A Courage Test!"
Jiang Xinyue's bright, watery eyes sparkled with light.
Without a moment's hesitation, she raised her hand high and said, "Wow! Then I want to play too."
"Jiang Xinyue from your class is so brave."
"True. It's one thing to be beautiful, but is she really this gutsy?"
Students from the neighboring class who were invited to the birthday party were surprised.
Jiang Xinyue was a well-known beauty in her grade, admired by many students.
They had planned to perform well during the Courage Test to win her favor, since most girls were traditionally afraid of the dark.
There would be plenty of opportunities to show off their masculinity in front of Jiang Xinyue.
However...
The plan was ideal, but reality was harsh.
"If you want to be Jiang Xinyue's knight in shining armor, forget it. She's not afraid of the dark, and she's not afraid of ghosts."
Her classmates laughed upon hearing this.
"They say Jiang Xinyue watched ghost movies and weird folklore stuff with her brother every day when she was little. It'd be strange if she were afraid of ghosts."
"Even if everyone here is scared, Jiang Xinyue might not even be fazed."
"Her courage is top-tier in our class. Someone tried to scare her before, but ended up getting scared themselves by the folklore stories she told."
With the school beauty Jiang Xinyue joining in...
The atmosphere instantly became much more lively.
Many students present eagerly participated.
Even if they couldn't play the hero or the protector, playing a game with Jiang Xinyue was still a chance to get closer to her.
"Thirty-one people playing, right?"
The Birthday Girl counted the number of people.
"Then we'll go down ten at a time, boys and girls separately to stop you guys from being handsy. You decide the order yourselves. Xinyue, you go down last as the grand finale, heehee."
"Got it, mou man tai la," Jiang Xinyue replied in broken Cantonese.
The Birthday Girl nodded.
"Let's start without further delay. My basement is very large, a hundred square meters, with three rooms: a game room, a small KTV, and a storage room."
"I'll turn off all the lights in a bit. You'll go down in the dark to find the items drawn from the lots. Whoever finds theirs first wins. Oh, right."
She stopped abruptly.
To make the game more interesting...
She looked at the thirty-one participants with a mischievous smile.
"Let's pick ten people to go down first. They'll be responsible for hiding and scaring the people coming down to find things. How about it?"
You're quite the little genius.
Many participants felt a twitch in their hearts.
Going down in the dark to find things was already nerve-wracking since no one knew what it was like inside. Now with people hiding to scare them, even the brave would be tense; getting scared into making a fool of oneself would be social suicide.
Less than five minutes later...
The personnel assignment was complete.
The girl stood at the Entrance and shouted toward the basement, "Are you all hidden?"
"Ready!"
Ten voices called out in succession.
The girl turned off the basement lights and turned to let everyone draw lots for the items they needed to find.
"Yan Yan, are you sure you don't want to participate? This is really exciting."
After drawing her lot, Jiang Xinyue wanted Jiang Yan to join her.
However, even with Jiang Xinyue offering to go with her, Jiang Yan still shook her head like a rattle.
"No, no, no, absolutely not. I'll just watch from the side."
She was very timid; she usually had to be extremely cautious just walking at night, let alone participating in a scaring game.
Hearing this, Jiang Xinyue was about to speak and persuade her.
"Alright, let's begin then," the Birthday Girl said at that moment.
She looked at the first ten students going in and gave a kind reminder.
"By the way, be careful on the stairs when you go down. Fun is fun, but safety first."
The basement was pitch black.
Even if there weren't many steps, falling down midway would result in a scraped knee or a bumped head, if not a fracture.
"It's dark down there and you won't see the steps clearly. When you go down, count the steps as you go. My basement stairs have 11 steps," she said.
"I'll go first."
The speaker was a male student with glasses from the first group.
After glancing at Jiang Xinyue, he wanted to show off in front of her and took the lead.
The basement was a void of darkness.
He couldn't even see his own hand in front of his face.
The student with glasses walked very slowly, fearing he might accidentally miss a step and fall.
Fortunately, the stairs were right against the wall. With the Birthday Girl's reminder, he slowly shuffled, feeling for the wall, and then carefully walked down one step at a time, counting as he went.
"1, 2, 3... 5..."
He walked and counted step by step like that.
When he mentally reached the number '11'...
He safely reached the basement floor.
"I'm down, next one come on!" he shouted toward the Entrance. "Remember to hold the wall as you walk, that way you won't fall."
According to the game rules...
All ten people needed to be in the basement before the Courage Test officially began.
Then the second student walked down.
Hearing the sound of footsteps, the boy with glasses reminded, "Count the steps as you come down, be careful."
"Okay."
The second student began counting the steps.
"1, 2, 3... 5... 7..."
With every step he took, he whispered the count... Meanwhile, at Jiang Jiuguo's home.
"Son, you're back. I just made some chicken soup, you can have some in a bit."
Mother Jiang waved to Jiang Jiuguo as he entered the door.
Her son had been away mining abroad for a year; she had to quickly nourish his body.
"Okay," Jiang Jiuguo replied casually.
"Is something wrong? Son, were you late dropping Xinyue off at the party?"
Looking at the approaching Jiang Jiuguo, Mother Jiang stopped herself from asking him to taste if the soup was salty enough and instead asked with concern.
The Jiang siblings had always been keen observers, a trait inherited from Mother Jiang.
At this moment...
Mother Jiang noticed that Jiang Jiuguo seemed a bit absent-minded.
"No, I'm just thinking about some things," Jiang Jiuguo said, indeed caught by Mother Jiang.
On the way back from the villa, he had been pondering something regarding what No. 47 had said—that Sequencers easily trigger the appearance of Ghost Gate Passes.
Before he was captured...
If he sent Jiang Xinyue out to play at night, he would never worry about her safety since his sister had learned self-defense.
But things were different now.
Now knowing that the world had a dangerous, unknown side, even if his sister had self-defense skills to ward off creeps, she couldn't ward off ghosts.
People in Jiang Xinyue's age group were always rebellious and liked to play with novel things.
"No, I still have to go check on Xinyue."
Jiang Jiuguo ultimately couldn't put his mind at ease.
Even if he was eighty percent sure that Jiang Xinyue would be fine, he couldn't ignore that one percent chance!
His sister was one of the people he cared about most.
If there was even a twenty percent chance of danger, he had to take it seriously.
"Once you become a ghost, once you become a Sequencer, there are some things you can't avoid just because you want to. Science can't explain metaphysics."
The words No. 47 had once said echoed in his mind.
Jiang Jiuguo turned and ran out the door.
"Dad, Mom, I'm going out for a bit, I'll be right back."
"Huh?" Father Jiang was confused. "Jiuguo, where are you going so late at night?"
"I forgot to give Xinyue something, I'm taking it to her."
Jiang Jiuguo told a casual lie.
Whether it was out of worry, No. 47's words, or an extraordinary sixth sense after becoming a Sequencer, he felt a faint sense of unease.
This unease had been with him all the way back.
Until now, it was being magnified infinitely.
The car engine started with a series of roars.
Jiang Jiuguo floored the accelerator and sped toward the villa area...