Redemption from the Abyss: The School Beauty Insists on Pulling Me Out of the Mire

The gate to the haunted house closed heavily behind Xie Wang and Su Qinghe.

Xie Wang walked through the pitch-black passage, stepping on soft silicone props of unknown material.

Based on Su Qinghe's usual behavior, Xie Wang originally thought she would start using acoustic principles to analyze the sound propagation path.

After all, this young lady could watch a horror movie without batting an eye, and even calmly comment on the logical flaws in human anatomy while eating snacks.

Just then, a hand reached out from the darkness and accurately grabbed the hem of his oversized school uniform jacket.

The surrounding lights flickered again, and Xie Wang turned his head to look.

The girl next to me had almost half her face buried in the turtleneck of her sweater.

She pressed her entire body against his arm.

Her usually composed, long eyelashes were now trembling slightly.

As Xie Wang stared at her, the image of her catching crabs with her bare hands on the island flashed through his mind.

There's no way Teacher Su could be so scared by a few silicone props.

Xie Wang smiled slightly, quite pleased to indulge his girlfriend's rare display of adorable naiveté.

He reached out and grabbed the slightly cool hand, his warm palm enveloping it.

"Afraid?"

Instead of coldly rebuking his childishness as usual, Su Qinghe leaned closer to him.

"Mmm." A soft, sweet sound escaped her throat.

Xie Wang chuckled, tightening his grip and pulling her into his arms.

The two held hands and moved slowly down the dark corridor.

The temperature was much lower than outside, and a cold wind was blowing in from some vent, blowing directly onto the back of my neck.

Su Qinghe followed closely behind Xie Wang's arm, deliberately keeping her breathing soft.

As you walk to the middle of the corridor, a hidden compartment disguised as a ceiling suddenly pops open.

A plastic arm covered in red paint fell down the track to the ground.

Su Qinghe let out a short cry of surprise, closed her eyes, and threw herself into Xie Wang's arms.

His chest pressed tightly against her soft body.

He wrapped one arm around her slender waist and used the other hand to soothe and pat her back.

"Don't be afraid, Teacher Su."

He whispered in her ear.

"I'm here."

Su Qinghe buried her face in his broad chest, her fingers tightly gripping the fabric of his shirt.

In the dim light, her body trembled slightly, but a sly smile secretly curved her lips as she nestled in Xie Wang's arms.

Suddenly, a discordant sound came from the deep, dark passage ahead.

A fluent recitation of French poetry with a Parisian Left Bank accent.

Xie Wanghuan's arm around his waist paused.

The tender affection in his eyes froze, and his lips twitched almost imperceptibly.

Su Qinghe also stopped what she was doing and poked her head out from his arms.

His eyes were clear as he looked down the corridor.

In a gloomy hospital filled with blood and dismembered limbs, someone was reciting poems praising death with deep emotion.

"In the shadow of death, your beauty can pierce my heart."

Lu Yi's uniquely melancholic voice echoed and reverberated through the empty corridor.

Xie Wang led Su Qinghe forward a dozen meters and around the corner from the operating room.

The operating lights at the entrance of the abandoned ward ahead flickered, distorting the shadows cast on the ground.

Lu Yi was wearing his signature oversized black trench coat.

Half a meter in front of me stood a real-life NPC with disheveled hair and wearing a blood-stained nurse's uniform.

The female nurse, who was originally supposed to jump out and chase the player with a chainsaw, is now frozen in place.

She held up a plastic chainsaw covered in red paint, poised to chop.

Faced with a player who was reciting French love poems with his eyes closed, this dedicated employee clearly got stuck.

Even when I turn to dust, I will sing your name in my grave.

Lu Yi raised his voice to finish reading the last sentence, then suddenly opened his eyes, looking at the nurse in front of him with a pitying gaze.

The nurse silently put down the plastic chainsaw, her eyes filled with a blank and helpless expression.

Having worked in haunted houses for three years, I've seen players crawling on the ground in fear, and I've seen scumbags abandoning their girlfriends and running away.

I've never seen anyone try to use literature to pray for the souls of the dead.

Xie Wang stood at the corner watching, and couldn't help but turn his head and chuckle softly.

Su Qinghe regained his cool and rational demeanor, shaking his head and sighing as he watched the retreating figure.

"artist."

Xie Wang let go, put his hands in his pockets, and slowly walked forward.

"Is this supposed to be bedtime reading for NPCs?"

Upon hearing the sound, Lu's tense body visibly relaxed.

He exhaled a long breath.

"vulgar."

Lu Yi stuffed the poetry collection into his pocket, then turned to face Xie Wang and Su Qinghe.

"I am using the power of literature to awaken the lost souls in this dark land."

The nurse muttered "crazy" under her breath, dragged the chainsaw, turned around, and went into the hidden door to hide again.

Xie Wang walked up to Lu Yi and looked him up and down.

"If your legs weren't shaking like this, I would have believed your nonsense."

Beneath black trousers, Lu Yi's two slender legs were swaying rapidly.

That dramatic recitation was purely a result of fear triggering an overload of the language center.

Su Qinghe walked to Xie Wang's side and pointed to the structural diagram above.

"You need to find the password in the morgue on the second basement level to open the door leading to the internal medicine building."

Once the act of feigning weakness is shed, the mind is once again occupied by rigorous logic.

Upon hearing the words "morgue," Lu's legs, which had just regained their balance, began to tremble again.

Xie Wang raised an eyebrow, expressing his admiration for Su Qinghe's ability to switch forms at any time.

The three continued forward, but the motion-sensor lights in the stairwell were broken, so they could only rely on the green escape signs on the wall to find their way.

The descending steps are extremely steep, and the surface has been deliberately splashed with a sticky liquid to increase the sense of terror.

Xie Wang led the way.

"Don't pull me."

Xie Wang stopped and turned to stare at Lu Yi, who was stuck to him like a leech.

"I'm scared."

Lu Yi acted with righteous indignation, abandoning the dignity of an artist.

Xie Wang reached out and pulled Su Qinghe back to his side.

Lu Yi swallowed hard and silently let go of the rusty handrail next to him.

The morgue was filled with the pungent smell of formaldehyde; the space was open yet deathly silent.

In the center are three stainless steel dissection tables, with medical bone saws and scalpels scattered around, bearing simulated bloodstains.

The speakers in the four corners played a loop of the echo of water droplets hitting the iron plate.

Su Qinghe stepped forward, picked up the scalpel stained with red paint, examined it for two seconds, and concluded that the paint was of poor quality.

I walked up to the wall covered with discarded medical reports and quickly scanned the text information in the cold light.

According to the background information in the admission guidelines, the hospital director had conducted an illegal experiment on April 7.

Su Qinghe's gaze locked onto a duty roster that had been torn off more than halfway.

Pinch the edge of the paper with your fingers and turn it over; on the back, there is a string of numbers written in red pen.

Just as I was about to speak, a sharp, piercing scream erupted from the morgue in the corner.

The morgue cabinet in the far corner was not closed properly, revealing a dark gap.

Photographers who spend years capturing images with their lenses have a natural curiosity about visual inconsistencies.

As if possessed, Lu Yi moved over and reached out to try to push the cabinet door shut.

The moment my fingertips touched the cold metal, the half-open drawer was forcefully pushed open from the inside.

A zombie with highly decomposed makeup roared and lunged forward, heading straight for Lu Yi's neck.

"ah--"

The horrific screams drowned out the terrifying sound effects in the room.

Lu Yi scrambled backward, landing hard on his backside on the dusty tile floor. The poetry book in his hand flew out and hit the zombie's foot.

Xie Wang turned around upon hearing the sound, while Lu Yi was huddled in the corner.

The NPC playing the zombie diligently maintained the posture of stretching out his arms and slowly approached.

Xie Wang strode forward, his tall figure blocking Lu Yi's path.

With his hands in his pockets, he looked down at the still-screaming zombie NPC.

The NPC stopped and looked up to meet Xie Wang's deep eyes.

For the sake of meager wages, the NPC wisely turned around and stiffly walked towards the empty bed on the other side.

Su Qinghe pressed the password, and with a soft beep, the rusty iron door leading to the internal medicine building opened.

Xie Wang bent down, picked up the poetry collection, tossed it into his arms, and urged him to follow.

Lu Yi hugged the poetry collection tightly and got up, his legs trembling uncontrollably.

He rapidly recited Baudelaire's verses to ward off evil spirits, then scrambled and crawled after the two men through the iron gate.

The new passageway leads to the hospital's cold storage area, where the temperature has dropped significantly.

Su Qinghe stopped in the middle of the passage.

She turned to face Xie Wang, naturally spreading her arms out as if to give him a hug.

"Thank you, I'm cold."

Her voice regained its soft, sweet tone, which, combined with the cold and gloomy environment, made her appear pitiful.

Xie Wang gazed into her bright, cunning eyes and a smile played on his lips.

He took off his school uniform jacket, wrapped Su Qinghe and his clothes in the large fabric, and hugged him tightly.

"Are you still cold, Teacher Su?"

He rested his chin lightly on her shoulder, his voice filled with indulgence.

Su Qinghe pressed his cheek against the warm chest, his nose filled with the cool, clean breath, and responded in a muffled voice.

"It's not cold anymore."

Lu Yi, who was following behind, watched the two of them showing affection in the underworld as if no one else was around, and his lips twitched.

He wrapped his thin overcoat tightly, instinctively feeling that the temperature here was much more biting than in the morgue he had just left.