Thousands Of People Thought Of Him - Chapter 10

Hungry Ghost

Ying Fusang turned his head following the sound and realized that it wasn’t just one person grabbing him.

A group of students dressed in grotesque costumes and makeup themed around ghosts and monsters had already surrounded him.

Ying Fusang noticed the identical badges on their chests and understood that they were volunteers responsible for this stress-relief house.

Looking around, Ying Fusang realized he was now standing right at the entrance.

“No thanks, I don’t need it…” he started to refuse, still trying to peer through the crowd for a certain figure.

Before he could finish, several arms reached out and tugged at him in a jumble. “You’re super lucky, don’t be shy!” said a girl wearing a “Meng Po” (the lady of the underworld who serves the forgetfulness soup) name tag.

A boy wearing a bull’s head mask joined in persuading him: “Bro, I’m telling you, this project is super popular, tons of people line up all night! To keep order, we started randomly grabbing people for the experience.”

Ying Fusang waved his hand, “I’m not really interested…”

“Are you afraid of ghosts?” asked another boy wearing a horse-face mask.

“No,” Ying Fusang honestly replied, guessing they might think there was no point letting him in since he wasn’t scared, let alone for stress relief.

Their eyes lit up, “Then you’re even more suitable for the experience! Just think of it as a casual game.”

Ying Fusang: “…”

In the tugging, he looked up carefully at this stress-relief house, which was clearly themed around the underworld. Besides the bl00d-red plaque, directly facing him was a specially made stone door.

“Please come in, please come in!”

Ignoring their over-enthusiastic invitation, Ying Fusang calmed down to think. Qi Xingwen was a god—he wouldn’t get lost. Probably there was something he couldn’t come with him for, or it was just time for him to return.

No longer focusing too much on the other’s whereabouts, Ying Fusang decided to deal with the current matter first.

“…Alright then.” He always had a hard time dealing with situations like this.

Just going in and turning around once, he should be able to get out. Holding this thought, he slowly walked inside under the expectant gazes of the volunteers.

He had just heard that this stress-relief house would later be converted into a real stress-relief space, so the construction was by no means perfunctory, and the interior seemed quite spacious.

The entrance corridor was elaborately decorated. Stalactites of varying lengths hung from above, as if really inside a stone cave. Dim, mottled light was cast from corners along the sides of the path, and combined with a unique damp chill, it was indeed easy to immerse oneself.

After walking further inside, Ying Fusang still hadn’t encountered a single student playing an NPC role.

“Bang!”

Turning a corner at the wall, a “human head” suddenly dropped without warning, suspended in mid-air. Its plastic eyeballs met Ying Fusang’s real ones face to face.

Though only a few centimeters apart, Ying Fusang didn’t blink. He raised his hand and brushed it aside as casually as brushing aside a curtain.

Passing through the corridor, two doors appeared in front of Ying Fusang. On the wall between them, red paint formed directional arrows, and the left door was scrawled with crooked, bl00d-like letters: “Eighteen Layers of Hell.”

Standing here, the previously faint screams became particularly clear. He guessed the screams were from the students who had gone in ahead.

Listening more carefully, the screams from the left door seemed louder.

Getting out early was key, Ying Fusang thought, preparing to go right.

Just as he lifted his foot, a “white-clothed ghost” suddenly shot out from the right door. Black hair covered its face, long sleeves dragged on the ground, sliding swiftly towards him!

Ying Fusang turned his head; his first impression was that although the figure was thin, its bone structure didn’t quite look female; second, the figure’s shape seemed a bit familiar, and it wasn’t wearing a work badge.

The “white-clothed ghost” costume seemed to be a nod to Sadako (from The Ring), a Western ghost which didn’t quite fit the underworld theme. That was Ying Fusang’s final judgment.

Before the figure could collide straight on, he decisively made way for the skateboard under its feet. When it braked abruptly to slow down, Ying Fusang continued moving to the right.

Seeing his movement, the “white-clothed ghost” froze for a moment, then awkwardly skated again, trying to intimidate Ying Fusang.

“Want me to go left?” Ying Fusang asked.

The “white-clothed ghost” suppressed its excitement and nodded silently, silently urging him on.

Ying Fusang casually sized up the figure, then pretended to agree by nodding. The moment the figure relaxed its guard, Ying Fusang quickly spun and dashed into the right room, slamming the door shut behind him.

The “white-clothed ghost” was dumbfounded by this maneuver:?!

It hurried over but was rebuffed by the closed door.

“Bang bang bang—”

This “white-clothed ghost” was definitely off, now lying on the door outside pounding urgently and heavily.

Leaning against the door, Ying Fusang calmly locked it with a “click.”

The moment the door closed, the room was instantly engulfed in darkness. Unexpectedly, besides him, the room was completely empty.

The pounding on the door abruptly stopped, and Ying Fusang felt the temperature continuously dropping. A chill crept up his spine.

Wind?

He seemed to have found the source of the problem—there was a drafty window in this room.

At the same time, outside the window—

The temperature at night was low. Zhu Rui shivered uncontrollably, his teeth chattering.

Despite this, he still obediently crouched outside, watching the activity inside.

“Boss, trouble, that kid came to this room!” Zhu Rui exclaimed in alarm.

Not far away, Sun Wenhao, in the same position by another window, frowned and cursed, “Damn, I was wondering why I hadn’t seen that kid’s figure yet!”

“Move aside,” he strode to Zhu Rui’s side. Zhu Rui reluctantly gave up half the spot. Sun Wenhao gritted his teeth and said, “He really came here? What the hell is Liu Yizhuo doing!”

The yellow talisman’s summoning time was limited; if the target wasn’t found soon, it would return.

Sun Wenhao cursed twice in frustration, scratching his head, but still could only complain about Ying Fusang’s luck.

He turned around and sat on the ground to pack up, “Forget it, what a waste of time.”

Just then, Zhu Rui suddenly widened his eyes, lowering his voice excitedly, “No, boss, look! There’s something there!!”

“What something?” Sun Wenhao impatiently crouched to peek, and when he saw a certain corner, his eyes suddenly opened wide!

“Success, it really succeeded…” he muttered, pressing his face against the window eagerly.

Amid excitement was suspicion.

How could this be? The other hadn’t fallen into the trap, so why was he still locked onto by ‘it’?

Confused, Sun Wenhao stared intently inside—

In the faint moonlight, Ying Fusang noticed something outside the window. Just as he was about to approach and investigate, a strange sound came from a corner of the room.

A slight movement of footsteps; it seemed he had stepped on a mechanism. The endless darkness was turned over, and the room was bathed in a faint dark red ambient light.

Ying Fusang didn’t rush to look at the window but was drawn by the shadow cast on the wall, which kept twisting and growing until it covered half the wall.

He turned to the direction where the shadow came from.

In the corner lay a “person” crouched on the ground, slowly standing with a difficult posture, bones creaking as he stretched.

Under the red light, the figure was thin and bony, wearing tattered clothes. His skin was waxy yellow, loosely attached to his bones. His eye sockets were sunken, showing only the whites of his eyes. His lips were cracked and bleeding, and there seemed to be remnants of food at the corners of his mouth.

Though this staff member also lacked a badge, Ying Fusang silently admired his dedication.

“Hungry… so hungry…” he opened his mouth, fresh bl00d constantly dripping from his lips and flowing down his chin, his voice hoarse and slow.

After speaking, he suddenly raised his head and moved swiftly to stand just an arm’s length in front of Ying Fusang.

Even his walking was more professional than the “white-clothed ghost” earlier, Ying Fusang thought.

This “ghost” was tall and thin, easily towering over Ying Fusang. The two silently faced off for a moment.

“…”

“Here.” Ying Fusang thought for a moment, took out a bag of biscuits from the pocket of his school jacket, and held them out in his palm.

They were recently given to him by a street vendor when he was casually hanging out with Qi Xingwen.

The other stared at the biscuits with his white eyes, seeming to see something, tilting his head as if stuck.

He slowly reached out his bony fingers, hesitated, then grabbed the biscuits. Opening his mouth, he quickly tossed them inside and chewed.

Ying Fusang tried to remind him, “The packaging isn’t opened yet…?”

But the other ignored him, chewing, swallowing with a gulp, and then burping. It looked as if he had completed some task. He lowered his head and stood motionless, completely quiet.

Guessing the other was playing the role of a hungry ghost, Ying Fusang said nothing more and went to look for the exit. If there was no way out in this room, he would probably have to try the left door.

Oh, and the window.

When he turned his back to the hungry ghost, the other seemed suddenly awakened, lifting his head, staring straight at Ying Fusang with those white eyes, saliva mixed with bl00d dripping to the floor.

“So hungry… still so hungry…”

Sensing a whooshing sound behind him, as if something was rushing toward him!

Ying Fusang tensed instantly and instinctively dodged quickly to the side.

The hungry ghost opened its bl00d-red mouth wide toward him, its crimson tongue dragging on the ground. Wherever it swept sounded as if being corroded.

Something was off.

The hungry ghost refocused on Ying Fusang, its soft limbs stretching and elongating in an instant.

“So hungry… I want to eat flesh…” It roared fiercely and lunged at Ying Fusang with hands and feet moving like snakes!

No time to think about what was happening, Ying Fusang could only focus and dodge while moving toward the door.

In the midst of evasion, he subconsciously stretched out his left hand, knuckles tensed, vaguely feeling that a cluster of eerie blue flames should appear in his palm?

But at that distracted moment, the hungry ghost’s hand was already aimed straight at his face!

Ying Fusang’s pupils contracted sharply—