Chapter 335
Chapter 335
Sun Yuan led our group to the location rented by the film crew.
It was a courtyard residence designed in the style of the Republican era. According to the script, the male lead, the second female lead, and several friends traveled far from home and stayed in a courtyard residence: the very place before us.
Later, the male lead quarreled with the second female lead, who accidentally hanged herself there. She became a wronged spirit that lingered in the courtyard residence, transforming it into a haunted house.
The male lead later returned to the place with the female lead, followed by a series of supernatural encounters. In the final revelation, however, the haunting turned out to be man-made. There had never been a Ghost; someone was simply avenging the second female lead.
The entire plot was bland and cliche, and the ending was the same as always: horror movies could not contain real Ghosts. Either everything was caused by a person, or the male lead suffered from schizophrenia.
The moment we reached the entrance, we heard people arguing inside.
Before long, a company president in a suit stormed out, his face filled with anger and dissatisfaction.
The instant Sun Yuan saw him, he behaved like a mouse meeting a cat. Bowing and scraping, he said, “President Wang…”
President Wang looked at him and frowned. “Are you a stagehand?”
Sun Yuan nodded frantically and answered as meekly as a servant. “Yes, yes. I’m a stagehand.”
“How the fuck are you doing your job? I invest in a movie, and you people get someone killed!”
President Wang cursed without sparing him a shred of dignity. “Who’s going to compensate me for my losses? You couldn’t repay me even if you sold your entire family!”
Cold sweat poured down Sun Yuan’s face. He hastily apologized. “I’m sorry, President Wang. Director Hong already asked me to invite experts here. Nothing… Nothing else will happen.”
President Wang looked the three of us over. He did not know which one was supposed to be the expert, but no matter which of us it was, none of us looked the part.
He said coldly, “You people really do treat my money like a toy.”
His implication was obvious: Sun Yuan had invited several useless frauds. It was not even a veiled insult. He had cursed us directly to our faces.
With that, he walked away and climbed into a luxury car parked nearby.
Only then did Sun Yuan breathe a sigh of relief. He hurriedly apologized to us. “Please don’t take offense. That man was the investor in our movie. Even the director gets cursed out by him. Rich people are all like that.”
Brother Liu could not resist cursing. “Fucking nouveau riche. He acts like some kind of almighty monster and doesn’t know the first thing about respecting people.”
I nodded, unconcerned. “It’s fine. We’re used to it. We aren’t that delicate.”
Anning asked Sun Yuan, “If the place is haunted and it isn’t your fault, why not explain that to him?”
Sun Yuan smiled bitterly. “Sister An, talking back to a big boss is just asking to be cursed out.”
Anning had experience in society but did not understand its unspoken rules, so I explained, “In the workplace, if the boss says you’re wrong, then you’re wrong whether or not you actually are. If you dare argue, you’d better be ready to lose your job.”
That was the reality of the workplace. Employees would always be nothing more than beasts of burden.
Not every boss was like Meng Yifan.
After we went inside, another round of curses rang out.
Sun Yuan said the director was the one shouting now. The director had probably been cursed out moments ago, so once that ended, he turned around and cursed the crew. It was perfectly normal on a film set.
Only after the director finished did Sun Yuan lead us over and introduce Anning and me.
“Director Hong, these are the two people my cousin introduced. My cousin is a police officer.”
The director was instinctively disappointed when he saw how young Anning and I were. But after hearing Brother Liu was a police officer, he nodded, shook my hand in greeting, and offered me a cigarette.
“Mr. Chen, Sun Yuan has already explained the situation. That’s how things stand.”
The director spoke solemnly. “If you can resolve the problem here, I promise the compensation will not disappoint you.”
“But if… How should I put this? If filming is delayed, the investor in our movie… has very powerful connections and a bad temper. I’m sure you understand what I mean.”
Of course I understood.
He was using the investor’s background to threaten me.
If I had no real ability and had come here to swindle money, I would undoubtedly pay a price.
“Director Hong, don’t worry. If this place truly is unclean, I’ll clean it up for you.”
“But if there is some other cause, then it falls outside the scope of what I handle.”
I gave him my guarantee.
It was not arrogance. Even if I could not solve the problem, I still had Seventh Master.
The director nodded. No longer paying us any attention, he immediately called the assistant director over and instructed him to coordinate with us and see to our needs.
The assistant director was a scruffy man in his thirties. At least he was quite courteous.
Once we sat down in a relatively quiet room, we discussed the situation.
The assistant director said filming would proceed as normal tonight. The location rental and labor costs were both extremely high. In short, the production was too expensive to wait. They had to continue according to the original filming schedule.
In addition to resolving the “strangeness” as quickly as possible, our job was to prevent any further accidents during the shoot and guarantee the safety of the cast and crew.
If anything else happened, everyone would suffer.
I sighed inwardly. I had known the money would not be easy to earn.
The worst part was that they intended to keep filming before we resolved the matter. Who could guarantee nothing would happen in the meantime? They were creating needless difficulties for us.
But they had hired us, so we had to follow their instructions. There was nothing we could do about it.
Even after our discussion, the assistant director did not entirely believe in my abilities.
I could not be bothered to explain further. I told him directly, “The most important thing now is to determine whether this place is truly haunted.”
Normally, I would have to wait until night to verify the presence of a Ghost. But they refused to give me the time, and I had no desire to endure their skeptical expressions, so I cast a hexagram first.
Once the hexagram appeared, the next step was mounting the hexagram, followed by selecting the Yongshen.
To determine whether a place contained a Ghost, I had to take the Official Ghost as the Yongshen. If the Official-Ghost Line fell into Xun Void or became a Hidden Line, then the place contained no Ghost.
But this hexagram contained not one, but two Official Ghosts.
Even so, that alone did not prove the place was haunted.
However, one of the two Official Ghosts was moving. Its Yin Yao had transformed into a Yang Yao. And what did movement signify? As the saying went, “Divine mechanisms reveal their signs through movement.” Movement gave rise to fortune and misfortune.
The Official-Ghost Line was the only moving line in the entire hexagram. Therein lay the mystery.
Next, I examined whether it was flourishing or weak. It flourished under the Tai Sui and the Month Builder, but was dormant and powerless under the Day Builder.
At this point, I could already determine that the place was indeed haunted, and by a female Ghost.