Haunted House

After lunch, the two walked out of the fairy-tale-themed restaurant hand in hand.

Well fed and full of energy, Aemeath held a freshly bought stick of cotton candy as she pulled Lu Yan from one attraction to another.

After trying a few relatively gentle outdoor rides, the two found themselves in the amusement park's eastern district.

The place looked completely different from the fairy-tale setting they had just left.

The amusement park's cheerful background music had faded to a faint murmur here, replaced by barely audible, eerie, ethereal sound effects.

A building modeled after an ancient Chinese courtyard residence stood quietly in the shadows.

Two faded white paper lanterns hung from the tall gatehouse. On them, two large characters had been written in glaring dark red paint: "Wedding."

Several smiling paper effigies stood by the entrance, swaying gently in the breeze.

This was an immersive haunted house themed around Chinese horror.

Most visitors passing by deliberately gave it a wide berth or stood pointing at it from a distance. Every now and then, a few young people who had gone in together came screaming out of the exit, scrambling on their hands and knees.

Lu Yan stopped in his tracks. The thing he dreaded most in his life was this kind of hellish stuff that used the uncanny valley effect to create its atmosphere.

He was just about to quietly pull Aemeath in another direction when he felt the small hand in his palm tugging the other way.

"A-Yan, A-Yan!"

Aemeath stopped at the entrance to the haunted house, her clear golden eyes shining almost frighteningly bright.

She excitedly pointed at the gloomy sign, too distracted even to eat her cotton candy. "Can we go try that one? It looks really interesting!"

Lu Yan looked where she was pointing, just in time to see the paper effigy's eyes seemingly swivel through some mechanism and stare straight at them.

Lu Yan felt his mind suddenly go blank.

"Aemeath..." Lu Yan swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty. "That's a haunted house. It's very dark inside, and people dressed as ghosts jump out to scare you. Are you sure you want to try it?"

"Ghosts? You mean those urban legends without physical bodies, right?" Aemeath blinked. Far from backing down, she looked even more eager to try.

"I've only heard about them in Rinascita. I've never seen one before! I want to see!"

Lu Yan looked at Aemeath gazing at him with anticipation written all over her face. No matter how much he didn't want to go, he forcibly swallowed the refusal that had risen to his lips.

Men always had an inexplicable sense of pride in front of the women they loved.

"Sure!" Lu Yan took a deep breath to bolster his courage, straightened his back, and put on an air of nonchalance.

"If you want to go, then let's go. But let me warn you, it really is scary inside. If you end up crying because you're frightened, don't blame me for not warning you."

"I won't cry that easily!" Aemeath looped her arm through his with a grin. "Besides, I have A-Yan to protect me!"

Those words, "A-Yan to protect me," were like a shot in the arm, instantly boosting Lu Yan's courage.

"Mm, stay close to me." Taking the lead, Lu Yan gripped Aemeath's hand tightly and led her toward the ticket checkpoint.

The moment they crossed the haunted house's threshold, the sunlight and warmth outside seemed to vanish.

The corridor smelled of old wood, mixed with a faint scent of incense.

The lights overhead flickered, casting an intensely oppressive green glow.

A cold wind blew from some unknown corner, accompanied by the faint, mournful sound of a woman crying.

His body tensed in an instant. He instinctively pulled Aemeath behind him, trying to shield her completely.

"Watch your step. There's a stair." Lu Yan kept his voice very low. He sounded calm, but anyone listening closely would have noticed he was speaking much faster than usual.

The two followed the dim corridor, turned a corner, and entered a hall arranged like a funeral parlor.

A pitch-black coffin stood in the center, flanked by white candles burning with ghostly blue flames.

The moment they passed the coffin, a loud bang rang out!

The coffin lid suddenly flew open, and a corpse in Qing-dynasty official robes, its face deathly pale, sat bolt upright. With a piercing shriek, it lunged at them, baring its claws.

"Holy shit!" The sudden noise and shocking sight made Lu Yan's scalp tingle with fear.

Almost instinctively, he spun around and pulled Aemeath into a tight embrace, shielding her from the corpse with his back.

His heart pounded like a drum, the pounding making his chest ache.

Lu Yan closed his eyes, bracing himself for her screams and trembling in his arms.

Instead, a surprised voice came from his arms, with a hint of curiosity.

"Wow!" Aemeath peered out from Lu Yan's embrace, staring without blinking at the staff member, who was still dutifully waving his arms.

"A-Yan, look! That red liquid on his mouth looks so real, and it even reflects the light! But was he made to sit up by a mechanical spring?"

The man playing the corpse, who had been preparing to deliver a second scare, visibly stiffened mid-wave when he heard her.

He looked awkwardly at the couple before him. The man was so frightened that he was holding the woman tightly, while the woman studied him as though she were watching a show.

The man playing the corpse fell silent for two seconds, then quietly lay back down in the coffin and pulled the lid shut himself.

Lu Yan slowly opened his eyes and released Aemeath. He looked at the closed coffin, his face changing color.

"Ahem... ahem..." Lu Yan coughed twice, trying to save face. "That... mechanism sprang open too suddenly just now. I was afraid it would hurt you."

"Mm-hmm, I know. A-Yan protected me!" Aemeath nodded along, but the fleeting smile on her face gave her away.