The Legend of Tokyo Taoist

Chapter 316 The Child I Pushed (5)

Looking at the dark entrance, Qian Xiaoyi took out a purple talisman and handed it to Inuyama Heita, saying, "Before you go in, make some preparations. You know how to use this, right?"

Inuyama Heita took the talisman and nodded. He had used it in the haunted house before when he participated in the competition with Kidou. He knew that it was a Yin-Gathering Talisman that could conceal one's own aura.

He focused his attention on the spell and activated it. Suddenly, an extremely cold breath invaded his body. He could see his skin turning visibly pale, like a corpse, and his whole body seemed to have fallen into an ice cellar.

But fortunately, because we were prepared, it was like wearing heavy clothes in an ice cellar. Although it was uncomfortable, we could hold on for the time being.

"Then let's go in." Qian Xiaoyi walked into the darkness first, and Inuyama Heita followed closely behind.

As soon as they walked into the darkness, it was as if they were teleported. In the blink of an eye, the scene in front of them suddenly became clear. A very quiet studio appeared in front of them. The host on the stage had his back to the audience, holding a microphone in his hand, and seemed to be saying something, while the audience below the stage also listened quietly. The scene was extremely weird, but what was even weirder was not this, but the staff...

——Countless raccoons are staying at their respective jobs, filming the show!
The positions that were originally occupied by the director, photographer, and lighting staff have now all been replaced by fat civet cats. They stand up and fiddle with the equipment in an orderly manner, just like real people. Some of the civet cats are not even as tall as the camera, so they stand directly on the shoulders of another civet cat, filming like a stack of people, which looks extremely funny.

"So many raccoons! Is this... Studio 0?" Inuyama Heita looked around the place. It was indeed the same as the rumors said. There were signs of burning everywhere, and even the photographic equipment was of old models. Only the stage was in good condition. The boundary between the two sides was clear, as if it was a completely different world.

At this moment, Inuyama Heita felt his sleeve move. He looked down and saw that it was a raccoon cat pulling his sleeve, trying to pull him towards the audience seats.

Feeling that it couldn't pull it, the raccoon cat looked back at Inuyama Heita in confusion, with a puzzled look in its dark eyes.

"Follow them, they think we are the same spirits as those in the audience." Qian Xiaoyi reminded quietly: "Don't expose yourself, let's see what happens first."

"Yes." Inuyama Heita turned his head and found that Qian Xiaoyi was already being led by the hand by another raccoon cat and was walking over there.

Inuyama Heita could only follow the raccoon cat nervously, and he and Qian Xiaoyi were guided by the raccoon cat to sit in the seats in the audience.

In the audience, wherever Qian Xiaoyi looked, he saw people with pale skin and dull expressions, just like their current disguise.

On the stage, the host, who had his back to them, said something and spread his hands, seeming very proud. But in fact, he said nothing and just stood there quietly.

As soon as the host made this move, the next second, all the audience members in the auditorium began to applaud, but their expressions were still stiff, as if they were dummies, and the applause was also very strange.

"Clap your hands quickly." Qian Xiaoyi reminded Inuyama Heita and began to clap along, then added, "Clap the other way around."

Only then did Inuyama Heita realize that the reason why the applause sounded so strange was because the audience here were all clapping with the backs of their hands.

"Clap with the back of the hand..." Inuyama Heita was a little terrified, and could only pretend to be calm and imitate others, constantly clapping with the back of the hand. The legend of clapping with the back of the hand has long existed in Japan. The specific content of this legend is: someone once saw a group of audience members clapping on a TV show, and one of them was clapping with the back of his hand. The meanings of life and death are opposites. If a living person claps with his palm, then the person clapping with the back of his hand must be a dead person, so this is also a long-standing urban legend.

clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap...

At this moment, amid the dull applause, a loud applause broke out, and everyone turned their heads and looked in that direction.

I saw an audience member who was also pale, clapping for no apparent reason. He seemed not to notice that the others were clapping with their hands behind their backs. He just moved when he saw others moving. But because everyone turned their eyes to him, his clapping became slower and slower until he stopped in embarrassment.

After a moment of silence, an audience member suddenly pointed at him and screamed, "He's alive!"

In an instant, all the audience rushed over madly, wanting to tear apart the audience member who applauded in the wrong direction.

Something strange happened suddenly and everyone went crazy. That guy started screaming in fear, just like a normal person who had accidentally entered a ghost's lair and was about to be torn to pieces.

When Inuyama Heita heard that it was a living person, he immediately stood up and instinctively wanted to save him, but Qian Xiaoyi held his shoulder. He quickly looked at Qian Xiaoyi and said, "Brother Yi, didn't you hear me? That person is not a spirit. We have to save him quickly, otherwise he will be torn to pieces by these evil spirits!"

Qian Xiaoyi said with a strange expression: "I advise you not to act rashly and look around."

Inuyama Heita glanced to the side and saw that the cameras operated by the raccoons were all focused on the audience seats, and they seemed very excited about what was happening there.

"But...that's a living person! He might be a normal person who accidentally entered this ghost town." Inuyama Heita didn't believe that Qian Xiaoyi would just watch someone die without helping.

Qian Xiaoyi curled his lips and said, "Look carefully, the people here are all alive."

"What?!" Inuyama Heita looked at the crazy audience in disbelief. They were attacking the person who didn't clap with the back of his hands like evil spirits. How could they look like normal people at all?
"To be precise, they are all the souls of living people." Qian Xiaoyi explained, "They are just projections of their real bodies. Maybe they were drowsy while watching TV at night, and then they saw this supernatural program by chance. Then, the projections they recognized appeared here, and from their point of view, it should be just like a dream, so there is no need to worry about anything happening to that person. At most, they will wake up or be frightened."

Inuyama Heita was puzzled: "Since they are all the same living people, why are they all clapping with the backs of their hands, and why do they attack the one who didn't clap with the backs of his hands?"

Qian Xiaoyi said: "It's very simple, because no one knows the situation of others, and no one dares to reveal that they are alive. They think that except for themselves, everyone else is a ghost. At this time, one of their own kind is exposed. In order to avoid being exposed, then..."

"He will act like a 'dead man' and take the initiative to attack the 'exposed' person to make himself appear sociable..." Inuyama Heita swallowed his saliva and looked at the commotion over there with lingering fear.

(End of this chapter)