Chapter 29: Su Tian Definitely Can’t Go Up

Jiang Chiyu stood right behind her to the left.

Su Tian held up her phone in the middle as Zhou Ying and Han Shuo crowded around the small screen. Wei Sicheng also leaned in.

Jiang Chiyu glanced over from behind, but didn’t go look. Even if he did, there was no room – the four of them already filled the space.

With interest, he repeated her words from earlier. “Got a photo?”

From the corner of her eye, Su Tian could see him. Her heart beat a little fast as she nodded stiffly. “The wall painting looked quite realistic, so I snapped a quick pic.”

Zhou Ying zoomed in and stared for a while before commenting, “How did you take this? The dimensions are odd and it’s blurry.”

“Just a casual shot. I had deleted it originally,” Su Tian replied.

“Oh.”

Zhou Ying only mentioned it in passing, not thinking much of it.

Having any photo was better than nothing.

Su Tian snuck a glance at Jiang Chiyu and saw him staring straight at her. She quickly shifted her gaze, clearing her throat softly as if uncomfortable.

Was she being too paranoid or was Jiang Chiyu really this perceptive?

The photo was an “ugly shot” she had tried to sneakily take of him earlier while they were still outside, but it came out poorly.

Since the focus had landed on the wall instead, blurring Jiang Chiyu, she had deleted it. But when they mentioned the map on the wall just now, she suddenly remembered inadvertently capturing it and hurriedly retrieved the image from her recently deleted folder.

Based on the color blocks, one could tell the original subject was Jiang Chiyu. To avoid others reading into it, she cropped the image to only show the wall portion.

Viewing on one phone was too cumbersome, so Su Tian forwarded the picture to Zhou Ying and Wei Sicheng. When sending to Han Shuo, she realized she didn’t have his contact info. The two promptly added each other on the spot.

The moment Jiang Chiyu’s attention wandered briefly, he heard a “ding” as the two had already connected on WeChat.

“Which ‘shuo’ character is yours? Let me add a note,” Su Tian said.

Han Shuo pointed at her phone screen. “This one.”

He suddenly let out a laugh, seemingly exasperated.

Su Tian turned, remembering she hadn’t sent it to Jiang Chiyu yet. She walked a few steps closer to him and scrolled down the contact list, looking under “J”. “Jiang Chiyu, send me anything. I can’t find you.”

After flipping for a while to no avail, a thought suddenly struck her. Her finger paused just as Jiang Chiyu let out a cold chuckle.

“Oh right,” Su Tian realized, enlightened. “I haven’t added you.”

Jiang Chiyu shot her another look, eyes extremely deep. His right hand slid into his pocket, fingers grasping a rectangular object. He was about to take it out when –

“Oh right!” Su Tian had an epiphany. “You didn’t bring your phone.”

Jiang Chiyu’s hand froze.

He licked his back molars, nearly laughing from anger.

It was unclear if he was more irritated at her or himself.

At this, Su Tian added, “Then let’s look together.”

She intentionally raised her phone towards him.

Jiang Chiyu paused, then nodded along, appearing a bit reluctant. “That works.”

The other three who had heard the entire exchange had varied expressions.

It was quite unexpected.

In this day and age, going out without a phone was even more unimaginable than close friends not having each other’s contact info.

Though a bit blurry when zoomed in, the map was still legible enough. This time, everyone obediently read through all the text, quickly grasping their location.

The map indicated the first floor was easy mode. Those unsatisfied after one lap could go to the second floor for horror mode. Thrill-seekers could continue to the third floor for excitement mode.

The mystery prop was on the third floor.

However, the third floor required visitors to be over 18, healthy, and to have agreed to a liability waiver by default.

They were still on the first floor currently.

Han Shuo seemed a bit eager, licking his lips. “Want to check out the third floor?”

They hadn’t even gone to the second floor yet, man.

Zhou Ying shrank her neck. “Didn’t it say you have to be over 18 to go up? We’re still underage.”

“It shouldn’t matter. They can’t tell if we’re really 18,” Han Shuo replied.

After a moment of silence, Zhou Ying suddenly covered her mouth and laughed. “Su Tian definitely can’t go up.”

“Zhou Ying!” Su Tian widened her eyes, lowering her phone to swat at her.

Everyone burst out laughing, all recalling the ticket check scene earlier, making them laugh even harder. Su Tian and Zhou Ying scuffled playfully, one laughing until tears came out, the other so mad smoke nearly rose from her head.

Amidst the merriment, a fluttering female voice suddenly drifted out from some unknown corner: “No~ you can’t~”

Everyone instantly fell silent.

Half a second later, Su Tian and Wei Sicheng let out earth-shattering screams. The group descended into chaos as Zhou Ying pounced onto Han Shuo’s back, pushing him to run while the two yelled, “Ahhh!!!” Even Jiang Chiyu shut his eyes, cursing under his breath.

But he wasn’t scared by the female ghost. He was startled by Su Tian and Wei Sicheng’s sudden shrieks right next to him.

With Han Shuo and Zhou Ying leading the charge, the remaining three all followed them in a sprint, map forgotten.

Han Shuo and Zhou Ying ran at the very front, disappearing around a corner in a flash. The others rounded the bend after them when Zhou Ying’s scream pierced the air again. The two came dashing back, arms flailing.

There was something in front too!

The group collided at the corner, falling into disarray once more. Wei Sicheng yelled “ahhhh” at the top of his lungs, not daring to turn his head as he made a beeline for the nearest stairs with huge strides. The rest blindly followed him upstairs.

Directly facing the stairwell on the second floor was a large L-shaped desk. Everyone ducked inside, hands over heads, screaming for a full two minutes straight.

Su Tian yelped for a bit before someone grabbed her wrist, nearly scaring her to tears thinking it was a ghost. Then a steady voice spoke by her ear, “Don’t be afraid.”

Still trembling, Su Tian yelled a while longer, her voice gradually lowering until going silent.

She saw Jiang Chiyu half-crouched beside her, his distinct fingers firmly supporting her arm, eyes calmly fixed on her. As if infected by the emotion in his gaze, Su Tian also quickly calmed down, clutching her chest as she caught her breath.

Zhou Ying and Han Shuo huddled together. Being slightly older, Han Shuo regained his wits fairly fast after some screaming. He patted the still-yelling Zhou Ying, who also soon quieted.

Only Wei Sicheng remained curled under the table, holding his head as he shrieked wildly alone.

“That lung capacity has to be over 6000,” Jiang Chiyu murmured, voice low so only Su Tian heard.

Finding it funny, Su Tian reached out to tap Wei Sicheng, wanting to tell him it was okay now. Jiang Chiyu didn’t react in time to stop her before Wei Sicheng fiercely shoved Su Tian away, still screaming, “Go awayyyy!”

Already crouching, Su Tian had no stable footing. She tumbled straight back into Jiang Chiyu’s arms behind her, landing on her knees.