The Haunted Castle

At eight in the evening, everyone, full and satisfied, left the restaurant.

Night had already fallen by then. The red lanterns hung high on both sides of the street were all lit, casting a reddish-yellow glow on the stone-paved roads, making each street particularly dazzling.

In truth, compared to the daytime, the ancient town at night was when it was most enchanting.

The central area of the ancient town was ablaze with lights, and every street was packed with tourists from all corners of the country.

Music bars lining the roads played soft, melodious folk songs, creating a romantic and leisurely atmosphere in the night.

At this moment, Su Yang and the others were strolling along the street heading towards the North Gate. Ren Lingxi, spotting a shop selling candied hawthorns, laughed and said, "Brother Su Yang, do you want some candied hawthorn?"

"Candied hawthorn? You can still eat?" Su Yang looked at Ren Lingxi with some surprise.

"Mhm~"

"Still hungry?"

"No, I'm just craving something sweet~ hehe."

"Then my treat~" Su Yang said, looking at the others. "Wait up, everyone. Do you want any candied hawthorn?"

The others turned around and shook their heads one after another. "Couldn't eat another bite~"

"Wait for me for two minutes then." He said and walked with Ren Lingxi to the candied hawthorn shop, buying a stick of the most traditional hawthorn candied fruit.

Ren Lingxi happily took the candied hawthorn and gave it a lick. "So sweet. Oh no~"

"What's wrong?"

"I was going to let you try one, but I couldn't resist licking it~"

Su Yang laughed heartily. "It's fine, I won't have any. You enjoy it yourself~"

"Okay then."

Chatting, they continued their leisurely walk towards the exit outside the North Gate.

Soon, the twelve of them arrived at the parking lot diagonally across from the North Gate exit.

Su Yang's car and those of Meng Wenzhou and Liu Bo were parked in different areas. Meng Wenzhou walked to the front, stopped, turned, and looked at the group.

"We have three cars. How does everyone want to split up?"

"Four people per car, that works perfectly," Chu Qiunan suggested.

"Alright, which two are riding with me?" Meng Wenzhou looked at the group.

Zhang Ziming, pulling Chen Chen beside him forward, smiled and said, "The two of us will ride with you."

Meng Wenzhou nodded. "OK, the rest of you can sort yourselves out."

With that, he, Wang Shuyue, Zhang Ziming, and Chen Chen headed towards his car.

Seeing them leave, Su Yang looked at the others. "Who's riding with me?"

"Me, me, me!" Chu Qiunan, pulling Du Wenli beside her, ran up to Su Yang and grinned. "We two will ride in your car."

Su Yang nodded with a smile. "Alright, let's go. Then the remaining four of you take one car."

He said, looking at Liu Bo, Ji Bo, and the other two.

"No problem."

Everyone headed towards their respective cars.

Soon, Su Yang led Ren Lingxi, Chu Qiunan, and Du Wenli to his Cullinan.

He walked to the driver's side and opened the door, only to see Ren Lingxi and Du Wenli standing there dumbfounded, staring at the front of the car.

"What are you standing there for? Get in. Lingxi, you take the front passenger seat. Old Chu, you and Wenli take the back."

"OK!" Chu Qiunan agreed and pulled the still-stunned Du Wenli to the back seat, quickly getting in.

[Ding, detected that the host has subtly shown off in an understated manner, mood pleasant, reward 2 million]

—Not bad, not bad.

Just then, Ren Lingxi swallowed and walked to Su Yang's side, saying with slight astonishment, "Brother Su Yang, I didn't realize you were so wealthy! You drive a Rolls-Royce!"

Su Yang smiled casually. "Just lucky, that's all. Never mind that, get in quickly."

"Oh, oh, okay."

As they spoke, the two opened the doors and got in.

Su Yang fastened his seatbelt and looked at the others. "Everyone, fasten your seatbelts~"

"Okay."

After starting the car, Su Yang connected to the navigation and checked. This "Soul-Shaking Castle" was located in a place called Dahou Village on the outskirts of Li City, a total distance of 17.8 kilometers.

He led the way out of the parking lot. As he circled to the parking lot entrance, Meng Wenzhou and Liu Bo's cars followed from behind.

Soon, the three cars left the parking lot and headed towards Dahou Village.

There was a bit of traffic in the city area, but once they left the city limits, the road was clear all the way.

After driving for a while, the buildings on both sides of the road gradually decreased until the entire stretch was pitch black, without streetlights.

No buildings could be seen on either side of the road anymore, not even self-built houses, just darkness.

Fortunately, the Cullinan's headlights were very powerful, illuminating the road ahead brightly.

At first, a few oncoming cars occasionally passed in the opposite lane. After another ten minutes of driving, no more vehicles appeared in the oncoming lane either.

The entire road held only the three cars of Su Yang's group.

Looking at the pitch-black outside the window, Du Wenli in the back seat said somewhat nervously, "It's so dark out there."

"That's normal. National and county roads are like this at night, pitch black."

Du Wenli rolled down the window and looked out again, then turned to Chu Qiunan and joked, "You're not planning to take us girls out to the wilderness to bump us off, are you?"

"Huh?" Hearing this, Chu Qiunan looked utterly confused.

"Hehe, I'm just kidding~"

Chu Qiunan rolled her eyes. "Keep joking like that and I might really sell you off~"

"Hehe, you guys look like good people, you definitely wouldn't."

Su Yang, sitting in front, laughed. "Stop scaring people, this road is dark enough as it is."

"Well, she started the joke first~"

Ignoring the two in the back, Su Yang glanced sideways at Ren Lingxi in the passenger seat. She had her head bowed and was already dozing off.

Su Yang didn't look further and focused on driving.

Because the road was relatively narrow and they had been stuck in traffic earlier in the city, it took them forty minutes to reach the location marked by the GPS.

The road they were on now was still pitch black. To the left were fields, and to the right was a vast, abandoned construction site. Beyond the site to the right stretched a range of large mountains.

The Soul-Shaking Castle was situated within this desolate, overgrown construction site.

Apart from this one abandoned factory building, there were no other structures in the area.

After driving a bit further, they saw a sign by the roadside that read: "Soul-Shaking Castle Immersive Escape Room," with a right-pointing arrow beneath the words.

Seeing this, Su Yang turned the car onto the right side, onto a vacant lot full of weeds and gravel.

"We're here."

Hearing this, the others leaned forward to look ahead.

About a few dozen meters away stood a large, dilapidated old factory building, four or five stories high.

The overall appearance of the factory was extremely rundown: peeling exterior walls, architectural style from the 80s or 90s, window frames devoid of glass revealing pitch-black interiors. Under the night sky, it looked exceptionally eerie and sinister.

Fortunately, lights were on inside the first floor of the factory, and there was also a large lamp at the main entrance, with over a dozen cars parked there. If it had been completely dark, everyone would probably have turned around and left immediately.

The three cars quickly drove to the open area in front of the entrance, found random spots, and parked.

After everyone got out, Su Yang looked around. Apart from the area right by the entrance, everywhere else was engulfed in darkness.

The large iron gate of the factory not far away was half-open. Above it, a crude red banner read: Licheng Large-Scale Immersive Outdoor Escape Room - Horror Castle. A little higher up on the wall, a surveillance camera was installed.

On the walls flanking the iron gate, graffiti in various colors depicted some incomprehensible shapes.

Zhang Jie, walking beside Liu Bo, frowned slightly and said, "Setting up an escape room in such a remote place... It seemed okay before we got here, but now that we're actually standing in front of it, it's a bit creepy."

"It's fine. Look at all the cars parked here; there must be quite a few people coming to play," Chu Qiunan said with a laugh.

"But I just have this feeling the place is a bit eerie~" Chen Chen also looked at the others with some concern.

After surveying the surroundings, Wang Shuyue asked with a hint of worry, "You don't think there's anything wrong with this place, do you?"

Ji Bo stepped forward and chuckled, "How could there be? Look at all these cars. This kind of spooky, terrifying atmosphere is exactly what they're going for."

"It's alright. Let's just go in first."

"Alright then, we're already here~"

As they spoke, the group stepped through the large iron gate into the abandoned factory.