Chapter 47: Ghost Village, Eerie Village

Seeing a woman beckoning to her from inside the cave, Wen Yue, who was well-acquainted with the production team’s scare tactics, showed no reaction. She didn’t call out to Su Caichuan walking ahead of her, either, but simply turned her head away as if she hadn’t seen a thing.

But at that moment, Su Caichuan stopped of his own accord.

He poked at the ground with his wooden stick and actually managed to flip over a small stone slab hidden at the base of some inconspicuous weeds.

The soil where the slab was buried was indeed a different color from the surrounding earth, but because the weeds were so lush, it was very difficult to spot.

Su Caichuan crouched down and picked up the stone slab.

Wen Yue saw the cameraman shouldering his equipment, preparing to get a close-up of Su Caichuan discovering a clue. She quickly stepped forward and squeezed in next to Su Caichuan to crouch down. She didn’t care that her movement nearly knocked him over; her only concern was finding the perfect angle to display her face to the camera.

One couldn’t blame her for having a massive following of obsessed fans despite her lack of talent; her face was truly, breathtakingly beautiful. In the words of her fans, “Sister is so beautiful that no matter what outrageous things she does, she should be forgiven. That is the privilege of a beauty.”

There were many people in this world whose moral compass followed a pretty face. Moreover, while Wen Yue had a foul temper and acted like a diva in private, she disguised herself well in front of the lens, always maintaining the image of a gentle, soulful older sister.

Seeing Wen Yue’s face, even the cameraman, who had originally intended to film only Su Caichuan, couldn’t help but shift the machine to include her in the frame.

Su Caichuan, nearly knocked over by her, let out an imperceptible sigh. He didn’t dare argue with this ancestor, so he silently moved aside and continued to examine the stone slab in his hand.

Carved onto the slab was a very distinctive curved line, without any text labels.

Su Caichuan rotated the slab to observe it from various angles. Suddenly realizing something, he pulled out the fifty route maps provided by the production team from his bag and began to compare them one by one.

Eventually, he found the map that featured a curve matching the one on the stone slab.

Following the map’s directions, Su Caichuan turned around and led the group in a new direction.

The direction he was heading was exactly where the cave was located.

Wen Yue still didn’t tell Su Caichuan about the woman in white she had seen in the cave earlier.

According to her logic, Su Caichuan was leading the way anyway. Even if it was a trap set by the production team, Su Caichuan would be the one to get scared and look foolish, which had nothing to do with her.

Their group consisted of ten people including the staff. Besides the two celebrity guests and four assistants, there were two cameramen, one logistics person, and one executive director responsible for on-site coordination.

To prevent any danger, the executive director carried a satellite phone to maintain contact with the production crew stationed nearby. Although these routes had been scouted by the team in advance, it was better to be safe than sorry.

If the guests took unexpected actions, the executive director could promptly notify the production crew to adjust the script.

Before Su Caichuan and Wen Yue entered the cave, the cameraman, who had switched his camera to night-vision mode, took a specific look at the time on the recording screen.

The time of entry into the cave was March 29th, 14:44.

The temperature inside the cave was much lower than outside. As soon as the group stepped in, a chill instantly crawled over their bodies.

This was a limestone cave filled with stalactites. The entrance was narrow, but after walking inward for a bit, the view opened up.

To prevent the guests from getting lost, the production team had painted markers inside the cave using fluorescent paint.

Upon seeing these fluorescent markers, neither Su Caichuan nor Wen Yue showed any surprise or joy at “finding the right path.”

The appearance of these markers only proved that the production team had scouted the area before, confirming that this cave was safe and was one of the fifty possible routes.

However, whether they could find the recording location by following this cave still required further exploration.

There were many puddles on the cave floor. Because the flashlight’s range was limited, Wen Yue accidentally stepped into a puddle, and her expression instantly turned sour.

But with the cameras rolling, she couldn’t throw a tantrum. She had to suppress her emotions and continue following Su Caichuan.

Strangely enough, they had been walking in the cave for a long time without encountering the woman in white, which made Wen Yue wonder if she had just been seeing things earlier.

After walking further in, the rock ceiling above began to slowly lower. The green glow from the fluorescent paint made the environment inside the cave feel increasingly oppressive.

Wen Yue suddenly felt a drop of water fall onto her forehead.

She felt like she was reaching her breaking point.

Once this shoot was over, she was definitely going to have a serious talk with the producer. Why organize an adventure segment for no reason? This was so annoying, dirty, and frustrating.

The tissue she used to wipe her face hid her expression of disgust. However, just as she finished wiping the droplet from her face, she felt another cool drop of liquid land on the back of her hand.

Her patience exhausted, Wen Yue clenched her fists and looked up with an indignant expression.

Then, she locked eyes with a deathly pale face.

The woman in white was clinging to the cave ceiling like a gecko. Her neck looked as if it were broken; her head was tilted back and twisted, with the back of her skull pressed against her spine.

That upside-down face was extremely close to Wen Yue’s. The eye sockets were pitch black, devoid of eyeballs. Her skin was unnaturally pale, with a faint hint of blue-purple. Because a portion of her jaw had been torn away, half of her tongue dangled from her mouth.

The liquid that had just dripped onto Wen Yue’s face and hand was saliva falling from this deformed woman’s mouth.

“AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!”

Wen Yue let out a scream of pure desperation.

Whether it was from disgust or terror, the scare from the woman in white on the ceiling caused her psychological defenses to collapse instantly. She no longer cared about maintaining her image in front of the camera; she shoved Su Caichuan aside and ran forward blindly, screaming all the way.

The frail Su Caichuan was nearly knocked into the jagged stalagmites on the ground by her impact. Fortunately, the cameraman reached out in time to steady him.

Aside from Wen Yue, no one else had seen the woman in white. Seeing Wen Yue’s exaggerated reaction, the rest of the group was utterly bewildered.

The executive director was also at a loss. They clearly hadn’t reached any of the scare points set up by the production crew yet…

Moreover, even if they had reached a scare point, no one would dare to frighten Wen Yue. If the crew dared to let this lady suffer any grievances during the variety show, her frenzied fans would tear down the streaming platform’s comment section in minutes.

Seeing Wen Yue running further and further away, the executive director quickly snapped out of it and hurriedly led the staff to chase after her.

If she were allowed to run aimlessly through the karst cave like this, she could easily get lost. It would be disastrous if she encountered an accident.

Fortunately, Wen Yue tripped over a rock on the cave floor while fleeing and screaming, allowing the others to catch up to her in time.

This sudden burst of intense exercise exhausted the cameramen and logistics staff carrying the heavy equipment.

Wen Yue knelt on the ground, weeping uncontrollably.

No one knew what had triggered her or why she had suddenly become like this. The staff had no choice but to pause the recording and gather around this “ancestor” to offer comfort and concern.

But the staff, busy consoling Wen Yue, failed to notice pale arms reaching out from the crevices in the rocks behind them.

While Su Caichuan and Wen Yue’s group entered the cave, Xie Sui’s group was still outside looking for clues.

With fifty different routes, they couldn’t possibly try them one by one; that would be a waste of time.

Therefore, before choosing a route, they had to find the hints provided by the production crew.

Compared to Xie Sui and Liu Wuyong, who were participating in a show recording for the first time, Miao Xinyi appeared much more experienced. All the clues for their group were obtained by her.

Liu Wuyong watched in stunned silence as this girl, who was a head shorter than him, scaled walls and leaped over obstacles… “Scaling walls” wasn’t a metaphor; it was a description of fact.

This petite girl could not only climb several meters up a tree with her bare hands to retrieve a clue from a bird’s nest, but she also performed a free solo climb for everyone. She scaled a cliff several meters high with no safety gear to pull a clue from a crack in the rock.

Xie Sui and Liu Wuyong, the two useless men, could only stand aside and watch Miao Xinyi in silent admiration.

Liu Wuyong felt that a “weak woman” like Miao Xinyi could probably beat up ten sedentary, out-of-shape shut-ins like himself.

Speaking of which, they were supposed to be on a supernatural variety show, not some competitive wilderness survival program, right?

Miao Xinyi’s actions so terrified the production staff that they drove over a Rescue Team vehicle equipped with a ladder, fearing she might accidentally fall.

To ensure the safety of the guests, the crew had hired a local forest Rescue Team before the exploration began to minimize risks. They hadn’t expected it to actually be needed so soon.

Miao Xinyi’s approach was essentially increasing the difficulty for herself.

The directing team really wanted to tell her that for the clue in the rock crevice, they could have simply walked up the mountain path on the other side. There was truly no need for rock climbing. As long as someone lay flat on the mountain path and reached down, they could have grabbed the slip of paper.

During a break in filming, Liu Wuyong was so curious that he couldn’t help but ask Miao Xinyi where she had learned these “eighteen martial arts¹.”

Miao Xinyi waved it off dismissively, while simultaneously avoiding the staff members who were fussing over her.

“This is nothing. Back when I was an idol, I even got a high-altitude work permit just to film a music video on the glass curtain wall of a skyscraper. Climbing something this low isn’t a big deal for me.”

Miao Xinyi’s tone turned slightly bitter. “Besides, it’s all to earn money. I don’t have a background or a benefactor; I’m just an ordinary little idol. If I don’t do something eye-catching, how will the camera ever find me?”

When she mentioned a “benefactor,” Miao Xinyi couldn’t help but glance at Xie Sui, feeling a bit salty again.

She was twenty-five this year, which was already considered old for an idol. If she wanted to stay in the industry and keep earning money, she had to transition her career. But for an idol who didn’t graduate from a professional acting academy, transitioning to being an actress was already difficult… let alone for an idol from a lukewarm small group like hers.

There were plenty of people in the entertainment industry more beautiful than her. Her only advantage was probably her willingness to work hard and endure hardship.

After resting for a while and confirming that Miao Xinyi was fine, the Rescue Team and other staff members drove the vehicles back to the base camp.

The recording for Xie Sui’s group resumed.

Following the clues Miao Xinyi had found, Xie Sui and Liu Wuyong arrived at a lakeshore.

It was a massive inland lake, so wide that the opposite shore was barely visible.

The production staff operated drones for overhead shots. Looking down from the sky, the lake resembled a giant emerald embedded in the earth. The surrounding network of waterways was extremely complex, and one could faintly see a small village on the other side of the water.

Looking at the boundless lake, Miao Xinyi fell silent.

The crew… the crew couldn’t possibly expect them to build a boat themselves, could they? she hadn’t learned how to build a boat.

Xie Sui’s group had found the shortest route to the filming location. The village across the lake was their destination, and they only needed to cross the water to reach it.

However, because the network of waterways was so intricate, they could only arrive safely if a local guided them by boat.

The production crew, having scouted the area early on, had pre-arranged a local villager and a boat nearby.

But to find the villager and the boat, they would have to pay a small “price.”

In truth, this setup by the crew was like helping Xie Sui cheat. Based on the restlessness of the Ghost Infant² within him, he could easily sense the presence of every living person nearby.

Therefore, the scare segments the staff had prepared here were actually a different kind of help to him.

While Miao Xinyi and Liu Wuyong looked for a boat by the river, Xie Sui walked toward the embankment alone.

Seeing Xie Sui leave the group, another cameraman followed him with his camera raised.

Xie Sui circled behind a haystack near the riverbank and caught sight of the back of a staff member dressed in black. The staff member was crouching by the haystack, peeking out to observe the movements over by the lake.

He was observing very intently, failing to react even as Xie Sui approached.

Xie Sui felt that speaking suddenly might startle the man, so he reached out and lightly tapped him on the shoulder.

“Aaaah!!”

The staff member must have been overly tense; at Xie Sui’s touch, he let out a scream and practically leaped into the air.

His face, smeared with white paint and distorted by terror, combined with his black robes to make him look exactly like the famous painting “The Scream.”

Xie Sui stood there awkwardly.

Is it really okay for the staff of a supernatural variety show to be this cowardly?

“I’m sorry, I just…” Before Xie Sui could finish his explanation, the man in black managed to compose himself.

He looked at Xie Sui, then at the cameraman behind Xie Sui who was stifling a laugh. With an expression of tragic indignation, he hiked up the hem of his black robes and ran away.

Xie Sui, who had thought finding a staff member would reveal the method to cross the lake, let out a soft sigh and decided to keep looking for others.

However, his luck this time was clearly not as good as the first. Although he found another staff member, the one playing a ghost spotted him first.

Before Xie Sui could say a word, the ghost-actor leaped out from a haystack with claws bared, attempting to give Xie Sui a fright.

Looking at the staff member in ghostly makeup, Xie Sui’s face remained expressionless.

After a long silence, he suddenly realized he was filming a variety show.

Then, the staff member watched as Xie Sui’s face went through a delayed reaction, performing an exaggeratedly theatrical expression of being startled.

Faced with this mockingly insincere expression, the ghost-actor fell silent for a moment and then quietly retreated back into hiding.

Having finally caught a second staff member, Xie Sui naturally couldn’t let him escape.

Before the man could fully shrink back, Xie Sui grabbed his arm.

“I’d like to ask, there should be a boat nearby to cross the lake, right?”

The staff member shook his head without a word, merely pointing behind himself.

Fine, it seemed he had to keep moving forward.

Xie Sui walked past various ghostly props set up by the production team with a deadpan expression, leaving the staff members questioning their life choices.

Finally, at the end of the riverbank, Xie Sui found a small shack where a middle-aged man sat smoking a pipe.

The man’s skin was tanned dark by the sun, a white towel was tied around his head, and his hands were covered in cracked calluses. At a glance, he was clearly a simple farmer who spent his years working the land.

Seeing Xie Sui approach, the man was visibly delighted.

He put out his pipe, tucked it into his waistband, wiped his hands on his clothes, and hurried out to greet him.

“You must be the guest the production crew mentioned who wants to go to the village. I’ve been waiting for you.”

It seemed he had found the key character.

As expected, without Xie Sui needing to say much, the man proactively offered to take him to where his boat was moored.

“My companion is still by the lakeshore, I need to go get him first…”

Before Xie Sui could finish, the man interrupted: “Don’t worry, I know. My boat is docked over by the lake too, I won’t leave your friend behind.”

The man was clearly very familiar with the area. He led Xie Sui through several twists and turns, bringing him back to the lakeshore in much less time than it had taken Xie Sui to leave.

Looking at Miao Xinyi and Liu Wuyong, who had already started felling trees and chopping wood, Xie Sui felt a bit helpless.

You guys really intend to build a boat… that’s a bit too much effort.

Miao Xinyi’s overachiever energy was too infectious; even the usually lazy Old Liu had been swept up by her momentum.

Only Xie Sui, Liu Wuyong, Miao Xinyi, the cameraman, and the rowing villager boarded the boat.

Because the boat was small, even Miao Xinyi’s assistant couldn’t come along.

This route had already been vetted by the production team and was deemed safe, leaving no room for the guests to improvise. They only needed to sit in the boat and let the villager take them to the village. Thus, the production team felt at ease, sending only one cameraman along.

This was the first time Xie Sui had ever been on a boat.

The lake’s surface was very still, like a giant mirror clearly reflecting the green mountains on either side. The small boat moved through the gap between the reflections of the mountains, rowing deeper into the distance.

The further they went, the narrower the lake became, and the sky was almost entirely obscured by the mountain masses. The lake water, which had looked lush green from the outside, turned pitch black after losing its light source. The mountains on both sides drew closer and closer, creating an uncomfortable sense of oppression-it felt as if they were voluntarily entering the dark, massive maw of a monster.

Xie Sui sat at the stern, watching the ripples trailing behind the boat.

In the deepest parts of the pitch-black water, many shadows seemed to be bobbing up and down.

The water surface grew narrower; strictly speaking, the boat had left the lake and entered a river channel.

Following the channel further, a massive karst cave appeared ahead.

Before the boat entered the cave, Xie Sui seemed to spot something. He gripped the edge of the boat and leaned half his body out.

Clumps of long black hair had appeared at the stern at some unknown moment, bobbing like seaweed.

There wasn’t a trace of fear on Xie Sui’s face. He reached out and brushed aside the hair on the water’s surface, revealing a pale face amidst the mass of black strands.

An arm suddenly shot out from between the hair, grabbing Xie Sui’s hand.

The eyes on that face slowly opened-a pair of entirely black eyes without whites stared fixedly at Xie Sui. It opened its mouth and spoke three words in a voice only Xie Sui could hear.

‘Do not go.’

In the next instant, dozens of pale arms lunged out of the water, latching onto the stern of the boat.

The boat was forced to a halt before it could enter the cave.

The rowing man froze, looking back, and his eyes met a pair of Blood-colored Double Pupils.

Surrounding the so-called variety show guest, dozens of Drowned Water Ghosts had appeared out of nowhere, their dense white figures almost completely filling the surface of the river.

They crouched beside Xie Sui, half their bodies leaning over the edge of the boat and the other half submerged in the water. Their long, seaweed-like black hair acted like living things, binding themselves to the vessel and dragging it to a halt.

The female ghosts’ long hair extended from the boat into the water, resembling umbilical cords connecting placentas to infants.

Xie Sui sat among these water ghosts, staring expressionlessly at the rowing uncle.

His complexion was even paler than the skin of the drowned ghosts who had been soaking in the water for years. A web-like pattern of blue-purple veins covered his face. Bloody tears slowly rolled down from the sockets of his Blood-colored Double Pupils, leaving two crimson streaks across his cheeks.

Every single child who had drowned in this lake was a girl no older than twelve.

Xie Sui had never imagined that such an inhumane atrocity could actually occur in modern society.

Looking at the malevolent Xie Sui, the rowing uncle showed no fear. Instead, he grinned at him, revealing two rows of yellow, smoke-stained teeth. “I knew it. Why else would a production crew come to our village for no reason…”

As he spoke, he tapped his tobacco pipe against the oar. The black hair wrapped around the oar let go in a hurry, as if it had been burned.

“…So you’re here to collect ghosts from our village. Honestly, you should have just said so. Why bother with all these fancy tricks? The girls who drown in the water are all offerings for the Water God; they aren’t easy to sell to you. If you’d told me sooner, I would have taken you to the Mass Grave over by the Dry Path Karst Cave. You can catch as many ghosts as you want there. I’d even give you the corpse oil and bones for free.”

Liu Wuyong, Miao Xinyi, and the photographer had fainted at some unknown point, slumped over on the boat.

Seeing a long-haired water ghost still stubbornly clinging to Xie Sui’s back and gripping his arm, the rowing uncle’s eyebrows shot up. He shouted a harsh scolding, “Shameless! You see a handsome guy from out of town and your heart starts fluttering? You’re the Water God’s brides! Let go, now! You’re embarrassing us in front of outsiders!”

The water ghosts flinched, looks of terror appearing on their faces. They hurriedly released their grip and sank back into the water.

The surface of the lake returned to its previous calm, as if everything that had just happened was a dream.

The rowing uncle tapped his pipe against the gunwale again. The black hair tangled beneath the boat silently began to push the vessel forward. The boat drifted slowly toward the karst cave, following the current.

“Name a price. If you really like water ghosts, it’s not like we can’t part with them. Once we’re back in the village, we can help you fish out a few high-quality ones.”

Xie Sui caught the underlying meaning in his words. “What happened to the production crew members in your village? And the Law Enforcement Team members who brought those two little girls back to your village a couple of days ago—are they still alive?”

“Don’t worry, they aren’t dead.” The rowing uncle smacked his lips, his face full of regret. “Guest, you really didn’t need to be so cautious to buy things from our village, bringing all these irrelevant people along… If you’d been one day later, we would have used them for a Blood Sacrifice.”

At the foot of the mountain where the production crew was stationed.

The producer looked at the assistant director, who was in contact with the executive director. “How is the progress of Group A and Group B?”

“Group A took the route through the Dry Path Karst Cave. The staff members stationed outside the cave just called me. They said they’ve already met up with Wen Yue and the others.”

“The satellite phone for Group B is with the photographer. He said their boat had a minor issue and seems to be stuck on the river.”

The producer sighed. “It looks like Wen Yue and Su Caichuan’s group won… Even though Xie Sui’s group found the shortest path, their luck is a bit lacking.”

“Tell the rescue team to head back. We’ll drive into the village via the mountain road and meet up with the staff already there. Once we arrive, let the guests rest for a day. We’ll start official filming tomorrow.”

The driver, getting into the car, remarked, “We chose a good day. There’s no fog, so we won’t get lost in the mountain mists. It shouldn’t take more than a few hours to drive to the village.”

Translator’s Notes