Chapter 3: After the Founding of the Country, Demons and Spirits Cannot Become Refined, Don’t You Know?
Ghosts Know What I Experienced
Author: Mo Chen Huan
Translator: Aeryn
Editor: ReluctantEditor
Chapter 3
Regarding most crews, Chen Tao’s sort of unimportant staff member having an accident shouldn’t have affected the crew’s filming process. But School Beauty: Soul Shocking Night’s crew immediately stopped filming for a day. The director handed everything off to several of his deputy directors and assistant directors, and ran off to H City.
Once Xi Jia entered the crew, he heard a lot of staff complaining in a whisper.
“That kind of second generation of an official, as expected, is not reliable. Actually running away once something happened. Originally, we didn’t let him take many handheld shots for this movie. Now it’s just great, you might as well directly hang his name, and let a few of Brother Qiang’s people come shoot.”1
“Director Wang seems to have gone looking for an expert. Not a whole day he’s weird and incomprehensible. This time, something happened to Little Chen. He stubbornly said that there are ghosts and had to go find some master to catch them. We will never understand the minds of rich people. If it pleases him to doing something, then let him do it.”
Xi Jia went into the dressing room that was behind the deputy director, quickly changed his clothes, and directly went to shoot.
Three scenes wasn’t considered much. Without Director Wang here, the deputy directors quickly finished shooting. After Xi Jia changed his clothes, a deputy director came over and helplessly said, “It’s not early anymore. At night, the paths aren’t easy to walk either. No one else in the crew wants to go to the county. Xi Jia, you are going to the county hospital to visit Little Chen by yourself. How about waiting till tomorrow when the crew has an empty car, then go?”
The elegant young man nodded lightly, “Thanks, Brother Qiang, I will go tomorrow.”
The deputy director said a few more words to Xi Jia, gave him a string of hotel keys, and went to work again.
Holding the bunch of keys, Xi Jia didn’t immediately leave for the hotel in the mountain. He looked up at the surrounding group of trees in the deep forest. The afterglow of the sunset came down through the gaps of the shade. The winds blew through the leaves, invoking a whirling sound for awhile.
In the tens of meters tall Chinese fir forest, the large and tall trees surrounding the sky and earth covered the entire crew with its dense canopy. At this moment, the towering Chinese firs were like humans, and the busy staff on the set have become small gravel. One by one, the fir treetops, being blown down by the strong winds, seemed to be bowing and looking down on this group of ant-like humans.
Xi Jia stroked the necklace on his neck. Originally, a bloody jade was worn here. Since yesterday, it was replaced by a turquoise-black bronze eighteen-sided die.
The blood colored jade could barely conceal Xi Jia’s yin energy. The malicious spirits with more resentful energy can all slightly detect him. But this Wu Xiang Qing Li completely blocked all his yin energy. Since yesterday, not one ghost was aware of Xi Jia’s existence. Xi Jia, himself, rarely saw the scattered yin energy drifting in the world.
But now, he gently pulled off the string on his neck.
The instant the bronze die left his skin, bang!
Heaven and Earth changed in an instant. The setting sun hadn’t gone down yet, but the rays could no longer be seen. Dense black qi lingered all around the crew. The black qi passed through the staff, like dense smoke, and didn’t scatter for a long time.
Xi Jia’s complexion gradually became colder. He grasped the bronze die in one hand while observing with attention. After observing for a short while, his pupils shrank as his sharp gaze swiftly fell onto a lounge that was set up not far away. In the next moment, he walked over with a cold face.
Everyone in the crew didn’t seem to notice the black qi that surrounded them. The movie only had four months left until it will be released. As they were busy with filming, who would care about a bit-part supporting actor?
Xi Jia walked step by step towards the lounge with the densest black qi. He just wanted to push the door when an impatient male voice came from his side, “Hey, what are you doing? This is Brother Yang’s lounge, what business do you have running here for?”
The black haired young man slowly turned his head, and saw a short and lean middle aged man. After a moment, the corner of his lips curling, he asked smiling, “Brother Yang? Is it Yang Shaocheng?”
“Of course it’s Brother Yang, who else could it be?”
Yang Shaocheng, B-list male star within the country and School Beauty: Soul Shocking Night’s male lead.
Xiaoshan Airport, VIP lounge. There’s a twenty-some year old young man pacing back and forth in the lounge.
He was wearing a simple vest and trousers, his hair was a mess, and there was a thick layer of dark circles under his eyes. No matter how you look, he looked like a loser that had been staying up playing games for three days at an Internet cafe. But the airport’s service staff were waiting respectfully at the side. Whenever the young man irritably walked back and forth, they would stop breathing, not daring to go up and disturb.
After five minutes, the young man raised his head asking, “The airplane still hasn’t arrived?”
A service personnel hurriedly answered, “Young Master Wang, there are still three minutes.”
“Three minutes? There’s still three minutes?! Shit, if I knew beforehand, I wouldn’t have come to this broken place to shoot a horror film. I’m crazy ah, playing this kind of boring game, it’s better to go gambling.”2
That’s right, this person was precisely the School Beauty: Soul Shocking Night’s unreasonable Director Wang.
After waiting another fifteen minutes, a tall young man in a white t-shirt appeared at the entrance of the VIP room. With a look of joy, Director Wang rushed over and greeted, “Master Pei! Master Pei, you’re finally here! Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Quickly help me look. Did the ghost possess my body? He didn’t follow me, right?”
The youth known as Master Pei was enthusiastically pulled into the private lounge by Director Wang. He raised his finger and slowly pulled off the sunglasses on the bridge of his nose, revealing a pair of large eyes. Although they’re monolids, his eyes were still very large, filled with a playful character and looking at the lively scene. He looked up and down at Director Wang for a while before he waved his hand and said, “Young Master Wang, your body is healthy. There is also my Martial Uncle’s blessed longevity lock. Which little demon could get into your body?”3
Director Wang let out a breath. After half a week, he wasn’t in a good mood, “Since I have no problems, there’s situations these two days. Master Pei, please stay and play in H City for a few days. I also don’t want to film this broken movie. This kind of thing costed this old man fifteen million.”4
Master Pei raised his brow, “Young Master Wang is really sure there’s a ghost amongst the crew?”
As a matter of fact, Director Wang said, “My longevity lock became hot last night. My hands couldn’t hold it. Didn’t Master Zhao say that if there’s a ghost near me, this lock would get hot? The hotter, the more powerful the ghost. This has to be a malicious spirit. Yesterday night, my hands almost got burnt!”
Looking at Direct Wang’s appearance like a cowardly mouse, Master Pei laughed. He put his sunglasses back on, blocking the dislike and disdain in his eyes, with a smile yet not a smile, “Martial Uncle let me come here, is it not to solve Young Master Wang’s problem? Let’s go, Young Master Wang, this is tens of millions of investment we’re talking about. It’s your life’s blood. If there’s really a ghost, wouldn’t catching it be fine?”
After hearing the other party’s words, Director Wang’s eyes sparkled, “Good! Then tonight, let’s first stay at H City for a night. Tomorrow morning, we will go to Pinghu. Everything will be as Master Pei says.”
At the same time, on the crew’s side, Xi Jia was quietly standing at the entrance to Yang Shaocheng’s lounge. He already knew that the male lead was not with the crew at this moment. Since Chen Tao’s accident last night, Yang Shaocheng ran back to the county’s hotel. Since Director Wang wasn’t here, there’s no one in the crew that could call him. They could only curse a few words and act arrogantly in the dark.
After the setting sun’s rays disappeared underneath the mountains in the west, in the deep forest, a whimpering sorrowful night wind sounded. It sounded like a grieving women weeping. The crying mixed with the mountain wind made the night wind even colder and gloomy. It also made the staff member who had just said “Director Wang was weird and incomprehensible” to tighten their clothes and swallowed a gulp of saliva with lingering fear.
After all, there was an accident that just happened last night. The crew also didn’t want to stay and film in such a treacherous cold forest at night. The staff members started to pack things up. No one cared about or paid attention to the bit-part actor standing by the lounge. The moment when the dark night fell, Xi Jia lifted his right hand, his five fingers gathering into his palm. His eyes shrunk, not a thread of life within his ice cold gaze, a blood red colored aura lingering at his fingertips. Then, a palm was shot at the thick door!
Bang!
Surrounding the crew, the black qi around a few hundred meters in diameter suddenly shook three inches to the southeast!
The scattered black qi within the crew didn’t have much change, only somewhat slightly dimmed. And in Yang Shaocheng’s lounge, a mass of dark black aura about half a person tall quickly fled the room, escaping towards the south-east.
Xi Jia hung Wu Xiang Qing Li back around his neck, and turned his steps towards the south-east. He just walked a few steps when the deputy director shouted, “Hey, Xi Jia, where are you going? We’re going back to the hotel now!”
While Xi Jia kept chasing towards the southeast direction, he turned to smile and said, “Brother Qiang, I have something I left at the set, I will come back after I get it.”
Not waiting for Brother Qiang to say any more words, the delicate and refined young man just disappeared among the several firs.
As a fierce gust of wind blew over, everyone in the crew wrapped their clothes tighter and sped up with the packing. The large and tall trees were blown over by this sudden, violent gust of wind. When thousands of leaves all rattled together, the deep forest seemed to have become a huge beast, opening its large, dark mouth, waiting to swallow these humans into its belly.
Within the crew, the less courageous people were already scared, screaming. And in the southeast, the mass of black qi slowly turned into human form in the gust of wind. A pale-skinned female ghost quickly flew forward. There was a seam cut down the middle of her stomach. More intense black qi poured out from the seam.
The female ghost was crazily running forward, as if there was a severe flood or fierce beast behind her.5 And behind her was Xi Jia pursuing relentlessly.
Suddenly, a turquoise-black rock shot towards the back of the female ghost at a very fast speed. When the black rock hit the female ghost, the female ghost screamed and a hole was burned out of the back. The “black rock,” Wu Xiang Qing Li, also fell quietly onto the ground. It rolled two loops and rolled towards the front of Xi Jia’s feet.
Xi Jia leaned over to pick up Wu Xiang Qing Li. Who knew that the bronze die would awkwardly turn to its side, rolling a loop. Xi Jia was stunned, and reached out to pick it up again. This time, he picked the die back up.
A strange thought flashed in his mind: ……Master Ye’s magic weapon even has spiritual awareness?
Xi Jia lifted his head again, looking at the abstract, floating figure of the female ghost.
He only saw the female ghost trembling, looking at the young man in front with a look of fear. She continued to move backwards, but the black qi was unceasingly leaking from her back that was burned by Wu Xiang Qing Li. It was almost difficult for her to keep standing.
Xi Jia stared at the stitch on the female ghost’s belly, after a good while, asking in a low voice, “Died of difficult birth?”
Hearing these words, the female ghost suddenly laughed loudly like crazy, “Difficult birth? It’s him! It’s him who cut my child who was still alive out of my stomach. It’s him! It’s him! Yang Shaocheng! I want to kill him, Yang Shaocheng!!!”
Xi Jia carefully looked at the female ghost in front of him, “You committed suicide?”
The female ghost hazily cracked open her mouth, black polluted blood dyed her teeth a jet-black color, “Suicide? It’s him that killed me, it’s him that didn’t give me a road to live, it’s all him, he forced me to death!”
Xi Jia looked down, coldly saying, “You want to find him for revenge, why did you harm my friend and cause him to fall off the cliff?”
“His yang energy was too strong. Yang Shaocheng was hiding around him all day. If I don’t kill him, how do I kill Yang Shaocheng! It’s all Yang Shaocheng’s fault, it’s all Yang Shaocheng! I want to kill him, I’ll definitely kill him.”
Hanging the small Wu Xiang Qing Li back on his neck, Xi Jia indifferently looked at the female ghost that had already gone crazy, and lightly said, “You and Yang Shaocheng’s matters, I don’t care. But you made a move on Chen Tao……then it became my matter.”
“Who are you really? Why is your yin energy so heavy? How did you die? Have any resentment……” The female ghost suddenly stopped her voice, her pair of pitch black without white eyes staring intently at Xi Jia, “You’re a human?!”
Xi Jia walked forward while loosening his muscles and bones, “En, I’m human.”
The soaring blood colored yin energy surged out of the slim and frail body of the young man. The frightening yin energy caused the wind on all sides to not dare sound again. The trembling female ghost wanted to escape, but after hearing the phrase, “I’m human,” she gritted her teeth and suddenly rushed over, “If I eat you, I definitely can kill him! Just need to eat you! I need to eat you. I……Ahhhhh!”
The female ghost’s mouth, full of fresh blood, was shattered with a loud bang. The bloody flesh was torn from the cheek. There was no blood on the ground, only clots of black qi. The fierce fist directly smashed the female ghost, completely devoiding her bad temper. The entire ghost was overwhelmed and paralyzed on the ground. Another fist ruthlessly slammed down before her senses returned.
The female ghost yelled. The black qi in her belly swarmed out. Gathering in the air, it formed the skull of an infant ghost. The black colored infant ghost screamed and bit towards Xi Jia. Xi Jia paused in his steps, looking up at the infant ghost. Waiting until the other party came closer, his right hand formed a fist, and suddenly smashed it over!
After ten minutes, Brother Qiang finally finished waiting for Xi Jia.
Once he saw the young man, Brother Qiang came forward, “Why did it take so long to come back? You didn’t run into any accidents, right? This Pinghu Scenic Area really is strange and unusual at night. Did you hear that gust of wind just now? Sounds like a woman crying. I heard from Little Chen that you’re good brothers. You better not get lost, or else how can I explain to Little Chen?”
Xi Jia nodded his head apologetically, softly saying, “I made you worry, Brother Qiang.”
As the two walked out, Brother Qiang asked, “Did you find your stuff?”
Xi Jia was slightly startled, after a moment, he collected himself, “En, found it.”
Brother Qiang said, “Finding it is good. Tomorrow morning, I’ll drive you to the county. Tonight, Little Chen woke up once, but fell asleep again. It’s no big deal, don’t worry.”
Xi Jia lightly sounded an “En” and didn’t say much.
The next morning, Brother Qiang drove Xi Jia to the county’s hospital. When he arrived, Chen Tao was already awake. He was clearly a patient who had broken several ribs and a leg. But after seeing Xi Jia, Chen Tao happily stared, and continuously said, “Brother Jia, I hoped you would come. Finally, someone can accompany me to chat and relieve boredom!
Xi Jia, “……”
Brother Qiang returned to the crew at noon, leaving Xi Jia to sit by the sickbed and accompany his friend to chat and relieve boredom.
Mentioning the things of that night, Chen Tao still had lingering fears, “I think I saw a pretty lady wearing a white dress. She was crouching there and continuously cried for some reason. Also, I’m not like you who doesn’t understand how to cherish women. When a beauty is crying, I definitely need to ask clearly and comfort them. Who would’ve thought that before I went over, I would just fall down. Tell me, how is this possible? I clearly saw a beauty in front, how did it become a cliff?”
After accompanying his friend and chatting all day, Xi Jia long lost his mind. He lowered his head, looking through his family’s Song Song’s cat pictures, leisurely saying a few words halfheartedly.
Chen Tao swallowed his saliva, “Brother Jia, tell me……Did I run into a ghost?”
Pausing his actions of flipping through the pictures, Xi Jia raised his head. Smiling towards his family’s good friend, expression relaxed, he said in a very serious tone, “I think that you’re blinded by women, you saw wrong. How are there ghosts in the world? After the founding of the country, demons and ghosts are not allowed to become refined, don’t you know?”6
“There are no ghosts in this world?” A low laugh came from the door of the ward.
Xi Jia and Chen Tao turn around to look over at the same time.
They only saw a tall, thin, and stylish young man leaning against the door, looking at them with a smile. Seeing the two look over, he raised his finger and lifted his sunglasses, revealing a pair of smiling eyes, “The little friend wearing white, if I said there’s a little ghost sitting on your leg, do you believe or not believe?”7
Xi Jia who was wearing white, showed a pure and harmless smile, “Don’t believe.”
Translator’s Notes – tried cutting down the amount of notes for idioms, slang, and whatnot. Got rid of the pretty self explanatory ones.
1 挂名 hang someone’s name – using someone else’s name to do things. ↵
2 有病 – literally having an illness/sickness, means to be crazy in certain contexts. ↵
3 小鬼 little demon/devil/ghost, or imp – It can also be used to call a mischievous child or as a term of endearment for a child. ↵
4 老子 laozi – third person way of referring to oneself to show superiority/arrogance/swag. Basically this old man, father, daddy, etc. ↵
5 洪水猛兽 severe floods or fierce beasts – idiom; figuratively, great scourges or extremely dangerous or threatening things. ↵
6 成精 to become refined – It’s also to gain sentinence. However, they’re talking about “founding of the country” which I have no clue about, probably censorship. Left it a bit vague with “to become refined.” ↵
7 小朋友 little friend – while it literally means little friend, it also means child/kid, and a way for people to call children if they don’t know their name. ↵