Chapter 227: She Is Lying

"What's on her back?" On the monitor, there was absolutely nothing on Tie Ningxiang's back, yet she was acting in a bizarre, unnatural way.

A few seconds later, Tie Ningxiang vanished from the frame. It was impossible to tell where she had gone based on this short clip alone.

"Is this the only camera that caught Tie Ningxiang?" I asked, suspicious. According to Li Manman, the maze was full of security cameras; others should have captured her as well.

Li Manman pulled up a few other clips. "I'm confused too. None of the maze cameras caught this woman. She must have skirted the outside of the maze to reach the exit."

"No, I'm definitely missing something." I paused the video and stared intently at Tie Ningxiang's movements. She was reaching for her own back with both hands, her expression strangely unfamiliar.

"Sir, we really did our best. Your friend has probably already left. It's getting late, so..." She had already changed out of her employee uniform and was itching to go home.

"No! We haven't found her yet, so you can't leave!" Was she joking? This was a matter of life and death. I wasn't going to let them off so easily. "There is something seriously wrong with your Amusement Park. If we don't find her by midnight, I'm calling the police!"

My firm tone left Li Manman with no room to argue, but Xiaobei couldn't stand by anymore. "How can you be so unreasonable? Our park rules clearly state that visitors are not allowed to enter staff areas or unopened sections, nor are they allowed to loiter after closing. Otherwise, they bear the consequences of any accidents. It's written in black and white on the tickets you bought."

"Trying to wash your hands of the responsibility? This is your turf. If something happens, you're fully responsible." Knowing that Tie Ningxiang and Yi Yi had gotten separated left me frantic, making my words inevitably harsh.

Seeing that Xiaobei and I were about to fight, Li Manman stepped between us. "Alright, alright, we'll help you look, okay? But only until midnight. If we still haven't found her by twelve, then you're on your own."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, suppressing my anger as I caught the hidden implication in her words.

"After twelve, I'm afraid you won't be able to leave even if you want to." Li Manman thought for a moment before telling me the truth. "The average salary for staff here at New Century Amusement Park is one and a half times that of other parks. For a repairman juggling multiple roles like Xiaobei, the pay is doubled. They're all amusement parks, so do you know why this specific one pays so well?"

"Why?" I already had a vague idea of what she was about to say.

"Even though this park just opened, the rumors surrounding it haven't stopped over the past five years. I know a woman who worked at the amusement park five years ago. She is missing a finger on her left hand because it was crushed by a ride that suddenly turned itself on while she was working the night shift." Li Manman let go of the mouse and looked me straight in the eye. "Since you're dead set on getting to the bottom of this, I'll just give it to you straight. Every single employee in this park, from upper management down to the security guards, knows the truth. This place isn't peaceful at night. Bizarre, inexplicable things happen all the time."

I frowned at her words. "If you all know there's something wrong with the park, why even open for business? Are you waiting for someone to die before you're satisfied?"

"There's no point telling me that. I just work here. If you've got a problem, take it up with the higher-ups. Go take it up with the Jiang family." Li Manman didn't care about my interrogation in the slightest. "This place was shut down five years ago, but since the land transfer time limit hadn't expired, it just sat idle. This year makes exactly five years. Who wouldn't be eyeing such a massive plot of land? You have to understand, the original Century Amusement Park raked in gold every single day. Making money there was barely harder than printing it. Where there's profit to be made, naturally there will be deep-pocketed conglomerates who don't believe in ghosts trying to intervene. After a round of bidding, Jiangjin Real Estate finally snagged the property. They didn't spend all that money buying the land just to show it off. Naturally, they had to reopen it to turn a profit."

"So the Jiang family is behind this." I rubbed my chin. If this Underworld Live Show broadcast ended up tangled with the Jiang family too, things were going to get even more troublesome.

"Exactly. If you're so capable, go bother the Jiang family. What's the point of giving us regular workers a hard time?" Xiaobei chimed in. I looked up and silently shot him a glance.

He looked barely twenty years old, but his eye sockets were deeply sunken, as if he hadn't slept well in days.

"Fine, I won't give you two a hard time. If we still haven't found the person I'm looking for by midnight, you're free to leave."

"That's more like it. Where are we going to search now?"

"We'll check the locations one by one." Li Manman counted them off on her fingers. "The biggest attractions in the Amusement Park are the Ferris Wheel, the roller coaster, the wax museum, the Haunted House, the Magic Mirror Maze, the pirate ship, and the drop tower. Xiaobei, you start searching from the Ferris Wheel. This gentleman and I will start from the drop tower and work our way counterclockwise. If you run into any other staff members still on shift along the way, ask them to help."

"Sure thing, I'll head out first then." Xiaobei nodded, looking every bit the enthusiastic young man.

"Be careful out there." Li Manman watched Xiaobei walk away and murmured, "Xiaobei hasn't been working here long, but he's a really good kid. He's just like a little brother to me."

"You seem pretty close to him." I feigned nonchalance as I stepped behind Li Manman. My hand brushed against my iron tongs, and the cold sensation quickly calmed me down.

"I guess so. The kid is a real sweet-talker, he's handsome, and he occasionally gives off a slight melancholic vibe." Li Manman clearly thought very highly of Xiaobei.

"You certainly think highly of him." I stepped sideways to open up some space between Li Manman and me. "What was Xiaobei's assignment for tonight's party? Did he also dress up as a Clown and hand out balloons?"

"No? Xiaobei was in charge of maintaining the mechanisms in the Haunted House. The kid is exceptionally brave, so management let him watch over the Haunted House all by himself."

The Xiaobei Li Manman described sounded completely different from the one I had seen. Back when I ambushed him in the Haunted House, he had practically gone into shock from the scare, his eyes rolling back. That level of courage absolutely could not be called great.

'Was Xiaobei just putting on an act in the Haunted House?' I had held the axe blade to his neck; knowing he couldn't fight back, had he simply played along and staged a performance?

"Why are you asking all this?" Li Manman looked back and studied me in confusion. "Don't tell me you suspect Xiaobei kidnapped your friend?"

I didn't give her a direct answer, instead pressing forward with another question. "When Xiaobei and I met in the Haunted House, he told me he had seen you on the first floor. Weren't you supposed to be searching the maze? Why did you go into the Haunted House?"

I couldn't exactly bring it up while Xiaobei was still here, but now that he had left, we were the only ones in the room.

"Me? Are you joking? I've been in this room checking the monitors the entire time." Li Manman was utterly baffled. "He must have seen wrong. No, I need to go find Xiaobei and clear this up!"

She tried to run out as she spoke, but I shot my hand out and grabbed her. I held onto her arm; the woman's skin was incredibly pale and exceptionally well-maintained, feeling cool and smooth to the touch.

"We can worry about all that later. You still haven't personally gone into the Magic Mirror Maze to search for her, have you?" I kept a tight grip on Li Manman, worried she was using this as an excuse to run away.

"Isn't checking the monitors much easier than going in to look?" Li Manman tried to pull her hand back, a hidden evasiveness in her eyes.

"It's better if we go in and look. After all, the security cameras will have blind spots."

"Let go of me first." She clearly noticed the shift in my tone. "Hey, don't bite the hand that feeds you! I'm only here to help out of the goodness of my heart!"

Li Manman wrenched her hand free and backed away two steps. "If you don't trust me, then come with me into the maze and we'll look again. Either way, once midnight hits, nothing is going to keep me in this place. If you want to call the cops, go right ahead."

She stomped off in a huff, but I stood there with no intention of following her.

The moment she left the room, I immediately moved the mouse to check the monitors again.

Even before entering this room, I had noticed a security camera mounted by the doorway. Going by its camera number, I pulled up its video feed. About ten minutes ago, Li Manman had walked into the monitor room holding a map, but she had only stayed for five minutes before hurriedly running off into the maze.