Nightmare Assault

“This appears to be a play,” Tang Shirou whispered, “I’ve seen people from the art department rehearse before. This is similar to the draft prepared by their teacher.”

“A script…” You Qi agreed.

An Xuan put away the paper and asked the middle-aged woman, “Does the young master need only a few of us or all of you?”

“All.”

“Will everyone have a copy of this?” An Xuan showed the paper in his hand.

“No.” The middle-aged woman shook her head. “After you’re done studying this, I’ll hand this over to the Dafus in the other two rooms.” The middle-aged woman extended her hand, asking for the paper back.

An Xuan smiled and said in a respectful tone, “How about this? We won’t trouble you anymore. I’ll inform them for you.”

The middle-aged woman stared at her coolly. She asked, “Can you guarantee they will all attend the show?”

An Xuan nodded, “Yes.”

“Midnight,” The middle-aged woman continued, “Listen to the drums as the signal. Please prepare everything according to the young master’s request and gather at the platform by the water.

“Before that, you can enjoy the meal at the lakeside pavilion. The meals have been prepared. The items required for the play are placed near the pavilion. Don’t forget about them.”

“Don’t worry,” An Xuan answered. The middle-aged woman glanced at An Xuan before turning to leave. Like before, she looked like she was moving slowly, but she disappeared instantly.

A play…

“Listening to the play is scary enough. Now, we have to join the play?” You Qi was confused, “Who will be our scene partners? The ghosts?” Tang Shirou’s legs wobbled. Earlier, she was drawn by the painting. Then, in a few hours, she had to join Young Master Huang in a play.

“Brother You,” An Xuan turned around and said in a firm tone, “If you are unwilling, no one is forcing you to go.” You Qi shut up instantly. He was just grumbling. He knew the weight of the situation. If he didn’t go, something would definitely happen to him. Plus, they still had to deal with the strange painting in their room.

“Mr. An,” Qin Jian was more polite to An Xuan. He looked at the paper he was holding and probed, “Are we… going to inform the others?”

An Xuan turned to Qin Jian and suddenly smiled, “Elder Qin, what are you talking about? We’re all drawn into this mess. It’s natural for us to look after each other.”

Qin Jian was startled. He understood he had misspoken. “I was wrong. What I meant was… when should we go to inform them?”

“How about now?” An Xuan held the paper tightly and said, “We should inform them as soon as possible so we can have sufficient time to prepare.”

“Mr. An has a point.” Tang Shirou agreed, “With more people working together, we can come up with a better solution.” Qin Jian and You Qi didn’t even pretend to listen to Tang Shirou.

An Xuan’s group left their room and went to Zuo Qing’s room. Before they knocked, the door opened. Shi Liaozhi’s blond ruffled hair stood out. “What’s going on?” Zuo Qing beside him asked. Clearly, they saw the middle-aged woman walk over to An Xuan’s room, so they were prepared.

“We have a show tonight.” An Xuan walked into the room with the paper. “It’s Young Master Huang’s request. We have to act beside him.”

Before Zuo Qing’s group could react, An Xuan turned to leave. However, to his surprise, Jiang Cheng’s group was already there to block their exit. “What happened?” Xia Meng raised her chin to ask. She didn’t give An Xuan face.

An Xuan glanced at Jiang Cheng’s room’s closed door and said, “Earlier, Butler Zhou sent people over to inform us of a play tonight.” He paused. “Young Master Huang requests we participate in the play.” Fatty’s face paled. “Tonight,” An Xuan stared into Jiang Cheng’s eyes, “At midnight.”

After a silence, Jiang Cheng, who was staring back at An Xuan, said calmly, “I’m scared.” A few gazes studied Jiang Cheng’s face before moving quickly away.

Only Tang Shirou was absorbed in her own world. She couldn’t pick up the shift in the atmosphere. She looked at Jiang Cheng and said anxiously, “Mr. An came to inform you guys at the first notice, or else it would be the middle-aged woman who’d come to you!” She was quick to praise An Xuan. In her mind, interacting with the middle-aged woman would only bring bad luck.

An Xuan’s eyes twitched.

“It sounds like we have to thank Mr. An.” It was Zuo Qing who spoke. She was already annoyed that An Xuan burst into their room without permission. She had noticed something else.

“Since Mr. An intercepted the news, did Mr. An discover anything else?” Jiang Cheng asked pleadingly.

An Xuan replied in a casual way, “This is something sent over by Young Master Huang. It records the things we need to prepare as well as the actions we have to do during the play.” He opened the paper.

“It’s getting dark,” Someone announced.

They looked up. The sun that was above their head had already moved down the horizon. Even though everyone knew that the time flow in the nightmare realm was different from the real world, this was too absurd. It felt like… only night mattered there.

“Let’s go eat first,” Fatty suggested, “We can talk over the food.”

Due to the incident, everyone had no appetite during dinner. Once they realised Young Master Huang would soon show up, no one could swallow the food. After a quick dinner, the travellers came to the tree outside the pavilion. There were a few big boxes. They should be the props required that night.

They opened the boxes. Inside were human heads arranged neatly. The heads were made from paper mache. The facial features were cheaply painted on, with blushes and such. The heads were hollow, with two large holes where the eyes should be. They were light.

You Qi picked up a head. He commented strangely, “Why… does this look so much like the paper item burned for the dead?”