The shopkeeper led them through a narrow hallway that somehow felt ten times creepier than the main store. On both sides, dolls stood lined up in perfect rows—each frozen in different poses. Some waved. Some sat with tiny tea cups. One was crouched like it was about to sprint. Their glassy eyes gleamed in the dim light, watching. Always watching.
One doll had its hand raised in an odd wave. Song Meiyu passed by and suddenly yelped, "It grabbed my hair!"
He Yuying stepped over, plucked her hair free, and said flatly. "Your hair caught its hand."
"Same thing," she huffed.
Linyue slowed her steps, her eyes scanning left and right. She walked as if any moment now, one of the dolls might lunge at them. "This place gives me a strange feeling," she murmured. "Like one wrong move and we'll end up starring in a horror story."
The hallway twisted left and right, stretching much longer than it should have. From the outside, the store didn't look big. Yet they kept walking and walking like they had entered a space that didn't obey normal rules.
"Strange…" Linyue glanced back once. The entrance was gone. Just walls lined with more and more dolls.
Prince Lu kept walking confidently at the front, completely unfazed. "Calm down. It's probably just… artistic interior design."
Song Meiyu whispered to Linyue, wide-eyed. "Artistic or cursed?"
"Must be cursed," He Yuying said flatly.
"Agreed," Linyue replied calmly.
Shen Zhenyu let out a long sigh, "Yet you all still keep walking."
Finally, the hallway ended at a narrow staircase leading down into darkness.
The shopkeeper stopped and turned to them with that same too-wide, too-polite smile. "Please, this way."
Linyue frowned. Her instincts whispered a very firm no. Everything about this screamed bad idea. Shen Zhenyu looked equally unconvinced. He shifted slightly closer to her, one hand slipping behind his back. But before either of them could object, Prince Lu had already started down the stairs.
"Come on! What's the worst that could happen?" he called cheerfully.
"Famous last words," He Yuying muttered.
Song Meiyu whispered to Linyue, "If we die down there, I'm haunting that shopkeeper first."
"Good idea," Linyue nodded. "I'll haunt the dolls. Brother Zhenyu can take the stairs. Brother Yuying can have the creepy hallway. We'll divide the workload."
He Yuying gave her a flat look. "Hey. Why do I get the hallway? That's where all the jump scares happen."
"Too late," Song Meiyu said cheerfully. "It's already been decided. You're the hallway ghost now."
Shen Zhenyu's mouth twitched, caught between amusement and despair. "I'm haunting Prince Lu first," he muttered.
Prince Lu, already halfway down the stairs, called back, "I heard that! You'll never catch me—I'll haunt you back!"
And with no better options and no visible escape route, the group descended, one creaky step at a time. The basement was thick with the smell of old wood and dust, lit only by a few weak lanterns that cast long, quivering shadows on the walls. In the dim glow, rows of dolls stared back at them. More of them than upstairs, all eerily lifelike. They stepped into the center of the room, the wooden floor groaning under their weight. As one, they turned, expecting the shopkeeper to be right behind them.
The shopkeeper stopped near the top of the stairs. His hand slid toward the wall.
Linyue's eyes narrowed. Shen Zhenyu stiffened beside her. Their eyes met for half a second, and without words, they both thought the same thing: Trouble.
Click.
The floor beneath their feet gave way with a sharp crack.
"Of course," Linyue muttered as they dropped, "it's always a trap."
They crashed into the floor below with a collective thud. Thankfully, it wasn't a long drop. Just one level down. The impact was more surprise than pain, but it didn't stop them from groaning dramatically.
Song Meiyu groaned as she sat up and threw her hands in the air. "Again? How many times have we fallen into hidden floors this month?"
Prince Lu winced as he rubbed his back. "Trouble always follows you around."
Linyue raised an eyebrow, brushing dust off her sleeves. "Didn't we get into trouble because we followed you?"
Prince Lu opened his mouth for a witty comeback, probably involving how much trouble would love to follow him but didn't get the chance. Because then—
Whoosh.
White smoke began curling up from the cracks in the floor, snaking toward their feet.
Song Meiyu sniffed once and her face froze in horror. "Wait… this smell… It's Dreamshade!"
"What's Dreamshade?" Prince Lu asked innocently, his nose already wrinkling as he tried to wave the smoke away.
"It's a rare plant! From the snow mountains up north! If you breathe it in, you fall asleep—hard," Song Meiyu spoke fast, already yanking part of her sleeve up to cover her nose and mouth. "Like knocked out cold, drooling on the floor hard. Don't inhale it!"
He Yuying yanked a sleeve over his mouth. "Fantastic. Knockout gas. Classic villain move. Ten out of ten for execution."
Shen Zhenyu didn't say a word. He calmly ripped a strip of his outer robe and tied it over his mouth like a makeshift mask, clearly a man used to deal with chaos on a schedule.
Linyue's eyes narrowed as she watched the smoke rise higher. "So, any ideas?"
"Hold our breath and pray?" Song Meiyu suggested, voice muffled behind her sleeve.
The smoke thickened fast, curling through the air.
Prince Lu's eyes widened in panic. "I don't pray! Someone carry me out if I pass out. Preferably in a dignified pose! Fix my hair first—"
His heroic speech ended abruptly when Shen Zhenyu crumpled silently to the floor, like he had chosen this dramatic moment for a nap.
Song Meiyu staggered two steps, flailing her arms. "No! I'm too young, too pretty to die like this!" she wailed before slumping with a loud thud.
He Yuying swayed lazily, rubbing his eyes. "I told you… this was suspicious…" His voice faded as he face-planted directly onto Prince Lu, whose muffled groan confirmed he had already fainted under the weight.
Linyue, still stubbornly standing, blinked as the smoke swirled higher. Her chest burned. Her eyes watered. She tried holding her breath, but her lungs were screaming for air. She swayed once. And as her legs finally gave out, she had just enough strength left for one thought:
"So much for supporting local businesses."
Then everything went black.
.....
Shu Mingye sat behind a mountain of paperwork, his expression calm but his eyes sharp. It was supposed to be a quiet day. A normal, boring day. But no. Apparently, quiet days didn't exist in his world anymore.
His brush paused. The ink dripped silently onto the paper, forming an ugly blotch, but he didn't even notice. His sharp eyes narrowed.
First, there were the brides. The ones who supposedly took their own lives. He didn't want to care. He'd already decided it wasn't worth his attention. But Linyue had brought it up in that calm, unsettling way of hers like she already knew something and was just waiting for him to catch up. And now it bothered him. Because she was probably right.
Then, the assassins. Or, former assassins. The ones who tried to attack Linyue and her group at the night market. Shu Mingye had planned to interrogate them personally. He was even looking forward to it. But before he could even start, they already died. Suicide. Poison. And not only that. There was also the intruder. Linyue had told him, that the intruder was currently sleeping in Shen Zhenyu's chamber. He had already ordered someone to "take care of it" after Linyue left. What "take care of it" meant… depended entirely on how irritated he was by the time they reported back.
His fingers tapped against the desk. Did the brides really commit suicide? Or were they silenced? Considering the sequence of events surrounding Linyue and her group, the probability of this being more than coincidence was climbing by the second.
Shu Mingye leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temple. His patience was already hanging by a single, fraying thread. And don't even get him started on Princess Han. She kept dropping by as if she owned the palace, floating in with her bright smiles and endless chatter. He could almost feel his lifespan shorten every time she entered the room. If annoyance alone could kill, Princess Han would have already arranged her own funeral by now.
Still, he endured her visits. Not because he liked her, he would rather swallow a bucket of nails, but because there were soldiers who still swore quiet loyalty to her and her brother. Survivors from four years ago. Shu Mingye needed to plan his move carefully, patiently waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
And then, as if all of that were not enough, there was the haunted cave. Even after Linyue had burned the strange plant inside, people were still disappearing. At first, it was the usual victims: beggars, drifters, the nameless and the forgotten. People the world hardly noticed. But then… it changed. A child vanished without a trace. An innkeeper disappeared, leaving the tavern door swinging in the wind. A merchant's daughter failed to return home.
No pattern. No clear reason. Random people. Random age. Random gender. Some from Shenlin. Some from Shulin. All gone. None of them ever found.
Shu Mingye pressed his thumb against his temple harder, the weight of it sinking into him. This was no longer strange. This was terrifying.