"What is it, not happy?" Zhao Chen noticed that Nannan, coming out of the children's park, was not especially excited.
Though her face was beaming, her eyes could not lie.
She seemed to want to say something and held it back.
"Today you're our treasure. Whatever our treasure wants to say, say it. Don't hide it." Zhao Chen paused, then went on, "Not just today: from now on, in front of Daddy and Mommy, you never need to hide what you're thinking. Whatever you want, whatever you want to say, just say it."
Nannan hesitated, then pointed at a park marked in black on the map and said, "The children's park was really nice. But I'd like to go play here."
Zhao Chen looked over; it was the horror-themed park.
He had never imagined a five-year-old would like this.
"This is the horror-themed one? Are you sure you'll be all right?" Zhao Chen asked.
Nannan nodded hard, and this time excitement could be seen in her eyes as she said, "I'll be fine!"
"And you?" Zhao Chen looked at Chu Xuan beside him.
He noticed Chu Xuan's eyes flicker, but she still said with a smile, "Since it's what Nannan has decided, let's go and look."
With the next stop settled,
the three of them set off for the horror-themed park.
Because it was horror-themed, there were more restrictions here.
It was divided into zones by level of restriction.
Before entering the park, a little skeleton stood at the gate handing out notices.
And anyone bringing children had to have a guardian sign the terms and conditions.
After all, at a horror-themed park, if a minor got scared inside, who would bear the responsibility?
Zhao Chen signed his name on the form.
"Once you're inside, watch the child. Some of the places with a higher scare level are best not tried lightly," the skeleton's performer reminded them kindly, having looked at the cute little one the couple had brought.
Parents had brought children along before.
But most had been in their teens; a child who looked only five or six like this one, he had never seen.
These parents were far too bold.
Zhao Chen paid no mind to the NPC's look; with Chu Xuan, he led Nannan by the hand into the horror-themed park.
First they passed through a somewhat gloomy tunnel.
The whole horror-themed park was enclosed; the lighting was much dimmer, and even the music turned bloodcurdling.
Compared with the children's park they had just been to, the two were simply opposite extremes.
Zhao Chen specially glanced at Nannan.
In these surroundings and with this music, Nannan showed not the least fear; she was even more excited than she had been in the children's park.
Past the passage, the space before them opened out a good deal.
Before them was a gloomy plaza, the sky an artificial night sky, and the plaza had gates leading to different districts.
"Welcome to the Terror Plaza." A ghostly voice sounded in the air.
Zhao Chen glanced at the map of the horror-themed park.
It was divided into several streets with different names.
Beneath each street's name was noted a fear-rating warning,
from one star to five stars, with a corresponding age advisory too.
One star was the lowest fear rating, with no age advisory.
Two stars advised ages ten and up.
Three stars advised ages twelve and up.
Four stars advised ages fourteen and up.
Five stars advised ages sixteen and up.
And how old was Nannan now?
A full half short of twelve.
"Nannan, how about we start with the lowest level?" Zhao Chen looked at Nannan.
He wanted first to establish how much of these horror attractions Nannan could take.
If they went straight to a five-star one and really gave Nannan some lasting trauma, that would be a disaster.
Though since coming in, Nannan's eyes had been fixed on the direction of the scariest district,
she still followed Zhao Chen's suggestion.
"Okay." Nannan nodded sweetly.
So Zhao Chen took Nannan and Chu Xuan toward the one-star district.
It was named the Fairy-Tale District.
By the name alone, the whole district did not seem very scary.
Walking into the district, they could even see a carousel and a dwarfs' cave, attractions they had seen over at the children's park.
The music was not so gloomy either.
And many fairy-tale characters could be seen too,
such as dwarfs, princesses, and Little Red Riding Hood.
Seeing these, Chu Xuan let out a breath of relief.
So these weren't very scary after all.
"Big sister, want some candy?" At this point a Little Red Riding Hood came over with her head down, holding candy in her palm, and offered it to Chu Xuan.
"Thank you." Chu Xuan made to take it without thinking.
But the next second, this Little Red Riding Hood raised her head.
Under that red hood was no little girl at all, but a bloody wolf's head.
"Big sister, have you seen my grandma?" A little girl's voice came from the wolf's head, and then she ran off to one side, giggling.
Chu Xuan jumped.
"That wolf head just now was so cute," Nannan said with a giggle.
Cute?
Little Red Riding Hood, not yet far off, nearly tripped.
What had she just heard?
That little girl had said she was cute?
When she saw this family come in, she had been somewhat taken aback at the five-year-old.
This family had actually brought so small a child to a horror-themed park.
Wasn't that a bit too careless?
So she had chosen the mother of the three as the target to scare; that way she could do her job,
and give that little girl a warning too.
But now that little girl had actually said she was cute?
Little Red Riding Hood felt insulted.
She slipped off to one side and said quietly into her headset, "Got a job. A family's come in, with a five-year-old girl. The whole family's wearing piggy masks."
"What? A five-year-old girl?"
"Whose parents are that careless, bringing a five-year-old here? Aren't they afraid of scarring her?"
"Little Red, you mean we should tone it down and not make the little girl cry?"
The voices of other NPCs came through the headset.
Little Red Riding Hood said slowly, "I don't mean tone it down; I mean show what you've really got. Just now I went and scared the mother of this family; her mother obviously jumped, though she kept her movements under control, but there's no mistaking that look in her eyes. But that little girl giggled and said I was cute!"
"Cute?"
"Good grief, is this really a five-year-old little girl?"
"We may be the one-star district, but even my friends who come here don't call us cute."
"Got it; though going all out on a five-year-old girl is a bit much, we can't lose face either. We'll go one at a time, and if the little girl gets scared, we stop there."
"Right."
Zhao Chen and Chu Xuan had not yet realized that, because of Nannan's unusual behavior, their family had already become this district's target for special attention.
After this, great numbers of NPCs began appearing before them.
For instance, while they were riding the carousel, a masked man suddenly dropped down, hanging from above their heads.
Chu Xuan, scared, grabbed the iron pole without thinking.
But Nannan looked at him earnestly, blinked and said, "Mister, your nose hair is showing."
As Zhao Chen and the others got off the carousel, the eyes of all those wooden horses turned toward them without their noticing.
Chu Xuan swallowed; by now she was standing on Zhao Chen's left, gripping his elbow for dear life.
Zhao Chen now had Chu Xuan on one side and Nannan on the other.
Zhao Chen could feel Chu Xuan's fear.
He had never imagined that a dignified Imperial Marshal would be afraid of these things.
"Bye-bye. I'll come play with you again next time." Nannan waved goodbye to the wooden horses staring at her.
They walked on.
A clown appeared, holding a great many lollipops.
"Little one, want a lollipop? Mister will treat you."
The clown crouched down, face to face with Nannan.
"I want one." Nannan nodded.
The clown held several lollipops out before Nannan.
At first glance they were ordinary lollipops, but at this moment they suddenly changed.
On them seemed to grow human faces, one after another, and their crying could be heard too.
"Don't eat me!"
"Don't eat me!"
"Don't eat me!"
Chu Xuan swallowed in fright and gripped Zhao Chen harder still.
The clown laughed inwardly; many little children, seeing this, would jump, and some would even burst into tears.
But unexpectedly, Nannan took them without minding in the least.
Then she held them up before her eyes, looked at them closely, sniffed them,
and poked them too.
Finally she stuck out her tongue and licked one "pretty lady" lollipop.
"It's pretty sweet. Thank you, Mister Clown."
Mister Clown stood frozen to the spot.
Thank you?
Though these were props of his, still made of the same candy, only shaped very like people,
and, worked by the contraptions on him, they could make these candy people seem to come alive and cry out.
Looked at closely, they could be told apart.
But this little girl had never been afraid from first to last.
As horror NPCs, they watched for such things very closely.
After that more horror NPCs appeared one after another, using every trick they had.
Not only did they fail to scare Nannan; they even made her laugh more.
Having gone round once, they walked out of this one-star district.
Nannan even waved goodbye to them with a giggle.
"Bye, big brothers and big sisters, misters and ladies."
B… bye…
This time, all the NPCs of the one-star district were rather crushed.
Were they really not scary?
Though they were one-star, the easiest of all the districts, they were horror NPCs all the same.
Show a little respect, would you?
"Are we really not scary anymore?" Little Red Riding Hood said, head down, somewhat dejected.
"Then we'll raise our scare level! We may be one-star, but we can't be so bad we can't even make a five-year-old girl cry!" the clown said, clenching his fists.
Everyone agreed heartily.
In the work that followed, these NPCs could be said to have put everything they had into it,
raising the scare level within their range of work as far as they could.
This gave the visitors who entered the Fairy-Tale District afterward an experience they had never expected.
A couple was walking into this district right now.
The woman was plainly somewhat scared; before she had even seen those NPCs, she was already gripping the man's shoulder for dear life.
"Are you sure it's really not scary here?" The girl's eyes looked nervously all around, afraid a ghost would run out of some corner.
The boy assured her, swearing it, "Don't worry; I looked it up. Everyone who's been here says the scare level here is fine even if you bring a ten-year-old; it's all mildly scary stuff."
Hearing this, the girl could at last let out a little breath of relief.
An hour later,
the girl ran out of this district in tears, the boy chasing after her.
When he finally caught up,
the girl pointed at the boy furiously: "Didn't you say it wasn't scary? Those… how could those not be scary!"
As the girl spoke, tears still hung on her face; it could be seen she had really been frightened.
The boy's face was covered in sweat right now; inside just now, though he had not been scared to tears, he had truly had a fright too.
He explained, "I really read the reviews online; they all said it isn't scary here, only mildly scary. Ten-year-olds can come."
"So you mean I'm not even as good as a ten-year-old? Fine. I think you'd better play by yourself today!" The girl stormed on ahead.
The boy at once sped up and chased after her.
Scenes like this kept playing out here.
Some came out crying; some came out looking back over their shoulders every few steps.
As they left, their verdict was: how was it that this one-star horror district felt scarier than the two-star and three-star ones after it?
And sure enough, a great many negative reviews of the one-star Fairy-Tale District soon appeared online,
all saying the scare level here exceeded expectations.
After this, the Fairy-Tale District's NPCs got a severe dressing-down.
But those NPCs all looked dumbfounded too.
This was scary?
Then why had that five-year-old girl who came earlier kept such a straight face?
But all that came later.
After this, Zhao Chen naturally knew nothing of the butterfly effect his daughter had brought.
He took Nannan straight through the two-star and three-star districts ahead.
Coming out of the three-star district, even Zhao Chen himself was somewhat frightened.
Chu Xuan had come through half the way with her eyes shut, only gripping Zhao Chen's wrist for dear life and following him all the way.
In such a state, even without a mask, probably no one would have recognized her as an Imperial Marshal.
And Zhao Chen's original worry did not exist at all.
Nannan was so happy she skipped as she walked, and greeted every one of the horror NPCs inside with a smile.
She had probably crushed those horror NPCs.