The Pen Spirit stood blankly next to Chang Gu. She still did not understand what had just happened. Earlier, everyone was called to casting, and she merely ran through the expressions as per Chang Gu’s direction.
“I am surprised that the Pen Spirit will be the first actor from my haunted house to debut. At least the daily lectures that I have given have not gone to waste.” Chen Ge looked at the Pen Spirit like a proud father looking at his accomplished daughter. He asked Chang Gu, “Then, how about the casting for the male main character?”
“About the male main character, I am still hesitating. There is a problem. In terms of acting skills, your worker by the name of Zhou is very impressive. His acting skill is far better than all of the actors that I have worked with in the past, but the main problem is his age. We are going to shoot a high school drama. With his age, he is more suitable to be the main character’s father.” Chang Gu glanced at Ol’ Zhou and Bai Qiulin, who were purposely wandering around the area, and he sighed weakly. “Theoretically speaking, the most suitable person at your haunted house to be cast as the main male character is Xu Yin. His eyes appear to be hiding a sea of sadness, and he carries a natural air of melancholy with him. Age-wise, he is also the most suitable, but most importantly, his face can practically ‘slaughter’ most of the male actors his age, so I would say he was born to become an actor!”
“Then it’s decided. Xu Yin will be the main male character.” It really did not matter to Chen Ge who the male main character was. He had even more hope that Xu Yin would be able to slowly walk out from his own world through this experience and see what the outside world had to offer. Of all the workers at the haunted house, Xu Yin was the most loyal. To protect Chen Ge, he had almost lost his soul several times, so no matter what, Chen Ge also wished to help Xu Yin regain his hope.
“If you agree with that, then I will need you to have a good chat with him and help him with some counselling. The main male character has a lot of lines. It won’t work if he just keeps on repeating the words ‘so painful’.” Chang Gu was rather afraid of Xu Yin. He did not even dare raise his voice when he was talking with Xu Yin.
“Certain things can’t be forced. Why can’t you try to shorten the script for the male character, cut out most of the lines or use another method to express the main male character’s intention?”
“That will be very difficult. After all, we are different from the other teams on the market who ruin the source material that they were given. We have to be able to say that we have not disappointed the original author who has already passed away.” In a way, Chang Gu had his professional ethics when it came to his work.
“Okay, I will go and talk to him in a bit.” Chen Ge followed Chang Gu as he paced between the School of the Afterlife and Mu Yang High School scenarios. “How about the other main characters? Have they been cast? Previously, I promised one of the employees that I would help her fulfill her dream of being in a movie. Her name is Duan Yue. She was an English teacher before she died.”
“The investor forcing an actor into the film crew? That feels oh so familiar.” Chang Gu wanted to reject it initially, but after he remembered who Duan Yue was, he changed his mind again. “Oh, I think I remember her. That female teacher is quite a good actor as well. How about I cast her as the main female character’s class teacher? In the original story, the class teacher helps the female main character, and in the end, she even marries the girl’s father and lives happily ever after.”
“What the… If Ol’ Zhou heard this plot, he’d probably die again from laughter.” Chen Ge nodded. “I think you need to communicate with Duan Yue some more to see whether she is willing to take this role or not.”
“Okay, I will run through the rest of the characters and casting with you for now.” Chang Gu was a very talented director. The characters that he had chosen and the cast that he had assembled were so perfect that the actors basically did not need to overact in their roles; they only needed to be themselves, and they could easily bring the characters that they were assigned to life. The extras aside, there were only nine main roles in total. This high school comedy did not have a convoluted plot. It focused around a girl from a single parent family and how she managed to walk out from the mist of depression with the aid of her family and her company at school.
It was a story about youth; it was a story about growth. It was filled with positive energy and the pain that one had go through as one grew up into adulthood. A series of seemingly unimportant events were lined up together to form an interesting and captivating story. The story itself was not that long, but it had a great dramatic effect and obvious conflicts. It was not that difficult to shoot. These were all the reasons Chang Gu had selected this source material to adapt.
“You’d better work as fast as you can. I will leave the rest to you. I hope that everything will be done in a week.” Chen Ge did not know when the cursed hospital would come to find him. The easier he gained Zhang Wenyu’s trust, the better. There was only positive benefits and no downsides.
“I am surprised that I’ve been given more time to do the things that I love after death. This is so ironic. But don’t you worry, I will not disappoint you this time.” Chang Gu gave Chen Ge a promise. He would let Chen Ge see the result within five days. Chen Ge also thought that Chang Gu was quite a reliable director, so he did not ask more questions. Like he said, he handed everything over to Chang Gu. He was just a normal person. He could not be compared to baleful Specters and Red Specters. After working without rest until midnight, he was already very tired.
The moment Chen Ge left the underground scenario and Chang Gu was going to continue with his shooting, a small figure silently pulled on the corner of Chang Gu’s shirt. Chang Gu, who was startled, turned back to look and saw a Red Specter whose height reached his knees staring up at him.
Do Red Specters roam this place freely? Chang Gu’s body was frozen to the spot. He noticed that Chen Ge’s haunted house was scarier than the School of the Afterlife.
“Director Chang, my name is Men Nan. Do you think there is a character suitable for me in the script? Since I was young, I’ve dreamt of seeing myself on the big screen. I guess you can call it one of my biggest dreams.” Chang Gu could ignore the request of a child, but things were different if that child was a Red Specter.
“Of course, there is no problem with that. How about I assign you the role of the female main character’s younger brother? There is such a character in the source material, but he does not appear that often.”
“That does not matter as long as I can show up on the screen at least once.” Men Nan left satisfied. Chang Gu also sighed in relief. He moved his feet and was about to walk away when his whole body shivered. A mist of blood enveloped him. He turned back to look, and a female Red Specter was standing at the corner gazing at him with the head that she carried in her arms. She did not say anything; she only continued to stare at Chang Gu with the head in her arms.
“Hello…” Chang Gu said cautiously as he forced himself to move forward to meet this newcomer. This was because he felt that it would be safer for him to get close to the woman rather than show her his back and allow her to follow him everywhere. The headless woman could understand Chang Gu, but the accumulated resentment and hatred made it so that she was not used to express her own opinion.
“You also wish to be a part of the movie? Actually, I have a role that is perfect for you. The character has no lines. She only needs to give her silent blessing to the main couple.” Chang Gu’s face was pale, and he was speaking very carefully. Making a movie at other places required money, but making a movie at this place might require your life!
The headless movie did not say anything. She merely held her head and nodded it several times before she silently left. Chang Gu only sighed in relief after the headless woman disappeared from his view. “I should hurry back to work, or else some other Red Specters might appear to accost me.”
…
At 8 am the next day, the first thing that Chen Ge did after waking up was enter the underground scenario. He needed to remind Chang Gu that all the movie-making business had to be done at night because the haunted house needed to operate like normal in the day. The ghost employees did not need to rest. Even after a whole night of shooting, they were still very energetic. Everyone was excited to welcome the visitors. They were the most professional actors whom Chen Ge had ever met.
The employees returned to their workstations while Chang Gu used the morning break time to edit and cut the drafts that he had shot the night before. Even though he had worked through the night, he could still continue working. The director was as impressive as the actors.
Xu Wan and the gang arrived at around 8:15 am. Chen Ge helped them with their makeup and then walked into the staff breakroom alone. He complied and arranged all the dying wishes that he had gotten from Zhang Wenyu’s suicide victims. Most of the suicide victims came from Northern and Southern Jiujiang. A small portion of them died somewhere between Xin Hai and Jiujiang.
“There are so many of them?” Chen Ge printed out all the information and shoved it into his backpack. He planned to go out that morning to help Zhang Wenyu complete part of the dying wishes of the suicide victims. Most of the dying wishes were not that complicated, but Zhang Wenyu, who was a ghost, had trouble doing them due to obvious reasons.
Before he even stepped out from the door, Chen Ge’s phone rang. Pressing the accept button, Director Luo’s voice came from the other side of the line. “Chen Ge, I have just received two pieces of news. I need you to be prepared.”
“What’s the news?” Chen Ge heard an undercurrent of worry in Director Luo’s voice.
“There has been an adjustment among the higher ups at the futuristic theme park. Jiang Jiu is hospitalized, and now the theme park’s administration has been taken over by someone called Ma Feng. I know this man very well; he is callous and ruthless. He is young, but he’s advanced very quickly through the ranks. That is because he is swift with his decision and merciless with his actions. The people below him all refer to him as the Quick Slasher.”
“The man’s name is Ma Feng?”
“He is very capable and always goes for the kill. Because of his merciless nature, he has offended quite a long list of people. If not for Jiang Jiu’s accident, he would not have gotten the chance to rise to the top.”
“Do we need to pay special attention to this person?” Chen Ge knew the reason behind Jiang Jiu’s hospitalization. He just did not expect the chain effect to be so strong.
“Ma Feng operates on benefits. From the very beginning, he was vocally against the many traps that Jiang Jiu set up against us. He thought they were a waste of money and time. Now that he has taken the reins, he will launch to another counterattack on us. If he is successfully, then it will highlight how good he is and how useless Jiang Jiu was; if he fails to accomplish anything, then he will probably give up the haunted house idea and other related projects for the futuristic theme park to avoid competition with us.”
“Is that not a good thing? If we teach him a good lesson, in the future, the two theme parks will exist in a peaceful, symbiotic relationship, and they will not keep a target on our back anymore.”
“The world of business is like a war; only the winner takes all. Even if Ma Feng fails, the futuristic theme park will only temporarily remove the target from our back, but being able to gain that period of time where we do not need to worry about the competition is very valuable already. I will not sit idle in the meantime. Our theme park has already to upgrade and improve with the time.” Director Luo’s words had hidden a very important message. “And in the future, when we have everything that they have and we also have everything that they do not have, if you were a visitor, who would you choose to visit?”
“Of course, I will choose to come to our theme park.” It was not until this moment that Chen Ge realized that when Director Luo said ‘the winner takes all’, it meant that he wanted to swallow up the entire futuristic theme park.
“This will not take too long. Before the upgrade is completed, I am afraid you will have to work a little bit more to shore up the deficiencies of the other halted attractions.”
“Understood.” Chen Ge and Director Luo were on the same ship. Their fate was tightly linked together. “By the way, didn’t you say you receive two pieces of news? What’s the other one?”
“It’s news from the special sickroom at the People’s Hospital of Jiujiang. The people that have fainted at your haunted house have mostly recovered and left the hospital. These people spent almost every day consoling and encouraging each other. Other than that, the hospital workers heard that they have been planning and plotting to come back for revenge. It is like some kind of cult.”
“You are afraid that they might come back to take revenge on me?” Chen Ge could not help but laugh. “These fainted visitors have watched too much of the Avengers, haven’t they?”
“Do not be overconfident. A collective wave can capsize a boat.” Director Luo ended the call after that. The smile still had not left Chen Ge’s face. Yes, a collective wave could capsize a boat, but no matter how big the wave, it would not shake an aircraft carrier. Chen Ge welcomed their return. If they came openly through the front entrance, the doors of the four-star scenario would be open for them anytime; if they sneaked from behind, the Demon God and Red Specters would be their welcoming crew.
After greeting Uncle Xu, Chen Ge carried his backpack and left New Century Park to hurry to Northern Jiujiang. Following his own plan, he started to help the suicide victims complete their dying wishes. During this process, Chen Ge noticed something peculiar. As more and more dying wishes were completed, a red number appeared next to the title of Votive Master in the black phone. Whenever he finished a victim’s dying wish, the number would increase, and the amount it increased would differ each time. The amount appeared to be related to the difficulty of the dying wish. Currently, the number next to the Votive Master title was 127. Chen Ge predicted that the title would somehow change when the number counter reached 200. Chen Ge busied himself until late afternoon, and he returned to New Century Park. He asked his employees for an update. It was yet another peaceful day with no accidents.
“There are more and more people who are courageous enough to challenge the four-star scenario, but their progress from completing the scenario is still very very low.” From the report given to him by Ol’ Zhou and Bai Qiulin, in the past week, there had been almost two hundred visitors who entered the School of the Afterlife, but the scenario had such a high intensity of Specters in it. After all, Chen Ge had found all the souls of the dead students who had been dragged into the door and had provided these homeless souls with a sanctuary at his own School of the Afterlife scenario.
This caused a direct consequence where no visitor was able to full explore the School of the Afterlife. Basically, most of them called to surrender with tears and screams, and they were led out of the scenario by actual ghosts. Various rumors about the School of the Afterlife started to appear on the internet. The popularity of this topic was so high that it had far expanded beyond the small circle of haunted house enthusiasts.
“One four-star scenario is still too little. I should consider opening the ghost fetus’ scenario to the public. I should go and give it a good inspection tonight.” The theme park closed for the day at 6 pm. After sending away all the visitors, he had Xu Wan and the gang go home, and he entered the underground scenario alone.
Chang Gu had started to organize people for his shoot. Meanwhile, Chen Ge hugged the white cat, carried the comic, and entered the ghost fetus scenario. Originally, there was only one ladder that led underground, but now, there was a second ladder that led to the second basement level. The whole second basement was occupied by one scenario, the ghost fetus’ scenario. The voiceless small town, the white orphanage, the spire of darkness, the haunted avenue—all these scenarios were joined and pieced together. There were many dark paths that extended deeper into the ground. The ghost fetus’ despair and twisted spirit shrouded the entire scenario.
The ghost fetus’ scenario was, in essence, different from the School of the Afterlife scenario, probably because this scenario once belonged to a Demon God. Once one entered it, one would feel the pressure on one’s heart like a demon had just entered it. It kept evoking the bad memories that one had buried deep in one’s mind. All the negative emotions would be amplified. A person’s sin and guilt would find release there to become the nutrient for the ghost fetus’ scenario.
After experiencing the worst despair, perhaps the visitors would feel lighter after they left. Perhaps they would gain a new insight toward life and their future. With only some short period of unconsciousness as sacrifice, one could welcome a new life. For Chen Ge, this seemed like such a valuable trade. Flipping through the comic, Chen Ge summoned out all the Specters he had encountered in the world behind Ying Tong’s door. Miss Dress, Mr. Wood, Auntie Wu, and Miss Red silently appeared around him.
“I believe Bai Qiulin and Ol’ Zhou have already updated all of you on what is going on. The spire of darkness will be your home from now on. Other than the rules of the employees that you need to follow, you are free to do anything you like.” Chen Ge conversed quickly with his new employees. “Soon, you will see the allure of this job, and I trust that you will learn to enjoy it and love it.”
After that, Chen Ge summoned out all the Specters and spirits that he had obtained from all the ghost fetus’ nine doors. He assigned them positions one by one until Xiao Sun was the only one left.
Xiao Sun had accepted the fact that he was already dead. He was surprisingly open about it. At this moment, seeing that he was the only one who was not assigned a job, he felt quite left out. “Brother, what do you need me to do? I also want to help scare the visitors. I am quite good at that.”
“I do not need you to do that.” Chen Ge looked at Xiao Sun with expectation. “Instead, I need you to pretend to be part of the visitors and mix into them. That is the only way for you to unleash your full potential. Utilize your uncanny ability to bring down the luck of the people around you.”
“You want me to act as one of the visitors?” Xiao Sun did not quite get it. He did not understand that this was something a haunted house could do.
“That is the only way your talent will not be wasted. I fully believe that with your talent, it will be very easy for you to cause bad luck to befall your teammates.” Chen Ge nodded with a smile. “After all, you are a unique talent who managed to use a single statement to make a Demon God go on a rampage.”
