As an editor for the "Open Your Eyes" video tform, Tang Zhengyi was in charge of the specific video promotion work.
He had experienced more than ten encounters with strangeness, twice deeplying into contact with the bizarre and emerging unscathed. He had also witnessed exorcists eliminate strangeness on four asions.
He could be described as experienced and well-versed.
Usually, after finishing his tasks for the day, Tang Zhengyi would set aside a fixed time each day to scan videos on the tform.
If he found something good orments below the video seemed quite real, he would take note of the video and then choose an opportune time to do a small-scale trial promotion.
Video rmendations, unlike others, must first and foremost have a strong sense of authenticity, and only then would he consider the atmosphere, storylinepleteness, information delivery, filming techniques, and post-production issues.
During Tang Zhengyi''s video scanning process, a video named "Peeking From the Crack in the Wall" caught his eye.
This was because the video''s thumbnail disyed the first frame of the video.
It was a sentence in white font against a ck background, and Tang Zhengyi''s attention was drawn mainly to the text in the image.
The quote was:
"All along, our greatest enemy has been ourselves, differentyers of our own self. Hence, there''s one kind of murder that has never been convicted, and that is killing a part of oneself."
There was also a name in the bottom right corner of this passage: Night Traveling Puppy
"Looks like it has some appeal, but could it be staged?" Tang Zhengyi mumbled to himself, clicking on "Peeking From the Crack in the Wall".
...
A few tranquil days passed.
Inside Building 7 of FH Community, the frequency of the Back-faced Woman''s appearances seemed to be dwindling.
Anyway, after hisst sighting of her, Yan Junze hadn''t seen her at all these past few days.
ording to feedback from other neighbors in the same building, indeed, sightings of the Back-faced Woman had diminishedpared to before. Discover stories at empire
All of them harbored a wish they couldn''t openly express, that now having frequented Building 7, they hoped the woman in white would quickly move on to explore Building 9, and let their next-door neighbors experience what ''hair-raising'' truly felt like.
That day, Li Man was idle at home; dinner was prepared early, and after eating with the family, they could still see the sunset.
Yan Junze discovered he had run out of pen refills, so after giving his father Yan Daguo a heads-up, he left themunity and headed to the nearby supermarket to buy a box.
Since the inexplicable emerged, neighborhood shops typically operated only until around 8 PM, with only the braver store owners daring to close after 9 PM.
And as for those 24-hour convenience stores, they had almost vanished.
Because ording to unofficial reports, almost every store that dared to stay open all night, if not 100%, at least 80% of them had encountered strangenesses.
Situations like this could be big or small, so within a short period of time, the 24-hour stores had ceased operations, closing their doors on time around 8 PM with due propriety.
After purchasing a box of pen refills from the supermarket, Yan Junze turned to leave, nning to head back to themunity.
At that moment, a young man stood outside the supermarket, dressed in off-white casual clothes, staring intently at him.
Yan Junze nced at the man and realized he didn''t recognize him. As he was about to pass by, the young man suddenly said, "Excuse me, are you Yan Junze?"
Yan Junze stopped, looking surprised. "You are...?"
The young man''s face was pale, his expression somewhat bleak as if he had encountered some very bad luck. At this moment, he managed to squeeze out a smile and said, "I called you a couple of days ago, my name is Lv Xin, the son of Lv Jun and Wei Tingchun."
Yan Junze was initially startled, then he remembered something. "You mean... that overseas call?"
"Yes," Lv Xin nodded. "I was studying in Great Capital, USA, andst week, I suddenly received the shocking news of my parents'' death. So I immediately asked for leave from the academy and rushed back here. May I... talk to you?"
Yan Junze pointed at himself and then at Lv Xin, "Do we... have anything to discuss?"
"Some doubts I want to ask you about, please!" Lv Xin''s tone was very humble and sincere.
Yan Junze found it difficult to refuse.
Lv Xin looked around and pointed to a milk tea shop named "Migu" next to FH Community, "Let''s sit in there."
"Alright."
It was mealtime, so not many customers came in for milk tea, and three small tables were empty.
The two entered the shop, sat down, and ordered two cups of milk tea.
Before the milk tea was served, Lv Xin couldn''t wait to ask, "I heard that you recorded a video that night, may I see it?"
Yan Junze said, "It''s no secret, I''ve already uploaded the video to the ''Open Your Eyes'' video tform. You can watch it there."
Lv Xin was startled for a moment, "Is that the tform that specializes in sharing bizarre videos?"
"Yes, search for Night Traveling Puppy, and you''ll be able to see it," Yan Junze nodded.
Without another word, Lv Xin immediately downloaded the "Open Your Eyes" app on his phone, and quickly found the video. He gave Yan Junze an apologetic smile and then started to watch it intently.
As the milk tea arrived, Yan Junze just drank his milk tea without speaking, waiting for Lv Xin to finish watching the video.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om
After watching, Lv Xin let out a soft sigh, looked up, and asked, "Is this videoplete? Are there any extra clips that were not included in the video?"
Originally, Yan Junze had nned to exin to Lv Xin, because, after all, Granny Ren appeared in the video as a supernatural being, albeit with her face deliberately blurred. However, this could potentially vite the privacy of her family.
But now it seemed that Lv Xin''s attitude toward his own grandmother was not much different from that of his father, Lv Jun, and mother, Wei Tingchun. So he really didn''t care.
At this point, Yan Junze''s favorable impression of Lv Xin began to decrease, and he shook his head, "The video is the entire recording. I cut out the irrelevant scenes like looking for theb, and there''s no other important information."
Lv Xin took a sip of milk tea through the straw and seemed to notice Yan Junze''s indifferent expression. He spoke softly, "My rtionship with my grandmother was very weak. When I was little, my parents seldom, very seldom, took me to visit her. We almost have... no affection."
"Your family''s matters, there''s no need to tell me," Yan Junze said. "Is there anything else?"
"Did my grandmother say anything else to you?" Lv Xin asked.
Yan Junze shrugged, "Just those two sentences in the video, nothing more."
"When you faced my grandmother, did you feel anything from her?"
"Yes."
"What kind of feeling? Anger? Resentment?" Lv Xin frowned.
"No," Yan Junze shook his head, "It was heaviness, agony. You heard it just now, she said she was in pain. I believe this pain refers to the suffering she experienced in life."
At this point, Yan Junze suddenly realized something.
When he wasbing Granny Ren''s hair, at the moment he chanted "pass on to utmost bliss, erase the pain of this life," Granny Ren''s response to him was — "pain."
That meant, at that time, Granny Ren couldn''t erase the pain of her life. If it weren''t for Ke''er, who moved on his backter and posed a threat to Granny Ren, he probably wouldn''t have been able toplete thebing hair task.
Thinking about it, at that time, as a Wandering Spirit, Granny Ren''s rank might not have been high. Otherwise, Ke''er wouldn''t have been able to intimidate her.
But now, ording to Huang Chen, Granny Ren had evolved into a being that could create a D-level Supernatural event. Compared to Ke''er, her rank was definitely higher, and not lower.