"Is... it a ghost?"
Frenzied rain pounded against the cold windowpanes. The two hearts quivered like the flame in the lamp.
"I... I don't know." The woman swallowed, "Should we notify the Enforcers?"
"You're crazy!"
Hearing the word "Enforcers", the stunned man finally regained some sanity.
"Once the Enforcers intervene, what we did will definitely be exposed... Absolutely not!"
"Then... what about him?"
The woman paused for a moment, "Do you think... could a 'Calamity' have possessed Ah Ling's corpse?"
The two simultaneously glanced at the closed bedroom door and fell silent again.
After a long time, the man seemed to make up his mind, took a black raincoat from the door, and pushed it open to leave.
"Where are you going?"
"To the place where we buried the body!"
"Now? What for?"
"To verify." Rain dripped down the man's pale face as he spoke hoarsely, "No matter what's in the house now... he can never be Ah Ling! I need to see his corpse with my own eyes."
"I'm going with you!"
No one wants to go out on such a thunderstorm night, but compared to being alone with that sleeping unknown thing in the bedroom, the woman would rather choose the former.
In the heavy rain, two figures in raincoats left in a hurry.
...
Bedroom.
Chen Ling, already asleep, suddenly twitched his eyelashes slightly, as if having a nightmare.
In his sleep, his consciousness kept sinking, as if falling into a bottomless cave. After an unknown amount of time, he seemed to land on a hard surface and finally stabilized.
Clang——Clang——Clang——Clang——A heavy mechanical CLUNK echoed... Immediately, a beam of light pierced the darkness like a sword, converging on a figure in crimson.
Chen Ling subconsciously covered his eyes with his hand.
"Where... is this place?"
Chen Ling's muddled consciousness gradually cleared. After gradually adapting to the strong light, he looked around blankly.
Within the beam's range, he could only see his own crimson opera robe, the old wooden floor beneath his feet, and a corner of a black curtain behind him also illuminated by the beam... Beyond the beam was endless unknown and darkness.
Seeing this scene, Chen Ling was suddenly stunned.
As if remembering something, he narrowed his eyes and looked up. The beam illuminating him came from spotlights fixed on steel frames.
"A stage?"
As an intern director at a theater, Chen Ling was very familiar with stages. In his previous life, he was still figuring out actors' positions on the stage until he was killed by a falling light. His understanding of the stage even surpassed that of some actors.
So his first reaction at this moment was that he had traveled back.
No...
The stage lighting effect of the theater in his previous life was better than this, the curtains were not black, and the floor was not this kind of old wooden floor.
So was he dreaming?
Chen Ling tentatively took a step, and the old floor made a piercing creak. As his figure was about to step out of the light circle, another beam of light followed his steps into the darkness.
"Follow spot?" Chen Ling's heart skipped a beat, and he shouted subconsciously,
"Who's there?!"
These lights could follow him, which was most likely manual control, unless a fully automatic follow-spot system was used here. But judging from the oldness of this stage, the possibility was almost zero.
"Who's there..."
"Who's there..."
"There..."
Chen Ling's voice echoed in the darkness, becoming increasingly eerie and terrifying.
At the same time, an electronic screen at the edge of the stage suddenly lit up.
In stage design, this position was generally set as a teleprompter to prevent actors or hosts from forgetting their lines midway. But at this moment, the screen displayed a string of red characters——
[Audience Expectation Value: 29%]
In the lower left corner of the screen, there were also a few small words,
"Please do not let the audience's expectation value drop below 20%, otherwise the theater will not guarantee the actor's personal safety."
Seeing this screen, Chen Ling was somewhat confused...
Audience? Where did the audience come from?
Clang——Clang——Clang——The familiar light-on sound rang out again!
The darkness in front of the stage retreated like a tide, and hundreds of wooden chairs extended in a staircase shape into the distance, surrounding the front of the stage densely.
Auditorium.
These three words appeared in Chen Ling's mind.
It was reasonable for an auditorium to appear where there was a stage. What really made Chen Ling's scalp tingle was not this, but that at some point...
These auditorium seats were already filled with "audience".
They were humanoid creatures shrouded in shadows. Even with enough light, Chen Ling still couldn't see their appearance clearly, as if they were incarnations of the abyss.
The only exception was their eyes.
A sea of countless crimson pupils opened in the dimness, sitting on their respective wooden chairs, staring at Chen Ling on the stage, like a group of cats cornering a mouse, their gazes taunting and ravenous.
Chen Ling, stared at by them, only felt a chill at the back of his neck. He didn't know what these "audiences" were, but they were definitely not human!
Chen Ling forced himself not to look at those creepy eyes, turned around and ran wildly to the other end of the stage.
Logically, the exits of the stage were on both sides. As long as he left the stage, he should be able to temporarily escape those ghostly things!
The follow-spot locked onto the running crimson figure and rushed straight to the edge of the stage, but what greeted him was a bare wall.
Chen Ling was stunned.
He didn't believe it and ran to the other side of the stage, but it was the same.
This stage... had no exit at all.
In the dim auditorium, the sea of countless crimson pupils followed his escape, constantly moving, like a group of "audiences" immersed in a wonderful performance, with rapt attention.
And the protagonist of this performance was Chen Ling in crimson on the stage.
At the same time, the characters on the central screen of the stage jumped... The audience expectation value jumped from the original 29% to 30%.
Damn, what kind of messed-up nightmare was this!
Chen Ling pinched himself hard, trying to wake up from the dream actively, but apart from a familiar pain, there was no sign of waking up.
[Intermission ends, please continue the performance]
Another line of characters popped up on the screen, and immediately, a crisp, piercing bell rang out—Ding-ding-ding!—
Before Chen Ling could react, the scene in front of him shattered inch by inch, and his consciousness quickly blurred...
Before he lost consciousness, he vaguely saw the huge and mysterious black curtain behind him slowly opening!
...
Bang!
Chen Ling suddenly sat up from the bed!
The sheets were soaked with cold sweat, his chest heaved violently, and his eyes were full of fear.
He swallowed, looked around little by little, and finally relaxed after confirming that this was his own room, not that damned stage.
"Was it a dream... This dream is too weird."
He calmed down, got up and walked to the living room.
By this time, the rain outside had basically stopped, but the sky was still dark. Chen Ling called out "Mom and Dad" a few times, but no one answered. The whole house was quiet.
"Did they go to work so early?" Chen Ling muttered to himself.
Chen Ling touched his empty stomach. Last night's nightmare seemed to have exhausted too much of his energy, and he felt light-headed when walking. Helpless, he could only go to the kitchen to find something to eat first.
As soon as he entered, he stumbled over something. Looking down,
It was the remains of a bucket that looked like it was gnawed by a beast.
What was wrong with this bucket? Did it crack from the cold?
Chen Ling had no memory of what happened last night. He muttered suspiciously in his heart, then picked up the bucket and threw it into the corner, turned around to find a rag, ready to wipe the water stains on the ground.
He just squatted down and froze in place.
He saw the water stains on the ground start to move automatically, as if an invisible figure was squatting opposite him, dipping his fingertips in water and writing something on the ground.
In the next moment, the transparent water stains turned blood-red visible to the naked eye, and a twisted and eerie text was outlined in front of Chen Ling.
——[We Are Watching You]