Welcome to the Nightmare Live - CH 43

Chapter 43: …Fuck, I’m not recording!

Wen Jianyan wiped his hands dejectedly.

He pulled out a medical box from the bathroom and wrapped a bandage around his wrist a few times, covering the faint incantation pattern on the back of his hand.

This pattern was too weird and special. Although Wen Jianyan had not yet figured out why it appeared on his skin or whether it would affect his next live broadcast, he was not going to let it be exposed just like this.

“Gululu.”

At this moment, the screwed faucet made a strange hollow sound, which seemed particularly eerie in the empty bathroom.

Wen Jianyan was startled, raised his head subconsciously, and looked in the direction from which the voice came.

He didn’t know if it was his delusion…

He felt that the movements of his own image in the mirror seemed to have a subtle time difference from reality.

The lights were as bright as ever, flashing down from overhead.

The young man’s face was reflected in the mirror. His face was slightly pale, and his eyes were bright amber. Although his expression was calm, the subtle tension could still be seen in his slightly taut adam’s apple and shoulders.

The face in the mirror was so familiar, with not the slightest difference from usual. But as the time spent looking at it increased, an inexplicable sense of disharmony gradually expanded.

He didn’t know if it was a psychological reason, but as he looked, the person in the mirror seemed to be more and more unfamiliar.

Wen Jianyan felt a layer of cold sweat rise from his back. He took out his mobile phone as quickly as possible and glanced at the ID card covertly.

There was no abnormal decrease in the remaining survival time.

At least it meant that he had not triggered any death traps right now.

Wen Jianyan made up his mind and retreated from the bathroom as quickly as possible.

He left apartment 1025 and came to the corridor.

This apartment building was not new, with long, straight corridors.

The narrow corridor was dimly lit, the walls were peeling off, and small advertisements like those about psoriasis were pasted on the electric box, layer by layer. The floor was scratched and uneven, and all kinds of sundries were piled at the door of each household—flat cardboard boxes, bags of sour-smelling kitchen waste, and old bicycles slanting against the wall—occupying most of the corridor space.

As soon as he closed the door, he ran into a neighbor who came out of the opposite door carrying garbage.

It was a middle-aged woman in her forties. She was obviously stunned when she saw Wen Jianyan: “You are…”

“Hello, I’m Cai Feng’s nephew.”

With a friendly smile on his face, Wen Jianyan took the lead in introducing himself: “I came here to live for the next two days.”

“Ohh.” The other party’s face showed a stunned expression: “So it’s like this.”

At this moment, Wen Jianyan thought of something. He took out a copper coin made of yellow paper from his pocket and stuffed it into the neighbor’s hand: “By the way, this is for you.”

The neighbor was taken aback: “This is…”

“My aunt told me to ask for it from my master some time ago. Meeting you here can be considered fate, so I’ll give it to you.”

Wen Jianyan spouted nonsense without blinking.

The neighbor subconsciously squeezed the copper coin into the palm of her hand, looked at the young man, who looked inexplicably like an immortal, and asked cautiously, “You… your master?”

Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes and smiled at her: “Just an ordinary feng shui master, nothing special.”

The neighbor seemed to have thought of something, and slowly widened her eyes:

“Could it be… you’re here for… what happened in this building?”

“Sort of.” Wen Jianyan smiled harmlessly: “Although my aunt briefly described the strange things that happened recently to me before, she didn’t seem to want to talk about what happened on other floors. I originally thought it didn’t matter, but after I came here, I found that things are probably not as simple as I thought.”

“Tomorrow is the Zhongyuan festival. To be on the safe side, she and her husband went out to live on my advice.”

The tall young man lowered his eyes slightly. His eyes were clear and sincere, and it was almost impossible to refuse any of his requests: “Excuse me… Can you briefly answer a few questions of mine?”

In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:

[God, this is textbook-level cliché!]

[Hahahahahahahaha God damn feng shui master, this dog liar is too skilled in this!]

[How many people will be fooled by a piece of oil paper in a row? Lmao, how long are you planning to use this paper money!]

Fifteen minutes later, Wen Jianyan left the neighbor’s house.

From this person, he did not get much information.

For some reason, the other party was vague on many key details, dodged questions, and seemed reluctant to talk more. Even if Wen Jianyan pressed on, she would skip it by lying and other means. Wen Jianyan was very sensitive to lies, and the strange attitude of the other party could hardly be concealed from him.

It was obvious the situation could be life-threatening, but they were still tight-lipped. It seemed that this instance was very deep.

However, Wen Jianyan was not completely without gains.

Regarding apartment 1304, which he was going to go to next, the other party said a lot of useful things.

A month ago, there was a massacre in 1304. It was said that the dinner was poisoned, and none of the four family members were spared; all of them were poisoned to death. The man’s mother lived opposite them, and she was the first to discover the murder scene. The death of the family and the tragic murder scene greatly stimulated the old woman, and she went crazy soon after.

Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes, his long eyelashes covering the thoughtful look in his eyes.

As the difficulty increased, the instances he experienced seemed to become more and more detailed. Not only was the number of ordinary NPCs increasing, but even the map was expanding.

In the beginning, the map of Decai Middle School was not big, and the place outside the campus was shrouded in darkness. While the map of Fukang Private General Hospital was much better, standing outside the hospital, he could almost see the entire street.

The instance of the Antai Community was obviously even more detailed.

Whether it was the NPCs or the map, it was the most realistic and detailed instance he had encountered so far.

This made him think of what Ji Guan said to him after the last instance ended.

——”Fukang Hospital in reality”.

However, Wen Jianyan still had too little information and clues; too many things were shrouded in fog, and every guess in his heart was vague and incomplete, without any evidence to support it.

Wen Jianyan sighed, pulled himself out of his messy thoughts, and walked into the elevator.

Like the apartment building, the elevator was also very old.

Mottled and full of rust. There were small, palm-sized advertisements pasted in the elevator; the paper had been slightly yellowed due to its age. The ground was stained with dirty water, and the smell in the air was very weird, enough to give people a headache.

Wen Jianyan pressed the 13th-floor button. The elevator vibrated twice and slowly went up.

“Ding.”

The elevator reached the 13th floor.

The elevator door was unresponsive for a little while, then slowly opened to the sides.

Cold air rushed in.

Quiet, too quiet.

The strange yellow light flashed down from overhead. The deep and deadly silent corridor extended into the darkness, with the smell of incense smoke floating in the air. Near the corner of the elevator, there was a bowl of white rice on the ground, and three burning incense sticks were stuck on the rice.

Wen Jianyan stood in the elevator, staring at the dark corridor with no edge in sight, and he couldn’t help feeling his scalp tingle.

The difference between here and the 10th floor was really too big. The bright and bustling atmosphere had completely disappeared, leaving only a purely quiet and terrifying atmosphere spreading in front of his eyes, giving him the urge to run away.

“……”

He really didn’t want to go!!

Wen Jianyan closed his eyes hard, took a deep breath slowly, and stepped out of the elevator.

He turned on his phone and confirmed his main line task:

【Main line task 2: Go to Room 1304 for shooting; the shooting time should not be less than ten minutes.】

【Completion: 0%】

In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:

[Hahahahahahahaha, the first task is on the 13th floor. The anchor is really miserable!]

[I remember that the person who got the identity card of the paranormal investigator has basically never survived this task, right?]

[Woooooo, you can do it, wife!]

Wen Jianyan moved forward carefully. The doors of the residents on both sides of the corridor were all locked, and the walls were either stuck with paper talismans with red characters on a yellow background or with feng shui bagua mirrors to ward off evil spirits. The more he walked, the stranger the surroundings became.

His gaze swept across the house number on the door, and finally—

1304 arrived.

Wen Jianyan didn’t go in immediately but took two steps forward.

As the distance shortened, the thick darkness was slightly dispelled, and a door at the end of the corridor came into view.

The iron chain had sealed the door, and various paper talismans were densely pasted on it, looking particularly terrifying in the dim light.

The rusted house plate was a little crooked, and the number on it could barely be seen: 1316.

Wen Jianyan stepped back in shock, turning his head to look at 1304 where he should have entered.

It was dark, dirty, and deserted, and there was no mess of paper talismans or anything.

“……”

He didn’t know why, but this door immediately became inexplicably pleasing to the eye.

Wen Jianyan took a deep breath, reached out, and tried to push the door.

“Squeak-“

The door was unlocked and slowly opened into the darkness, making a harsh rubbing sound.

At the same time, a strong rancid smell gushed out from the door, causing Wen Jianyan to cough twice, and he covered his mouth and nose with his sleeves.

He walked inside cautiously.

The sun had not completely set yet, but the light in the room was so dim that it was almost impossible to see clearly. Wen Jianyan turned on the flashlight of his mobile phone and looked around the room in the faint light.

There were water stains on the walls, and the room was full of undulating, dark outlines of furniture.

The light of the flashlight stayed on the window for a moment.

The outside of the window was blocked by bricks, and no light could penetrate. There were some family photos at the entrance. The photos were covered in dust, and the figures inside could not be seen clearly.

The strong rancid odor in the air intensified.

Wen Jianyan turned on the camera and started recording.

Accompanied by the slightly shaking light source, the picture in the dark slowly swept across the screen, and the bright red REC in the upper right corner flashed.

【Countdown starts: 10:00】

In the living room, which was near the dining room, a particularly strange-looking shrine was recorded in the video.

Wen Jianyan’s eyes paused. After confirming that his survival time had not decreased, he approached cautiously and looked at the shrine in the dim light of the flashlight.

The shrine was not big. The red electronic candles were placed on both sides, but they were not powered on. A mantra-chanting machine was placed next to the shrine, covered by a thin layer of dust.

Three small dishes were placed outside the shrine, and the fruit inside had turned black and deteriorated, giving off a strong rotten smell.

Inside the shrine was a small statue of a Bodhisattva.

The Bodhisattva sat cross-legged on the lotus, with three faces facing three different directions. With a kind expression and a smile on its face, it held something that looked like a monk’s staff in its hands, but its shape was very strange.

Its eyes were raised, staring fixedly into the darkness, which made this seemingly compassionate smile look extra weird.

Wen Jianyan frowned slightly.

Although he never prayed to gods or worshipped Buddhas, he still had some understanding of metaphysical gods and Buddhas. In his impression, no matter whether it was Mahayana, Theravada, or Vajrayana, there was absolutely no such devious Bodhisattva.

There was a chill on Wen Jianyan’s fingertips. The phone in his palm was a little unstable, and the light of the flashlight swayed toward the dining room unconsciously.

The light passed by the dining table, and three dark figures were revealed in the light. They sat quietly at the table and seemed to have been waiting for a while.

“!!!”

Wen Jianyan’s pupils shrank. He took a half step back in fright and almost turned his head and ran away.

Reason restrained his pace, and Wen Jianyan glanced at the countdown on the phone screen.

【06:26】

Damn it.

Wen Jianyan gritted his teeth, cursed inwardly, and looked at the dining table again with courage.

The three figures remained motionless.

He confirmed his remaining survival time—it didn’t decrease.

Shouldn’t be much of a problem.

Wen Jianyan took a step forward in trepidation, held his breath slightly, and pointed his flashlight at the dining table.

The table was full of dishes, with all kinds of rotten food, pig head, a whole chicken, fish, and white maggots wriggling into the soup, exuding a foul smell.

And sitting at the table…

Were three paper figures.

The paper figurines were made extremely finely, with lifelike eyebrows and eyes; on their pale paper faces, the cheeks and lips were smeared with a scarlet color, looking particularly terrifying in the impenetrable darkness.

A family of three was smiling and sitting at the dining table as if they were having dinner.

Wen Jianyan’s face was also a little pale, and he subconsciously grasped the phone in his hand tightly.

This instance is full of weirdness.

How scary!!!

Less than five minutes after entering the room, he felt a layer of cold sweat on his back, his heart was beating wildly, and he felt a little weak.

“Zzzzz.”

A slight electric current sounded.

Wen Jianyan was so frightened that he almost jumped up and turned his head in a panic to look in the direction from which the voice came.

Only to see that behind him, the electronic candles on both sides of the shrine slowly lit up. The two blood-red dots were very distinct in the darkness, like two slowly opening eyes.

“Zzzzz.”

With the sound of an electric current, the chanting machine began to play slowly.

The chanting of scriptures was disrupted by the sound of electric currents, which appeared distorted and distant, melding into an eerie tone that reverberated in the empty, dark room.

…Fuck, I’m not recording!

Wen Jianyan jumped three feet high and rushed toward the door like a rabbit.

–“Bang!”

Before he could rush into the corridor, the door slammed shut in front of him, and thick darkness descended.

“……”

It’s okay, it’s okay, don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid.

It’s not a big deal, there are still props, right?!

Lin Qing’s doctor’s certificate can help you block a fatal attack and can also provide a golden body; no problem at all!

Wen Jianyan’s face was white, and he kept thinking about it in his heart.

He summoned up courage, closed his eyes forcefully, then turned around slowly to look behind him——

Scarlet electric candles flickered in the dark, barely illuminating the way to the dining room.

The room was pitch black.

The three paper figurines turned their heads at some point. Three smiling, pale paper faces looked straight in the direction of Wen Jianyan.

Wait……

Three?

Wen Jianyan was slightly startled.

According to the clues provided by the neighbor on the 10th floor, there should be a family of four living in No. 1304.

In other words…

Judging from the number of people, there should be one person missing from the table.

Could it be that……

…Whatever, just do it!

Wen Jianyan took a deep breath, forced himself to calm down, and walked toward the dining table step by step with his already weak legs.

The faces of the three paper figures stared at him with a smile.

He didn’t know if it was his own illusion, but he felt that their eyes seemed to be slowly turning, following his steps.

Wen Jianyan felt a chill on his back; his heart’s pounding echoed in his ears, and he couldn’t even hear the voice of chanting.

Wen Jianyan gritted his teeth ruthlessly and sat down on the vacant chair by the dining table.

The moment he sat on the chair, a familiar mechanical sound rang in his ears.

【Ding! The conditions are detected to be met, and the hidden branch line is being opened—】

In the next second, Wen Jianyan only felt a flash in front of his eyes, and the familiar feeling of dizziness came as if the whole person was being dragged down. The scene around him changed suddenly, making him almost unable to recover.

“Duh duh.”

The sound of the kitchen knife hitting the chopping board was heard. Wen Jianyan frowned and slowly opened his eyes.

It was bright all around.

He was sitting at the dining table with fragrant meals on the table, and beside him were two laughing children—the elder was seven or eight years old, and the youngest was only three or two years old. The TV set not far away was emitting a distant announcement, and the sun’s afterglow was all over the house.

Everything seemed so peaceful and harmonious.

Not far away, a slender figure was busy in the kitchen, and the air was filled with a strong smell of food.

This…?

Wen Jianyan was slightly startled, and a guess slowly emerged in his mind.

Scene replaying?

Soon, the sound of chopping vegetables in the kitchen stopped, the sliding door was pulled open, and a woman came out with the last dish in her hand.

The moment he saw the other’s face, Wen Jianyan’s pupils shrank slightly involuntarily.

The woman has a pale, paper-like face with two dazzling blushes on her cheeks; her eyes are lifeless as if they were painted on, and her lips were raised into a stiff and bright smile:

“Let’s eat, Xiuqing.”

Saying that, the woman placed the dinner plate in front of Wen Jianyan.

The two children on the side also stopped playing and looked at them in unison, with their pale faces, dull eyes, and bright blushes on their faces.

They smiled and said in unison:

“Dad, let’s eat.”

Wen Jianyan: “……”

Under the gaze of the three eyeing paper figurines, he lowered his head, stared at the plate of green vegetables that had been discolored by the poison before him, and fell silent.

…Poisoning was still okay.

But did it have to be so obvious?!

The author has something to say: Da Lang, it’s time to take medicine*

[*T/N: It’s a buzzword on the Internet. It comes from Pan Jinlian’s quotations in “Water Margin“, which is used as a joke to express his dissatisfaction with the other party.]