Why Are You Crawling into That Metal Cabinet?

[Was that flash of light just now Jian Ran?]

[Who else could swear with such classic Chinese flair?]

[Jian Ran can fly?! Was that a special effect? Who the hell is screaming upstairs? Could it be that woman the village auntie mentioned?! Holy fucking shit, that's scary!]

[The livestream is still running, so there's a signal. Why can't Assistant Director Li Yuan make a call? Is something controlling it?!]

Faced with the sudden darkness on camera, the fans did not leave the stream. Instead, their discussion grew even more heated. No one noticed that the camera seemed to be moving slowly.

"Are we just going to wait here?" someone asked in the lobby.

"What else? Have you got any other ideas?" Li Yuan finally snapped.

He began wondering whether he could even leave this place alive before achieving fame and success.

As the assistant director, Li Yuan knew perfectly well that the commotion upstairs was no special effect. That voice demanding lives really existed.

That was why he had nearly wet his pants in terror, let alone dared to follow it upstairs...

"Right, Jian Ran told us to turn off the cameras. Hurry up and check!" Amid his panic, he forced himself to sound calm as he gave the order.

Qi Rui hurried to check them one by one. Suddenly, he made a puzzled noise. "Huh? Why is one missing?"

"A camera's missing?!" Li Yuan's scalp prickled at those words. "Are you sure you didn't count wrong?!"

"I counted several times. There's definitely no mistake!" Qi Rui answered firmly.

After a long period of adjusting to darkness, the eyes could see their surroundings much more clearly.

Li Yuan glanced around. There was something indescribably eerie about their surroundings. Fear rose inside him, and he said urgently, "Count everyone! See if anyone's missing!"

Before Jian Ran had returned to the Mountain Villa, he had already summoned all the crew and Guests to the first floor to prepare dinner. To keep anyone from slacking off, he had even specifically sent Qi Rui to check every room.

Logically, everything had happened so abruptly-the sudden darkness-that no one could have had time to leave. The main camera and the secondary cameras had all been right here before.

Had they been scared off by Jian Ran's curse, "Turn off those fucking cameras"?

Wasn't that far too abnormal?

Unless... the camera had deliberately followed him upstairs!

The more Li Yuan thought about it, the more terrified he became. Just then, Qi Rui ran over. "Assistant Director, we're not just missing a camera. Some... Guests are missing too."

"Who's missing?" he asked with a frown.

"Lu Yanting, Ji Yuanming, and Yu Fengyi. They're all gone."

Li Yuan took a moment to collect himself, then spat out, "This damned love polygon!"

While they counted people here, three figures huddled together in the kitchen began whispering.

"What's going on? Wasn't something only supposed to happen on Seventh Month Fifteenth? Why's it happening early?"

"No idea. Things turned out like this after Jian Ran went out. Could it have something to do with him?"

"What should we do? Did you get your Talisman Paper?"

"No. I'd only just transferred the money and was waiting for Jian Ran to draw it for me when this happened!"

"..."

At dusk, colorful clouds shrouded the Taihang Mountains, casting a pink glow over the lush woods.

Seen from afar, the colors were brilliant, the mountain ridges overlapped, and the scenery was lovely.

Only one spot looked very strange. Halfway up the mountain, a white miasma seemed to envelop everything in a murky haze, hiding the scenery.

Lu Zhendong raised his binoculars and stared for a long while before slowly lowering them. Someone hurried up behind him. "Director, the abnormal fluctuations in the Taihang Mountains have peaked, but our convoy can't get in at all."

"We've tried all sorts of methods. Not one has worked."

"Director, should we report this to our superiors..."

Before he could finish, Lu Zhendong shot him a glare. "Report, report. Is that the only word you learned in school?"

"Is a little matter like this even worth reporting?"

A little matter like this?!

The staff member from the Institute of Non-Natural Research fell silent.

Last time, the electrical fluctuations had not even reached this level, and an entire building's worth of people had died. Yet the director called this a little matter?!

Seeing his subordinate's constipated expression as he struggled to speak, Lu Zhendong frowned and explained impatiently, "The institute's best people are all here. If they can't get in, reporting it won't do any good."

"Besides..."

"Besides what?"

Lu Zhendong turned his gaze toward the area shrouded in white miasma, his expression grave and thoughtful. "I'd like to observe a little longer."

To observe just how many unexpected things that Jian Ran could do

in this sort of environment.

Having leaped straight up from the first floor, Jian Ran had no idea that, besides the livestream viewers, another covert force was watching him.

Behind him, the camera followed soundlessly, settling at the corner of the corridor and running automatically. A dark figure turned and tried to creep downstairs.

But a cool voice stopped him sharply. "What are you trying to do?!"

"I, I wanted to..." The furtive figure began to stammer.

Lu Yanting licked his lips and was about to ask another question when a piercing scream suddenly erupted from a second-floor guest room.

With no time to question him further, he moved around the man and hurried toward the sound. But as soon as he rounded the corner, a golden light dazzled him so badly he could barely keep his eyes open.

Jian Ran stood within the glow, the outline of his body blurred and indistinct. Only when he turned his head did that wild, defiant face stand out with striking clarity.

"What did you follow me up here for? Aren't you afraid of dying? Get back downstairs."

Lu Yanting raised an arm, shielding his eyes from the light with his hand. His thin, cool lips moved as he tried to say something, but before he could, the golden light and that lean figure abruptly vanished together.

The corridor instantly returned to cold darkness. There was no telling where that woman's mournful, soul-summoning cries had gone.

Lu Yanting slowly lowered his arm, a strange, dark expression appearing on his stern, beautiful face.

Had anyone who knew him seen it, they would have known that Young Master Lu absolutely must not be provoked at a time like this. They should run as far away as possible.

Yet some people just loved courting death.

"Where's Jian Ran?"

An irritated voice rang out. Lu Yanting did not turn around, remaining rooted to the spot.

"I told you, it's all just tricks to scare people. See? The moment we came up, everything went quiet." Ji Yuanming continued forward. "Where's the recorder?!"

"There's even a camera here. Perfect for exposing it live!"

Horror movies always had a few types of people like this to move the plot along. Lu Yanting already considered it a miracle that Ji Yuanming had survived this long.

If Jian Ran had not carried him out of the graveyard that day, perhaps the world would have been a good deal quieter now.

With that thought, Lu Yanting turned and left.

He was not as kind and softhearted as Jian Ran, warning and rescuing anyone and everyone.

"Where are you going?" Yu Fengyi came up, saw Lu Yanting heading downstairs, and asked with narrowed eyes.

"None of your fucking business." Lu Yanting's reply was a statement.

Yu Fengyi's face darkened. Without another word, he continued forward.

But Lu Yanting had only descended one step when he heard an utterly astonished shout from behind. "Ji Yuanming, why are you crawling into that metal cabinet?"

"Get out of there!"