This actor is full of tricks.

The script has been accepted by the audience.

You are an insignificant, laid-back guy in Xinzhou, spending your days lying in your rented room, eating and waiting to die. But you are not willing to just sink into this state. You want to do something meaningful in your life.

[Costumes and props have been distributed. Please check your backpack.]

Looking at his increasingly disheveled appearance in the mirror, Lin Jue nodded with satisfaction. If there was any flaw, it was that he had just taken a shower yesterday and still smelled of shower gel. As a "lying down god," he probably hadn't showered for quite some time.

But it doesn't matter, I can just rub myself against the trash can when the time comes. As an actor, I should perfectly portray the character.

He reverted to Zhao Huayu's appearance, took out his phone to check the train tickets. This time, the filming location for the script was a new city, Xinzhou, which was across the river from Jiuyuan Sanjiang.

The bus to Xinzhou departs at 10:00 AM, and it's only 8:00 AM now, so there's still time.

Lin Jue checked his identification and headed out towards the station. On the way, he kept looking around. He had wandered around Quming all day yesterday but hadn't found any trace of cultists, let alone He Ping.

There were very few people at Quming Station. Those who wanted to leave the county had already fled. Now, those waiting for the train were mostly people from other places, but there weren't many. Only a handful were sitting outside the ticket gate for the Xinzhou train.

Lin Jue went to the ticket office and bought a ticket with his temporary ID. He then sat down next to a group of elderly people who were chatting quietly.

The old man sitting next to him glanced at him, then lowered his head and continued talking to his companion.

Lin Jue hadn't intended to eavesdrop on the elderly couple's conversation; he was just sitting and scrolling through his phone. However, the elderly couple gradually started talking about the strange events that had recently occurred in Xinzhou.

"Have you heard about the cat-faced girl?" the old man sitting next to Lin Jue asked in a low voice.

Lin Jue, who was watching videos, immediately perked up his ears; he was most interested in strange events.

An older woman retorted, "Cat-faced girl? What's going on?"

"It just happened recently in a neighborhood near my house. What's the name of that neighborhood again?" The old man was getting on in years and his memory wasn't very good. It took him a while to remember: "Right! It's called Qingwangyuan. What a terrible name, so hard to remember!"

Qingwangyuan?
Is it really such a coincidence? The filming location for the script "Ears" also has this name.

Lin Jue turned off his phone screen and listened attentively as the old man and others recounted the story of the cat-faced girl from Qingwangyuan.

“I heard it from my wife. She and a woman from Qingwangyuan were square dancing partners. According to that woman, many people in their community moved away because of this.”

The middle-aged woman listening nearby grew impatient: "Hey you old fool, just get to the point! Why are you being so...so...what's that word again?"

"Just making things mysterious," Lin Jue added for the older woman.

"Hey, you young man!" The old man rolled up his sleeves, looking like he was about to have a verbal battle with Lin Jue.

“The young man is right, hurry up and say it!” The old woman grabbed the old man.

The other people in the group were also complaining about the old man, which brought him back to the main topic: "It happened a few days ago. According to that lady, there are always cats meowing in her neighborhood every night, and it's not just one cat meowing, but many cats meowing together." "You know what cats call when they're in heat, right? Those meows are even more eerie and shrill than those sounds of cats in heat."

“The residents of the community were annoyed by the meowing of these cats, so they reported it to the property management. The property management acted quickly and immediately sent people to the community to catch the stray cats.”

"Strangely, the property management staff searched for a whole day but couldn't find a single cat. It was as if the cats had simply vanished without a trace."

"But at night, the meowing started again. This time, the residents made an agreement in the owners' group chat. A group of young men went out together and followed the direction of the meowing, hoping to catch the cats."

"But when they arrived, they still couldn't find a trace of the cat, but the cat's meows continued to ring out, the sound growing more and more pitiful, echoing all around them."

"The group of young men were so scared they almost peed their pants. They all took off running, but a dark figure emerged from the bushes and grabbed one of the young men like a mouse, pulling him straight into the bushes."

At this point, the group of people listening to the old man's story were startled: "Like catching a mouse? Could it be that cat-faced girl?"

"Yes, according to those young men afterwards, it was a woman with a cat's face, covered in blood, and with animal fur on her body." The old man telling the story also looked frightened.

"What about the person who was arrested?" an older woman asked.

"He died. The property management found his body in the community's green belt the next day. His body was covered in cat scratch marks." The old man shuddered as he said this: "After hearing that lady's story, my wife had nightmares for several nights in a row. She always felt like there was a cat meowing next to the window."

Lin Jue interjected, "Didn't they ask the Investigation Department to investigate?"

Surely the inspection department in Xinzhou can't be like the one in Jiuyuan.

"How would I know? I'm not from that neighborhood. I heard all this from other people." The old man replied impatiently, staring at Lin Jue with a sidelong glance: "I have to say, you're quite the gossip, young man."

"Sorry, I'm a bit too curious and a paranormal enthusiast. My biggest interest is reading about strange things on various forums." Lin Jue smiled憨厚ly, moved to the side, and took out his phone to search for the four keywords "cat-faced girl" online.

Most of the search results that popped up were urban legends, but Lin Jue still found something about what happened at Qingwangyuan.

It was a post on a paranormal forum. The poster claimed to be a resident of the community, and the events described were almost identical to what the old man had just said. However, at the end of the post, a video taken with a mobile phone was attached.

The video was taken at night, and the image quality is very blurry. Judging from the angle, it was taken from a window on a high floor looking into the residential area.

In the background, you can hear a very piercing cat meow, and you can see a woman in a floral dress standing downstairs in the building across the street.

The woman stood with her back to the person filming the video for several minutes, while the meowing in the background grew more and more urgent. Then, the woman began to climb up the outer wall of the building, just like a large cat climbing a tree.

Finally, the woman stopped outside a window on the fifth floor. With the sound of shattering glass, she crawled into the room. The video ends with a heart-wrenching scream.

(End of this chapter)