Chapter 97 Searching for Clues

Everyone was looking for clues in the hints.

Zhou Jingming and Chen Yu were responsible for checking the area near the door, while the female college student and the young couple cautiously examined the walls and hanging elegiac couplets.

Pei Heng and Shen Shi walked towards the female paper figurine.

The paper figurine is lifelike in workmanship, but feels cold and stiff to the touch.

Pei Heng endured the discomfort and carefully felt the front and cuffs of the paper mannequin's wedding dress for possible hidden mechanisms.

"Here!" Huo Xiao reminded from the shadow near the wall behind the male paper figure.

He squatted down, groped his fingers near the baseboard, and pressed lightly. A wall tile dented slightly, making a slight clicking sound.

An inconspicuous small secret compartment popped out, and inside it was an old brass key.

"The key was found!" The fitness coach was excited.

"The key is under the lamp..."

Ling Yue raised his head and looked at the peculiarly shaped white paper lantern hanging right above the male paper figure.

The lantern was larger than the others and appeared to have a small keyhole at the bottom.

Huo Xiao picked up the key and bent down tacitly. Ling Yue took the key, stepped on his knees, used the force to move upward, and easily inserted the key into the keyhole at the bottom of the lantern.

With a twist, the bottom of the lantern opened and a small heart-shaped wooden mechanism fell out, which was caught steadily by Huo Xiao.

"A heart!" Zhou Jingming said in surprise.

With this discovery, everyone looked at the corresponding lantern above the female paper figure.

"The heart of the female paper figurine should also be in the corresponding lantern!" Fitness coach.

However, the lantern above the female paper figure is higher, and there is no place to leverage it from below.

The fitness coach tried jumping a few times, but couldn't reach it at all.

"I'll do it." Ling Yue said concisely.

He took a few steps back, lightly tapped his toes on the wall, flipped over neatly in the air, stretched out his arms, touched and pressed the bottom of the tall lantern.

Another heart-shaped mechanism fell down, and he caught it in mid-air and landed it steadily on the ground.

Everyone was stunned.

The staff in the control room were about to give a heads-up that they could borrow the "ghost" ladder: ???

"Awesome!" Zhou Jingming couldn't help but exclaim.

Now, both hearts have been found.

Pei Heng took the two heart-shaped mechanisms and observed them carefully. He found that there were concave and convex grooves on their edges. The two hearts were embedded tightly, forming a complete double-heart structure with a hole in the middle.

The secret door slowly slid inward, revealing an even more unknown passage behind it.

A cold wind blew out from the door.

"The door is open!" the female college student shouted excitedly.

However, before everyone could rejoice, the mournful crying suddenly became sharper.

The candlelight flickered wildly, and behind the curtains on both sides of the room, several blurry white shadows began to sway, as if something was startled and was about to rush out from the darkness.

"Let's go." Huo Xiao and Ling Yue, one in front and one behind, protected Pei Heng Chen Shi and rushed towards the secret door first.

A group of people rushed into the passage behind the secret door.

The secret door slammed shut behind them, blocking out the eerie cries and swaying ghostly shadows in the mourning hall.

But before he had gone far, another door appeared in front of him.

The fitness coach volunteered to open the door, but found a familiar scene behind it.

They actually returned to the mourning hall that was hung with white lanterns and stood with strange paper wedding dolls.

"What's going on? Aren't we moving forward?" the fitness coach whispered.

This kind of experience of being trapped in a maze is more frightening than a direct fright.

Chen Yu pushed his glasses up. "Maybe I walked into the wrong door, or maybe this scene is designed to be circular."

"It seems that just finding the heart and opening the secret door is not enough. There must be other tasks or clues to be completed here."

In desperation, the players could only suppress their uneasiness and search this uncomfortable mourning hall again.

Pei Heng accidentally glanced at the blank wall behind the paper man.

He saw another shadow, which was clearly his own appearance.

But he was in the shadow, with no expression on his face, and looked... quite fierce.

Pei Heng was stunned.

He was sure that he had not seen it wrong, and it was not an illusion caused by the shaking of the surrounding light and shadows.

His strong curiosity made him stare at the wall, so much so that he ignored the increasingly terrifying atmosphere around him.

Shen Shi had been paying attention to Pei Heng's condition and soon noticed that something was wrong with him.

Shen Shi gently pulled his hand, "Ah Heng, what's wrong with you?"

Pei Heng was brought back to his senses by his voice. He blinked and suppressed the surprise in his heart.

He pointed to the wall where the shadow had appeared. "Look there...is there anything special?"

Shen Shi followed the direction he pointed and looked carefully.

The walls were just ordinary white walls, somewhat mottled in the dim candlelight, but other than that, there was nothing else.

He shook his head. "It's just a wall, nothing special."

Zhou Jingming, who was standing next to them, happened to hear this conversation. He was so frightened that he shuddered, rubbed his arms, and his voice trembled.

"Pei humph! Don't scare me! Is this a one-shot mission you arranged with the haunted house? Are you deliberately saying you saw something to scare us?"

"Then you succeeded. I feel a chill on the back of my neck now!"

Pei Heng frowned when he heard this.

Of course he didn't collude with the haunted house, but what Zhou Jingming said was true. In an environment that deliberately creates a horror atmosphere, it is not impossible to be dazzled.

Pei Heng didn’t want to cause unnecessary panic, nor did he want Shen Shi to worry, so he took Shen Shi’s hand and rubbed his cheek.

"Maybe. It's too dark and dizzy."

That's too expensive, Xiao Pei feels a little uncomfortable.

Pei Heng's gaze fell back on the blank wall. The shadow from before did not appear again. His eyes wandered and fell on the low table placed in the center of the mourning hall.

On the low table was a dark wooden lottery bucket with exactly ten bamboo sticks in it.

"Could it be this?" Pei Heng walked over, picked up the lottery bucket and shook it. "It looks like something that requires interaction. Maybe there's a quest."

"Give it a try." Shen Shi walked over to him.

Pei Heng looked at him, and a smile finally appeared on the corner of his lips. "What if I guessed wrong?"

Shen Shi insisted, and in the dim light, he kissed Pei Heng on the side of his face, "I believe you."

Pei Heng calmed down.

He asked Ling Yue to gather all the scattered people who were searching. At this moment, the female college student found a small wooden box hidden behind the banner while checking the curtain. When she opened it, she saw a thin booklet with the analysis of the fortune written in cinnabar.

It seems that Pei Heng's guess is right!

So, ten people gathered around and took turns drawing a bamboo stick from the lottery bucket.

According to the instructions in the analysis booklet, the person who draws the shortest lot needs to play a specific role and complete a single-player task.

The sticks were shown, and the bamboo stick in Shen Shi's hand was a little shorter than everyone else's.

The shortest fortune in the analysis booklet reads: "A ghost bride, sitting alone in a sedan chair. She needs a destined partner to perform the ritual of kicking the sedan chair out, marry her, and complete the ceremony to appease her resentment and begin her journey to life."

There is also a map of the approximate location of the sedan chair, pointing to the end of the corridor behind the mourning hall.

Chen Shi looked at the signature, was silent for a moment, then raised his eyes to look at Pei Heng, with a faint smile on his lips.

He hooked Pei Heng's finger and said playfully and affectionately, "Remember to marry me."

Pei Heng: “…”

He could never fully understand Shen Shi's playful nature in some strange ways.

But just as Shen Shi could always tolerate and cooperate with his various whims, Pei Heng was also willing to cooperate with Shen Shi's special interests.

Pei Heng nodded and agreed.

Shen Shi followed the instructions and walked into the dark corridor alone.

In the dim light, his back gradually merged into the darkness, with only the sound of his footsteps echoing softly.

Pei Heng followed the trail with his gaze until he saw a bright red sedan decorated with old tassels vaguely appearing at the end of the corridor.

Shen Shi walked to the front of the bridal sedan, stopped, and looked back in the direction of Pei Heng.

Although the light was dim and the distance was far, Pei Heng could still see the general idea. Then Shen Shi reached out, gently lifted the heavy sedan curtain with his fingertips, and leaned over to sit in.

The curtain of the sedan chair fell, completely hiding his figure.