Director of a Suspense Film

Ch9 – The first employee has arrived √

　　Zong qi thought that since it was exorcising ghosts, then not streaming would be a complete waste. Especially since this supernatural apartment was famous, the income from the stream would be pretty good.

　　He squatted on the floor of the corridor and finished assembling the phone holder, then he turned on his phone camera and adjusted it, even taking the time to observe his surroundings at the same time the Celestial Master was drawing the talismans. 

　　There was only one room on each floor of this high-grade apartment, only accessible from a private elevator. If you wanted to change floors you could only walk in through the safe passage. It could be said that except for people living in the block, no outsiders could take a single step inside. Its secrecy was top level, there was no need to be afraid of interruptions.

　　“Stream?” 

　　Qi Ningzhou seemed to not understand the words of the new generation, “What is that?” 

　　Zong qi explained patiently, “It’s just me recording the process of exorcising the ghost. Do you Celestial Masters have a taboo against it?”  

　　Qi Ningzhou shook his head, “No, the people who haven’t opened their Third Eye wouldn’t be able to differentiate the techniques anyways.

　　That’s true.

　　Zong qi had clearly watched Qi Ningzhou chop the fierce ghost in half but still thought that he was scamming him. 

　　Since there was no problem, Zong qi raised his phone and sent a stream notification. 

　　Ever since he sent the video he had recorded out yesterday night, his Weibo welcomed a wave of new people, accumulating to almost the same amount of fans he had on the streaming platform. (t/n: weibo = china version of twitter/instagram) 

　　Most of the people dragged over were unreasonable accusers. Some said that he just exposed the fact that he had his own plot, while others said that he got actors to take the video. There were even crazy people who didn’t say anything and just tagged Jiang Zhou Police Station, and some passerbys shouting big production. In conclusion, no one believed that his accidental stream cut was really because he had met a serial killer. (t/n: internet slang is hard to translate, unreasonable accusers: accuse without evidence, the people who just follow the majority. Big production: should mean that they think its a complete lie. Exposed: too much evidence, so they think its fake or smth)

　　Especially that Village Professor Wang, openly bringing over his 100k fans. However mocking he wished his tone to be, however mocking his tone was, it was basically a Mocking Master. (t/n: i actually dont know what mocking master in cn is and google isnt telling me so im assuming)

　　Zong qi clicked in to look, finding out that this Professor Wang was a wanderer of the internet debunking streams ‘professionally’, thus attracting traffic to an alternative anchor, many Mukbang streamers’ fans were picked over by him. (t/n: why mukbang? No idea)

　　[@Village Professor Wang: Hilarious, there are actually people who dare write plots lying to the police in this time and age? Brother, your characterisation of a supernatural streamer is too much, you even fought the serial killer in a battle 300 times, as expected of a supernatural director (thumbs up.jpg). I’ll help @Jiang Zhou Police Station while I’m here. I won’t leave my name when I’m doing good deeds, hehehe your welcome] 

　　The flock of agreeants in the forwarding comments were to the point of speechlessness. (t/n: agreeants: people who agree)

　　Thanking them for tagging Jiang Zhou Police Station, saving them much energy. 

　　Zong qi didn’t care about their brainless conversations and was instead very satisfied with the attention he got from yesterday’s video. He made a comment, pasting the address and gave a notice for the stream in 10 minutes. 

　　To make some trouble, he also searched up an article about the haunted house, pasting it on too. 

　　[@Zong qiqi: 10 minutes later, ghost hunting at Jiang Zhou Eastern District Lu Hao International Apartment Room 4040, welcoming everyone to watch my stream (picture)(picture)]

　　It was just nice the afternoon right now. It was also the weekend, so the amount of people online shot up in a straight line, gathering quite a few people not long later. 

　　[@Robot Cat Xiao Qing: holy shit, I didn’t see wrong did I? I just refreshed my feed and found a supernatural streamer wanting to stream at Eastern District Lu Hao Internation Apartment’s haunted house?]

　　[@vbbbb: I was already shocked stupid from the pictures attatched. Isn’t this the haunted house where the first owner killed themselves, then the next three owners were all killed on the second day of moving in due to unknown reasons? I was scared till the dried fish in my hands dropped] 

　　[@Aha Wife: It’s that one it’s that one. It occupied the Jiang Zhou Night News for a whole month as big news, the trending comments were also a few hundred thousand then. Everyone was scared… after that everyone was talking about haunted houses and brought up a bunch of Xiang Zhou’s frightening stories, scaring me to hell]

　　As the comments increased, the amount of people reading the comment also increased, bringing it straight up to hot tweets. Adding the famous name of Jiang Zhou’s Eastern District into the equation, many people who didn’t have anything to do were attracted over.

　　[@So-no-crates[1]:  This streamer is really something huh. I remember even though this haunted house was infamous, the apartment security was too strict and the rent price was too high so the few streamers who said they wanted to come couldn’t get the key]

　　[@No name clan: Indeed. This apartment only allowed renting, and you also needed connections so even if you did have money you wouldn’t be able to rent it. It was because of this that the death of the previous three renters was such big news]

　　[@Zhizhizhi: Am I the only one curious if the streamer will really go there?]

　　…… 

　　Zong qi has always kept his words, turning on his stream ten minutes later. 

　　The viewcount shot up to 500 the moment the stream started. 

　　It didn’t matter if they were there to laugh at him or out of curiosity, attention was attention. 

　　The black haired youth whistled, understanding the entertainment circle’s ‘Infamous is also famous’ perfectly. 

　　“Good afternoon, I haven’t streamed for a day, did everyone miss me?” 

　　He placed the camera to his face, revealing a customer service smile. 

　　The chat was brimming with comments, within it was a public challenge, scolding the streamer for having trash plots and to quickly get out of the supernatural streamers’ circle. 

　　Zong qi smiled with a good temper, not bothering with the people purposely picking the opposite side, “I’ve invited over outside help today, our friend Master Qi. I’ll send his commission request to chat, if anyone needs something don’t be afraid to look for him.” 

　　Facing the camera, Qi Ningzhou bit his lips nervously, holding himself as a worldly expert the way he learnt from shifu, his whole body stiff. 

　　Ever since he knew about Qi Ningzhou’s difficulty in getting requests, Zong qi had been thinking of a way to advertise him. Although his popularity wasn’t high, but at least the people who watched supernatural streams still had some interest in the mysteries of the world. It could already be considered accurately targeting customers. 

　　Seeing that this new friend was unused to being exposed in front of the camera, Zong qi kindly moved the camera away and towards the only door on the floor. 

　　The door stood in the middle of the empty corridor.

　　It was covered with talismans with red letters on a yellow background, and there were countless strange traces painted with brushes around. A gust of wind from nowhere lifted the corners of the talisman slightly, hair raising.

　　[Ahhh, from a fresh young man to this really scared the hell out of me]

　　[Oh my god, for this level of talismans… this house must be fierce]

　　[Indeed. I learnt a bit from the old shibo from Xiang Jiang last time, the more talismans there are, the fiercer the thing being suppressed is. Who knows how many exorcism talismans and suppressing talismans were stacked onto the door, it’s like a death note tower] 

　　[No way, the people upstairs really believe this? Hilarious, is this the water army the streamer got? With this IQ, the moment you open your mouth is 5 cents a comment] (t/n: upstairs= comments above them, water army= people bought by the person to help one manipulate public opinion)

　　Seeing the full chat and the viewcount that rose nonstop, Zong qi dug out a key from his pocket and shook it in front of the camera. 

　　“As everyone can see, the ghost hunting destination today is the infamous Jiang Zhou Luo Hao International Apartment Room 404! Everyone make sure first, if there’s nothing else I’ll go in.” 

　　[Just keep lying. Even the renter who lived the longest didn’t live past 2 days]

　　[Streamer, although I don’t condone the matter of you making up your own plot, but I never wished for you to die, think carefully before doing anything]

　　[Indeed, back then the suicide case was bubbling with noise, don’t even mention the accidents that happened after the next few renters moved in. To ghost hunt at this time is asking for death]

　　[What’s the point of persuading him? People like him deserve it. For popularity and attraction, he would throw away his life. The whole family is laughing, might as well send him a rocket and give him a ride, haha!] (t/n: whole family laughing??? No idea what its talking about)

　　The comments were noisy to the skies. The black haired youth had already glanced at Qi Ningzhou, sticking the key into the keyhole. 

　　His recording time only lasted another hour. He had already came to an agreement with the Celestial Master just now, no matter whether or not the fierce ghost inside was dealt with, they had to stop after an hour, so they had to hurry up. 

　　There was a black screen on the wall, full of dust and no electricity passing through. It seemed to be the face recognition lock the previous owner had used. 

　　“Ssssss…”

　　Just as Zong qi turned the ley, the phone screen that hadn’t been used for a long time lit up, grey and white stripes all over it, depicting the suspense of an old television not finding any signal. 

　　At the same time, the key in his hand also sent up a bone chilling freeze, as if it had been thrown into an ice cellar to freeze. 

　　The scream value on his pupil started increasing. 

　　[Minor Plot ‘Haunted Apartment’, activation condition met]

　　“Gazhi—”

　　The apartment door creaked, revealing a slit. 

　　Inside it was dark as dark could be, the monster within the darkness split open his bloody mouth. 

　　He didn’t know if he was hallucinating, but the Zong qi standing in front of the entrance felt a gust of cold wind pass by, making the ahoge on his head stand up. 

　　Qi Ningzhou immediately straightened his back, raising the knife with one hand, expression serious.

　　The resentment has already begun to take shape. Even if they didn’t come today, the talismans at the door wouldn’t last any longer.

　　“…Careful, I’ll wait for you outside.” 

　　It wasn’t that he wasn’t willing to go with Zong qi, but Qi Ningzhou knew how troublesome the red dressed fierce ghost inside was. His cultivation was too low, going in would be like sending a head on a platter. 

　　Compared to Zong qi who not only had a pure Yang constitution, but also merit protection (Yes, Qi Ningzhou has already filled in the plot holes and made up something like merit protection), with such advantageous conditions, nothing would happen even without the talisman. 

　　Surpise suprise, Zong qi had the system’s protection, and his thought process and the Celestial Master’s reached an almost scary amount of congruency.

　　“Okay.”

　　The black haired man nodded, lowering his head to turn on the flashlight and walked past the door’s threshold. 

　　He easily found the light switch on the wall. 

　　“Kada.” (t/n: sfx for light switch)

　　As he had expected, there was no reaction even after pressing it down. The apartment was still dark as the night. 

　　Zong qi frowned, observing the inside with his flashlight.

　　Not only did the floor have dust, but there were also messy footprints. 

　　“Weird. I remember the newest renter moved in at the start of the year, how come there’s still so much dust on the floor?” 

　　[It’s so weird. Why are there so many footprints? And the size of them aren’t the same either. Looking at the marks left on the dust, it feels like it wasn’t left by a group of people, there could be a difference in the time]

　　[Yeah. Plus look at the footprints, they’re cut off in the middle, it just… disappeared of thin air… Gentlemen, I have a scary guess]

　　[The big brother upstairs, you’re probably thinking the same as mind, shaking in my boots.jpg]

　　The black haired youth’s frown deepened, reaching out his thumb and index finger, comparing the thousands of footsteps on the floor. 

　　All these footprints had a similarity, all of them were facing the entrance, the feet were facing the big door. It could be seen that it was left behind while running frantically, as if there was something chasing them from behind.

　　The most suspicious part was that they all disappeared not 3 steps away from the door, not a single trace left behind. 

　　“People can’t disappear out of thin air. There also aren’t any places in the dust with other limbs. Since they couldn’t walk on the floor, then maybe…” 

　　Zong qi spun the flashlight around, shining it onto the ceiling. 

　　The moment the light flashed, a ‘Bang!’ suddenly came from behind him. 

　　The door closed abruptly, making a loud sound. 

　　The light the corridor shone in was extinguished, enveloping the surroundings in a darkness where you couldn’t see your fingers. 

　　The audience in chat froze from this sudden change. The light coincidentally didn’t reach the top, instead trembling and turning into a halo. 

　　[AHHHHHHH Streamer behind you!!!]

　　A piercing screen came from the comments. 

　　Zong qi had convienietnly glanced down at the comments, turning back, “What?”

t/n: omg 77 why would u think they would be on the ceiling noooo also the professor guy is an asshole isnt he >:c how dare he bully our poor baby 

On another note, wheres my ml??? Ml where??? Im so sadddddddd i dont even know when he appears D: 

[1]: Socrates, in chinese is 苏格拉底, the @ name is 苏格拉没有底, which adds a no before the last word which is a play on words ok. So i localised it changed it to so-no-crates.