Since they did not need to spend money on tickets anyway, why would Zhong Jiudao waste money? He simply told these guys to find a way to turn invisible and sneak into the auditorium themselves, then find an empty seat and sit down.

 

“Lao Cai’s Horror Fright” was a film and television commentary content creator who often madeexplanatory videos about classic horror movies. Sometimes he made videos, and sometimes he livestreamed himself watching horror films together with netizens. His videos were famous for his screams. More often than not, before the movie even reached a frightening scene, he had already covered his head and started screaming, greatly reducing the horror of the film. Many timid netizens who still wanted to watch horror movies often watched them in sync with him; listening to him scream made them less afraid themselves.

Everyone also affectionately called him “Lao Cai.” (NT: litt. Old vegetable)

Apart from classic horror films, he also watched some Chinese horror films. At those times, however, he did not scream anymore. Instead, when faced with supposedly frightening scenes, he said things like, “I feel absolutely no fear inside; I even kind of want to laugh.” His commentary was often much more entertaining than the movie itself.

Three days ago, a document concerning reforms to horror and suspense films was released. That same day, Lao Cai specifically made a video looking ahead to the future of Chinese horror and suspense films. At the time, however, his prediction was that it would take six months to a year before some decent Chinese horror and suspense films would appear. He had not expected there to be any good films anytime soon.

Recently, more and more fans had been privately messaging him, asking him to “test the poison” by going to the cinema to watch a newly released horror-suspense film, Fallen Home. Lao Cai also promised during a livestream that he would go see the movie on its very first day of release. Who would have thought that the film only had a midnight screening? His fans all sent him their condolences, gleefully asking whether Lao Cai was all right and whether he should prepare an extra pair of trousers.

“It’s just a Chinese horror movie. What do I have to be afraid of, even if I watch it in the middle of the night?” Lao Cai declared, patting his chest.

He bought a ticket for the Friday premiere, planning to make a comparison video in conjunction with the newly released document and discuss the shortcomings of traditional Chinese horror films.

Lao Cai had assumed he would have the entire auditorium to himself. Who would have thought that attendance for the midnight screening would actually be fairly high? Even though the auditorium was very small, seventy or eighty percent of the seats were occupied.

“Why are so many people not sleeping in the middle of the night and coming to see a movie?” Lao Cai wondered.

There were not only many people, but also more than a dozen girls taking photos together while holding the same celebrity merchandise and movie posters.

Each of them wore a headband featuring a chibi version of Ji Pan. After taking photos together, they happily posted them in Ji Pan’s fan super-topic, while encouraging one another with phrases such as, “For Panpan, we’ll bravely watch a horror movie!”

As a film-and-television commentary content creator, Lao Cai naturally knew who Ji Pan was. However, since he did not follow the activities of celebrity fan communities, he could not understand why so many of her fans had come to this gathering for a movie that had absolutely nothing to do with Ji Pan.

A group gathering to watch a horror movie in the middle of the night—the thought process of these fans was truly incomprehensible.

Those few girls were probably afraid of watching horror movies and had chosen seats in a relatively secluded area. Lao Cai was different. He had bravely bought a ticket in the best viewing area and sat right in the centre of the auditorium.

The audience entered one after another after having their tickets checked. Two men sat to Lao Cai’s left. Both were very tall, and their looks were extraordinarily striking. One of them was a full 1.9 meters tall and had an imposing presence.

The other, slightly shorter man had a friendly-looking face that naturally inspired goodwill. Sitting beside Lao Cai, he quietly asked the 1.9-meter-tall man, “Wasn’t the whole company supposed to come for a group outing? Why is it just the two of us?”

Another group outing? Had gathering in a horror-movie theatre in the middle of the night become the new way of socializing in this modern era?

“Brother Qian didn’t dare come. He said he wouldn’t watch this movie even if it killed him,” the 1.9-meter-tall man said.

These two were naturally Zhong Jiudao and Luo Huai. The movie was so shabby that it did not even have a premiere ceremony. The two members of the main production team could only pay for their own tickets and enter the theatre to watch the film.

Before coming, Zhong Jiudao had invited Qian Duoqun, but how could Qian Duoqun possibly dare to watch the movie in the middle of the night?

He was the only person besides Zhong Jiudao who knew the truth. Yet he did not possess Zhong Jiudao’s formidable ability to crush powerful ghosts. He had not even been able to completely adapt to seeing them with his own eyes. For the sake of his heart, he absolutely, absolutely would not watch it.

“What about everyone else?” Luo Huai asked.

“They… aren’t nearby. They went to other auditoriums for the group outing,” Zhong Jiudao said.

In fact, the ghosts were there too. They loved watching movies so much that they secretly went to theatres in the middle of the night every day, wasting electricity. How could they possibly miss the premiere of a movie they themselves had acted in?

It was just that they did not need to spend money on tickets. Why would Zhong Jiudao waste money? He simply told these guys to find a way to turn invisible and sneak into the auditorium themselves, then find an empty place and sit down.

“Oh, I see,” Luo Huai said, sounding a little disappointed. “I haven’t seen Sister Qi and the others in a long time. I kind of miss them.”

After a while, Luo Huai whispered again, “Director Zhong, my payment for my new TV series has already been deposited into my account. How about I treat everyone tomorrow and rent out the entire theatre so we can watch the movie together? There’s a chance that this movie won’t have any screenings in a couple of days, so we might only have these next few days.”

Those words made both Luo Huai and Zhong Jiudao feel rather heartbroken. Even Zhong Jiudao, who was so frugal, sighed and said, “I’ll pay for it instead. We still have a little money left in the budget, anyway.”

Luo Huai was about to say something else when the opening music began playing. He politely fell silent to avoid disturbing the other people watching the movie.

The film was so obscure that not a single advertiser had placed an advertisement before its screening. The production company was merely the pitifully small Jiudao Film and Television Entertainment, and the production team consisted of only a handful of people. The audience, accustomed to seeing advertisements, trailers for other films, and production-company opening sequences, had not had any time to prepare when the story began.

Although it was a Chinese horror film, Lao Cai was planning to make a commentary video about it, so he watched very attentively. He even had a small notebook with him, intending to note down anything worth criticizing so that it would be easier to organize the script for his video when he got home.

He was watching seriously, but the other audience members were not necessarily doing the same. Several people had come simply for the spectacle. They had never expected anything from the film and had been chatting before the screening. Even after the movie started, they were still playing with their phones. When a handsome young man appeared on screen, Lao Cai even heard someone in the row in front say, “It’s Pang Xinhao! I can make some new reaction images now.”

Lao Cai was somewhat displeased. Even if the movie really was bad, there were other people in the theatre who were watching it seriously. Being so noisy and waving around the bright light from their phones would disturb everyone else.

Luo Huai, sitting beside Lao Cai, was also somewhat unhappy. He was so angry that his cheeks puffed up.

Zhong Jiudao patted Luo Huai’s arm, soothing him.

It was fine. In a moment, the protagonists themselves would teach these people who did not know how to behave properly a lesson.

Since Director Zhong himself was rather unhappy too, they might as well turn a blind eye to what the protagonists did.

One gust of eerie wind after another swept through the auditorium. Those who had been scrolling on their phones suddenly felt ice-cold all over. It was as though a hand had tightly seized their hearts, while their throats felt as if someone were choking them, leaving them unable to speak.

A faint, eerie voice sounded in their ears: “Please watch the movie politely and behave yourselves~”

Coincidentally, at that moment the film showed Qi Wanlian standing on the third floor and quietly looking down at the group of supporting characters. Her gaze seemed to be directed at the four members of the Xiao group, but in reality, she was staring straight at the screen.

There were no special effects. Just one sinister look was enough to make everyone in the theatre draw a sharp breath.

As Qi Wanlian appeared, her character theme began to play. It was a melody Jiang Fen had learned from death itself—quiet, fallen, and trembling, like death itself, an abyss without a bottom.

The music and Qi Wanlian’s brilliant gaze made Lao Cai realize that this might not be a shoddy film after all. Without realizing it, he put down his notebook and leaned his body backward, trying to use a tactical backward lean to ease his nervousness.

Luo Huai also stopped eating his popcorn and focused intently on the film. What came next was the sequence that the ghost actors had filmed separately after he had wrapped!

As the four members of the Xiao group entered the villa, Qi Wanlian lowered the curtains and gracefully walked out of the room.

Shen Leshan stood outside holding a cloak. When he saw Qi Wanlian come out, he raised his hand and draped the cloak over her shoulders.

“I like them. Help me keep them here, all right?” Qi Wanlian gently rested her head against Shen Leshan’s chest.

Shen Leshan clenched his fists. A trace of pain flashed across his face, but in the next instant, his expression became resolute and deeply affectionate. “All right. Whatever you like, I’ll always help you get it.”

Luo Huai watched as the people in the film entered the villa, as though they were stepping into the open mouth of a monstrous beast. Although it was a place where he had lived for two months, through Zhong Jiudao’s visual storytelling, it had somehow been transformed into a demon’s den.

The background music and the inhumanly cold expressions of the people inside the villa made the audience involuntarily adopt the perspective of Xiao Luo and the others. Their hearts tightened.

It was the feeling of knowing that something was wrong with the people in the villa, yet being unable to say exactly what was wrong. A voice inside them told them to run, but their feet could not move.

For the first third of the film, the plot weighed heavily on the audience’s hearts. They realized that this might truly be a horror movie. They put away their playful attitude and understood that the four members of the Xiao group might suffer something terrifying. Under the mounting atmosphere, the audience’s nerves were stretched tight; even the sound of a needle hitting the floor could make them jump.

They had even begun hoping that the people in the villa would hurry up and make their move. This feeling of being suspended between anticipation and uncertainty was simply too frightening!

Yet when Qi Wanlian and the others actually made their move, the audience instead felt as though they were going through life-and-death struggles alongside the actors.

When Xiao Yun was cornered by Fu Yue alone, she cried as she knelt down and begged Fu Yue to spare her, sobbing that she was sorry and that she regretted what she had done. By then, the girls who had come for the group outing were already quietly crying along with Xiao Yun.

“Spare you? Who spared me back then?” Fu Yue reached her hand toward the camera. The next moment, the screen went black. There were no bloody images, and the black screen lasted only ten seconds. Yet accompanying the darkness were sounds that became more and more horrifying the more one thought about them.

The sound of chewing, the sound of liquid flowing, the sound of a palm stirring something sticky, and Xiao Yun’s increasingly feeble pleas for mercy.

Ten seconds later, the picture lit up again. Xiao Yun stood expressionlessly behind Fu Yue, her eyes moving stiffly. Her face was deathly pale, completely drained of colour. The clothes she wore had already changed from modern clothing into an old-fashioned Western-style dress, and a hint of blood could be seen disappearing into the fabric at her neckline.

There had been no bloody imagery, only the simplest possible use of what was left unseen, yet Xiao Yun’s appearance now was still enough to make many people shudder with fear.

The audience watched as the Qi Wanlian dressed in black transformed into an innocent-looking Qi Wanlian dressed in white and walked alongside A-Hao. On the surface, she said that she would help him escape, but in reality, she was leading A-Hao away from Xiao Luo and Xiao Yan, preventing them from reuniting.

The audience knew that White Qi Wanlian was a villain, but A-Hao did not. They were anxious for him and frightened for him the entire time, so anxious that they were almost ready to bang their heads against the wall.

Yet they could not even bring themselves to call A-Hao stupid, because White Qi Wanlian acted far too innocent. If they had not known beforehand that she and Black Qi Wanlian were the same person, the audience would have believed that she was the saviour of the four-person group.

But that damned director had deliberately let the audience know in advance, so there was no way for them to relax. They had no idea when White Qi Wanlian would attack, and the suspense was practically driving them crazy.

Some people even began to speculate, because of White Qi Wanlian’s superb performance, that she might be the kind side of Black Qi Wanlian and had specifically come to save the protagonists. The director’s storytelling was also gradually guiding the audience toward this interpretation.

When White Qi Wanlian finally managed, after great difficulty, to lead A-Hao out of the villa, the audience was almost convinced that she was a good ghost. Then the plot suddenly took a sharp turn. A-Hao became a dried corpse and died, while White Qi Wanlian’s appearance became even more alluring and beautiful.

What a ruthless beauty with the bones of a white skeleton—she had actually deceived even the audience who knew the truth!

At this point, the only member of the protagonist group left was Xiao Luo, who had risked his life to save Xiao Yan and been captured by Shen Leshan. In the story, Xiao Luo was the most foolish and clueless one. The audience had already given up hope. They continued watching with the absolute conviction that this person was definitely going to die.

However, just as Shen Leshan’s knife descended toward Xiao Luo’s cheek, an image suddenly flashed through his mind.

It was a beautiful and kind woman from the old society. She was like a white lotus that emerged from the mud yet remained unstained, a rare source of goodness in a chaotic era.

Shen Leshan loved her deeply, yet he could only watch helplessly as she was forcibly taken and made the concubine of a wealthy young playboy. She told Shen Leshan that she was doing very well and asked him not to come looking for her anymore.

He believed her. He actually thought that she was living well, so he left that city and went far away to make a living.

Several years later, he had earned some money. But when he returned to his hometown, the news he heard was that she had died.

The man who had married her had become addicted to drugs. After squandering the family fortune, he sold her like a piece of merchandise. That frail woman was forced to receive customers and beaten, and she unfortunately became pregnant.

Someone forced a bowl of medicine down her throat to make her abort the pregnancy. She bled heavily that day and never woke up again.

In the end, all that was left for her was a straw mat and the words, “How unlucky.”

Shen Leshan only had time to retrieve the corpse, so thin that it was almost unrecognizable. He held the beautiful woman who had borne the world’s sins and wept bitterly.

He had to bring her back to life. She could not die like this.

Shen Leshan found her husband, who was still frequenting the opium den. He brought the man into her mourning hall and drew the most vicious formation recorded in an ancient book.

Using his own skin as the catalyst, Shen Leshan peeled the flesh from his body inch by inch with his own hands, while simultaneously killing the playboy with a single stroke of his knife and letting the blood flow into the formation.

The corpse that had already been dead miraculously recovered. Qi Wanlian, her complexion rosy and radiant, sat up from the coffin, and Shen Leshan immediately embraced her.

However, when this woman awakened once more, after bearing the deepest sins of the world, she had already fallen into a demon.

She was obsessed with maintaining her youthful, beautiful appearance, and equally obsessed with taking in unfortunate women as her children. Shen Leshan brought her to this villa, where they lived alongside countless souls from the chaotic era. They called this place Fallen Home.

As his thoughts returned, Shen Leshan looked at Xiao Luo’s innocent face, and the hand holding the knife began to tremble slightly.

At the same time, on the other side of the villa, Qi Wanlian was absorbing A-Hao’s life force. Because Shen Leshan had used himself as the catalyst to awaken Qi Wanlian back then, whenever Qi Wanlian cast a spell, he would once again suffer the agony of having his flesh peeled away.

Shen Leshan dropped the knife. His entire body convulsed in pain. He shoved Xiao Luo off the bed and shouted, “Get out!”

This was their Fallen Home, where they took in the sins of the world, but they alone would not keep anyone who was innocent and kind.

With the help of the ghosts of several of his companions, Xiao Luo escaped the villa. As he ran out the door, Qi Wanlian stood quietly inside the villa, watching him. The clothes on her body alternated between white and black, as though her heart were undergoing an intense struggle.

When she could no longer restrain herself and reached a hand toward Xiao Luo, she suddenly remembered how Xiao Luo had been dragged away by Shen Leshan while trying to save Xiao Yan. Her hand immediately fell back down.

And so Xiao Luo escaped with his life, leaving behind the only glimmer of light and hope in the entire film.

Because he had been willing to sacrifice himself to save others, the souls of those people were willing to risk their own lives to help him escape. Meanwhile, the people who had pushed responsibility onto one another in the villa earlier, those who had abandoned their kindness when faced with danger, remained with Qi Wanlian in Fallen Home forever.

The movie ended. The ending theme began to play, the screen went black, and the credits appeared.

Yet not a single person in the auditorium left. They quietly remained in their seats, savouring the film they had just watched, which had pushed the excitement to its absolute limit, as well as that profound devotion at the end that had remained unchanged for decades.

It was not until the lights in the auditorium came on and a cleaner walked in carrying a trash bin that everyone finally came back to their senses and realized that the movie was over.

Lao Cai walked out of the auditorium in a daze. Looking at the completely blank notebook in his hand, he finally realized that he had been so absorbed in the movie that he had not written a single note.

No, he had to watch it again. He would write a script of more than ten thousand words and make a video properly praising this movie.

Lao Cai rushed to the ticket counter to buy another ticket, only to discover that the cinema had already closed.

He took out his phone and was about to book the earliest screening for tomorrow online. But when he opened the ticketing app, he saw that the next screening was not until midnight tomorrow!

Only one screening a day? When would Chinese horror films ever be able to stand on their own feet? No, he was going home to stay up all night making a video and protest the cinema’s screening schedule!

 

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The author has something to say:

Qian Duoqun: “You expect me to watch a movie? Dream on!”

Eyeball Ghost: “If you’re afraid, I can dig out your eyes and let your eyes watch it for you. Once it’s over, I’ll put them back in. After that, your eyes can be just like mine—take them out and use them whenever you want.”

Qian Duoqun: “…What the hell do you mean, ‘take them out and use them whenever you want’!”

 

Translator : DarNan