Behind the white curtain, shadows began to flicker. Strangely, apart from the intermittent sounds of musical instruments, only the creaking of feet on the wooden stage could be heard, without any human voices.

It felt as if the ghost opera was still brewing, not yet started, as if… waiting.

Soon, Jiang Cheng knew what they were waiting for. One after another, charred figures, moving with stiff steps, walked towards Jiang Cheng, found their seats, and sat down.

During this process, Jiang Cheng tensed up. He could clearly feel several malicious gazes wandering behind him, eager to devour him alive.

As the last figure sat down, the white linen curtain slowly opened. The next second, a dull gong sound exploded, and the ghost opera officially began!

The dim lights overhead all went out, replaced by many candles.

White candles.

Dozens of them were lit simultaneously around, emitting an eerie light.

In this light, Jiang Cheng noticed that among the audience tonight, he was the only one who cast a shadow on the ground.

It was indeed a ghost opera. He was the only living person mixed in with the audience.

On the crude and simple stage, several people in opera costumes struck poses, singing in a high-pitched voice to the accompaniment of short, rapid drumbeats.

Jiang Cheng didn't listen to opera much and didn't know much about it, but even so, he could tell that this opera was not quite right. The rhythm was off, and the actors' makeup was also very problematic.

No matter what kind of makeup the actors wore, their faces all had a ghastly green tinge.

At first, Jiang Cheng subconsciously thought that these actors were also ghosts, but soon, he realized that things were not that simple. Although the actors' eyes were dull, Jiang Cheng could still see the fear in their hearts through their eyes.

Moreover, no matter what movements the actors made, they didn't look at the audience. The swords used in the fight scenes were also wielded very carefully, even nervously. The blades and tips of the swords never pointed towards the audience.

Most importantly, he discovered that these actors also had shadows.

It seemed he was right. These actors were also people, and most likely the unlucky opera troupe mentioned in the newspaper, the ones who were tricked into performing in a ghost opera.

No wonder the newspaper's records ended there. It turned out that what would happen in the second half completely depended on his performance tonight.

As the ghost opera progressed, Jiang Cheng gradually calmed down. He knew that tonight would not pass peacefully. An accident was bound to happen during the performance.

His peripheral vision suddenly caught something. He turned his head to look and saw that the curtain on the far right was lifted, and a woman in plain white clothes walked out, her eyes covered with a white cloth, holding a gong in her hand.

It was obvious that the woman was extremely scared, biting her lip, her body trembling uncontrollably.

The person who helped her lift the curtain was an elderly man with a slightly hunched back. The old man was dressed similarly to the woman, in white clothes, with his eyes covered by a white strip of cloth.

Jiang Cheng understood that the old man was probably the troupe leader, and the woman who came out was not very old, only about 15 or 16, with a good figure and a charming appearance.

This was also an old tradition in opera troupes. Whenever important guests came to see the show, the troupe leader would lift the curtain for the most outstanding female performer in the troupe shortly after the show started, so that the female performer could go out and thank the patrons. If she was lucky, she could even get a large sum of money.

But this was a ghost opera. Asking ghosts for rewards was something Jiang Cheng hadn't expected.

The girl lowered her head slightly, biting her lip gently, and walked slowly forward along the first row of seats. Her shoulders were shaking violently, making her look very pitiful.

Her lips trembled from time to time. If you listened carefully, you could hear the girl speaking, but her voice was extremely small, even with a hint of trembling, "Thank you, thank you for your support..."

Again and again, they were all polite words. After the girl walked closer, the gong she was holding caught Jiang Cheng's attention. Several sachets were scattered near the edge of the gong.

This was also one of the troupe's tricks to attract customers. After the patrons threw money into the gong, they could take a sachet. Most of the sachets were embroidered with the girl's surname or stage name.

The girl moved very slowly. She was unharmed when she passed the first few charred corpses, until she passed the one next to Jiang Cheng, when an abnormality occurred. The originally silent charred corpse suddenly reached out to grab the girl's arm.

But the girl seemed to sense something, and twisted her waist. The charred corpse's hand touched the sachet, and the next moment, as if electrocuted, it immediately retracted its hand and stopped moving.

The touched sachet also changed, burning up and turning to ashes in a moment.

Now, Jiang Cheng's eyes lit up. He immediately realized that these sachets were good things. These charred ghosts were afraid of the sachets. To be precise, the sachets could withstand a ghost's attack once.

"Thank you, thank you... thank you for your support..." The girl was obviously frightened, and her voice even had a hint of crying.

Seeing that the girl had walked in front of him, Jiang Cheng also wanted to reach out to take a sachet, but at this moment, he believed that his treatment should be similar to that of the charred ghost. If he rashly took a sachet, he would also be attacked.

The reason was that he hadn't followed the rules and given the troupe a reward. Only after giving the girl a reward could he take a sachet as agreed. Jiang Cheng thought this method was very feasible, mainly because he had no other way to think about it.

But at the moment, he was penniless. What could he use to reward the girl?

Although he had a mobile phone, he didn't want to give it away, after all, the mobile phone was still useful. Who knew how long he would have to stay in this ghostly place? Maybe he could use the mobile phone to contact Fatty.

Time was running out. Jiang Cheng made up his mind, forcefully tore off a button from his clothes, and threw it into the gong. After a slight crisp sound, the girl was stunned for a moment, and then quickly bowed to Jiang Cheng, "Thank you... thank you for your patronage."

Jiang Cheng reached out to grab the girl's sachet.

Sure enough, he succeeded.

But one sachet was not enough. Jiang Cheng, who had benefited, stared at the remaining sachets, his eyes filled with naked desire.

"Thank you for your patronage."

"Thank you for your patronage."

"Thank... thank you for your patronage."

"Patron, you..."

"You gave too much, thank..."

Jiang Cheng tore off all the buttons on his clothes and exchanged them for 3 sachets in a row. Until the 4th one, Jiang Cheng stopped. It wasn't that he didn't have any buttons left, he still had them, clutched in his hand, but at this time, there was only 1 sachet left in the girl's gong.

He could naturally take all the sachets away. This didn't violate the rules, but if he really did that, if any ghost that didn't know better wanted to grab the girl, she would definitely die after losing all the sachets.

Poor girl was still standing foolishly in front of Jiang Cheng, holding the gong, seemingly waiting for him to reward her.

Jiang Cheng put away the sachets, put the button back into his pocket, looked at the girl's nervous face, reached out, and gently patted the girl's waist, signaling her not to wait and to continue walking.