"Are you... a ghost?" The restless rain beat against the cold window, and the hearts of the two were like flames in a lamp, flickering uncertainly.

"I... I don't know," the woman swallowed, "Should we notify the enforcers?"

"Are you crazy!" Upon hearing the word enforcers, the man who had been scared silly finally regained some sanity, "Once the enforcers get involved, what we've done will definitely be exposed... absolutely not!"

"Then... what should we do about him?" The woman paused for a moment。

"You don't think... there's a 'calamity' attached to Ah Ling's body, do you?" Both of them looked at the tightly closed bedroom door, falling silent once again.

After a long time, the man seemed to make up his mind, took a black raincoat from the doorway, and pushed the door open.

"Where are you going?"

"To where we buried the body!"

"Now? Why?"

"To verify." Rainwater slid down the man's pale face, and he hoarsely said, "No matter what's in the room now... it can't possibly be Ah Ling! I need to see his body with my own eyes."

"I'll go with you!" No one wanted to go out in this thunderstorm, but compared to being alone with the unknown thing sleeping in the bedroom, the woman would rather choose the former.

In the heavy rain, two figures in raincoats hurriedly left. ... Bedroom.

Chen Ling, who had already fallen into a deep sleep, suddenly felt his eyelashes tremble lightly, as if having a nightmare.

In his dream, his consciousness kept sinking, as if falling into an abyss, and after an unknown period of time, he seemed to land on a hard surface, finally stabilizing his body.

Thump-thump-thump-thump Dull mechanical sounds rang out, followed by a beam of light piercing the darkness like a sword, converging on a figure in red robes.

Chen Ling subconsciously covered his eyes with his hand.

"Where is this...?" Chen Ling's hazy consciousness gradually cleared, and when he gradually adjusted to the strong light, he looked around in confusion.

Within the beam of light, he could only see his own crimson theatrical robe, the old wooden floor beneath his feet, and a black curtain illuminated by the beam of light behind him...

beyond the beam of light was endless unknown darkness.

Seeing this scene, Chen Ling suddenly froze.

He seemed to remember something, squinted his eyes and looked up, the beam of light illuminating him coming from spotlights fixed on steel frames.

"Stage?" As a director working in the theater, Chen Ling was no stranger to the stage.

Until he was killed by a falling light in his previous life, he had been pondering stage positions.

His understanding and knowledge of the stage even surpassed that of the actors.

So his first reaction at this moment was that he had returned.

No...

The lighting effects on the stage of his previous life's theater were better than this, the curtains were not black, and the floor was not this old wooden floor.

Was he dreaming? Chen Ling tentatively took a step, the old floor creaking loudly.

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As his figure was about to step out of the light circle, another beam of light followed his footsteps, chasing into the darkness.

"Chasing light?" Chen Ling's heart jumped, subconsciously shouting, "Who's there?!" The fact that these lights could follow him was highly likely to be manipulated by someone, unless this place also used a fully automatic tracking system, but judging from the old condition of this stage, this possibility was almost zero.

"Who's there..."

"Who's there..."

"There..." Chen Ling's voice echoed in the darkness, becoming increasingly eerie and chilling.

At the same time, an electronic screen on the edge of the stage suddenly lit up.

In stage design, this position is usually set up for a teleprompter to prevent actors or hosts from forgetting their lines halfway through.

But on the screen at this moment, there is a string of red characters - [Audience Expectation: 29%].

In the lower left corner of the screen, there are a few small words, "Please do not let the audience's expectation fall below 20%, otherwise the theater does not guarantee the safety of the actors."

Seeing this screen, Chen Ling felt a little confused... Audience? Where did the audience come from? Thump-thump-thump- The familiar sound of lights turning on again!

The darkness in front of the stage receded like a tide, and hundreds of wooden chairs spread out in tiers towards the distance, surrounding the front of the stage densely.

Audience seats.

These three words appeared in Chen Ling's mind.

It is reasonable to have audience seats where there is a stage, but what really made Chen Ling's scalp tingle was not this, but the fact that... at some point... these audience seats were already filled with "audience."

They were humanoid creatures shrouded in shadows, even though the lighting was sufficient, Chen Ling still could not see their appearance clearly, as if they were incarnations of the abyss.

The only exception was their eyes.

Countless crimson pupils opened in the dim light, sitting on their respective wooden chairs, staring at Chen Ling on the stage, as if a group of cats cornering a mouse, their gazes mocking and greedy.

Chen Ling, being stared at by them, felt a chill on the back of his neck.

He didn't know what these "audience" really were, but they definitely couldn't be human! Chen Ling forced himself not to look at those terrifying eyes anymore, turned around and ran frantically to the other end of the stage.

Logically, the exits of the stage should be on both sides, so as long as he left the stage, he should be able to temporarily escape from those ghostly things! The spotlight locked onto the running figure in red, rushing straight to the edge of the stage, but what awaited him was a bare wall.

Chen Ling was stunned.

He stubbornly ran to the other side of the stage, but it was the same.

This stage...

had no exit at all.

In the dim audience seats, the densely packed crimson pupils followed his escape, constantly moving, like a group of "audience" immersed in a spectacular performance, incredibly focused.

And the protagonist of this performance was the red-clothed Chen Ling on the stage.

At the same time, the characters on the central display screen were flashing...

the audience expectation value had jumped from the original 29% to 30%.

Damn it, what kind of messed up nightmare was he in! Chen Ling pinched himself hard, trying to wake up from the dream, but apart from feeling a familiar pain, there was no sign of waking up.

[Intermission is over, please continue the performance] Another line of characters appeared on the screen, followed by a crisp bell suddenly ringing from above the stage! Ding-ling-ling- Before Chen Ling could react, the scene in front of him began to shatter inch by inch, and his consciousness quickly blurred...

Before losing consciousness, he vaguely saw the huge and mysterious black curtain behind him slowly opening! ...

Bang! Chen Ling sat up abruptly from the bed! The sheets were already soaked with cold sweat, his chest heaving violently, his eyes filled with fear.

He swallowed a mouthful of saliva, his gaze slowly scanning around, confirming that he was in his own room and not on that damn stage, finally relaxing.

"Was it a dream...

this dream is too bizarre.

" He calmed down a bit, got up and walked to the living room.

By now, the rain outside had mostly stopped, but the sky was still dark, Chen Ling called out to his parents a few times, but no one answered, the whole house was quiet.

"Did they leave for work so early?" Chen Ling muttered to himself.

Chen Ling touched his shriveled stomach, the nightmare from last night seemed to have drained too much of his energy, making him feel weak even when walking, so he had no choice but to go into the kitchen to find something to eat.

As soon as he entered, he tripped over something, looking down, it was the remnants of a water bucket that looked like it had been gnawed by a wild animal.

What's wrong with this bucket? Frozen and cracked in the cold weather? Chen Ling couldn't remember what happened last night at all.

Doubtfully, he muttered to himself, then picked up the bucket and threw it into the corner.

He turned around and found a piece of cloth, ready to wipe away the water stains on the floor.

As soon as he squatted down, he froze in place.

The water stains on the floor began to move on their own, as if there was an invisible figure squatting in front of him, dipping their fingertips in the water and writing something on the ground.

The next moment, the transparent water stains visibly turned blood red, forming a twisted and eerie text in front of Chen Ling.

- [We are watching you].