MS Chapter 24

Director An never expected that the minds of a few female ghosts would be so stubborn.

In order to shoot the movie, he meticulously designed the characters and their behaviors, all to ensure that the ghosts’ grievances would be stirred up.

But he never anticipated that after the foolish actors messed things up, it wasn’t just a matter of unusable footage.

These damn female ghosts are actually supporters of gender equality?

What do you mean by saying that if it’s a man, it doesn’t count as sexual harassment? What do you mean by considering the psychological trauma of old men and big guys? So you all have a pretty high level of awareness as ghosts?

Director An felt both fear and dread in his heart, unable to help but curse at the lecherous player: “It was him, it was this damn turtle who did it! I’m just a photographer, I’m only responsible for recording, I really don’t know anything!”

The lecherous player was not having it: “Hey, why are you trying to shirk responsibility again? Earlier, you had someone buy things for you and pushed it onto the staff, and now you want to push it onto the staff again.”

He then said to the female ghosts and Director An’s wife: “Just so you know, I’m also forced into this.”

“This bastard made me harass women, to secretly take pictures of skirts in the subway. I thought, isn’t this illegal? But he gave me a death order, saying if I didn’t do it, I should get lost.”

“I’m just trying to make a living, it’s not easy these days, so I had no choice but to do it. But even though I’m poor, I still have to uphold my moral bottom line, right?”

“Fortunately, harassing men isn’t illegal; at most, I might get punched by some hot-headed guys, but that’s still better than bullying girls, right? But the way I thought I could have my cake and eat it too, Director An wasn’t happy about it and came back cursing me for being a coward without balls. I was baffled; we’re all shooting a film about perverted lechers, is there really a difference between male and female lechers?”

Hearing the other party spill everything, Director An was scared half to death.

Sure enough, when the female ghosts heard this, their voices were no longer gentle and soothing; they turned sharp and eerie, and the temperature around them suddenly dropped—

“Oh? Harassing women?”

“Secretly taking pictures of skirts?”

“Stalking and following?”

Director An felt dizzy, clearly seeing the smiles of these female ghosts becoming increasingly sinister, their mouths stretching back to their ears, sharp teeth seemingly ready to snap at him and tear off a piece of flesh.

The most terrifying part was that his wife was completely unaware of this, and even after hearing the lecherous actor’s words, she was still playfully hitting him. Others stood around watching the spectacle, and the whole space felt extremely eerie.

Clearly so many people were present, yet it felt like he was the only one aware of the danger, the extreme emotions of loneliness and fear without any sense of recognition driving him mad.

Director An screamed in terror, breaking free from his wife’s grasp and bolting for the door.

Lu Qingjia signaled the other players to pick up the camera; the climax of the movie was unfolding, how could they miss it?

Director An escaped from the room of the five female ghosts, finally letting out a sigh of relief.

He quickly pulled out something from his pocket, a snuff bottle engraved with intricate spells, looking somewhat old.

This was one of the few heirlooms passed down from his mother’s family, and since it was passed down to males only, it had been kept by his uncle until this special situation arose, and he lent it to him for self-defense.

His uncle had said that with this thing, while it couldn’t guarantee a 100% escape from vengeful spirits, at least his life would be safe.

Holding the snuff bottle, Director An felt a bit more at ease.

Then he heard the sound of a ball being bounced at the end of the corridor.

“Nothing much, just saw a kid playing with a ball in the hallway, probably the children of the nearby residents, seeing someone slip in to play.”

Director An suddenly remembered the foolish words the crew had blurted out during the day.

But it was the middle of the night; even if a child had snuck in nearby, how could they still be here at this hour?

Director An knew very well what that was, but he couldn’t help but turn his head.

He saw a small boy, a few years old, holding a small ball, happily bouncing it in the hallway.

Director An actually let out a sigh of relief, finally not having to see the terrifying image of a headless child bouncing its own head.

He didn’t dare to engage with the boy, just froze in place, hoping to silently wait for him to leave.

But things didn’t go as he wished; his wife and the others also came out of the lecherous actor’s room.

Seeing the boy, Director An’s wife, reminded of their son at home, smiled and said, “Hey, kid? Which room do you live in? Why aren’t you back in bed at this late hour? Stop playing, or your mom will scold you.”

The little boy looked up, his appearance innocent, with big round eyes that were glistening. Director An’s wife immediately took a liking to him, and if she had candy, she would have given him some: “This kid is really fair-skinned; tomorrow morning, Auntie will make you some steamed cake.”

Hearing about food, the boy’s eyes lit up, clearly tempted, then he showed a dejected expression: “I’m waiting for my dad.”

“What’s wrong with your dad? Don’t worry, adults will come back on their own; you should go back to sleep first.”

The boy shook his head: “Dad went to gamble, took all the money from home, saying he wanted to win it back.”

Director An’s wife immediately scolded: “Damn gambling addict, if he dies, that’s one thing, but dragging the whole family down, anyone who follows him is really in for a rough time.”

Then the boy continued: “My dad hadn’t gambled for a long time; he was lured back by an uncle.”

“Who?” Director An’s wife instinctively asked, “Anyone who encourages someone to gamble again deserves to be struck by lightning.”

Then the boy pointed at her husband and said, “He, he took the uncle who lives in our room to gamble for a whole day and night, and when the uncle came back, he played cards every day, so my dad went back to gambling.”

Director An’s wife felt she couldn’t hold her head up in front of the boy’s bright eyes.

Like a crocodile gathering strength, she slowly turned around and grabbed Director An’s ear, pulling it: “Damn it, I shouldn’t have lent you money to make a lousy movie.”

“Are you filming your mother’s movie? And it ends up encouraging a bunch of scoundrels? A family that has finally seen some improvement, do you know what kind of disaster you’ve brought upon them?”

Director An doubted his life even more; why, why did everything come back to him?

If the gambling addict really had such an addiction and went back to playing cards, then the one to blame should be him, right? Why was he pointing at himself?

Director An endured the sharp pain in his ear and quickly explained: “I’ve said it before, the theme of my movie is to capture the joys and sorrows of small people, without too much interference, how can this be blamed on me?”

Then he shifted the blame, pointing at Lu Qingjia: “He, he provided the funds; otherwise, do you think our poor crew would have enough money to sit at the gambling table for a whole day and night?”

“It’s all because his funding was too generous.”

Director An’s wife was so furious she felt like her lungs were about to explode: “So it’s wrong for someone to sponsor you to make a movie? Where do you get the nerve? A bald-headed, garlic-nosed ugly thing, and yet someone is going out of their way to give you money for food and gambling? I spit!”

While she was cursing, a seemingly delicate woman walked out, pulled the boy over, and gave Director An’s wife a tired smile—

“Forget it, don’t blame him; it’s my child who isn’t doing well in school. Don’t hit him, it’s late, go to sleep soon.”

Since the victim said so, Director An’s wife felt even more ashamed, and her grip tightened.

The pain of each pinch felt like being flayed alive.

The key was that Director An was injured, in pain and unable to move, wanting to explode in anger but only inviting more beatings.

After tossing and turning all night, he was finally dragged back like a dead dog. By the next morning, Director An looked utterly pitiful, as if he had no air left.

He glared at everyone: “Don’t you all feel something’s off?”

The first to speak was the gambling addict, looking remorseful: “Sigh! I didn’t think it would turn out like this; I just thought I’d gamble a few days like it was a task, and in the end, it made things worse for them, making their wife and child so sad. What kind of thing is this? Isn’t this harming others?”

The lecherous player chimed in: “I told you to just shoot the movie, don’t skirt the law; you didn’t listen, and now look what’s happened?”

“Haha! What did I say? Luckily we’re clever enough to find a balance between breaking the law and the movie’s effect; otherwise, I would have been dragged down by this bastard sooner or later, and you all would still complain about my harsh words.”

Director An finally broke down: “Then who the hell is wrong? Did I say anything to you guys?”

“Don’t you all have a sense of the situation in our crew? Suddenly, there are enough people to form two mahjong tables in the middle of the night, and with the strange noises that happened a few days ago, are you all pigs? Laughing and joking around, didn’t you think about where those things came from?”

“We thought about it!” Lu Qingjia said with a carefree expression.

He smiled with a saintly demeanor: “But in this world, one shouldn’t dig too deep into everything. After all this time, we haven’t felt any malice; they’re all quite easy to get along with, so what’s there to fuss about?”

“This apartment is already big enough; with just ten of us living here, it’s a bit eerie. Now, it’s good; more people come out to chat occasionally, and everyone isn’t so scared anymore.”

Director An held his head in despair and shouted: “Are you out of your mind?”

“With fewer people, you find it eerie, so you bring out a few ghosts to liven things up, and that’s not scary? You all must have something wrong with your heads, right?”

Pointing at a few people, especially the lecherous player and the thief player, he said: “Oh, I should have seen it earlier; you idiots are clearly mentally ill, different from normal people.”

“Would normal people be so obedient? Would they let things get this out of hand?”

“Those are ghosts, ghosts that could strangle you at any moment and send you on your way, damn it, you idiots better show some proper reactions!”

Otherwise, how would he shoot his movie?

However, everyone on set was unhappy with his words.

A female player said: “Wait, why are you like this? Is it not enough that you discriminate against people and regions? Now you’re discriminating against species? Did they provoke you? Should you avoid them like they’re poisonous snakes?”

Director An trembled: “Poisonous snakes? Can poisonous snakes be scarier than ghosts? Is it me who has a problem or you all?”

The female player quickly rubbed her arms: “Can we not talk about it? I’m most afraid of insects, snakes, and rats.”

Director An: “…”

The lecherous player said: “Hey, what are you doing? I’m being polite, and you’re getting cocky? What gives you the right to compare Xiaoyu and the others to poisonous snakes?”

“How many beautiful girls are there? They’re friendly and speak nicely, simply goddesses. You, a bald-headed, fat-bottomed, greasy thing, what right do you have to point fingers at them?”

“Oh, you’re still picky? Do you even deserve it? It’s just that they can’t get out of this lousy place right now; otherwise, if you saw a beautiful girl outside, you’d be leering at her.”

Director An couldn’t believe it: “Are you out of your mind? Can ghosts even eat?”

“Spit! Don’t tarnish the girls’ reputation!” the lecherous player scolded, then a hint of blush crossed his face: “We’re not at that stage yet.”

Director An shivered all over, realizing that in this large crew of over ten people, he might actually be the most innocent and naive one?

He turned back with a glimmer of hope, looking at Lu Qingjia: “You, you wouldn’t—”

Lu Qingjia had a bright and imposing expression: “What do you think of me? No matter what, I wouldn’t go after five single girls, right? Have you forgotten my orientation?”

Ah, right, the pretty boy is gay, so he wouldn’t be cruel enough to be messed with by female ghosts.

Just as he thought this, he heard the other party say: “Of course, I just think the gambling addict is not doing his job properly, feeling sorry for his wife and child.”

“Since this is a sin created by our crew, now that things have come to this, I certainly have a duty to take care of his wife and child.”

“Fortunately, Xiaohao is obedient; he can already call me dad.”

Director An almost choked on his own brain matter, staring at Lu Qingjia with his scalp tingling.

There’s really no limit to how twisted things can get.

Wait, no, the pretty boy dares to steal someone’s wife, so why is he still alive now?

Director An quickly asked why.

He heard the other party explain: “He came to me to gamble, lost, and gave his wife and child to me; what face does he have to settle the score with me?”

“Damn it, you—” Director An’s voice trembled: “When did this happen? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“And they’re ghosts, and you dared to gamble with them?”

“What’s there to be afraid of? It’s just that the stakes were a bit high. Director, don’t look at me like this; my skills, intuition, and luck at gambling are all quite good. The moment I saw that gambling addict, I knew he was the type who wanted to hit it big, the kind of fool the casino loves to set traps for. What’s there to be afraid of with someone like that?”

As Lu Qingjia spoke, the director standing opposite him grew increasingly pale, with more horror in his expression.

“Hey, you, behind you—” Director An reminded.

Because behind Lu Qingjia in the corridor, a man holding two dice appeared, looking at them with a resentful gaze, as if a sharp knife was piercing through the fear of others.

It was broad daylight outside; how could these ghosts come out?

Director An felt both fear and dread, seeing the pretty boy still chattering away, not daring to remind him, fearing he would be blamed and that the ghost would take him out.

Perhaps his expression was too horrified, and the pretty boy also noticed something was off.

But the next action completely exceeded Director An’s understanding.

The pretty boy glanced back at the gambling addict, showing no reaction to the man’s furious face, then casually grabbed an orange from the table and threw it over.

“Don’t block the hallway; go to the corner and eat your orange.”

Just like throwing a bone to a dog.

As a result, that dog—ugh! The gambling addict actually caught the orange, and the next second, his face was filled with flattering smiles, completely losing the fierce demeanor from before.

Shrinking his shoulders, he chuckled: “No, bro, I just heard you mention my name, so I came out to see if there was anything I could help with. If there’s nothing, I’ll just go sit aside.”

Lu Qingjia nodded with some impatience, then turned back to Director An: “By the way, what were we just talking about?”

Director An was dumbfounded; how the hell did you pull off such a magical maneuver and continue with trivial topics as if nothing happened?

The key? Where was the key?

He gasped: “What just happened?”

Lu Qingjia glanced back at the gambling addict, who was again showing a flattering smile, making Director An’s eyes widen.

Then he heard Lu Qingjia say: “His wife, child, and family assets were all lost to me, so of course, he’s just my dog, doing whatever I say.”

“Is there a problem?”

“Is there no problem?” the director shouted.

“But usually, when a thug owes money at a casino and can’t pay it back, besides selling organs, they can also help the creditor work off the debt, right?”

“I didn’t take his life; that’s already the most lenient approach.”

So does that mean he should be grateful to you?

Director An’s vision darkened as he staggered out of the apartment building.

Looking back at this place where he had once held grand ambitions, he felt that the current developments were beyond his control, and for a moment, he didn’t know where to go.

Director An felt he needed to calm down and carefully consider how to proceed with the movie under the current circumstances.

Just then, after breakfast, the tiger mother went out to buy groceries, and the others, hearing him say there was no work today, either played on their phones or went out shopping.

Director An lay on his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

As he stared, he felt as if his head was being knocked against something.

He had limited funds at the time, so the bed he set up in his room was certainly not fancy, just a regular frame bed without a soft headboard, with his head pressed against the wall.

At this moment, it felt like his head was being knocked against the wall.

Director An turned over and glanced at the wall behind him, the yellowed paint surface, and a dark yellow shadow that looked increasingly eerie.

It looked like a ghostly face roughly imprinted with features, and those features seemed to be moving.

“Ah—” Director An was so scared he took a step back, suddenly recalling the hallucination he saw when he entered the room yesterday.

“Who? Who’s scaring me?” With so many ghosts in the apartment, so far, they didn’t seem to have any aggression towards the crew.

But Director An thought of an old couple; perhaps they were the ones causing the disturbances.

But then he would be wronged again; why didn’t these ghosts go after the corresponding actors? Could it be that seeing the pretty boy really made the old ones envious of the money he earned?

Director An didn’t dare to stay in the room any longer and hurried outside into the sunlight.

The morning sun was just right, but Director An unexpectedly saw someone he absolutely didn’t expect.

“Qiangzi, what are you doing here?” Director An said in disbelief.

The old man Li’s son, who was also Director An’s cousin, was now with a flamboyantly dressed woman, and upon seeing him, he greeted him with a grin: “Cousin, you really came to this lousy place to shoot a movie? I heard cousin is here too.”

He then leaned in lewdly: “The tiger mother is keeping an eye on you; you probably can’t get any benefits in the crew, right?”

Director An’s face turned pale with fright: “What the hell are you doing here? Didn’t my uncle tell you to never set foot here for the rest of your life?”

Li Qiang was unconcerned: “Don’t worry, don’t worry, I’m not going in; I just came with Lili to pick up something.”

“Besides, my dad has already smoothed things over, right? You made such a big fuss, and nothing happened.”

Director An knew this guy was foolish, but he didn’t expect him to be so bold.

He finally wasn’t completely stupid; if what had happened before could still be attributed to the crew’s foolishness and the resentment in the building affecting their luck, then now it seemed too coincidental.

Director An warily looked at the woman: “What are you here to pick up? I remember you moved out almost a year ago. I don’t believe you have anything worth making a special trip for.”

The woman, blowing on her bright red nails, rolled her eyes and said nonchalantly: “Before I moved, I got into a bit of trouble, and it was inconvenient to spend money, so I hid some here. Now that the storm has passed, I naturally came back to get it.”

This reason was actually plausible; this woman was promiscuous, and she had been with quite a few men in the underworld, so her income sources were mostly the same. If she got involved in something and had to run away, that was nothing unusual.

But Director An was already very suspicious, not believing in such coincidences.

He then heard Li Qiang say: “Wasn’t Lili with Xiao Ge for a while? I’ve heard people mention this; Xiao Ge had a slip-up for a while and went in, causing chaos among his subordinates, and lost a chunk of money.”

“Part of that money ended up in Lili’s hands, and recently, Xiao Ge got into a fight while drinking and was killed with a bottle, so she can use that money with peace of mind now, right?”

Director An continued to ask: “Then why did you look for Qiangzi? You have so many lovers; can’t you find someone local?”

The woman was displeased: “Who do you think you are, interrogating me? When have I ever had trouble finding a man? It was Qiangzi who took the initiative to reconcile with me.”