Jiang Wei glared with wide-eyed severity, only to see Tiger Brother crawling out from behind the bushes with a flashlight in hand.
Good thing it was actually a human.
“You’re early.” Tiger Brother turned off his flashlight, raised his head toward Jiang Wei, and smiled, saying, “Vivian, hello.”
“Tiger Brother.” Jiang Wei shook hands with him, peered behind him, and noticed a narrow path between the old passenger station and the hospital, where a small van was parked. Tiger Brother must have driven that van here.
“What do you think? This place gives off creepy vibes, right?” Tiger Brother tilted his chin toward the abandoned hospital with a proud, showy expression.
“Creepy.” Jiang Wei nodded. A dilapidated old building, especially a place like a hospital, naturally emanated a terrifying atmosphere. Pretty thrilling.
Just as the two of them were chatting idly, another taxi pulled up. Jiang Wei turned her head and was shocked to see Junnan hopping out of it.
“Didn’t you say you were never doing ghost-hunting live streams again?” Jiang Wei blurted out in astonishment, forgetting to even greet him.
The moment Junnan caught sight of her, he was just about to excitedly shout “Sister Wei!” when he heard those words and immediately looked sheepish. “I didn’t dare do ghost-hunting anymore, but Tiger Brother said you were coming, so I… hehe.”
With an elite streamer like Tiger Brother leading the team to help drive traffic, plus Sister Wei being here, participating in this ghost-hunting session was still worth a shot.
After the three of them gathered and briefly discussed the plan, they each started their respective live streams.
No sooner had Junnan finished introducing today’s streaming content than the chat filled with angry scoldings:
【Didn’t you say you weren’t exploring anymore? It’s all fake!】
【I’m dedicating a song to you: “Actor”.】
【Such a shameless double-standard face-slap.】
“I checked before coming here; there are no ghost stories in this abandoned hospital—it’s safe,” Junnan chuckled dryly before panning his camera toward Tiger Brother and Jiang Wei:
“With ghost-hunting senior Tiger Brother and my Sister Wei leading the team, I just had to come along.”
By this time, Tiger Brother and Jiang Wei had also briefed their respective fans on today’s streaming content. Holding up their equipment, the three of them crossed the rusted, decorative iron gate and stepped into the spacious courtyard in front of the abandoned hospital.
Jiang Wei walked deeper step by step, her foot landing on weeds one moment and potentially stepping on a tilted chunk of concrete the next. Without holding up a flashlight to carefully watch her path, she could easily take a massive tumble at any second.
Bypassing the front courtyard’s driveway, they found an abandoned fountain in the middle; it must have looked quite pretty before the place was abandoned.
Tiger Brother took the lead, scouting the path ahead while reminding Jiang Wei and Junnan behind him to watch out for loose bricks and potholes—fully playing the part of an older brother guiding newcomers.
As they stepped onto the main hospital building’s steps, Jiang Wei couldn’t help raising her head. Boston ivy covered the outer walls completely, and the moonlight cast their shadows across the masonry, making the abandoned facade look even more mottled and terrifying.
The window frames missing their glass were pitch-black holes, looking exceptionally eerie. The remnants of colored glass gleamed with a dim blue halo. This building was old enough; the era of using blue glass must have been decades ago.
“Vivian, keep up.” Tiger Brother had already reached the hospital entrance, and turning back to see the other two standing on the stairs, he hurriedly called out.
Jiang Wei snapped out of it, took a step forward, and continued on. Junnan followed closely behind Jiang Wei step by step, treating his Sister Wei entirely like a life-saving talisman.
Even before they had stepped foot inside the hospital, Junnan was already starting to generate fear value. While Jiang Wei was quite pleased about it, she also felt a twinge of sentiment: Junnan was this terrified, yet still insisted on joining a ghost-hunting expedition—didn’t that perfectly prove the old saying: Money is hard to earn, and shit is hard to eat?
Not easy at all, truly not easy.
As Jiang Wei followed Tiger Brother into the dark hospital, she felt a slight wave of tension herself, but she still turned back to comfort Junnan with a couple of words: “Don’t be scared, it’s fine.”
“With Sister Wei here, I’m not scared.” Though Junnan said he wasn’t scared, his shoulders involuntarily hunched inward.
The hospital lobby featured a skylight atrium design extending straight up to the roof; the three-story-high space created a majestic and oppressive architectural weight.
Jiang Wei looked up and around. Her high-spec flashlight beam traveled far, but the corridors and examination rooms inside the second and third-floor railings remained shrouded in darkness, refusing to be illuminated.
Rubbing her arms, Jiang Wei led Junnan to keep up with Tiger Brother’s pace, starting inch-by-inch exploration on the ground floor.
Junnan walked sometimes behind Jiang Wei’s left, sometimes behind her right, orbiting like a satellite that refused to stray more than two meters away from her. He was genuinely terrified; someone who had actually seen a ghost and almost been dragged off a roof by a paper doll knew very well that the dark was unsafe—how could he possibly dare to mess around casually?
The three of them had walked less than a hundred meters before Junnan was already panting heavily.
The chat in his live stream was filled with questions: 【What are you panting for?】 【Your panting is hurting my ears】 【Do you know how annoying the sound of your heavy breathing is?】 Junnan completely ignored the viewers’ teasing. Whenever Jiang Wei paused, he would peer around anxiously and ask in a low voice: “Sister Wei, where are we going?”
Looking intensely nervous.
Tiger Brother walked ahead, glancing back at the two behind him every now and then. The longer he looked, the more uneasy he felt, and he desperately wanted to ask Junnan: Hey, rookie male streamer, aren’t you laying it on a bit too thick with the acting?
Does ghost-hunting streaming have to be this cutthroat? Is it necessary to fake terror so exaggeratedly?
They had literally just stepped inside and hadn’t seen a single thing yet, but he was panting as if he were about to be scared to death—what’s wrong with him?
And yet… tch, Tiger Brother had to admit, the acting looked genuine enough to give even him goosebumps.
Tiger Brother was under massive pressure. One newcomer was a visual-tier lead from a film academy, and the other possessed god-tier acting skills worthy of a horror film Oscar; as the senior veteran, he couldn’t afford to fall behind either.
As the guide, Tiger Brother had to constantly project the disorientation and tension of walking into an unfamiliar environment, even though he had actually visited this place more than once.
Adjusting his expression, he too began acting for the camera—tightening facial muscles, letting his eyes dart frantically, holding his breath in sudden terror as if hearing something, and so on. Old masters had tricks up their sleeves too.
Tiger Brother fancied his acting skills were decent, and today’s scare content was also quite rich; the sequence of traps ahead would definitely keep the viewing fans entertained. However, he had another primary objective in mind: scaring these two reckless juniors—the ghost-hunting streaming business wasn’t that easy, and they needed to learn just how ruthless this job could be.
The corridor stretched deep into the gloom; the farther away from them, the thicker the darkness grew. The wind blew through the long, narrow hallway, producing a low, howling sound as if a massive monster were panting heavily at the far end.
Tiger Brother was about to lead Jiang Wei and Junnan to the first “plot point.” Looking back, Junnan was right there recording Jiang Wei with his phone while babbling: “Look, this is my Sister Wei.”
This kid didn’t look like he was here to do a ghost-hunting stream; he looked like he was here to serve as Vivian’s personal paparazzi. A legitimate streamer, yet he was engaging in idol worship—shooting his stream while fanboying right here on the job.
Tiger Brother’s mouth twitched almost imperceptibly. Just imagining how the various mechanical traps over the next hour or so were going to terrify these two naive greenhorns made an evil smile tug at the corner of his lips—normally when streaming, he had to set up traps to scare himself; how could that possibly compare to setting up traps to scare other people?
The stream interaction value was guaranteed to be through the roof.
Holding the anti-shake gimbal rig, Tiger Brother turned slightly so that while the camera framed himself, it captured the other two people behind him as well.
His expression was somewhat sneaky; fortunately, the camera lens was focused elsewhere, preventing his micro-expressions from being entirely exposed to the audience.
“Keep up.” Stopping in front of the next examination room, Tiger Brother turned back to whisper a reminder.
“Coming.” Jiang Wei raised her phone to follow, stepping to the other side of the doorway and positioning herself to film the interior of the examination room.
“This door is actually closed.” Even though Junnan was a whole head taller than Jiang Wei, he peeked out from behind her like a baby.
“I’ll open it.” Tiger Brother took a deep breath, wedged the gimbal under his arm, and rubbed his hands together. Taking a step back, he brought the gimbal back up, aimed it forward, gathered his strength, and delivered a fierce kick to the wooden door in front of him.
With a bang, the wooden door caved inward, accompanied by a teeth-gritting creak—, and swung wide open.
The instant the flashlight beams from Jiang Wei and Tiger Brother cut into the room, Junnan let out a piercing shriek.
Tiger Brother almost died of fright because of Junnan. He had been fully prepared to fake fear, but Junnan’s sudden yell startled him so badly that his legs went weak, causing him to stagger back a step while bracing against the doorframe. He didn’t even need to act anymore; the look of sheer terror on his face had never been more authentic.
Jiang Wei also drew in a sharp breath, her instinctive reaction likewise stepping backward. Unfortunately, because Junnan was right behind her, the back of her head slammed into his shoulder, startling her into a shiver.
“What is it?!” Tiger Brother asked with a trembling voice, furious with panic.
“Ghost, ghost ghost, ghost-ghost-ghost—there’s a ghost!” Junnan pointed into the examination room, his face pale and his voice failing him entirely.
Jiang Wei strapped her flashlight onto the gimbal, drew the peach-wood sword from her bag with her right hand, cautiously circled around to the main entrance, and swept her flashlight inside in a full circle—there was nothing there.
Junnan spotted shifting shadows again at the very back of the room; it turned out not to be a ghost, but the reflection of the three of them in the window glass. “Ah, I—I saw wrong.”
“Damn it.” Tiger Brother couldn’t help himself, clutching his chest against the doorframe and swearing at Junnan.
They had arranged white curtains in here; after kicking open the door, the curtains fluttering wildly in the draft were supposed to create a ghastly atmospheric effect. Now all that effect was completely ruined—no matter how wildly the white curtains danced, they weren’t half as terrifying as Junnan’s sudden screech.
The first plot point was ruined; Tiger Brother rubbed his forehead in annoyance.
“People scaring people can scare you to death. Junnan, pull yourself together—can you stop being so jumpy?” Tiger Brother lost his desire to explore this particular examination room, walking around inside once with his gimbal before heading back out. Feeling irritated, he couldn’t help nagging Junnan again.
“Sorry, sorry, I—I thought I saw a ghost.” Junnan wiped away cold sweat awkwardly, turning to meet Jiang Wei’s gaze as he offered another promise: “I’ll look closer next time, hehe.”
Jiang Wei patted Junnan’s shoulder; she found it really hard to blame him. After all, her fear value kept skyrocketing entirely thanks to his ample terror.
“Sister Wei is the calmest one here—confidence wrapped in composure, caution mixed with professionalism.” As they walked out of the examination room, Junnan immediately trailed behind, keeping his camera locked on the silhouette of Jiang Wei holding her peach-wood sword with a steady stride.
Thank goodness Vivian was here, or he would have given up and retreated long ago. This place was far too creepy, dark, and desolate; every patch of darkness seemed to hide a monster waiting to devour people. His poor little heart had it rough today.
During the subsequent ground-floor exploration, “accidents” continued to occur from time to time: an unidentified object Tiger Brother suddenly kicked while walking, a broken window frame that kept rattling noisily in the wind, and a creepy old anatomical model hidden inside an examination room that gave everyone a start…
Along the way, Tiger Brother gave three low gasps, Jiang Wei let out one exclamation of surprise, and Junnan leaked four drops of urine. Still, they muddled through it without real disaster, accumulating quite a bit of traffic across their respective live streams as the atmosphere grew increasingly engaging.
As they headed toward the stairs leading to the second floor, Junnan wiped away some sweat; he was already starting to feel this was a form of torture. Just as Tiger Brother had said, ghost-hunting streaming really wasn’t a simple job. Even without encountering real ghosts like paper dolls, groping forward blindly in the dark was terrifying enough.
Jiang Wei walked behind Tiger Brother up the stairs, wanting to reach out and steady herself on the handrail, but upon looking down and seeing it covered entirely in dust, she silently pulled her hand back. She had just checked her fear value; judging by its growth trend, Tiger Brother hadn’t contributed anything—could it be that he wasn’t scared at all? Was it all acting, devoid of any genuine fear?
While she was pondering this, Tiger Brother—who had taken the lead rounding the first landing and stepping onto the next flight of stairs—suddenly let out a low gasp. Seeing Tiger Brother recoil in repeated retreat, Jiang Wei quickly cleared a path and whispered a warning: “Careful.”
As Tiger Brother retreated behind her, Jiang Wei shone her flashlight upward, finally seeing what was going on, and her heart sank as well.
Right in the middle of the stairs sat a solid wood traditional master’s armchair. Under the flashlight beam, it emitted an eerie dark-red sheen. Why on earth would a wooden, old-fashioned armchair appear in a place like this?
“Ah, ahhh—” Junnan leaned his back against the stair railing, one foot already stepping backward onto the lower flight of stairs. “Let’s go, Sister Wei, let’s leave.”
No exploring anymore; they couldn’t explore this a bit more.
With a chair placed right there, pitch-black, as if an old man were sitting on it—who could possibly handle that?
Jiang Wei’s heart was drumming as well. She gestured to Junnan to signal that he should keep his cool.
Taking a step back, Jiang Wei exchanged glances with Tiger Brother, seeing him exhale a breath with a hesitant expression.
“Want to go check it out?” Tiger Brother lowered his voice, tightening his vocal cords as he asked Jiang Wei in a whisper. On the surface, he looked afraid, but inwardly he was feeling secretly smug: Starting to get scared already? This is only just beginning.
“You scout or I scout?” Jiang Wei didn’t rush forward blindly, simply tightening her grip on her peach-wood sword.
“How about… together?” Tiger Brother controlled his tone; when a voice dropped low enough, it naturally produced a tremor resembling panic.
“Alright.” Jiang Wei nodded, and the two of them moved upward together.
Their steps were extremely slow, like a pair of synchronized puppets, making the scene look even more bizarre.
Junnan was practically on the verge of tears, calling out a soft “Sister Wei” once more in hopes of pulling her back. Unfortunately, her focus remained locked on the master’s armchair ahead, and she ignored him entirely.
Wuwuwu, he was about to leak urine again…
Jiang Wei turned her camera to frame her own face. She was afraid that if something actually manifested on that chair, broadcasting it live would make things difficult to wrap up.
Tiger Brother was still whispering commentary to the camera, maintaining an ultra-cautious demeanor as he circled slowly around the chair, analyzing it in a hushed, professional tone: “There’s dust all around here, but not a single footprint—clearly it’s been sitting here for a long time. But this is an abandoned hospital, not an abandoned traditional estate; why would there be a chair like this?”
Jiang Wei stood sideways with her sword raised, making sure her arm’s reach could use the blade to separate Tiger Brother from the master’s armchair should any attack occur, before finally expanding her domain.
Within her omniscient field of view, no supernatural entities had materialized on the chair. It was just an ordinary master’s armchair made of fine-grained, high-density wood that looked quite expensive.
Exhaling a breath, Jiang Wei lowered her sword. Taking advantage of the domain being active, she mentally connected to the phone’s dark-bordered app to check her fear value, then frowned slightly.
An antique master’s armchair inexplicably appearing in a dark corridor—this was the kind of setup in a horror movie that would make everyone scream. Even if Tiger Brother had nerves of steel, seeing something like this suddenly pop up should have made his heart skip a beat just like hers; why wasn’t Tiger Brother contributing any fear value at all, just like before?
Even the bravest person would find this chilling unless he had known the item was already here beforehand, or unless he had arranged it himself…
Once a person starts doubting, everything around them begins to feel suspicious.
Though the chair looked scary, having such a spotless chair sitting in an abandoned hospital was entirely unreasonable.
“Wh-what should we do, Sister Wei?” Junnan chimed in right on cue to interrupt Jiang Wei’s train of thought.
She glanced back at Tiger Brother, slid her peach-wood sword back into her canvas bag, and waved at Junnan to signal that they shouldn’t worry about the chair and should keep moving forward.
Turning around to see Jiang Wei remaining completely composed and unfazed by the chair, Tiger Brother felt a sense of disappointment.
When he, Ah-Liang, and the rest of the staff set up these traps, imagining Jiang Wei screaming in terror had made them laugh out loud in delight—why hadn’t a scene like that appeared yet?
Privately, Tiger Brother had even fantasized that Vivian might get so scared she’d throw herself into his arms. Tsk tsk, no wonder this girl could run a successful ghost-hunting stream; her nerves really weren’t ordinary.
Tiger Brother summarized a few speculations for the camera regarding the armchair’s origins, abandoned the chair, took two steps in one to catch up with Jiang Wei and Junnan, rounded onto the second floor, and headed straight for the first examination room on this level.
The real excitement was about to begin. Tiger Brother revved up his mental energy, smoothly stepping behind Jiang Wei so she would take the vanguard and absorb the most direct face-to-face impact.
Jiang Wei had no idea what Tiger Brother was scheming. The first examination room on their route had its door open; there was neither a creaking wooden door nor any strange objects. When the flashlight beam shone inside, there weren’t even any dirty white curtains fluttering wildly in the draft—everything looked completely normal.
She relaxed slightly, turning toward the camera to introduce the flashlight and casually describing the room’s layout while improvising a small fictional snippet of what might have happened in this examination room. But the moment her voice sounded, a shadow suddenly lunged rapidly toward the window.
Every hair on Jiang Wei’s body stood on end instantly. A sense of imminent danger caused her own instincts to force a backward step, her exclamation of surprise escaping even before her reason could catch up.
The slap of a hand striking the glass drowned out Jiang Wei’s shout, startling Junnan right behind her into a shrill shriek as he collapsed backward onto the floor.
“Blood—blood—” Junnan pointed at the window glass, shouting at the top of his lungs.
It was a black hand stained completely with blood. After slapping the glass and leaving a bloody handprint, it instantly vanished past the edge of the window frame.
Tiger Brother had expected Jiang Wei to retreat in panic, and was fully prepared to extend his arms and protect her. Instead, she didn’t retreat—she advanced, stepping right up to the window in a single stride.
Jiang Wei rapidly expanded her domain. In the next instant, she “saw” a fake hand wearing a black glove on the other side of the wall, attached to a long bamboo pole. Her domain’s range was limited, preventing her from scanning the person standing under the exterior wall holding the pole, but she could easily guess that someone must be standing right down there.
It couldn’t have been arranged by Junnan—he was practically scared to crying point.
That meant it had to be Tiger Brother. Connecting this to all the previous tiny details and breadcrumbs, the truth became crystal clear: Damn it, she and Junnan had been played by Tiger Brother as pawns to pad out his live stream content.
“Oh god, folks, this is the second floor! The old hospital floors are high, so the second floor is equivalent to three stories of a modern newly-built building—what, what is going on here?!” Tiger Brother breathed heavily, putting on a panicked act before turning to haul Junnan back up to his feet, asking with a solemn expression: “You saw it too, right? I wasn’t the only one who saw it?”
“S-s-s-saw… saw it…” Junnan let himself be hauled up, his handsome face drained of color, adding an extra layer of tragic allure.
Jiang Wei looked back at his frightened state and felt a pang of genuine sympathy. It was too miserable, too pathetic—especially since he was practically slumped against Tiger Brother right now, looking somewhat disgraceful.
Even more pathetic.
Reflecting on it, if she didn’t possess her domain to pierce through the truth, she probably would have ended up even more pitiful than Junnan.
A young girl, frightened out of her wits, recorded for posterity inside Tiger Brother’s live stream content—that certainly would have made for great viewing material.
After inspecting the window, Jiang Wei reached out and rubbed a bit of the blood-like stain left on the glass. “It’s fishy.” Tiger Brother and his team really went all out; they even remembered to take care of small details like this.
While Tiger Brother stepped forward to investigate the window, Jiang Wei walked back to the center of the room, patted the back of Junnan—who was still leaning weakly against the wall—and spoke in a soft tone: “Stand up straight. What are you scared of? I’m right here.”
“Sister Wei, let’s go. I really can’t take much more of this,” Junnan whimpered, rubbing his rapidly pounding chest.
“Let’s skip exploring this floor then.” Jiang Wei turned to look at Tiger Brother. “Tiger Brother, this is getting a bit too weird. How about we just leave?”
Saying that was already giving Tiger Brother plenty of face so everyone could part ways with some dignity intact.
“We barely stumbled upon the real deal, and you want to leave just like that?” Tiger Brother wasn’t ready to quit yet.
“Let’s go. This place is too bizarre—the chair that randomly appeared, the bloody hand warning us at the window. We can’t keep going deeper.” Jiang Wei stared straight at Tiger Brother. Let’s stop while we’re ahead; using other people as props for your content is getting addictive, huh?
Seeing Jiang Wei look so solemn and Junnan looking completely at his wit’s end, Tiger Brother finally sighed, turning to address the live-stream camera: “Though I feel like I could keep going, since both youngsters are scared out of their minds, I’ll go with the flow.”
He still had plenty of setups prepared further in; what a waste.
With that said, he struck an older brother pose, took the lead stepping out of the room, turned toward the stairs they came from, and called back over his shoulder: “Come on, follow me.”
Jiang Wei felt her teeth ache just looking at him. Pulling Junnan along, she kept her eyes glued on Tiger Brother while remaining on high alert against her surroundings. She wasn’t worried about actual danger; she was guarding against this jerk pulling any more scare pranks.
Yet as they walked back down the stairs, that master’s armchair from earlier had completely vanished.
When the three of them rounded the final flight of stairs, they suddenly discovered it had reappeared down in the ground-floor lobby. That dark-red armchair was facing the direction of the stairs they were descending, standing quietly there.
It was as if someone was sitting on it, watching them—haunting them without end… watching them.
Tiger Brother stumbled in fright, nearly tumbling headfirst down the stairs.
Acting.
Junnan sat straight down on the stairs, clutching the dust- and rust-covered handrail, trembling as he whispered to her: “Sister Wei, Sister Wei, Vivi…an… sister…”
This time he was genuinely terrified; he had started chanting like Monk Tang: “I’m so stupid, I shouldn’t have come…”
A wave of fury rose within Jiang Wei, and looking at Tiger Brother’s back, she seriously considered committing murder.
“Damn it, that chair is following us… It—it doesn’t want us to leave.” Tiger Brother assumed a defensive posture, holding his flashlight in one hand and his gimbal in the other, turning back to ask Jiang Wei: “Sh-should we try jumping out the window of one of the side examination rooms? We have to avoid the main entrance, I’m scared—”
Jiang Wei locked her gaze onto Tiger Brother, then strode directly toward the master’s armchair.
Preoccupied by her preconception that Tiger Brother was behind the armchair prank, she felt zero fear and didn’t even bother drawing her peach-wood sword.
Tiger Brother and Junnan had no idea what she was planning until they watched her seat herself right down on top of that bizarre master’s armchair—