A demon’s gaping maw served as the entrance, one eyeball dangling above its head. The pitch-black walls were covered in densely packed bloody handprints, and grotesque, poorly made mannequins stumbled and pushed a millstone in front of them. Chilling air seeped out of the haunted house entrance, accompanied by eerie laughter.
Da Ling scoffed at the trembling Xiao Zhou. “You can wait outside—no need to force yourself.” But this only stoked the younger alpha’s competitive fire. The two, nearly the same height, locked eyes, sparks flying. Da Ling poured more fuel on the fire: “Coward. If you scream yourself hoarse in there, Yuxing will have to save you.”
Shi Yuxing had just picked up three walkie-talkies from the haunted house manager when he turned to see the two alphas squaring off. Xiao Zhou ran over to him and tattled: “He called me a coward and said you’d have to protect me.”
Shi Yuxing clipped the walkie-talkie onto his collar and couldn’t help but laugh. “Are you?”
The young alpha rubbed against him, about to answer, when Da Ling taunted: “Looks like you can’t even match up to that one. A general who’s afraid of ghosts—how embarrassing.” That did it. Shi Yuxing couldn’t stop the young alpha from charging straight into the haunted house to prove himself. Shi Yuxing frowned and scolded Da Ling: “Why did you provoke him? Who treats their past self so badly?”
The chastised Gu Lingzhou apologized, wrapping his arm around Shi Yuxing’s shoulder. “Toughening him up early will help motivate him.”
That was actually true. Intrigued, Shi Yuxing asked: “Were you scared of these things too?”
“Mm, I’m scared of a lot of things.” His dark pupils fixed on Shi Yuxing’s face, who was looking at him with interest, clearly wanting to hear more.
A cold draft blew out of the dark entrance, making Shi Yuxing shiver. Da Ling quickly took off his coat and draped it over him. The 32-year-old Gu Lingzhou was afraid of many things—most of all, the person before him disappearing.
“Wife!!! Where are you?!” Suddenly, a cry echoed through the darkness. Shi Yuxing exchanged a glance with the man beside him, and they both laughed. Shi Yuxing handed the coat back. “I’m not cold. Let’s go find that scaredy-cat.”
But the moment he took a step, his hand was caught. Looking up along Da Ling’s well-covered arm, the masked man muttered: “I’m a coward too.”
Understanding dawned on Shi Yuxing. He squinted at this alpha, caught the little scheme in his mind, and gladly accepted. He lowered his head and held Gu Lingzhou’s hand. “Alright, I’ll protect the cowards.”
With the cold wind at their backs, the haunted house was pitch-black—though not so dark that they couldn’t see; faint light guided the way. After about ten meters, something soft brushed against his forehead—probably dangling hair. Shi Yuxing casually brushed it aside and dodged a couple of reaching hands. He thought: if the easiest difficulty was just this, how could it scare people like that?
At a corner, red light painted the wall. He finally spotted the other coward, crouching and trembling on the ground.
Xiao Zhou caught sight of an extra pair of shoes, shuddered, then slowly looked up. Recognizing the reassuring face, he burst into tears and latched onto Shi Yuxing’s waist. “Wife—wah wah—ghosts! There are ghosts everywhere—so scary—wah—things touched me, and there was hair—ghosts—wah wah…”
When he opened his eyes, he saw someone standing behind Shi Yuxing. The big dog in his arms jolted. Shi Yuxing thought something else had spooked him, but the next second, his free hand was grabbed by a clammy-palmed Gu Lingzhou, nearly slipping away.
“You did this on purpose—you just wanted to ditch me and have the wife all to yourself.”
Shi Yuxing held the older one with his left hand and the younger one with his right, terrified they’d start fighting again. “Alright, you two cowards—are you really going to argue in a place this drafty?”
Xiao Zhou pouted, pressing against Shi Yuxing’s back. “No more fighting, no more fighting.”
Da Ling teased: “Childish brat is more like it.”
“Childish brat it is—better than being an old ghost.”
Shi Yuxing sighed. “One more ‘ghost’ out of any of you, and you’re walking by yourselves.” Instantly, both of them fell in line, their grips on his hands tightening. The three huddled together, and even with the haunted house’s cold air, Shi Yuxing was sweating.
After a sluggish ten minutes, they finally reached the end—a half-open door. They pushed it open, and the lights abruptly came on.
Xiao Zhou flinched, his palms even sweatier.
A flickering bulb, a bed in the corner, a dressing table, and a locked door. An open notebook lay on the vanity. Every detail screamed eeriness.
Shi Yuxing let go of both their hands and walked straight to the table. The moment he touched the notebook, the room began to shake. Dust trickled down; the lights flickered. In the cracked mirror, the face of a long-haired woman flashed and shattered into pieces.
Xiao Zhou grabbed Shi Yuxing’s arm. “Ghost—there’s a ghost in the mirror.”
“Pathetic.” Da Ling interjected, but Xiao Zhou was too rattled to care, pressing close to Shi Yuxing as they read the diary.
Under the dim light, Shi Yuxing’s fingertips traced the rough, yellowed pages. The crooked handwriting rivaled Gu Lingzhou’s in ugliness. Reading from left to right made no sense; he quickly switched to reading right to left.
“August 3rd, sunny. This is my first time writing a diary. There’s a new, beautiful teacher at school with the surname Li. She cried the first time she saw me. Her assignment was to write a diary. I don’t want to, and I don’t want her to be beautiful.” Shi Yuxing read aloud, his voice soft and clear.
A page turned.
“August 5th, sunny. I don’t know what to write. Teacher Li said to write about my mother. My mother died when I was very young. The village says she was an idiot. She was beautiful too.”
“August 6th, rainy. Teacher Li said to keep writing about my mother. She wants to read it, so I’ll write. The villagers call her Silly Ya. But I know that’s not my mother’s real name. I once found her handwriting—Tao Li. The characters were beautiful, as good as Teacher Li’s. That paper later disappeared.”
Beneath this entry, a comment in beautiful red handwriting read: Great job, please continue telling your mother’s story.
“August 7th, rainy. The vanity at home belonged to my mother. After she left, it became mine. My father wanted to sell it, but no one in the village wanted this rotten wood—too damp to even burn. He said my mother and that vanity were both useless. I’m writing this diary on this very table now. I think… I miss my mother a little. She gave birth to me—she wasn’t useless.”
Red text: You’re great! Mom is great too!
“August 9th, rainy. It’s been raining all day. Several classmates didn’t come today—luckily I live close to school. When I came back from cutting grass today, I overheard the neighbor’s grandmother talking with my father about marrying me off for money. She said I’m as pretty as my mother, but I’m not an idiot. I don’t want to get married.”
“August 10th, sunny. Teacher Li called me to the office again today. Teacher, you’re a good teacher. After school, I went up the mountain to cut pigweed, then fed it to the pigs in the sty. I always get back very late. I have to write my diary by candlelight in secret, afraid of being caught. I’ll stop here for now.”
“August 11th, overcast. I’ll tell Teacher Li a secret—the pigs in our sty can cry…”
Another page turned, and the diary entries were gone, replaced by a prompt: turn the mirror. The two alphas volunteered. Shi Yuxing watched as the rotated mirror suddenly shattered, revealing a horrifying ghost face that screamed at him.
Shi Yuxing froze, genuinely startled. Xiao Zhou fell and scrambled away. Da Ling instinctively shielded Shi Yuxing.
The mirror returned to normal, and a key appeared at their feet.
“Wah wah, wife, I want a hug too.” Xiao Zhou squeezed in. Shi Yuxing’s heart was still racing—he wasn’t afraid of ghosts, but a jump scare still got him. Hadn’t he told the owner he wanted the easiest mode?
When the second door opened, Shi Yuxing was still dazed. What came into view was a shabby office: a wobbly wooden table with paper wedged under one leg for balance, and another door in the corner waiting to be opened.
Xiao Zhou grabbed his hand. “Wife, don’t be scared—I’ll shield you. This time I won’t get scared by ghosts.”
His view was blocked by the tall alpha. Shi Yuxing sighed, stepped around him, and checked the next door—it was a combination lock. He tried a couple of codes; both were wrong. The computer on the desk also required a password.
“Any ideas?”
Xiao Zhou: “The password should be on the desk—we need to look for it.”
That was obvious. Shi Yuxing looked at Da Ling, questioning.
“Try the pinyin for ‘escape.’”
Shi Yuxing typed it in. Sure enough, the old desktop flickered and unlocked.
“How did you know?” The clueless kid asked, aside from the other two.
“The haunted house script is called ‘Escape.’ The girl’s mother was named ‘Tao Li.’” Shi Yuxing scrolled through the documents on the computer, noticed something off, and frowned, calling the other two over. “This is Teacher Li’s chat log.”
He skimmed through it and roughly understood what had happened: Teacher Li’s sister had come here to teach but disappeared. The younger sister, Teacher Li, had come to find her—and that sister was the diary girl’s mother. That’s why Teacher Li cried when she saw the little girl and encouraged her to write more about her mother.
Shi Yuxing’s heart grew heavy. He clicked the mouse again and again—besides these few chat logs, the desktop was empty.
“The diary mentioned crying in the pigsty—the mother was probably locked in there. The girl’s latest entry revealed the secret of the pigsty. I’m guessing the teacher went there the next day after reading it, so I suspect the door behind us leads to the pigsty. The password is the date of Teacher Li’s home visit.” He stood up, walked to the lock, and turned the four-digit combination.
“Click—” The door opened. The password was 0812—the day Teacher Li read the diary.
Beyond the door was just as he’d imagined: a pigsty strewn with straw and mud, with an old house beside it. They searched everywhere but found no exit—only got startled twice by “ghosts” hidden in the walls. After going in circles, they returned to the pigsty and faintly heard crying—not a baby’s wail, but a hoarse, dry sob pressing out from deep in the throat. The source was right beneath their feet!
Shi Yuxing looked at the ground, then at the shovel nearby, and understood—they had to dig.
They had become Teacher Li searching for her sister. After shoveling away the dirt, they finally uncovered a decayed soul buried beneath. On the manhole cover, a slip of paper with the words “Tao Li” written on the front was stained with reddish-brown blood. On the back was a story of a female volunteer teacher being “consumed” by the villagers.
Xiao Zhou wiped his tears while stomping on the manhole cover that had trapped the girl for her whole life. “Why did they do this to Li Tao? She only wanted to spread knowledge everywhere—who knew she couldn’t escape this wretched place? I want to kill everyone in this village.”
“Li Tao gave us a hint—going deeper leads to escape. If we open the manhole cover, we’ll find the exit.” Da Ling moved his foot off the cover. Shi Yuxing nodded. Xiao Zhou pried it open. Inside was indeed a pile of bones. The three stared at her in silence. Down there, so dark, she had been left for nearly ten-odd years, occasionally remembered only to be fed.
The three jumped down quietly. Xiao Zhou wiped his tears, lifted the skeleton, and with determination that surprised the other two, said: “Let’s go. We’re taking Li Tao out with us.”
They did take her out—only to get chewed out by the owner. Xiao Zhou argued fiercely, refusing to let the owner put her back. In the end, the owner threw in a few action shots of the three of them inside the attraction to change the subject.
“I’ve sent them to you—please confirm.”
…
Trembling fingertips tapped the photos of the three of them being so intimate. The taste of rust spread on his tongue. The screen cracked, splitting right across Shi Yuxing’s face—two long lines cutting through the image, severing the two people hidden in the darkness.
The badge on his shoulder trembled. Gu Lingzhou’s eyes turned terrifyingly red.
He saw that his wife had rested her head on a stranger’s shoulder—and had the tip of her nose kissed by another man.
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