Chapter 171: Haunted House
“Qing Yi Ancient House is a mansion from the Republic of China Era. Its owner can no longer be traced…”
Wang Tao walked backwards against the crowd into the depths of the Antique Street with his backpack on, while reading the background story he had noted down the night before to the screen on his mobile phone.
After all, the haunted house rumors were mysterious, but in reality it was just a broken house. To make the audience scared, relying solely on the environment inside wasn’t enough; they also needed to be given some space for imagination.
As far as Wang Tao knew, many ghost hunting live broadcasts had inside stories. For the sake of program effects, streamers often made small actions, such as actors pretending to be ghosts or setting up mechanisms to make noises.
The team Wang Tao was in had originally planned the same, but Wang Tao felt that this was no different from faking it, so he strongly opposed the majority and fought for this one chance.
Everything depended on the effect of this live broadcast. If this authentic style of streaming wasn’t popular, then he would have to follow the boss’s arrangement and become an actor.
He quietly sighed, stopped overthinking, cheered up, and focused on the current live broadcast task.
It wasn’t a long walk.
The surrounding crowd gradually thinned out, and a vast, grand and atmospheric old house appeared at the end of the stone paved road.
Wang Tao was also startled by the several-meter-high main entrance in front of him, but he quickly reacted and continued narrating the various rumors about the old house in a mysterious tone.
“Over the years, this mansion has gradually fallen into disrepair, becoming an abandoned house that no one visits…”
“But this house is not as simple as it seems. Homeless people occasionally go missing mysteriously nearby, and some tourists claim to have seen strange figures inside…”
Walking up to the main entrance and looking at the neatly arranged metal rivets on it, Wang Tao casually knocked on it and smiled confidently: “Whether there is really a fierce ghost inside or someone is playing tricks, today Brother Tao will take you to explore a bit.”
With that, he retracted the selfie stick, switched the live broadcast room screen to the rear camera, and then fixed the iPhone to his chest.
The old house then appeared in the live broadcast room screen. Its antique and grand appearance attracted quite a bit of interest.
Someone noticed the tightly closed main entrance and curiously sent a bullet comment asking: 【The main entrance is all locked now. Brother Tao, you’re not thinking of picking the lock, are you?】
Someone immediately replied below: 【This kind of main entrance uses a door bolt. Where is there a door lock? People outside need someone inside to open it to get in.】
Indeed, the two huge solid wooden door panels were tightly pressed together without a gap, and there was no keyhole or anything like that on them.
To get in the door, besides knocking, it was estimated that one could only use brute force to knock it down.
But Wang Tao was just here for adventure and didn’t want to get sued for it. Even if this old house had no heir to sue him, with so many people in the live broadcast room, if someone accused him of damaging cultural relics, he would have to go to jail.
He looked around, and there were no other entrances, so he might have to try climbing over the wall.
Walking to the wall and stomping his foot, Wang Tao gestured at the height. “The main entrance is for the owner and guests. We’re just going in to take a look around, so no need for formalities. Entering through the door is entering, climbing over the wall is also entering.”
However, he looked around and found no place to gain leverage.
The fans in the live broadcast room also noticed this through the camera and started flooding with skeptical bullet comments.
【Brother Tao, can you do it or not?】
Wang Tao also saw these bullet comments through the sub-machine and nodded satisfactorily.
This was the effect he wanted. More bullet comments meant more popularity, and other passersby would come in to check it out when they saw the high popularity.
At that moment, Wang Tao suddenly frowned, feeling a bit uncomfortable.
It was as if someone was quietly staring at him from behind, making his back feel a bit cold.
Maybe some tourists noticed the situation here?
He looked back but found nothing unusual. Wang Tao stopped delaying and said confidently to the fans: “Don’t forget what Brother Tao’s old profession is. I can even climb cliffs, so flipping over a wall is nothing.”
Without waiting for the fans to question again, Wang Tao took a few steps back, then sprinted two steps and leaped up.
His right foot stepped on the wall leaving a black mark, and he used the leverage to flip over, steadily standing on the top of the wall.
The bullet comments’ trend immediately changed, flooding the screen with 666.
However, before Wang Tao could feel proud for a few seconds, his foot suddenly slipped, and he fell from the top of the wall.
“Thud.”
He heavily fell to the ground.
Fortunately, the ground below was soft soil, and plus he had adjusted his posture well just now, so Wang Tao luckily wasn’t injured.
But before he could check on himself, he was captivated by the scene in front of him.
Beyond the dense grass, not far away was a winding artificial river with rockeries and green plants scattered among it, like a bond outlining the form and spirit of the entire garden.
The buildings within were even more ingeniously designed. The so-called carved beams and painted rafters, flying eaves and flowing cinnabar, were probably no more than this.
The entire garden was silent, not only did it not destroy the beauty within, but it added a sense of desolate mystery.
Even Wang Tao, who was used to seeing nature’s splendid scenery, had to admit that skilled craftsmen were not inferior to nature’s uncanny workmanship.
A illiterate like Wang Tao could only look at the appearance and sigh that it was awesome. But in the live broadcast room, someone posted some interesting comments.
【I’m an architecture design major. This old house’s structure looks like a garden, but it has quite a few features of Western architecture inside.】
【Clear lines, simple structure… and these features perfectly blend into the entire garden. Its designer was absolutely a master proficient in both Chinese and Western cultures. In the Republic of China Era, he was probably a celebrity.】
【Streamer, better run away now. There are only a few such buildings in the whole country. I don’t know why this place wasn’t protected, but if you damage even a brick or tile, it’s definitely not something you can afford to compensate.】
With the boost of the noble membership status, the originally inconspicuous bullet comment was successfully captured by Wang Tao.
He, who originally didn’t care, couldn’t help but feel a bit shaken seeing the other person speaking so knowledgeably.
However, the boss’s message had already popped up on the sub-machine: “Continue, popularity is rising fast now. Whether we go viral depends on this wave.”
“If something happens, we can still hire a lawyer and fight the lawsuit. But if you breach the contract, it’s not as simple as compensating money.”
Alright, it seemed there was no way out.
Who made him young and ignorant before, falling into the hands of a black-hearted capitalist.
Wang Tao took a deep breath and decided to keep his hands in check, try not to touch anything, go in for a tour, and come out.
Of course, safety measures couldn’t be omitted.
Looking at the half-person-high grass, as an outdoor enthusiast, Wang Tao definitely wouldn’t just step on it.
He pulled out a hiking pole from his backpack, parted the grass with it while slowly moving toward the direction of the main entrance.
