"Oops, we’re still missing one!"
"What are the rules for the haunted house?"
Jiang Lai wasn’t afraid of the creepy stuff inside, but Yangyang was. Despite this little kid always acting tough, he was actually most scared of those jump scares.
Yu Yan was still sulking nearby.
"There are three entrances in total. A family of three enters through different entrances. Whoever meets up first can grab the flag first, but you can also take someone else’s flag. But don’t worry, we’re not that unscrupulous, haha."
Chi Shuai looked a bit disappointed.
"Why not?"
Yu Yan rolled her eyes at him, while Chi Shuai silently lowered his head, secretly excited about what might be inside the haunted house.
Very soon, the third family arrived: Ling Han and Mo Wanwan.
"Just right, we’re all set now. Can we go in?"
Seeing they had to enter the haunted house alone, Mo Wanwan quietly moved closer to Ling Han.
Knowing she was scared, Ling Han asked the staff.
"Does everyone have to go in?"
"This is a test of family harmony and courage. If one person is missing, the whole family is disqualified, and they can directly proceed to the next challenge to win a flag."
Ling Han looked at Mo Wanwan.
"Maybe we should skip this flag and save time to win the next one."
Facing the camera, Mo Wanwan shook her head as she looked at Jiang Lai, who had already put on a fluorescent vest.
"It’s okay. Everyone’s here, it shouldn’t be too scary. Let’s go in."
"Are you sure you can handle it?"
"Yeah, don’t worry, if everyone else can do it, so can I."
[Ling Han is really such a gentleman and so gentle.]
[Our Brother Han is notorious in the industry for being the cold-faced war god, you know.]
[The cold-faced war god is opening up?]
[He keeps smiling when he’s looking at Mo Wanwan. These two wouldn’t...]
[They’re playing a family; it’s perfectly normal for Ling Han to act gentle and considerate.]
[Stop guessing wildly, Brother Han already said he’s not planning on dating.]
Before entering the haunted house, everyone put on fluorescent vests, each carrying a walkie-talkie to locate each other. The children didn’t have walkie-talkies, so parents needed to find their kids quickly after meeting up and leave the haunted house.
Yangyang was initially scared, but Tangguo took the initiative to walk over and hold his hand, whispering.
"Yangyang brother, are you scared?"
"I, I’m not scared at all!"
"I knew Yangyang brother is the bravest. I’ll stay with brother Yangyang."
"Stay behind me, I’ll protect you!"
Through the three entrances, dads, moms, and children entered separately. Cameramen automatically split into three groups, with small cameras strapped to all the guests, connecting directly to a live broadcast that auto-switched between three main screens and nine smaller ones for viewers to watch everyone’s status and performance.
[Why does someone look so good with their nostrils pointing up?]
[Mr. Zhou is really like he’s visiting; there’s no tension at all.]
[This haunted house isn’t a challenge at all for the dad’s group.]
[I’m going to die laughing; Chi Shuai really has "I want to win" written all over his face.]
On the other side, the three kids, Yangyang and Tangguo were holding hands. Hengheng initially just followed behind, but as the light dimmed, he instinctively stuck close to Yangyang, and that’s when Yangyang naturally took his hand and walked forward silently.
Suddenly a weird noise came from the darkness, scaring Hengheng into hugging Yangyang’s arm, and Yangyang instinctively let go of Tangguo’s hand to hug him because he was scared too.
[Help, Yangyang is really amazing!]
[Look at Hengheng’s surprised yet moved little expression.]
[A strange couple has appeared.]
[This combo of a domineering little punk and a melancholic little prince is really fun.]
[Tangguo: What are you two brothers doing?]
On the kids’ side, it was almost all darkness. The production team would naturally not scare them, leaving all "surprises" for the adults’ side.
Jiang Lai had lost count of how many times weird things had grabbed her hair, and she couldn’t see anything while moving forward. At first, Yu Yan clung tightly to her arm as they shuffled forward, but when a creepy voice came from behind and a woman in white with flowing hair crawled slowly under blue lighting, chaos erupted.
By the time Jiang Lai realized it, she was left alone.
She vaguely remembered several holes earlier, and in their panic, everyone had scurried into different passages, completely splitting up.
On the other side, the dad’s group faced direct horror, being chased into different tunnels by a headless man taller than Zhou Yiqing, wielding a chainsaw.
The audience watched in tense excitement, and the live feed cut to a layout of the haunted house. From a bird’s-eye view, the place was a maze with nine entrances but only one exit, with three paths converging before it.
The guests’ positions appeared on the layout map, and Yu Yan’s screams echoed the entire live room, a quick way for everyone to reconvene since in such a quiet haunted house, Chi Shuai and Tangguo quickly heard her voice.
Chi Shuai sprinted towards the sound, telling Yu Yan over the walkie-talkie.
"Be louder, I feel really close."
"Hearing you say that, I’m suddenly not so scared anymore."
Jiang Lai also heard Yu Yan’s voice. They weren’t far apart, using the walkie-talkie to find each other shouldn’t be too hard.
"Did you hear that scream just now? I think she and I are separated by only a wall. Can you find your way over?"
Zhou Yiqing thought about the direction of the scream.
"I should be able to."
At this moment, the chainsaw noise started again, but this time really behind Jiang Lai. Upon turning around, it was the same long-haired woman, now holding a chainsaw.
"Since you’re prettier than me, stay and keep me company!"
Jiang Lai had never experienced an NPC haunted house adventure like this; she wasn’t scared and was even a bit excited, thinking of her next task, she faced the advancing chainsaw woman and instead of running, charged toward her, startling the ghost woman into not knowing what to do.
Isn’t the normal reaction supposed to be running away?
Why is someone coming straight at me?
There was nothing about this in training; what do I do now? I can’t actually attack her.
The shadowy Jiang Lai coming her way was genuinely frightening. After a stunned second, the ghost woman realized what was happening and turned to run away, chainsaw in hand.
[???]
[????]
[Ghost: Damn, there’s someone who’s even less human than me!]