Zuo Si spent nearly a day helping Ge Dali complete his enrollment procedures.
The school was located near the southern suburbs, charging three thousand yuan per semester, which was neither too good nor too bad. After taking care of everything and leaving his phone number for Ge Dali, he returned to the haunted house with the enrollment notice in hand.
A long line still formed in front of the haunted house, where Ding Ruxiao sat under a sunshade, wearing sunglasses and sipping a cocktail. She was so eye-catching that even though autumn had arrived, she still wore hot pants, crossing her legs and showcasing her long, fair legs.
Nearby, nearly all the men cast glances at her, their interest unmistakable. Her seductive charm was evident.
Upon seeing Zuo Si, Ding Ruxiao smiled slightly, removed her sunglasses, and, with a straw in her mouth, winked at him.
Zuo Si felt a jolt, as if he had been electrocuted, and inwardly cursed, thinking she was definitely a demoness! He approached Ding Ruxiao and said sarcastically, “Hmph~ You say I enjoy life too much, but I see someone here enjoying it even more than I do!”
“Too lazy to to be bother~” Ding Ruxiao replied, happily sipping her cocktail, completely unfazed by Zuo Si’s teasing.
Without further conversation, Zuo Si greeted Lin Zihao and then directly entered the horror scene.
Arriving at Operating Room No. 2, Zuo Si took out the enrollment notice. After much contemplation, he ultimately decided to speak the truth. “Ge Hong, your mother has passed away…”
As soon as the words left his mouth, the temperature in the operating room dropped a few degrees, and a chaotic cold wind began to blow. “But you have a younger brother; I wonder if you still remember him? His name is Ge Dali! He’s a very understanding child!”
The cold wind dissipated, but the temperature remained low. “I know you must still remember him, right? Today I found him, and he told me that you two have a good relationship, and you often told him, ‘Knowledge changes destiny,’ encouraging him to study hard in the future.”
Seeing Ge Hong’s lack of response, Zuo Si continued, “You should know your family’s situation; Ge Dali no longer has the means to attend school, so I sent him to a boarding school to keep him away from that worthless father.”
Zuo Si placed the enrollment notice on the ground. “This is his enrollment notice. I made this decision without your consent, which may have been a bit abrupt. If you feel I have done anything inappropriate, please let me know.”
The enrollment notice slowly floated up from the ground and, after a short while, returned to Zuo Si’s hand. It seemed that Ge Hong was quite satisfied with Zuo Si’s decision.
“Rest assured, I will continue to support Ge Dali’s education until he graduates from university. With this haunted house as a source of income, it won’t be difficult.”
“Thank you…”
Just as Zuo Si finished speaking, he heard those two words softly echoing in his ear. “You’re welcome. I said before, we will be a family from now on.”
Buzz! Buzz!
The black phone vibrated, and Zuo Si immediately took it out to check.
[Dear Soul Keeper, congratulations on completing Ge Hong’s favorability task. Ge Hong’s favorability towards you has risen to three stars.]
[Dear Soul Keeper, Ge Hong’s favorability towards you has reached three stars.
Would you like to recruit her as a member of your ghost team?]
Zuo Si clicked confirm immediately, feeling three points more confident about tonight’s task. He opened the Black Skull App and looked at the last daily task.
[The Crying Middle School. Click to claim.
A broken school, where some laugh while others cry; sometimes it resembles a microcosm of society, yet at times it is even more brutal than society itself.]
[Dear Soul Keeper, congratulations on successfully claiming the one-and-a-half-star horror task, ‘The Crying Middle School.’
Task Objective: Arrive at Dejing Middle School before eleven o’clock tonight and survive there until dawn.
Optional Task One: Who is knocking at the door?
Task Objective: Find the location of the person knocking at the door in the third-floor confinement room.
Optional Task Two: I really want to fall in love.
Task Objective: Find the person yearning for love in the second-floor teacher’s office and become her lover for tonight.
Optional Task Three: Where are we?
Task Objective: Locate all the children at Dejing Middle School and ask for their names.
Optional Task Four: I really want to play a game.
Task Objective: Accompany the children of Dejing Middle School in a game they enjoy.
Optional Task Five: Identify and eliminate the evil spirits.
Task Hint: Optional Task Four can only be undertaken after completing Optional Task Three.]
[Dear Soul Keeper, you have successfully completed three daily tasks, and new daily tasks will refresh in three days.]
“This…” Zuo Si had not yet had the chance to marvel at the complexity of these tasks when the black phone pinged again with a notification.
[Dear Soul Keeper, congratulations on successfully activating the first courage-testing task ‘The Wonderful Music Box.’]
[Task Objective: At 2 AM, comb your hair in the second-floor restroom of Dejing Middle School. When the reflection in the mirror smiles at you, please close your eyes, remain silent, and stand still for five minutes.
Task Reward: The Wonderful Music Box.
Item Effect: Open it, and you can easily gather those children together.
Task Hint One: During the period of closing your eyes, please do not move, and definitely do not open your eyes.
Task Hint Two: This task is extremely dangerous; please choose wisely.
Task Hint Three: This task is unique; if you cannot complete it tonight, you will no longer be able to obtain the ‘Wonderful Music Box’ item in the future.]
“The courage-testing task has been activated!”
Zuo Si was startled; just looking at this courage-testing task felt eerie. But he had no choice but to proceed and try to complete everything. The new daily tasks would refresh in three days, giving Zuo Si only three days of rest! If he did not accumulate enough fear value to upgrade the ghosts, even if he survived this task, he would die in future tasks.
Zuo Si took out his phone to search for the location of Dejing Middle School, and as expected, it was an abandoned school located near the southern suburbs.
Checking the time, it was almost time to get off work. Zuo Si left the haunted scene and went outside the haunted house to ask Ding Ruxiao about today’s earnings.
Ding Ruxiao glanced at her phone and said, “Today’s ticket price is fifty, and the total income is two thousand eight hundred.”
“So much.” Zuo Si had never experienced such a fast way to make money before. Just thinking about how the speed of earning would only increase in the future made him feel that all his efforts were worth it.
After closing the park, Zuo Si and Ding Ruxiao had dinner together.
To build good relationships with the staff, Ding Ruxiao also brought along Lin Zihao, the third wheel. However, this third wheel was quite well-behaved, hardly speaking during the meal, only eating and glancing around with his sneaky little eyes.
At eight in the evening, Zuo Si returned to the haunted house to start organizing things. He entered the horror scene, bringing along Meng Miaoxue’s high heels, Ge Hong’s T-shirt, and Gu Yiyi’s watermelon hairpin.
This was Zuo Si’s first time leading a team to carry out a task; he hoped everything would go smoothly. After everything was organized, Zuo Si went to a nearby computer store and spent over a thousand to buy a pinhole camera that could connect to his phone.
With this, as long as he fixed the camera to his chest, he wouldn’t have to worry about the live stream being interrupted.
With everything ready, Zuo Si checked the time; it was already past nine in the evening. To avoid any accidents, he decided to take a taxi to Dejing Middle School ahead of time.
However, to his surprise, after hailing three taxis in a row, the drivers all refused to go…