My Strange Tale Love Strategy Simulator

"What are you talking about, Xiao Ping?" Yao Bai tilted her head and looked at Xiao Ping, her expression changing from confusion to bewilderment. "There was nothing on the door to begin with."

"No, no, no!" Xiao Ping's voice grew louder and more urgent. "It must be there, it definitely is, absolutely! My memory won't lie to me!"

After he finished speaking, he turned around and ran downstairs.

He took two steps in one, his shoes making a heavy thud on the steps. As he passed Liu Dadan, his shoulder bumped into Liu Dadan's arm, sending Liu Dadan slumping against the wall.

Xiao Ping didn't apologize, nor did he slow down; he rushed straight towards the entrance of the safety passage on the next floor.

He stopped in front of the door, his eyes fixed on the emergency exit door.

Xiao Ping's eyes widened, his pupils trembled, and he let out a terrified gasp.

"Well--"

The upper right corner of the emergency exit gate was completely empty, a flat, bare surface. There was no red paint, no numbers, nothing at all.

"No... how could there not be?"

Liu Dadan rubbed his shoulder, which had been bumped, and walked down the stairs, frowning as he looked at Xiao Ping.

"What are you talking about? What number? I think you're hallucinating!"

"Hallucination?" Xiao Ping turned around, clutching his head with both hands, digging his fingers into his hair and gripping it tightly. "Is it really a hallucination?"

He kept recalling the scene of each time he arrived at the emergency exit door.

He remembers clearly that the corresponding floor number was painted in red on the emergency exit doors of each floor.

These images flashed through his mind frame by frame, every detail so real.

But just as he was trying to recall, an idea popped into his head.

Did I really see it wrong?

The thought, like a drop of ink, seeped into the images in his mind. Those clear memories began to blur.

Only an empty door remains.

There were never any numbers on the door.

The numbers he saw before were all his illusions; his brain was deceiving him.

Xiao Ping slowly lowered his hands, straightened his body, and the light in his eyes dimmed.

"Did I see wrong...?"

He was silent for two seconds.

"To hell with it! I don't care if I remembered correctly or not, I'm fucking running away!"

He gritted his teeth, turned around, and ran downstairs as fast as he could.

His voice echoed in the stairwell, and his footsteps pounded loudly on the steps.

As a seasoned horror movie enthusiast, he is timid but keeps in mind the survival rules in horror movies.

If you encounter anything strange, run away immediately.

Don't look back, don't stop, don't try to explain, just run.

He sprinted between the stairs, almost leaping half a step in one stride.

A powerful will to survive took over his mind; he now had only one goal.

Escape this building.

One step, two steps, three steps.

His breathing became more and more rapid, his lungs felt like a burnt engine, each breath accompanied by a burning sensation.

But before he had run for long, his gradually calming thoughts reminded him of something.

The second rule for surviving in horror movies.

Never leave the team and act alone.

Xiao Ping slowed his pace.

boom!

A loud bang came from both upstairs and downstairs at the same time.

That was the sound of the door violently slamming against the wall, as if two doors had been pushed open at the same moment and crashed into the wall.

Immediately afterwards, a scream rang out simultaneously from upstairs and downstairs.

"ah!--"

The screams were both rough and fine. The rough part was a woman's shriek, while the fine part was a higher-frequency scream. Xiao Ping could immediately tell that it was Xiao Qin, who was next to Liu Dadan, shouting.

Strangely, the screams from both sides were almost identical, with the volume, pitch, and even duration of the screams being exactly the same.

It's like there's a little piano upstairs and downstairs, both startled by the same thing at the same time, letting out the same scream.

The immersive screams bounced back and forth in the narrow stairwell.

Xiao Ping's heart was pounding so hard that it felt like something was about to explode in his chest.

He came to realize a fact.

They really encountered a ghost.

Xiao Ping gritted his teeth and continued running downstairs. After turning a corner, he saw that the door to the emergency exit downstairs was wide open, revealing a dark corridor inside.

Xiao Ping turned his head away, not daring to look inside, and continued running downhill. His eyes were fixed on the steps beneath his feet, and he didn't dare to stop for even a moment.

But then, something even stranger happened.

His steps suddenly stopped.

At the bottom of the stairs, Yao Bai was sitting half-sitting on the steps, one hand supporting himself against the wall, the other covering his mouth.

Her eyes were wide open, her body was trembling, and she was curled up on the landing at the corner of the stairs.

Xiao Ping's brain short-circuited for a moment.

He knew perfectly well that Yao Bai couldn't possibly get ahead of him. He had been running ahead, with Yao Bai and the others behind him. Even if Yao Bai were running down the steps, she should be behind him, not appearing on the steps below him.

unless--

Xiao Ping stopped in his tracks, not daring to make a sound. He slowly lifted his foot, stepped onto the next step, and turned to walk back.

But Yao Bai, who was in front, heard the noise. She turned her head sharply and saw Xiao Ping.

"Xiao...Xiao Ping!" Yao Bai's voice trembled noticeably with surprise and joy. "Weren't you running downstairs? How did you end up upstairs?"

Hearing Yao Bai's questioning voice, Xiao Ping stopped turning around and looked back at her. His brows were furrowed, and his voice was very low.

"I want to ask you the same question. Why are you downstairs? Are you a human or a ghost?"

"I'm definitely a human being!" Yao Bai was so anxious that she was almost crying. Her eyes were red, her nostrils were flaring, and her voice was filled with the grievance of being wronged.

Xiao Ping stared at her for two seconds. Yao Bai's expression didn't seem to be lying; her fear was real, her tears were real, and her trembling body as she sat half-sitting on the steps was real.

"What about Liu Dadan and the other two?" Xiao Ping asked again.

Yao Bai's voice was broken and intermittent, and he had to catch his breath after saying just a few words.

"Just now... just now the emergency exit door suddenly opened... we were all startled... Liu Dadan said he was going to see who scared him... and then he went in... right after that Wu Sangui and Xiaoqin followed him in..."

She swallowed, her Adam's apple bobbing up and down.

"I was scared... so I didn't go in."

Her voice grew softer and softer, the last few words almost a whisper.

"You really are Xiao Ping, right? Don't scare me."

Xiao Ping stood there, unable to make up his mind.

After much deliberation, he decided to take two steps forward, reach out, and help Yao Bai, who was unable to stand.

Yao Bai leaned against Xiao Ping's chest, trembling all over. Her hands gripped the sleeves of Xiao Ping's hoodie, her chest heaving.

Normally, Xiao Ping might have been a little shy. But right now, he only had one thought in his mind.

Get out of this eerie stairwell as soon as possible.