao Xiaoyun exclaimed. "Every time I watch it, I get a chill down my spine. It's so real!"
Su Cheng nodded. "It really is."
Gao Xiaoyun couldn't help but laugh, but stopped herself when she met Su Cheng's calm eyes, not voicing her thought that Lu Heng was just acting.
She had lived in White Moon City for over twenty years and never believed in ghosts.
Even when she has vivid nightmares at night, she thinks they are just caused by movies she has watched.
"If you say it's true, then it's true. I'd almost like this hotel to be haunted. If I filmed a video like Lu Heng's in this hotel, wouldn't it go viral too? Can you film it for me?" Gao Xiaoyun said, taking out a red envelope from her bag. If you want someone to do something for you willingly, you naturally have to offer something in return.
But she didn't expect Su Cheng to refuse her red envelope.
"We're just passing by temporarily, there's no need for that."
Having taken the money, Su Cheng had to do the job, so she didn't have time to keep an eye on Gao Xiaoyun.
My phone buzzed with a notification that the Star Moon app had been successfully downloaded.
Su Cheng opened the app as she left the gym. "I don't have time to be your photographer. One last piece of advice: don't do anything supernatural in this hotel. If you really get haunted, no one can save you."
Gao Xiaoyun shoved the red envelope back into her bag in dissatisfaction, a rebellious streak rising in her heart, determined to prove to Su Cheng that there were no ghosts in this world!
But when the image of her falling on the treadmill flashed through her mind, reason made her hesitate.
Finally, she abandoned her idea of performing Soul Summoning ritual at the gym and followed Su Cheng out of the room.
Su Cheng immediately followed Lu Heng after opening the Star Moon app.
In the comments section of Lu Heng's video, it was noted that his next ghost-hunting event will be held in the early hours of this morning.
Lu Heng and another streamer, Yun Xi, will travel together to an abandoned tunnel— Shunshun Tunnel.
It is said that a bloody incident occurred when the Shunshun Tunnel was being built, and ever since then, any vehicle or person entering the tunnel has been tragically killed inside.
Because it was so bizarre, pedestrians preferred to take a longer route rather than cross the tunnel. Over time, Shunshun Tunnel became known as the Deadly Tunnel and has remained abandoned ever since.
The comments section is filled with anticipation for tonight's event, indicating its high level of interest.
Su Cheng glanced at Yun Xi's account.
Yun Xi is also a ghost-hunting streamer, but she's not as popular as Lu Heng, simply because her videos don't pose the same danger as Lu Heng's.
She was also a participant in the dungeon, and had no awakened memories.
Su Cheng found the exact location and pictures of Shunshun Tunnel.