Chapter 4: The Defunct Factory

Clicking on the post, the other party got straight to the point:

"Brothers, I am from Fengmen Town. I want to tell everyone that the rumors online are true. The site of the old Second Factory is indeed sinister. As soon as it gets dark, the older generation all avoids walking by there. The year before last, a paranormal blogger who didn't believe in evil snuck over the wall at night. Guess what happened? When he was found the next day, the person had been scared silly. He hugged a crooked-neck tree and wouldn't let go, biting anyone who came near. It took several people to pull him off. He lay in the hospital for several days, and after he woke up, he never livestreamed again. I heard he now practices both Buddhism and Daoism, and even prays to Jesus!"

"OP, don't try to trick me into believing in Jesus. I am a chosen man. The teacher said I will join the team next month."

"The team member above, step back. I, a group member, haven't even spoken yet. Materialists fear nothing!"

"Brothers who often kill people, those who know, know. The OP is talking pure nonsense."

Although it was an old post, it was still lively inside, filled with the ruthless criticism of modern materialists toward all sorts of monsters and demons. Yang Xiao continued to read down.

"By the way, the weirdest thing is that after the blogger woke up, he said he had filmed for a whole night. He was certain he had filmed something, but after the police checked his camera, they found that nothing had been filmed inside!"

"The footage was almost entirely black. You could only vaguely make out the outlines of some trees and the surrounding ruins. Judging by the shooting angle, that blogger was just walking in circles in the same spot. The video was shaking violently. Have you ever watched a found-footage film? It was just that kind of feeling."

"However, although nothing was filmed, when the video volume was turned up, a problem was discovered in the background audio. If you listen carefully, you can faintly hear bursts of singing—a woman's singing, and the laughter of a small child."

"Don't disbelieve me; everything I said is true. We welcome you to come to the town for tourism, but definitely do not go to the old Second Factory site. That blogger last time was considered to have a hard fate. It is said that in the past, there were also young people in town who didn't believe in evil and wanted to go into the abandoned factory to steal things to sell. There were three of them in total. In the middle of the night, two went in, and the remaining one stood guard at the foot of the wall outside. As a result, the two who went in simply disappeared, and they haven't been found to this day."

"Forget it, since I've said this much, I might as well say a bit more. But just listen and don't go out spreading it around. This matter involves quite a lot, and I don't want to invite trouble."

"It's like this: many years ago, a strange incident happened in the factory, and quite a few people died. At the time, it caused panic, and it was only after that incident that the factory was abandoned."

"I also heard this from my grandfather. It was back in the last century. A group of people came to the factory. These people were from the city. They were made to work. One night, while working, one person suddenly threw down their tools, pinched their fingers into a pose, and actually started singing opera lyrics in a high-pitched voice."

"It is said the singing was particularly miserable. This terrified everyone. The person singing was a man, but the singing voice was clearly a woman's, and this person was an engineering teacher—dull and wooden by nature, rarely even speaking, and he didn't understand opera at all."

"My grandfather didn't say what happened next; I think he probably didn't know either. However, in the second half of that same night, a great fire broke out at the Second Factory. The fire was extremely fierce and burned dozens of people to death, including the guards inside."

"My grandfather lived nearby. When the fire started, he led the charge to rush in and put it out. In the fire, he saw a scene he would never forget for the rest of his life: in the flames, a man with disheveled hair was holding a torch and posing on a stage, singing opera. That voice and posture were clearly those of a woman, and the rest of the people in the factory were just squatting quietly below, listening. Even when the fire burned onto their bodies, they didn't react. Some people's flesh and skin were already burned to a pulp."

"The fire was too big; it was impossible to get close. Not a single person was saved. My grandfather blamed himself for quite a while because of this, but later he met a barefoot monk who had come to beg for food. After the monk said a few words to my grandfather, he was relieved."

"After hearing what my grandfather told him, the monk put his hands together, softly chanted a Buddhist name, and then explained that those people had all been bewitched by ghosts and could not be saved. If my grandfather had rushed in that night, he would only have lost his own life."

"Later, I heard that the monk went to find the people in charge of the town. I don't know how they discussed it in the end, but in that era, some things were not easy to put on the table. Some say the monk buried a Buddha statue he carried with him at the foot of the Second Factory's wall to suppress the resentment of the fierce ghosts. Others say the monk chanted scriptures for a whole night and burned a lot of incense and paper money, reaching some kind of agreement with the fierce ghosts."

"Anyway, everyone says something different, but there is one thing I can be sure is true: since then, no one has ever touched the old Second Factory site. The main gate was also sealed. That piece of land is in a good location, but it hasn't been developed for decades; it just sits there abandoned."

The OP's words ended here. The rest were all analyses from netizens, saying all sorts of things. Of course, there were also some people who didn't believe in these things at all, thinking these were all paranormal stories made up by the OP to get attention.

But the impact this post had on Yang Xiao was enormous. Fengmen Town, Ghost Opera, a woman—these three points all matched his own encounter.

And that Script titled Fengmen Ghost Opera was sent precisely from the site of the old Flour Factory where the paranormal incident occurred.

Combining the story in the post with his own various encounters, Yang Xiao concluded that the Flour Factory was the source of the paranormal incident.

Sitting and waiting for death was not Yang Xiao's character. Moreover, based on his own understanding, once a paranormal incident begins to appear, it will not stop unless the root of the problem is solved. Therefore, he decided to go to Fengmen Town in person.

He planned to set off early tomorrow morning. Such matters are better done early than late; the faster, the better. And now, what he needed to do was collect as much information about the Flour Factory as possible, preferably contacting someone in the know. He sent a private message to the OP and simultaneously left a comment under the OP's post, emphasizing that there was a reward.

After doing this, he waited while browsing other posts related to the paranormal incident in Fengmen Town. Although the accounts were varied, the ultimate finger of blame pointed without exception to the Flour Factory that had been abandoned decades ago.

The night gradually deepened, and the street outside quieted down. Long-term mental tension made Yang Xiao unable to hold on any longer. He leaned back against the chair and let out a slow breath, found the avatar of the OP who had started the post, and clicked into it.

After the double-click, the page did not react at all. He double-clicked again, and the screen went dark. This old computer had actually shut down directly.

Through the reflection on the screen, Yang Xiao saw a person standing on the sofa behind him.