Zhuo Heng’s spine was ramrod straight, as if that could distance him from the creeping chill.
He stared fixedly at the figure ahead. The rain was too heavy, making the silhouette incredibly blurry, but he was certain it was Su Qing and just wanted to get there faster.
He pressed the accelerator a little more. The distance wasn’t far, yet it felt like he could never quite arrive.
He kept his eyes locked ahead, while Bai Luwei kept hers locked on him.
It was the kind of stare you can feel intensely without even looking. He could perfectly imagine the scene.
A thoroughly drenched woman leaning against the passenger seat, her long black hair plastered to a pallid face. It wasn’t a dead, ashen white, but had a luster, making the skin look soft and supple, yet without a trace of color, radiating an inexplicable eeriness.
Ice-cold rainwater dripped from her hair and the hem of her clothes, forming puddles on the floor. Her body faced forward, but her head was twisted, that pale face turned to stare at him, constantly staring at him, like a water ghost crawling in to claim a life.
Seconds felt like years.
I have to say something.
Zhuo Heng forced his round eyes wide open, a slight tremor in them. “No, no, nothing about any prices or markets. Must’ve run into some accident, maybe the car broke down. Let’s get there quickly.”
“Hee hee~” Bai Luwei let out a laugh. “You’re so kind-hearted.”
The light, airy, ethereal voice—many girls laugh like that—but in this silent car, in this current environment, it was far too eerie.
The good thing, however, was that she turned her head back around.
Phew~
Zhuo Heng let out a breath of relief. Finally, the car reached where the woman was standing and stopped.
The person walked directly to the passenger side, intending to open the door, only to realize someone was already sitting there before making a move. She paused, then opened the rear door and got in.
The woman had a braid tied behind her head, wore a white dress, and a white knitted cardigan over it. All of it was soaked through.
It was that girl from the art department, Su Qing.
Oh~
Zhuo Heng almost cried out. He finally saw a familiar face.
Su Qing wiped some water off herself and glanced at the woman in the passenger seat. She had many questions internally, but she couldn’t ask them directly. She had her own character and script.
Su Qing: “Thank you. My car broke down, I couldn’t go any further.”
Though Su Qing didn’t ask, Zhuo Heng had many things he wanted to. He also wanted to talk about the others’ current situations, but the moment he opened his mouth, he felt an invisible restriction.
He couldn’t speak.
The Director hadn’t yelled cut. He couldn’t discuss things outside the script.
Zhuo Heng could only say: “No problem. I’m planning to stay the night at that villa. Want to come along?”
Su Qing: “Mm.”
The conversation paused. The villa wasn’t far now. Bai Luwei spoke again.
This time, she turned her head to the back, addressing Su Qing with a tone of delighted surprise: “Qingqing? It’s really you! That’s wonderful, I’m so glad to see you.”
Su Qing looked at her silently, confusion in her eyes.
“Don’t you remember? We used to live together. You even had me do all sorts of poses for form training,” Bai Luwei wore a nostalgic expression. “You really liked me back then.”
~
Lou Hao rode his motorcycle. He was an Ability User with high physical fitness, and such harsh conditions didn’t faze him.
He was speeding along, and before long, he could already see the taillights of the car ahead. Overtaking it wouldn’t be an issue.
Suddenly, he felt his wheels run over something. It flashed by his vision, man-shaped.
But a human couldn’t be that flat, that thin.
Lou Hao braked cleanly, turned around to check. There was nothing, just a reflective patch of water.
Lou Hao cursed and drove off.
The Director wanted to shoot them entering the villa in the rain, which could have just started from the main gate. But the Director insisted they drive so far out only to turn back. Hard to say what the purpose might be.
He felt something nearby watching him but couldn’t locate it, so he chalked it up to the Anomaly’s hidden specialty cameras.
Next was Investigator Wen Danning. She picked up Xie Lincheng, who was trudging along in the rain.
Xie Lincheng had gotten out of the car after a big argument with his boyfriend. The actor playing the boyfriend, a man with a buzz cut, was named Zhou Cao. Zhou Cao’s car was right behind, following him by about one or two hundred meters.
The last one was the short-haired woman, Li Sha, a forensic doctor in real life. Driving back, she passed a pond. The water had overflowed its banks, and floating inside the water was a giant, spherical object.
Based on her experience, Li Sha instantly identified it as a corpse in the bloat stage.
She had no intention of stopping. Her speed wasn’t fast, and through the rearview mirror, she vaguely saw the corpse quickly disappear.
Lou Hao and Zhuo Heng entered the villa almost one after the other, followed by the rest who trickled in. Of course, the three Extras who’d gone to see the excitement had returned even earlier.
They needed to get back before the main cast arrived and blend into the background.
The Director’s production crew was currently set up by the entrance and front desk, shooting with their equipment. Xu Xiye sat in a corner. Then the Boyfriend and Girlfriend entered.
The Director stopped them as they came in, saying a few words.
The three gathered together and started whispering.
Xu Xiye asked curiously: “What did the Director say? Didn’t curse anyone out, right?”
“Nope,” said the Boyfriend. “You guys don’t know, but someone saw me floating in the water. I thought I’d get chewed out when I got back, but surprisingly, the Director said that scene turned out unexpectedly well.”
“Right, right, me too,” the Girlfriend immediately chimed in. “I was super thin, lying in such a dark place and still got spotted. Gave me a fright. Luckily, the Director didn’t scold me either. Would’ve been awful if my pay got docked.”
Xu Xiye: Ah, so I was the only one just slacking off?
But the Director hadn’t said anything to him either, even greeted him, saying he was back just in time and that dinner would be served soon.
“What exactly are they filming? Have you figured it out?” the Girlfriend asked.
Boyfriend: “No idea. We’ll see what comes out.” He lowered his voice, sneaking a glance at the Director. “I’m sticking to my view. Trash film. Not good.”
Girlfriend: “It’s just the beginning. Too early to judge.”
Xu Xiye didn’t speak. Actually, he had a theory about the plot now.
That new actress was playing a female ghost. The ghost infiltrated the group. She remembered them, but they no longer remembered her.
How hateful.
They took her money, owed her a debt. Could they just forget her completely after death?
No, she would collect her debt!
Next, the female ghost would visit them one by one to collect. However, the Fly Person was the true main antagonist, the hidden mastermind. After the female ghost barely succeeded in collecting her debts, all the money would be stolen by the Fly Person.
Ah, too terrifying.
This was a horror film.
This was Xu Xiye’s deduction based on his movie-watching experience. He didn’t know if it was trash, but he figured this kind of film wouldn’t be a hit.
He didn’t like watching this type himself, preferring the genre of the drama he was currently following.
But watching how it was being filmed on set was a different matter entirely.
Outside the villa, there was torrential rain and thunder. Inside, it was peaceful and quiet. Soon, the tranquility shattered. The main cast entered one after another, and the whole lobby buzzed with noise.
A camera swept over, capturing Xu Xiye. He felt a bit nervous now that it was the real deal.
“Boss, any rooms left? I’ll take one,” Lou Hao called out.
Boss: “Yes, yes, plenty.”
Zhuo Heng: “Boss, one for me too.”
Su Qing said the same thing, then added: “I’d also like a change of clothes.”
The moment she finished speaking, an ice-cold body pressed against her back. Two arms reached from behind and wrapped around her neck.
Su Qing’s body stiffened.
It was Bai Luwei, pressing close from behind, her chin resting on Su Qing’s shoulder.
She felt like she was carrying a frozen corpse on her back.
“What’s wrong? You used to carry me on your back like this too,” Bai Luwei said.
Su Qing held her breath, suppressing her panic as she pulled the arms off her neck. “I told you, you’ve mistaken me for someone else. This makes me uncomfortable.”
“Fine,” Bai Luwei said, disappointed, releasing her and stepping aside.
Zhuo Heng stood next to Lou Hao. Lou Hao watched the scene with a cocky look, his tongue running over his back teeth. He wanted to ask what that was all about, but another group returned, one after another, creating a chaotic bustle. No question could be asked.
Xie Lincheng narrowed his peach blossom eyes slightly. Wen Danning surveyed the scene with cautious, meticulous scrutiny. Both immediately noticed the extra woman at first glance.
Bai Luwei let them scrutinize her, her own gaze sweeping over each face with even more abandon as she introduced herself. “Hello, I’m Bai Luwei. What a coincidence, meeting everyone here on the same day.”
Her gaze finally landed on the female forensic doctor, Li Sha, but she said nothing.
Xie Lincheng, Wen Danning, and Lou Hao exchanged glances. Wen Danning said, “Yes, truly a coincidence. But we’re all soaked. Let’s go upstairs and change first, then come back down to chat.”
“Sure,” Bai Luwei said.
The main cast filed noisily up the stairs.
Xu Xiye watched and muttered to himself: They didn’t even pay. No attention to detail at all.
Just as the Director had said, dinner was served not long after. Xu Xiye had a table to himself, the Boyfriend and Girlfriend shared a table, and the main cast sat at a large table together after coming back down.
The reasoning was that they felt it was fate, being trapped here by the same storm on the same day. Since they were all around the same age, young people could get to know each other and become friends.
That’s what the script dictated.
Though both the actors and Xu Xiye, the spectator, found it absurd.
The table was laden with dishes—fish, meat—it looked bountiful. But they dared not eat much of anything from the Inner World, no matter how good it seemed. And that was just them; surprisingly, Bai Luwei did the same.
BOOM! A massive crash of thunder.
All the lights in the villa suddenly went out. Someone cried out involuntarily.
Zhuo Heng: “Power outage? Tripped breaker? Or a blown fuse?”
Xie Lincheng: “Whatever it is, the power’s definitely not coming back on. Fits the atmosphere perfectly.”
“Horror atmosphere, you mean?” Bai Luwei suddenly spoke up. “Actually, there’s something I haven’t known how to bring up…”
Wen Danning: “No rush. Take your time, think it over, then tell us.”
Bai Luwei: “I don’t know if this is your first time on this road, but it isn’t mine. I’ve never known there to be a functioning villa-style hotel here. All I knew was about an abandoned villa.”
“An abandoned villa? There’s only this one villa around here.”
“Mm. It’s too remote. The villa was always deserted. Now it’s suddenly turned into a resort hotel. Doesn’t that strike you as strange?”
“What’s so strange? Abandoned places get redeveloped all the time.”
Bai Luwei shook her head. “I passed by here just last week, and it was still overgrown with weeds.”
Lou Hao: “Long story short. What exactly is going on here?”
Bai Luwei lowered her voice: “I suspect we’ve entered a haunted house. Everyone else here are ghosts. Shh, keep it down. Don’t let them hear.”
Lou Hao: “…”
The others: “…”
In the darkness, Xu Xiye calmly ate his meal, having heard everything they said.
Nonsense, lies. He wasn’t a ghost. His name was even Lu Ren.
But he probably was going to be mistaken for a ghost.
