Chapter 8: Ghost Mountain Villa 8
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The viewers watching in An Nanyuan’s split-screen livestream were utterly baffled by this mysterious turn of events.
[That person called Yan Shixun said that thing just now was a curtain?? But this is a corridor! Where could there be curtains?]
[Now that you mention it… Could there really be a ghost? Oh my, don’t scare me like that.]
[The guy who came out of the room, why is he treating Yan Shixun like that? Is this part of the script for the show, trying to attract viewers with a ghostly gimmick? Those paranormal investigation places all pretend to have ghosts, don’t they?]
[Yeah, where’s the ghost? I don’t believe it anyway. Those who say they got scared are just too funny, like idiots, haha.]
[I didn’t notice it at the beginning of the show, but that guy called Yan Shixun is really handsome! He caught my attention!]
I hope Bother is okay. This mansion really looks a bit creepy.]
……
As more and more people flooded in, in the barrage and comment section of the live broadcast program, several factions with differing opinions created a noisy mess.
On social media platforms, the travel variety show named “Heart-Pounding Journey of Ninety-Nine Days” also gained popularity amidst the arguments. Hashtags like #VarietyShowMystery# and #ScriptHype# began climbing up from the bottom of the social media trending charts.
As for the central figures of controversy, Yan Shixun and An Nanyuan, they were thoroughly investigated and discussed by people.
Then, those who wanted to prove that Yan Shixun was an actor hired for the variety show and that there was no supernatural activity, only scripted performances, were left bewildered as they found a complete lack of information on Yan Shixun, as if he had never existed online.
“What’s the deal with this person? Does he never go online??? Why can’t we find a trace of him anywhere?”
Zhang Wubing, who had been unable to sleep due to fear and anxiety, kept a close eye on social media. He was both furious at those who were spreading rumors and suspicions about Yan Shixun, and delighted to see the rapid rise in the popularity of the show. His emotions swung between anger and laughter, making him seem like a bit of a fool.
As Zhang Wubing watched those who wanted to investigate Yan Shixun’s actions express their frustration, he felt a surge of pride. “That’s right, my Brother Yan is extraordinary!”
Happily, he took out his phone and sent a message to Yan Shixun: [Brother Yan, I’m waiting for you to come back with Bai Shuang. I’ll be cheering for you in the comments section of the show! Oh, and please be mindful not to include any prohibited content in the video. Let’s keep it positive and healthy, or else we might get banned.]
Yan Shixun, who took out his phone, was greeted by a long string of messages from Zhang Wubing: “……”
He often felt that this little rascal should be named “Zhang Youbing” instead.
“B-Brother Yan” An Nanyuan’s hand clenched tightly onto the villa’s door handle, feeling the cold mountain wind blowing in from outside. He nervously swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
His legs were trembling, the wind only made the goosebumps on his skin rise even more. It was as if in the dark woods near the villa, something sinister was watching him with malevolent eyes, eager to drag him into the forest to skin and debone him.
“Do we really have to go out?” An Nanyuan’s trembling voice contained a hint of tears, “It’s so cold outside. How about we go back? Maybe Bai Shuang will come back with the photos soon.”
Yan Shixun had encountered too many clients who were too scared by ghosts to move. At this moment, he could easily see that An Nanyuan was clearly afraid of ghosts as well.
Rolling his eyes, he extended his long leg and kicked An Nanyuan out from behind without hesitation.
Just as An Nanyuan was about to let out a sudden scream from being frightened, Yan Shixun swiftly leaped out of the door. Before An Nanyuan could fall to the ground, Yan Shixun grabbed his collar and lifted him up.
“Shut up, or I’ll leave you here all alone.”
Yan Shixun lowered his gaze and, with a sinister smile, parted his lips slightly, revealing a chilling grin to An Nanyuan.
The cold, pale moonlight fell upon Yan Shixun’s handsome face, giving his wild and unrestrained beauty a hint of eerie danger.
An Nanyuan was so frightened that he hiccupped and forcefully swallowed the scream he was about to let out.
An Nanyuan: I think I may have misjudged this. It seemed that Yan Shixun is scarier than the ghosts!
The night on Gui Mountain was eerily quiet as if everything was in a state of deathly silence. There was no chirping of insects, only the faint sound of the wind rustling through the trees, resembling the feeble gasps of an elderly person on the verge of dying.
Although it was summer, and the coastal city was sweltering like a steamer, inside Gui Mountain, it was unexpectedly cold.
As soon as they left the villa, An Nanyuan shivered, feeling the warmth being rapidly taken away by the night breeze. He felt as if he were a succulent piece of meat, vulnerable to the lurking ghosts.
The only thing keeping him warm was the heat from the hand that held him by the nape of his neck, which helped him maintain his composure.
After a while, Yan Shixuan released An Nanyuan as he carefully observed the garden.
Because today was the first day of the Gui Mountain journey, the production team focused primarily on the interactions among the guests inside the villa and didn’t pay much attention to the garden outside.
Among the guests, only Bai Shuang had done a personal split-screen livestream in the garden in the afternoon, in pursuit of personal popularity.
As for Yan Shixun, it was also his first time stepping into the garden.
As soon as he entered the garden, Yan Shixun could feel the cold rising from the ground. Unlike the nighttime chill of the mountains, this cold seemed capable of weakening one’s will, even freezing the soul.
The white flowers that covered the entire garden, when viewed from afar, appeared as if they belonged to a fairyland, ethereal and otherworldly.
But as Yan Shixun got closer, he noticed that those flowers, illuminated by the moonlight, were actually revealing blurry patterns of faces.
These faces were not identical, and even without a close look, you could tell they belonged to different people. Their expressions were varied, but all of them appeared in extreme agony, with furrowed brows and open mouths, as if they were screaming and struggling to break free from the flowers’ confinement.
“Huh? Is this a white rose?” An Nanyuan, seeing that Yan Shixun had been staring at the flowers for a long time, couldn’t help but become curious and approached for a closer look.
The layers of petals swayed gently in the night breeze as if the expressions on the faces were changing. They one by one turned their heads from the midst of the flowers to look at An Nanyuan.
And An Nanyuan, as if under a spell, continued to approach the flowers without stopping. He stared blankly at the flowers, getting closer and closer until his face was about to touch the faces on the flowers…
The split-screen camera mounted on An Nanyuan’s shoulder was also fixed on the flowers, capturing the increasingly enlarged, eerie, and blurry faces on the live broadcast screen.
The viewers watching in the split-screen livestream were horrified by this scene, their hair standing on end. The barrage of comments quickly scrolled across the screen as they anxiously tried to warn An Nanyuan.
[Brother! Brother, what’s happening? You need to move away from that thing, it doesn’t look right at all.]
[OMG! Who said this show had a script? If it’s fake, then this prop looks way too realistic. I’m starting to doubt if this is real.]
[Oh my goodness! How did these flowers grow like this? Can someone please educate us on what species this is?]
[Ahhhhhhhh, it’s so disgusting, my S.A.N. (sanity) value is plummeting!]
[Quickly move the camera away! I’m about to vomit.]
But An Nanyuan couldn’t see the barrage of comments and continued to approach the face in the flowers with an empty and obsessed gaze.
“You don’t want your face anymore? Why get so close?”
As soon as Yan Shixun turned around, he saw An Nanyuan’s actions and couldn’t help but pull him back from almost diving into the flowers.
And with this tug that brought him back to his senses, An Nanyuan realized what he had just done. When he focused on the flowers again, he couldn’t help but break out in a cold sweat.
“What is this thing?”
An Nanyuan quickly retreated to Yan Shixun’s side, still shaken, and asked, “Why did I just feel like I wanted to swap faces with it? I even thought it was what I wanted. Am I going crazy?”
“Now that you know, have a little less curiosity,” Yan Shixun said, not letting go this time. He held onto An Nanyuan’s collar and pulled him forward. “Haven’t you heard that curiosity killed the cat?”
As the two gradually moved away from the flowerbed, those flowers slowly turned their heads, and the human faces on them contorted. They gazed at Yan Shixun with resentful eyes in silence, as if they were resenting him for disrupting their imminent success.
Just as An Nanyuan was ensnared by the flowers, Yan Shixun quickly scanned the entire garden and pinpointed where Bai Shuang might be.
The entire garden was nearly covered in these radiant white flowers, but there was one particular spot where the closer one got, the sparser and dimmer the flowers became. The faces on these flowers seemed to express fear, all turned away from that spot.
It was a ramshackle shed in the far corner of the garden as if it had never been renovated. The rough brick walls had weathered and deteriorated over the years, appearing dilapidated and rudimentary, as if they could collapse in the next heavy rain.
However, despite its drab appearance, this shed stood alone in a patch of barren soil, conspicuously catching Yan Shixun’s attention. He grabbed An Nanyuan and quickly walked towards it.
As the two passed through the obstructing lush flowerbeds, they suddenly spotted a woman lying on the ground beside the shed, it was unknown whether she was dead or alive.
It was Bai Shuang.
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Thanks for the update