Chapter 2: We Are Watching You

"Is it... a ghost?"

The manic rain beat against the cold window, and the hearts of the two were like the flames in the lamp, swaying uncertainly.

"I... I don’t know." The woman swallowed, "Should we notify the Law Enforcers?"

"Are you crazy!"

Hearing the words "Law Enforcers," the terrified man finally regained some sanity,

"Once the Law Enforcers intervene, what we did will definitely be exposed... Absolutely not!"

"Then... what about him?"

The woman paused for a moment, "Do you think... it couldn’t be that a 'Calamity' has possessed A-Ling’s corpse, could it?"

The two looked at the closed bedroom door at the same time and fell silent again.

A long time later, the man seemed to have made up his mind, took a black raincoat from the door, and pushed the door open to go out.

"Where are you going?"

"Go to the place where we buried the body!"

"Now? What for?"

"Verification." Rainwater slid down the man's pale face as he spoke in a hoarse voice, "Whatever is in that room right now... it absolutely cannot be A-Ling! I need to see his corpse with my own eyes."

"I'm going with you!"

No one wanted to go out in such a thunderstorm, but compared to being alone in the bedroom with that sleeping thing—whatever it was—the woman preferred the former.

In the heavy rain, two figures in raincoats hurried away.

……

The bedroom.

Chen Ling, already fast asleep, felt his eyelashes tremble slightly, as if he were having a nightmare.

In his dream, his consciousness kept sinking, as if falling into a bottomless abyss. After an unknown amount of time, he seemed to land on a hard surface, finally steadying himself.

Clang—clang—clang—clang—

A dull mechanical sound rang out, and immediately after, a beam of light pierced the darkness like a sword, converging on a figure dressed in red.

Chen Ling instinctively covered his eyes with his hand.

"Where... is this?"

Chen Ling's chaotic consciousness gradually cleared. Once he adapted to the intense light, he looked around in a daze.

Within the beam of light, he could only see the vermilion opera robe on his body, the old wooden floor beneath his feet, and the black curtain behind him, also partially illuminated by the light... Beyond the beam lay endless unknown and darkness.

Seeing this scene, Chen Ling was suddenly stunned.

As if realizing something, he squinted up at the top; the beam of light illuminating him came from spotlights fixed to a steel frame.

"A stage?"

As a working director at a theater, Chen Ling was more than familiar with stages. In his previous life, until the moment he was crushed to death by a light, he had been on stage pondering positioning. His knowledge and understanding of the stage even surpassed that of the actors.

So, his first reaction was that he had transmigrated back.

No...

The stage lighting at the theater he worked at in his previous life was better than this, the curtains weren't black, and the floor wasn't this kind of dilapidated wood.

So, was he dreaming?

Chen Ling tentatively took a step, and the old floorboards let out a harsh creak. As his figure was about to step out of the circle of light, another beam followed his footsteps, chasing him into the darkness.

"A follow spot?" Chen Ling's heart skipped a beat, and he instinctively shouted,

"Who's there?!"

For these lights to follow him, it was highly likely they were being manually operated, unless this place also used an automated follow-spot system—though given the age of this stage, that possibility was near zero.

"Who's there..."

"Who's there..."

"There..."

Chen Ling's voice echoed in the darkness, becoming increasingly eerie and ominous.

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

In stage design, this position is usually for a teleprompter to prevent actors or hosts from forgetting their lines, but on the screen right now was a string of red characters—

[Audience Expectation: 29%]

In the bottom left corner of the screen, there was some small text:

"Please do not let the audience's expectation drop below 20%, otherwise the theater cannot guarantee the actor's personal safety."

Seeing this screen, Chen Ling was somewhat bewildered...

Audience? Where would an audience come from?

Clang—clang—clang—

The familiar sound of lights turning on rang out again!

The darkness in front of the stage receded like a tide, and hundreds of wooden chairs spread out into the distance in a tiered formation, surrounding the front of the stage, packed densely together.

The auditorium.

These three words appeared in Chen Ling's mind.

It was reasonable for an auditorium to appear where there was a stage. What truly made Chen Ling's scalp tingle wasn't that, but rather that, without him noticing...

These seats were already filled with "audience members."

They were humanoid creatures shrouded in shadows. Even with the lights on, Chen Ling still couldn't see their features clearly, as if they were incarnations of the abyss.

The only exception was their eyes.

Countless scarlet pupils opened in the dimness. They sat in their respective wooden chairs, watching Chen Ling on stage, like a pack of cats cornering a mouse, their gazes playful and greedy.

Chen Ling, being stared at by them, felt a chill run down the back of his neck. He didn't know what these "audience members" were, but they were definitely not human!

Chen Ling forced himself to stop looking at those creepy eyes and turned to run toward the other end of the stage.

Logically speaking, stage exits are on both sides; as long as he left the stage, he should be able to temporarily escape those ghost things!

The follow spot locked onto the running red-clad figure as he dashed straight to the edge of the stage, only to be met by a bare, solid wall.

Chen Ling froze.

Refusing to believe it, he ran to the other side of the stage, but it was the same.

This stage... had no exit at all.

In the dim auditorium, the dense mass of scarlet pupils followed his frantic movements, shifting constantly, like a group of "audience members" immersed in a brilliant performance, focused and intense.

And the protagonist of this performance was none other than Chen Ling in his red robes on stage.

At the same time, the characters on the screen in the center of the stage flickered... the audience expectation value jumped from 29% to 30%.

Damn it, what kind of fucked-up nightmare is this!

Chen Ling pinched himself hard, trying to wake up from the dream, but other than feeling a familiar sting of pain, there was no sign of waking up.

[Intermission over, please continue the performance.]

Another line of text popped up on the screen, followed immediately by a crisp bell ringing from above the stage!

Ding-a-ling—

Before Chen Ling could react, the scene before his eyes shattered into pieces, and his consciousness blurred rapidly...

Before he lost consciousness, he vaguely saw the massive, mysterious black curtain behind him slowly pulling open!

……

Bang!

Chen Ling sat up abruptly in bed!

The sheets were soaked with cold sweat, his chest heaved violently, and his eyes were filled with terror.

He swallowed hard and looked around, confirming he was in his own room and not on that godforsaken stage, finally relaxing.

"Was it a dream... that dream was way too bizarre."

He calmed his mood, got up, and walked to the living room.

The rain outside had mostly stopped, but the sky remained dim. Chen Ling called out for his parents a few times, but there was no answer; the whole house was deathly quiet.

"Left for work so early?" Chen Ling muttered to himself.

Chen Ling rubbed his empty stomach. Last night's nightmare seemed to have drained too much of his energy, and he felt lightheaded as he walked. With no other choice, he headed into the kitchen to find something to eat.

Just as he stepped inside, he tripped over something. Looking down,

It was the remains of a water bucket, as if it had been gnawed on by a wild beast.

What happened to this bucket? Did it freeze and crack in the cold?

Chen Ling couldn't remember what happened last night at all. He muttered suspiciously to himself, stood the bucket up in the corner, and turned to grab a rag to wipe up the water spilled on the floor.

He had just crouched down when he froze in place.

He saw the water stains on the floor beginning to slide on their own, as if an invisible figure were crouching opposite him, dipping their fingertips into the water and writing something on the ground.

The next moment, the transparent water stains visibly turned blood-red, and a twisted, eerie string of text took shape before Chen Ling.

—[We are watching you].