Chapter 146 123, Stone Bodhisattva
Chapter 146: One, Two, Three, Stone Bodhisattva
"In many places around the world, there is a legend that when a person is about to die, he or she will see another self."
The two male anchors sat side by side in the back seat of the SUV and said in unison to the tens of thousands of viewers across the camera: "During the live broadcast three years ago, the outdoor anchors who came to Zanju Town for adventure encountered such a thing."
There are a total of three vehicles heading to Zanju Town this time. In addition to the male and female anchors each riding in an SUV, there is also a mobile RV for the accompanying crew. They will camp here tonight.
The two male anchors in front of the camera are both in their twenties or thirties. The one wearing a white windbreaker is "Fishing Alone in a Cold River", and the one in a blue checkered suit is "The Most Affectionate Person in Shenzhen", also known as the Affectionate Brother.
The voice of Deep Affectionate Brother has a little bit of smoke and bubbling sound, which is very suitable for telling stories:
"It was late autumn of 2015. On August 8, a couple came to the long-abandoned, uninhabited town of Zanju. The boy was called Aqiang and the girl was called Azhen. They were both anchors of Yutai, mainly broadcasting outdoor content: cycling, mountaineering, camping... The couple opened their own Taobao store selling outdoor equipment, bringing their own goods."
"Both of them are from Zheyu County. To have something exciting, Ah Zhen and Ah Qiang came to the famous ghost town of Zanju Town. They planned to camp there for one night without any food or water, and use fishing gear, tents and other outdoor equipment sold in their own store to perform a wilderness survival show."
The reason is not difficult to understand. The weird story of Zanju Town is a good gimmick to attract customers. Azhen and Aqiang just took advantage of the tense atmosphere of the ghost story to promote their own stores.
"But this time, the delivery of goods took away Ah Zhen's life."
Diaodu Hanjiang took over Brother Shenqing’s words at the right time, and the low and soothing BGM started playing in the live broadcast room.
"Everything was normal at first. Aqiang parked the car in an abandoned parking lot outside the town, carried his equipment and went into the town together. The weather was very good that day, with clear blue skies. The two of them walked around the deserted town with selfie sticks, exploring the desolate buildings that had long been deserted."
"In the early years, there were many jade craftsmen and stonemasons in Zanju Town. The empty town was full of unfinished and discarded stone carvings, most of which were Buddha statues, stone lions, Pixiu, door gods and the like, locked in the courtyards and living rooms of every household."
"After the townspeople moved away, the houses were neglected and lost their vitality, and soon fell into disrepair. Several rainstorms washed away the dilapidated walls, exposing rows of statues in broad daylight. These statues were either Bodhisattvas, door gods or Arhats. After years of erosion by wind and rain, their faces became blurred and their facial features were muddy."
"More than one person who has ventured into Zanju Town has claimed that these stone statues seemed to be looking at them."
"Aqiang told a story to the live camera: Legend has it that the statues in Zanju Town are all spiritual. They will move around secretly when it is quiet and no one is around, visiting each other, just like the residents who once lived in the town... But once someone walks into the town and wants to see how they move, these stone statues will turn back into motionless dead objects."
[Urban Legend 1: The stone statues in Zanju Town only move when no one is watching them]
"The audience in the live broadcast room just listened to this story for fun. Someone sent a message urging Aqiang to find a place to camp quickly. They wanted to see the female anchor go air force. But as the two were walking, a rustling sound of footsteps suddenly rang out in the live broadcast room."
"The sound was very deep, like someone was dragging a millstone with a rope and rolling it on the loess road."
"The sound was also very short, and it quickly disappeared after just a few seconds."
"Many people thought they were hallucinating or that there was something wrong with Ah Zhen's radio equipment, but soon, Ah Qiang walked across a T-junction holding a selfie stick, and a mottled and cracked statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva with moss growing in the cracks appeared in front of everyone in the live broadcast room."
"It was a full-length statue about 1.3 meters tall, with a stone Bodhisattva holding his hands in the meditation seal, standing upright in the middle of the road, as if someone had moved it here."
"The audience in the live broadcast room started to make noises, saying, 'Stop the show, let the props team come out', 'The host is trying hard to attract traffic', 'Move it back quickly, otherwise Guanyin Bodhisattva will hold a grudge and won't give Azhen a baby'... all these comments started to fill the screen in the live broadcast room." "But only Azhen and Aqiang knew that this was not a prop they had prepared, nor was it for some show effect. The stone Buddha had been in the middle of the road from the beginning."
"Ah Zhen asked Ah Qiang tremblingly: "Did you find someone to move the Buddha to the middle of the road?"
"A Qiang shook his head: It might be a prank left by someone who came here to explore before."
He doesn't believe in ghosts and gods.
It would have been better if they didn't say anything. After the conversation between the two, the barrage in the live broadcast room became more and more lively, and the number of viewers increased sharply. Some people began to urge the anchor to go to the yard full of statues to experiment and see if these stone statues would move when no one was watching.
"A normal person would have been scared by this point. Even if they didn't turn around and leave, they would at least not take the initiative to provoke the dirty guys in the town. But the young couple was overwhelmed by the skyrocketing popularity of the live broadcast room. At the instigation of the audience, Azhen and Aqiang walked around the stone Buddha in the middle of the road and took a photo. Then they found a collapsed wall and walked into a family's yard with a selfie stick in hand."
"The yard was filled with all kinds of stone statues: human figures, animal figures, lions, pixiu, dragons, door gods, arhats, Buddhas and bodhisattvas... Human figures stood in the weed-covered yard, bathing in the dim sunset."
"Aqiang held Azhen's hand and walked around the yard with a selfie stick. The atmosphere of the barrage became more and more heated, but nothing happened."
"Encouraged by the comments, Aqiang started playing the game of 'One, Two, Three, Wooden Man' with the stone statue in the yard."
"Azhen was a little worried. Will she find that a statue has really moved when she turns around next time? But she was also afraid that nothing would happen and the audience she had finally attracted would get bored and leave."
"As expected, the couple played several rounds of "one, two, three, statue" with the stone statues in the yard, but nothing happened."
"The heat in the live broadcast room began to decrease, and Ah Zhen breathed a sigh of relief. It seems that there is actually nothing unclean in this town. It is just a prank left by the predecessors."
"But at this moment, a rocket flew past the live broadcast room, and someone used a huge reward to pin a message on everyone's phone screen: [Hurry up and leave]."
This was a feature of the live broadcast platform at the time. VIP users' barrage would be displayed in highlighted fonts, messages of large rewards would be pinned to the top for 30 seconds, and the most expensive rocket would be pinned to the top for 1 minute. As the rocket flew through the live broadcast room, more passers-by were attracted to the room, and the popularity of Azhen and Aqiang's live broadcast room immediately ranked in the top 20 of the outdoor section's popularity list.
"It was the first time that Ah Qiang and Ah Zhen received such a large single reward. They immediately became excited: Boss, what do you mean by this?"
The highlight barrage that symbolizes the distinguished VIP status floated across the live broadcast room:
【They found you.】
(End of this chapter)