Four Corners Game
The supplies here were plentiful. After a quick lunch and dinner, everyone was a bit distracted. Eight out of the nine people were to participate in the ritual, but Bai Lu was not. So, they decided to start with a simple method for seeing ghosts.
"Let's play this Four Corners Game then. We'll split into two groups. If you're really scared, the four of you can agree on a secret signal and say 'game over' at the same time," Lu Zhengling said casually.
"Alright, but according to the book of demonic arts, once you start, you can't stop. I don't think the traditional way of ending it will work." Wang Wencheng nodded and said. The Ten Methods of Seeing Ghosts records a relatively simple method that can be completed in one night.
Four Corners Game: In a pitch-black room where nothing can be seen, four people stand in the four corners of the room. The first person then moves to the next corner, either clockwise or counterclockwise, holding onto the wall, and gently taps the next person on the shoulder.
The person who gets patted on the shoulder starts walking in the same direction to pat the next person. Logically, after the fourth person reaches the corner, there will be no one there, so the fourth person needs to cough once, stand in the corner for a while, and then continue walking.
If you keep repeating this method, you'll find that at some point, no one coughs anymore, but the footsteps will continue. Excluding pranks, this means something unknown has been attracted and joined the game.
After several rounds, someone has to whisper their name while patting another person. This "person" could be a real person or something unknown, and they have to say a name that is completely unfamiliar to you.
But remember, no matter what happens, you can't stop spinning, or something bad might happen. The whole ceremony must continue until dawn, and the game can only end when someone coughs again.
Of course, in folk tales, there is another way to end this game: all four people shout at the same time that they are done playing. However, this method is not recorded in the Ten Methods of Seeing Ghosts, so it is unknown whether it works.
Eight people participated in the game, divided into two groups, and went to the third empty red brick house next door to play. Bai Lu sat in the hall, carrying those amulets to ward off evil if anything seemed amiss.
It got dark quickly, and the eight participants were divided into two groups. Lu Li, Chen Qiao, Lin Tong, and Jiang Xuanmo were in one group, while Wang Wencheng, Lu Zhengling, Brother Long, and Gu Lin were in the other. The two superpowered individuals were separated so that they could look out for each other.
Several people entered the room early, drew the curtains, and let the lights in the hall shine in. Bai Lu sat in the hall, looking worriedly at the rooms on both sides. Feeling that it was almost time, they prayed to each other for safety and then closed the door.
The entire room instantly went dark, pitch black. Lu Li and the other three stood in the four corners of the room, starting from the door and proceeding clockwise: Chen Qiao, Lin Tong, Jiang Xuanmo, and Lu Li. After they called out "Ready," they said in unison, "Let the game begin."
Whether it was a misperception or not, Lu Li only felt a wisp of cold air blow through the room. Starting with Chen Qiao, they walked in a clockwise direction, patting each other's shoulders. In an instant, the only sounds in the room were footsteps and the sound of patting shoulders.
When it was Lu Li's turn, he walked to the corner by the door but didn't get a photo. So he coughed, waited a moment, and then continued on his way. He took a photo of Chen Qiao in front of him, and after a while, he heard Jiang Xuanmo cough. A little while later Lu Li was patted on the shoulder, and then Lin Tong coughed.
According to the situation, the next person to cough should have been Chen Qiao, but the cough that should have sounded did not. Lu Li then felt something walk up behind him and pat him.
A bone-chilling cold spread from Lu Li's shoulders, as if the thing behind him would grab his neck and strangle him to death at any moment. Lu Li did not stop and continued walking forward.
"Wait, something's not right." Lu Li skipped a beat. Even if Chen Qiao hadn't coughed and slapped the "ghost," if the "ghost" had slapped the next person, it should have been Lin Tong. The one who slapped him was Jiang Xuanmo, so why was he feeling a chill?
After another silent round, Lu Li patted forward and suddenly realized that the person he was patting was covered in dust and had no breath or body temperature. A sense of fear washed over Lu Li. Had the other three people all been replaced by ghosts?
Just as Lu Li was wondering, a choked, trembling voice rang out from inside the room. "Jiang Xuanmo!"
"Sure enough, Jiang Xuanmo wasn't behind me; instead, something else appeared." Then Lu Li felt something approaching him, a cold hand patting him, followed by a deep, strange male voice. "Zhao Li!"
"Zhao Li!" Lu Li continued walking towards the next corner without stopping, recalling the case file he had seen. In the massacre of the village, most of the people in this village were surnamed Zhao, and Zhao Li was one of the victims.
"Lu Li!" Lu Li called out his name and patted the person in front of him. He immediately felt something was wrong. The person he patted was not Chen Qiao, nor the person whose clothes were covered in dust. Instead, it was a bare shoulder with smooth, delicate skin. Apart from being unusually cold, it felt surprisingly good to the touch.
Then Lu Li felt a small, cold hand touch his palm, and the thing in front of him continued to move forward. A strange female voice said, "Ma Yaoyao."
The woman's voice had a slightly nasal quality; just by listening to it, you could feel her allure, making your bones feel weak and your spine stiff.
"Ma Yaoyao." Lu Li immediately understood the woman's identity and the root cause of the mountain village tragedy. The story itself could be written into a book titled "My Husband Went Out to Work, and the Story of All the Men in the Village and Me."
"Zhao Guang!" The next voice rang out, another dead body. They'd thought there would be at most one ghost, but there were so many! What was going on?
When Jiang Xuanmo's trembling voice rang out again, Lu Li roughly counted. Starting with Zhao Li, then Ma Yaoyao, there were ten more dead bodies. In such a small room, with four people and ten dead, had the room become a thirteen-sided polygon?
"Chen Qiao... Huff..." Chen Qiao's voice uttered his name again, but at the end, he seemed to deepen his breathing, so it sounded like he added an extra "Huff." This was the secret code agreed upon by the four of them; after Chen Qiao called out his name the next time, they would all shout "End the game!"
Another round of thirteen people signed up, and it was Chen Qiao's turn again. As soon as he called out his name, the four people immediately shouted in unison, "Game over!"
"Disagree!" Ten gloomy voices rang out simultaneously, followed by Ma Yaoyao's alluring voice. "Oh dear, I haven't had enough fun yet, let's go!"