167. This Movie Is Cursed!

Zheng Li soon met with the netizens who wanted to challenge him to an offline duel.

Surprisingly, everyone was very kind and polite.

Although they might be ready to hurl insults at each other's entire families when arguing online, when they meet in person, they all become gentle and chubby, just chuckling to each other.

After receiving their tickets, the group entered the movie theater.

Zheng Li sat down in a chair, and even after the theater went dark, people were still yelling to create an atmosphere.

After the commercials ended, the movie officially began.

"Modern horror movies are actually just psychological suggestion, using scary things to create fear. In reality, someone like me who has seen a lot of corpses is not afraid at all. These things couldn't do anything to me when they were alive, so what can they do to me when they're dead?"

Zheng Li said something to the person next to him, then focused on the movie.

One o'clock in the morning.

The movie screening has ended.

During the end credits, no one in the audience left early.

The end credits rolled quietly, and even the cleaning lady didn't come to clean.

Zheng Li felt as if he were in complete darkness, surrounded by pitch blackness.

He is a forensic pathologist who deals with hospitals frequently, which makes the film more relatable.

Those corridors, those hospital beds, those pieces of equipment—these are all things Zheng Li usually comes into contact with.

He used to be able to joke around with a scalpel and eat takeout while looking at a corpse.

But now, Zheng Li suddenly felt an invisible fear of hospitals.

As soon as Zheng Li closed his eyes, he felt as if he were in the hospital corridor. The smell of disinfectant was pungent, the floor tiles were cold, and the bottomless fear wrapped around his body like vines, dragging him into a cold abyss.

It wasn't that he didn't want to leave as soon as possible, but that he could no longer stand up.

My legs are numb.

Zheng Li had tried his best not to shout in front of netizens. His expression was stiff as he turned his head away.

"Can we?"

He saw that the netizens around him had already huddled together, trembling in their chairs.

It looks like she's still crying?

A tall, 1.8-meter-tall man was huddled in a chair, his eyes bloodshot, sniffling, looking rather embarrassed.

After a long while, the group finally stood up.

They didn't say a word about their impressions of the movie, partly because it completely exceeded their expectations and there was almost nothing to criticize, and more importantly, because mentioning the plot would bring back those frightening images and trigger PTSD.

Stepping out of the cinema, the mall was deserted. Due to concerns about a repeat of the previous situation, the midnight screenings were all on the lower floors, with the exit directly connecting to the staircase. The staircase was brightly lit, and cinema staff were waiting at the entrance to greet visitors.

The night wind was cool, and some taxis were still parked at the entrance of the mall, trying to solicit customers. Zheng Li only felt a little more alert when the cold autumn wind blew into his collar.

"This movie is addictive."

He said something.

The people around him silently agreed.

"We're planning to go to an internet cafe all night; I don't think we'll be able to sleep tonight. Do you want to come along?"

They then invited Zheng Li.

Zheng Li thought to himself that whenever his mind was free for even a little while, all he could think about were those images, and he really couldn't fall asleep.

"Walk!"

He looked at the netizens who had been passionately arguing with him online yesterday, but now seemed like fellow sufferers in the same boat, and waved his hand dismissively.

No one expected that "The Crying" would gross less than one million on its opening day, but then surpass ten million on its second day.

From a purely box office perspective, this is undoubtedly the top-grossing film at this year's Yannan University Student Film Festival.

Furthermore, as word-of-mouth spread, more and more people went to the cinema to watch this horror film, which is said to be the most thrilling in the last decade.

Old news about Nanhua Private Renji Hospital was also brought up.

Although Lu Ban had altered the appearances and names of the people in the movie, making it virtually impossible to distinguish their original appearances, some people still managed to connect them with people who had previously been associated with Nanhua Private Renji Hospital.

Upon making this connection, everyone discovered that the background of this movie was incredibly real!

The demolition of Nanhua Private Renji Hospital encountered an unexplained accident. The hospital in the movie also encountered an unexplained accident during its demolition. There are some strange rumors about Nanhua Private Renji Hospital.

This film, shot in a Mockumentary style, looks like a real documentary!

In no time, Nanhua Private Renji Hospital became a hot topic on various social media platforms, forums, and Weibo. It was like a kind of public carnival, with people discussing the strange things and even paranormal-related topics becoming popular.

For example, on popular online novel websites, novels like "Supernatural: Starting from Nanhua Hospital", "Forbidden Land Exploration: Starting by Blowing Up Nanhua Hospital", and "Strange: I Exposed the Secrets of Nanhua Hospital" have sprung up like mushrooms after rain.

Then some random people popped up, claiming to have been hospital staff or patients, and started telling unverifiable ghost stories. For a time, Nanhua Private Renji Hospital seemed to have become a place haunted by evil spirits.

Fortunately, the hospital has been demolished and the construction site has been fenced off. Even so, many online celebrities still go outside the construction site to take photos with the brick walls.

Of course, there are still more rational people. The appearance of Unspeakable Monster at the end of "The Crying" and that monster is the culprit is very fantastical. Any normal person can see that this is a fictional story. After all, how could there really be monsters in this world?

Therefore, all those things like Walking Corpses, doctors stitched together, and ghosts and spirits are fake.

This hospital was probably just built in a rather gloomy style, and it had an accident due to management problems, which is why it was used as material. There were many private hospitals like this before the rectification.

Lu Ban was happy to see this happen. The more heated the discussion and the higher the attention, the higher his film's revenue would be. Reaching ten million in box office revenue would be easy, and winning awards would also be easy when the popularity reached a certain level.

If a film released at the same time has the highest box office, the highest popularity, and the best word-of-mouth, but fails to win any awards at a film festival, then the audience will question whether the film festival's selection process is rigged.

This can be considered a form of manipulating public opinion.

On his second day in Yannan, which was also the third day of the Yannan Film Festival, Lu Ban had already received many interview requests from reporters. However, he did not agree to be interviewed for the time being, as pursuing fame and fortune was not Lu Ban's style.

If an interview is really necessary, it should be on the last day of the film festival, after receiving the award.

After checking into the hotel, Lu Ban went to the main street of Yannan, checked the messages on his phone, and confirmed the address.

He was planning to go have dinner with Feng Yu.

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