"Okay. So now - " When Andria was no longer in the camera, Wu Xiaoming rubbed his hands at the camera: " - now that we are left to ourselves. We can try to stay here for a night - a few nights if needed, to see if we can record the mysterious knockings. And then - we'll check out 'The Room of Wandering Dream' when we get the chance."
"Cut." Leslie McKinsey raised his right hand up with his thumb up: "Good! Good, we can use this take. And let's get ready to set up the cameras and mics - on screen. "
"Jake." The director then gestured to the sound guy who had been holding the boom mic: "You come and help, make sure they can cover all the corners."
"Sure… sure." The sound guy nodded and put down the boom mic and proceeded to the box of tools carried in by two men: "Here, Mr. Wu, let's get started."
"Please, call me Xiaoming. " Wu Xiaoming went over and took out a small camera: "Where should I put it?"
"By the window, facing the bed. Then have a mic in the space between the bed and the night stand." Leslie McKinsey said.
"And we'll need one under the bed as well." Jake the sound guy raised his hand.
"Sure, just make sure they can pick up."
The cameraman recorded their process of setting up cameras and hidden mics in the room, then everyone proceeded to Room 304 to repeat the process. Tonight, Tammy would be staying in Room 304 while Wu Xiaoming would be in 404. Both of them would carry a walkie-talkie, a handheld camera, as well as keep their phones and tagged-on microphones with them.
"Okay, now." Wu Xiaoming stood in front of his bed in 404 and asked Tammy, who showed up in a few earlier shots: "Tammy, you ready?"
"Hell yeah!" Tammy smiled.
"Then, let's start some Unwise Encounters." Wu Xiaoming smiled and had to fight through the cringe.
"Alright." After wrapping up this take, Leslie McKinsey went up to Wu Xiaoming and Tammy: "Really good work. Then, just like we talked about, we will just keep your clothes on and try to sleep through the night. If anyone hears anything, you wake the other person up. We will be listening from the control room, if we hear something but you are still asleep, we will wake you up. Am I clear?"
"Yes." Wu Xiaoming and Tammy answered at the same time.
Having taken a quick shower, Wu Xiaoming changed into his night clothes, then laid on his bed. The time was still relatively early - only around 8:30PM. If possible, he would like to go into the ethereal realm before it was completely dark, and look around a little if possible.
With only a little bit of effort, he fell asleep. As expected, he woke up in the room, on the floor, actually. A chilling sensation shot through his entire body. He bounced up from the ground and looked around - it was coming from the room itself, possibly to his right.
On the floor, where the cloud of dark smoke was in real life, was the shadow of a woman - a woman in an old, dirty bath robe, lying on the ground, face down.
This would explain the cloud he had seen in real life. Though it was the very first time he encountered a spirit that was not hostile right away - aside from Bradley the Golden Retriever.
He inched closer to the shadow of the woman. She was down on the ground, shaking, twitching. She was also hyperventilating, though the sound of her breath seemed suppressed. A similar kind of dark smoke shrouded her entire body, yet it only flowed within a few inches' distance from her, not rising, not overflowing to other corners. It was as if the dark smoke was just there to protect her - or, to restrain her.
Not knowing which it was, Wu Xiaoming circled to the woman's left, where her face was also facing. Her hair covered her face, yet through it he could clearly see her left eye - opened wide, her pupil shaking, losing and then gaining focus repeatedly. It was hard to tell if she saw Wu Xiaoming, but she did seem to be trying to raise her left hand up.
There was no way to tell time, so Wu Xiaoming decided to simply look around and then he would exit. The knocking sound, if his assumptions were correct, would be from this very woman, though it was hard to tell how she did it.
He took a quick check of his skills and inventory. He had the Arhat skill assigned, and he should have a much better time engaging in physical combat. And the skill seemed to have also granted him mental images of certain hand to hand combat moves, and some kind of understanding of which was somewhat hard to describe - maybe he could try to use it in real life and see how this understanding would be like. As for inventory, an additional item was quite a surprise: a string of beads.
"Blessed Beads: made of high quality sandalwood, blessed by an enlightened Buddhist monk. Grants passive skills: Clear Mind, Protection."
Surprising would be a gross understatement. It was the first time that he could bring an item into the ethereal realm, aside from his own clothes. He was tempted to try it, but there was no way to tell what would happen to it in real life if it was damaged in the realm. "Clear Mind" was most likely a skill that would literally help him maintain a clear mind and not get easily influenced; "Protection", the very reason he did not want to wear it right away - there were plenty of stories of blessed items, or highly sentimental items, that would protect their owners by taking all kinds of "hit" or "bad luck" for them and breaking in the process. He did not want to risk that yet.
Leaving the woman where she was, Wu Xiaoming took a step out of his room to look around. The hallway outside of his room was dark but empty, and there was barely any light, only some kind of pale glow coming from the walls.
With two morningstars in hand, Wu Xiaoming sped to the staircase and rushed down. The hallway on the floor below was in a similar condition: empty, dark. He found his way to 304 and checked around - on the spot almost directly below where the woman was lying, was also a small dark spot, with dark smoke rising up into the air. Then, he looked up at the ceiling and almost jumped.
Right on the ceiling, directly under the spot where the woman was, was a human-shaped blob of dark, tarry liquid. Half a nose, and one eye dangled from the blob. The woman's right eye and nose, he could only imagine.
Dark smoke also shrouded the blob, though to a lesser extent. And just as Wu Xiaoming tried to look closer, a drop of liquid fell from the eye. He dodged to the side, but was still hit in the face by a warm stench. The stench of a rotten dead, they said one could never forget it, he believed them now.
"Shit." Wu Xiaoming wretched for a few seconds before darting out the door. If only he could control his reactions better - he needed to. If he was to keep fighting in this realm, stench would surely be a common occurrence. He would have a much better chance at prevailing encounters if he could withstand the disturbances like this.
Without much hesitation, he rushed back to his room. The woman was still there, but just in the few moments' time, her body had begun to rot. Her hair had grayed and fallen off her head, her clothes were wet and darkened from the stain. The familiar stench had also arisen and filled the air.
"Holy crap." Wu Xiaoming had to cover his nose. But almost right at this moment, a tiny stream of Qi from his meridians flowed from his neck and onto his nose, blocking his nostrils and somehow began filtering the air and lightening the foul smell.
Amazed at the helpful use of Qi, Wu Xiaoming inched closer to the woman. The body of the woman collapsed gradually, possibly due to her flesh decomposing. More liquid seeped through her clothes as well as pooling on the ground beside her. More of her hair fell off, as the foul dark liquid spread wider. Yet as he scanned the surface of the liquid, one thing caught his eyes: underneath the liquid, revealed the patterns from the carpet, while the other parts of the floor was just bare cement.
Wu Xiaoming took a step closer and lowered his body gradually so he could get a closer look while not having to get too close. But before he could find the perfect distance to get a clear view of the edge between the carpeted floor and bare cement, the woman raised her hand - a hand that had barely any flesh or skin on it at this point, and slammed the ground.
"KNOCK."