Chapter 29: Ghost Mountain Villa 29
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The interruption of the live broadcast signal also rendered the program team’s last means of communication with the outside world ineffective.
The viewers were stunned as they watched the screen suddenly go black.
The fear that had been slowly accumulating due to the anomalies that had been appearing in the camera footage finally reached its peak at this moment.
Humans fear the unknown.
Waiting brings about anxiety.
As a result, the video platform welcomed the most bizarre event in its history——
A live broadcast program with all of its main screens and split screens turned black, relying on its rapidly rising topic score every second, quickly climbed to the top of the video platform’s homepage charts in an unstoppable manner.
Millions of subscribers to the program anxiously watched the blacked-out program, with each phone or computer screen reflecting a worried face.
They either silently prayed or anxiously discussed with other viewers in the comment section to relieve their impatience and fear.
On social media, many people who were originally just following the live broadcast program with a playful attitude were almost scared silly.
“I used to be a firm believer in the script theory. From the beginning to now, no matter what you say, I can find corresponding props and techniques to prove that the monsters that appear in the camera footage are man-made. But now I’m very suspicious… Is the director of this show a madman? Just go black screen? Isn’t it too realistic? It’s not necessary, man, I believe it already, okay?”
“Are there still script conspiracy theorists at this point? Even the official authorities of Binhai City are involved, my friend. It has stirred up so many people, even the rescue team is there. How could this be a scripted show?”
“But didn’t the authorities and the rescue team report that they haven’t found anyone in Gui Mountain? And the geologist said that the footage doesn’t even look like Gui Mountain. Doesn’t that prove that this show is staged? Maybe they found some small hill somewhere and started shooting.”
“When it comes to the authorities… haven’t you noticed that the authorities haven’t released any updates on the rescue operation for several hours now? I’ve seen several popular online influencers who were following this say that it seems like a sudden storm has hit Gui Mountain. There were just a lot of vehicles that went to reinforce Gui Mountain. Now they’ve kicked out all the influencers who were filming there. They’ve blocked all the highways and country roads leading to Gui Mountain with roadblocks manned by guards, not allowing anyone to pass.”
“Latest news, Haiyun Temple suddenly evacuated all the tourists and temporarily closed the temple, saying they have internal rituals to perform.”
“Oh my god! Is this for real? If it is, this is a big deal. I’m getting a sense of impending doom here. Is all of this still part of the script? The director must be incredibly influential to make the authorities cooperate with him in this act!”
“We’ve endured and questioned enough. Shouldn’t we be concerned about the safety of the production team over there since the live broadcast signal was interrupted and there’s no official report? What if something really terrifying happened? Those who keep questioning whether it’s scripted, I’ll ask you this: what kind of bigshot director would it take to make the authorities play along?”
“At the moment when the live broadcast signal cut off, I happened to be watching the main screen. It was really terrifying! I was so scared that I froze, and I didn’t even have time to take a screenshot. You guys didn’t see it, but behind those production team members, there was a bloody-red shadow following them! They acted like they couldn’t see it themselves and were talking normally to others. In the last second before the signal was cut off, a blood-soaked face suddenly appeared on the screen. It scared me so much that I rolled out of bed, my heart almost jumping out of my chest.”
“Is the show hiring fake commenters? Keep making up stories; I’m all ears.”
“It’s not fake. I saw it too. I was initially watching Brother Yan’s split screen, where you couldn’t see anyone, right? So, I switched to the main screen, and I saw it too! There really was a vague blood-red shadow behind every single person. Those shadows didn’t speak or move; they followed wherever the person went and just stood silently behind them, staring at them! At first, I thought it was because of my nearsightedness getting worse, but I talked to others in the comment section, and it turns out several others watching the main screen saw the same thing.”
“If what you guys are saying is true, I have a theory. There was a saying before that ghosts and supernatural entities are actually a kind of magnetic field aggregate. They have a different magnetic field of their own, which can interfere with circuits and signals and stuff. So, do you think the sudden blackout of the livestream is because of this?”
“Stop arguing; let’s confirm this visually…..”
Seeing the topic trending and the discussion getting chaotic, drifting away from the original topic, the popular variety show Vlogger, Brother Goose, suddenly appeared in the trending hashtag.
Alone at home, Brother Goose looked at screenshots on his computer and sighed in despair. He wiped his face, then repeated to himself three times, “Amitabha, Amitabha, please, ghosts, don’t come looking for me.” He mustered the courage to press the send button.
The latest update from the Vlogger immediately appeared before all the discussion participants.
@EntertainmentEnthusiastBrotherGoose: Make way for Goose to the bathroom, please! I want to go so badly!! After seeing these screenshots that fans sent me, I’m sitting against the wall on my bed, afraid to go anywhere. I can’t leave any gaps behind me; I’m afraid something might silently stand behind me too! (Friendly reminder: If you’re faint of heart or have heart problems, don’t open the attached images! Curiosity killed the cat!)
In the dynamic images, there were several screenshots from the live broadcast, taken from various angles, clearly showing the members of the production team and guests on the split screens and the main screen.
Popular Vlogger “Brother Goose” picked out some of the best-captured images from the flood of private messages he received from fans who were startled. He shared these images.
From these screenshots, you could see clearly that behind each member of the production team, there stood a humanoid figure with a vivid crimson color.
They remained silent, their hollow, glass-like red eyes fixed on the living individuals in front of them, carrying a peculiar and eager expression, yet restraining themselves, as if waiting for the right moment.
However, the members of the production team were completely oblivious to these ghostly figures. Even when facing each other directly, their expressions and demeanor appeared relaxed, showing no signs of awareness of the room they were in.
The room was now filled with malicious spirits.
Perhaps due to the camera lenses or the contrast provided by the black stone walls in the frame, in these meticulously selected video screenshots, anyone who saw the images could easily spot these ghostly figures.
Curiosity is a basic human instinct, and so is the instinct to rebel.
Many people who were initially unaware of the existence of this show stumbled upon it by clicking on the trending tag after seeing Brother Goose’s post. Some viewers of the show, upon sensing Brother Goose’s despairing tone, also felt that something was amiss.
However, it was Brother Goose’s final two sentences of warning that made many people who initially had no intention of clicking suddenly develop a rebellious curiosity – “Just because you say don’t click, we won’t click? Why don’t we just click to see what it is!”
As these curious individuals opened the post, they were nearly frightened to death, and their hearts raced dangerously.
Many people involuntarily screamed, and some even dropped their phones due to trembling hands.
After a few people managed to regain their composure, their hearts continued to pound uncontrollably.
“F*CK! F*CK! F*CK! AHHH!!!”
“Mom, I want to go home! AAAAH!!!”
“Whimper, my closet moved, I don’t want to play anymore.”
“…I quietly flipped over in my blanket, lying on my back. After seeing these pictures, it feels safer to have my back against the bed frame. Phew.”
“Hey, the guy upstairs, you never know, there might be something hiding under your bed (whispering demonically).”
“AHHHHHHHH, SHUT UP!!!”
“Wait a minute! Did you guys notice that Bai Shuang and An Nanyuan have no idea about this? What should we do? I’m so worried, I could cry. The livestream is down, and the comments haven’t gotten any response from the production team. Is there any way to inform them about this now?”
“Oh no… They are in danger! Those things might do something to them. We need help! Someone, please save them!”
Brother Goose, with his eyes tired and dark from staying awake all day, looked at the rapidly increasing comments under his post. He nodded with exhaustion and relief.
——I can’t be the only one scared half to death. Come on, we’re all viewers of this show, so we should share the blessings and the screenshots together.
Then, as if being nervously frightened, he quickly glanced left and right, confirming that there were no red ghostly figures standing beside him. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief, tightening his small blanket and replying to the fans who were on the verge of tears.
“I’ve also sent the screenshots to the rescue team and the authorities. They have people at the scene of Gui Mountain, after seeing the pictures, they will definitely find a way to pass the message to the inside of Gui Mountain. Don’t worry.”
Seeing Brother Goose’s reply, the people following this show breathed a slight sigh of relief.
Indeed, for now, this was the best course of action. They could only anxiously watch in front of their screens, but the rescue teams on-site were the ones truly capable of resolving the situation.
However, the relieved viewers were unaware that the authorities who received the screenshots were also anxious.
It wasn’t just the viewers who noticed the ghostly figures in the live broadcast, but also the Taoists from the Haiyun Temple.
Some viewers could only vaguely see red blurs in the screenshots, but some could directly see clear ghostly figures in the camera. This was because many still had innate spiritual sensitivity, or they were young, making them more sensitive to the existence of these supernatural entities.
The Taoists, skilled in capturing and exorcising ghosts, realized the seriousness of the situation as soon as they saw the abnormal scenes of blood flooding in Yan Shixun’s split screen. They specifically instructed a Taoist with opened spiritual eyes to guard the live broadcast and attentively monitor the ghosts in the mansion. Upon immediately detecting that something was wrong, they quickly sent a warning to the team of Taoists at Gui Mountain.
However, when the Taoists who stayed outside the boundary of Gui Mountain with some rescue team members received the message and tried to rush into Gui Mountain, his face turned pale.
—Gui Mountain was inaccessible!
The seemingly chaotic and savage trees, now appeared as a complete mystical formation. No matter how the Taoists tried to enter by shifting left or right, the towering trees would block their path into Gui Mountain, darkening the skies.
Dead ends surrounded them from all directions, denying entry to gods and ghosts, leaving no openings for the living.
“Taoist Ma, the radio signal for the first team entering the mountain has been lost. Calls to them have gone unanswered.”
The captain of the rescue team left behind held a communicator, his expression serious. “Please urgently contact Taoist Song and inquire whether it’s a device issue or an unexpected event, and if they need reinforcements.”
Taoist Ma, stepping on a tree trunk, leaped backward from the air, evading tree branches being blown by the fierce wind, landing firmly next to the captain.
Before he could catch his breath, he immediately started to perform divination, but soon shook his head.
The captain frowned. “Taoist Ma, I was referring to phone contact, not this…”
“This is faster than a phone and doesn’t have signal issues, very convenient.”
Taoist Ma furrowed his brow tightly, looking at Gui Mountain with a vigilant gaze. “But it’s not working. Gui Maiuntain has vanished. Both electronic signals and divination have received no response.”
“The worst possibility is that Gui Mountain is no longer in the mortal realm.”
His voice was very low, almost murmuring, making it hard for the captain to hear clearly: “Could it be that the possibility suggested by Master Uncle earlier is true? Not only is there Gui Mountain, but there is also the Yin-bound Ghost Mountain…”
Clearly, the mountain was right in front of them, yet it felt infinitely distant at this moment, a distance that the living could not bridge between life and death.
“Captain! Look, the trees, they’re changing!” exclaimed a nearby member of the rescue team. “Am I seeing things?”
Everyone watched in horror as the lush trees on Gui Mountain rapidly withered and turned black, spreading from point to area. Simultaneously, the common fir trees and others, in the blink of an eye, transformed into tall locust trees.
“Locust trees… there are ghosts looking for vessels.”
Taoist Ma’s heart sank.
Outside Gui Mountain, chaos reigned.
However, the guests and crew members in the wine cellar, feeling restless and anxious, had no idea that rescue teams on Gui Mountain had not given up and were still making desperate efforts to find them. They were also unaware of what kind of fear and breakdown the rescuers were currently experiencing.
At this moment, the guests were huddled around the male singer inside an oak barrel in the wine cellar.
Initially, from a distance, they assumed, based on their usual cognitive habits, that the oak barrel contained wine.
However, as they got closer, they began to smell the pungent odor of blood that hadn’t had time to spread due to the cold.
The stench assaulted their senses, causing several guests to involuntarily gag upon inhaling it, catching them off guard.
It was as if they were smelling the odor produced by a corpse left out in the scorching sun for over ten days, leading to a slew of unpleasant emotions and associations.
Ding Xi’s face turned pale as she rushed towards a distant corner to retch, not minding the dust on the walls. She held onto the wall, allowing her weak body that could hardly stand to have a supporting point.
“Ding Xi, are you okay?”
A young male voice sounded next to Ding Xi, reaching out his arm towards her in a gesture of concern.
However, the voice, devoid of any intonation, carried an eerie and bone-chilling quality.
But Ding Xi, who was frightened and had weak legs, didn’t have time to pay attention to these details. Having just seen the sight inside the oak barrel, she felt a surge of acidity in her stomach, wishing she could vomit everything out through her throat. However, due to eating little in the morning, she couldn’t vomit anything out now, trembling and retching, her eyes misting up and her vision becoming blurred.
She hastily glanced to the side and vaguely recognized from the person’s clothing that he seemed to be the young and handsome assistant director from the production team.
Presumably, he came over to ask her out of work duty after seeing her running over here alone.
Ding Xi murmured a thank you and grabbed the person’s arm, not thinking too much about it.
She just wondered if it was because she had been in the cold wine cellar for too long, the person’s body temperature was also very low. The moment she touched him, she shivered from the cold.
The young and handsome staff member, in a unnoticed corner, supported Ding Xi. His mouth twitched into a stiff smile, his skin barely showing any emotion. Even near his gradually reddening eyeballs, his skin slightly lifted due to this forced smile.
It’s as if this skin didn’t belong to him in the first place; he just forcibly put it on himself.
In the midst of panic, no one noticed when Ding Xi ran away. They were all trying to suppress their nausea.
“Wait a minute, he seems to still be alive. I saw his neck artery twitch just now!” one of the brave male guests who got closer exclaimed and quickly shouted, “Quick, save him! There might still be a chance to save him!”
Even though the staff and male guests nearby were filled with resistance at the prospect of retrieving someone from a bucket full of putrid blood, they endured their disgust, realizing that a human life was at stake. They all pitched in and pulled the unresponsive male singer out of the oak barrel.
The blood inside the barrel had been sitting for who knows how long, becoming sticky and malodorous, turning into a thick, gooey substance.
As the male singer was dragged out, the blood clung to his body and got onto the hands of those who were assisting.
Several people involuntarily retched, feeling their disgust toward the male singer reaching its peak.
One of the male guests accidentally got splattered with the blood in his eyes and immediately felt a sharp pain. He quickly stepped back, not caring about anything else, and used his clothing to wipe his eyes.
“Looking at him like this, he seems as if he drowned, right?” someone inquired, observing the male singer lying on the ground. “See how his belly is bloated, just like someone who’s swallowed a lot of water.”
The male singer was now completely unconscious, his body temperature as cold as ice, with only the faintest breath and the rise and fall of his chest indicating that he was still alive.
His complexion was ashen, and his bloodless lips continuously dripped with blood, while his belly was bulging, just as the man had said.
Drowning victims drink water, but what the male singer drank was…
Thinking of this, everyone’s faces turned pale, and they subconsciously took two steps back.
They had all seen the fate of Liu Yiyi, who had drunk the blood stored in the wine bottle.
Liu Yiyi was still lying in the first aid room, suffering from an infection due to secondary injuries and running a high fever. If it weren’t for Yan Shixun, she might not even have had the chance to lie in the first aid room for treatment.
But now, Yan Shixun was not with them.
——If Yan Shixun were here, he would surely realize the connection between the blood-filled bottle given to Liu Yiyi by the old steward and the fact that the wine cellar, which should have contained wine, was filled with blood. He would have realized that the flesh and blood the old steward wanted to feed the members of the production team was likely stored in the wine cellar.
However, Yan Shixun was currently in a different space on the fourth floor, controlled by the vengeful spirit, unable to contact the people in the wine cellar and unaware of the situation.
The group cautiously shone their flashlights around, fearing that the creature that had seriously injured Liu Yiyi might also appear in the wine cellar.
“Let’s go back upstairs quickly. It’s so dark in the wine cellar, it wouldn’t be good if there’s really something here.”
An Nanyuan shivered, and the terrifying scenes from horror movies he had watched in the past involuntarily replayed in his mind. Perhaps those ghosts were hiding behind the oak barrels, lurking in the shadows behind the walls, silently watching them with mocking malicious smiles, fantasizing about the taste of their flesh and blood…
Anan Yuan was so terrified by his own imagination that he screamed wildly in his heart, “Ahhhhhhhh!!!” He quickly suggested to the petrified Zhang Wubing, “And he also needs immediate medical attention. We can’t delay any longer, or it might cost a life.”
Zhang Wubing was nearly paralyzed with fear, and he could almost hear the “crack” sound of his bones knocking against each other. But with everyone looking at him, anxiously waiting for his agreement, he knew this wasn’t the time to lose his wits.
He stiffly nodded his head and said, “Y-yes.”
Everyone immediately lifted the male singer and prepared to carry him up the stairs, as he was heavy from drinking so much blood.
However, Bai Shuang suddenly exclaimed, “What about Sister Xixi?”
“She was just standing right next to us…” the person who spoke began, unconsciously raising their hand to point to the side. But when they turned their head to look after a slight delay, their words got stuck in their throat.
At some point, Ding Xi was no longer standing beside them.
“Where do you all want to go?”
In the darkness, a cold inquiry suddenly rang out.
Everyone was startled, and they immediately aimed their flashlights in the direction of the voice.
They saw the young and handsome assistant director slowly approaching from the corner, his face wearing a creepy, stiff smile.
His face should have been filled with youthful vigor at his age, with a sunny and amiable smile. But in the darkness of the wine cellar, this smile, as if flesh and skin had been separated, only made those who saw it feel a chill rising from their feet to the top of their heads.
“Is my hospitality not up to par for all of you? Is the food and drink here not to your liking?”
The director’s assistant slowly approached the group, speaking in a toneless voice, “That won’t do. If Leader (same address as Zhou Shi by his bandits underlings) isn’t here, it’s my duty to entertain everyone. If any of you are dissatisfied, and Leader returns from over there, he might kill me.”
Before the members of the production team could voice their questions about the unusual behavior of the previously low-key and reliable assistant, something happened.
In the vast expanse of the tall and spacious wine cellar, from the boundless darkness, came a series of banging sounds.
These echoes reverberated in the vast underground space, sending shivers down everyone’s spines.
“Bang!”
“Bang!”
“Bang!”
……
In the wine cellar, the fallen oak barrels were ruptured one by one as blood-red arms and skeletal remains burst through the barrel lids and slowly crawled out.
Under the trembling beams of flashlights, these blood-red monsters gradually straightened their bodies, swaying with armless hands that had lost their human skin. Slowly, they approached the production team members from all directions in the darkness.
There were even blood-red lumps that had lost their human form, struggling to crawl out of the barrels and wriggling towards the area where the group was standing, on the thick layer of dusty ground.
“Perhaps, if you savor it carefully, you’ll come to like it.”
The assistant director’s words sent a chill down everyone’s spine as they realized the horrifying reality unfolding before them.
It was as cold and chilling as the voice of the deceased, urging death.
Everyone trembled in fear, unable to stop shivering, continuously retreating and huddling together, but they could only watch as the skeletal figures and apparitions got closer and closer…
Everyone’s sanity was on the verge of collapse, their pupils shrinking to tiny points.
Finally, the already struggling Zhang Wubing was frightened to tears, only remembering to scream in desperation, “Brother Yan! Brother Yan, help us, please!!Ahhhhhh!!!!”
……
Meanwhile, Yan Shixun was in the mistress’s room on the fourth floor, facing the female ghost in the blood-red mirror.
“I thought you needed some more time in isolation. I didn’t expect you to recover so quickly,” Yan Shixun raised a sharp eyebrow and pretended to be surprised, saying, “I have to commend, living up to your reputation as the leading lady of Old Shanghai a hundred years ago. Quite impressive.”
Xi Shuang: “…”
Since the moment when she was forcibly taken away by Yan Shixun in the corridor, when he snatched the rose-gold hairpin and turned the female corpses and bones into a pile of flesh and bones, Xi Shuang realized that she might not be able to kill this arrogant guy and use him as fertilizer for the rose garden.
And Yan Shixun kept using the departure of her nanny to provoke her, making her re-experience the fear and resentment that had never healed or been forgotten for a hundred years, stemming from the depths of her soul.
In a fit of rage and desperation, Xi Shuang turned and dove into the mirror, intending to trap Yan Shixun in this space and slowly wear down his willpower and sanity until he broke.
——But Xi Shuang, who had never met anyone like Yan Shixun, had not expected another possibility.
That is, she was first enraged to the point of collapsing.
“Don’t go! Where are you going?”
In the mirror, Xi Shuang just turned her head to go back, but Yan Shixun reached into the mirror with his hand and quickly grabbed her long hair.
Yan Shixun was silent for two seconds, then furious: “Let go!”
Under the anger, Xi Shuang’s black hair was all flailing wildly, looking particularly terrifying.
However, Yan Shixun’s expression did not change.
“I don’t have any plans for that for now.”
Yan Shixun was surprised by the feeling of the mirror, which was like the surface of water, as if it was the entrance to another world. However, his expression did not change at all. He remained as carefree as usual, and he did not care about Xi Shuang’s anger.
“But since you’re out, why don’t we chat?”
Yan Shixun pulled Xi Shuang’s hair out of the mirror, and with his long, slender fingers, he deftly and quickly wrapped the hair around the letter in his other hand, then tied a knot.
After doing this, Yan Shixun finally let go of his hand, propped his cheek up casually, and said to Xi Shuang: “Nanny said you think I’m the bandit who killed you a hundred years ago. I’m a good person who was wrongly accused, and I’m so wronged that I want to crash into the mirror and commit suicide. However, you let me see so many memories from back then, you see, even the bandits were bustling with activity, and you’ve been hiding here alone
“Let’s chat. After all, I’m bored just staying here.”
Originally, Xi Shuang was furious because of Yan Shixun’s actions. Even her beautiful phoenix eyes turned red with anger.
However, when she heard Yan Shixun mention what the nanny told him, she was greatly startled, and the redness in her phoenix eyes quickly faded.
“Nanny….”
“What did she say to you?”
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