Atlas of Heaven and Man.

Chapter 102: Shadows in the Cinema
After Chen Chuan was invited to the reception room inside the cinema, a waiter brought him tea. After waiting for a while, a fat middle-aged man came here. He might have run all the way here, he was out of breath, and sweat was oozing from his temples.

After seeing Chen Chuan, he came up to him and shook his sweaty hands, saying enthusiastically: "I am Huang Dacheng, and you must be Entrusted Chen, right?"

Chen Chuan didn't care about the sweat on his hands. He shook hands with him and said, "My name is Chen Chuan. I'm just a Wuyi student now, not a client yet."

Manager Huang was still enthusiastic. "It's okay, it's okay. We know that you are young and promising, Mr. Chen. I heard that you are an expert in this field. The conditions here are simple and we are sorry that we can't accommodate you well. Please follow Mr. Huang."

Chen Chuan followed Manager Huang up an open staircase. Manager Huang introduced as he walked, "Our Lanxiang Cinema is invested by Molan Company. It can accommodate 5,000 people to watch movies here at the same time. We also provide complete catering, dances, concerts and other services. Many large social events in the city are held here..."

He talked incessantly all the way, and then took Chen Chuan to his office, which was a room decorated in a foreign retro style, with a leather sofa, a large gilded desk, a wine cabinet with a row of imported famous wines, colorful arched glass, black and white checkered floor tiles, a large crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling, and a large gramophone in the corner of the room, with the golden trumpet facing the entire room.

At this moment, the curtains were open, and soft sunlight shone in from outside. Chen Chuan took a few steps. From this angle, he could see the square outside. There were well-dressed men and women coming in and out, and from time to time, there were luxury cars whose names he couldn't remember driving by.

At this moment he heard a melodious melody. Turning back, he saw that it was Manager Huang who turned on the phonograph.

Manager Huang walked over to him again and said with a smile, "Mr. Chen, our cinema is in the best location in the south of the city. It's almost the end of the year, and citizens will choose to come and watch movies when they have free time, but... Alas."

Chen Chuan turned around and said, "Manager Huang, I am here to solve this problem."

"Yes, yes, thank you, Mr. Chen. Oh, please sit down, please sit down..." Manager Huang invited Chen Chuan to sit on the sofa and asked, "Mr. Chen, what would you like to drink?"

Chen Chuan said: "Boiled water is fine."

Manager Huang gave a thumbs up and said, "Mr. Chen, this is a very good habit. Drinking is harmful to the body. Drinks are very sweet, but they only bring temporary pleasure. Boiled water is better. It is mild and gentle, and it is a gentleman's drink."

He went over and personally poured a glass of water for Chen Chuan and handed it to him respectfully.

Chen Chuan took it and said, "Thank you."

Manager Huang waved his fat hands and said, "Thank you, you're welcome. I want to thank Mr. Chen for coming all the way here to help us solve the problem."

Chen Chuan didn't continue to say polite words, skipped them, and asked directly: "Manager Huang, how many days has it been since the incident happened? The information I received stated that it was about a month. Is there an exact date?"

When Manager Huang heard him mention business, he immediately got into the mood, his expression became more serious, and after thinking for a while, he said, "It should be twenty-five days."

Chen Chuan asked again: "Has this happened before?"

Manager Huang sighed, "I heard some rumors before I took office, but I thought they were just weird stories deliberately spread to attract business. Mr. Chen, you know, the weirder the stories, the more attractive they are. After all, everyone has a curiosity."

Chen Chuan understood this. He was also very curious about mysterious things, but he wanted to explore the cause behind it and was interested in the source of that power. "Manager Huang, have you seen it with your own eyes?"

Manager Huang shuddered and quickly shook his head.

“Have you had any other time period?”

Manager Huang quickly shook his head and said, "Not yet. Currently it's only after eight o'clock until midnight."

Chen Chuan looked at him and said, "Besides the employees listed in the information, are there any other casualties? I want to hear the truth."

Manager Huang hesitated, nodded, and raised a finger. "There was a drunk customer. We didn't find his body until the next day. We didn't know where he went that day. There was only one person, really."

Chen Chuan did not delve into it. He thought about it for a while and said, "I have a general understanding. I will stay tonight to deal with this matter."

Manager Huang was overjoyed. He came over and shook Chen Chuan's hand, saying, "Okay, then I'll leave it to you, Mr. Chen. I will do my best to cooperate with whatever conditions Mr. Chen has."

Chen Chuanshuo said: "My only condition is that no one should get close to me during that time."

Manager Huang nodded repeatedly, "Of course, of course, definitely. By the way," he took out a card, handed it over with both hands, and said respectfully, "This is our cinema's VIP card. You can occupy a private room alone and watch movies and singing and dancing performances for free all year round. Please accept it, Mr. Chen."

Chen Chuan took it without hesitation, "Thank you, Manager Huang. Can we go check out that place now?"

Manager Huang quickly said yes, but he didn't dare to go himself, so he asked a trusted assistant to take him to the venue where the incident had happened.

This place can accommodate three hundred people watching movies at the same time. After walking around, he sat down in the middle and waited for a while. The surroundings suddenly darkened, and as the projection beam from the back came in, the big screen in front lit up and began to play current movies.

By the way, I was also a movie lover in my previous life. There were many movie posters at home, and a lot of my pocket money was spent on them. I even didn’t want to buy new clothes.

His favorite series in his previous life were the Swordsman series and the Mysterious Cave series, but after he came to this world, he had been training hard and pursuing martial arts, and had no time to watch them. The films that were played this time were all those he specially selected, which made up for the regrets of his previous life.

While watching the movie, a waitress brought soda and snacks with a food cart. He didn't touch the soda, but tried some of the snacks. He felt that the fried taro chips were the best to his taste. They had a crisp texture and tasted good, not worse than the potato chips in his previous life.

Because he was there to deal with a problem, the seats around him were not sold to the public, so he almost had the entire theater to himself, and watched one movie after another.

When it was dinner time, he walked out and had a sumptuous dinner in the restaurant downstairs. He talked with Manager Huang and then returned to his previous seat, still sitting in the same position and continued watching the movie.

There was no one around him. He was the only one sitting under the huge screen, with the light shining on his face from time to time. Time passed by little by little. After watching another movie, he looked up at his watch. It was almost midnight. The problem occurred during this time period.

He put his hands down and didn't do anything unnecessary. Instead, he adjusted his breathing slightly, kept himself alert, and continued watching the screen.

At this moment, the above plot has reached a critical moment. The protagonist entered an unknown deep cave, and the light dimmed. Then the protagonist turned on the flashlight with a click, illuminating the scenery in the cave. At the moment the light came on, he suddenly found that there was a person suddenly appeared two rows in front of his seat.

It seemed to be a woman, and only her long hair could be seen at the back, covering both shoulders.

Chen Chuan stared at the back and thought to himself, "Here it comes."

This is one of the urban legends in Yangzhi City, the midnight shadow of the cinema. If a person is still watching a movie at Lanxiang Cinema at midnight, if he is alone, then suddenly there will be another audience member to accompany you.

But you must not greet this audience at this time, because if you greet them, then when you return home the next day it might be that audience member instead of you.

He looked at it silently. The information Cheng Zitong gave him warned him that to deal with this urban legend, as long as he watched the movie at this time period for three consecutive days and did not leave, the ghost would automatically disappear.

During this process, you cannot talk to the shadow. The most important thing is that you cannot leave the scene during the process, and you must not walk to the front to look at the shadow's face.

This should be the experience summarized by predecessors, and he had no intention of exceeding it. There was a simple way to deal with it and there was no need to take risks, so he just sat in his seat and did not move.

At this time he glanced at the "second me", and as expected, a faint shadow appeared on the second me, which was exactly the same as the situation when he encountered the doll in the well. It seemed that this state would continue for a while this time, and because of the particularity of this strange story, it might last even longer.

He glanced at his watch and decided to just watch the movie.

Now, the night is still long.

So he turned his attention back to the screen, and after watching for about three hours, or two movies, he felt something strange, not from the ghost, but from himself.

He found that the growth of his alienated tissue had actually accelerated a little, but the process was subtle. If He Xiaoxing had not taught him an observation technique that made him more acutely aware of his own alienated tissue, he would hardly have noticed it.

At this point, he suddenly realized, could this be how the second me became hollow? How similar is this to using drugs to stimulate alienated tissues, causing the body to be damaged to a certain extent?

So, ghost stories also play this role to some extent?

No, it should be more than that.

He thought about it and realized that there might be other injuries that he didn't know about, but now all of them were borne by the second me.

At this moment, an idea came to his mind. If this was the case, could he use this strange story to guide the alienated organization?

In fact, he did not want to get involved, but now he was at a critical moment in correcting the alienated organization, especially when it had already penetrated into some subtle places. He must not allow the alienated organization to grow so independently and disorderly. Even a slight deviation could pose a hidden danger in the future.

So he thought about it and used his breathing to guide it so that the growth direction could be controlled by himself.

Several hours passed in a flash, and when it was four in the morning, he looked up inadvertently and found that the figure had disappeared at some point.

He sat for a while, then stood up from his seat, walked out, and walked along the corridor outside. He said something to the waiter who was waiting anxiously here, and the waiter immediately ran out to inform Manager Huang.

When Manager Huang heard him coming out, he hurried over with a handkerchief wiping his sweat. When he saw him, he quickly asked, "Mr. Chen, how are you?"

Chen Chuan looked at him and said, "I saw her."

Manager Huang's face turned pale and he stammered, "Well, then..."

Chen Chuan said: "It will take about three days for this strange rumor to be cleared up. I will come here for the next few days."

Manager Huang breathed a sigh of relief and showed a happy expression. He said, "Okay, thank you for your hard work, Mr. Chen. We will definitely give you a satisfactory thank you gift afterwards."

Chen Chuan nodded to him, left the cinema, took the cinema car back to school, took a short nap, and then continued his daily training.

The next day, he did not go there during the day, but asked a car to pick him up at around six in the evening. After arriving at the seat in the cinema, he sat in that seat again.

Manager Huang is a very good person. Today, a new batch of movies were shown, and many of them were new releases. He watched them until about twelve o'clock, but after the time came, he did not see that figure.

No, it didn’t appear.

But the position of that figure was different from last time. It was no longer in the first two rows, but... right next to him.

……

……

(End of this chapter)