Chapter 235: Completely Losing It

As they walked into the haunted house, Xiao Yu and Wang Dong couldn’t help but feel a little on edge.

It was a totally normal reaction—the fear of the unknown.

Even though they knew perfectly well there wouldn’t be any actual ghosts inside, the eerie atmosphere, combined with the darkness, still managed to stir up a sense of fear. After all, that’s what haunted houses are all about.

Fear comes from a lack of understanding, uncertainty, and limited knowledge of certain things. To put it simply, people tend to fear the unknown or things they rarely encounter.

As Xiao Yu moved deeper into the haunted house, he suddenly recalled the first time he took his wife to try tiger crab.

Mu Qingwu had been terrified of the dish and refused to even touch it. But once her mischievous brother made her take a bite.

Well, now Mu Qingwu could easily devour six garlic-roasted tiger crabs in one sitting.

‘Heh, women… Wait, focus! Don’t get off track!’

It’s like how people fear ghosts simply because they don’t understand them.

Now, if one day people discovered that ghosts could be fried up and tasted amazing, who knows? Maybe ghosts would end up being farmed like crayfish.

The point is, fear really works like that. Once you fully understand the things that scare you, the fear itself disappears.

Suddenly, Xiao Yu stopped in his tracks, causing Wang Dong to jump.

The two were now standing in a pitch-black corridor. Even with the light from their phones, they could barely make out their surroundings.

Xiao Yu turned his head to look at the wall beside him, his mouth twitching in disbelief.

Wang Dong glanced over as well—and instantly, his scalp went numb.

Embedded in the wall were square grooves, and sitting in one of them was a skull—a blood-red skull.

Rolling his eyes, Wang Dong muttered under his breath, “Come on, it’s just a fake!”

After all, haunted houses were full of props. That was just common sense.

But…

Xiao Yu’s expression grew more serious as he spoke slowly, “No… it’s real.”

Huh?

Wang Dong froze.

‘What do you mean, real…?’

Suddenly, he gasped, eyes widening in shock as he stared at the blood-red skull. His pupils shrank, and every hair on his body stood on end. The creeping horror within him felt like it was about to explode.

Real…?

Without saying another word, Xiao Yu turned away, his face cold and stern. 

With his own face stiff and his spine-tingling, Wang Dong quickly followed Xiao Yu down the corridor.

Turning a corner, they came across something even more disturbing—a headless corpse.

A woman’s corpse!

“She…” Xiao Yu took a deep breath. “She was eaten.”

Wang Dong’s face froze. A chill, like an electric current, shot through his entire body. He thought about the female corpse, missing both her heart and liver. A wave of nausea churned his stomach. His whole body felt cold.

“Let’s go.”

Turning away, Xiao Yu no longer glanced at the skull. His expression calm, he walked forward.

Wang Dong followed closely behind.

Looking at the calmness on Xiao Yu’s face brought back some bad memories.

Since joining the National Security Bureau, Wang Dong had only vomited once. That one time was because of Xiao Yu—during the human skin wax statue case. The fate of the main culprit in that case…

If you’d seen it, you’d have thrown up too.

Back then, Xiao Yu’s expression was just as calm as it is now.

Completely out of control!

***

The haunted house was huge, probably spanning a few hundred square meters. Most of it was made up of winding corridors, a few horror rooms, and scattered ghostly props. Because it was closed, there was no eerie music or flashing lights. The darkness and silence, broken only by the glow of their phones, made the place even more unsettling.

With every step, Xiao Yu wrinkled his nose, using the heightened sense of smell from his Monarch Butterfly’s nose to check the air.

No smell of corpses, only the scent of two living people.

Xiao Yu walked down the corridor, step by step.

Wang Dong had already drawn his gun and switched off the safety. 

But he had a feeling he wouldn’t need it. He knew exactly how terrifying his younger brother could be when he lost control.

Finally, they reached the end of the passage and stood before a door.

Xiao Yu stopped in his tracks and glanced at Wang Dong. In the darkness, his sharp gaze bore into Wang Dong, creating an invisible pressure.

Wang Dong nodded and stepped back.

Slowly crouching down, Xiao Yu prepared to charge forward.

As he activated the power of the Bear’s Strength, he felt the terrifying strength surging through his body.

A dull sound echoed from under Xiao Yu’s feet.

Boom!

Like a wild beast, Xiao Yu’s body slammed into the wooden door. Under the tremendous impact, the door shattered into splinters, sending wood chips flying everywhere.

Amidst the debris, Xiao Yu appeared in the room, his icy gaze locking onto the two beds.

Two men lay there—one holding a phone, the other a tablet. They stared at Xiao Yu, dumbfounded, still not comprehending the sudden chaos that had erupted around them.

“Second Brother, Li Haibo?”  Xiao Yu’s gaze shifted from one man to the other. “Third Brother, Zheng Hao?”

Both men looked to be around 33 or 34 years old, with sturdy builds.

At that moment, they snapped back to reality.

Suddenly, Li Haibo’s arm shot up, revealing a pistol—not a homemade pistol, but a Type 54 handgun.

The moment Li Haibo raised his arm—

Crack!

His wrist snapped, the gun dropped, and Xiao Yu’s hand clamped down on his neck. Like grabbing a small chicken, Xiao Yu lifted Li Haibo and glanced at his back. There, he saw the colorful dragon tattoo.