Chapter 79: Teaching Ghosts to Frighten People
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Li Miao stepped into the haunted house.
Just like Liang Xiaoyu before him, he found himself directly in the courtyard.
Standing in the center, he glanced around, his gaze settling on the main gate.
He ignored the two cherry blossom trees swaying in a windless air at the heart of the yard and strode purposefully toward the gate.
The heavy, sturdy wooden door was not locked.
Li Miao aimed his camera at the outside, fixed the selfie stick at his waist, placed both hands on the door frame, and tried to push the door open.
The viewers in his livestream watched the camera shake, asking questions one after another.
“I want to see what’s outside the door,” Li Miao explained with a straight face. “Maybe there are more ghosts, or perhaps it’s just like a graveyard from Plants vs. Zombies. Unfortunately, it won’t budge.”
He sighed in disappointment. “Next time, if someone with better martial arts comes, you can try to open it.”
The viewers were speechless.
[Bro, your courage is something else.]
[The ghost girl must feel provoked.]
[Lol, looks so skinny, but immediately starts messing around!]
Li Miao glanced at the comments, shook his head lightly, and walked into the nearest room.
It appeared to be a girl’s bedroom; right across was a large redwood bed draped with pink sheets and a fluffy pink comforter on the side.
He turned his head to look at the small makeup mirror opposite the bed.
A shadow flickered past in the mirror.
Li Miao paid it no mind.
He glanced around, lifted the bed sheet for a look, when he suddenly noticed a few strands of hair creeping toward his feet.
Delighted, Li Miao quickly stepped on the hair.
“I found something good—there’s hair!” he exclaimed with excitement.
The chat fell silent for a moment.
Everyone watched as a hand appeared on camera, grabbing the hair and pulling.
A thick handful of black hair, over a meter long, tumbled to the floor.
“It’s just a severed lock of hair, nothing else,” Li Miao sighed.
After speaking, he suddenly felt a chill at his back.
He turned around at once—nothing there.
Yet in the makeup mirror, at some unknown moment, the reflection showed a woman applying makeup.
She sat with her back to him, posture alluring.
But in front of the makeup table, no one was there.
“What do you think is going on here?” Li Miao propped his chin in thought. “Could it be that the ghost girl can control mirrors?”
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The figure in the mirror seemed to sense provocation and suddenly whipped her head around, a pair of blood-red eyes boring into him.
The abrupt scene startled everyone watching the stream.
From what they remembered, when Liang Xiaoyu experienced this, the figure in the mirror turned her head slowly.
Li Miao, unfazed, simply shook his head. “The makeup isn’t scary enough, and the movement is far too abrupt.”
He continued earnestly, “All horror atmospheres need to be built up gradually.”
“The scariest thing about a ghost lies in two things. First, its very existence transcends human understanding—humans naturally fear the unknown.”
“Second, its unpredictability…”
“People always think it could be anywhere, never knowing where it’ll appear next or what it might do…”
“So you should start with some sound effects. When someone looks over and sees nothing, let them relax. Then, just as they turn back, you can show something small—like a blood-stained red embroidered shoe, for example…”
“It’s all about creating contrast. The essence of horror lies in catching people off guard!”
He had just finished speaking when a sudden “bang” echoed out.
Turning toward the sound, he saw nothing.
But when he looked back, he suddenly noticed a pair of red embroidered shoes before him.
Blood seeped from the soles.
Li Miao couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m telling you, you can’t just copy my suggestions word for word! You’re a little ghost—what would you know about embroidered shoes?”
He lifted his foot and kicked the shoes away.
The livestream exploded.
[Ghost girl: You’re the real ghost here!]
[Lol, teaching ghosts how to scare people.]
[Dude, you’re awesome. Watching you in a haunted house, I’m not scared at all.]
[If this is how to do it, I think I could handle a haunted house too.]
[Rain, take notes. This is how you do it right.]
[Compared to this, that other streamer is a real coward.]
[You’ve embarrassed all of us women.]
...
Liang Xiaoyu, watching the livestream from her phone, nearly bent her nose in anger.
This guy looked so thin and fragile, yet he was so brave.
Not even afraid of ghosts!
After a circuit around the bedroom, Li Miao walked straight out.
The courtyard was awash with blood.
He didn’t care, simply stepping through it to the second room.
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It appeared to be a storeroom, filled with a gloomy chill.
Li Miao went forward, rummaging through the place.
When he opened a box, a human head rolled out.
He stared at the head, their eyes meeting.
Blood seeped from its eyes, and its mouth stretched into an exaggerated grin.
Amazingly, the face was exactly like his own.
“This one gets points for surprise,” Li Miao commented calmly, setting the head aside, “but the expression is much too exaggerated. You should build up the fear gradually, and only deliver the real shock when your victim is uneasy.”
He continued searching the storeroom until he finally found a metal shovel.
Just as he picked it up, his phone began to ring.
“A call from a ghost?” he murmured, answering.
On the other end was a woman screaming in terror: “I don’t want to die, save me, please, don’t kill me—”
He glanced at the number, frowned, and read it aloud. “Does anyone recognize this number?”
“If you don’t know it, don’t say anything for now.”
The chat quieted slightly.
Just as Li Miao was about to move on, a user with a string of numbers as their nickname sent a message.
[Streamer, could you repeat the phone number? I think it belongs to a coworker of mine.]
Li Miao raised an eyebrow and repeated the number.
The user responded, agitated: [It really is her. She died unexpectedly! I heard she jumped after an argument with her husband.]
Li Miao frowned.
He sensed that things were becoming complicated.
The user continued: [The voice just now really sounded like her!]
Li Miao paused to think, then said, “If anyone from the relevant national authorities is watching, perhaps you could look into this clue. If needed, I will cooperate fully.”
After he finished, seeing the stream fill with astonished comments and wild speculation, he shook his head with a wry smile, unsure what to say.
He stood in silence for a moment, then picked up the shovel and, stepping through the blood, walked beneath the cherry blossom trees.
“The smell of blood is intense—this must be real blood. I wonder where they got it,” Li Miao observed. “But I’d recommend something less crude. If you just want to scare people into the house, you could show some ghostly figures under the cherry blossom trees.”
“When someone really tries to escape, you could wait at the door, and then splash some blood for effect.”
…