Ye Sheng froze. He clearly remembered throwing the needle away and returning it to Xiao Fang.
His memory couldn’t be wrong.
In the dim light of the haunted house’s storage room, the long, slender silver needle gleamed coldly. He ran his fingers over it, his lips pressing together unconsciously.
Something wasn’t right.
The bloody, malicious aura it had accumulated from years of being used by the Corpse Stitcher to sew corpses together had completely disappeared.
It was perfectly clean and utterly ordinary, no different from the simplest of embroidery needles.
Ye Sheng suddenly remembered what Director Cheng had told him at the reception center.
She’d said that Xiao Fang had never harmed anyone, so she would receive special treatment. For malicious ghosts like her, who had died consumed by resentment and become aberrations, the best possible outcome was to be “healed”—to have all their pain and hatred soothed, regain their sanity, and choose for themselves whether to disappear or fall into a deep sleep.
Thirty-five years ago, in early spring, she had boarded that slow train to Huai City in search of her husband. After wandering in circles for decades, she had finally reached her destination that night.
Ye Sheng toyed with the needle and closed his eyes, allowing the memory palace in his mind to rewind continuously until he finally found the moment he’d overlooked—
As he’d followed Director Cheng outside with his phone in one hand and the other pressed against his stomach, he had passed Xiao Fang.
A member of the Bureau of the Unnatural had been standing beside her with both hands resting on top of her head, seemingly healing her. Xiao Fang had looked up at him blankly.
So that was when she’d slipped the needle onto him?
Why?
And had Butler Li found it while having his clothes cleaned?
Ye Sheng frowned deeply.
Now that the needle had shed its bloodstained aura and lost every trace of its sinister nature, there was no way to tell that it had once belonged to a C-level aberration.
It was like a keepsake the train had left him.
“Xuedi, it’s almost five. You can clock out now!” Huang Qiqi called warmly from outside. “Don’t work too hard. Go get something to eat!”
Ye Sheng looked away and prepared to leave, but his obsessive nature compelled him to glance at the damaged cloth doll again.
It was a little girl doll with gray buttons for eyes. She wore a yellow dress covered in dirty footprints and appeared to have been stepped on several times after falling to the floor.
The cotton protruding from her shoulder was far too conspicuous.
Ye Sheng stared at her in silence.
At that moment, the elderly repairman called him again, his booming voice coming through the phone.
“Hello, student! I’ll be at the entrance to your university in ten minutes. Remember to let me in!”
“All right, thank you. I’m heading back now.”
Ye Sheng ended the call.
In the end, his compulsiveness won. He picked up the needle, held the thread between his teeth, and quickly threaded it. Time was running out, so he picked up the doll and repaired her arm with only a few swift stitches.
Once he was finished, Ye Sheng said goodbye to Huang Qiqi and hurried back to Huai’an University.
When he arrived, the cheerful elderly repairman was already waiting outside his dormitory. The man worked efficiently and replaced the light in no time, costing Ye Sheng another fifty yuan.
After seeing him downstairs, Ye Sheng returned to his room and felt, for the umpteenth time in his life, the crushing weight of poverty.
Fortunately, Xia Wenshi was a good boss. When he said wages would be paid daily, he meant it.
In the work group, Huang Qiqi made no attempt to conceal her admiration for Ye Sheng, showering him with an entire essay’s worth of praise.
[Huang Qiqi: Boss, Xuedi Ye Sheng is seriously so hardworking! I just went in to look, and our entire haunted house is completely transformed. It’s so clean that there isn’t even a single strand of hair in the corners! Xuedi even repaired the broken radio and fan blades in the storage room, divided the fake blood into separate bags, and used a needle and thread to fix the doll someone damaged. Incredible. Xuedi, is there anything you can’t do? [Starry Eyes][Starry Eyes]]
[Xia Wenshi: I told you I’d struck gold.]
[Xia Wenshi: [Wages for hardworking Little Ye]]
While they chatted in the group, Ye Sheng was reading.
Strictly speaking, if he wanted to take the civil service examination and return to Yin Mountain, he should’ve chosen a humanities or social sciences major, such as law, philosophy, or Chinese language and literature.
Unfortunately, there had been no one in Yin Mountain to advise him.
The old man had still been around at the time. With money governing his every decision, he hadn’t hesitated before enrolling Ye Sheng in computer science—and had shamelessly claimed that Ye Sheng would thank him after graduation.
Because computer science was the end of the universe.
……Fuck this.
In seventeen years in Yin Mountain, Ye Sheng had never owned a computer. Even his phone had been left behind by the old man before he departed.
How the hell was he supposed to study computer science?!
But the major had already been chosen, so he had no choice but to push through it. That made Ye Sheng’s goal for the summer very simple: while earning enough to live, he would save up for a computer.
Ye Sheng accepted his wages and discovered that Xia Wenshi had sent him five hundred yuan. He paused, then typed:
[Ye Sheng: Xuezhang, I only did what I was supposed to do. You don’t need to pay me extra.]
Even when Xia Wenshi was so poor he practically had nothing left but his underwear, he couldn’t change the extravagance ingrained in his bones. With a grand flourish, he replied generously:
[Xia Wenshi: It’s fine. Consider the extra money a newcomer’s bonus from your boss. Keep up the good work, Xiao Ye. I’ll be back the day after tomorrow.]
Huang Qiqi continued praising him at lightning speed.
[Huang Qiqi: Wuwuwu, looking at handsome men really does extend your life. Thank you, Xuedi Ye Sheng. The high blood pressure my idiot ex-boyfriend and brain-dead best friend gave me is completely cured now.]
[Huang Qiqi: Xuedi, is there seriously anything in this world you can’t do?]
Before Ye Sheng could answer, Xia Wenshi jumped in with a mischievous remark.
[Xia Wenshi: I know. Xuedi Ye Sheng can’t give birth [Laughing][Laughing]]
Huang Qiqi apparently found the joke funny as well and sent a long string of hahahahas.
Her mood had clearly improved.
The two of them soon returned to discussing her melodramatic romance.
[Xia Wenshi: He’s already your ex-boyfriend?]
[Huang Qiqi: He is in my heart, but I haven’t said it to his face yet. I’m definitely dragging that scumbag across the Bridge of Truth at Lovers’ Lake one more time. I’ll scare him to death!]
Deep down, Huang Qiqi still didn’t believe that the water ghost beneath the Bridge of Truth really killed people.
[Huang Qiqi: I bought a remote-controlled radio and recorded his name on it. I’ll hide it at the end of the bridge. I’m going to have the time of my life messing with him that night.]
[Xia Wenshi: [Awesome][Awesome][Awesome]]
Ye Sheng gave a faint twitch of his lips and turned off his phone. He had no intention of becoming too involved with them.
He had never been someone whose heart softened easily in response to kindness. Just as he’d told Ning Weichen on the train, perhaps there really was something wrong with him psychologically.
His life and future stretched before him in a straight line. Huai City was merely a temporary stop where he would spend four years. Once he left, he would cast everything here behind him.
So even as the work group buzzed with cheerful camaraderie, Ye Sheng’s eyes remained indifferent.
To him, one of them was the boss who paid him, while the other was a coworker.
He had no desire to know about their interests, careers, romantic experiences, or amusing stories from their lives.
Afraid that two months of work wouldn’t be enough, Ye Sheng began searching online for tutoring jobs as well. He quickly immersed himself in his new life, keeping himself constantly busy.
The unexpected interruption came one evening as he returned from tutoring.
An outrageously flashy red sports car was parked outside the university gates. A man stood in front of it—the birthday boy Ye Sheng had seen when he went looking for Xie Wenci.
He had a lecherous, narrow face, and his scrawny body was swallowed by a floral shirt.
The fat guy stood beside Wang Gaoyang, eating an ice cream. His sharp eyes caught sight of Ye Sheng approaching, and he immediately elbowed his companion.
“He’s here! He’s coming!”
Wang Gaoyang instantly perked up. He cleared his throat, straightened his back, and openly swept a lustful gaze over Ye Sheng.
Ye Sheng: “……”
He gave the two of them an incredulous look, twirled his keys around one finger, and headed straight for his dormitory.
“Hey, wait! Wait, wait! You’re Ye Sheng, right?”
There was no way Wang Gaoyang would let a meal that had practically reached his mouth escape. He hurried after Ye Sheng, itching to reach out and touch his shoulder.
Without even looking back, Ye Sheng twisted Wang Gaoyang’s arm behind him the instant he came close.
Crack.
Wang Gaoyang distinctly heard the sound of his joint being dislocated.
Wang Gaoyang: “……”
The fat guy: “……”
The fat guy nearly choked on his ice cream. Now he was certain that Liu Dao had been right. This man really was a criminal in the making……
Wang Gaoyang flew into a rage. “What the hell are you doing, Ye Sheng?!”
Ye Sheng’s expression remained cold. “I don’t know you, do I?”
Wang Gaoyang wanted to lose his temper, but Ye Sheng was intended for the Qin family. He couldn’t resort to force, so he swallowed his anger and squeezed out a smile.
“All we need to do is exchange names, and then we’ll know each other. I’m Wang Gaoyang, Wenci’s friend. You’re going to be Wenci’s older brother, so if we round things up, that makes us friends too.”
The hand Ye Sheng had been using to twirl his keys stopped.
He looked at Wang Gaoyang as though he were an idiot.
“If you’re Xie Wenci’s friend, then we’re automatically enemies.”
Wang Gaoyang: “……”
The fat guy: “……”
Ye Sheng continued toward his dormitory, leaving behind a voice cold enough to freeze the air.
“If you don’t want to lose the use of your other arm, don’t bother me again.”
Wang Gaoyang’s chest heaved violently as he watched the young man walk away. Only after Ye Sheng disappeared from view did he clutch his dislocated arm and curse hoarsely.
“What the fuck is he supposed to be? A bastard born to a mistress, and he thinks he can play hard to get after I gave him some attention?”
The fat guy tossed away his ice cream stick and stepped forward to put an arm around his good friend’s shoulders.
“I’m telling you, don’t provoke him. That guy really looks ruthless. He’s a tough one.”
Wang Gaoyang’s narrow eyes burned with anger as he sneered.
“You’ve never played with a college student, have you? Hard bones like that only taste better after you break them.”
Relying on his family background, he had spent years throwing his weight around Huai City. He stared greedily and obscenely in the direction Ye Sheng had disappeared.
“He has no father or mother and came to Huai City alone for university. Ruin his job and make sure he can’t earn a cent. Then we’ll see whether he comes crawling back to beg me.”
The fat guy eyed him warily. “What are you planning?”
“Tomorrow, find out where he works.”
The counselor knew that Ye Sheng came from an impoverished family and had always taken special care of him. He told Ye Sheng that he could ask his future roommates to share the cost of repairing the dormitory’s utilities.
Ye Sheng had no intention of doing so, but his counselor was so enthusiastic that he directly sent him an invitation to Huai’an University’s freshman group.
Ye Sheng was probably the last person to discover that there even was a freshman group.
“This is the freshman group for the computer science department. Everyone’s nickname is formatted as class, dormitory, and name. Change yours, and your roommates should contact you soon. Xiao Ye, why did you join so late? Your roommates have probably already created a dorm group. Once you start university, you need to take more initiative and make friends.”
Ye Sheng: “……”
His messaging app, which had been quiet for a long time, suddenly came alive after he joined the group.
He stared at the 99+ unread messages in a daze.
Outside the window, insects chirped intermittently through the summer night as the cool breeze carried the scent of camphor trees.
Fresh from the shower, Ye Sheng sat at his desk and watched the students his age joke and fool around in the group. After checking the format of their names, he changed his nickname and tossed his phone aside.
Less than a minute later, the phone began vibrating madly.
When he picked it up, he found a crowd of people tagging him.
[Chocolate Candy: Welcome, newcomer.]
[Grandma Liu Doesn’t Eat Durian: Welcome, newcomer! Welcome, handsome!]
[The Wind Feels Cool on My Butt: Welcome, newcomer!]
[Chen Can: Show us your face! Show us your face! Show us your face! Newcomer, post a selfie!]
With this guy setting the pace, a flood of people emerged and demanded that Ye Sheng post a photo.
Ye Sheng typed coldly:
[Ye Sheng: I don’t have any photos.]
He’d never liked taking pictures.
Besides, with that sinister red eye lurking on his phone, even opening the camera felt unlucky.
[Chen Can: Hahahahaha, bro, who are you trying to fool? No photos on your phone? Then take one now. [Smirk]]
Ye Sheng: “……”
Was this guy ever going to stop?
Ye Sheng nearly replied, I don’t have a phone, but after taking a deep breath and reminding himself to be pleasant toward others, he deleted the words I don’t want to and slowly typed:
[Ye Sheng: My camera is broken.]
[Chen Can: Hahahahahahahahaha, bro, you’re hilarious. We’re all in the same department, so we’ll meet once classes start anyway. [Smirk] Why are you being so secretive? Come on, I’m ugly but brave. I’m not shy, so I’ll go first.]
[Chen Can: [Photo]]
It was a mirror selfie. His phone covered his face, and the collar of his gray hoodie was pulled up to his chin. The only visible part of him was one heavily edited hand that still wasn’t particularly attractive.
Ye Sheng raised an eyebrow.
Fresh out of the mountains, he had yet to learn what “internet heartthrob ambience” meant. He couldn’t understand how a picture that didn’t reveal a single facial feature counted as showing one’s face.
A wave of compliments flooded the group.
[Come look at the handsome guy!]
[Hahaha, Chen-ge posted another picture.]
[Your hand is so pretty!]
[As expected of the most handsome guy in our computer science department.]
[Chen Can: Hahahahaha, I wouldn’t call myself the department’s hottest guy. There are plenty of handsome dudes here. Thank you, dear friends and neighbors, for your support.]
Then he started leading the chant again.
[Chen Can: Newcomer, show us your face! Show us your face! Show us your face!]
“……”
Ye Sheng muted the group.
Fortunately, Chen Can didn’t actually need him to post a selfie. He’d merely needed an excuse to show himself off in the freshman group and soon returned to joking around with its more active members.
Close to midnight, Ye Sheng received an invitation to a group simply named “Dorm 404.”
After joining, he found that there were indeed already three people inside.
[Wang Zixiu]
[Kang Xiaoxiao]
[Chen Can]
When Ye Sheng saw the familiar name at the bottom, he nearly muted this group as well.
But Wang Zixiu spoke first.
[Wang Zixiu: Xiao Four, we’ve been waiting for you. We even made bets on when you’d join the freshman group.]
[Kang Xiaoxiao: Hahahaha, you came too late. We’ve already ranked ourselves by age. As punishment for being late, you’ll have to accept your place as the youngest.]
Ye Sheng didn’t dislike this kind of conversation.
[Ye Sheng: Hello.]
[Wang Zixiu: Wow, so polite. Hahaha, hello.]
[Kang Xiaoxiao: Xiao Four seems like such a good kid. Where are you from, Xiao Four? I’m from Xi City, Old Wang is a Huai City local, and Little Chen is from Luo City.]
[Ye Sheng: Yin Mountain.]
Silence descended over the group for a moment. Kang Xiaoxiao quickly stepped in to revive the conversation.
[Kang Xiaoxiao: Yin Mountain? My aunt visited it before. She said the scenery there was beautiful!]
At that moment, Chen Can returned from the freshman group.
[Chen Can: Huh? Xiao Four is finally here?]
[Chen Can: Wow, what a coincidence. Xiao Four, we just talked in the freshman group.]
After scrolling through the chat history, his fingers moved faster than his brain, and his surprise came through clearly.
[Chen Can: Yin Mountain? Xiao Four, you’re from Yin Mountain? The poorest place in the entire country?]
[Ye Sheng: Yes.]
When Chen Can appeared ready to type more, Wang Zixiu interrupted.
[Wang Zixiu: I visited Yin Mountain when I was in high school. The scenery really is beautiful.]
[Chen Can: Huh? Old Wang, why did you go to Yin Mountain in high school?]
[Wang Zixiu: For a charity event.]
[Chen Can: Hahahaha, I never traveled domestically in high school. I always went abroad. Speaking of that, it reminds me of the time I got lost in Central Park when I visited New York in my first year of middle school. Hahahaha, I’m such a directionally challenged person. It wasn’t only New York. I nearly got lost in Moscow and London too…… Then when I traveled to Hokkaido, Japan……]
Chen Can began his one-man show again.
Midnight arrived.
Ye Sheng’s internal clock was extremely regular. He turned off his phone and prepared to sleep.
Before falling asleep, he carefully recalled everyone he’d met since getting off the train and suddenly felt like laughing.
They were quite interesting.
Xia Wenshi, Huang Qiqi, Xie Wenci, Wang Gaoyang, Chen Can, Kang Xiaoxiao, Wang Zixiu.
—Every one of them was interesting. Interesting in a vivid, lively, and very real way.
Ye Sheng only replied in the dormitory and freshman groups when someone tagged him. He spent the rest of his time working, and his phone remained turned off for long periods. After all, whenever he turned it on, he had to see that sinister blood-red eye of an app, and he found it irritating.
One day, while he was working at the haunted house, two familiar customers arrived.
“Welcome!” Huang Qiqi stood up, then froze slightly when she saw two red sports cars outside.
What kind of strange wind was blowing today? Had the rich second generation collectively decided to come experience the lives of ordinary people?
The cars parked along the street drew considerable attention.
Wang Gaoyang had finally discovered where Ye Sheng worked. He’d brought the fat guy and Liu Dao with him, and the three of them had decided to come wreck the place.
Wang Gaoyang removed his sunglasses, revealing a face hollowed at the cheeks by excessive indulgence. Filled with malice, he walked inside.
“Miss, three tickets. Do you have any available?”
“Yes, but our only open attraction at the moment is Haunted Dolls. It’s a puzzle-based escape room without any NPCs. Would you still like to play?”
Wang Gaoyang glanced at Ye Sheng, who was wiping a table nearby.
“No NPCs?”
“That’s right. Players find the clues and clear the scenario themselves.”
“My friend has a weak heart. What happens if something goes wrong inside?”
Huang Qiqi thought, If watching Makka Pakka dance can give your friend a heart attack, he might as well throw that heart away.
But she still gave him a perfect smile.
“You can call our names through the surveillance cameras. We’ll come in immediately.”
Wang Gaoyang gave Ye Sheng another meaningful look and nodded.
“Okay.”
After purchasing their tickets and accepting the script, the three of them entered the Haunted Dolls attraction.
Once they were gone, Huang Qiqi asked curiously, “Xuedi, why was that man looking at you sideways?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he had a stroke.”
The Haunted Dolls attraction consisted of four small rooms connected by a long corridor.
Liu Dao thought he must’ve lost his mind to accompany these two idiots to a haunted house fit for kindergarteners. One glance at the script’s introduction was enough for him to guess the entire story.
They were private detectives invited to investigate a bizarre murder at an old castle. The lady of the house had been found inside a wardrobe with her limbs grotesquely twisted. The master of the house had been decapitated, his head hidden inside an enormous teddy bear. After the incident, their only daughter went insane. She was committed to a psychiatric hospital and jumped to her death a few days later.
The first room was the lady’s bedroom.
She had been a renowned dollmaker, praised within the industry as “the woman who gave dolls souls.” Her dolls were extraordinarily lifelike, almost indistinguishable from real people.
The room was filled with magazines and newspapers, but the drawers contained the lady’s psychiatric records.
“According to these records, the lady was also a philanthropist who sponsored an orphanage,” the fat guy muttered, completely immersed in the game.
For some reason, although the props were incredibly crude, everything had felt strange since the moment he entered. He couldn’t stop himself from slipping into character.
Wang Gaoyang rolled his eyes.
“Are you sick? Did you actually come here to play? Hurry up and help me find a good place to lure that kid inside. It’ll be dark, so we can do whatever we want.”
The fat guy asked, “Can you beat him?”
Wang Gaoyang gave a sinister smile. “I brought a needle. One injection, and it’s over.”
The fat guy curled his lips but said nothing.
Liu Dao’s gaze landed on the bloodstained hair inside the wardrobe. He shuddered, unable to shake the feeling that something was wrong with this place.
When he looked up, he suddenly met a pair of gray eyes and nearly screamed.
A cloth doll wearing a yellow dress sat on top of the wardrobe. Her hair was black, and her mouth consisted of a blood-red thread curved into a smile.
What he’d mistaken for eyes were actually two buttons. On closer inspection, they looked incredibly fake. Yet the horrifying sensation of being watched had left goose bumps across his skin.
Liu Dao only wanted to get out as quickly as possible. He grabbed the fat guy and pulled him away.
“Let him court death. I don’t want to play anymore. Let’s go.”
The fat guy was becoming uneasy too.
Wang Gaoyang glared fiercely at them. “What are you afraid of? He’s just a man. Do you think the Qin family will care whether the person being sent to them is still untouched?”
The fat guy’s lips trembled. “That’s not what we’re afraid of……”
“Look at you, acting like a coward! Come on. There are too many cameras here. Let’s find another room!”
He forcibly dragged the two of them into the master’s room.
The lady of the castle had been born into a wealthy family, but her husband had been an ordinary man. The documents in the drawers made it clear that he believed in an evil religion and had been a fanatical cultist.
As the fat guy read the information the man had left behind, he murmured, “The lady met him while struggling through a creative block. They fell in love and married almost immediately…… The man worshipped an evil religion and believed that people who died violent deaths would possess the nearest object. Damn, I think I know what happened.”
The props were crudely made and the plot was painfully obvious, but something still felt wrong no matter where he looked.
Wang Gaoyang ignored the clues practically being handed to them and searched for a suitable place to make his move.
His gaze swept across the room before his eyes suddenly lit up.
“Hey, what about over there?”
He was pointing at the little daughter’s room, where a massive cabinet stood filled with dolls.
The center of the cabinet was empty.
There was plenty of space inside.
They had already left the lady’s bedroom, yet Liu Dao still felt an eerie gaze following him. He couldn’t help pressing close to the fat guy, who pressed against him in return, equally frightened.
Only Wang Gaoyang, blinded by lust, failed to notice the strange atmosphere.
He clapped his hands and made his decision. Holding the drug that would leave a person completely powerless, he shouted toward the surveillance camera. Then he hurried into the little daughter’s room and switched off the light behind him.
“When he comes in, help me restrain him.”
The haunted house was already dimly lit. Once the room’s light was turned off, it plunged into complete darkness.
The little daughter’s room was filled with dolls. Her mother was a dollmaker, but she despised the toys that stole her mother’s attention.
She gouged out their eyes with scissors, burned their hair, snapped off their limbs, and destroyed them without restraint.
The fat guy’s blood ran cold. He couldn’t resist turning on his phone’s flashlight, only to illuminate a mutilated doll.
It sat on the table with a pair of scissors embedded in its face. Although the doll was made of rubber, thick blood seeped from the place where the blades had pierced it. Its dark eyes stared blankly at him.
“Ahhh—!”
The fat guy screamed in terror.
Wang Gaoyang was examining the syringe in his hand and snapped irritably, “Why are you screaming like someone’s calling your soul back?”
The fat guy stumbled backward and accidentally struck the cabinet.
Clatter.
Something fell from the top of it.
Liu Dao took a deep breath and tried to bolster his courage.
“Hahahaha, this haunted house really is boring. It’s obviously about a dollmaker who needed inspiration and worked with her cultist husband to torture and murder children from an orphanage, trapping their souls inside dolls. I’ve never seen a haunted house lay out its clues so plainly. The key to escaping must be finding the murderous doll.”
The fat guy forced himself to laugh along.
“The little daughter’s diary says she had one toy she especially loved named Alice. Alice wasn’t made by her mother. Her father gave it to her for her birthday. Alice was a cloth doll…… Oh, wearing a yellow dress.”
“……”
Liu Dao’s voice abruptly rose. “A yellow dress?!”
“That’s right. No matter what she did, she always held Alice in her arms.”
No matter what she did, she always held Alice.
—So while she tore apart the other dolls, cut off their heads, and burned their bodies, Alice had watched from beside her.
According to the story, Alice’s body must contain the resentful spirits of all the murdered orphans.
She had killed the lady of the castle and the master of the castle, then “kindly” allowed her deranged young owner to leave.
Liu Dao: “……”
His head suddenly felt heavy.
When the fat guy struck the cabinet, something seemed to have fallen onto him.
Liu Dao raised a hand and felt an arm made from soft cotton. The doll lost its balance and hung upside down, bringing its enlarged face directly before his eyes.
Its gray buttons shone with an eerie, chilling light. Its blood-red mouth had been stitched into a smile that appeared both innocent and grotesque.
Its cotton body pressed against Liu Dao’s face, clinging to him as though some invisible force held it there.
The doll in the yellow dress from the lady’s bedroom had somehow appeared here.
“Ahhhhh!”
“Ahhhhhhh!”
Liu Dao let out a piercing scream in the darkness. The fat guy had always been a coward, so he immediately began screaming too.
They charged around blindly and collided with Wang Gaoyang. The syringe flew from his hand and stabbed directly into his thigh.
Tears sprang from Wang Gaoyang’s eyes from the pain.
“Are you two trying to get yourselves killed?!”
The fat guy and Liu Dao had already fled the haunted house without looking back.
Left alone in the room, Wang Gaoyang switched on his phone’s flashlight and pulled the needle from his leg. As the beam swept across the room, it illuminated a doll in a yellow dress lying beside the cabinet.
Wang Gaoyang paid it no attention and lowered his head to remove the needle. Once it was out, he sucked in a sharp breath, causing his phone to shift again.
When the light fell on the doll for a second time, Wang Gaoyang froze.
The doll’s position seemed……wrong.
It had been lying beside the cabinet. Now it was farther away.
He bent down to retrieve the syringe, then shone the light in that direction again.
—The doll in the yellow dress was standing upright, very close to him, its blood-red thread forming an upturned smile.
When Ye Sheng switched on the corridor lights and entered, the first thing he saw was two people fleeing in tears, wailing for their parents.
Ye Sheng: “?”
Were they allergic to In the Night Garden?
Walking farther inside, he saw Wang Gaoyang crawling out of a room in hysterics, tears, snot, and drool covering his face.
Ye Sheng: “……”
These people’s hearts really were fragile.
Ye Sheng continued forward. Upon seeing him, Wang Gaoyang reacted as though he’d found his long-lost parents and tried to cling to his leg.
Ye Sheng’s lips twitched. He quietly stepped aside and walked straight past him into the room.
Wang Gaoyang could barely speak.
“G-ghost…… A ghost…… There’s a ghost in your haunted house! Ahhh!”
Ye Sheng thought, The only ghost here is the one haunting your guilty conscience.
But when he switched on the light and saw the yellow-dressed doll standing on the floor, smiling up at him, every word died in his throat.
The floor was covered with overturned documents, winding trails of blood, a syringe, hair, and scissors.
Amid that chaotic, fantastical scene, the doll looked at him with bright light gleaming in its gray button eyes. Her mouth was a line of red thread stitched shut, leaving her incapable of making a sound.
And yet Ye Sheng somehow heard a girl’s crisp, adorable voice.
She called him, “Daddy.”
Ye Sheng: “………………”
Huang Qiqi was shopping online for a radio, determined to give her boyfriend a breakup he would never forget. She was still haggling with the seller when several screams came from inside.
When she looked up, the fat and thin rich kids were already fleeing as though their asses were on fire, both of them sobbing.
“Thank you…… Come again.”
Her head filled with question marks.
So the weak heart hadn’t been an excuse after all???
Two young women were waiting in the haunted house’s lobby. Although Scare You Silly had only recently opened and didn’t have the best reputation, its location in the university district was so convenient that it still managed to lure in new customers from time to time.
Bored from waiting, the girls sat in their chairs taking selfies. When Liu Dao and the fat guy rushed past them in a panic, they froze and exchanged a glance.
“Oh my God. Is it really that scary?”
Ye Sheng dragged Alice out of the haunted house.
Alice flailed continuously. Once she realized she couldn’t escape, she began pleading sweetly and taking credit for her actions.
“Daddy, that man wanted to hurt you. He had a needle. I helped you, so you can’t treat me like this.”
“Shut up,” Ye Sheng said coldly.
Alice looked aggrieved.
The two young women in the lobby stared at him in astonishment.
It was a peculiar sight.
Ye Sheng wore the haunted house’s uniform. His demeanor was cold and stern, his lips pressed tightly together, and his face was filled with impatience.
Yet he held an adorable, well-behaved cloth doll in his hand. She wore a yellow dress and had curly hair and large, innocent eyes.
The two created a contradictory yet strangely harmonious image. It was as though they’d caught a glimpse of the tenderness hidden inside this cool, handsome guy who had I’m in a bad mood written all over him.
“Damn, he’s so handsome!”
The two whispered to each other and unconsciously turned their camera toward Ye Sheng, discreetly taking a photo.
With a face like his posted online, the haunted house would undoubtedly become popular.
Ye Sheng closed the storage-room door and stared coldly at Alice.
Sensing his foul mood, Alice nervously clutched the skirt of her yellow dress with both hands and defended herself.
“I didn’t hurt anyone. I only frightened them.”
“How did you come to life?”
Alice found the question strange.
“You created me, Daddy.”
She raised her arm, revealing the black stitches across it.
The Corpse-Stitching Needle.
Ye Sheng stared at her deeply before taking out his phone and tapping search.
He had only recently declared that he would never use it again, yet he was already breaking that promise. When search sensed his touch, it became furious and bit him again.
Click.
Alice thought her daddy was taking a picture of her. She hurriedly straightened her dress, posed properly, and made certain she looked perfect for the camera.
Ye Sheng looked at the file that appeared on his screen.
[Category: Master Storyteller]
[Ghost Name: Alice]
[Ghost Level: E-level]
[Overview: Alice was originally a damaged doll in a haunted house. Then one day, someone used a needle to sew her severed arm back on, and she came to life.]
Ye Sheng’s gaze settled on the overview. It had been generated automatically.
……It was as though the Empire of Monsters were an enormous entity where every newborn life automatically received an identity.
Alice asked eagerly, “Can I see the picture?”
“No.”
Alice was deeply disappointed.
“Daddy, you can’t treat me this way.”
Ye Sheng strode over and examined the stitches across her arm, his mind rapidly analyzing the situation.
Was it because of the Corpse-Stitching Needle?
A C-level item had created a new life, just as it had created the Corpse Monsters on the train.
But the Corpse Monsters Xiao Fang had created were merely F-level collectibles.
Why had he created Alice, an intelligent E-level monster?
If he pulled out the stitches, would she die just like the Corpse Monsters in the restroom?
The thought spread coldly through Ye Sheng’s mind.
“Daddy? Daddy?”
Alice’s voice brought him back to his senses.
He lowered his head, meeting the uneasy doll’s eyes inside the storage room.
The setting sun shone through the window, fine specks of dust drifting through the pale-golden light.
After a long silence, Ye Sheng closed his eyes briefly.
“Everything that happened today can be explained as mechanical props. While you’re in this haunted house, don’t let anyone discover that you’ve come to life. Understand?”
Alice nodded.
“And stop calling me Daddy.”
“Then what should I call you?”
“My name is Ye Sheng.”
Alice nodded again and cautiously said, “All right, Ye Sheng. Can you put me back now? I don’t want to stay here. There’s nothing fun in this room.”
Ye Sheng: “……”
He dragged her back to the Haunted Dolls attraction and placed her inside the cabinet in the lady’s bedroom. Then he headed toward the little daughter’s room.
Wang Gaoyang’s legs were still weak with terror. He clung to the doorway, sobbing uncontrollably.
Ye Sheng bent down and picked up the syringe from the floor. After examining the pale-cyan liquid inside it, he carried it over to Wang Gaoyang, bent one long leg, and crouched in front of him.
“Was this meant for me?”
Although it was phrased as a question, Ye Sheng clearly didn’t require an answer.
As he spoke, he drove the needle into Wang Gaoyang’s arm with a ruthless, steady hand, pushing it all the way in.
The drug was extremely powerful. Before long, Wang Gaoyang’s eyes lost focus, foam spilled from his mouth, and he passed out.
Ye Sheng discarded the syringe, intense irritation welling inside him.
He left work early that day and returned to the dormitory with the Corpse-Stitching Needle.
Outside Dorm 404 at Huai’an University, the trees formed a dense canopy of green. Sitting at his desk, Ye Sheng stared coldly at the needle.
He could use Xiao Fang’s tool.
He could even create E-level monsters.
But that wasn’t good news.
He tapped his finger against the desk, wanting to throw the needle away—out of the dormitory and onto the grass, somewhere he would never have to see it again.
—But it was the final gift Corpse Stitcher had left him when the train reached its last stop.
Ye Sheng found a small box where he kept miscellaneous items and tossed the needle inside, intending to ensure it never saw the light of day again.
***
Xie Wenci spent the day practicing the piano at home. While practicing, he specifically asked a maid to photograph him from several different angles. Once he was satisfied that the pictures made him look innocent, adorable, and perfectly serene, he added the caption Limited-Edition Summer Cuteness and posted them on Weibo.
After happily reading through an endless stream of praise, he closed the app and discovered that the small group chat for rich kids had erupted into chaos.
Wang Gaoyang was cursing Ye Sheng and all eighteen generations of his ancestors.
[Wang Gaoyang: Fuck! That bastard! I’m so fucking furious! Even if it means offending the Qin family, I’m going to destroy him!]
[Xie Wenci: What happened?]
Wang Gaoyang briefly explained what had happened at the haunted house.
Afterward, the receptionist had patiently explained the haunted house’s secret. There had always been two dolls in yellow dresses, and hidden mechanisms inside them could be controlled remotely to make them move.
Now that the three of them had regained their senses, they felt thoroughly humiliated, and their hatred for Ye Sheng intensified.
At first, they’d merely found him attractive and wanted to play with him. Now they genuinely wanted him dead.
[Fat Guy: I think he deliberately set us up.]
[Wang Gaoyang: I’m hiring people to go to Huai’an University and beat him up tomorrow!]
Xie Wenci would’ve loved for a whole crowd to join him in tormenting Ye Sheng, but Ye Sheng couldn’t be harmed at such a critical moment.
[Xie Wenci: Don’t. Wait until the banquet three days from now. Ye Sheng has to appear there, or the Qin family won’t consider him part of the Xie family.]
[Wang Gaoyang: He’s attending Madam Qin’s birthday banquet in three days?]
[Xie Wenci: That’s right. Old Master Qin will be there too, specifically to see his future wife. Hahahahahahahaha.]
[Wang Gaoyang: The Qin family’s banquet is being held at their main residence, right?]
[Fat Guy: Damn, I just had a brilliant idea. Do you remember that abandoned attic in the Qin residence?]
[Liu Dao: The room Old Master Qin lived in before he moved to the private hospital? Hasn’t it become a forbidden area in the Qin residence? I heard a servant nearly got beaten to death for going inside.]
[Fat Guy: That’s the one!]
Lying on the sofa, Xie Wenci watched their conversation, but his thoughts gradually drifted elsewhere.
He gazed at the sheer white curtains beside him and remembered what his older brother had told him yesterday.
His brother had said that a guest had recently arrived at the Qin residence—a guest of unfathomably mysterious and distinguished status.
Although very little information had spread, everyone in Huai City knew that Madam Qin’s biological elder sister had married into the Ning family.
The Ning family……
Xie Wenci bit his fingernail thoughtfully.
Same-sex marriage was legal in China. With his delicate features and prestigious family background, he had moved between different men since he was very young.
He only liked Qin Heyu because the third young master of the Qin family held the highest status in Huai City and could satisfy his vanity better than anyone else.
But if the person attending this banquet really was the Ning family’s young master……
Xie Wenci lightly bit his fingernail. His gaze began to wander, his heart fluttered, and his cheeks turned pink.
He had been dating from a young age and considered himself exceptionally skilled at handling men.
Opening Weibo again, he saw that the photograph he had just posted was indeed flooded with praise.
[Wifey is so beautiful! [Flowers][Flowers]]
[What kind of peerless, seductive young master is this?!]
[Baby Ci, our limited-edition summer sweetheart omega.]
Dimples appeared in Xie Wenci’s cheeks as he smiled sweetly.
Whatever type Young Master Ning preferred—innocent and adorable or seductive—Xie Wenci could play the part.
