Director of a Suspense Film

The well was very big. The radius of it alone was at least two metres. Greenery was flourishing around it and there were even water buckets by the side. It was nothing like the cracked and abandoned well that was on the movie’s poster. 

“What the hell are you looking at?” The villager immediately cursed, seeing him stare at the well.

Something’s wrong! 

Even the slowest one of them all, Godsend, could tell that the way the villagers were reacting was odd. 

It didn’t take long before all the actors had their eyes on the well. 

“Nothing,” Zong Qi scratched his head, “I just felt a little thirsty after walking so I was hoping to get some water. Do you mind, Da Ge?” 

Although he had said that, his hands seemed to have a mind of their own. He took out his water bottle and stalked towards the well. 

The villagers wanted to stop him, but he was too fast. They could only watch as the black-haired youth nimbly stepped forward… and kneel down next to the bucket and scoop out a gulp of water. 

“Sweet!” He even gave them a thumbs up, “Just what I’d expect from natural mountain water!” 

Everyone: … 

Seeing that he hadn’t gotten anywhere near the well, all the villagers let out a breath of relief, yet their faces were still tense. 

“This is the holy well of our village. Our Goddess prays here every day and doesn’t let outsiders near. If our village head knew what happened, he’d demand to drown you guys in it.” 

He swept his threatening gaze onto every single actor’s body, revealing a hint of bone chilling ferocity, making Professor Wang shiver. In the end, Fixer had to step up and play mediator. Only after numerous benefits had been offered, did they let it go. 

They were practically announcing that there was something wrong with the well. 

Fixer stayed at the back with his bags, inspecting every inch of the well. However, no matter how long he looked, he still couldn’t find anything wrong with it. 

Compared to the Hanged Coffins they saw at the cliff, the well was too plain to have anything wrong with it. 

Recalling the nervous looks on the villagers’ faces, the Fixer made a note to check it out when there was no one around. 

“You guys will be staying here for the time being.” 

The villagers walked towards the edge of the village. They walked and walked until they were almost out of the village before they stopped and pointed at a house. 

“There aren’t any clean houses in the village right now,” They said, “The old man that used to stay here passed away recently, so just stay here for the time being. The classroom isn’t too far from here.” 

“You aren’t allowed to walk around the village during your free time. The village head will punish you if you get caught. We’ll bring the children here to meet you tomorrow.” 

After they said what needed to be said. The villagers all hurried away, leaving them to blankly stare at each other. 

The mud house was bad as bad could be. There was only one dim lamp and a moist blanket covered the bed. 

“We’re here to teach, you know?” Professor Wang had a stomach full of complaints, “Don’t you think they were way too disrespectful to us? They’re even threatening us! What the hell!” (t/n: so it turns out they’re actually here to help teach the kids, not expedition, I misread the word for a solid three chapters TT) 

“This is what a village looks like,” Zong Qi retorted, unashamed, “If you can’t take this much suffering, why are you ever here?” 

“All right, all right.” Fixer was once again playing the peacemaker, “Let’s get the rooms assigned first. I’ll be staying with Nana, what about the rest of you?” 

“I’ll go with Crow then.” Blondie said. 

“Then I’ll go with God— Uh, Professor Long!” 

Professor Wang had forgotten his character halfway through his sentence. Watching his Character Points getting decreased by one percent, he felt his chest ache. 

As much as Godsend didn’t want to stay in the same room as Professor Wang, he was currently acting as the kind old professor. It was only made doubly hard for him to reject him after he added “it’ll be easier to take care of the professor if he stays with the assistant”. 

Everyone here knew that deep down, the worst thing to do in a horror movie is to be alone. Once you’re alone, the odds of you dying increase tenfold. So are the odds of meeting something supernatural. 

Crow looked at everyone around him before glancing at Zong Qi.

“It’s a bit dangerous for you to stay alone, so you’re welcome to knock on our doors in case anything happens.” 

Zong Qi nonchalantly nodded his head, turning to the room he was assigned with. 

What could happen to him while his Director Rights were active? They’ll be lucky if he didn’t go around causing trouble. 

Just now, when he had gotten close to the bucket, his Plot Exploration had gone up by one percent. This had confirmed Zong Qi’s guess from when they were on the bus. 

A major part of this movie must be what’s in the well– not the Hanged Coffins on the cliff. It was easy to tell just from the villagers’ attitudes alone. They were scared of the well, or, to put it another way, they were scared of what was in the well. 

Zong Qi sat on the hard mud bed and dumped the contents of his bag out. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw a notification on his phone screen— Qi Ningzhou had news. 

[Qi Ningzhou] Evil Gathering Talisman… Soul Sealing Array… The sealed coffin of Jiulong… Sacrificial… (t/n: if my google isn’t being an absolute bitch, these r all made up so i js made up a name for them all. The last two im not too sure and the last one is a phrase that translates to “to revolve around someone”)

[Qi Ningzhou] Where did you get this picture? You went out? 

Seeing his ‘outside help’ reply, Zong Qi immediately started typing out a reply. 

[Zong Qi] I didn’t, a friend sent me to this and I wanted you to take a look. Why? Is there something wrong? 

The innocent Celestial Master hadn’t realised that the “friend” his first ever friend was talking about was actually him. Instead, he let go of the breath he was holding. 

[Qi Ningzhou] As long as you’re not in danger. I knew there wasn’t anything like this anywhere around Jiangzhou, it’d be impossible to disguise even with all the yin energy in the world. 

[Qi Ningzhou] There’s an evil soul locking array on the cliff. The coffin acts as a magnet and seeing the talismans on it, I’m afraid the wood they’re using is willow, which gathers yin energy the most easily, and using it to keep the coffin in the middle sealed. This is a sacrificial method. This array must have been around for centuries, and judging by the colour of the talismans. There must already be a blood corpse in there, if I’m not wrong. 

[Zong Qi] A blood corpse? What’s that? Is that a kind of zombie? 

[Qi Ningzhou] Something like that, but blood corpses are evil beings that gather yin energy from the earth to thrive. They’re much stronger than regular zombies.

[Qi Ningzhou] To be honest, I didn’t think something this evil was still around at this time. I’ve only ever seen a Soul Sealing Array in the texts in my temple, not to mention the person that did this, designed the array themselves… They’re a level higher than me, so I can’t understand much at first glance either. But I can tell that the blood corpse won’t be able to leave the coffin for a long, long time, so there’s no need to worry. 

[Qi Ningzhou] But something’s weird. What’s the point of working so hard to cultivate a blood corpse here? They don’t listen to orders and will kill and destroy anything in sight. And the direction the array is facing is off too. It looks like it’s pointing towards somewhere on the ground… I have a feeling there’s something more going on. I might be able to come to a conclusion if your friend could take a closeup of the talismans on the coffin. 

[Zong Qi] Alright. I’ll make sure to tell you if my friend sends me anything else. Thanks, brother. Let me treat you to a meal next week as thanks. 

[Qi Ningzhou] Okay. 

After everything was done, Zong Qi threw his phone at someone and leaned against the bed, thinking. He thought about the villager’s weird attitude, then to the plain-looking well, and finally, thought about Blondie and Crow. 

He didn’t know if anyone else noticed, but Zong Qi did. 

The two of them didn’t know each other at all, but ever since they got their characters and the movie started, they began acting weird, even requesting to be in the same room. 

It was more logical for a seasoned actor to be paired with a newbie actor. Back when they had been talking about the plot, Blondie had helped them quite a bit. His attitude towards newbie actors wasn’t bad, so it wasn’t likely that he would turn against them at a time like this. 

Blondie and Crow didn’t look like they were gay either, so there was no way they both fell in love at first sight. 

The only explanation was they got characters that were intertwined with each other, and their relationship was incredibly secretive, something that no one could know. It must be part of the information they weren’t allowed to share. 

And ever since he saw the Ouroboros mark on Crow’s wrist, Zong Qi had been observing him discreetly the entire way. Unfortunately, the seasoned actor’s senses were too sharp, there were a number of times when Zong Qi had almost been caught. 

Just to be safe, he had asked Xiao Hong to watch Crow instead. That was also why Crow would always feel a gaze on him whenever they were together, but when he looked around, he’d find no one. 

He analysed all the clues he was given, organising them properly. 

Just then, there was a shuffling sound coming from the door. Zong Qi went and opened it, confused, and found a girl that looked around 10 years old standing outside. 

The little girl was wearing a clean pair of clothes, a beautiful gold phoenix on her head. Seeing him opening the door, she jumped, quickly putting down the basket in her hand and running away. 

“Wait—” 

Before Zong Qi had the chance to finish his sentence, the little girl had completely disappeared. 

The black haired youth scratched his head and picked up the basket. Flipping it open, he found a white steamed bun and a bowl of chilli oil. 

Turns out, she was here to deliver food. 

Zong Qi picked up two buns and knocked, giving them to Anna and the others before closing the door. 

Xiao Hong, who had been hiding on his back the entire time, floated out from the back of his head and gradually revealed her form. 

As the blood red dress appeared, an ominous ghost energy enveloped the room. The hot summer weather instantly cooled down, even the chirping insects had quietened down. 

Seeing Xiao Hong grinning ear to ear, preparing to phase through the wall, Zong Qi instantly understood what she was going to do. 

“Just give him a little jumpscare. Don’t hurt or kill them, please.” 

He hurried to remind her, “And also, be careful not to get spotted by them or the cameras or the system will deduct my points. Think about it, don’t we work this hard just to earn more money?” 

Faced against gruesome eye whites of the fierce ghost, the black-haired youth wasn’t afraid at all, nagging at her instead, “After all, you’ve already tasted the food I cooked. Isn’t it much better than eating human meat?” 

Xiao Hong: “….” 

Seeing that his nagging was useful, he struck while the iron was hot, “How about this, after we finish filming this movie, I’ll make roasted chicken for you.” 

Silence. 

This was the most terrifying silence ever. 

Xiao Hong: “O, o.” (t/n: random sound effects) 

Zong Qi raised his hands in defeat, “Alright, alright. Fine, I’ll make you two. But only two, no more.” 

The red dress fierce ghost was satisfied. As she phased out of the mud house, it felt as if there were happy little flowers growing on her back. 

Zong Qi lit another candle for the clueless Professor Wang. 

t/n: so it turns out I severely overestimated myself :p
working on 3 projects at once on top of irl responsibilities are hard man
anyways hopefully it’ll be back to weekly uploads so see yall then