Chapter 50: Hat
Li Chi Yu’s answer made Su Min curious. He asked, “Why would you think that he’s a magician?”
A magician wouldn’t usually dress up as a clown, right?
Li Chi Yu answered: “I’ve seen magic begore. Magicians would always wear clothes like this, but they wouldn’t have that kind of makeup on their face.”
That clown makeup looked very scary.
Jiang Taozhi interjected: “How do you know that it’s makeup? I can’t tell that it is. I’ve been using makeup all these years and it doesn’t look like it. I suspect that’s his original face.”
She looked at Le Ling: “Right?”
It was unusual for Le Ling to hesitate for a moment, “Yeah.”
Su Min felt that Jiang Taozhi’s words sounded even more horrible, but it was undeniable that it does indeed fit the plot of a horror movie.
The water tank was pulled out and placed in the centre of the stage.
The clown politely bowed to the audience. Apart from his face, he didn’t look scary at all.
The calmer it was, the more dangerous it would be.
Su Min didn’t know what the clown wanted to do but he could vaguely tell that someone would die or someone had already died.
The person performing may even be a ghost.
The entire stage was dark, but you can you could see the things on it clearly. This included the clown’s movements and expressions.
Su Min examined the area around him.
This place looked like it was enclosed. The roof was visible above and the surroundings were dark. Only the seats in this area could be clearly made out.
He was sitting in the first row and was very close to the stage.
If he just took one step forward, he would be right next to the stage.
If you were an impulsive audience, you could easily rush on stage to see what was up there.
A woman in the back patted her chest and said: “After all that, we’re really just here to watch a show. Scared me to death.”
She thought she would be killed in the middle of nowhere.
Su Min internally thought that she would probably really be scared to death later.
Li Chi Yu recognised this pattern and whispered: “I’ve seen magic before. I’ve seen this. It’s called Escaping the Water Tank.”
Escaping the Water Tank was a very common magic. Just from its name, you can tell what the magic was about. The key point was escape.
A lot of magic tricks involve the use of various tricks. It would depend on the magician whether or not they wanted to reveal the tricks. Otherwise, you would need to figure it out yourself.
This also applied to Escaping the Water Tank.
But Li Chi Yu didn’t pay any attention to this, so he didn’t know the secret trick behind the escape.
Su Min had never paid attention to magic and had to rely on Li Chi Yu to understand what was being performed.
Su Min furrowed his brows: “Then is the person escaping a human or a ghost?”
Those words of his alarmed several people.
It was impossible for the magician to enter and perform himself. Generally speaking, a.s.sistants or live audiences would be invited to perform. A trick like Escaping the Water Tank usually involved the partic.i.p.ation of an a.s.sistant or team member.
Jiang Taozhi subconsciously commented: “It can’t be a ghost right......?”
The strange things that they had encountered at the hotel and on their way here seemed to be connected. They now well and truly believed that ghosts exist in this world.
Now that they’re at a strange performance venue with the strange staff, it wasn’t unusual for them to suspect this.
Su Min whispered: “If the magician is a ghost, then the performer might be human.”
It seemed to be rather impossible for two spooky ghosts to perform for them. It would be much more stimulating for a human to be involved instead.
In the early hours of this morning, he had received a hint with the word “Show”. At that time he was still doubtful but now he was certain.
Li Chi Yu spoke with surprise: “If the performer is human, then is it possible that they were already caught?”
If you asked him to perform here, he wouldn’t be willing to do it even if you paid him.
Jiang Taozhi said: “That is very possible. After leaving the hotel, many people have gone missing. We still don’t know where they went.”
Su Min didn’t think they had died.
Because if they died, they could do that directly in the hotel. It was also more terrifying using a living human rather than a dead human.
The definition of a horror movie is horror. This can easily be achieved by inducing panic and fear.
The clown on the stage pulled out a black cloth.
The group of spectators silently watched his movements. He used the cloth to cover the water tank.
After a few seconds, the clown lifted the cloth up.
The water tank that was covered was once again revealed. This time, it was different. There was another figure inside it.
At first glance, everyone could fell that it was a woman. Her hair was scattered out and her entire body was swollen from extended exposure to water.
She floated in the water while her hands, feet and body were all tied up with chains. She couldn’t break free.
The people at the back whispered: “Who is this? Is it that clown’s a.s.sistant?”
“It looks pretty realistic. Unless they’ve already agreed on something, it looks impossible escaping from something like that.”
“It’s an a.s.sistant. I’m glad I didn’t need to go up to perform. If I go in, I definitely won’t be able to escape.”
“It looks very exciting.”
The people sitting in the first row could clearly see the person inside the water tank.
Seeing that face in the water, Su Min was startled.
He had met this person. It was Zhou Qing Qing, the woman from the first couple that he had ran into on the first day at the hotel.
When he saw Xu Jian alone in the hall the next day, he suspected that something had probably happened between the two and now he had found the answer.
Turns out, Zhou Qing Qing was already gone on the first day.
Su Min still didn’t know how Zhou Qing Qing disappeared. He had only heard a scream at that time, but he didn’t see anyone when he came out.
Li Chi Yu noticed that his expression didn’t look right. He asked, “What’s wrong?”
Su Min said: “I’ve seen this person.”
He mentioned what happened previously.
Jiang Taozhi suddenly recalled something: “Didn’t we find that abnormal change in the carpet that day? And it disappeared the next day. Could it have something to do with her disappearance?”
Su Min thought of these two incidents and felt that it sounded possible.
There was definitely something meaningful about that carpet. It had disappeared after Zhou Qing Qing disappeared on the first day. Perhaps it was because it had already taken away someone.
Li Chi Yu asked: “So she should be dead now?”
Su Min nodded: “Yes, dead.”
He had seen Zhou Qing Qing’s face before. It wasn’t this swollen. She looked like she was soaked in water for a very long time.
Under the dim lighting, Zhou Qing Qing’s appearance in the water looked very terrifying.
Su Min looked back at the others and wanted tolocate Xu Jian but it was too dark, and he could only turn back.
The clown on the stage appeared to be miming. He danced over to the water tank and even knocked on the wooden boards a few times.
He then slammed heavily on the water tank.
The body that was floating in the water tank suddenly opened her eyes. She looked straight at the audience.
Even Su Min was startled by this.
The moment Zhou Qing Qing opened her eyes was very scary. No matter which seat you sat in, it looked as if she was looking at you. Gasps could be heard coming from the audience.
Li Chi Yu muttered: “Scared me to death!”
Zhou Qing Qing opened her eyes and remained immobile for a few seconds. She then started to struggle violently. She wanted to break free from the chains and get out.
No one in the audience dared to speak.
Su Min sensed that the more Zhou Qing Qing struggled, the tighter the chains bound around her. Adding to that the suffocation from being in water, her expression was filled with fear.
She couldn’t help but open her mouth and water rushed in.
Li Chi Yu looked on intently: “Why hasn’t she escaped yet? Is it because she’s a corpse?”
Su Min: “...........”
Jiang Taozhi complained: “It must be impossible to escape. That clown is just here to watch the show.”
The clown had been walking around the water tank. Every time he knocked onto the tank, Zhou Qing Qing who had managed to float up a little would sink back down.
Her eyes were already very wide open, and her eyeb.a.l.l.s looked like it was about to come out. Her body was bound tightly by the iron chains causing small pieces of flesh to be exposed out from the gaps.
Someone then spoke up: “So boring. I thought she could escape.”
Others echoed his words.
Su Min felt that a cannon fodder indeed is just a cannon fodder. The protagonist couldn’t say things like that lest they get cursed by the audience, so it was up to the job of a cannon fodder.
Minutes and seconds pa.s.sed.
After a final bout of struggle, Zhou Qing Qing stopped moving.
Just when everyone thought she had lost the last of her life, Zhou Qing Qing’s body suddenly twitched, and the chain instantly tightened.
Zhou Qing Qing’s entire body was ripped to shreds.
Su Min’s heart almost missed a beat. Blood dripped down from the water tank. Some of Zhou Qing Qing’s body fragments floated in the water while others sank down.
The black hair that left the body fluttered in the water like seaweed.
Li Chi Yu stammered: “What is this?”
If she died, she died. But why would she die like this?
For a moment, everyone’s breathing hastened and no one dared to say anything. They could only cover their mouths with a complete look of fear.
Su Min recovered and said: “I didn’t expect this kind of ending.”
He had thought that Zhou Qing Qing would probably just drown in the water. He didn’t expect something like this.
The clown smiled at the water tank.
The curtain on the stage was closed once again, covering the water tank. The clown then took off his top hat.
Li Chi Yu murmured: “Is it a hat trick now?”
Su Min only knew about hat tricks in soccer. He didn’t know that it also was a term used in magic.
He asked: “What is a hat trick?”
Li Chi Yu had seen a lot of magic. He explained: “I don’t know if you’ve seen magic before, but magicians would usually pull things out of hats like pigeons and roses and the like.”
The magic trick was simple. The most common one that he had seen was magicians pulling out a rabbit from their hat.
Su Min came to an understanding: “I see.” He had overcomplicated things.
Li Chi Yu frowned and said: “But I don’t now what he’s going to pull out. I have a bad feeling.”
Su Min naturally felt that it wouldn’t be anything good. The first magic trick resulted in Zhou Qing Qing’s tragic state so this next one would probably be even more troublesome.
Jiang Taozhi said: “Although his hat is only that big, for some reason I keep thinking that he’s going to pull someone out.........”
The clown onstage was already showing his hat to the audience to demonstrate that it was empty.
He then raised his hat and reached inside.
Li Chi Yu: “Soon. He’s going to pull something out.”
Su Min who had been watching the show suddenly felt a pull. His body seemed to be about to leave the seat.
His heart went cold. He looked at the clown. The clown was staring at him.
The pulling force got stronger and stronger. A cold chill ran down Su Min’s back. He was completely unable to save himself.
The people next to him were all looking at the stage and they didn’t notice his predicament.
But the next moment, he was pressed down onto his seat by two hands. On stage, the clowns hand flew back out of the hat.
The cold sensation behind him was replaced by a new one but it allowed Su Min to relax.
The pulling force had suddenly disappeared. Su Min leaned back against the chair and felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking over to one side, he saw Chen Su.