"Is it... a ghost?"
The wild rain pounded on the cold window. The hearts of the two were like the flames in the lamp, flickering uneasily.
"I... I don't know." The woman swallowed hard. "Should we notify the law - enforcers?"
"Are you crazy!"
At the mention of "law - enforcers", the man, who had been scared out of his wits, finally regained some sense.
"If the law - enforcers get involved, what we've done will definitely be exposed... Absolutely not!"
"Then... what about him?"
The woman paused for a moment. "Do you think... could it be that some 'calamity' has attached itself to A - Ling's corpse?"
The two of them simultaneously looked towards the closed bedroom door and fell silent again.
After a long while, the man seemed to have made up his mind. He took a black raincoat from the entrance and pushed the door open to go out.
"Where are you going?"
"To the place where we buried the body!"
"Now? What for?"
"To verify." The rain slid down the man's pale face as he said hoarsely, "No matter what's in that room now... he can't possibly be A - Ling! I need to see his body with my own eyes."
"I'm going with you!"
No one was willing to go out on such a stormy night, but compared to being alone with whatever was sleeping in the bedroom, the woman would rather choose the former.
In the heavy rain, the two figures in raincoats left in a hurry.
...
In the bedroom.
Chen Ling, who was already fast asleep, suddenly had his eyelashes tremble slightly, as if he was 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 some hard ground and finally steadied himself.
Dong —— Dong —— Dong —— Dong ——
The dull sound of mechanical devices rang out. Immediately after, beams of light pierced the darkness like swords and converged on a figure in a red robe.
Chen Ling instinctively covered his eyes with his hand.
"Where is this...?"
Chen Ling's muddled consciousness gradually cleared. After gradually getting used to the bright light, he looked around blankly.
Within the range of the light beams, he could only see the vermilion theatrical robe on his body, the old wooden floor beneath his feet, and a corner of the black curtain illuminated by the light beam behind him... Beyond the light beams was endless unknown and darkness.
Upon seeing this scene, Chen Ling was suddenly taken aback.
As if thinking of something, he squinted and looked up. The light beams that illuminated him came from spotlights fixed on a steel frame.
"Stage?"
As an in - service choreographer in a theater, Chen Ling was all too familiar with the stage. Up until the moment he was hit by the spotlight in his previous life, he had been pondering over the actors' positions on the stage. His understanding and knowledge of the stage even surpassed that of those actors.
So his first reaction at this moment was that he had traveled back again.
No...
The lighting effect of the theater stage in his previous life was better than this. The curtain wasn't black, and the floor wasn't this kind of old - fashioned wooden floor either.
So was he dreaming?
Chen Ling tentatively took a step forward. The old floor let out an ear - piercing creak. As his figure was about to step out of the circle of light, another beam of light followed his steps and plunged into the darkness.
"Follow - spot?" Chen Ling's heart skipped a beat, and he instinctively shouted,
"Who's there?!"
The fact that these lights could follow him was highly likely due to human control. Unless this place also had a fully - automated follow - spot system, but judging from the dilapidated state of this stage, the possibility of that was almost zero.
"Who's there..."
"Who's there..."
"There..."
Chen Ling's voice echoed in the darkness, becoming increasingly eerie.
At the same time, an electronic screen at the edge of the stage suddenly lit up.
In stage design, this position is usually for a teleprompter to prevent actors or hosts from forgetting their lines midway. But on the screen at this moment, there was a string of red characters—
[Audience Expectation Value: 29%]
In the lower - left corner of the screen, there were also a few smaller words.
"Please do not let the audience expectation value drop below 20%. Otherwise, the theater does not guarantee the personal safety of the actors."
Upon seeing this screen, Chen Ling was a bit dazed...
Audience? Where did the audience come from?
Dong —— Dong —— Dong ——
The familiar sound of lights being turned on rang out again!
The darkness in front of the stage receded like a tide. Hundreds of wooden chairs spread out in a stepped formation into the distance, surrounding the front of the stage densely.
Audience seats.
These three words popped into Chen Ling's mind.
The appearance of audience seats in a place with a stage was quite reasonable. What really made Chen Ling's scalp tingle was not this, but that at some unknown time...
These audience seats were already filled with "audience members".
They were humanoid creatures shrouded in shadows. Even though the lighting was sufficient, Chen Ling still couldn't make out their features, as if they were the embodiment of the abyss.
The only exception was their eyes.
Countless scarlet pupils opened in the dimness. They sat on their respective wooden chairs, gazing at Chen Ling on the stage, like a group of cats cornering a mouse, their gazes playful and greedy.
Stared at by them, Chen Ling felt a chill down the back of his neck. He had no idea what these "audience members" were, but they were definitely not human!
Chen Ling forced himself to stop looking at those terrifying eyes and turned to run towards 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 get away from those eerie things for the time being!
The follow - spot locked onto the running figure in red and shot straight to the edge of the stage, but what greeted him was a bare wall.
Chen Ling froze.
He defiantly ran to the other side of the stage, only to find the same situation.
This stage... had no exits at all.
In the dim audience seats, the dense scarlet pupils followed his escape, constantly moving, like a group of "audience members" engrossed in a wonderful performance, extremely focused.
And the protagonist of this performance was Chen Ling in red on the stage.
At the same time, the characters on the display screen in the center of the stage jumped... The audience expectation value jumped from the original 29% to 30%.
Damn it, what a lousy nightmare this is!
Chen Ling pinched himself hard, trying to wake up from the dream on his own initiative. But apart from feeling a familiar pain, there was no sign of waking up at all.
[Intermission is over. Please continue the performance]
Another line of characters popped up on the screen. soon after, a clear bell rang suddenly from above the stage!
Ding - ling - ling ——
Before Chen Ling could react, the scene in front of him shattered inch by inch, and his consciousness quickly blurred...
Just before he lost consciousness, in a trance, he saw the huge and mysterious black curtain behind him slowly opening!
...
Bang!
Chen Ling suddenly sat up in bed!
The bed sheet was soaked with cold sweat. His chest heaved violently, and his eyes were filled with terror.
He swallowed hard and slowly looked around, confirming that he was in his room and not on that damned stage. Finally, he relaxed.
"Was it a dream... This dream was way too strange."