Escape from the Thriller World – Chapter 2
by Little PandaVolume One: The Old Corpse in the Mountain Village
Pen Fairy Game
The first victim has appeared.
The movie is set in Hong Kong during the early 1970s, with the room’s furnishings matching the period setting. The clock shows 10:40, and the game is set to begin at 11:00.
Originally there were four people, but now there are eight.
The eight people look at each other warily, each giving a brief introduction.
The room remains unlit, with several candles placed on the table and a red pen in the center.
In the soft orange candlelight, which outlined everyone’s faces, Ning Lan took out her phone to find no signal. She turned on the flashlight function to see their faces clearly.
Her contact list had also changed, showing only seven people. Could these seven people be the players in this game?
A well-dressed woman screamed, pointing to a memorial portrait hanging on the table behind Ning Lan. In the portrait, an elderly grandmother seemed to be “staring” at them with a kind smile.
It was customary for Hong Kong people in the early 1970s to keep ancestral tablets and Buddhist statues in their homes.
Ning Lan stared at it and shook her head, covering her mouth as she said, “Her eyes seem to have moved…”
Ning Lan glanced back but saw nothing unusual.
This woman was timid; during the earlier introductions, she had revealed herself as Kim Hyo-rin, the lead singer of the current SKY girl group.
Kim Hyo-rin shuddered and hid behind another player, a doctor.
The doctor, wearing a white coat and black-framed glasses, held Kim Hyo-rin’s hand and kissed it gentlemanly, saying, “Miss Hyo-rin, I still collect your girl group’s albums.”
Kim Hyo-rin disgustedly pulled her hand away from the doctor, saying irritably, “You must be our sasaeng fan (an obsessive fan who stalks celebrities), how disgusting, stay away from me.”
A few days ago, Kim Hyo-rin was heading to Jiangbei Airport with her assistant, planning to go to Shanghai for a fan signing event, when they encountered a car accident on the way.
The instigators were those sasaeng fans blocking the airport; they had learned of their departure route in advance and planned to ambush Kim Hyo-rin’s car.
Kim Hyo-rin’s driver couldn’t avoid these crazy sasaeng fans in time, and stepped on the gas pedal, crashing into a tanker truck. Everyone in the car died.
When she woke up, she was in Hell Hotel, and she entered this game after reading the rules displayed on the watch.
Kim Hyo-rin gnashed her teeth at sasaeng fans, thinking this doctor in the white coat was no better than them.
At that moment, ding-dong ding-dong, the clock’s ticking seemed to sound like their death knell.
The hour and minute hands both pointed to 11 o’clock, and now the game officially began.
The death watch had sent out the mission requirements in advance – their first level was to complete the Pen Fairy Game.
The watch on Ning Lan’s wrist vibrated, and when she pressed the button, the watch displayed instructions in a blue frame.
The Pen Fairy Game requires two people to cross their hands while holding a pen and write down their wishes, “inviting the spirit.”
They all found partners, except for Ning Lan who was unwilling to get close to them, and finally paired up with a woman wearing a qipao.
Her delicate face and smooth black hair were pinned up with a wooden hairpin, her lips rosy – she had quite the air of a classical woman.
Ning Lan shined her phone’s flashlight at her and said, “Ice Face, it’s you.”
“Who are you calling Ice Face, you!” Shen Qingyou pointed at Ning Lan.
Shen Qingyou didn’t want to mix with that group, she hadn’t said a word to them the whole time.
Ning Lan checked the names in her phone’s contacts, and after excluding the 6 people who had introduced themselves earlier, this must be Shen Qingyou.
This woman, Shen Qingyou, had quite a mysterious identity.
The film takes place in summer, and she had changed from a coat on the high-speed train to a qipao – the game was matching their clothes according to the changes in the film.
Ning Lan wasn’t so particular; she let the game system randomly match her with a white shirt and jeans.
“Miss Shen Qingyou, please cooperate to complete the game.” Ning Lan made a “please” gesture.
“Oh, now you know to call me ‘Miss’? Too late.” Shen Qingyou played with the pen on her own.
Their grudge (literally “establish a beam,” meaning to form a lasting conflict or enmity) had started on the high-speed train.
Shen Qingyou never believed in ghost stories or supernatural powers; she was clear-headed about that.
Everyone before them had already completed their “spirit invitation” wishes, except for Ning Lan and Shen Qingyou.
As a mystery novelist, Ning Lan knew that according to horror movie plots, if they didn’t complete the “spirit invitation,” they wouldn’t be able to pass the level or trigger the subsequent plot points.
Failure to pass the Pen Fairy Game would signal their death sentence in this game.
Ning Lan snatched the pen from Shen Qingyou’s hand and forcefully pressed her hand onto the table, saying, “Sorry, Miss Shen, but you don’t have a choice.”
“You’re just trying to make things difficult for me!” (literally “cannot pass through,” meaning to deliberately create trouble) Shen Qingyou’s hand was pinned down by Ning Lan, unable to move.
The room was cluttered with everyday items, with opened cans sitting on the washing machine, emitting a corrosive smell from canned fish.
The doctor in the white coat was particularly sensitive to these smells, and he instinctively felt nauseous and wanted to go to the bathroom.
With a “creak,” the bathroom door opened, and the white-coated doctor went in and turned on the faucet to splash some water on his face to clear his head.
He had merely accepted red envelopes (monetary gifts, often given as bribes in this context) from a pregnant woman’s family and let her die on the operating table, but the next day he himself fell down the stairs.
The white-coated doctor had a nameplate on his pocket: Zhu Goushou.
Indeed, he was a male gynecologist who delivered babies. He graduated from Southwest Medical College and was one of the hospital’s model obstetricians.
Zhu Goushou worked at a Grade-A Tertiary Hospital (the highest level of hospital classification in China), appearing to be an upright doctor on the surface but was actually black-hearted.
How could those in the medical profession support their families on mere salary alone? Over time, they had to accept red envelopes to “calm their nerves” (euphemism for accepting bribes).
Zhu Goushou had accepted many red envelopes over the years and handled numerous abortion cases. His conscience was never troubled; he believed he was merely taking money to resolve others’ troubles.
Splashing water on his face repeatedly, he cursed, “What do I care if your husbands want you dead!”
After clearing his head, Zhu Goushou tried to put his black-framed glasses back on.
In the mirror before him, a pair of hands reached out – women’s hands with red nails that caught hold of his carotid artery.
The sharp fingertips rapidly elongated, directly slicing through his artery. Blood sprayed onto the mirror’s surface as Zhu Goushou kicked his legs, staring at the woman in blue clothes with disheveled hair in the mirror.
Zhu Goushou made “mmm mmm” sounds.
His entire body was slowly lifted up by those hands. He struggled violently, his right hand knocking over the rinsing cup on the washstand.
Violent sounds came from the bathroom.
Only then did Ning Lan and Shen Qingyou put down their pens, as a boy in a student uniform beside them gathered the courage to go look.
This boy, named Wei Chen, was still in high school. He had chosen to commit suicide by jumping off a building due to overwhelming pressure in real life, which led him to the Hell Hotel.
College entrance exams, endless test papers assigned by teachers – he couldn’t handle the pressure.
His parents were like an alarm clock by his ear (meaning they constantly pressured him), demanding he get into Tsinghua or Peking University (China’s top universities) at any time – but he couldn’t do it!
He wasn’t a naturally gifted genius; with his grades, he could only qualify for a vocational college.
His mother’s scolding, his father’s strict discipline.
Slap after slap landed on his face, as Wei Chen knelt down, enduring his father’s scolding.
Wei Chen just wanted to be himself – why did his parents always force him to do things he didn’t want to do?
He didn’t want to take the college entrance exam; he just wanted to learn barbering skills from his father.
His mother disagreed and argued with him, and in a fit of anger (literally “in one breath of anger,” meaning acting impulsively due to extreme anger), he climbed to the rooftop and leapt!
Having died once already, Wei Chen now had the courage of a bull (literally “courage as big as an ox,” meaning extremely brave) as he walked toward the bathroom.
He reached forward to turn the circular handle of the bathroom door, and it opened.
Zhu Goushou lay on the ground with his head hanging, pupils dilated, with blood on his black-framed glasses and leather shoes.
Wei Chen stepped backward, retreating in horror.
“Ghost… we really summoned a ghost?” Wei Chen pointed at Zhu Goushou’s corpse.
Kim Hyo-rin became even more frightened, covering her head and trembling behind the worn-out sofa, muttering: “Don’t kill me, don’t kill me…”
She seemed to see the grandmother in the memorial portrait, her eyeballs moving again…
Ning Lan surveyed their surroundings – they were in an old Hong Kong residential building, with clothing poles on the balcony full of hanging clothes, when suddenly they heard footsteps in the corridor.
“Click, click, click…” The sound of high heels, with a strong rhythmic cadence.
Wei Chen’s heart jumped to his throat, and he used his entire body to block the old aluminum alloy door, frantically turning the lock.
The sound of high heels disappeared. Wei Chen looked through the peephole, and a pair of blood-red eyes stared back at him.
Wei Chen covered the peephole with his hand, saying: “Go away, go away!”
The first victim had appeared, and the pen in their hands moved slightly, its tip pointing toward Zhu Goushou in the bathroom.
“Shen Qingyou, did you make a wish just now? Quick, tell me!” Ning Lan asked anxiously.
“No… no… I don’t believe in these things!” Shen Qingyou answered with absolute conviction.
Ning Lan grabbed her hand again, placing the pen on the paper, forcing her to “invite the spirit.”
The game rules must require all of them to complete the spirit invitation, and the first pair to start the game had been Wei Chen and Zhu Goushou.
Could it be that the ghost was killing people in this order?
Ning Lan began to break open the pen, and Shen Qingyou said, “Have you gone mad!”
“Breaking this pen is the key to passing the first level!” Ning Lan snatched the brush pen and broke it in her hands, and the footsteps outside the door came to an abrupt halt.
Game rules must be broken to establish new ones, perhaps the ghost was summoned by this pen.
While Ning Lan thought this was the way to interrupt the game, Wei Chen, as if possessed (literally “touched by evil,” meaning to act irrationally), opened the old aluminum alloy door and rushed outside.
By now, the “ghost” had its sights set on Wei Chen, who ran like a madman toward the rooftop.
Run, they must leave this room!
They were all now exposed within the ghost’s line of sight.
Ning Lan, disregarding the others behind her, was the first to run out of the room, heading down the building.
The players in the room watched Ning Lan run outside, and they followed in her footsteps.
Kim Hyo-rin shouted: “Don’t leave me behind! Ah!”
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