Those Years I Employed Non-Humans as Actors - Chapter 2.2

As he lay down on the bed, Zhong Jiudao’s mind began to wonder. Thinking of the movie he was about to film, he felt a little restless. As someone who could exorcize a ghost with the snap of a finger, he didn’t have the slightest fear of staying in a haunted house. On the contrary, he was even rather pleased by the turn of events since these ghosts provided plenty of unexpected benefits. However, shooting a full-length feature film was a first for him. He had never done this before and was very nervous about it.

After mentally recalling his to-do list and making sure he didn’t miss out on anything, Zhong Jiudao got up from the bed and took out a box file from his suitcase. Aside from the script and documents he had prepared for the movie, the file also contained CDs of classic films that he had been using as reference and study materials.

With the rise of streaming apps and rapid development of technology, people nowadays rarely watched things from CDs anymore. These CDs were also collected by Zhong Jiudao when he was still in school. The reason he brought them here was because when the agent first introduced the villa to him, he mentioned that it had a home theater.

As someone who had the capital to purchase such a huge villa, the landlord was obviously not short of money. The villa was fitted with all kinds of facilities, but it was a pity that before anyone had the chance to enjoy them, they were scared away by the ‘original residents’ of this haunted house.

Zhong Jiudao picked out a few CDs as well as a thick notebook, planning to rewatch these classic films to observe and study the techniques and styles of these great directors.

When he walked out of the room, he saw that all the doors of the bedrooms on the second floor were open. Each and every room was sparkling clean, which showed that Aunt Yang had gone the extra mile in completing the job.

Aunt Yang was truly a swift worker. In hardly any time at all, she had already cleaned the whole villa.

The white cheongsam ghost still remained stand-by under the stairs on the first floor, waiting for Zhong Jiudao’s instructions without daring to move.

Looking back at the clean rooms, Zhong Jiudao felt that he could at least give them credit for their work, and so he said, “As long as all of you promise not to harm anyone and do your best in completing your work, it’s not impossible for us to live together in peace.”

The white cheongsam ghost raised her head, relief and delight palpable on her face. She curtsied to Zhong Jiudao. “I thank the celestial master for his grace.”

She moved to kneel down to him, but as a youth from the new era who dared to break the family tradition for the sake of his dream, Zhong Jiudao naturally did not condone this kind of behavior. He quickly stopped her, “I’m not one for feudalism. You can take your leave now.”

As if she had received a general pardon, the white cheongsam ghost hurriedly grasped the candle in her hand and disappeared into the last step of the stairs.

Zhong Jiudao went up to the theater on the third floor. Seeing that the equipment was in good condition, he plugged in the cord and chose to play a classic horror movie.

There were many aspects Zhong Jiudao could learn from it. While watching the movie, he carefully went over the notes he had jotted down on his previous watch. Whenever he discovered a new detail, he would write down his insight and add onto his review. It didn’t take long before the page began to run out of space, filled with densely packed words.

When he was taking notes, Zhong Jiudao would pause the movie and resume it only after he finished writing. For this particular movie, he had already watched it many times before and could even recite the plot backwards, so what he focused on this time was not the viewing experience, but to find any details worth learning.

Just as he pressed the pause button for the umpteenth time, a frustrated voice blurted out from the corner of the room. “Pause again! It’s been two whole hours and we’ve only seen thirty minutes of the movie! I can’t take this anymore!”

Zhong Jiudao put down his pen, his head tilting to the side. He had just realized that he wasn’t the only one in the theater.

In the middle of the walls, the ceiling, the floor, the backseat of the chairs—countless heads popped out from various spots inside the theater. All this while, a bunch of ghosts had been fervently watching the movie along with him without taking their eyes off the screen.

Zhong Jiudao: “…”

These ghosts cautiously crept into the theater and merely stayed inside without releasing any malicious or murderous intent. Coupled with the fact that he was too focused on his studies, a lot of ‘audience’ had actually gathered around him before he knew it.

When they came in, these ghosts were indeed deliberately suppressing their aura to quietly observe Zhong Jiudao, the uninvited guest. And yet, halfway through, they were fascinated by the movie and forgot their original purpose.

But who would’ve thought that Zhong Jiudao would repeatedly pause the movie every few minutes? At one point, he almost drove them crazy by pausing three times on a single frame. It was so maddening that one of the ‘audience’ finally couldn’t hold back from exclaiming out their thoughts, thus making Zhong Jiudao discover their existence.

One person and a group of ghosts silently looked at each other, yet the ones who were more afraid were the latter.

All of the ghosts in this haunted house were from the last era. Most of them were wearing traditional garments, and the only one dressed in western-style suit was the ghost who expressed his impatience over Zhong Jiudao’s pace. His hair was neatly combed back and styled with pomade, and he looked very young, like someone in his early twenties.

Noticing Zhong Jiudao’s line of sight falling on him, the ghost in the suit gave him an awkward smile. He retracted his body into the table, leaving out his head as he apologized to Zhong Jiudao, “Please forgive me, celestial master. The movie you’re playing is really interesting, I was too engrossed in watching it and got carried away for a moment… I promise I won’t make any more sound to disturb you. Would you please allow me to watch it to the end?”

The group of ghosts were shaking in fear, but they still persisted in staying inside the theater, waiting for Zhong Jiudao to press the play button so that they could continue watching the movie.

Do they also like to watch movies?

Zhong Jiudao had never gotten along with ghosts in depth before. Feeling a little curious, he promptly resumed the movie. This time, he no longer paused it to take notes and let it finish running smoothly.

When the end credits rolled, the besuited ghost let out an emotional sigh. “What a great movie. Too bad it has a tragic ending.”

“How is it tragic?” Zhong Jiudao asked.

For a horror movie, this film actually had a pretty good ending. Why did he think the ending was a bad one?

The besuited ghost answered, “The main character was so powerful in the beginning, he had countless beauties working under him and numerous living humans to suck Yang energy¹阳气(yang qi), opposite of Yin energy, commonly associated with bright/positive things. In Chinese horror stories, it’s a common trope for ghosts, monsters and the likes to suck Yang energy from the living to gain power from. He was totally living the life of my dreams, but in the end, he was sealed by the despicable villain. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry. However, even with such an ending, it doesn’t take away from the fact that the first 80 minutes is really good.”

The duration of the movie was one and a half hours. The main character spent the first 80 minutes thoroughly suppressed by the villainous ghost and finally figured out a way to seal it in the last ten minutes of the movie. It should’ve been a terrifying and suspenseful watch with a coherent and rewarding ending, but in the mouth of the ghost in the suit, everything was completely reversed.

“That’s right,” another ghost, a middle-aged man dressed in a changshan, chimed in from beside the besuited ghost, “The only good thing about that villain is his good looks. It would’ve been great if the main character could take over his body.”

The white cheongsam ghost, who had snuck into the theater along with the group of ghosts, joined in to give her impression, “The villain is indeed a handsome young man, too bad he’s an ungrateful and heartless person. He deceived the feelings of the female underling that worked under the main character and manipulated her into helping him harm the main character. In the end, instead of dying to be with her, he even asked the Taoist priest to perform prayers for her so that her soul could ascend. Not only is he unfaithful, he failed her love in the most horrible, cruel way!”

Zhong Jiudao: “…”

One after another, the ghosts expressed their dissatisfaction over the ending, making Zhong Jiudao couldn’t help but to doubt—did they really watch the same movie?

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