Chapter 6.1 - Starting the Audition

Thanks to Luo Huai, Qian Duoqun quickly accepted the ‘fact’ that he fell sick because he had eaten cold porridge.

Qian Duoqun was a person who had gone through a lot of hardships. He often skipped meals whenever work was particularly busy, so his stomach was indeed not in a very good condition. However, this was the first time he fainted due to a stomach ache.

“Thank goodness for your plant ash. I didn’t expect this thing to be so effective. I’ll find some time to go to the drugstore and stock up on it,” Qian Duoqun said.

Zhong Jiudao hurriedly stopped him, “I’m not a professional doctor, I just randomly tried it because it was an emergency. I think what made you feel better was the hot water, not the paper ash. You should eat more regularly and drink more hot water.”

“But hot water is such a hassle to drink…” Qian Duoqun started to mutter, but after rubbing his own stomach, he sighed and stopped complaining.

After experiencing this incident, Zhong Jiudao strongly realized what a troublesome thing it was to have ordinary people and evil spirits working together in the same crew. He had to find a way to solve this issue.

A protective talisman alone wasn’t enough. It could prevent the ghosts from actively harming humans, but ghosts were very scheming and could use all kinds of tricks to deceive humans. They were truly hard to guard against.

“All the props are now in place, but we still need to recruit a few more actors. I also need to revise the script. Luo Huai, you can go back for now and wait for my notice while Old Qian goes to look for the rest of the actors and the staff. When the actors are all ready, I’ll inform you to come for the table-read. We’ll officially start filming once all the staff have been gathered.” Zhong Jiudao was in a hurry to make Luo Huai leave the villa.

Qian Duoqun was really busy. Aside from having to manage Zhong Jiudao’s filming crew, he was also involved in many other small crews. Although he wasn’t able to qualify for projects with high production budget, he played a very important role in various low-budget filming crews.

“Alright, I’ll go do my work now. The truck is rented, so I’ll leave it here for you to use as a means of transportation.” Saying so, Qian Duoqun packed up his things and got ready to leave.

Right as he was about to leave, he suddenly remembered something. He ran to Aunt Yang, whose existence had almost been forgotten and told her, “What happened just now was because I have a bad stomach, not because there’s anything wrong with the food you cooked. Your cooking is very delicious. When the filming starts, please be in charge of preparing the meals for our crew! I’m still waiting to try your signature crispy pork belly.”

Aunt Yang responded gratefully, “Thank you, Mr. Qian. I thought I was going to lose this job.”

Qian Duoqun smiled and said, “Of course not. You can just call me Xiao Qian¹.”

Zhong Jiudao: “…”

If he really let Aunt Yang be in charge of their meal, he could guarantee that after three months, all the crew members would lose twenty years of their lifespan!

“I’ve called a cab. Xiao Luo, where are you going after this? I’ll take you there,” Qian Duoqun said to Luo Huai.

Luo Huai hesitated for a while, then looked at Zhong Jiudao with a complicated expression.

“What’s wrong?” Zhong Jiudao’s heart tightened. He was worried that Luo Huai had grown doubtful due to all the things that happened today.

Gulping his saliva, Luo Huai nervously asked, “It won’t be long before the filming starts, right? Can I live here?”

Afraid of Zhong Jiudao’s rejection, he hurriedly explained, “It’s like this—I’ve already graduated², and I don’t have a lot of money with me. I have no place to stay for the time being. I used to stay in my friend’s place, but now that he’s away for filming, it’ll be awkward for me to keep living in his house.”

“No problem. This villa is so big, you can just stay here.” Without waiting for Zhong Jiudao to express his opinion, Qian Duoqun had already spoken.

“Really? Thank you, Brother Qian!” Luo Huai happily beamed.

Zhong Jiudao: “…”

When Qian Duoqun noticed Zhong Jiudao’s not-so-good expression, he pulled him aside and tried to persuade him in a low voice, “It’ll take at least two or three days for me to gather up all the actors and staff. He hasn’t signed any contract yet, if you let him roam around now, what if someone from another crew wanted to cast him with a higher pay? There’s no crew who’d offer a salary as low as ours!”

Seeing that Zhong Jiudao still wanted to object, Qian Duoqun held up his phone and exclaimed, “Oh, my cab is already here! I’ll take my leave now. Xiao Luo, you don’t need to worry about this. The villa has already been rented, and it definitely has more than enough space. You can stay as you like!”

After saying that, Qian Duoqun ran off in an instant, leaving the two men behind.

Inside such a huge villa, the only occupants left were Zhong Jiudao, Luo Huai, and… a bunch of power banks.

Zhong Jiudao silently rubbed his forehead. He then said to the clueless Luo Huai, “Come with me, I’ll assign a room for you.”

“Thank you, Director Zhong!” Luo Huai replied gratefully.

Looking at his ‘I did it!’ expression, Zhong Jiudao inwardly sighed. This shabaitian actually thought that he was being smart.

At present, the evil spirits in the villa have yet to be appeased. Zhong Jiudao didn’t dare to let Luo Huai stay too far away from him, so he gave Luo Huai the room next to his own.

“You can stay in this room. I’ll give you the script later, make sure to study it properly. Try not to go out as much as possible,” Zhong Jiudao told him.

“Okay!”

After sending Luo Huai to his room, Zhong Jiudao quickly installed the printer Qian Duoqun had brought over and retyped the script. Then he selected the parts that belonged to Luo Huai’s role, printed it out, and handed it to him.

He hoped that Luo Huai would properly stay inside, study the script and memorize his lines, and refrain from leaving the room.

Fortunately, Luo Huai was a well-behaved child. After receiving the script, he nestled in his room and didn’t come out. When Zhong Jiudao closed the door to his room, he could even vaguely hear Luo Huai happily remarking, “This room is so nice!”

This villa was built very luxuriously, so it went without saying that the rooms would be nice. Each bedroom was very large and equipped with all the facilities you need. Its standard was comparable to that of a five-star hotel room, and its decoration was imbued with a vintage charm.

Once he finished settling Luo Huai in, Zhong Jiudao began to handle the matters of the house.