Chapter 39: I'm Coming to Get You (Please Keep Reading)

Inside the pitch-black, old ancestral house, everyone held their breath at first. Some hid underneath the tables, while others simply stood right on top of them.

A few concealed themselves behind doors or sat on the sofas.

There wasn't much of a competitive spirit; it was mostly just about having fun.

Chen Mo had sat directly on the living room sofa, though it was so dark that even human silhouettes were barely visible. To be honest, it was genuinely a bit spine-chilling.

Yet, that exact atmosphere was the whole point of playing this game.

Soon, Jing Tian finished counting to ten. "I'm coming to get you!"

She even playfully hopped around like a hopping ghost in Chinese folklore.

As she hopped, she childishly emitted low growls. Somehow, it lacked any sense of horror; instead, it carried a naive, endearing cuteness that made people want to smile.

"Ah!" Suddenly, she seemed to bump into someone and let out a shriek!

"Ah!" The person who got bumped into was obviously a woman as well, and she screamed right along with her.

Clearly, both of them had been startled, and simultaneous chuckles echoed from nearby. Apparently, the little wealthy heiress had bumped into someone in the dark, scaring both herself and the other person.

"Hurry up! Whoever gets caught becomes the ghost. Little Jing Tian, go hide!" At this moment, Wang Xun's voice rang out in the darkness.

Instead of turning on the lights, they simply continued playing.

The little heiress had no idea who she had grabbed, and in her panicked rush to flee in the dark, she tripped over the sofa and tumbled right on top of Chen Mo.

"Ah!" She let out another piercing scream.

It left Chen Mo's ears ringing.

He quickly wrapped his arms around her, clamped a hand over her mouth, and whispered into her ear, "It's me! Stop yelling!"

What he didn't realize was that as he spoke, his warm breath brushed directly against the little heiress's ear, causing it to instantly turn red.

Her entire body went limp against Chen Mo.

At that moment, the new "ghost" started counting: "10, 9, 8..."

Chen Mo recognized the voice as belonging to one of the crew's makeup artists.

The makeup artist wasn't very old either, and surprisingly, she too began imitating Jing Tian, walking and hopping around like a ghost.

Only, she wasn't as lucky as Jing Tian; after hopping around for a long time, she didn't encounter a single person.

In the darkness, only the makeup artist's footsteps and everyone's breathing could be heard, which only added to the eerie atmosphere.

After about two or three minutes without finding anyone, someone finally couldn't help shifting their footing, and was promptly caught by the pursuer.

"Got you!" the makeup artist announced excitedly.

Then, without waiting for anyone to remind her, she hurried off to hide herself.

In the dark, the little heiress maintained her posture, pressing against Chen Mo's chest without moving a muscle.

Right at that moment, however, Chen Mo suddenly heard a familiar voice counting: "1, 2, 3..."

For some inexplicable reason, he suddenly felt his hair stand on end, and his entire body froze stiff.

Because that voice was entirely too familiar—wasn't it the little heiress's voice?

Could that person over there be Jing Tian? Then who on earth was the one in his arms?

For a split second, Chen Mo felt a chilling emptiness in his chest. Whether it was his imagination or not, he could sworn that the warmth radiating from the little heiress in his arms had turned bone-chillingly cold.

Yet precisely at this moment, shrouded in darkness, nobody else had noticed the problem.

Chen Mo was completely paralyzed with panic. It wasn't as though he hadn't heard stories about bizarre things happening while shooting films of this genre, but nothing like this had ever actually happened to him in his past life...

What the hell? What should he do?

He was genuinely losing his mind!

To make matters worse, the other "Jing Tian" was still shouting over there, "I'm coming to catch you guys!"

Then came the sound of hopping footsteps, which once again gave Chen Mo a terribly familiar sensation. Whether it was an illusion or not, he felt it matched Jing Tian's exact movements from the very beginning.

Although he had always been a steadfast materialist, damn it, that was only because these bizarre occurrences hadn't happened to him personally!

Right now, he didn't even dare to twitch a muscle.

Yet even though he remained motionless, the "Jing Tian" in his arms moved. She wrapped her hands around Chen Mo's neck, shifted her position slightly, leaned close to his ear, and trembled as she whispered, "There... there's a ghost..."

"Oh, mother!" At this, Chen Mo finally lost all self-control and shrieked at the top of his lungs.

He forcefully hurled the little heiress straight onto the sofa.

At that exact instant, the lights suddenly flashed on.

It turned out that Uncle Ying, who had been standing guard near the switch, heard Chen Mo's terrified yell and immediately flipped the lights on.

In a flash, the entire living room was illuminated. Instead of looking for the "ghost" first, Chen Mo looked toward the sofa, where the little heiress was sitting and looking wronged.

"What the hell is going on? Who was that just now?" Huang Bo asked, looking terrified when he saw Jing Tian standing right beside Chen Mo.

"How come there were two of them?" Lei Datou stared wide-eyed at Jing Tian while frantically searching the room with his gaze.

"Everyone come out! All of you, out! Damn it, are we really seeing ghosts? What is going on here? Who's playing this prank?" Chen Mo demanded, his tone a mix of lingering fear and rising anger.

He was genuinely terrified just now.

Seeing that Chen Mo was genuinely furious, the others filed out one by one.

"Lisa, was that you caught by Tiantian earlier? Who did you catch?" Chen Mo turned to ask Lisa the makeup artist.

"I... I don't know! Wasn't it Professor Jing Tian?" Lisa looked between Jing Tian and the rest of the group, her face somewhat pale.

"Where is Wang Xun?" Chen Mo scanned the people present, suddenly realizing Wang Xun was missing.

"That's right, where's Wang Xun?" The others looked around and realized Wang Xun indeed seemed to be gone.

"I'll call him!" Chen Mo picked up his phone, found Wang Xun's number, and dialed.

Yet no ringing sound echoed from anywhere in the immediate surroundings. Instead, Wang Xun picked up almost immediately on the other end: "Director Chen?"

"Wang Xun? Where did you go?" Chen Mo asked.

The other crew members in the living room watched Chen Mo with tense expressions.

"I'm at the guesthouse in town. Is something wrong?" Wang Xun's voice came through the phone.

"Why are you over there?" Chen Mo felt a cold draft at the back of his neck.

"I was a bit tired today, so I went over to rest after dinner. I told you that, Director," Wang Xun replied through the phone.

"Are you kidding me?" Chen Mo's voice trembled slightly.

"I'm not kidding! Director, don't scare me. What's going on?" Wang Xun sounded rather anxious as well.

"It's nothing. Are you sure you left right after eating?" Chen Mo asked, still finding it hard to believe.

"Yeah, my tailbone was hurting a bit from filming today, so I left as soon as I finished dinner," Wang Xun explained.

Chen Mo completely lost his mind. Then who the hell was it that had proposed playing "hide-and-seek in the dark" earlier?!

"Holy shit, who put a paper effigy here?!" At that moment, Huang Bo suddenly let out a terrified yell.

Chen Mo turned his head to look. Good grief, a paper effigy previously used as a prop for filming had somehow been placed inside the living room, standing rigidly upright against the wall. The painted makeup on its face looked sinister no matter how one looked at it.

"Damn it!" What a nightmare!

Following this series of events, everyone felt a lingering dread. Frankly speaking, who wouldn't be terrified upon encountering such bizarre occurrences?

Chen Mo was truly freaking out!

The others crowded together as well, none of them daring to stay alone.

Especially the little wealthy heiress; terrified and pale-faced, she ran over and grabbed tightly onto Chen Mo's arm.