Chapter 58: The Nightmare

Despite their confidence, the crew soon suffered a setback at the hands of the other villagers. They entered the other villagers' yards and were rudely thrown out before they could say anything. Some of them were not as bad, but they did not lend them anything, they did not even want to talk to them, they just kept waving their hands.

"What's wrong with these people." The star of the show, who was also in his first situation, complained at the entrance of the village with the only bag of rice he had borrowed, "Why are they so badly mannered when they're just borrowing something?"

"It's probably because they're so out of the way, they don't watch much TV, and they don't know you." The staff member reassured him, "Otherwise it wouldn't be this kind of attitude." The man in front of him was a popular actor in the entertainment industry, his name was Jiang Buhuan, and he was so popular that he had a huge crowd of fans everywhere he went.

"So what should we do, Huan," said the staff member, "or we should go back and discuss with the director whether we should change the venue."

"Hey, I'd rather not change." Jiang Buhuan said, "Don't they have land? You can show me the land."

The staff nodded.

Then the group went to the ground.

It was just the beginning of spring and most of the spring crops had just been planted, with only tender shoots that were obviously inedible. But there was something special about one of the plots, and Jiang Buhuan even saw fresh tomatoes growing in it, the size of a fist and red in colour, which looked delicious. He said, "How strange, this is the only one with tomatoes in the ground."

The staff member said, "I don't know, is it a greenhouse?" He also found it strange that the family's field was so out of place from the rest of the field that he could see that every vegetable was growing well.

"I'll try one." Jiang Buhuan reached out and picked one, wiped it off with his hands and shoved it into his mouth and took a bite. The tomatoes were so good, even better than many of the special tomatoes, very fruity and sweet and sour, they could be eaten as a fruit, "So delicious."

"Is it good," the staff member wondered.

"It's very tasty." Jiang Buhuan said, "It tastes so good, I've never had such good tomatoes." He said and picked one for the staff too.

The staff member took a bite and then shared Jiang Buhuan's amazed expression that the tomatoes were indeed very tasty.

"Just pick this one." Jiang Buhuan says, "Go and talk to the family later, and we'll pay them back for the tomatoes when the show is over."

"All right." The staff agreed.

So the group picked a bag of tomatoes and some other vegetables and went happily back to their place of residence, unaware of what they had done that was irrevocable.

Lu Qingjiu had thought that they would probably come back for themselves if they couldn't borrow anything, but when he didn't see the programme team that night, he assumed that they had spent some way to talk their way out of the village and didn't care about the matter anymore.

Who knew that evening that Bai Yuehu would come back from the field with a low pressure emanating from his body and a gloomy expression in his eyes?

"What's wrong, Foxie?" Lu Qingjiu, as the head of the family, is naturally concerned about the physical and mental health of the members of the family, "Why are you so unhappy?"

Bai Yuehu said coldly, "I am missing twelve tomatoes, a nest of cabbages, and two cucumbers."

Yin Xun was so intimidated by Bai Yuehu's aura that he had already ducked into the room and was watching the action with just two eyes.

Lu Qingjiu understood instantly and said, "They've gone to your field."

Bai Yuehu said, "Well."

Lu Qingjiu frowned, knowing Bai Yuehu's food-protective nature and feeling that what these people were doing was inappropriate, and said, "I'll have a word with them."

"No need." Bai Yuehu said coldly, "They're about to leave."

Lu Qingjiu: "About to leave"

Bai Yuehu: "Leave or wait to die." He means it.

Lu Qingjiu said, "But..."

Bai Yuehu said, "Well."

Lu Qingjiu said, "They don't look very tasty." Most of the celebrities who came had their hair dyed, would this be poisonous to eat?

Bai Yuehu frowned, seemingly agreeing with Lu Qingjiu, who normally only ate what he liked, such as the fatty manta rays, Cong Long, and the delicious-looking Lu Qingjiu in front of him. The latter, of course, he was a bit reluctant to part with, as it was gone after all.

"And they're all stars, will the police come looking for them if they die, with such a big group of people." Lu Qingjiu thought it over and decided it wasn't quite right to eat them up.

Bai Yuehu said, "Hm." Naturally he had a way of making the group disappear without realising it, but Lu Qingjiu had a point, mainly because the group really didn't look very tasty, and now that his standard of living had risen, he naturally didn't want to eat so much junk food.

I just wonder how Jiang Buhuan, who has positioned himself as a popular lover, would feel if he found himself being called junk food.

"And I feel there's something strange about them coming to Shuifu Village." Lu Qingjiu said. Lu Qingjiu said, "It's as if someone deliberately brought them here."

Bai Yuehu didn't say anything, but Yin, who was standing to the side, did.

He said, "It's strange, they didn't contact the village before they came, but they all looked like they knew the village well, did the Willows talk to them"

Lu Qingjiu felt that things were a little out of place.

"And many people died in that house of the Liu family." Yin Xun said. Yin Xun said, "Four of their brothers, three of them died in it, and then the youngest remaining son and daughter also died in an accident, and we all said it was bad feng shui."

Lu Qingjiu vaguely remembers this incident, when he was still very young, the family's elder brother had an accident, as if he had fallen from the first floor accidentally while repairing the house, which was not high enough to jump straight down and at most break his foot, but the man actually broke his neck.

"It sounds like a ghost story." Lu Qingjiu said.

"Yeah, it's quite scary." Yin Xun The mountain god is also very unimpressive, "Then the Liu family moved out and the house was empty, there wasn't even much of a crowd going in."

In fact, there are quite a lot of old houses like this in Shuifu Village. The young people have gone out to work and most of the people left in Shuifu Village are elderly people, like Lu Qingjiu, who have lived here since they were children and have chosen to return.

Lu Qingjiu said, "Let's hope it's nothing." Although he didn't really like the noisy crew, he didn't hate them so much that he wanted them to get killed. He planned to speak to the group later on sometime and tell them to stop picking Bai Yuehu's vegetables, otherwise he wouldn't be able to stop his family's vixen if she really got angry.

After spring, it doesn't get dark so early, and the sun is still hanging in the sky at seven o'clock, colouring the sky with a brilliant red hue. Insects, which had disappeared for the winter, were again chirping in the grass on the roadside.

Lu Qingjiu took Yin Xun to the Liu residence, where he saw the house brightly lit up, various filming equipment set up in the courtyard, several stars gathered around for dinner, and the crew standing around filming.

Lu Qingjiu knocked on the door and all eyes fell on him.

"Sorry, you can't just come in here." Seeing that it was a villager, someone immediately stepped forward to block it.

Lu Qingjiu also had no intention of going in, he just said, "I didn't intend to come in, I just wanted to ask if you picked the cucumbers and tomatoes in my field."

"Yes, we did pick some." Immediately someone replied, "But we didn't pick much, how much is a catty if you sell it, let's convert it into RMB for you."

"No need." Lu Qingjiu said, "Let's forget it this time, please don't pick it next time."

"Can you eat all the tomatoes in your house," someone said, "and we can't buy them at market price or at a higher price than that."

Lu Qingjiu smiles and is not angry: "The tomatoes are grown for the family to eat. This year, with the income from the hair growth water, he doesn't plan to sell the vegetables, and the extra tomatoes can be used to make tomato sauce and dried tomatoes, so there are plenty of ways to eat them.

"Then sell us some." The man who spoke was clearly very interested in the tomatoes Bai Yuehu grew and was still persuading, "We don't want much."

"No." Lu Qingjiu refused firmly, saying, "The tomatoes are not for sale, so if you want to eat them, please go to town and buy them."

"What are you doing being so arrogant, it's just a few tomatoes," the man saw that Lu Qingjiu was soft and hard and seemed a little annoyed, his tone took on some fire.

"Sorry, I picked them." The star who came to ask for rice during the day showed half a face at the back, none other than Jiang Buhuan, "I didn't know it belonged to your family, I thought I'd count the money for you after the show, since you're not happy about it forget it, how much are these, I'll pay for them first."

Lu Qingjiu said, "No need, these are for you." He raised his hand and pointed to the old building behind them, "Do you know the history of this mansion"

"History." Jiang Buhuan froze.

"Five or six people have died in this house before." Yin Xun said, "They all died in accidents, so it's a murder house.

Jiang Buhuan was a bit stunned: "I don't know, it's all logistical."

"I suggest you move out early." Lu Qingjiu said, "This mansion is really unlucky." With that, he and Yin Xun left, leaving the staff and the stars with delicate faces.

"What are they talking about?" another actress who was doing the show with Jiang Buhuan also came over, her name is Wu Ya, she is a singer from a talent show, she is usually very pampered, if she didn't know Jiang Buhuan was here, she would never have come to the middle of nowhere to do this show. If she hadn't known Jiang Buhuan was coming, she would never have come to the middle of nowhere to do this show.

"He said this was a murder house." Jiang Buhuan spoke up.

"Murder house" Wu Ya's eyes rounded, "Really? They didn't come here to scare us on purpose, did they?"

Jiang Buhuan said, "If it's true, just ask the director."

The two of them quickly questioned the director about Lu Qingjiu's words, but the director was at a loss, saying he had no idea what was going on.

Jiang Buhuan said, "Director Yan, then from whom did you rent this house."

"I haven't seen anyone." The director spoke up, "It was the logistics team who found this house, we hadn't met, and the owner sent the keys straight away."

Jiang Buhuan said, "What about the man who found the house?"

The director said, "It's a temp, he's resigned and left, it was two months ago, what's going on"

"All the villagers looked at them as if they were monsters, no one would let them into the house, and even when they did, the villagers looked at them as if they were ignoring their questions. Even when they did enter the house, the villagers looked as if they were ignoring their questions.

It's as if they are all transparent in Shuifu Village

"Yes, it's strange, apart from that young man just now, no one else in the village is paying any attention to us at all." Jiang Buhuan said, "Let's go somewhere else, and weren't there two policemen who stopped us when we arrived?"

"It's too late for the schedule." The director said, "Don't worry, there are no ghosts in this world, and even if there are, there are so many of us, the ghosts will be scared away."

Wu Ya forced a smile: "Oh, too."

Jiang Buhuan saw that the director could not be persuaded, so he had to give up. They had to stay in the village for a month, and the atmosphere was so strange that they didn't know if they could continue with the rest of the programme.

The group finished their meal, cleaned up briefly and planned to go to bed.

Jiang Buhuan sleeps in one of the master bedrooms on the first floor, off the corridor. The building is very old, but one good thing about it is that there are an exceptional number of rooms, and almost every staff member has a separate room. The room had been cleaned but still smelled unpleasantly of dust.

To the left of Jiang Buhuan is the window through which the courtyard on the ground floor can be seen.

The yard had not been cleared and was covered with overgrown weeds, a task the director had left them for tomorrow, but at the moment the whole house looked horribly deserted.

Jiang Buhuan felt a little uncomfortable and wrapped the bedding around him a little tighter.

Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun returned home and spent the rest of the evening stir-frying a spicy shredded beef dish to comfort the family's still-sulking vixen. The dish is meant to be eaten as a snack and consists of shredded dried chillies and shredded beef stir-fried together. The shredded beef turns out dry, fragrant and chewy after stir-frying. The shredded chillies are the edible kind, not very spicy but particularly fragrant, and topped with a thick layer of white sesame seeds, making it a good dish to serve with wine.

Bai Yuehu seemed to be in a better mood after eating, so he went to bed.

Lu Qingjiu was also a little sleepy, so after washing up and going to bed, he reached out and touched the wooden box on his bedside. His birthday was just a few dozen days away, and he wondered what kind of changes would happen to this wooden box at that time.

Lu Qingjiu's night is the end of the day, but Jiang Buhuan's and the team's night is just the beginning.

As night falls over the village, the last lights of Willow House are extinguished and the usual silence and darkness returns.

Jiang Buhuan slept until midnight, feeling a little cold, the thick bedding on his body did not help at all, the whole blanket was like an ice cellar, freezing people's hearts.

He opened his eyes and saw the dated walls of the house.

This village is very backward, the walls are just rough stone and not even coated.

Jiang Buhuan could not stand it, so he sat up from his bed. He wanted to go and find some more clothes to put on to protect himself from the cold, but when he reached the door, he heard an incredible sound of water, the sound of waves lapping against the sea.

Jiang Buhuan froze, he even thought he was hallucinating, but the voice was so real, so real that he couldn't even fool himself.

With such doubts, Jiang Buhuan slowly moved his feet and went to the window, and when his eyes saw the scene outside through the window, he was frozen in place.

Without the dilapidated corridors and the barren little courtyard, before his eyes, an endless sea appeared.

The waves were choppy, lapping hard against the dark reef, and a thin layer of mist floated above the black water, in which, however, something seemed to be slowly moving through.

Jiang Buhuan looked at the sight and his body began to tremble. He twisted his arm as hard as he could and felt a sharp pain, but this pain did not wake him from this hallucination; the sea was still in front of him and the sound of the waves continued to fill his ear canal.

And above the sea, that which was hidden gradually appeared before Jiang Buhuan's eyes, and he saw a large ship on which stood many people, whose bodies seemed to be very stiff, and whose faces were so shrouded in mist that they could not be seen clearly at all.

Jiang Buhuan felt fear for the first time and his whole body froze in front of the window as he watched the big ship sail into the distance.

There seemed to be something in the middle of the sea, but the fog was too thick and the sky too dark for Jiang Buhuan to see it clearly, and the only thing he could see was the big ship and the waves surging beneath it. The salty, cold sea breeze pounded against his face and Jiang Buhuan heard a high chirping sound coming from the sea. He had never heard such a cry before, but if he had to describe it, it was something like the low call of a blue whale, ethereal and distant, beautiful and at the same time a little frightening.

It must have been a huge animal, maybe a fish, maybe a whale, maybe something else, Jiang Buhuan was thinking, when he saw a huge black figure leap out of the sea. He couldn't even describe how big it was, except that one of its side fins covered the entire sky. The huge ship became like a toy against this huge beast, which leapt up from the black sea and fell heavily again, stirring up waves that swallowed the ship right up, and the people on board disappeared.

Where the hell was he, and what were those sights outside the window? Jiang Buhuan was in a great state of bewilderment as he picked up his watch and saw that on the face, the hour and minute and second hands had stopped at the number 12 and were not moving forward.

The night is silent and the sound of the waves is all around you. The night is noisy again, and in addition to the waves, all sorts of frightening noises can be heard. There are roars, hisses, loud crashes and even the miserable cries of human beings for help. It was as if Jiang Buhuan had entered a different world, with sights he had never seen before and sounds he had never heard before.

The cold made him shrink into a ball, fear sapped most of his strength, and his consciousness faded as he cowered against the wall, his eyes closed in despair.

At that moment, Jiang Buhuan really thought he wouldn't make it through the long night. Until the next day, when a loud knock on the door and shouting woke him from his sleep and he opened his eyes blankly to find himself sleeping on a cold, hard wooden floor.

"Jiang Buhuan, are you all right?" someone called his name from outside the door and knocked on it, "Are you in there?"

Jiang Buhuan got up from the ground with great difficulty, feeling as if his body had fallen apart. The first thing he did when he got up was to look in the direction of the window, but he saw the familiar small courtyard, which was overgrown with wild grass, where the monstrous waves were.

Jiang Buhuan heaved a sigh of relief as he went to the door and opened it, seeing his manager standing in the doorway staring at him with a surprised look on his face: "Are you all right? Why do you look so pale?"

"I'm getting out of here." Jiang Buhuan spoke directly, "I'm not doing this show anymore."

The agent froze, "What do you mean why are you saying that all of a sudden" he responded, "What happened last night"

Jiang Buhuan shook his head and didn't say anything. He couldn't tell the agent that he had had a horrible dream, could he? But was it really a dream, was it really such a real dream? Jiang Buhuan couldn't answer that question, but he didn't want to know the answer either, he just needed to know that he had to leave the village.

The agent is still banging on the door, but Jiang Buhuan has already started to pack his own bags without him.

"Jiang Buhuan, what are you doing? Do you know how much you have to pay for breaking a contract?" the agent thought it was his artist who had lost his temper over the difficult circumstances and was getting a bit angry when he heard a loud noise coming from the ground floor as well.

He looked down and saw that Wu Ya had already packed her bags and was leaving despite the others' advice. Her face was frighteningly white and there were blue circles under her eyes.

"I want to go" Wu Ya's voice was sharp, she had lost her usual sweetness and shyness and had become a little nervous, "I'll die if I stay here.

The agent looked at her and suddenly panicked, there couldn't be a real problem with this village, otherwise why would Jiang Buhuan and Wu Ya look like this after spending the night here?

Wu Ya's attitude was even more determined than Jiang Buhuan's. With his thin body, he managed to break free from the resistance of several people and pushed open the door without looking back, leaving the director standing in the same place with a blue face.

But what he didn't expect was that Wu Ya was just the beginning, as several of the artists on the show said they were quitting the show.

"You have to give me a reason," asked the furious director.

"I had a dream yesterday." One grumpy artiste replied, "I dreamed that all the dead people in the cemetery at the end of the village crawled out."

"You've been watching too many horror movies," the director said, not believing.

"I would like to console myself that way." The artist laughed as if he were crying, "But it's obviously my first time in this village, how could I have known in my dream that there was a cemetery at the end of this village."

The director's face instantly went white.

The author has something to say.

Lu Qingjiu: I had to make them look bad to keep them alive

Shuifu Village Ground Fox.