Chapter 5 – Haunted House

Editor: Xinghe

Translator: ChuRen/ YuQiChen

【Meng Xiaoman, the Most Beautiful in the Universe】: …Impossible.

【Chang Family’s Younger Brother】: This sword doesn’t look like an ancient artifact. But in recent years, wasn’t the Ghost King in seclusion? Where did this Ghost King’s command come from?

【Amitabha】: When he went into seclusion was ages ago, at least eight hundred years, right?

【Chang Family’s Younger Brother】: True. Your Honor, are you sure about this?

【I’m Not a Bookworm】: Pretty sure.

【Amitabha】: So, you mean the newcomer…?

【Amitabha】: The ellipsis means it can’t be said, you all know.

Wu Pan suddenly shivered and quickly typed a denial.

【I’m Not a Bookworm】: I never said that!

【Amitabha】: But our company benefits are not good, so why come here…

【Meng Xiaoman, the Most Beautiful in the Universe】: Actually, instead of endlessly speculating, why not just ask the person directly?

【Chang Family’s Elder Brother】: Hmm, good idea. But, who’s going to ask?

【Amitabha】: …

【I’m Not a Bookworm】: …

The group instantly fell silent like chickens.

Meanwhile, in the northern part of the city, several university students were staring at each other.

Originally, they had come to visit a haunted house. Surprisingly, they weren’t scared much inside the haunted house. Instead, when they came out, they were terrified –

In front of them, a terrifying corpse lay on the ground, blocking the way out of the haunted house.

The corpse seemed to have fallen from a great height, its face distorted and flesh mangled. Dark blood was slowly seeping out from under the head of the corpse, almost reaching their feet.

– It seemed like the person had died not long ago.

The students instinctively stepped back three meters.

Among them, the bravest student cautiously took two steps towards the corpse.

Suddenly, as if startled, the corpse opened its eyes wide, its ghastly pale eyes staring fixedly at them.

University Students: Holy crap!!!

The haunted house owner cowered behind the students, trembling, with a pleading face, “C-Can you please help me call the police?”

University Students: ?!

As the owner of a haunted house, can you really be this cowardly?

The police car quickly arrived at the scene, but…

The officer suspiciously looked around, then frowned at the owner and the students, sternly reprimanding, “Falsely reporting an incident is a serious violation that wastes police resources.”

The haunted house owner was on the verge of tears, trying to explain, “Really! I didn’t make it up, you can ask them!”

Several students looked at each other, then nodded in confusion.

In the blink of an eye, both the corpse from before and the dark red bloodstains beneath it vanished without a trace. The terrifying scene they had witnessed seemed like an illusion.

The officer almost burst out laughing, hands on his hips, “You reported a dead body here, so where is the body?”

The haunted house owner was utterly helpless, “The corpse was clearly there just now!”

The officer sneered, “Fine, even if there’s no body, there should at least be blood at the scene, right? Where’s the blood?”

The haunted house owner hesitated, looking at the clean concrete floor, puzzled, “Yes, there was a huge pool of blood here just now…”

“Alright,” the impatient officer said, “I don’t have time to play games with you. Consider this a verbal warning this time. If you dare to make false reports again, each of you will be detained for five days.”

With that, the officer glared at them and briskly drove away in the police car.

Left behind were the haunted house owner and the students, staring in disbelief.

After a while, the students couldn’t hold it in anymore. They approached, half-kneeling on the ground, earnestly pondering, “It’s impossible, how could everything disappear in the blink of an eye?”

The haunted house owner gasped suddenly, shivering, “Could it be… a ghost encounter?”

The students paused for a moment, then seemed to understand something, fear dissipating from their faces as they started to chuckle.

“Boss, you’re really creative, using a fake corpse to scare people like that?”

“Yeah, I’ve been to so many haunted houses, but you, boss, are the most unpredictable one.”

“Hahaha, I was really scared just now! But, boss, you actually collaborated with the police to put on a show, that’s amazing!”

Haunted house owner: …

It’s not me, I didn’t, I’m really innocent.

The university students felt they had found the truth, discussing enthusiastically side by side as they left.

Thrown into confusion by all this, even the haunted house owner began to doubt—could it be that he had set up some kind of mechanism and then forgotten about it?

Scratching his head in puzzlement, he turned around, only to come face to face with the corpse he had seen before.

“Ah—!!!” Another horrific scream echoed near the haunted house.

At ten in the morning, Su Ling received a phone call.

After the call, he fell silent.

“Boss, any new orders?” Meng Xiaoman asked as he walked by.

Su Ling looked at her, stroked his chin, and suddenly smiled, “Xiaoman, has it been a while since the company gave you guys a break?”

Meng Xiaoman: “…Boss, just say what you want to ask.”

Don’t smile like that, it’s really scary.

Su Ling coughed lightly and kindly said, “Do you want to go out and have some fun?”

“Where to?” Meng Xiaoman cautiously inquired.

“It’s the new amusement park in the north of the city, they say it has pretty good reviews.” Su Ling smiled like a big bad wolf, “Our company hasn’t done team-building in a long time, right? Let’s go together today.”

Meng Xiaoman glanced outside the window, looking strange, “Today?”

—Outside the window, the sky was overcast, dark clouds pressing down as if it was about to rain.

As Meng Xiaoman asked, the sky cooperated perfectly, flashing a bolt of lightning.

Su Ling: …

“Cough, it’s precisely because of this weather that the amusement park won’t be too crowded.” Su Ling tried to save face.

“Okay, I’ll ask them.” Meng Xiaoman hesitated and agreed.

As a result, Meng Xiaoman underestimated the group of ghosts’ longing for the amusement park.

“Company-paid business trip? We must go!” Shi Kongzang nodded without hesitation.

“Haven’t been to an amusement park in a long time.” Wu Pan also nodded in agreement.

As for Sheng Ze? He didn’t have much of a say. As the driver, he just had to follow Su Ling.

So, except for the Chang brothers who were on a business trip, all the remaining ghosts in the company unanimously agreed to the proposal.

“Xiaoman, you come too, it’s not good to be always locked up alone in the house.” Su Ling caringly suggested.

Persuaded by the boss like this, Meng Xiaoman felt even more uneasy.

In the end, everyone boarded their own “little cars.”

Meng Xiaoman’s little pink scooter, Shi Kongzang’s little yellow scooter, Wu Pan’s little white scooter, and Su Ling and Sheng Ze’s navy blue scooter… It was a colorful and dazzling sight!

Near the amusement park, the ticket inspector looked up and saw four electric scooters coming side by side.

Ticket inspector: …

It was obvious they were a group.

Their aura was almost identical.

Despite having been ghosts for so many years, going to the amusement park was a rare occurrence.

As soon as they entered, Shi Kongzang and Wu Pan began to get excited, standing in front of the carousel with a look of longing.

Meanwhile, Meng Xiaoman went straight to the shooting range, eagerly picking up a rifle to shoot at balloons.

Su Ling smirked, with a stern face, he grabbed each person by the collar and dragged them to the entrance of the haunted house.

“A haunted house…” Wu Pan stroked his chin, lost in thought.

“What’s the point of a haunted house? These things can’t scare us.” Shi Kongzang looked disdainful.

Meng Xiaoman nodded in agreement.

Ignoring the employees’ complaints, Su Ling went directly to the haunted house owner and bought five tickets.

“If you get scared inside or if anything happens, just shout at the camera. We have dedicated staff who will come to find you.” The haunted house owner pushed aside the curtain and instructed the group.

Ever since the sudden appearance and disappearance of the corpse, the haunted house owner had been feeling uneasy. So, facing this seemingly fragile group in front of him, he couldn’t help but be more cautious with his instructions.

“Don’t worry, nothing will happen. But,” Shi Kongzang suddenly smiled and asked the owner, “What if the employees inside the haunted house get scared by us?”

Owner: ???

Led by Su Ling and Sheng Ze, everyone passed through the curtain and entered the haunted house in order.

The moment they entered the haunted house, the air inside immediately dropped several degrees Celsius. Unlike the cold air blown out by the air conditioning, this chill seemed to penetrate to the bone.

It was truly a spooky atmosphere.

However, unfortunately, this group of ghosts who had lived for thousands of years were not affected by this temperature at all. They even somewhat enjoyed it.

“They intentionally lowered the temperature to create a scary atmosphere, right?” Shi Kongzang casually guessed as he touched the icy walls.

The little ghost blowing air behind Shi Kongzang: …

“And the background music must have been carefully chosen to subconsciously suggest fear,” Meng Xiaoman also seemed unenthusiastic about exploring this haunted house.

The hanging ghost trying to produce enchanting sounds: …

Su Ling walked silently at the front.

Sheng Ze was the first to notice something off about Su Ling. He discreetly approached him, whispering, “What are you looking for?”

Su Ling shook his head, put a finger to his lips, and silently gestured with a “shh.”

Understanding, Sheng Ze raised an eyebrow, “Did you deliberately trick them into coming?”

“Yeah.” Su Ling smirked mischievously, explaining, “These people are too lazy. On a hot day, if I directly told them there was a mission, they would just keep passing off the task, refusing to leave the house.”

Sheng Ze nodded, shamelessly praising, “Boss, you’re really clever.”

Su Ling scratched his ear, feeling a bit warm for no apparent reason.

As they walked a bit further, at a corner up ahead, suddenly, a skull dropped from the ceiling.

The skull fell from above, landing directly on Su Ling’s head, who was at the front.

The skull grinned, its bones trembling with a “cackle.”

Waiting for the screams.jpg

Su Ling raised an eyebrow, cupping the skull and locking eyes with it.

The skull, still waiting for the expected scream, couldn’t help but remind, “Have you seen clearly? There are no mechanisms inside my head.”

—I am a genuine skeleton ghost.

“I see.” Su Ling nodded very seriously.

Skull: …

How boring.

After a while, the skull felt it had fallen from Su Ling’s hands and bounced away.

As they walked further, it seemed like they entered a stone tomb.

In the center of the tomb, there was a pitch-black coffin, densely wrapped with iron chains.

Wu Pan approached, gently touching the eight iron nails on the coffin, and with interest said, “Soul-sealing nails, soul-locking coffin. There are actually real things in this haunted house!”

Author’s note:

Recording the current situation:

Accountant, Wu Pan = Judge (Pan Guan 判官),

On Field Staff, Shi Kongzang = Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva (De Cang Wang 地藏王),

New Employee Sheng Ze = Ghost King

The remaining characters whose identities are yet to be revealed are the two brothers from the Chang family and the administrative staff Meng Xiaoman, I think you can guess who they are…?

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