If you bloom, butterflies will come.

Chen Ge's words touched the softest part of Qu Changlin's heart, and a seed took root and sprouted in his heart.

The encouragement from this stranger was in stark contrast to the text messages from his boss. The bitterness that had been deep in his heart for many years finally burst out, and Qu Changlin had an idea: "It's time to change."

As soon as this thought appeared, it spread uncontrollably in his mind. He clenched his fists tightly, but after a while, he slowly calmed down.

Life is not chicken soup. The prerequisite for realizing your dreams is to survive.

Qu Changlin is a marginal employee in Nightmare Academy. He is assigned to the toilet with the strongest smell, which no one wants to go to. He has poor interpersonal relationships and has no confidence in himself.

Thinking of this, he sighed softly: "I also want to change, but change requires courage and strength, which I don't have..."

"You are just too unconfident. In my opinion, you have countless shining points, but you have not met the person who can appreciate you. The scene you are responsible for is so terrifying, the puppets in the scene are so scary, and you can endure the pungent smell and control everything in the toilet. In my opinion, you have all the excellent qualities of a haunted house employee." Chen Ge slowed down his pace a little: "I heard that there is a haunted house in the western suburbs of Jiujiang that is developing very well. It has the highest rate of positive reviews online. If you really want to change, you can go there and try. Since you have decided to change, then go to the best one. No matter what the final result is, at least you have tried your best."

Qu Changlin took note of Chen Ge's words and nodded slowly. In fact, he also had a little doubt, but he soon felt relieved.

After all, it was the first time he had seen such inspiring and positive tourists visiting a haunted house, so it was inevitable that he felt a little uncomfortable.

At Qu Changlin's suggestion, Chen Ge carried him to the door of the dean's office: "We're here, what next?"

"Just leave me here." Qu Changlin covered his phone with his hands. He looked at the text messages sent by his boss and felt a little sorry for Chen Ge.

The other person was guiding me and helping me plan my life, but I wanted to scare him with malicious intent. It was really too much.

"Be careful. By the way, leave me your phone number. You can call me if you encounter any difficulties." Chen Ge was very enthusiastic. His words made Qu Changlin feel even more uncomfortable.

"Okay." Just outside the dean's office, standing under the surveillance camera, the two exchanged phone numbers.

"I have finished the plot. Next I will go explore other scenes. See you later." Chen Ge took out the diary from his backpack with a smile and headed for the next scene.

Looking at Chen Ge's back, Qu Changlin didn't know what to say. He felt that the man had a special power that could bring hope to people and make them always gentle and warm.

The phone in his palm kept vibrating. Qu Changlin looked down and saw that it was his boss calling.

The other party seemed to have seen Chen Ge leaving on the surveillance camera, so he dared to call directly.

After pressing the answer button, Qu Changlin heard his boss' roar before he could say anything.

"What have you done? I have repeatedly stressed that you must scare him! Don't make any mistakes! What about you? Look at what you have done?"

Qu Changlin held the phone, leaned against the door, and made no sound.

"Speak up! What about your promise to me? Didn't you say that he must walk in and crawl out? What happened?" The boss was a little irritable. He was also very angry. The ace actor of his haunted house went to visit someone else's haunted house and three people were scared to death. Now someone else went to his haunted house and four of his haunted house actors were scared to death again! Who can bear this?

"I said he must walk in, but I didn't say he must crawl out. Now he walked in and I crawled out. Does this count as keeping my promise?" Qu Changlin put his phone aside. He didn't want to hear his boss' voice, but hanging up the phone was a very rude thing to do.

"Say it to me again?! Qu Changlin! Say it to me again!" On the other end of the phone, the boss's voice was trembling with anger. Seeing that Qu Changlin didn't answer, he didn't even bother to hang up the phone. He directly took out the walkie-talkie and gave a death order to the haunted house actors in other scenes: "No matter what means you use today, you must scare the tourist named Chen Ge for me! The reputation of Nightmare Academy must not be ruined by him!"

"Boss, he seems to have successfully cleared the first few scenes. I think it will be a bit difficult to scare him."

"I don't want to know what you think, I want to know what I think! Gather all of you!"

After the call was hung up, Qu Changlin could no longer hear his boss' voice. He leaned against the door, thinking about something.

…

"Classroom, storage, toilet... Let me see where to go next." Chen Ge opened the diary and began to read the fourth entry.

This diary is about the corridor and records a classic ghost story called The Thirteenth Step.

There are twelve steps on each floor of Nightmare Academy, but at certain special moments, a thirteenth step will appear, and everyone who steps on this step will see something strange.

"When I first entered the haunted house, the staff kept reminding visitors to pay attention to the stairs. There must be a lot of interesting traps inside. This is a good opportunity for me to broaden my horizons. Maybe I can even find an excellent employee like Qu Changlin."

The toilet was next to the corridor, so Chen Ge returned along the same route and came to the stairs.

There was no lighting equipment installed in the corridor. The faint light came in from the floors. The further you went in, the darker it became. The corner between the two floors was pitch black and you couldn't see anything.

"The stairs are made of concrete. How can they create an extra step out of nowhere?" Chen Ge also wanted to master this "technology". He stuffed the diary into his backpack and walked into the corridor without looking back.

The background music changed, and cool air rushed in from all directions. Chen Ge walked up while counting the steps silently.

"One, two... eleven, twelve. It's normal. There's no problem."

Chen Ge was a little disappointed. He went up two floors in one go, but the number of steps did not change. "Is my way of visiting wrong?"

He didn't care about the looks of the "people" around him. He took out his diary and started reading it in the corridor: "Without any hints, how do I trigger this scene?"

While Chen Ge was thinking, footsteps were suddenly heard downstairs. He looked down through the gap in the middle of the stairs, but no one was going upstairs.

“Is it background music?”

Before Chen Ge found the location of the speaker, he suddenly heard a child's voice. The voice was erratic and kept repeating the word "Dad".

"Where is this sound coming from?" Chen Ge's five senses are far superior to those of ordinary people, but he cannot determine the specific location of the sound. The other party seems to be using several different speakers to play in different locations: "You are playing tricks, don't hide, I can see you!"

Chen Ge put a ballpoint pen in his shirt pocket and walked downstairs with his backpack in one hand.