Chapter 3: Haunted Hill House (3)
In the living room, the old butler explained to everyone with an apology that because a guest encountered an unexpected situation when visiting the kitchen, the dishes that were about to be prepared had to be prepared again, so the dinner was postponed to seven o'clock.
After hearing this, and noticing where Yan Shixun came from, the guest couldn't help but look at him with a reproachful look.
Climbing the mountain and the cold weather consumed a lot of the guests’ energy. The original plan was to take a hot bath and rest for a while before starting the dinner.
As a result, because of Yan Shixun, they had to wait a little longer. This made several guests who originally did not feel hungry start to feel hungry because of the waiting, and their eyes looked even worse at Yan Shixun.
But fortunately, they remembered that it was a live broadcast and didn't say much.
Yan Shixun took in everyone's reactions and rolled his eyes lazily.
Seeing that the situation was not going well, the tour guide immediately modified the plan after discussing with the director team. He told everyone that they could do whatever they wanted after taking a bath, visit the villa, or take photos in the nearby garden and forest. This made the guests smile again.
Because each guest carries a small follow-up camera, they will have their own exclusive split screen below the program team's live broadcast main page, making it convenient for viewers who like a certain guest to subscribe to that guest's live broadcast screen. The number of subscriptions is also counted towards the guest's popularity value, and will become one of the bases for popularity rankings after each attraction ends.
Therefore, the guests were happy to have free time to show their charm in front of their own small cameras and attract popularity.
After all, everyone is involved in the live broadcast of the program team, and the audience's attention is shared among everyone. How can it be better than an exclusive split screen?
The guests laughed and joked in front of the camera, having a great time, and then returned to their rooms to take a hot bath to get rid of the cold.
Yan Shixun, who had remained silent all the time, glanced around the living room and found that the old butler had disappeared silently at some point. He then opened the door of his room and walked in.
As the tour guide said, the condition of this room next to the stairs on the second floor is not very good.
Even though the room has all the necessary features and modern decoration, the decoration details are obviously different from the luxurious style of a hundred years ago that the villa has tried hard to preserve, and it is still possible to see the simplicity of the room before the renovation.
Not only is the area of the room much smaller than the other rooms, but the ceiling of the inner part of the room is also shaped like a staircase, right below the stairs leading to the third floor. There are no beautiful carvings around the windows and on the walls.
It is obvious that in the home of the owner of this villa a hundred years ago, the person living in this room should have been a child's tutor or wet nurse.
After looking around the room, Yan Shixun made a judgment in his mind.
Because the old housekeeper mentioned the two things "hot bath" and "dinner party", Yan Shixun became alert after investigating the kitchen, so his first step was to go to the bathroom.
Perhaps the current owner of the villa likes the style from a hundred years ago very much, so he only added the most basic modern facilities, and the rest of the wall tiles and other items from that time were preserved.
Yan Shixun bent down and carefully checked the inside and outside of the bathtub, but found nothing.
But just as he stood up, a white figure suddenly flashed in the mirror on the sink facing him.
When Yan Shixun looked again, there was nothing. The mirror only reflected the bedroom outside the bathroom behind him, with white curtains fluttering in the wind from the open window.
The cool wind from the forest after the rain quickly took away the already low temperature in the room, making people feel cold all over. The white curtains were blown by the wind, making a whirring sound, which in the quiet room sounded as clear as the whirring sound coming from an old man's throat.
But Yan Shixun remembered clearly that when he came in, the window of the room was closed. And he did not go to the window, let alone open it.
Yan Shixun frowned, turned his head and saw that the bathroom door was facing the bed in the bedroom.
From his angle, it looked like someone was silently looking through the mirror at the person sleeping in the bed.
Yan Shixun stood there for a few seconds, then walked over expressionlessly and closed the window again.
The white curtains that were fluttering all over the room also became quiet and fell back to their original places.
His eyes subconsciously followed the trajectory of the falling curtains, and then his eyes focused, and suddenly he discovered something, and he moved closer to the windowsill to take a look.
“Bang, bang, bang!”
The sudden knock on the door startled Yan Shixun even though he was highly focused.
"Brother Yan, have you started taking a shower? I'm a little sick." Director Zhang Wubing's voice sounded outside the door.
Yan Shixun stood up, looked at the scratches left on the edge of the stone windowsill, then slowly walked to the door with his long legs. After confirming the identity of the person outside, he opened the door with a stern look.
"Huh? Brother Yan, look at your expression, are you about to take off your clothes, haha." Zhang Wubing looked at Yan Shixun strangely. He wanted to make a few heartless jokes, but under the pressure of Yan Shixun's eyes, his laughter gradually became awkward.
Because all the guests were washing and getting ready, the live camera turned to the mountain and forest scenery of Guishan. It was up to the guests to decide whether to turn on each split screen.
So when Yan Shixun's split-screen camera was turned off and the live broadcast camera could not capture him, Zhang Wubing took the opportunity to find Yan Shixun.
"Well, well, I just have something I want to ask Brother Yan."
Zhang Wubing touched his nose and asked with a worried look on his face: "Can you help me see if my show can be popular? Before I left, I made a bet with my old man that if I failed this time, I would honestly give up my dream and become a rich third-generation who only eats and waits for death. That would be terrible."
Yan Shixun: “…”
He looked at Zhang Wubing, who didn't think there was anything wrong with what he said, and asked, "Do you know there's a word called Versailles?"
Zhang Wubing was bewildered: "Ah?"
"You should be thankful that this isn't a live broadcast, or else you'd be scolded to death." Yan Shixun sneered, "Besides, I don't tell fortunes, I only catch ghosts, don't you know that after all these years?"
"and……"
Yan Shixun's lips moved, but he didn't continue speaking.
Although he helped people catch ghosts and exorcise demons, he never told fortunes or looked at feng shui for people. But in fact, when he received Zhang Wubing's invitation, he had told himself a fortune to see if he should go on this trip.
However, the hexagram is blank.
Apart from telling him that coming to participate in Zhang Wubing's variety show was something he had to go through, no matter how many times he asked for divination, he would not be able to get any more information.
So for Yan Shixun, this journey was like being in a wilderness where the signal was blocked. He could not get any help through the familiar means as before.
Yan Shixun thought about the strange phenomenon that had started when he got off the car, and after a while, he asked Zhang Wubing, "Did you book the villa?"
"No." Zhang Wubing said truthfully: "The assistant director and the assistant said that the scenery here is good and the villa environment is also good. I am only responsible for paying the money."
Yan Shixun: “…”
The way he looked at Zhang Wubing was as if he was looking at a silly fat sheep.
"Have you ever considered the possibility that someone in the director's team might have teamed up to defraud you of your money?"
Zhang Wubing: “!”
Yan Shixun looked at his stupid appearance and said speechlessly: "Forget it, since we are here now, we can't leave. I guess we can't get out even if we go down the mountain now... so let's just leave it like this."
Yan Shixun's unusual attitude finally made Zhang Wubing, who had been plagued by ghosts for years due to physical problems, react. Then he remembered that when they were going up the mountain, Yan Shixun also asked him if he wanted to add "the money for his usual work."
He swallowed and asked tremblingly, "Brother Yan, are you saying there is one here, yes?"
"Yeah." Yan Shixun glanced over and stopped him from continuing speaking. He raised a slender finger in front of his lips and made a "silence" gesture.
"Don't mention any related words, don't stimulate them." He put on a fake business smile: "Can you do it?"
Zhang Wubing nodded frantically.
It seemed that Yan Shixun had closed the window in a hurry and not closed it tightly. When the room became quiet, he could hear the sound coming from outside.
Yan Shixun walked to the window and looked down, and saw a woman in a long dress singing in the villa garden opposite his room.
It was Bai Shuang, one of the two female guests, who was singing in front of her own live broadcast split screen, smiling and interacting from time to time, trying to retain more viewers.
Her singing voice was sweet, but as it echoed in the villa and the forest, it inexplicably carried a chilly air.
Yan Shixun's eyes turned cold instantly.
"Bai Shuang is very smart. She cleaned up early and took advantage of the fact that no one opened the split-screen camera. She actually gained a few subscriptions and is almost on par with the program team."
Zhang Wubing took the tablet to check the real-time data, but he was paying attention to another thing. The popularity of the guest was a good thing for him, and it also temporarily diluted the fear that Yan Shixun had just scared him, and made him laugh again.
Yan Shixun didn't say anything else. He just glanced at the scratches on the windowsill and continued the work he had not finished.
Unlike the knife marks on the dining table, the marks on the windowsill were more like those made by long fingernails or a knife. It seemed that because this room was too simple before, the windowsill was also repaired during the renovation, so Yan Shixun could not find out more.
Yan Shixun frowned and said to Zhang Wubing, "Don't just be silly and happy. Pay more attention and let others pay more attention."
Zhang Wubing was still grinning as he watched the live show's subscription numbers continue to rise. He agreed immediately: "Don't worry, I'm very reliable."
…
Next to the French window on the first floor facing the garden, an old figure stood quietly, seeming to blend into the darkness in the corner.
Suddenly, he seemed to hear something and looked up at the ceiling above his head.
He grinned.
·
The dinner started on time at seven o'clock.
Facing the live camera, the beautifully dressed guests were laughing and joking, trying their best to create the atmosphere of the show.
Some people also enthusiastically shared their experiences of exploring the villa, which aroused the interest of people around them.
When others saw that person gained hundreds of subscriptions by exploring the villa in split screen and introducing the luxurious and classical furniture, they couldn't help but exclaimed and said that they would also go explore the villa after dinner.
When the tour guide heard this, he suggested that they explore the villa at night, hoping that they could find some things from a hundred years ago.
Yan Shixun, who was forgotten in the corner and eating in silence, paused with the spoon in his hand.
He snorted and laughed, "Didn't you say we were going to play games in the living room after dinner? Then have fun and don't wander around."
"If you get lost, there's no way to save you."
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