Chapter 220: Haunted House

A staff member led me back to the broadcasting station. It was a three-story building covered in circus graffiti; from the outside, it was hard to guess its true purpose.

When I reached the second floor, the broadcaster was just about to lock up. I hurried over to stop her.

"You again? Is it possible your friends already went home?" she asked reluctantly. "After all, the park is about to close..."

"This is a lot more serious than you think. If things go wrong, someone could die."

"What an interesting thing to say. They just got separated from you, and they aren't children. How could their lives be in danger?" A man who looked like the manager walked down from the third floor, followed by a young female student.

"They aren't children, but this place of yours isn't exactly safe and clean, either!" Thwarted for no reason, my tone hardened. Too impatient to waste breath on him, I shoved the Underworld Live Show Phone right in his face. "Just now at the tunnel roller coaster, I casually snapped off one of your safety restraints. If I hadn't noticed it in time, someone could have died. Your staff was there, and I caught it on video. If you don't help me find them today, I'll upload this footage to every major website tomorrow. Since you just opened, I'm sure you don't want negative press flying everywhere."

The manager furrowed his brow. After a moment, he turned to the broadcaster. "Put the announcement on a loop until the park closes. Also, who's on duty tonight? Have someone stay behind to help him search. I'll double their bonus at the end of the month."

After issuing the orders, he turned back to me with a plastered smile. "Inadequate maintenance is our oversight, and we will definitely take this matter seriously. As for the video, please show some leniency."

The manager changed his tune fast. As the saying goes, you don't hit a smiling face, and I wasn't in the mood to argue with him anyway. My top priority was finding Tie Ningxiang and Yi Yi.

"Then it's a deal. We'll help you find them, and in return, we hope you'll delete the video." The manager led the female student downstairs and slipped into his luxury car, leaving the miserable broadcaster to dejectedly unlock the broadcasting room and start the announcements.

Five minutes passed. The announcement repeated countless times, but Tie Ningxiang never showed up. Watching the tourists thin out and the Amusement Park grow deserted, the unease in my chest began to grow like weeds.

"The living depart, and midnight arrives. Soon, this place might turn into a stage for the dead." I slammed my fist on the table. "I can't just sit here waiting. Something definitely happened to them!"

I remembered the Clown with the blue teardrop painted on his face. His greedy eyes, hiding a profound malice, flashed through my mind over and over.

"Alright, cut the broadcast. Are there any places in your Amusement Park that can trap someone or make them disappear without a trace?" I glanced at the broadcaster. She was around twenty years old and, to put it politely, looked completely ordinary. Her only distinguishing feature was a tiny black mole on her cheek.

"No places that make people disappear. But there are two attractions that can trap tourists. One is the Magic Mirror Maze, and the other is the Haunted House." The broadcaster checked the clock. She was anxious to go home, but under the manager's orders, she didn't dare leave.

I muttered the names of the two places she just mentioned. The maze and the Haunted House were two spots I absolutely did not want to enter. After all, I knew the true nature of this Amusement Park; the ghosts in that Haunted House might not be actors.

"Could they have wandered into the maze or the Haunted House?"

"Wait a moment, let me check the security monitors." The broadcaster went down to the first floor to check the feeds, only to discover that several cameras had been destroyed. Most areas were completely pitch-black.

"How strange. They were working perfectly during yesterday's system check."

Her words turned my blood to ice. This was a premeditated, highly targeted kidnapping—one that was very likely to end in murder!

Seeing my pale expression, the broadcaster hurriedly tried to comfort me. "Don't panic. The announcements have been made. If they're in the park, they'll surely head this way once they hear them."

I shook my head. If they were coming, they would have been here by now. Anything I could think of, Tie Ningxiang would have thought of too. After all, compared to a half-baked detective like me, she was the genuine captain of the Jiangcheng Criminal Investigation Brigade and the top female graduate of her police academy class.

"Something definitely happened." I pulled out a cigarette and clamped it between my lips. "Where did your park hire the Clown and the performers for the evening parade?"

"Why do you ask?" The broadcaster didn't seem to think much of the question. "The dance troupe was hired from a dance academy. As for the cosplayers and the Clowns, we just put out a casting call online. Most of them just volunteered for the fun of it."

The bad news just kept coming. With no real-name registration and a search pool that large, there was no way for me to track down that crying Clown's identity, let alone determine how many culprits were involved.

"We only have ten or so minutes until closing. Why don't we go wait by the main gates? I need to lock up here anyway." The broadcaster looked at me pitifully. She just wanted to go home and had no idea how serious the situation actually was.

"Once the park closes, Tie Ningxiang and Yi Yi will be in even greater danger. We can't waste time sitting around. Come with me to the maze and the Haunted House. I won't have peace of mind until we search both places."

"Right now? To the maze and the Haunted House?" The broadcaster's face fell. She clearly wanted to find someone else to tag along, but there wasn't another staff member in sight.

"Alright, fine. It just so happens I know the maze's layout pretty well. If you went in alone, there's no guarantee you'd ever find your way out." She took off her employee badge. "Wait here a second, I need to grab some things."

She jogged up to the second floor. When she turned around, I caught sight of the name on her badge—Li Manman.

About a dozen seconds later, the broadcaster walked back out of the building. She had stripped off her uniform jacket and locked the door behind her. Holding two flashlights and a map, she said, "Let's go. Once we find them, I'm heading straight home."

On our way downstairs, Li Manman made a quick call, asking one of the other staff members to keep an eye on the broadcasting station and to let her know immediately if Tie Ningxiang and Yi Yi showed up.

"The Magic Mirror Maze and the Haunted House both have a lot of interior space. Take this map and check the Magic Mirror Maze first. If the staff there haven't clocked out yet, they can help you look."

I didn't reach out for the map she was offering. Instead, I asked, "Then what about the Haunted House?"

"The Haunted House in this Amusement Park is world-class. It's too terrifying for an ordinary person to handle, so I'll go check it myself. Don't get your hopes up, though. Most of the Haunted House is closed off at night, so they probably aren't there anyway." To her credit, the broadcaster was acting quite brave right now. She tossed her ponytail and turned to leave.

"What do you mean, closed off? Wait! Let's swap. I'll take the Haunted House, and you take the maze." Truthfully, the Haunted House was my prime suspect. The environment was eerie and terrifying, and few people ever ventured inside at night. If Tie Ningxiang had been taken hostage, there was a very high chance the culprit was hiding her in the Haunted House.

"Don't regret this later. It really is terrifying inside," the broadcaster warned repeatedly. Still looking worried, she left me her phone number before taking the maze map and heading off.

"A Haunted House is just meant to scare people, but scaring me won't be that easy." Having survived six streams of the Underworld Live Show, I understood the true meaning of horror far better than whoever designed this Haunted House.

Gripping the Underworld Live Show Phone in one hand, I pinched my very last Suppression Talisman between my fingertips and set off toward the Haunted House.

To me, the most terrifying things in this world were never monsters or spirits, but humans playing dress-up—like that crying Clown. As far as I was concerned, he was just as dangerous as any vengeful ghost or malicious specter.

The Haunted House took up a sizable plot of land. Its exterior consisted of two dilapidated, windowless three-story buildings. According to the park's guidebook, the attraction featured three separate themes: two above ground, and one underground.

I stepped inside the building. The underground section was closed off, and a lock secured the passageway leading down.

I rattled the chains. The bright silver padlock was brand new. Whether it was a deliberate attempt to build atmosphere or something else entirely, the chains were speckled with crimson.

I reached out and scraped off a bit of the redness. Rolling it between my fingertips, it felt thick and smooth. "Pretty realistic."

I instinctively brought my fingers to my nose, and my expression drastically changed. A faint, metallic stench filled my nostrils. This wasn't a prop—this was real blood!