CH 58.2

“What were they talking about?” Another female celebrity participating in this show with Jiang Buhuan came over. Her name was Wu Ya. She was a star singer who first made her debut in a talent show. Usually, she was the very delicate type, if not for knowing that Jiang Buhuan would come, she would absolutely not have come to the poor countryside to participate in this program. 

“He said this is an inauspicious abode,” Jiang Buhuan said a line.

“Inauspicious abode?” Wu Ya’s eyes widened. “Really? It better not be them purposefully trying to scare us.”

Jiang Buhuan said, “Whether it’s true or false, we can easily find out just by asking the director.”

The two of them soon asked the director about what Lu Qingjiu had said, but the director was completely confused, saying that he hadn’t known anything about this. 

Jiang Buhuan said, “Director Yan, who rented you this house?”

“I’ve never met the guy.” The director’s words were shocking. “It was the logistics team who found the house, we’ve never met in person, the owner of the house directly mailed over the key.”

Jiang Buhuan asked, “What about the person who found the house?”

The director said, “It was a temp worker, they’ve already resigned. This was two months ago. What’s the matter?” 

“Don’t you think that there’s something a little strange about this?” Wu Ya was a little afraid now. Upon entering this village, she had felt that this place was rather unlike the village life she had imagined. All the villagers looked at them, these outsiders, like they were looking at monsters. No one had been willing to let them into their homes, and even if they went into their homes, the villagers completely ignored what they were saying to them.

As if in Shuifu village, they were all invisible…… 

“Yeah, it’s very strange. Other than that young man from just now, no one else in the village is willing to pay us any attention,” Jiang Buhuan said, “How about we change to a different location? Besides, when we first came here, didn’t two police officers try to stop us?”

“It’s already too late in our schedule to change,” the director said, “Don’t worry, you two, there’s no such thing as ghosts in this world. Even if there are ghosts, we have so many people here, the ghosts will be scared off.” 

Wu Ya forced a smile. “That’s true……” 

Seeing that they wouldn’t be able to change the director’s mind, Jiang Buhuan had no choice but to give in. They would have to stay in this village for a month. They’d only just entered, but the atmosphere was already so strange, he didn’t know if they’d be able to go on with the next parts of their program.

After they had finished their meal and quickly cleaned everything up, they decided to go to bed.

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On Jiang Buhuan’s left was a window. Through the window, he could see the courtyard on the first floor.

The courtyard hadn’t been cleaned up yet, and was full of overgrown weeds. This was the task the director had left for them for tomorrow, but looking at it now, it made the entire house seem terrifyingly desolate.

Feeling a little uncomfortable, Jiang Buhuan pulled the quilt tighter around himself.

On their end, Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun had gone home, and had even taken advantage of the remaining evening to stir fry up some spicy shredded beef, to comfort their family’s still-sullen fox spirit. This dish was used as a snack, made by stir frying shredded chili peppers and shredded beef together with a bit of oil. After the stir frying, the shredded beef became dry, and both flavourful and chewy. The shredded chili peppers were the type that could be eaten, they weren’t very spicy, but they were very fragrant. They even scattered a thick layer of sesame seeds on top. It was a good dish that went well with alcohol. 

After eating, Bai Yuehu’s mood seemed to get a little better. Only then did he go off to sleep.

Lu Qingjiu was also a little tired. After washing up, he got onto the bed, then reached out and felt for the wooden box at the head of his bed. It would be his birthday in another ten or so days. At that time, he didn’t know what changes would happen to this wooden box…… 

Lu Qingjiu’s night was the end of his day, but Jiang Buhuan and the production crew’s night, was only the beginning.

Night fell over the entire village. The last light in the Liu home was extinguished, restoring it to the usual silence and darkness of the past. 

At midnight, in his sleep, Jiang Buhuan felt a little cold. The thick quilt atop him was of no use whatsoever, the entire quilt like an ice cellar, so cold it made one feel panic.

He opened his eyes, and saw the old walls of his room.

This village was very backward. The walls were only made from rough stone, and weren’t even coated.

Jiang Buhuan truly couldn’t take it anymore. He sat up from the bed, wanting to look for some clothes to put on to keep out the cold, but when he walked over to the door, he felt an unbelievable sound…… The sound of water, the sound of ocean waves crashing on the sea. 

Jiang Buhuan was stunned. He even wondered if he was hallucinating, but that sound was so real, so real to the point that he had no way to trick himself.

What was this sound? Harbouring such doubts in his heart, Jiang Buhuan slowly moved his feet, walking over to the window. When he saw the outside scenery through the window, he froze in shock.

There was no longer the old corridor or overgrown courtyard. Before his eyes, had appeared an endless sea.

The waves were rough, beating heavily against the dark rocks. There was a thin mist floating above the dark surface of the water. In this mist, however, seemed to be something slowly passing through. 

Seeing this scene, Jiang Buhuan’s body began to tremble. He roughly pinched his arm and felt a strong burst of pain, but this pain didn’t wake him up from this hallucination. He could still see the sea in front of him, and the sound of the waves was still pouring into his ears.

And on the surface of the sea, that faintly discernible object gradually appeared to Jiang Buhuan. He saw a huge ship, on it standing many people. Their bodies seemed to be stiff, and their faces were hidden in the mist, rendering him unable to see them clearly.

This was the first time Jiang Buhuan felt fear that night. His entire person was frozen still before the window as he watched the ship draw closer.

There seemed to be something in the middle of the sea, but the fog was too thick, and the sky was too dark, Jiang Buhuan couldn’t get a clear view of it. The only thing he could see was the big ship, and the surging waves below it. The slightly damp, cold and salty ocean wind hit him in the face. Jiang Buhuan heard a high cry from the sea. He had never heard this kind of cry before. If he had to describe it, it was a little like the low cry of a blue whale, ethereal and serene, making one feel fear even as they marvelled in its beauty. 

The thing making the noise must have been a huge animal, maybe a fish, maybe a whale, or maybe something else…… Just as Jiang Buhuan thought this, he saw a huge dark figure leaping out of the sea. He had no words to describe just how big it was. He only knew that one single fin of its was enough to block out the entire sky. The original ship looked like a toy in comparison to the giant creature. The creature leaped up from the dark ocean, then heavily fell back in. The waves that resulted from this engulfed the ship, and the people on the ship disappeared.

Where was he, and what was the scene outside his window? Jiang Buhan fell into a huge daze. He picked up his watch and saw on the face of the watch, the hour and minute hand were both stopped at 12, no longer moving forward.

The night was silent, his ears filled with the sound of the waves. The night then became noisy. Other than the waves, he could also hear all kinds of frightening noises. There were growls, hisses, huge bangs, even the miserable sounds of humans crying for help. It was as if Jiang Buhuan had entered another world, his vision filled with sights he had never seen before, and his ears filled with sounds he had never heard before.

The cold made him curl up into a ball. The fear consumed most of his strength. As his consciousness gradually blurred, he shrank into a corner, and closed his eyes in despair. 

At that time, Jiang Buhuan truly thought that he wouldn’t survive this long night. Until the next day, he was woken by the loud sounds of knocking and shouting. In a daze, he opened his eyes, and found that he had fallen asleep on the cold wooden floor.

“Jiang Buhuan, are you alright?!” Someone was calling his name from outside the room, knocking rapidly on the door, “Are you inside?”

Jiang Buhuan struggled up from the ground, feeling as if his body was utterly exhausted. The first thing he did after getting up was to look out the window. He saw the familiar little courtyard, overgrown with weeds, no giant waves in sight.

After confirming that he’d returned to his original location, only then did Jiang Buhuan let out a deep sigh of relief. He walked over to the entrance to his room and opened the door, only to see his manager standing outside, staring at him with a shocked look on his face. “Are you okay? Why do you look so bad?” 

“I want to leave this place,” Jiang Buhuan directly spoke up, “I’m not filming this program.”

His manager was stunned. “What do you mean? Why are you saying this all of a sudden?” His mind caught up with him. “What happened last night?”

Jiang Buhuan shook his head, not speaking. There was no way he could tell his manager that he’d had a terrifying dream. But was that really a dream, were there really such realistic dreams? Jiang Buhuan couldn’t answer this question, but he didn’t want to know the answer. All he needed to know, was that he needed to leave this village.

His manager was still outside knocking forcefully on the door, but Jiang Buhuan no longer paid him any mind. He began to pack his bags. 

“Jiang Buhuan, what are you doing? Do you know how much you’ll have to pay for breaking the contract? You think you can just say you don’t want to do it and then just not do it?” His manager still thought that it was his actor throwing a fit because of the tough decisions, and was a little angry, but then he heard the sound of arguing coming from the first floor as well.

He looked down and saw that Wu Ya had already packed her bags, and was currently leaving despite others’ attempts to dissuade her. Her face was shockingly pale, and there were dark eyebags below her eyes. She looked like she’d been possessed, frightening anyone who saw it.

“I want to leave!!” Wu Ya’s voice was incredibly shrill. She’d lost her sweetness and shyness of the past, become a little crazed. “If I stay here any longer, I’ll die!! Let go of me!!”

Looking at her, the manager suddenly felt a little panicked. Could it be that there really was a problem with this village? Otherwise, why would Jiang Buhuan and Wu Ya have become like this after a single night?! 

Wu Ya’s attitude was even more resolute than Jiang Buhuan’s. With her weak, skinny body, she forcefully shoved her way out of the other’s attempts to stop her, pushed open the door and left without looking back. The director stood in place, his face green.

But what he didn’t expect was, Wu Ya was only the beginning. Several of the artists in the production team expressed their desire to quit the program one after another.

“You guys need to give me a reason at least!” Furious, the director asked.

“Last night, I had a dream,” A good-tempered artist replied, “I dreamed of all the dead people in the cemetery at the end of the village crawling out of their graves.” 

“You’ve just watched too many horror movies!” The director didn’t believe him.

“I want to comfort myself like that too.” That artist smiled, but it looked more like he was crying. “But this is my first time coming to this village. How could I have known that there was a cemetery at the end of the village in my dream?”

The director’s face momentarily went white.