“Why are you slandering someone out of thin air?”
Shen Yang hesitated for a moment, but still followed Jiang Wei’s footsteps. If he just ran back to school like this, he’d have no face left to show anyone.
The third-floor stairwell was covered everywhere in scorch marks. The walls were pitch black, hiding their original appearance, and they were actually covered in plenty of children’s graffiti—cute little figures drawn alongside phrases like “so-and-so is a big bad guy.”
After conducting a brief inspection, Jiang Wei arrived in front of the door of the haunted house. With a gentle push, the door swung open, and the scent of ash rushed over her.
This was a pitch-black room. Unlike the rooms downstairs, it retained a full set of furniture, but all of it had been ravaged beyond recognition by the flames.
The beam of light shot by the flashlight in Jiang Wei’s hand swept across the living room. Everything was blackened, and instead of fear, the overriding sensation for a moment was a sense of unreality.
To think a place like this actually existed in the world.
Jiang Wei confirmed that the layout of the third floor was identical to the second, pointed her flashlight toward a room on the eastern side, and said, “That’s the master bedroom over there—the place where the four bodies were discovered…”
The sound of rain outside the window grew much louder, and waves of dampness seeped into the room.
Jiang Wei first explored the kitchen, bathroom, and secondary bedroom, and only finally arrived in front of the master bedroom door. Without hesitation, she walked straight in.
Shen Yang followed closely behind, but the moment he stepped into the master bedroom, the flashlight strapped to his wrist suddenly and without warning went dead.
The area ahead was instantly swallowed by darkness, and Jiang Wei’s silhouette dimmed as well. In that brief flicker, he thought he saw Jiang Wei turn her head back, her pale face turning eerie amidst the shifting play of light and shadow.
“Holy crap!” Shen Yang backed up repeatedly, retreating out of the master bedroom.
Jiang Wei was also startled, but mindful of her image in front of the camera, she managed to hold back a scream and asked, “What’s wrong?”
In the live stream room, the screen shook violently, tracing out one blurred and bizarre frame after another amidst the shifting light and shadow.
The bullet comments exploded like a powder keg:
“Ahhhhhhh”
“Ahhh”
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh”
“Righteous and upright energy, recede! Recede! Recede!”
“Mystic arts of the orthodox sects, all evils keep away!”
“Shit shit shit, what’s going on?”
“??????”
Jiang Wei walked over to Shen Yang’s side and grabbed his wrist: “What’s wrong? What happened?”
Feeling the warmth transmitted from his wrist, Shen Yang regained a sliver of his wits: “The flashlight… my flashlight broke.”
“You scared me. Isn’t it just a flashlight?” Jiang Wei patted her chest, deeply shaken herself. Truly, scaring people to death is a real thing. Just from that brief moment, she had gained at least one fear point, worth over three hundred RMB.
“I bought this brand new,” Shen Yang muttered to himself, finding it completely incomprehensible. As a photography major, the equipment he bought was quite professional; it definitely wouldn’t break for no reason. Moreover, before setting out, he had specifically checked it once, and the battery level was completely fine.
If everything prior to this had been stage effects orchestrated by Jiang Wei, how was this supposed to be explained? Were they all just coincidences?
His entire mind went numb.
“You must have bought it on Pinduoduo! I’ll buy you a new one to replace it—consider it a work-related injury.” Jiang Wei handed her own flashlight to Shen Yang, took out her own phone, and turned on the flashlight function.
“This is a major brand…” Shen Yang offered a feeble defense.
“Mmh, you aren’t trying to shake me down, are you?”
“Why are you slandering someone out of thin air?” Shen Yang’s face turned beet red, followed by a string of incomprehensible jargon about “professional equipment,” “German brands,” and “a ten-year warranty.”
After bantering back and forth for a bit, Shen Yang calmed down considerably, chalking it up to buying a counterfeit product online.
Jiang Wei patted him on the shoulder and smiled. “Let’s go. Once we film this room, we can get out of here, and I’ll treat you to hot pot.”
She was as amiable as an old friend. While feeling happy, Shen Yang also felt a slight sense of unnaturalness.
The live stream room:
“I thought the cameraman was a gonner.”
“The cameraman has got to be the biggest coward.”
“Goodness me, I thought the streamer was going to change forms?!”
“Don’t go in anymore, this is a warning!”
“Heh, it’s all stage effects. You can’t fool me.”
“Hot pot! Hot pot! Hot pot!”
“Ah, I can’t take it anymore. I’m going to order hot pot delivery.”
“Little sister, will you be live-streaming while eating hot pot? I want to see the streamer’s divine beauty, licking the screen.”
Perhaps because a female college student exploring spirits genuinely counted as a novelty, or perhaps because Jiang Wei’s looks possessed enough magnetic pull, the viewership count inside the live stream room had quietly climbed to several thousand people.