Chapter 33: Your Sister Tian

Su Tian called Zhou Ying, “Can you still hear banging on the door? We can’t hear anything from the hallway.”

“No, it stopped.” Zhou Ying hesitated, “Tian Tian, you don’t need to come over anymore. Han Shuo and I are already out. Let’s meet at the entrance.”

“…” Su Tian was suspicious, “You haven’t been kidnapped by ghosts, have you?”

“Well, if you don’t see me downstairs, just call the police.”

Since Zhou Ying was being evasive about letting her come over, Su Tian guessed it had something to do with Han Shuo. She raised an eyebrow but didn’t ask further, “Alright, I’m hanging up. We’ll wait for you at the entrance.”

She turned off her phone screen and handed it to Jiang Chiyu – in a haunted house like this, with her level of courage, valuable items like phones were safer in Jiang Chiyu’s hands.

“Not going?” Jiang Chiyu asked.

Su Tian nodded, “They must have resolved the situation. Let’s head out too.”

“If you still want to play, we can stay longer.” Jiang Chiyu looked around, pointing, “Look, here and here – we haven’t gone into several rooms yet.”

He turned to look at Su Tian, who was staring at him silently. Her expression could only be described in four words: You must be dreaming.

Jiang Chiyu smiled.

They went straight downstairs. Perhaps because they were finally leaving the haunted house, Su Tian became excited, letting go of Jiang Chiyu’s arm that she had been holding onto, and started skipping.

Jiang Chiyu glanced at her but said nothing, letting his arm fall.

The stairs led directly to the first-floor lobby.

Such a short distance couldn’t possibly have any ghosts, so Su Tian relaxed a bit.

The moment she thought this, Jiang Chiyu suddenly grabbed her wrist. Su Tian startled, instinctively turning her head to look at Jiang Chiyu’s clothes, afraid to let her gaze wander. “What’s wrong?!”

Jiang Chiyu loosened his grip on her hand, “Nothing, I was mistaken.”

Su Tian took a deep breath, “You almost scared me to death.”

Looking down, she saw Jiang Chiyu’s hand loosely encircling her wrist. Seeing her look, he quickly let go. Su Tian figured Jiang Chiyu must be scared too, not much different from her, so she felt good about it and actively raised her hand, “Scared? Your Sister Tian will reluctantly let you hold onto her arm.”

A flash of craftiness passed through Jiang Chiyu’s eyes, which he quickly concealed by lowering his gaze. Through the layer of his shirt fabric, he took hold of her wrist again and said lazily, “Alright then, I’ll trouble Sister Tian to guide me safely out.”

It was the first time she heard him call her that. Su Tian couldn’t help but look at him several times, smiling with pressed lips.

They maintained this posture until they reached the first-floor lobby, not encountering anything else along the way.

With light ahead, Su Tian eagerly ran a few steps into the courtyard. The moment the sunlight touched her, she suddenly felt moved, thinking how beautiful the world was and how precious sunlight was.

Jiang Chiyu had already let go when she ran out, and slowly came to her side, “Is the next activity going to be the carousel?”

“No!” Su Tian clutched her stomach, “I’m starving. When they come out, I want to eat first… Why don’t I see Zhou Ying and the others?”

“They probably haven’t come out yet. Go sit over there and wait.” Jiang Chiyu pointed to a nearby public bench.

“Where are you going?” Su Tian remembered he didn’t have his phone, “This place is so big, don’t wander off. Wherever you’re going, I’ll come with you.”

Jiang Chiyu gave her a half-smile, “Bathroom.”

“…”

…

Su Tian played mobile games idly while waiting for Zhou Ying and the others to come out at the haunted house entrance.

She had just sent Zhou Ying a message, but there was no reply yet.

Su Tian was starting to wonder if Zhou Ying and the others had really been kidnapped.

Soon after, Jiang Chiyu returned with a box of takoyaki. He handed the food box to Su Tian, “Eat something first, to tide you over.”

Su Tian immediately got excited, leaning in to smell it. Her stomach growled right on cue.

She wasn’t embarrassed, using the bamboo skewer to pick one up and put it in her mouth. As the savory juice burst in her mouth, she contentedly sniffed and drawled, “So fragrant…”

“Careful, it’s hot,” Jiang Chiyu cautioned, sitting down beside her.

While eating, Su Tian asked, “Do you want some?”

“There’s only one skewer,” Jiang Chiyu kindly reminded her.

Su Tian thought for a moment, “You could use your fingers to eat.”

She knew she had said something silly and turned her head away under Jiang Chiyu’s amused gaze, focusing on her food.

After a few bites, she remembered something else and put down the skewer again, looking suspiciously at the young man sitting beside her, “Didn’t you say you didn’t have your phone?”

Jiang Chiyu made a sound of acknowledgment, “Mm.”

“Didn’t you only have British pounds?” Su Tian studied his expression, “Did the vendor accept them?”

“…” Jiang Chiyu was silent for a moment, “No, they didn’t.”

The takoyaki suddenly felt too hot to eat in her mouth. Su Tian paused. “Then how did you get these?”

“They gave me a free box because I look good.” Jiang Chiyu flicked her forehead, “Just eat!”

How could that be?

Su Tian rubbed her forehead, catching a glimpse of Jiang Chiyu’s calm profile.

Well.

…It actually might be possible.

If the vendor was a girl.

Just as she finished the box of takoyaki, Zhou Ying and Han Shuo came out of the haunted house one after another. Su Tian’s gaze went back and forth between them for a while… but she couldn’t tell anything.

She temporarily gave up trying to gossip, planning to ask Zhou Ying privately later about what happened when she wasn’t there.

“Are you hungry? Let’s go…” Su Tian glanced at the four of them, suddenly pausing, “Where’s Wei Sicheng?”

She suddenly remembered that when she called Zhou Ying earlier, Wei Sicheng had run off alone.

He couldn’t still be inside, could he?!

After a moment of shock, Zhou Ying started calling Wei Sicheng, but after dozens of rings, no one answered. She then sent more than ten messages, but after waiting a long time, there was still no response.

What should they do?

“He’s quite afraid of these things. Should we go back in?” Su Tian looked at the three-story building, “The second floor isn’t that big actually. We can walk and call out to him, we should find him quickly.”

Zhou Ying nodded, looking worried, “Oh my god, I can’t believe we forgot about him. I hope he’s okay in there by himself.”

…

Wei Sicheng was not okay at all by himself.

He was going crazy. After being chased by three differently styled ghosts in succession during his frantic escape, he had successfully lost his phone. Without his phone, he had no flashlight or map, leaving him in an almost pitch-black state, huddled and trembling in some unknown corner.

He could only hope that Su Tian and the others would notice his absence and come find him quickly.

After waiting for an unknown amount of time, he suddenly heard the sound of fabric dragging on the ground, very light and ethereal, and getting closer to him.

Wei Sicheng quickly broke out in another cold sweat, silently reciting “The Memorial to Yueyang Tower” in his mind, repeatedly telling himself these were actors, these were actors, these were props, it’s all fake!

Damn!

Even if it was fake, he was still terrified!

He crouched in a corner with his eyes tightly shut, surrounded by walls with nowhere to run. Something was slowly approaching from in front of him.

Very light footsteps.

Three steps left…

“Ahhhh! Brother, sister, please don’t come closer!”

Two steps…

“If you come any closer, I might start hitting randomly!”

One step…

Thud!

“Wei Sicheng!”