"How many rescuers have died in this desert? She's just a young girl with no experience; it's no surprise if she dies in the desert too."
Tan Yu Yan looked indifferent on the outside, but she felt a twinge of guilt inside.
"There's no surveillance in this no man's land, so just eat without worrying, you coward. You were the one who snatched Xu Ying's motorcycle back then!"
She said this not only to convince Tan Ming but also to convince herself.
Back then, those three bears were terrifyingly ferocious, they charged at us, and if we had moved a step slower, we would have been crushed to death. We had no choice but to leave Xu Ying behind for our own safety!
Tan Ming defended himself confidently, "That's because Xu Ying's motorcycle skills were bad. It would have been better if I had ridden instead."
Tan Yu Yan continued eating while saying, "I wonder if, now that Xu Ying is dead, her position will be available to us."
Tan Yu Yan and Tan Ming, the siblings, got their temporary employee roles through connections.
Conditions in the desert were harsh, but due to the low number of people willing to come, the salary was higher than for most jobs, and the benefits were good. After five years of work, there's even a housing subsidy, almost equivalent to buying a house at half price.
As for the veterinary and animal rescue certificates, they were forgeries bought with money.
However, as temporary hires, they didn't have a permanent status; it wasn't a secure job, and the retirement benefits were significantly worse.
"Sis, nowadays those positions require exams, even if Xu Ying is dead, they won't come to us."
Tan Ming scratched his head and said, "I heard that in rural areas like ours, the exam scores needed aren't high."
Tan Yu Yan retorted irritably, "You talk big, then why don't you just take the exam yourself?"
At that moment, the tablet's screen dimmed.
Tan Yu Yan hastily wiped the oily red sauce from her mouth, picked up the tablet and adjusted the brightness, "You have to admit, watching TV on this tablet is great! The picture's clear, and the sound is loud!"
The back of the tablet had an engraving, "Xu Ying Professional Knowledge Competition Special Prize," now smudged with Tan Yu Yan's greasy fingerprints.
Tan Ming looked at the greasy screen and complained, "Sis, I heard this tablet costs four or five thousand bucks, be careful with it!"
"It's not like we spent four or five thousand to buy it!"
Tan Yu Yan shrugged nonchalantly.
Then Tan Ming's eyes twinkled mischievously, "We couldn't even bear to buy a tablet, and she had one since university; maybe it was a gift from someone who was supporting her?"
Tan Yu Yan smacked her lips, "Who knows, but now that she's dead, isn't this tablet ours?"
Tan Ming, being a big mouth, whispered mysteriously to Tan Yu Yan, "Doesn't it creep you out using a dead person's stuff?"
Already feeling guilty, hearing Tan Ming's words made Tan Yu Yan's smile fade, "What nonsense are you spouting!"
But at that moment, the lights in the rescue station suddenly went out, plunging the room into darkness, leaving only a faint glow from the tablet screen.
"Ah!"
Startled, Tan Yu Yan grabbed Tan Ming's arm.
"Why'd you turn off the lights? Trying to scare us to death?"
Tan Ming was even more frightened than Tan Yu Yan, "Sis, all I did was say something to scare you, I didn't turn off the lights!"
The two exchanged terrified glances.
*
Outside the hut.
Crouching low, Xu Ying had just flipped the circuit breaker, listening to the commotion inside, wearing a sly smile.
She pulled out her phone and opened the screen mirroring settings.
Since the original owner often cast from her phone to the tablet, the tablet automatically connected to the phone when casting was set.
She projected a clip of the horror film "The Ring" onto the tablet.
Xu Ying looked at her phone's miserably low battery level and the power bank it was connected to, and whispered to Ning Zexi, "Is your power bank charged enough?"
Ning Zexi smiled confidently, showing his gleaming white teeth, "More than enough, twenty thousand milliamps! Essential for the outdoors!"
"Join my live stream, countdown three two one, hop on, grab it at a steal!"
"Get lost."
Xu Ying, exasperated, shoved him lightly.
"Your stream isn't live, is it?"
Ning Zexi shook his head emphatically, "Nope, live streaming would hinder our efforts to deal with these jerks!"
Xu Ying hit play on the video player on her phone, then turned her head to the Gobi Bears saying, "Alright, guys, it's your turn now!"
The Gobi Bears awkwardly bent their claws into an 'OK' gesture, a new signal Xu Ying had taught them.
*
The rescue station was engulfed in darkness, and Tan Yu Yan and Tan Ming sensed something was wrong, shivers running down their spines.
The faint glow from the tablet drew them closer to it.
"Can't this tablet be used as a flashlight?"
Just as Tan Yu Yan was about to use the tablet for light, the screen suddenly went black before lighting up again.
On the screen appeared the image of a well, the atmosphere on the screen was eerie beyond measure.
The camera on the tablet's video was slowly zooming into the well's depths, pitch-black as though it was bottomless.
There seemed to be some unknown creature writhing in the shadows, accompanied by a low, strange noise.
The speakers, once praised by Tan Yu Yan for their loud and vibrant sound, now emitted eerie, frightening noises, jabbing at their eardrums.
The terrifying scene rendered Tan Yu Yan and her brother speechless, pushing one another.
"You turn off the tablet!"
"You do it! You're the sister!"
"You do it! Aren't you a man?"
The siblings huddled together, pushing each other as the horror movie on the tablet reached its terrifying peak.
At the gloomy, eerie well bottom, the female ghost Sadako slowly emerged.
Her long hair draped messily over her face, revealing only one eye, hollow and devoid of life.
She supported herself on the well's edge, her body twisting upwards with limbs contorted in an unnatural posture, emitting a spine-chilling sound.
Her crawling, distorted frame revealed increasingly more of her until she completely emerged, standing at the well's edge. Soaked through, her face deathly pale, she approached the camera with an unspeakable, eerie aura.
Finally unable to endure, Tan Ming mustered his courage and stood up, intending to smash the tablet on the table, but his action was halted when a figure with long, flowing hair seemed to pass by the window.
Tan Ming's legs grew weak, and he collapsed onto the floor, his hand tremblingly pointing at the window, "Sis! There's a ghost outside!"
Seeing that the horror movie on her phone had reached its climax, Xu Ying shouted terrifyingly into the room, "Tan Yu Yan, Tan Ming, I've come for you~~"
"Ahhhh—"
Inside the room, there was a faint foul smell.
Collapsed on the floor, Tan Ming was so scared he wet himself.
"It's Xu Ying! Xu Ying's turned into a vengeful ghost to find us!"
Terror tightened its grip on Tan Yu Yan's nerves, and she picked up the stun baton leaning against the wall for protection, "Whoever's pretending to be a ghost, come out!"
"Is it you, Xu Ying!"
Tan Yu Yan hurried to the door, ready to catch whoever was pretending.
But just as she reached the door, there was a violent pounding, the force seemed capable of breaking through the steel door, not at all like a human pounding!
The sudden banging startled Tan Yu Yan, causing her to step back and accidentally topple the makeshift table behind her.
The self-heating hotpot that was on the table spilled over, and the scorching hotpot broth poured onto Tan Ming's head.
"My eyes!!"
The hot, spicy broth seared into Tan Ming's eyes, causing him to cry out in pain.