Chapter 2

The blood was thick and clearly not yet dry, as if it had just been smeared on.

"......Oh my."

To create a scary atmosphere, they even used prop blood, right!? It must be prop blood, right!?

Yu Xing's heart trembled, and he almost threw the camera away. The others were drawn to his commotion and looked over.

"What's wrong?" The brown-haired guy leaned in, seeing Yu Xing's face pale with fear, and couldn't help but laugh, "You're scared before we even start?"

"There's blood... blood..." Yu Xing held up the camera for the brown-haired guy to see, but of course, the other couldn't see anything in the pitch-black darkness.

The handsome man reacted quickly, feeling his camera and sniffing his palm: "I have it on my camera too."

"I have it too!" The short-haired girl whispered in surprise, "Is it ketchup?"

Only then did they notice that the cameras they had all had red liquid on them, which emitted a faint, pungent smell, clearly not ketchup.

"It might be fake blood, the kind used in filming. Today is supposed to be a bravery test, so I guess there are not only fake blood but also other setups in the factory!" The long-curly-haired girl giggled, giving a cunning guess. Everyone listened and thought the logic made sense, so they felt relieved.

Yu Xing let out a long breath. He thought the same thing. After all, the cameras were given by Assistant Hao, and only Assistant Hao could have set this up. The purpose was already clear: to give them a taste of a "haunted house" night tour to see if they had the potential to be streamers...

But the initial shock still made them instinctively jump!

I just wanted a job with a decent salary, why do I have to suffer like this... sigh.

The cold touch of the camera reminded him of the bodies in the refrigerators. He quietly sighed and held the camera up to his eyes, using the night vision mode to observe the surroundings.

They had entered through the main door and were in a large hall. The hall's exits should lead to offices, employee changing rooms, raw material storage rooms, and other places, but they couldn't see them now.

The hall could be described in one word: dilapidated.

The usable machines had long been removed, leaving a few damaged devices standing on the ground. The floor was covered with dust, old cloth bags, and broken wooden boards.

If the batteries were hidden in a small pile of debris in the corner, it would take some effort to find them. Eight batteries meant each one could last about half an hour, so they needed to hurry.

"Hey, shouldn't we introduce ourselves first?" After everyone was familiar with the camera operations, the short-haired girl smiled helplessly. Why didn't anyone mention this?

"Right, I got too excited and forgot." The long-curly-haired girl responded enthusiastically. Her voice and personality were both outgoing, "I'm Zhang Shuya, I love watching horror movies, and I've been to all kinds of haunted houses in the country. I know all the tricks!"

"I'm Tang Li, and this is my sister Tang Yuan." The handsome man nodded politely. Yu Xing looked up in surprise, not expecting the man and the short-haired girl to be siblings.

"Fang Rui, just graduated this year." The brown-haired guy, dressed in a short-sleeved shirt, stood out. Anyone would have to comment, "You're really not afraid of the cold, huh?"

Yu Xing turned off the night vision to save power and introduced himself formally: "Yu Xing, like the Yu in Yu Ji and the Xing in luck."

"Zhao Yijiu." The young man with the mask spoke for the first time, his eyes sharp and slightly gloomy.

His voice had a cold quality, and as soon as he spoke, the atmosphere, which had just become a bit more familiar, turned cold again.

"Uh..." Fang Rui's eyes twitched and then suggested, "Let's find the batteries first. For efficiency, how about pairing up?"

"Sure, I want to be with my brother." Tang Yuan naturally moved closer to Tang Li. It was only natural for siblings to be together, and no one could object.

"Pairing up is fine!" Zhang Shuya smiled and glanced at Yu Xing, "I'm a big fan of good looks, you know. Um... Yu Xing, right? Let's be a team, then I can protect you?"

What a lucky guy to have a beautiful girl offer to team up with him! Fang Rui sighed, then heard Yu Xing, the "beauty lover," hesitantly say:

"Um... maybe not, I'm not good at interacting with girls and don't know how to take care of them."

Fang Rui: Brother, you're awesome, thank your family.

Zhang Shuya was a bit unhappy at being rejected, but she was proud and knew that the other didn't see her abilities. She didn't want to make a futile effort, so she quickly decided between the remaining Fang Rui and the icy Zhao Yijiu.

She had high emotional intelligence and immediately put on a regretful face: "Fang Rui, the handsome guy doesn't want me, can you take me in?"

"Of course." Fang Rui secretly gave Yu Xing a thumbs up, not caring if Yu Xing saw, and happily completed the pairing.

Yu Xing, of course, was paired with the silent Zhao Yijiu.

After that, the three temporary teams defined their search areas. Yu Xing and Zhao Yijiu were assigned the rightmost third of the factory, which had more rooms and a more complex route.

Time was precious, so they gave each other a few symbolic words of encouragement and then dispersed to their respective search areas.

The two young men walked in silence. Zhao Yijiu seemed to be like that by nature, and Yu Xing didn't know how to start a conversation.

After the group dispersed, the vast, dilapidated factory seemed even more eerie. Even a slightly louder voice would echo, and the rain outside added to the feeling that there were footsteps following them.

The right side was the hall's exit, and a narrow corridor just wide enough for two people to walk side by side. Yu Xing held a flashlight in one hand and a camera in the other, walking half a step behind Zhao Yijiu.

The corridor was enclosed with no windows, almost pitch-black, and only the light from the flashlight provided a sense of security.

"Do you fear ghosts?" The indifferent voice was like a bucket of cold water poured into a refrigerator, instantly freezing Yu Xing. He was taken aback and realized Zhao Yijiu was trying to start a conversation.

He must have seemed unenthusiastic, not bold, and not calm, but Zhao Yijiu's tone didn't seem to be mocking him.

"There probably aren't any ghosts in the world. I'm afraid of visual and auditory jump scares and subtle, terrifying hints. It's a natural physiological and psychological reaction." He tried to explain to avoid looking weak.

"Is that so." Zhao Yijiu's face was hard to see in the darkness. He seemed to glance back at Yu Xing, who had an innocent and sincere expression, and then blinked before falling silent again.

"..."

The conversation couldn't continue.

The corridor wasn't long, and Zhao Yijiu kept his eyes straight ahead, his aura heavy. Yu Xing kept changing the flashlight's beam, and sure enough, after a few steps, he saw a small, fist-sized rat hole in the wall with a small cylindrical metal object inside.

"Battery!" His mood improved, and under Zhao Yijiu's silent gaze, he bent down to pick it up.

But at that moment, his heart skipped a beat, and a bad feeling washed over him.

Nothing bad will happen... he thought, hesitating before continuing to reach for it.

However, it turned out that a man's sixth sense can be very strong.

His long fingers had just grasped the battery when he saw a pale, slightly purple hand appear in the hole.

It was a man's hand!

A man's hand squeezed out of what should have been a hole gnawed by rats or insects, as if it had eyes, and tightly grabbed Yu Xing's wrist!

It was cold, limp, and felt like a dead person's hand.

The moment the hand touched Yu Xing's skin, a chill ran up his spine, freezing him in place.

"Ghost!!" Yu Xing screamed and immediately retreated, feeling a pull on his wrist, as if trying to drag him into the small hole.

Seeing his struggle, Zhao Yijiu grabbed the back of his collar. Yu Xing felt that as soon as Zhao Yijiu touched him, the hand in the hole let go.

The hand retreated and disappeared without a trace. Yu Xing was still shaken, his wrist aching, and he feared it would bruise soon.

"What was that?" He was a bit panicked.

Was it a prop set up by Assistant Hao, or a "haunted house actor" hiding on the other side of the wall?

Zhao Yijiu squatted down, shone his flashlight into the rat hole, and even poked it a couple of times: "It's a normal wall, and the thing is gone."

They looked at each other, both understanding what the other was thinking:

According to Zhang Shuya, this could have a reasonable explanation, but whether it was a deliberately set prop or a hidden person, could it disappear on its own?

That didn't make sense.

"The hand just now didn't seem fake." Yu Xing frowned, sensing something was wrong. He rubbed the skin on his wrist, where goosebumps had risen, and muttered, "I'm familiar with corpses. It felt like one that had already undergone autolysis but hadn't started to decay yet..."

"You're familiar with corpses?" Zhao Yijiu glanced at him, a bit surprised.

"......Just a figure of speech." Yu Xing smiled and then opened his hand, finally getting the battery.

Zhao Yijiu "hmm"ed and didn't pursue it further. After a moment of silence, as if thinking, he finally said: "......Tonight is a bit strange."

"How so?"

"I was the first to enter the factory. Before I came in, I saw a shadow moving through the window, thinking someone else had arrived first, but I didn't see anyone inside." Zhao Yijiu's bangs half-covered his eyebrows, his eyes full of doubt.

"Later, as you all came in one by one, I never found out who the initial shadow was."

"Don't tell me, you're telling a ghost story now. I'll take it seriously." Yu Xing took a step back, his tense expression making Zhao Yijiu feel a bit amused.

"I'm serious. So I'm thinking, is tonight's test just a simple company recruitment, or is there something else being hidden? If you're an atheist, consider this as nothing."

Yu Xing's face turned pale: "Atheist... sometimes I am, sometimes I'm not. Usually not before exam results are announced or when I'm drawing cards in a game, but otherwise, I am."

Zhao Yijiu: That's too real.

"In short, if you tell me there's really a ghost here, I can accept it." Yu Xing's voice trembled as he tried to sound calm, looking back at the factory door, which was now far away, "Can I leave now, never to return?"

"Since you're here." Zhao Yijiu said the most commonly used line in Chinese without changing his expression, "What if I'm overthinking it, and you get eliminated by the company?"

As he spoke, he pointed ahead: "There's a door there."

The door was at the end of the corridor, blocking their way. Zhao Yijiu clearly intended to continue.

Yu Xing struggled internally. Before confirming whether there were real ghosts, the attraction of the salary won. He suppressed the urge to run home and watched Zhao Yijiu push the door: "......It's locked."

Why lock it if it's abandoned? Yu Xing asked, "What kind of lock?"

Zhao Yijiu, who was about to kick the door, casually replied: "A regular key lock."

Qingyuan Pharmaceutical Factory was roughly decorated, and the door locks certainly didn't need to be password-protected or electronic.

"Then move aside, let me open it."

Yu Xing put the camera on the ground and took a wire from his work pants pocket, approaching the lock.

Zhao Yijiu: ?

Dude, your skill points are allocated quite uniquely.