Chanonei no.81.
It's a haunted mansion in Beijing, located at Chaoyangmenei Street. LAst time, this place used as a movie location. But since then, it closed for the adventurous people who want to explore the mansion. Even so, in front of the mansion always packed by the visitors who want to get into the mansion. Like today. It's 9 in the evening when we arrive at the mansion. We ride a car that we rent from Uncle Tseu, the flat owner.
"Heh! Are you sure we are going to go inside?" I whisper in Zhuo Cheng's ear.
"For the content in our channel, Zhan...' Zhuo Cheng mutters.
"But how do we get int?" asks Hai Kuan, looking at the surrounding.
There are vehicles in a row of the parking area in front of the building. The people scattered on the ground. Some are trying to find a way to get into the house. There are guards who preventing the trespassers who trying to barge into the building.
"Many people here, and none of them are able to go inside..." says Hai Kuan.
"That's why we need to find the way...' Zhuo Cheng hisses.
He moves to the side of the building, scanning the situation. He walks back to us when he saw two guards come out of a guardhouse.
"damnit. Too many guards here..." Zhuo Cheng speaks under his clenched teeth.
"Maybe we need to get to the back of the building," says Hai Kuan.
I look around to find an empty space where there is no guard lurking around.
"Pst...! Follow me..." I whisper to my two fellows and start to walk to the other side of the building that seems no guard patrolling.
I try to find an entrance to get access to the inside of the building. There is a door. I grab the handle and try to open it. Locked. Very tigjtly. I turn to my buddies. They seem to look around to get an access, too.
"Dudes...." Zhao Cheng signalled us. He is looking up on the wall.
We follow the trail of his sight. There is a small window at the second floor. Opened.
"How to get there?" I ask.
"Of course climb, la!" Zhuo Cheng looks at me with a scowling face.
"How to climb? It's a wall!" I cry.
"Sshh.... Shut up, idiot! Lower your voice!" Zhuo Cheng flicks my head and whispered a shout.
"I'll show you!" Hai Kuan voiced out.
He moves to the wall made by bricks. He tries to find the pop out bricks and use them to hold and step on and start to climb. With his slender figure, he is quite fast in climbing. I only cringe seeing him has such a skill. He's a karate club's frontline, after all.
In a short time, he reached the opened window.
"Throw me the rope!" Hai Kuan shouts in a whisper.
Zhuo Cheng who has a small rope in his haversack, takes it out and throws the rope up to Hai Kuan. I look around for the security.
I saw Hai Kuan tying the rop.on something in the building.
"Nah! Hop on!" Zhuo Cheng shoves the rope in front of my face.
I turn to him quizly. Zhuo Cheng signalled me to take the rope and start to climb. I want to make a protest, but I stop when I hear Hai Kuan shouting in a whisper.
"Hurry up! The guards are all over the place....,!"
With a heavy heart, I take the rope from Zhuo Cheng. I'm not svyared of climbing the wall, but I more scared of entering the haunted mansion. The authority has forbidden us from entering the mansion, and here now we are trespassing the boundary.
I start to climb. One step, two steps.
"Hi! We are here, in a famous haunted building in Beijing. We are in Chaoyang now. Do you know where we are now?'
I hear Zhuo Cheng rambling. I look down. Oh! Great! He's taking live now on our channel. I roll my eyes. He tale the video of my butt now. I continue to climb while Zhuo Cheng still taking a video.
"Zhuo Cheng! Don't take live! People will know where we are and maybe some of them will report us!" Hai Kuan reminding him.
"If we upload the edited video, the viewers won't believe us that we are here!" Zhuo Cheng scowls.
"We'll get nothing if we're get caught!' replies Hai Kuan.
I hear Zhuo Cheng grumbling, but he ended the video eventually.
Hai Kuan helps me to climb on the window. I landed my feet on the ground. In this room is cold,.and the scent of mystic all over the place. The smell of ages dust attacking out nostrils. I sneeze a few times.
"Wear this...!" Hai Kuan gives me a surgical face mask.
I glance at him and take the mask. I look behind. It is dark. Only lit up by the lights from outside. I feel I start to hearing things,and it makes me shiver. I hold on Hai Kuan's elbow. He glances at me but doesn't say anything.
"Where we start?" Zhuo Cheng asks, once his feet touched the floor.
Hai Kuan pulls and rolls the rope up. He gives it back to Zhuo Cheng to put it back on his haversack.
"You both go ahead. I'll capture some.moments and stuff here...!" Says Zhuo Cheng with his GoPro camera ready in his hand.
We don't say much. We have to hurry before the night falls and the guards notice us. We walk deeper into the building. We use the flashlights to lighten the way. Zhuo Cheng has his headlamp because his hand busy holding the camera and capturing the surroundings.
"It the famous Baroque Beijing mansion. Chanonei no.81. Here is cold like in autumn, but here no air conditioner. The dust makes me hachoo hachoo....!" I start to speak through the mini microphone I clip on my collar.
"We haven't found anything interesting, yet... But we can feel the mystic scent which creating goosebumps all over our body...." Hai Kuan added.
We entering a room. Here is very stuffy. The damp sensation hitting the coldness from.outside.
"Strange.... Here is warmer and humid compare tothe outside....." I say.
"Holly shit!"
Suddenly Zhuo Cheng shouts, makes us snap our attention at him. We saw him dashing out,. run climbing down the stairs. We chase after him.
"Zhuo Cheng! What happened?" Hai Kuan asks when we catch up with him on the stairs.
"I saw it!" Zhuo Cheng replies without stopping climbing down the stairs and scanning his camera at every corner.
"What did you see?" I ask.
Zhuo Cheng stops in the end of the step, then he walks slowly to the huge room that seems as a living room. There are furnitures covered under the dusty white sheets that turned yellow. The condition here is not different from the second floor. It's dark.
"I saw a flash of a figure. White color. Maybe it's a dress...." Says Zhuo Cheng.
"Do you mean it's a female?" I ask again.
"I'm not sure. The height is about 6" or less. It's very fast ran downstairs...." Replies him.
"Are you sure it's a figure if person?.maybe you just seeing things...." says Hai Kuan, commenting.
"Tch! I'm sure! My eyes still very sharp to see far....!" Zhuo Cheng glares at Hai Kuan.
Hai Kuan only bobs his head and continues exploring the area. My flashlight flashing around the area.
"Zhan.... Don't flash your light like that. That can attract the people's attention outside...!" Hai Kuan pushes my flashlight down.
I flashing the light like I'm playing it on the wall. I pout. But Hai Kuan was right. So, I follow his advice. I step in further. My flashlight catch a glimpse of stone with a curved hole. I come closer. Oh! Wow,! A huge fireplace. The inside is dark. There is ash,.remaining of people burning the wooden inside the fireplace. The ash turns yellowish, means no one used it for a.long time. Maybe years, since the house owner left it to be haunted.
The pictures on the top of the fireplace catch my attention.
"Cheng.... Look at this....!" I call Zhuo Cheng who has the camera with him.
I feel Zhuo Cheng approaching me.
"The pictures.... Maybe they are the people who ever stayed in this mansion....!" I tell him.
Zhuo Cheng starts to take the video of the photographs. The people inside the pictures are mixed, the local people and a few.of them are white people. Maybe it's a family pictures.
While Zhuo Cheng busy with the pictures, I walk to the wall, where a big frame catching my attention. I pointing my light up to the wall. It's a painting. Not huge. But big enough to cover the wall that extended alone like a pillar. I trail my light up to the painting, from the bottom and up, up, and I see the face of the person in the painting.
It's a man with a cold gaze staring at me through his sharp slanted eyes. I can tell he has a fair skin. There is not even a slight of smile of his face. He's wearing a white hanfu and a white robe. His hair was long like a girl and he let it to fall.on his back. And he has a tall figure.
"I think he comes from the ancient era...." Zhuo Cheng mumbles beside my ear.
"He's very handsome. I bet many girls want to be his bride at that time...." I mutter.
Zhuo Cheng turns to me, I can see from the corner of my eye.
"Don't you like girls? Don't you fall for Zoey?" He sneers.
"I don't mind to be gay for this guy...." I mumble, unconsciously.
"Heh! Don't say such a thing in front of the deceased's grave!" Zhuo Cheng hits my back.
I turn to him with a scowling face.
"I only speak in front of he painting. Maybe he never been exist, anyway!" I scowl.
"If he never exist, then why is he in the painting?" Zhuo Cheng retorts.
"Maybe he's created from the painter's imagination. Like Naruto. I don't think a man as fine as him will ever exist in real life....!" I say.
"Whatever...!" Zhuo Cheng rolls his eyes. He moves to the other corner.
"Aaarrgghhh!!!"
Suddenly there is someone screaming from the other side of the house.
"Who's that?" Hai Kuan runs approaching us.
"I think some other trespassers!' Zhuo Cheng replies.
There is a click sound from the big main door.
"Shit! The guards! Run!' Zhuo Cheng shouts.
We quickly run back upstairs and get back to the entrance where we entered.
"Hey! Stop!!' one of the guards shouts.
But of course, there is no way for is to obey them. We keep running until we reach the window.
"Rope! Cheng! Rope!" Cries Hai Kuan.
"Just jump!' Says Zhuo Cheng. He has no time to unpack his haversack right now.
"They're coming!" I turn to Hai Kuan who stands in front of the window, hesitant to jump down.
"Aish!" Hai Kuan climbs over the ledge and gets ready to jump to the ground.
The sound of footsteps come closer. I keep turning to the sound, and I saw them approaching us.
"Shit! Hai Kuan! Quick jump!" I shout at my cousin.
I turn again to the guards. And I stun when I saw then just walking around, searching for something, opening the room doors when we are here, in an opened area. Then I saw them walk further to the other side of the building where the screaming sound came from.
"Eh! Rat! Jump!"
I hear Zhuo Cheng shouting from downstairs. I take a look to the outside. I saw Hai Kuan and Zhuo Cheng are standing, looking up at me.
I quickly climb over the ledge and with all the courage that I have, I jump down the building.
"Quick! Quick!"
We quickly run to our vehicle. Hai Kuan quickly starting the engine and pull up from the lot and start to drive on the driveway.
"You see here?" Zhuo Cheng shows the video he took. He keeps replying the video on the certain timer.
Yeah.... I saw a figure flashing behind me, where Zhuo Cheng was standing a few steps behind me. Someone with long hair wearing a white robe, running outside. The video is shaking, means Zhuo cheng holding it while he was running to chase the figure which runs downstairs.
And at that time I feel the chill grabbing the back of my neck. I want to turn to the back, thought the window is open, but I feel my neck is stiff. I can't turn.
"What happened to you?" Hai Kuan who notices me trying to turn my neck but failed, ask.
"I can't turn...." I reply to him.
"Tch! You must be sprained your neck when you jumped....!" Says Hai Kuan. He extends his hand to touch the back of my neck and gives it a light massage.
It's strange. When Hai Kuan touched my neck, the chill suddenly gone and my neck becomes at ease again. I turn to the window. It's closed.
"Feel better?" Hai Kuan asks when he saw me can turn my neck again. He drops his hand from my neck.
I turn to him and smile.
"Yeah..." I reply, rubbing my neck because I'm feeling shiver through my spine.