When he whipped his head around, Huang Hu discovered there was nobody behind him at all.
"That's strange." He craned his neck backward as far as it would go. He could see a small patch of skin on the back of his neck had turned a bruised purple-blue, as though some kind of insect had bitten him.
"What is that?" Just as he raised his phone to snap a photo of the back of his neck, the phone in his palm suddenly vibrated.
"Damn it — why call now of all times?" Huang Hu glanced at the caller ID. It was Li Xu.
He took a few steps to the side, making sure the phone that was livestreaming inside the room couldn't pick him up, then answered.
The moment his finger touched the answer button, Li Xu's strange voice came through the speaker: "Huang Hu, something's very wrong with this haunted house. The actors are off — all of them!"
"Get over here right now! I've got over a hundred thousand people watching on my end, and if you screw this up for me, I won't let you off when we get out!" Huang Hu kept his voice low, his expression dark and gloomy — completely different from the persona he put on in front of the camera.
"Stop streaming and get out first. Listen to me!" Li Xu's voice sounded nothing unusual, just his tone was somewhat off.
"Do you have any idea how much the company poured into this livestream? I started building hype a whole week ago. All my fans have been looking forward to this — I was counting on this stream to top the platform charts, and now you're telling me to leave?" Huang Hu's voice sounded like it was being squeezed through clenched teeth. "If this is about the payment and you're trying to sabotage me on purpose, fine, you win. Just play along with the script as we planned, and I'll pay you double when we get out."
"It's not about the money — this haunted house is different from the others!" Static crackled through the line, and Li Xu's voice became distorted. "This place might actually be haunted!"
The call was still connected — the screen showed the other party hadn't hung up — but Huang Hu could no longer hear Li Xu's voice, only a piercing hiss of static.
"Signal jammed?" Huang Hu hung up immediately and opened the door to check the phone that was livestreaming. More worried about his stream than Li Xu, he peered inside.
"Where'd he go? He's been gone forever. Did the ghost grab the streamer?"
"You play with fire long enough, you're gonna get burned. Looks like he kicked an iron plate this time. I've been to this haunted house — you can't even imagine how terrifying it is. Back when we went, there were seven big guys. Only two of us walked out standing."
"You're full of it."
"What you lot think of as terrifying wouldn't even count as preschool education here. Have you ever seen a haunted house that provides wheelchairs for visitors? One that has a VIP ward set up in a hospital? One where every single employee is trained in first aid? I have — and I experienced it firsthand. It was intense!"
Danmaku comments scrolled across the screen at breakneck speed. Seeing that the stream hadn't been interrupted, Huang Hu let out a breath of relief. He forced a strained smile onto his face. "I just stepped out to check. The white rice on the ground has been disturbed — someone walked past the door while we were inside."
Li Xu had left on his own, abandoning him here alone. He could no longer stick to the original script.
Huang Hu glanced at the screen, scratching his neck from time to time. Suppressing the irritation welling up inside him, he adopted an exaggeratedly nervous tone: "I know most of you probably think I'm lying, or that I've been deceiving you this whole time. But that's not the case. Ever since I entered this haunted house, I've felt inexplicably uneasy — like someone's been following me..."
He was stalling, scrambling for a way to talk his way out of it. But what he hadn't expected was for the number of danmaku comments on his phone screen to suddenly explode.
In an instant, the page froze under the sheer volume of comments. It was something he had never experienced before.
"What's going on?" Standing in place, Huang Hu refreshed the page several times before the comments returned to normal. But with so many people typing at once, the livestream was still lagging.
"Turn around!"
"Holy crap! You scared the hell out of me!"
"There's a face in the window! Look behind you, streamer!"
"Outside the door — he's right outside the door!"
"Oh my god! He's coming! He's really coming!"
The entire screen was flooded with comments like these, to the point where they obscured Huang Hu himself. This level of virality was something even he had never encountered. His first instinct wasn't to look behind him, but to check the stream's viewer count.
In just a few short minutes, the viewer count had already blown past three hundred and fifty thousand — and it was still climbing at a terrifying pace.
"Seven hundred thousand and you top the platform's hourly trending chart. At this rate, it'll be a piece of cake." Huang Hu still hadn't turned around. After his offer of double payment, Li Xu had finally come through.
Everything was under control, though he still needed to put on the right expression.
Staring at the flood of comments, Huang Hu's mouth twitched unnaturally, as though he'd been scared witless. "Something really appeared? You guys better not be messing with me! My great-grandfather strictly forbade anyone in the family from opening the gates to the underworld — this is a serious matter!"
There were so many comments. His viewership numbers were completely genuine. Because haunted house interiors were kept secret, very few people livestreamed from them. But Huang Hu wasn't just streaming from any haunted house — he'd chosen the most famous one on the internet.
His massive fanbase, combined with his company's heavy investment in promotion, plus the buzz
Viewers from across the entire platform were flooding into his stream. Comments were popping up in other rooms too — "He's encountered a real ghost!", "Brother Fox ran into a genuine spirit!"
The topic ignited in no time, and countless curious viewers poured into the livestream.
Huang Hu was secretly delighted, though his face still had to wear an expression of tension and fear. "Don't panic — whatever you do, don't panic right now. My ancestors were chuma immortals. I've got experience dealing with this!"
The more he said, the more the comments exploded. Plenty of people told him to turn around, and just as many told him to run — there really was a ghost behind him!
Huang Hu silently marveled at Li Xu's makeup skills. Double pay was worth every penny.
He swayed his body slightly, pretending to tremble. The more the comments urged him to leave, the more he refused.
He raised his arms in front of his chest in an odd posture. Without turning around, Huang Hu shouted at the phone screen: "What's done is done — running now is too late! Stay calm! You must stay calm!"
He slapped both palms together and bellowed: "No matter who stands behind me, there's no need to fear their identity! Calm the heart and discern the truth, and the immortals will descend upon your body!"
The moment the words left his lips, something changed in Huang Hu's eyes. The terrified expression he'd been faking slowly drained from his face.
"Don't be afraid! The more you fear them, the more they'll bully you!" Huang Hu picked up his phone, his voice growing even more commanding. "It's fine — I'm not alone right now. You're all here with me. Drop some gifts and hit follow, and I'll lead you all out to take a look!"
Watching the tips and gifts floating across the screen, color returned to Huang Hu's face. He spun around to face the room's door and let out another shout: "The immortal master guides diligently from behind — the disciple need only steady the heart! Visualize the bagua rising beneath the throne, with countless soldiers and cavalry arrayed behind!"
He pressed two fingers together and pointed toward the window. Even now, Huang Hu didn't forget to adjust the camera angle, framing both himself and the window on the hospital room door in the shot.