Chapter 77: CH 76

Chapter 76 – Three People Make a Tiger 12

Midnight came around again.

After a good night’s sleep, everyone went to the glass room on the top floor. The pitch-black box was still at the door and everyone resisted the urge to look in when they passed by, so as to not to get their necks snapped like Member A. The night was as thick as permanent ink and the gust of wind beat against the windows, making the glass rattle. It was unknown if it was an illusion but the glass room tonight gave people a shaky feeling of unease.

Everyone sat in a circle with a worried look on their faces. What was different from usual was that this time everyone deliberately moved the stool away from the only two remaining members of the film club, as if their presence was an ominous sign. The president and the showy beauty Member C naturally found that they were isolated. The two simply got closer, sticking close together as if they were dependent on each other.

Rock Monk held a rosary in his left hand and a copper bowl in his right. It’s just that this posture was not for begging for alms, but more like holding a brick to move a brick. He was already ready to smash down. He also looked a little nervous and he kept muttering and reciting the scriptures from his mouth. Everyone listened without saying a word and their bodies couldn’t help but turn to him, as if they wanted to rub some of Buddha’s light and glory.

The hour hand finally pointed to twelve o’clock. With a click, the lights went out and the glass room fell into complete darkness. The helpless feeling of being on an isolated island once again enveloped everyone.

Xu RenDong pursed his lips. Sure enough, no matter how many times he experienced it, he still hated the darkness. Lian Qiao squeezed Xu RenDong’s hand lightly and then stood up. He said slowly, “What I’m going to tell today is a true story that happened to me.” 

In the darkness, Xu RenDong heard the chair move. There was a slight sound of movement. He felt Lian Qiao pick up the chair but instead of creating a stereo effect around everyone like Xu RenDong had, Lian Qiao went straight to the center of the crowd. So everyone felt that Lian Qiao was talking to himself, as if he was muttering late at night.

“When I just graduated from school, I was looking for a place to live. At that time, I was very ashamed and embarrassed to ask my parents for money, so I couldn’t afford a house that was too expensive. I was a person who had never experienced hardship so I went around in circles, not willing to live in old, small and dilapidated homes. After looking and looking, I actually found a place. The location of this house was very remote. It was a small single-family building and there were no other residents around. The house was  quite old but better than fully furnished. The rent was also cheap. It’s strange that I was the only one who wanted to rent such a nice house. The owner explained that he had been keeping the house empty until recently. So I was the only tenant for now.”

“This kind of nonsense, even a foolish young man like me who has no social experience will not believe it. There must be something wrong with this house, either it is a haunted house or something else has happened there. But I have been educated in Marxism-Leninism since I was a child. Being an atheist, of course I didn’t mind it. As long as the rent is cheap and there are no other tenants, I’m just fine.”

“That’s how I moved into this house.”

“The house has a total of three floors. The first floor is a living room and kitchen, the second floor has several bedrooms and the third floor is a glass sunroom. If you come in  during the day, the lighting is very good. But if you come at night, it will be a bit scary. Only my house is lit within 100 meters. It makes me feel as if I am standing on an isolated island, surrounded by an endless dark sea. Especially on windy days, it will be like now, hu…hu …like something howling just out of sight, like a beast scratching on the windowpane with its claws.”

At this moment, a gust of wind blew from the window. The windows were shaking, as if something were really banging on the windows.

Everyone gradually understood that Lian Qiao’s story happened in the villa where they were. Being in the place where the ghost story took place gave everyone a peculiar sense of substitution. In the darkness, everyone seemed to follow Lian Qiao’s perspective, walking past the empty bedrooms and observing the villa.

“I was a materialist until that night.”

“It was a Friday night and I was exhausted. I went back to the apartment, lay on the bed and fell asleep. After some time, I was struck by a strange noise. I woke up. The sound was like the glass ball I played with when I was a child, tuk, tuk, tuk, bouncing on the ground one by one. When it finally stopped bouncing, it rolled off somewhere.”

At this moment, everyone heard the sound of “tuk, tuk, tuk” actually coming from above their heads. Everyone was so frightened that they gasped but Xu RenDong realized what it was. It wasn’t some marbles bouncing on the ground but the sound of Lian Qiao hitting the ceiling with his knuckles.

He smiled silently in the dark. No wonder Lian Qiao wanted to move a chair over, but it turned out to be a footrest to be able to knock on the ceiling. Lian Qiao learned from him really well. Even the sound effects were well matched.

Lian Qiao knocked a few times, crept down from the chair and continued:

“I know this situation very well. I checked the house’s information thoroughly before and it seems that the sound that sounds like marbles was actually the wooden structure between the floors aging. In the dead of night, the sound of the wood curling sounds like glass marbles. I didn’t take it seriously and so, just when I was about to go back to sleep, suddenly there was another sound – footsteps from the ceiling.”

“The footsteps were very loud. It was hurried, like a child chasing a glass ball. I was taken aback and I couldn’t help but have questions in my heart: There couldn’t really be a bear child running up there right? So I went to the sun room and looked everywhere. But there weren’t any children anywhere. Sure enough, I was thinking too much. It must be because the house is too old so that’s why it makes a strange noise. I must call the landlord tomorrow and ask him to find someone to fix it. However, just when I turned around to go back downstairs…”

Lian Qiao stopped suddenly. Everyone was fascinated and, when he stopped, everyone held their breath involuntarily, pricked up their ears, and listened to what he had to say next.

After a while, Lian Qiao lowered his voice and there was a hint of fear in his tone:

“As I watched helplessly, a glass bead rolled down the stairs in front of my eyes.”

At the same time, in everyone’s ears rang a sound:

“Tuk.”

It was the sound of glass marbles rolling down the stairs.

“Tuk…tuk…tuk. tuk. tuk.” The marbles rolled faster and faster and every impact seemed to hit everyone’s heart, making everyone feel cold.

Everyone gasped in horror. Xu RenDong was also surprised but quickly calmed down: this must be a prop that Lian Qiao secretly prepared to create a terrifying atmosphere.

However, at this time, Lian Qiao was also in a turmoil in his heart.

If the light is turned on at this time, Xu RenDong would have seen Lian Qiao’s face go pale within an instant.

He really didn’t make that sound. No matter how good he is, he can’t make the sound of marbles, which means…

His ghost story has begun to turn into a reality!

This time, the fake fear turned into real fear. Lian Qiao resisted the urge to hiccup and continued to say in that frightened tone: “I…I’m pretty sure, when I checked the glass room just now, the floor was clean… There was nothing around at all. So I felt very scared: where did this marble come from?”

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He swallowed quietly, trying to suppress the trembling in his voice: “The marble rolled  very fast. I chased after the marble and ran downstairs. But, just after the corner, the sound of the marbles disappeared. I wanted to see if the marbles rolled under the TV cabinet but when I lay on the ground, I saw a pair of eyes staring at me from under the cabinet!”

“There is only a gap of two or three centimeters under the cabinet and it is absolutely impossible to hide a person. I was so frightened that I screamed out and crawled back. A very terrifying sound came from the depths of my throat.”

Lian Qiao took a deep breath and strangled his neck in the darkness.

“Gegegegege…”

Hearing this, Xu RenDong finally understood that Lian Qiao was telling the story of “The Grudge”.

Although Xu RenDong doesn’t watch horror movies, he has heard of this classic Japanese horror movie. The female ghost Kayako in “The Grudge” was a housewife before her death. Her husband suspected her of cheating so he beat her to death. Her  body was packed in sacks and hidden in the attic on the ceiling. Therefore, the ghost of Kayako always lingered in this house and everyone who entered the house would be cursed and killed by Kayako.

The iconic sound effect when Kayako appears is the kind of “cluck” sound that is similar to choking. Therefore, after Lian Qiao’s imitation, the image of the pale Kayako crawling on the ground with her arms dragging appeared in everyone’s mind.

However, why did Lian Qiao choose “The Grudge”? Xu RenDong remembered that in the “The Grudge” series of films, Kayako was also an almost invincible existence. However, the advantage of Japanese-style horror is that it is about a kind of psychological horror. Ghosts were always following you little by little, using various means to scare you and make you die in despair from a mental breakdown, rather than killing you directly. 

…It is at least much better than the bloody, violent monsters in American horror movies.

Suddenly there was a rustling sound on the glass behind him and it actually started to rain outside. The rain quickly became heavier and the pea-sized raindrops kept beating on the windows, as if someone in the endless darkness was irritably tapping on the windows with their fingers. No one dared to look back and no one dared to stand up to confirm the situation outside the window. Lian Qiao was distracted by the manic rain and, after a while, he spoke again.

“I couldn’t live in that house anymore.”

“I escaped from the house. I found the landlord that night and asked to cancel the lease. The landlord was very angry and said that the contract was signed, so how could I go back on it? No matter how I argued, he was determined and rejected me. I had to stay outside for one night. For the next few days, I didn’t dare to go back to the apartment so I continued to argue with the landlord. However, even if I lived in a hotel, there would still be strange sounds in the room at night. Because of the strange sounds, I couldn’t sleep well all night and my spirit was about to collapse.”

“My friend saw that I was haggard and suggested that I go on a trip to relax. I accepted the suggestion and went to a hot spring hotel in the mountains. The hotel was very simple and the hot springs were also relaxing. The miraculous thing was that while staying there, those terrible noises at night never appeared again. I was so happy that I decided to celebrate and had a drink with the hotel owner. After the owner got drunk, he took out a videotape and said to me: I have something good here, do you want to watch it together? I agreed…”

Everyone: “…” It seems that everyone had already guessed what he was going to say next.

Sure enough, after some foreshadowing, Lian Qiao quickly got to the key point: “…There was a dead wood forest in the picture. In the middle of the dead wood forest, there was standing an…”

Everyone couldn’t help holding their breath and a sense of picture began to appear in their minds. .

Lian Qiao: “…Elevator.”

Everyone: “???” A goddamn elevator? Shouldn’t it be a well? {In case it’s not clear they think he’s talking about Sadako/The Ring}

Lian Qiao seemed to feel embarrassed. Holding back a smile, he said, “I also thought it was very abrupt but the scene at that time was so strange. In short, in the middle of the deadwood forest was an elevator, a silver-gray metal elevator. I could see very clearly that it was the same as the elevator in the apartment I rent.”

Everyone: “…” Your setting is too deliberate!

Lian Qiao continued: “Just when I was wondering, a pair of pale arms suddenly stretched out from the elevator door and pulled the elevator door open. It was a woman in a white dress with long hair covering her face. She stood there without saying a word, looking very intimidating. I couldn’t watch it anymore so I turned off the TV.”

“Just then, the hotel phone rang suddenly.” Lian Qiao suddenly sped up, he seemed to want to end the story as soon as possible, “There was a female ghost on the phone who told me that I would definitely die in her hands in seven days. What can I do? Of course I could only hang up the phone and ignore her. I was still very scared. I heard that the curse can be transferred by showing the video to others so I brought the video back from the hotel. But I am a gentle and kind little cutie, how could I harm others? So the video was taken by me and thrown into the apartment… under the TV in the living room on the first floor of the apartment. Oh, by the way, I found a silver-gray metal button in the videotape box, which seems to match the elevator in the videotape. Just like that, I was confused again. After a few days, for some reason, I returned to the apartment.”

“—And today, it happens to be the seventh day.” Just as his voice fell, “pa!” the light turned on.

Lian Qiao stood quietly in the center of the crowd and slowly turned his eyes to Xu RenDong. However, Xu RenDong stared straight at his feet and, after a while, he was relieved after confirming that he had not turned into an ice sculpture.

The president of the film club suddenly said, “Sadako vs. Kayako?” {In case you didn’t know Japan made a Freddy vs Jason type versus movie with the two ghosts from The Grudge and The Ring duking it out.}

Lian Qiao gave him a thumbs up and said with a smile, “You have really watched countless films.”

Everyone: “What’s the matter?” 

The president explained: “This… is also a horror movie. The protagonist violated the curse of two female ghosts at the same time. Although it sounds a bit funny, it really is a horror movie.”

Everyone was shocked: “This still counts?” But they seemed to understand why Lian Qiao told this story.

The president’s expression was complicated: “But are you sure this is okay? You have changed the plot to something else and actually let Sadako climb out of the elevator… Is this really possible…”

Everyone also questioned, thinking that Lian Qiao’s operation was too bold.

Xu RenDong, who had been silent all the time, suddenly raised his hand and pointed at the door. He said coldly, “Are you all blind?”

Everyone looked in the direction of Xu RenDong’s fingers and, at the same time, they were stunned.

***

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