When Xu Yuanzhou and He Yuan rushed into the living room on the first floor, the light bulb that had been out of service flickered for a moment and then lit up again.
This situation is actually quite common in the countryside where the power supply is unstable, but in just a short period of time when the power was out, two people by the fire pit were already completely frightened out of their wits.
Liu Tianyu almost shrank into the corner, not saying a word, but his body was visibly shaking.
Bai Ke's phone was already connected to the cloud platform, so he threw it away. The boy's face turned pale. When he saw Xu Yuanzhou, Bai Ke whimpered and scrambled directly into Xu Yuanzhou's arms.
"Wow, woo, woo, bro Yuanzhou! There's a ghost! This place is fucking haunted, woo, woo!"
Xu Yuanzhou instinctively hugged the trembling boy and patted his back soothingly: "Ghost? What ghost? Wait, Xiaobai, calm down--"
While comforting the other person, Xu Yuanzhou's voice suddenly stopped.
Because he saw a tall figure passing by him and walking straight towards Jiang Chuyan who was still kneeling on the ground.
Jiang Chuyan was well-educated. Even when he was kneeling beside the fire pit in the simple and remote wooden building of a farmhouse, he kept his back straight and his posture was as elegant as a nobleman from a famous family in ancient times.
It was precisely because of this that, in contrast to Bai Ke who was screaming and crying in fear, Jiang Chuyan seemed very calm at this moment, as if he was not affected by the so-called "ghost" incident that had just happened.
However, in front of Xu Yuanzhou, He Yuan put his arm around Jiang Chuyan's shoulders without hesitation.
"Chu Yan, I'm here. Don't be afraid."
The dark-skinned, curly-haired boy was usually as cold as an iceberg, but at this moment he seemed extremely cautious, whispering questions to the pale-faced young man in his arms.
And Jiang Chuyan didn't even try to dodge.
Xu Yuanzhou watched He Yuan blatantly cheating on him here, and a fire of evil instantly rose in his heart.
He didn't even notice that he accidentally pushed Bai Ke out of his arms.
In fact, Bai Ke himself hadn't expected Xu Yuanzhou to push him. He wasn't pretending to be weak or aggrieved this time, he was really scared. His legs were still weak, and when Xu Yuanzhou pushed him, he almost fell to the ground.
"Brother Yuanzhou?"
However, his call did not fall into Xu Yuanzhou's ears at all.
At this time, Xu Yuanzhou only had Jiang Chuyan and the extremely annoying He Yuan in his eyes.
However, at this time, Jiang Chuyan had already supported He Yuan's hand and slowly stood up from the ground.
Hearing Xu Yuanzhou's shout, the young man turned his head and looked in his direction.
When Xu Yuanzhou met Jiang Chuyan's eyes, the evil fire that had been burning in him to the point of gnashing his teeth was extinguished in an instant, as if someone had suddenly poured a basin of ice water on him.
He secretly glared at He Yuan, then reached out his hand towards Jiang Chuyan, wanting to take his boyfriend away from the malicious black man.
"Chu Yan... are you okay? You look so ugly. What on earth just happened..."
But as Jiang Chuyan stretched out his hand, he suddenly took a step back, cleverly avoiding Xu Yuanzhou.
Xu Yuanzhou's movements suddenly froze.
Are you angry?
The boy's chest suddenly palpitated, and only then did he realize that his behavior was a little inappropriate.
"Chu Yan, I just saw that you were silent..."
Xu Yuanzhou instinctively wanted to explain, but Jiang Chuyan had already lowered his eyes and politely interrupted him.
"I'm fine."
At first glance, Jiang Chuyan's tone seemed the same as before.
"My feet are just a little numb, that's all. And what happened just now... was really scary."
He Yuan, who had been supporting Jiang Chuyan, couldn't help but glance to the side.
Others may not know, but he who was close to Jiang Chuyan felt it very clearly. When he said the last sentence, Jiang Chuyan's body trembled.
In fact, when he first rushed in and saw Jiang Chuyan lying motionless, he thought Jiang Chuyan was very calm.
It was not until he hugged the other person that he realized that this seemingly "calm" person was actually shaking slightly uncontrollably.
Obviously, Jiang Chuyan was no less frightened than Bai Ke.
"What happened?"
He Yuan finally couldn't help but ask.
…
In the end, Jiang Chuyan briefly recounted to He Yuan and Xu Yuanzhou what had just happened.
As the young man continued his narration, the atmosphere in the small building gradually became stagnant and tense.
Jiang Chuyan could sense that He Yuan and Xu Yuanzhou were both dumbfounded.
This is indeed the case.
Even Xu Yuanzhou felt that if the person who said these words was Bai Ke, he would most likely think that Bai Ke was pretentious and neurotic, so he made some mistake and created a misunderstanding like seeing a ghost.
However, if Jiang Chuyan also encountered...
With a "gulp", Xu Yuanzhou swallowed his saliva, and the hairs on his arms stood up.
"Is it, is there something wrong?"
He asked in a trembling voice.
Jiang Chuyan took a deep breath, then pointed at the phone that Bai Ke had thrown away.
"You might as well check your phones again."
He said dryly.
"There should be records there."
Even when everyone gathered in the hall, Jiang Chuyan still didn't dare to look back.
That feeling... that feeling of being watched by countless "people" is too vivid and too terrifying.
It was the first time that Jiang Chuyan was frightened by such an illusory thing.
He Yuan glanced at Jiang Chuyan again without making any expression, and then sat down quietly beside Jiang Chuyan.
Even though Bai Ke had been pushed by Xu Yuanzhou before, she was too frightened to throw a tantrum. While Jiang Chuyan was talking, the boy remained close to Xu Yuanzhou. When he heard about checking his phone, he initially tried to agree, but when He Yuan actually brought the phone to him, he was so frightened he didn't dare touch it at all.
"Then, Xu Yuanzhou, shall we check together?"
He Yuan looked at Xu Yuanzhou again.
Xu Yuanzhou's face stiffened. After a pause, he refused in an extremely abrupt manner: "He Yuan, why don't you just look at it yourself—"
"good."
He Yuan shrugged his shoulders, holding his mobile phone, playing the video, and looking at Xu Yuanzhou and Bai Ke with a smile. The boy's pupils were slightly red in the flickering firelight.
"Are you scared? Didn't we tell you not to film in Longzhao Village? Weren't you so brave before?"
He said.
Bai Ke's eyes instantly turned red.
"Yes, yes, it's all my fault, okay!"
He shouted at He Yuan with gritted teeth.
"It's all my fault that I attracted the ghost, but He Yuan, you didn't tell us when you brought us here that this place is so scary—"
"Ah, so that's how it is."
Before Bai Ke could finish, He Yuan interrupted him by muttering to himself.
Then he grabbed his phone, stood up and walked towards the place where Bai Ke and Jiang Chuyan had seen the ghost face appear on the phone.
Everyone who saw his action instinctively held their breath.
After the previous incident, let alone walking over there, several people didn't even dare to look over there.
"He Yuan!"
Jiang Chuyan was so frightened that he couldn't help but cry out.
However, He Yuan stopped in front of the wooden wall of the small building, and when he turned around, his face was full of bitter smile.
"Um... could that be wood grain?"
He said.
*
Under He Yuan's guidance, everyone bravely moved towards the wooden wall. It was only then that everyone realized that the wall was made of planed boards from a whole tree.
The wood grain on the wooden board is clearly visible, with circles of light in the middle and darker towards the edges.
From several angles, the wood grain really did resemble twisted, terrifying, and bizarre faces. Because the living room on the first floor of the small building was quite spacious, and based on human instinct, people generally gathered around the central firepit, so they didn't notice the grain of the wood walls.
Until the brief power outage just now, Bai Ke was using a professional camera phone that many anchors like to use. While intelligently filling in the light, it also automatically enhances the captured facial contours, which is why so many "faces" appeared directly on the phone screen.
After He Yuan's analysis, the heavy atmosphere that had lingered among the crowd dissipated instantly.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief to some extent.
"Oh my god, I'm so scared... My legs are weak now..."
Bai Ke patted his chest and sobbed softly.
Jiang Chuyan looked at the phone in He Yuan's hand and murmured to herself, "So that's how it is...?"
"Ha, ha ha, I told you there are no ghosts in this world, look how scared you are—"
Xu Yuanzhou sighed with relief, but just as he finished speaking, He Yuan exclaimed, "Ha."
In a flash, the two boys met eyes, both of them showing dissatisfaction with each other.
Xu Yuanzhou's face darkened.
He suspected that He Yuan was mocking him, and the evil fire in his heart instantly flared up again. Just at this moment, an uncouth voice sounded beside the fire pit.
"No..."
His voice was so rough that it sounded like he had just swallowed sand.
Everyone's eyes instantly focused on the person who spoke, it was Liu Tianyu.
Liu Tianyu's head was soaked with cold sweat, and his hair was tied up in wisps. He looked funny and weird.
"I don't think it's wood grain... I... I think..."
"Hey, is that all right?" Xu Yuanzhou pushed Liu Tianyu impatiently. "If you're timid, stop scaring others here. If it's not wood grain, what else could it be? Do you really hope it's a ghost face?"
The unspeakable anger in his heart suddenly found an outlet, and Xu Yuanzhou became particularly rude when treating Liu Tianyu.
"I think you were just scared silly by the bugs just now? You're still talking nonsense."
Sure enough, after Xu Yuanzhou finished speaking, Liu Tianyu shuddered. He looked at Xu Yuanzhou in panic, his lips moving for a long time, but in the end he said nothing.
I saw...
[That face was right behind them, always, always smiling.]
If it were wood grain, how could those faces move?
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He Yuan's suitable work unit: "Approaching Science" column