Chapter 15: Ghost Mountain Villa 15
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After the full night of An Nanyuan’s split-screen livestream last night, the live streaming show continued to gain popularity on the video platform. Its position shifted from the most inconspicuous corner to the latest recommendation on the platform. All thanks to the rapidly increasing viewership of several hundred thousand, attracting even more people to tune in.
However, the unexpected events during the morning broadcast and the eerie and suspenseful content of the male actor’s split-screen livestream truly ignited the show’s popularity.
It was the time for going to work and school in the early morning. Many people habitually pulled out their phones to check for today’s interesting news on social media. To their surprise, they discovered that on the real-time popularity charts, over a dozen trending hashtags were related to a travel variety show called “Heart-Pounding Journey of Ninety-Nine Days.”
At the very top was a hashtag that caught their eye: #ResurrectionoftheDead#.
Numerous variety show Vloggers and entertainment industry figures were discussing this travel variety show under the hashtag. There were also many curious bystanders who clicked on the hashtag to see what the fuss was about…….. The traffic started pouring in like crazy.
And among them, the post with the most likes was from a prominent entertainment Vlogger who was the first to discover and discuss this travel variety show. Audiences had come to consider this Vlogger as the central hub for discussions about the show, and they eagerly shared their own discoveries from the live broadcast, uploading screenshots and videos.
@EntertainmentEnthusiastBrotherGoose:: Thanks for the invitation. I’m lying in bed, and I’m practically losing my mind. This travel variety show is absolutely insane. From last night when I first saw what seemed like a ghostly figure in the live broadcast to now, I’ve been so scared that I woke up the village’s elder a few times. I didn’t even dare to leave my bed to go to the bathroom.
When it finally got light outside, I mustered up the courage to get out of bed, when I saw another split-screen shot… What the heck was that! Ah! Why is there still a monster lurking at the door? How can it come out of the ground and charge at people like that? Is this still part of the script? This can’t be a curtain, right? It scared me so much that I immediately pulled my foot back into the blankets. Now, I seriously suspect that there’s a monster lurking outside my bedroom door too!!
This unfortunate Vlogger was indeed terrified. The live broadcast screenshots in the comments section helped many curious viewers understand why the Vlogger’s emotions were so intense.
In the screenshot, blood-red arms reached toward the screen, silently staring out of the screen with only dark, hollow eye sockets…
“Ahhhhh! Thank you, Brother Goose! Now, I’m scared out of my wits too.”
“I’m dying of laughter. If you hadn’t said it was a variety show broadcast, I would’ve thought it was a promotional trailer for some horror game. I was just about to ask who produced it so professionally.”
“F*ck, f*ck! How do you guys even considered calling this a script? Are your eyes not working? When the camera zoomed in on that red thing, I could clearly see its rotten teeth, and when that thing moved, there were no signs of mechanical tracks. Which prop could be so lifelike?”
“I was supposed to go to school, but I just took leave because I seriously suspect there’s a monster waiting outside my door! It stayed silent all night, just waiting for that moment when I leave and let my guard down… I dare not even step out of the door now.”
“…..I had it worse. I watched this while taking a bath, and when I was washing my hair, I couldn’t dare to close my eyes. I kept feeling that if I closed my eyes, all those monsters would come running out of the screen.”
“Brother Goose, honestly, if you’re this scared, just turn it off.”
The Vlogger tearfully replied to the comment: “I can’t, I’ve tried. This show is just too addictive. I close it, but I can’t resist the itch to open it again and see what happens next. It’s both terrifying and irresistible. I’m crying too.”
This reply from the Vlogger immediately resonated with many people, and they quickly liked and agreed with it.
“Me too!”
“+1!”
“Why are you all still on social media? The main live broadcast screen for that show is on, and several split-screens are active, including the one with someone named Yan Shixun. Aren’t you going to watch?!”
“I’m coming! I’m about to be scared to tears by that old man in the villa. Quickly, go send more barrage comments and save us!”
“It’s started? I’m coming!”
……
Inside the villa, the staff, under Zhang Wubing’s command, were gradually returning to their normal work mode. They adjusted the broadcasting equipment and aimed it at the guests in the dining room.
Despite the disruptions in the program flow and the unexpected incidents in what was originally a relaxed travel variety show, all happening within less than a day, including one guest going insane and another tour guide being severely injured and still unconscious, the show had to go on.
Moreover, the key factor was that the old steward was always nearby.
Since learning about what had happened last night and gaining a rough understanding of the perilous situation from Yan Shixun, the staff had grown wary of the villa’s sole indigenous old steward. They were cautious, especially when he was around. They didn’t want the old steward to sense anything unusual, so they continued to follow their normal work routines.
However, even so, wherever they went, each person could faintly feel the old steward’s icy gaze on their backs, as if he wanted to look for them for something when they were alone.
The guests and staff appeared normal on the surface, but only they themselves knew the unease and fear in their hearts.
Zhang Wubing looked at the increasing subscription numbers on his phone but couldn’t find joy in it.
The entire villa was shrouded in a stifling atmosphere, but Yan Shixun sat at the dining table, appearing unperturbed.
However, unlike the previous night when everyone had ignored him during dinner, now all the guests were nervously watching Yan Shixun, seemingly ready to follow his lead in making decisions.
One of the guests even preemptively said to the steward who was serving breakfast, “I’ll pass on mine; I’m not hungry.”
However, Yan Shixun acted as if he suddenly couldn’t understand the expressions of the others and asked strangely, “If you don’t eat, won’t you get hungry?”
In front of everyone’s gaze, Yan Shixun calmly picked up his utensils, preparing to enjoy his own breakfast.
The guest who had guessed wrong blushed and stammered, “But, you said we shouldn’t…”
“The taste of meat is excellent,” Yan Shixun interrupted him. Then turned to the old steward and asked, “Although it’s a shame we don’t have the human flesh from yesterday, it seems like this alternative is even better, doesn’t it? What’s it called?”
The old steward, who had been about to leave, stopped in his tracks, turned around, and fixed a dark and intense gaze on this fearless young man.
After a pause, he spoke in a rough, hoarse voice, “That, you’ll have to ask her yourself.”
“But I guess it should be called ‘Contradiction.'”
After leaving behind these cryptic words, the old steward entered the kitchen and disappeared from everyone’s sight.
Only the guests remained, looking at each other in confusion, and then back at Yan Shixun, unsure of what to do.
“What are you looking at me for?” Yan Shixun said, puzzled. “Won’t you get hungry if you don’t eat? Who knows when we’ll be able to leave here. Besides, feeling scared now, isn’t it a bit too late? You all had dinner last night.”
“But are these things safe to eat?”
“If eating them will turn us into something like what happened to Liu Yiyi… I can go without food for a few days, it’s okay. I often do it for the sake of looking good on camera.”
Yan Shixun sneered, “Eat, if you don’t eat enough, how can you have the energy to run?”
After hearing Yan Shixun’s assurance, the guests’ anxious hearts finally settled, and they began to eat their breakfast in peace.
However, Yan Shixun’s gaze passed over everyone and fixed on the kitchen behind the closed doors.
The old steward’s reaction and response confirmed his suspicions.
Since discovering the almost karmic exchange involving Liu Yiyi, Yan Shixun had sensed the contradictions within.
If the old steward and certain entities within the villa wanted to make an exchange by having living people consume flesh and blood, why not enforce it forcefully? Why not capture the members of the production team and use coercion to make them consume the flesh and blood?
Why go through the trouble of mixing human flesh into the dinner to trick the guests, disguising blood as red wine for Liu Yiyi, and pretending to be Zhang Wubing to deceive him into opening the door at night?
By doing all these additional and elaborate things, and still abiding by the rule of not entering the rooms at night, what exactly were the entities within the villa afraid of?
Entities that were not human could persist in this world because of unfulfilled desires. Especially after hearing the words spoken by those blood-red humanoid figures captured in the split-screen footage taken by the male actor, Yan Shixun became even more convinced that whatever existed within the villa was far from benign.
And considering the rumors surrounding Gui Mountain, it’s highly likely that they’ve been entrenched here for a century.
Being able to persist for a hundred years with rumors of guests disappearing or dying during that time, it’s clear how deep the obsession of those things inside the mansion runs. To achieve their goals, they wouldn’t hesitate to employ cruel methods rather than acting with rules, as they seem to be doing now, as if they are restricted in some way.
Yan Shixun suddenly thought of Bai Shuang.
Unlike Liu Yiyi, who was injured by an axe in her room, Bai Shuang left her room last night without suffering substantial harm and without touching human flesh or blood. She was lured into the garden while dressed up and tricked into singing through an illusion created by the mirrors.
Comparing Bai Shuang to Liu Yiyi and the male actor, no matter how you look at it, what happened to Bai Shuang seems too light for this eerie mansion.
Why?
Yan Shixun could only think of one possibility—
The woman who created illusions for Bai Shuang and him last night is in direct opposition to the old steward. In fact, the old steward fears this woman.
Otherwise, the old steward wouldn’t have mentioned “her” and “contradiction” but instead advised Yan Shixun to ask on his own without giving a direct answer, as if “she” is something that the old steward both despises and fears.
Considering the footage captured on the main screen during last night’s livestream, where the old steward walked through the living room but didn’t leave through the French windows, it’s likely that the old steward is aligned with the blood-red humanoid flesh masses that harmed Liu Yiyi within the mansion. The woman in the garden, who avoids entering the mansion, seems to belong to a different faction.
The woman fears entering the mansion, the old steward refuses to leave the mansion for the garden. The rose-faced figures in the garden dread the woodshed, and the woman possessing Bai Shuang collapsed near the woodshed.
It’s as if there’s a logical chain of interconnected events.
Moreover, the reason that forces the old steward to act according to a certain set of rules appears to be related to this woman.
After this probe with the old steward, filling in the missing part from last night, Yan Shixun suddenly figured out the whole thing.
Since whatever stopped the male actor from leaving the villa, similar to what appeared outside the woodshed last night, it was likely that, at this point, whatever was preventing them from leaving was related to the entities associated with the old steward.
As long as he played his cards right with the woman that the old steward feared, there was a good chance he would find a way out. Taking the entire production team with him from this ghost mountain filled with resurrected evil spirits.
The guests quickly retreated to their rooms after finishing breakfast. Gradually, only Yan Shixun was left in the dining room. His slender, sturdy figure sat upright in the chair, lost in deep, silent contemplation.
Even the audience watching him in the live broadcast began to feel anxious, fearing he might have seen something strange, similar to the male actor who experienced a mental breakdown.
It wasn’t until the blue-and-white porcelain bowl of congee in front of Yan Shixun had cooled down completely that he blinked his eyes and regained his composure.
He let out a meaningless chuckle, lifted the bowl, and finished the congee in one gulp. Then, he got up, preparing to head to the fourth floor.
Yesterday, during their check-in, the old steward had mentioned that the fourth floor was leaking due to the recent rainy season and was uninhabitable. He had also refused everyone’s request to inspect it.
However, given the malevolence displayed by the old steward, this was clearly just an excuse.
There was something on the fourth floor that the old steward didn’t want people to know about
Moreover, the old steward himself might be unable to go to the fourth floor.
——During the free activity time before dinner yesterday, An Nanyuan had explored the entire mansion, including the fourth floor. However, the old steward had never appeared on the fourth floor to stop him. This contradiction was in line with the old steward’s desire to conceal something.
Yan Shixun thought of the scene he had seen in his hallucination last night, the image of the woman in a qipao grooming herself in front of a mirror.
The room she was in was clearly consistent with the style of the mansion, but it was much larger and more exquisite than the rooms assigned to the guests.
If that wasn’t a fabricated illusion but a recreation of a scene from a hundred years ago, based on the glimpse of the outside view through the window, that room’s height should be on the third or fourth floor.
。
However, the third floor had four rooms, with Bai Shuang and An Nanyuan on the left, and Liu Yiyi and Ding Xi on the right.
In the morning, when Liu Yiyi had her incident, Yan Shixun took the opportunity to check all four rooms, but none of them matched the one he had seen in his hallucination.
This meant that it had to be on the fourth floor.
And in the split-screen footage of An Nanyuan exploring the villa, Yan Shixun also saw a room on the fourth floor with an extremely feminine and luxurious decoration. With an old-fashioned lipstick box placed on the dressing table.
—It was the same as the exquisite lipstick box in his hallucination with the delicate characters “Xi Shuang” engraved on it.
Yan Shixun had a premonition that he would find information about the woman on the fourth floor and understand why she and the old steward were in a mutual state of distrust.
“Creak…”
Even though the gilded handrails still exuded luxury, they couldn’t hide the age of the wooden staircase.
As Yan Shixun ascended, it emitted groaning sounds as if it were burdened.
The viewers who had been watching Yan Shixun’s split-screen livestream were suddenly filled with tension at this moment. They stopped discussing Yan Shixun’s overly handsome appearance and even refrained from spamming the chat. They stared intently at the screen, afraid that something would suddenly emerge from the side in the next second.
But perhaps because it was daytime, nothing that frightened the audience appeared.
It wasn’t until Yan Shixun reached the junction between the third and fourth floors, passing by the damaged and old Buddha statue—
The statue of Guanyin that had been enshrined in it suddenly fell without any wind, tumbling down in front of Yan Shixun, blocking his path to the fourth floor.
Yan Shixun instinctively lowered his gaze to look.
The gilded surface of the Guanyin statue had long been corroded by the passage of time, becoming dim and damaged. The vase it once held had also disappeared without a trace.
Note: please google Guanyin if you wanna know more, this is a female god in Chinese belief, she holds a vase in her hand.
Only the slightly drooping, half-opened eyes still radiated the compassion and pity of the Bodhisattva. As if it had been watching over the child it protected for a long time and wanted to continue offering its shelter.
The statue of Guanyin finally stopped moving and lay face up.
However, in the moment when Yan Shixun’s gaze met the compassionate eyes of the Guanyin statue, the Guanyin statue’s eyes slowly closed.
Guanyin closed her eyes, not saving the world.
Before Yan Shixun could react, the next moment, a terrified female scream suddenly came from the third floor.
“AHHHHH!!!”
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Thanks for the update
Really creating the atmosphere such dramtic ghosts. Its appericated.