Chapter 104 – Old Spirit Manor

The short journey lasted only a few minutes, but was nerve wracking for everyone. Everyone was visibly pale, as they were afraid that some strange thing might suddenly appear in the next second.

“That’s the locust tree manor up ahead, right?” Zhao Junlu excitedly looked at the faintly visible building not far in the distance.

Du Chonghua repositioned himself on the map, and after seeing the displayed results, revealed wild joy. Suppressing the excitement that surged up within him like a raging tide, he said in a low voice, “Yes, this is it!”

They finally found it!

Du Chonghua felt himself become extremely excited, his blood freezing in his veins.

He never thought he would actually find the legendary Locust Tree Manor!

Wang Xueke was walking by Du Chonghua’s side and inadvertently glanced at him.

The light from her phone was reflected slightly in Du Chonghua’s eyes. From her perspective, she could clearly see a strange glint in his eyes, and with the addition of his barely suppressed expression of crazed delight, it gave off an eerie feeling.

Just one casual glance made Wang Xueke inexplicably startled, an indescribable sense of dread welling up inside her.

Du Chonghua regained his composure, and noticed that Wang Xueke was staring at him. After a moment’s pause, he smoothed his expression and asked, “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Du Chonghua’s tone was very light, but for some reason, with a woman’s sixth sense, Wang Xueke felt a hint of threat in his voice.

“It’s nothing,” Wang Xueke replied while withdrawing her gaze, her heartbeat accelerating a little.

Du Chonghua cast a cold glance at her before beckoning to the others, “Let’s go in together!”

The Locust Tree Manor was hidden behind layers of locust trees. Shrouded in darkness, from a distance it appeared as an indistinct silhouette; a vague and sizable structure.

The whole group collectively held their breath as they slowly made their way towards the manor. When they finally arrived, they discovered that the mansion’s entrance was securely locked with a modern iron chain, seeming out of place with the surrounding environment.

[Towel: Hey, won’t that count as breaking and entering private property? (Forgive my unique perspective.)

Running Shoes: Replying to the person upstairs, I would also think so!

Don’t Eat More: Just watching this makes me nervous! Following the order of events in a horror movie, I feel like as soon as they open the door, there will be a ghost in white waiting inside, ready to strangle someone.

Five Blessings: Wait, did anyone notice the pattern on the door? It’s actually a snake biting its own tail! What a strange design.

Cute And Brainless: I know! That’s the Ouroboros!

Full Name: The design is too realistic, it has a type of 3D effect. It makes people feel inexplicably uneasy, very uncomfortable…]

Xiao Chen stood silently to the side, watching Du Chonghua skillfully take out lock-picking tools to get rid of the lock.

However, his attention was unconsciously drawn to the carving on the wooden door, that of the Ouroboros.

The snake’s body was half yin and half yang, twisted into a circular pattern, just like the Arabic numeral eight, with the snake’s head biting its own tail.

Xiao Chen narrowed his eyes and stared at the pattern with a pensive expression.

The Ouroboros is an extremely common symbol in religion and mythology, representing the concept of “infinity” and the meanings of self-devouring and infinite cycles.

The appearance of such a pattern in this place could not be a coincidence.

Xiao Chen couldn’t help but admire his shrewd old Gong, who had allowed him to glimpse the general plot direction, but still left him completely unaware of the movie details.

He said he wanted him to savor it.

Fine, for now, he’ll treat it as an interesting aspect of their married life.

“It’s open!” With a satisfying click, Du Chonghua excitedly shouted, turning to look at the nervous group of people.

“Come on! Let’s go in!”

Annie watched the number of viewers in her livestream steadily decrease. Seeing more traffic flowing into Su Lele and Wang Xueke’s livestreams, she clenched her teeth and indignantly blurted out, “How about I lead the way!”

As soon as she finished her sentence, Annie felt the urge to slap herself, regretting it to death.

Everyone, including Su Lele, looked at her with incredulous expressions, and even Du Chonghua seemed somewhat shocked.

[Little Kart Racing Prince: I’m dying of laughter, did you see everyone’s expression when Annie said she would lead the way? It’s like the look you‘d give to a mentally challenged child, hilarious.

Strawberries Are So Delicious: Sure, let her lead the way! She’s practically serving herself up on a silver platter, hahahaha! Why does this woman have so many scenes to act!

Paulownia Tree: Let her lead! I want to see how she messes up, hahahaha.]

A sliver of amusement flashed in Du Chonghua’s eyes, feeling a momentary satisfaction upon hearing Annie’s words, he quickly suppressed the emerging emotions.

When someone offers to pave the way for you, don’t outright reject it.

Du Chonghua followed up on her words, “Since you’re so willing, go ahead!”

Annie had originally expected Du Chonghua to flatly reject her suggestion, allowing her to successfully continue hiding in the middle of the group. However, she never imagined that he would actually agree and follow through with her words, leaving her in an awkward and self-imposed situation.

She forced a strained smile, even though her eyes were mostly hidden behind a mask, it was not hard to see that she was on the verge of collapse and denial.

“Alright.”

Seeing Annie’s discomfort, Su Lele couldn’t help but chuckle at her eagerness to take the lead and send herself off.

Ugly people often act up the most, really laughable.

Annie swallowed hard, her hands trembling.

Du Chonghua directly made a path for her and let Annie open the door.

Annie clutched her phone tightly, gathering her courage before slowly pushing the door.

In that instant, her mind had already conjured up many horrific images: white shadow ghosts hanging from the ceiling, red-clothed ghosts drifting around and eluding sight, elderly ghosts with faces as wrinkled as tree bark, hideous and terrifying……

She continuously gave herself internal pep talks to prepare her heart for any possible scares.

Finally, with her heart pounding, she summoned her courage and pushed the door open forcefully.

None of the images she had imagined in her mind appeared. It was astonishingly quiet, with nothing strange or peculiar.

Seeing this, Annie couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Everyone exchanged glances and slowly walked inside.

The interior of the door resembled the design of an ancient courtyard, with artificial hills, water pools, and numerous locust trees all around. In short, the style and design were all extremely eccentric.

Xiao Chen walked at the rear, and as soon as he stepped inside, the door behind him made a ‘pong’ sound, clanging shut. He wasn’t startled, on the contrary, it was Wang Xueke in front of him who was so frightened she nearly jumped. Everyone turned around in an instant.

What was even more alarming was that the moment the door closed, they all distinctly heard the sound of the iron chain outside being lifted by something and then locked up again!

The clinking of the iron chain struck at the hearts of everyone, sending shivers down their spines.

Zhao Junlu directly used his hands to pound at the door and even kicked it in the end, but the door remained unmoved and wouldn’t budge.

Su Lele’s face turned wan, and Duan Aoming held her in his arms. Her voice trembling, with a kind of belated fear, she asked, “We couldn’t have been locked inside, right?”

As soon as her words fell, everyone lapsed into eerie silence.

Du Chonghua’s feeling of dread certainly wasn’t smaller than everyone else, but he still managed to force a rigid smile, trying to boost everyone’s morale, “How could that be? We’re live streaming, if anything happens to us, our fans will call the police!”

It was like this one sentence from Du Chonghua had instantly reassured everyone.

Duan Aoming chimed in, “Right, exactly!”

[Four-Leaf Clover Hears the Wind: That’s easy to say, but if they really die, us calling the police will do a fart……

Don’t Forget Me Don’t Forget Me: I feel like Du Chonghua is acting strange, he’s giving me this sense of blind confidence…

Domineering CEO’s Little Darling: I thought Du Chonghua was the only one with a functioning brain in this group, never thought he could spit out something like this, really hard to put into words, tsk tsk tsk.

Flower Wreath Flower Crown: I don’t know why, but throughout this whole journey, the thing I’m most curious about isn’t the locust tree manor, but what the assistant looks like! Ahhhh! Curiosity killed the cat ah!

Sunflower: I’m curious too…why do I feel like he’s not ugly……]

“Visitors have arrived!” an elderly voice suddenly came from behind them, making anyone who heard the voice flinch.

The voice lacked any emotion, sounding like a machine directly reciting sentences, but its dry tone was like an echo from hell.

Not to mention the people present, even the fans watching the livestream trembled uncontrollably, some of them were so scared they almost dropped their phones.

[Panda Blood: Holy crap, that scared the heck out of me! Ahhhhhh.

I Really Don’t Want to Eat Snacks: Damn, that voice scared me so much I fell off my bed…

Gentle Breeze Bright Moon: I suddenly realize how reckless I am. I’m clearly terrified of ghosts, yet I’m watching this livestream at night. Not only that, but the more I watch, the more excited I get, now I’m hiding under my blankets shivering.]

The group stiffly turned around, the light from their phones moving with them. As they turned, their bodies couldn’t help but tremble, and their brains seemed to become congested.

How could there be anyone in such a haunted place?

The light from their phones pointed directly at the source of the voice, and a blurry figure slowly emerged from the darkness behind. With slow movements, there was something hitting the ground at irregular intervals, making a “thud thud thud” sound.

Finally, the person who spoke fully revealed themselves under everyone’s gaze. When they saw the person’s appearance, everyone, including the fans, felt a chill down their spine, hair standing on end.

The person who emerged was an elderly individual with a cane!

Du Chonghua, upon seeing that face, felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. Cold sweat broke out on his inner palms, his face turned pale, and a wave of terror washed over him.

He definitely couldn’t mistake this person!

She was the elderly woman who had guided them during the day!

Hunched over, with a slight smile that seemed honest but was actually sycophantic, she looked directly at Xiao Chen, who stood at the back of the group.

“…………”

What was weird was that Xiao Chen actually understood the other party’s fawning smile.

“Are you the guests here for the banquet? Please come inside!” The old woman appeared serene and pointed with her cane towards the direction behind her.

She appeared like she was not the same person who had guided them during the day, her expression devoid of any fluctuation.

So, here was the question.

The group exchanged glances.

Should they go in or not?

When Xiao Chen heard the word “banquet,” his eyebrows twitched involuntarily. He had a peculiar feeling.