Nightmare Assault

Chapter 274: Show Starts

Once she heard You Qi’s comment, Tang Shirou’s hands trembled, and the paper head fell to the ground. It rolled a few times and stopped when it knocked into the box. The paper head swayed for a bit before the face turned to face Tang Shirou. The ugly mouth revealed a horrible smile. The smile was a horrid line. It felt like… the paper face was smiling at her.

Chill ran up Tang Shirou’s spine.

Soon, night arrived. Just like the night before, the lake was overtaken by a mysterious mist. All three teams curled up cautiously in their rooms. All the candles were lit, but no one said anything. They were all waiting. They were waiting for the show to start… and Young Master Huang.

The human heads were hanged from the corner of the room. Fatty only took a peek before his hands stood on end. Even though the paper heads looked crafty in the day, under the candlelight, they looked alive.

It was the Doctor who gave him the explanation. The craftsmanship might look bad, but the creator put a lot of effort into it. The facial features were carved out little by little. Fatty didn’t quite get it, but he knew the Doctor was a good artist, especially when it came to portraits. He could use a few strokes to capture a person’s essence. It was the Doctor’s drawings that helped them find Xia Meng. Perhaps drawing and sculpting were not that dissimilar.

“Hmm?” The next second, Fatty’s eyes twitched.

“Why did you make that sound?” Xia Meng hissed. She was quite nervous. Fatty’s sound interrupted her.

Jiang Cheng turned to ask, “What’s wrong?”

Fatty didn’t say anything at first. Eventually, he asked softly, “Did… you hear anything earlier?”

“What did you hear?” Jiang Cheng asked.

“I don’t know.” Fatty answered honestly, “It was rippling, like…” He paused to think, “Something was swimming in the lake.”

Xia Meng frowned, “Are you sure?”

“No.” Fatty was nervous. “But I…”

“Dong!”

The three became silent. That was a drum beat. It was not very loud but it was clear in the quiet night. The drum beat travelled far out the lake.

“Dong!”

Another beat.

“Grab the things. We’ll go.” Jiang Cheng put on the paper head and opened the door a bit. Mist covered everything. If not for the atmosphere, it would feel like Nirvana. Fatty and Xia Meng put on the paper heads and followed Jiang Cheng.

The visibility was low, and they wore paper heads. It was hard to tell who was whom. Just like that, the three came to the lakeside. Along the way, they pulled on each other’s clothes. This was Jiang Cheng’s idea. After all, if one went missing even for a second, who knew what would return in their stead?

The other two teams were already there. They stood beside the lake and looked across the shore. There were lights… on the other side of the shore.

At first, there were only a few lights. Then, more than twenty lights appeared. They came from bright red lanterns. They floated on the lake. They looked like red eyes in the dark.

“The drums have sounded. We shouldn’t delay.” An Xuan’s voice came from one of the heads. “Let’s hurry to the designated location and start preparation.” No one protested. This was already decided.

They walked halfway around the lake. They found a desolate yard marked on the paper. This yard appeared abandoned for a long time already. The wooden door creaked noisily when it opened. The moon was bright that night. Under the moonlight, two red sedan chairs were placed in the empty yard. The curtain of the sedan chair was pulled back to reveal the single seat inside.

The sedan was painted with colourful and auspicious motifs. It looked very festive. However, there was no celebratory mood. The play they had to do that night was to use the two sedans in a marriage ceremony.

“Have you memorised the steps?” It was still An Xuan. However, even his tone started to waver. “Everyone in my room and Brother Chen are the first team.” An Xuan explained, “We’ll leave after the third drum beat. The rest will be the second group. You’ll start moving after the fourth beat.

“Remember,” An Xuan stressed, “After the play starts, do not speak. Do not do anything extra. Do not remove the paper heads.

“The fifth beat is to signal for the swapping of the sedan chairs. The people in the sedans do not move. On the sixth beat, the people carrying the sedans will move away before coming back here to gather. After the seventh beat, the player is over.

“Alright.” He took a deep breath. His eyes glowed through the holes in the head. “Hopefully, everyone can survive this.”

Then, the two groups moved to their own sedans. This had already been discussed. One group had five people: Four would be the sedan bearers and one bride.

The role of the bride naturally went to the girls. In An Xuan’s group, only Tang Shirou was suitable for this role. In Jiang Cheng’s group, there were two females: Xia Meng and Zuo Qing.

Even though the play didn’t say who the groom was, it was assumed that he was Young Master Huang because he was the main character. The travellers were just the extras in his play. Therefore, it was assumed that the brides would be in the greatest danger.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Just as Fatty thought the two women would fight over this, Zuo Qing agreed to be the bride. This shocked Fatty.

In Zuo Qing’s eyes, perhaps being married to Young Master Huang was the safer choice.