Chapter 145

"In many places around the world, there is a legend: at the moment of death, a person will see another version of themselves."

Two male hosts sat side-by-side in the backseat of an SUV, speaking in unison to the tens of thousands of viewers on the other side of the camera: "During that livestream three years ago, an outdoor host who came to explore Zanjü Town encountered exactly such an event."

There were three vehicles in total heading to Zanjü Town this time; besides the male and female hosts each sitting in their own SUV, there was also a mobile RV for the accompanying film crew to use, as they intended to camp and spend the night here.

The two male hosts in front of the lens both appeared to be in their twenties or thirties; the one wearing a white windbreaker was 'Du Diao Hanjiang' (Lone Angler on the Cold River), and the one in a blue plaid suit was 'Shenzhen's Number One Deep Affection', known as Brother Deep Affection.

Brother Deep Affection's voice had a slight rasp and vocal fry, making it very suitable for storytelling:

"It was late autumn in 2015, August 12th. A couple arrived at the long-abandoned, uninhabited Zanjü Town. The boy was called A-Qiang, and the girl was called A-Zhen. They were both streamers on Yutai, focusing mainly on outdoor content: cycling, mountain climbing, camping... The couple even ran their own Taobao shop selling outdoor gear, using their own products."

"Both of them were from Zheyu County. That time, in order to 'get something exciting,' A-Zhen and A-Qiang came to the famous ghost town of Zanjü Town, intending to camp there for a night without bringing any food or water, using the fishing gear, tents, and other outdoor equipment sold in their own shop to perform a wilderness survival act."

It wasn't a difficult reason to understand; the eerie stories of Zanjü Town were a great gimmick for driving traffic, and A-Zhen and A-Qiang were just taking advantage of the tense atmosphere of the ghost stories to promote their shop.

"But this time, the promotion took A-Zhen's life."

Du Diao Hanjiang took over the conversation from Brother Deep Affection at the right moment, and a low, soothing BGM began to play in the livestream room.

"At first, everything was normal. A-Qiang parked the car in a long-abandoned parking lot outside the town, and the two of them entered the town with their gear on their backs. The weather that day was excellent, with clear skies and no clouds. The two of them walked around the deserted town holding selfie sticks, exploring the desolate buildings that had long since been emptied of people."

"In its early years, Zanjü Town had many jade carvers and stonemasons. The empty town was filled with unfinished, discarded stone carvings, mostly depicting things like Buddha statues, stone lions, Pixiu, and door gods, locked away in the courtyards and living rooms of various households."

"After the townspeople relocated, the uninhabited houses lacked maintenance and, lacking human vitality, soon fell into decay. Several rainstorms collapsed the long-neglected courtyard walls, leaving rows of statues exposed to the light of day. These statues were either Bodhisattvas, door gods, or Arhats. After years of wind and rain erosion, their faces had become blurred and indistinct, their features muddy and unbearable."

"More than one person who has entered Zanjü Town to explore has claimed that these stone statues seem to be watching them."

"A-Qiang told a story to the livestream camera: Legend has it that the statues in Zanjü Town are sentient. They would secretly walk around and visit each other when it was quiet and no one was around, just like the residents who once lived in the town... But as soon as someone walked into the town, wanting to see how they moved, these stone statues would turn back into motionless, dead objects."

【Urban Legend 1: The stone statues of Zanjü Town only move when no one is watching them.】

"The viewers in the livestream room just took this story as entertainment. Some sent bullet comments urging A-Qiang to hurry up and find a place to camp; they wanted to see the female host 'empty-handed' (fail to catch anything). But as the two walked, a rustling 'footstep' sound suddenly echoed in the livestream room."

"The sound was heavy, as if someone were dragging a millstone across the loess road with a rope."

"The sound was also very short, disappearing rapidly after just a few seconds."

"Many people thought they were hallucinating, or that A-Zhen's recording equipment had malfunctioned. But soon, A-Qiang walked past a T-junction holding the selfie stick, and a mottled, cracked Guanyin Bodhisattva statue covered in moss appeared before everyone in the livestream room."

"It was a full-body statue about 1.3 meters tall. The stone Bodhisattva, hands clasped in a Zen seal, stood straight in the middle of the road, as if someone had moved it there."

"The viewers in the livestream room began to jeer: 'Host, stop acting, let the prop team come out,' 'The host is really going all out for traffic,' 'Hurry up and move it back, otherwise, if the Guanyin Bodhisattva holds a grudge, she won't send a son to A-Zhen's belly'... Such bullet comments began to flood the screen. But only A-Zhen and A-Qiang knew that this was not a prop they had prepared, nor was it some kind of show effect; this stone Bodhisattva had been in the middle of the road from the start."

"A-Zhen asked A-Qiang tremblingly: 'Did you ask someone to move the Bodhisattva to the middle of the road?'"

"A-Qiang shook his head: 'Maybe it's a prank left by people who came here to explore before.'"

He did not believe in the tales of ghosts and gods.

It would have been better if they hadn't spoken; after their conversation, the bullet comments in the livestream room became even more lively, and the number of viewers rose sharply. People started jeering, asking the hosts to go into the courtyards filled with statues to test it out and see if these stone statues really moved when no one was watching.

"A normal person would have chickened out by now; even if they didn't turn around and leave, they at least wouldn't actively provoke the dirty things in the town. But the young couple was blinded by the skyrocketing popularity of the livestream. Under the instigation of the viewers, A-Zhen and A-Qiang walked around the stone Bodhisattva in the middle of the road, then found a collapsed wall and walked into a household's courtyard holding the selfie stick."

"The courtyard was filled with all kinds of stone statues: human figures, animal figures, lions, Pixiu, coiled dragons on pillars, door gods, Arhats, Buddhas, and Bodhisattvas... Human shadows stood in the weed-choked courtyard, bathed in the dim sunset."

"A-Qiang held A-Zhen's hand, holding the selfie stick as they walked around the courtyard. The atmosphere of the bullet comments became even more heated, but nothing happened."

"Under the instigation of the bullet comments, A-Qiang began to play a game of 'Red Light, Green Light' with the stone statues in the courtyard."

"A-Zhen was a bit worried: would she find that a certain statue had really moved quietly after her next turn? But she was also afraid that if nothing happened, the viewers she had worked so hard to attract would feel bored and disperse."

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"The result was as expected: the couple played several rounds of Red Light, Green Light with the stone statues in the courtyard, and nothing happened."

"The heat in the livestream room began to drop. A-Zhen breathed a sigh of relief; it seemed there really wasn't anything unclean in this town, just a prank left by predecessors."

"But just at this moment, a rocket flashed across the livestream room, and someone used a huge tip to pin a message to the top of everyone's mobile phone screen: 【Leave immediately】."

This was a feature of the livestreaming platform at the time: VIP users' bullet comments would be displayed in highlighted fonts, and large tips would be pinned for 30 seconds, with the most expensive rocket pinned for 1 minute. As the rocket flew across the livestream room, more passersby were attracted to the room, and the popularity of A-Zhen and A-Qiang's livestream room instantly climbed into the top 20 of the outdoor category."

"A-Qiang and A-Zhen had never received such a large single tip before, and they were instantly excited: 'Boss, boss, what do you mean by this?'"

The highlighted bullet comment, symbolizing the noble VIP status, floated across the livestream room:

【They have discovered you.】

(End of chapter)