Chapter 13 A Stage Play

"This looks like... a stage play." Tang Shirou, who had moved closer, whispered, "I've seen the art students rehearse in the school's art troupe before. The sketches drawn by their teacher are a bit similar to this."

"A script?" You Qi asked, wide-eyed.

An Xuan put away the paper, looked up at the middle-aged woman, and asked, "Does the young master's play only require a few of us, or does everyone have to go?"

"Everyone."

"Then does everyone have a copy of this?" An Xuan gestured to the paper in his hand.

"No." The middle-aged woman shook her head. "After you've finished reading it, I need to take it to the doctors in the other two side rooms."

As soon as she finished speaking, the middle-aged woman reached out her hand, clearly wanting the paper back.

An Xuan smiled and said in a very respectful tone, "How about this? To save you another trip, I'll go and inform them of the matters on this paper."

The middle-aged woman stared at him coldly. After a moment, she asked, "Can you guarantee that they will all participate?"

Nodding, An Xuan replied, "I guarantee it."

"At the third watch," the middle-aged woman announced in her usual tone, "take the drum sound as the signal. All doctors, please prepare as the young master requests and gather at the waterside stage by the lake."

"You can go to eat later. It's in the pavilion by the lake. The food has been prepared for you. The props needed for the play are placed near the pavilion, don't forget."

"Don't worry," An Xuan replied.

The middle-aged woman looked at An Xuan a few more times before turning and leaving. Just like before, the woman's steps looked slow, but the speed was extremely fast, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Acting...

"Listening to opera was scary enough, but now we have to act?" You Qi was overwhelmed. "Who are we acting with? Ghosts?"

Tang Shirou, who was already terrified, felt her legs weaken upon hearing this. She had just been attracted by the weirdness in the painting, and in a few hours, she would have to act with that Young Master Huang.

"Brother You," An Xuan turned around and said in an undeniable tone, "If you don't want to go, no one is forcing you."

You Qi stopped talking.

He was just complaining, but he still knew what was important. Going might cause something to happen, but not going would definitely cause something to happen, and there was also this strange painting in the room that looked problematic.

"Mr. An," Qin Jian was much more polite to An Xuan. He looked at the paper in An Xuan's hand and tentatively asked, "Are we... going to inform the others?"

An Xuan turned his head and looked at Qin Jian for a few seconds before suddenly smiling, "Old Mr. Qin, what are you talking about? Everyone is a poor soul caught in a nightmare. Helping each other is the most basic thing."

Qin Jian was stunned for a moment, realizing that he had misspoke, and quickly explained, "I misspoke. What I meant was... what time do you think is appropriate for us to go?"

"Now," An Xuan said without thinking, clutching the paper tightly in his hand. "The sooner the better. Inform the others as soon as possible, so everyone can prepare earlier."

"Mr. An is right," Tang Shirou echoed. "Being together will help us think of better solutions."

Regarding Tang Shirou's words, Qin Jian and You Qi didn't even bother with superficial politeness.

After closing the door, An Xuan and his group of four first headed towards Zuo Qing and the others' room. But before they could knock, the door opened on its own, and Shi Liaozhi's messy, chicken-coop-like yellow hair was very conspicuous.

"What's wrong?" Zuo Qing asked from beside him.

Obviously, they had already seen the middle-aged woman come to their room, so they were prepared.

"We're filming a play tonight." Holding the paper, An Xuan walked into their room and said bluntly, "Young Master Huang requested it, with him."

Before Zuo Qing and the others could react, An Xuan turned and walked towards Jiang Cheng and the others' room. su丹小说网 (sudanxs.com)

But unexpectedly, Jiang Cheng and the others came out first, blocking An Xuan and his group at the door. "What's wrong?" Xia Meng asked, raising her chin.

In her words, she didn't give An Xuan much respect.

An Xuan glanced at the closed door of Jiang Cheng's room, retracted his gaze, and said, "Just now, Butler Zhou sent someone to inform us that we're filming a play tonight," he paused, "Young Master Huang requested it, with him."

Hearing this, Fatty's expression became wonderfully colorful, as expected.

"Tonight," An Xuan stared into Jiang Cheng's eyes, "at the third watch."

After a moment of silence, Jiang Cheng, who was also staring at An Xuan, tilted his head lazily and said calmly, "That really scared me."

Several gazes measured Jiang Cheng's face, then inconspicuously shifted away.

Only Tang Shirou was still immersed in her own world, not noticing the difference in the atmosphere at all. She looked at the indifferent Jiang Cheng and said anxiously, "Mr. An came to inform you as soon as he got the news, otherwise that middle-aged woman would have come!"

She seemed to be trying to take credit for An Xuan, as if in her impression, contacting that strange and eerie middle-aged woman would definitely lead to something bad happening.

Hearing this, An Xuan's eyes moved unnaturally.

"Then it seems we really have to thank Mr. An." It was Zuo Qing who spoke. She was already somewhat dissatisfied with An Xuan's intrusion into their room without permission, and now she seemed to have discovered something.

"Mr. An intercepted the news in advance, did you find anything?" Jiang Cheng asked in a tone of seeking advice.

An Xuan still had that calm and collected look, "This is what Young Master Huang sent over, with notations on what we need to prepare, as well as positions, actions, and so on." He unfolded the paper and pointed out naturally.

"It's getting dark." Someone said.

Looking up, the sun that was still overhead not long ago was now setting in the west, with only a bit of afterglow remaining on the horizon. Everyone knew that the time flow in the nightmare world couldn't be compared to the real world.

But this world was still too exaggerated.

It seemed that all of this... was preparing for the play tonight.

"Let's go eat first," Fatty suggested, "We can talk while we eat."

Because they had things on their minds, everyone lacked appetite for dinner tonight. Just thinking about that Young Master Huang appearing at night made it impossible to swallow any delicacies.

After a few simple bites, everyone gathered together and came to a tree outside the pavilion.

There were several large boxes placed here, which should be the props to be used tonight.

Opening the boxes, inside were neatly arranged human heads.

But they were fake heads, made of papier-mâché, with cheap dyes used to paint the facial features and rouge on the cheeks.

The inside of the heads were hollow, and there were two large holes carved out corresponding to the eyes. They were very light when held in the hand.

You Qi picked one up and briefly gestured with it on his head, saying with a strange expression, "Why does this thing... look so much like the paper figures burned for the dead?"