"Ah!" The cameraman was instantly stunned.
Was this the right time to ask about popularity?
He looked at Zhao Yan's eyes very seriously, picked up his phone, and checked it. "Miss Zhao, our popularity has reached 200,000."
"What's the specific number of people in the backend?" Zhao Yan asked.
The cameraman clicked into the backend. "Around 20,000-plus."
Most of the popularity on the live stream was fake. For most big streamers, having over a hundred thousand viewers was already quite good.
Twenty thousand-plus people already made her a mid-to-small streamer.
Those who claimed millions of viewers online seemed very fake.
With over 20,000 viewers, Zhao Yan felt energized. Not forgetting her mission, she said to the camera, "On August 21st, there's a movie called [Haunted Building] being released in theaters. It's super good!"
The cameraman watched Zhao Yan, who wasn't in a hurry at all, and he was almost crying. He kept looking behind him.
He seemed to see something standing up from the ground.
He could hear faint footsteps and instinctively stepped back, almost bumping into Zhao Yan's back. He whispered, "Miss Zhao, there seems to be… something behind us."
Zhao Yan shifted her gaze from her phone, walked to the door, opened it, and shone her flashlight inside.
There was nothing in the room.
She turned back, patted the cameraman's shoulder, "You're too nervous, calm down…"
Zhao Yan didn't finish her sentence when she noticed a small boy standing at the far right of the corridor. He was naked and staring directly at her. He raised a finger and pointed upstairs.
Then he smiled at Zhao Yan.
In the blink of an eye, the boy disappeared.
She quickly walked towards the far right corridor, with the cameraman closely following behind.
Following the direction the boy pointed, Zhao Yan hurried upstairs.
As she reached the staircase to the fifth floor, she saw Wang Yang's cameraman.
"Why is he here? I remember I was going downstairs, so he should be on the third floor. How did he get to the fifth floor?" the cameraman asked in panic.
"See if the walkie-talkie works," Zhao Yan said.
The cameraman quickly picked up the walkie-talkie and shouted, "Hello?"
With a crackle of static, a puff of black smoke suddenly emerged from the walkie-talkie.
"It doesn't work?" Zhao Yan frowned in confusion.
She thought the Yin energy on the fifth floor had decreased significantly, and the walkie-talkie would work there.
It seemed that wasn't the case.
But if the walkie-talkie didn't work, why could they still use the internet for the live stream?
She was very puzzled by this question.
"Right, are there any news reports about children dying on this floor?" Zhao Yan asked.
The cameraman shook his head. "No, I checked the information for this floor before. I couldn't find any reports of a boy dying."
"There have been instances of hanging, suicide, and wrist-slitting among residents here, but they were all adults."
"Is that so?" Zhao Yan asked doubtfully.
She was certain the little boy she just saw was a ghost.
"Let's not worry about him for now. He's just unconscious and will be fine," Zhao Yan said.
Carrying someone would only impede her ability to act.
For his safety, Zhao Yan took out a talisman and placed it on the cameraman's chest.
After everything was over, she would call someone to pick him up from outside.
"Okay," the cameraman nodded, treating Zhao Yan as his leader.
Looking at the corridor on the fifth floor, Zhao Yan walked along it.
Logically, from this height on the corridor, she should be able to see the outside.
Currently, the outside was enveloped in a thick fog.
"The room ahead seems to have light," the cameraman pointed to a room ahead.
Zhao Yan walked about three steps forward and saw light emanating from the room.
She wiped the window glass with her hand, clearing away a lot of the dust, and Zhao Yan pressed her eyes against the glass to look inside.
She saw Wang Yang, who had fled earlier.
Wang Yang was running desperately inside the room, circling a dining table.
His eyes were filled with terror. He kept looking back as he ran, occasionally falling down, getting up, and continuing to run, as if something was chasing him.
"The King of Qin circled the pillars in ancient times, and Wang Yang circles the table today!" Zhao Yan muttered softly.
She walked to the door and raised her hand, intending to open it, but found it was locked tight.
Zhao Yan took out a talisman and stuck it on the door. When opening it, she just needed a slight twist.
The door opened, and a thick wave of Yin energy rushed out.
It blew Zhao Yan's hair backward, and the cameraman was blown back several steps.
"Why is this bastard here!" The cameraman was furious seeing Wang Yang.
To escape, he had locked the person in the bathroom.
Wang Yang seemed not to see Zhao Yan. Even when Zhao Yan approached him, he continued to run around the table, muttering softly, "Don't come closer, help!"
"Don't mind him, let him run for a while. Let's see if there are any other clues," Zhao Yan said softly.
"Okay, let him tire himself out," the cameraman nodded and immediately followed behind Zhao Yan.
Zhao Yan shone her flashlight around the room.
She came to a cabinet, opened it, and looked through it. Inside, she found a photo.
The photo showed a man and a woman. The man had one arm around the woman's shoulder, smiling at the camera. The woman had a big belly, appearing to be eight or nine months pregnant.
Zhao Yan blew away the dust. When the flashlight shone on it, the light completely penetrated the photo.
The smiling man's face was covered in pinprick holes, and the light was coming through these holes.
She placed the photo on the table and rummaged through the cabinet again, finding a marriage certificate. The marriage certificate only had the woman's photo; the man's photo had been cut off.
"The marriage registration was in July 2014," Zhao Yan said softly. She wanted to see the specific date but found that the day part had been torn off.
She turned and asked, "Cameraman, when you checked the floor information, did you find this woman?"
The cameraman carried the camera and walked over. He looked at the photo and immediately nodded. "I did."
"Her name is Zhang Chiming. She jumped to her death on July 29, 2014. She was the first person to jump to her death in this building."
"No way?" Zhao Yan was stunned. Married in July and jumped to her death at the end of the month.
"Yes, Miss Zhao, she was the first one to jump to her death," the cameraman said earnestly.
"Unhappy marriage led to suicide by jumping, so her resentment rose and affected others, causing residents to start committing suicide as well?" Zhao Yan muttered softly.
As she thought further, a question suddenly occurred to her.
"Could that little boy be her child? When she jumped to her death, the child in her womb also died."