The Restless Spirit's Father

They reached the place, and the man jiggled the keys as if it was a habit. The lock clicked, and Liu Xiaodan pushed open the door, feeling a weird draft coming from inside. He walked in with the trolley and moved to where the lights should be. As soon as the lights opened, he was forced to take in the eerie feel of the place.

Tang Mingming reached to close the door and looked around as much as Liu Xiaodan did. None of them had entered this place before.

The audio-visual room was not in use anymore, but it wasn't demolished. The rows of chairs were still there as well as the yellowed white screen in front. However, as it was discolored, creased, and uneven; Liu Xiaodan stepped forward to remove the white screen.

"Oh, he's fixing it...?"

He almost stopped when he heard a sliver of a voice from behind. His eyes were very sharp, and he could see anything that was with them in the room. He swore that the audio-visual room was empty; to hear a voice all of a sudden...?

He looked back and saw no one but Tang Mingming sitting down in the last row. The other wasn't planning to help out, which was fine since he was just tagging along.

Liu Xiaodan had set up private screening before so he was efficient. He replaced the white screen with what was given to him by the librarian. Moreover, he fixed the alignment of the chairs that seemed to be messed after a few had last used it.

The only vexing part was that the machine was the old model, and Liu Xiaodan prayed while setting up the machine gently. If he was Ruan Jin, he would have set it up in a jiffy—no matter the model.

Then, he asked Tang Mingming which he wanted to see, but a few more voices voted. In the end, Liu Xiaodan played the old adventure movie.

After everything was in place, he sat on the last row next to Tang Mingming while waiting for the reel to start. Guangru climbed to his l.a.p and sat there, not even caring about the extra person. He wanted to see what Liu Xiaodan was happy to see.

"Shhh... it's starting..."

Seven... six... five...

"You're on my seat. Move it."

Liu Xiaodan began hearing louder voices even if it was just him and Tang Mingming inside.

The audio-visual room was wide enough to house almost a hundred inmates with decent spaces as they watched. There were rows of seats up front, but they were all empty. However, Liu Xiaodan felt like all of those seats were occupied for the screening.

There were even voices talking to each other.

The room was now dark, and the only light was coming from the screen and the machine. The movie was like those old movies with no sound, only a very poor display. However, that was the only kind of visual entertainment they had in this place.

Liu Xiaodan then began looking around in the dark. To his surprise, the supposed empty seats seemed to have silhouettes of people on them. There was even a notable figure at the seat farthest from the door. The person had long hair and seemed to be a woman.

"So cute...�� He caught Tang Mingming whisper. Liu Xiaodan didn't want to take a look at him, really. However, his next words shocked the other. "Heh, the child in the movie is so cute, isn't he, Jun?"

"Your friend snuck in?" Liu Xiaodan didn't look at him. He only had a sigh that was heaved deep from inside him. The father then held onto the child on his l.a.p, who was rather absorbed in what they were watching.

"Y-Yeah..."

"Mn."

Looking back to what the librarian tried to tell him, Liu Xiaodan remembered that this place seemed to be haunted. There were a lot of ghosts waiting to watch a movie, and they would all patiently wait for a movie to be played. It'd been years since they last saw one so they were particularly calm and excited while watching.

The father and son were also enjoying the low-quality movie. It was only low quality because of its display and the kind of reel it had. As for the story, shots, and actors; it was indeed a masterpiece.

Four hours had quickly passed while Liu Xiaodan was in the audio-visual room. The second movie just ended, and he was about to get up again to switch for the last movie.

However, he noticed a sliver of light coming from the door. He walked to it and opened it, using a hand to shield his eyes from the lights coming from the hallway outside.

"Oh, is it over?" The voice of the librarian traveled to his ears, and Liu Xiaodan turned to see the librarian standing at the side. The librarian then hurried over and laughed out. "You rascal. Did you forget not to watch consecutively? It's past one; the guards thought you were missing and had already escaped."

"Aiya..." Liu Xiaodan only chuckled. He then looked back in the dark room before smiling at the librarian again. "Please give me a second."

He switched on the lights and was about to kill off the machine, but voices traveled to his ears. Encore, encore. These ghosts were so demanding. They just finished that movie.

The librarian had long heard that the audio-visual room was still crowded by a number of souls. Riot after riot happened in that place before, and souls were bound to it and the machine itself. He didn't really believe things like those until he saw Guangru. Right now, he even heard faint voices asking for an encore.

He could only close his eyes as he regulated his breathing and his heart rate. That was also a reason why he didn't bother asking why Liu Xiaodan left the machine rolling even if he wasn't around.

...

After showing his face to the guards and explaining that he was in the audio-visual room, Liu Xiaodan was pretty much let off by the guards. The librarian came with him, and their cameras did show him going to the audio-visual room. When he was released, he went back to the audio-visual room with two more films. This time, he was careful not to miss dinner.

In the middle of the fifth film for the day, loud bangs echoed from the door of the audio-visual room. The room's temperature dipped so badly like all the ghosts were unhappy that they were being disturbed. This was also the reason why the librarian didn't barge in earlier; he heard rumors about the bad ends of disturbing a screening.

Liu Xiaodan was also annoyed by it. He got up from his seat to answer the door. However, before he could open it, a strong kick burst the door open. The light from outside showed a tall silhouette, and a bulky figure entered the room along with his minions. One even slapped the switch to hopefully blind Liu Xiaodan after being here for so long.

A low-pitched hiss came from the collection of souls inside, but Liu Xiaodan only backed off and reached behind him to turn off the machine. Using his body as a cover, he pushed the machine's wheeled table and the trolley away to the side slowly.

"What do you want?" Liu Xiaodan was not in a good mood. He was having his peace when these people kept on finding trouble with him.

"Hehe, did I not warn you about causing trouble in my turf?" Cheng Hei and his gang invaded the deserted audio-visual room under the premise of watching with Liu Xiaodan. "You shouldn't have killed another."

He continued to mess the room while the other spread out as if checking out the place. Another man whistled as he took out his knife and stabbed at the white screen. Someone subsequently found the machine and tried to kick it, but a small hand grabbed his leg. He didn't let out a shriek, but he backed off.

Liu Xiaodan only stood in the middle of the loose encirclement. He glared at the man before him. "Cheng Hei... Cheng pig, you're really asking to be sent off..."

Cheng pig?! That was the second time he was called Cheng pig that day!

He gritted his teeth and went to dash towards the man. If this Liu Xiaodan really wanted to die, then he didn't even need to wait for his trial to come. He could vanish for lunch so he could also vanish for dinner, right?

If he just left the corpse in the audio-visual room, would someone be courageous enough to pick it up?

Right, everyone knew the stories about the audio-visual room, and to have this man hang out in the place for so long? He was insane—surely, he was terrifyingly insane!

"You're the one being sent off!" Cheng Hei grabbed Liu Xiaodan by the neck and pulled his other fist to deliver a deathly blow. He wanted to cave in this bastard's face once and for all. However...

Catch! Liu Xiaodan used a hand and effortlessly caught the deathly punch. If anything, Liu Xiaodan should be injured at least because of the punching power of Cheng Hei. What made everyone freeze was that he just lazily put out his hand and caught the punch.

"Cheng Hei, you're awfully hated by hundreds of people right now." Liu Xiaodan felt his blood boil and his heart shake in anger; however, none of these emotions surfaced his face.

His dark eyes were cold and dead as if he was not even alive. "I have a child, and he could take you anywhere he wanted. If he throws you to the incinerator of the prison, no one will even know."

"Child...?" Cheng Hei's eyes quivered a little. He remembered that beautiful child whose hair was damp with blood. He then gritted his teeth as he tried to force his fist past Liu Xiaodan's hold.

"You don't scare me! Incinerate?! I will incinerate you and make sure that your mother would never find you again!

"Right... your mother... she's a beauty, isn't she?" Cheng Hei then made a slow sinister grin. "Liu Xiaodan, are you aware that I can walk in and out of this prison as I please? What say you...?

"I will just knock you out for now... and then I will take your mother and enjoy her before killing you both? Pleasing, isn't it?"

Upon hearing his words, Liu Xiaodan froze. After so, his eyes widened before he smiled widely like a malevolent, vengeful entity.

"Plea... sing?" He dropped his head to the side like his neck was broken. "Isn't it?"