[Seriously, did you two team up to come sleep on a paranormal reality show?]
[Acting out my slacking off at work, huh?]
[Girl above, don't say that. How could a bastard like Qi Gu compare to you!]
[Why does this non-celebrity keep staring at Qi Gu?]
[To be fair, Qi Gu may be trash as a person, but he really does have the looks.]
[That handsome non-celebrity probably doesn't spend much time online and doesn't know what Qi Gu is like.]
Even as the bus traveled down Lotus Town's main road, there were hardly any pedestrians on either side, and most shops had signs such as "Business suspended" or "Closed" posted on their doors.
It made the entire town seem lifeless and steeped in decay.
[Whoa, did the production team arrange all this just for the shoot? They went all out.]
[This broke-ass production team actually managed to convince the whole town to play along.]
[The atmosphere is there. I originally came to watch Qi Gu scream, but I didn't expect the production team to be this dedicated.]
This string of compliments left Song An deeply embarrassed. After all, that atmosphere had absolutely nothing to do with them. He had simply discovered how sparsely populated the place was while scouting locations and thought it would be good for filming a paranormal reality show, so he had gone along with the wishes of their investors, the Lin family, and settled on this location.
"Up ahead is today's destination, Lotus Town Health Center," Song An announced.
The guests all looked up on cue.
Standing before them was a three-story building with a footprint of roughly three hundred square meters. Its exterior was covered in the usual small, rectangular white tiles, its glass windows were an old-fashioned deep blue, and its window and door frames were mottled with rust from exposure to wind and rain.
Even so, it merely looked a little old. There was nothing eerie about it.
The guests all privately felt that the director really hadn't put any effort into this. He could at least have created some atmosphere.
Qi Gu, however, keenly sensed the yin energy within the health center and guessed that Song An had stumbled onto the real thing.
But the livestream had already begun, and if he told them not to go inside now, the others certainly wouldn't believe him.
After considering it for a few seconds, Qi Gu pulled the stopper out of his gourd and silently mouthed instructions for the little ghost to scout out the health center first.
They got off the bus one after another.
Sha Chuan looked at the sky, which was still bright despite the lack of sun. "Director, how about we wait until dusk to go in? We won't get much of an effect going in during broad daylight."
Mu Xingchen chimed in, "True. Why don't we look around nearby first and get a feel for the local customs?"
Vivian said, "I'm fine either way."
[Sha Chuan is so brave.]
[Nice, nice. Everyone else filming paranormal shows, take notes. This is the attitude you should have toward this kind of content.]
[I wasn't expecting much from the content itself, but now I'm genuinely a little curious.]
Just as the viewers were praising Sha Chuan's willingness to sacrifice himself for the show, Qi Gu belatedly remembered his duties and said flatly, "Everyone thinks yin energy is strongest in the early hours of the morning, but the time you're most likely to encounter a spirit isn't at night. It's noon. As the ancients said, 'When noon is overhead, ghosts show their shadows.' Things reverse once they reach an extreme. When yang energy is strongest, you're actually more likely to encounter something powerful."
Before filming began, the director had reminded him to share more little facts about the occult during the show. He dutifully complied so he wouldn't lose this easy job.
[Seriously, what's with that expression? Now that he's been exposed, he's not even bothering to act anymore?]
[Fuck, watching him is like looking in a mirror. He's exactly like me at work.]
[How does a celebrity raking in millions like Qi Gu have such strong wage-slave vibes?]
[I heard he barely made any money in entertainment before, and then paid it all out when he terminated his contract. Didn't a bunch of people post photos of him playing a wild man and working as an extra?]
[Serves him right. This is just karma.]
[He's really putting on airs now. (Facepalm and a bitter laugh)]
[He hasn't even been ordained as a Taoist priest, and he really thinks he's a master? What's this nonsense about strong yin energy at noon?]
[I just looked it up, and what Qi Gu said really is a thing. Could he actually know something?]
[At most, that proves he did his homework before going around scamming people. How does that mean he knows anything? Paid trolls trying to whitewash Qi Gu, get lost!]
"In that case, let's go in now. If the footage doesn't turn out well..." Sha Chuan gave the director a troubled look. "Then there's nothing we can do."
The implication was that if the footage turned out poorly, it would all be Qi Gu's fault.
He didn't believe a word Qi Gu said. Ghosts being easier to encounter at noon? Even a three-year-old would know that was bullshit!
He had worked diligently as an influencer for three years just to build up two million followers, and his earnings were only so-so. But if he could sign with Shengshi Media, become an artist under Wei Cai, and become a celebrity, then he could truly gain access to far better resources.
Wei Cai had approached Sha Chuan the day after the show's official announcement. He said that as long as Sha Chuan could thoroughly crush Qi Gu on the show, Shengshi Media would sign him and turn him into a star adored by countless fans.
Sha Chuan knew Wei Cai was the manager who had exposed Qi Gu back then. Clearly, he had a grudge against Qi Gu, so Sha Chuan had readily agreed.
He did this sort of thing plenty anyway, and the rewards this time were simply too generous.
Qi Gu glanced at the half-open health center doors behind Sha Chuan, which looked as though they might open their jaws and swallow him at any moment, and uttered an honest truth. "Judging by your face, you can rest easy about that."
The space between Sha Chuan's eyebrows was dark, with faint traces of black energy coiling around it, showing that he had committed no small amount of wrongdoing. His physiognomy marked him as the least fortunate of their group. Once inside, he was bound to be targeted by malicious ghosts.
Naturally, there would be no shortage of the dramatic footage he longed for.
Sha Chuan caught the sarcasm in those words, and his expression soured.
[It's been a year. Is buying a book on how to speak really that hard? What the hell is Qi Gu saying? Did nobody ever beat him up as a kid?]
[Is Qi Gu cursing Sha Chuan to run into a ghost in a minute?]
[Sha Chuan was just worried about the show. Why would Qi Gu curse him to encounter a ghost over that? Isn't that way too vicious?]
[Hasn't he always been like this? Before he left the industry, his manager exposed him for saying that a male actor on the same production looked destined to have no children, and that the director would have a miserable old age if he didn't do more good deeds and accumulate virtue.]
[Could he be jealous that our Sha Chuan is better-looking than him?]
[Just a passerby here... Qi Gu may be stupid and nasty, but his face really is better-looking than your heavily edited, photoshopped Sha Chuan's, okay?]
[Seriously, girl, you have no standards. You'll swallow anything.]
Only one or two scattered comments defended Qi Gu's looks, and they were soon drowned out by the army hurling abuse at him.
In the end, Song An decided to send the guests straight into the health center.
Before entering, Qi Gu was still a little unwilling to give up. He stared intently at the large box the production team had brought. "Director, it's already eleven. Isn't it time to hand out the boxed lunches?"
Song An fell silent for a moment. "...Weren't you the one who said this was when we could encounter something? Let's finish filming first. Afterward, I'll take you all out for something good."
Eat, eat, eat. Eating is all he thinks about!
Hearing that, Qi Gu immediately cheered up, and even his steps became considerably lighter.
The five guests and their respective camera operators filed into the health center, while the production team set up a canopy outside to coordinate everything else.
The moment they passed through the glass doors covered in thick dust, everyone distinctly felt the temperature around them drop, and a faint smell of rust drifted around their noses.
The interior was so pitch-black that it didn't seem like daytime at all. All the natural light outside seemed to be absorbed by the glass doors and refracted back out, leaving not the slightest bit able to penetrate.
"It's so dark. Good thing I came prepared." As he spoke, the young idol Mu Xingchen took several glow sticks out of his shoulder bag and handed them around.
Everyone began snapping their glow sticks. Only Qi Gu held his stiffly, waiting until he saw what the others were doing before following suit.
Growing up in the mountains, he had never seen anything like this.
"Want some bear-shaped cookies?" Qi Gu asked Mu Xingchen, returning the favor.
Watching him eat throughout the journey had already made Mu Xingchen crave some. Now, staring at the bear-shaped cookies as Qi Gu tore open the packet, he hesitated for a long time before finally giving in to temptation. "I'll have one. I can't have too many. My manager will kill me if I get fat."
[Little Mu is so thoughtful. As a mom fan, I want a glow stick from him too, sob.]
[Hahaha, baby, eat some more. I'll go yell at your manager!]
[Why is Qi Gu moving so slowly? Don't tell me he zoned out again. Heh.]
[Uh, I'm kind of sold on Qi Gu's pants. They can hold so much.]
[He's been eating the whole way without stopping. Was he born in the Year of the Pig or something?]
[He really thinks this is a spring outing and an eating stream, huh? I hope something big happens soon and scares the hell out of him.]
The viewers mocked Qi Gu a few times as usual, then surveyed the health center as the camera views switched.
Before you continue