Chapter 102: Ghost In The Movie Theater

Once Chen Chuan was brought into the lounge of the movie theater, an attendant served him tea. Soon, a plump middle-aged man came in. He might have run, since he was gasping for breath and was sweating at his temples.

When he saw Chen Chuan, he shook his hand with a sweaty palm and said in a friendly manner, “I’m Huang Dacheng. You must be Agent Chen.”

Chen Chuan did not mind the sweat on his palm. He gave Huang Dacheng’s hand a firm squeeze as he said, “Call me Chen Chuan. I’m just a Martial Valor University student right now, not an agent yet.”

Huang Dacheng remained as friendly as ever. “That’s fine. We all know that you’ve accomplished many things despite being so young. I heard that you’re even an expert in this area. I’m sorry for the basic conditions in the lounge and for not being able to serve you properly. Anyway, please come with me.”

Chen Chuan walked up an open staircase. While Huang Dacheng led the way, he introduced the place. “Black Orchid invested in our movie theater, so now it can house five thousand people at once. We also provide dining, balls, concerts, and other similar services. We’ve hosted many of the large-scale social events in the city...”

He continued talking as he brought Chen Chuan to his office. It was a room filled with a Western, retro air. It had a leather sofa, a large gilded desk, a wine cabinet with imported, famous wine, arched, stained-glass windows, black-and-white floral-patterned tiles, a crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling, and a large gramophone in a corner. Its golden horn was directed at the center of the room.

The curtains were pulled back so that gentle sunlight could flow into the room. Chen Chuan took a few steps toward it. From where he stood, he could see the square outside, along with finely dressed men and women coming and going. Sometimes, luxury cars he could not even name drove past.

Just then, he heard a relaxing tune. When he turned around, he found that Huang Dacheng had turned on the gramophone.

Huang Dacheng walked over to him and said with a smile, “The movie theater is located at the best spot in all of the southern part of Yangzhi City. It’s almost the end of the year, so the citizens come to the movie theaters when they have free time, but...”

He trailed off with a sigh.

“I’m here to solve that problem for you, Mr. Huang,” Chen Chuan declared.

“Of course. Thank you, Mr. Chen. Please, take a seat.” Huang Dacheng led Chen Chuan to a sofa. “Would you like something to drink?”

“Plain water will do,” Chen Chuan answered.

Huang Dacheng gave him a thumbs up. “That’s a good habit to have. Drinking hurts the body, and juices are far too sweet. They just give you temporary pleasure. Plain water is much better. It’s mild and soothing. Truly, a gentleman’s drink.”

He poured a glass of water before delivering it to Chen Chuan respectfully.

Chen Chuan took it with a thanks.

Huang Dacheng waved it off. “You don’t have to thank me. I’m the one who should be thanking you for coming all the way here to solve this problem for us.”

Chen Chuan did not bother with the pleasantries anymore and went straight to business. “Mr. Huang, how many days has it been since the first time it happened? The information I received said that it has been around a month. Do you have the exact date?”

When Huang Dacheng heard Chen Chuan talking about business, he focused on it as well. His expression became serious as he thought about it. “It has been twenty-five days.”

“Has it ever happened before?” Chen Chuan asked.

Huang Dacheng sighed. “Before I took over, I heard some rumors, but I thought that they were just ghost stories the former management spread to bring business in. You know how it is. Ghost stories always catch people’s attention. After all, most people have a morbid curiosity toward these things.”

Chen Chuan could understand it. He was as curious as anyone when it came to mysterious things, but he was more interested in exploring the causes and the source of what was causing his second self harm. “Mr. Huang, have you seen it yourself?”

Huang Dacheng trembled and shook his head rapidly.

“Has it ever shown up during other time periods?”

Huang Dacheng shook his head again. “Not for the time being. It only shows up between 8 p.m. and midnight.”

“Aside from the employees stated in the report, were there other employees or customers who got hurt? Please tell me the truth.” Chen Chuan looked at Huang Dacheng intently.

After some hesitation, Huang Dacheng nodded and raised a finger. “It was a drunk customer. We discovered his corpse the next day. We don’t even know how he managed to get there. But it’s just one, honest.”

Chen Chuan did not dive deeper into this. He pondered over the information and said, “I understand the gist of it. I’ll stay here tonight to take care of the problem for you.”

Ecstatic, Huang Dacheng came over to hold Chen Chuan’s hand. “Alright. I’ll leave it to you, Mr. Chen. If you have any requests, please tell me. I’ll do my best to fulfill them.”

“I only have one request: no one is allowed to get close to the place during that time period,” Chen Chuan stated.

Huang Dacheng nodded rapidly. “Of course. That’s for sure.”

He then took out a card and handed it to Chen Chuan with both hands as he said respectfully, “This is our movie theater’s VIP card. You can book an entire room for yourself with it and watch movies, dance performances, and concerts for free for an entire year. Please accept it.”

Chen Chuan readily accepted it. “Thank you, Mr. Huang. Can we check the place now?”

“Of course!” Huang Dacheng said, even though he did not dare to go there. Instead, he asked a trustworthy assistant to lead Chen Chuan to the auditorium where the accidents happened.

The auditorium could seat three hundred people. After inspecting the auditorium once, Chen Chuan sat down in the middle seat and waited for a while until the room went dark. Then, the projector behind him shone a light on the screen in front of him to start playing a movie screening in all the theaters.

The old Chen Chuan had loved movies, as evidenced by the movie posters at home. He spent quite a lot of money on them, so much so that he was reluctant to buy new clothes for himself. His favorites were the Swordsman and Mysterious Cave series.

After Chen Chuan transmigrated into his body, he started training and turned all of his attention to martial arts, so he had no time to watch movies anymore. This time, he picked movies the old Chen Chuan would have liked to make up for the latter’s regrets.

While he was watching the movie, a female attendant pushed a cart into the room to give him soda and snacks. Chen Chuan did not touch the soda, but he did try the snacks and felt that the fried arrowheads suited his tastes. They were crispy and tasted decent. They did not lose to the chips in his previous world.

Since he had come to solve a problem, the seats around him were not up for sale. He had the whole place to himself and watched one movie after another.

When it was time for dinner, Chen Chuan came out and had a lavish dinner in the restaurant. He also spoke to Huang Dacheng a bit before returning to the auditorium. He went back to the same seat as before and continued watching.

It was still empty around him. Chen Chuan sat alone under the large screen with the light from it occasionally reflecting on his face.

Time trickled by. After he finished yet another movie, he checked his watch. It was almost midnight, the time when trouble usually started.

Chen Chuan put his hand down, but did not do anything else. He just regulated his breathing so his mind would remain clear and continued watching the screen.

The movie had reached an important point. The protagonist had entered an unknown, deep cave, and the whole theater dimmed along with the screen. Then, the protagonist turned his flashlight on to shine a light on the things in the cave. The moment the protagonist turned on the flashlight, Chen Chuan noticed a person sitting in the seat two rows in front of him.

It seemed to be a woman, but Chen Chuan was only making that assumption because he could only see the person’s long hair. It was long enough to cover her shoulders.

As Chen Chuan stared at her back, he thought,

She’s here.

She was one of Yangzhi City’s urban legends—the movie theater’s midnight ghost. If a person watched a movie alone in Orchid Fragrance Theater at midnight, they might find themselves with an extra moviegoer keeping them company.

But they were absolutely not to talk to the moviegoer, because if they did, the moviegoer might be the one going back to the person’s home the next day, not the person themselves.

Chen Chuan sized up the moviegoer. Cheng Zitong had written that if he watched movies for three whole days without leaving the auditorium, the ghost would disappear on her own.

He was not to talk to the ghost during the entire process, and most importantly, not leave the auditorium. He was also not to go over to try and look at the ghost’s face.

This advice should have been made from the experiences of those who had dealt with the ghost before, and Chen Chuan had no intention to break the rules they set. If there was an easy way to solve a problem, there was no need for him to take any risks, so he just sat still.

He cast a glance at his second self, and just as he expected, his second self had started blurring out, just like how it did when he met the child in the well. Based on how it went that time, his second self was going to stay in this state for some time again, and due to the unique method required to deal with this urban legend, his second self might even stay “injured” for much longer this time.

Chen Chuan checked his watch. From then on, he was just going to stay still and watch the movie.

The sun would not be rising any time soon.

So, Chen Chuan turned his attention to the screen. After watching two movies in about three hours, he noticed something strange. It was not about the ghost but himself.

His mutated tissue grew faster, though the change was subtle. If He Xiaoxing had not taught him the method to observe himself, thus allowing him to be more sensitive toward his mutated tissue, Chen Chuan might not have noticed it.

He came to a sudden realization. Could his second self be blurring out because of it? Was this similar to the harm he suffered from using medicine to stimulate his mutated tissue?

If that were the case, did that mean that the urban legends provided a similar effect to the medicines, to a certain degree?

No. That could not be all there was to it.

Chen Chuan thought about it. He should have suffered some other damage about which he did not know due to his second self having absorbed all of it.

If that were the case, could he use the urban legend to guide his mutated tissue’s growth?

He did not want to get into any potential trouble, but he was at the crucial moment in regard to fixing his mutated tissue, especially when it came to the finer parts of the body. He could not allow his mutated tissue to grow on its own and without any order, since even the slightest deviation could become a problem in the future.

Hence, after some thinking, he used his breathing technique to guide the growth of his mutated tissue.

A few hours passed like that. When it was 4 a.m., Chen Chuan looked up and found that the woman was gone.

Chen Chuan sat around a little longer before he stood up. Once he left the auditorium, he walked along the corridor until he arrived outside and reported to the attendant who had been waiting anxiously outside. The attendant then immediately ran off to notify Huang Dacheng about it.

When Huang Dacheng heard that he came out, he ran over while using a handkerchief to wipe off his sweat. Upon seeing Chen Chuan, he asked with great urgency, “How was it, Mr. Chen?”

“I saw her,” Chen Chuan answered while looking straight into his eyes.

Huang Dacheng’s face turned pale, and he stuttered, “A-And then?”

“I’ll need three days to clear out this ghost. I’ll be coming here over the next few days,” Chen Chuan declared.

Huang Dacheng sighed in relief, and delight shone on his face. “Alright. I’ll have to trouble you for this. Once the job is done, we’ll give you a satisfactory gift.”

Chen Chuan nodded and left the movie theater. The driver sent him back to the university. After sleeping for a few hours, Chen Chuan got up for his daily training.

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

The next day, he did not go to the movie theater during the day. Instead, he asked the driver to pick him up at 6 p.m. When he went to the auditorium, he sat down in the middle again.

Huang Dacheng was really thoughtful and gave Chen Chuan another set of movies to watch. Quite a number of them were new movies too. Chen Chuan watched until it was around midnight, but the woman did not show up.

No... He was wrong. She had shown up, but she did not sit in the spot two rows ahead of him. This time, she chose a different seat.

She sat right next to him.