“It's blowing up, it's blowing up! The video you uploaded a few days ago has gone viral—just the likes alone have already exceeded a million! Hurry up and make a few more videos!”

 

On the country’s largest video platform, an account called “Welcome to the House of Debauchery” quietly uploaded a short video only a little over ten seconds long.

The video used the currently popular #plot_twist tag, riding the wave of the tag’s popularity to gain a tiny bit of traffic.

After finishing a day’s work, Pan Lin lay on his bed exhausted, wanting to watch some short videos before sleep to relax his tense nerves.

As he kept scrolling, a video with just over a hundred likes was pushed onto his homepage.

Aside from friends and family, Pan Lin usually wouldn’t watch videos with so few likes. If it had fewer than 50,000 likes, he wouldn’t even bother wasting time.

He should have swiped it away—but the girl in the white qipao in the video was just too beautiful. Not the trendy influencer type, but a kind of beauty that made people feel protective and tender toward her.

For the sake of such unique beauty, Pan Lin was willing to watch for a few seconds.

She was struggling to twist open the cap of a half-full ketchup bottle, looking quite strained, making people want to reach out and help her.

“Don’t tell me it’s another lovey-dovey couple video,” Pan Lin thought sourly. As a single person, he felt a bit bitter. For the beauty, he could watch a bit longer—but the moment a man appeared on screen, he’d immediately switch videos.

“Ah!” The white qipao girl’s hand slipped, and the ketchup bottle fell onto the marble counter with a “pop” sound and shattered, ketchup spilling everywhere.

The girl hurriedly wiped the counter with tissues, getting ketchup all over her hands.

“Leave it. There’s broken glass in there—how can you wipe it directly with your hands?” A somewhat domineering and willful female voice spoke.

A striking, fashionable woman in a red dress entered the frame and grabbed the ketchup-covered hand of the white qipao girl. “Let me see if you were cut by the glass.”

Logically speaking, the woman in red wasn’t breathtakingly beautiful, but her aura was the complete opposite of the white qipao girl. Against the latter’s gentle softness, the red-dressed woman appeared even more dazzling—almost stunningly gorgeous.

“This video quality is way too high. With these two faces alone, it shouldn’t have only a hundred likes,” Pan Lin thought.

Before the video even finished, he couldn’t help double-tapping the screen to like it, contributing a little to its like count.

At this moment in the video, the woman in red held the other’s hand and leaned closer to check whether there was any blood mixed in with the red ketchup.

As she got close, she lightly licked her lips and softly said, “It’d be such a pity to waste it. Why don’t we eat it?”

She leaned in as if to eat the ketchup. Pan Lin watched, feeling oddly excited.

Suddenly, both girls turned toward the screen, revealing sinister expressions, and said to the viewer, “You’ve seen something you shouldn’t have.”

The video flickered. The warm kitchen scene suddenly changed. The white qipao turned black, her previously light makeup became heavy and vivid, her lips red as if smeared with blood.

The woman in red changed into an old-fashioned Western dress. The entire screen darkened, and behind them appeared countless eerie green lights.

The ketchup on their arms turned into dripping blood.

They turned their faces, casting vicious and greedy gazes toward the screen. Their bloodstained arms stretched out toward the phone.

“Oh my god!” Pan Lin shouted, throwing his phone away in fright, clutching his chest in lingering terror, afraid that bloody arms might crawl out of the screen and drag him inside.

After calming down for a while, and seeing nothing emerge from the phone, he cautiously picked it up again.

“Watching this crap in the middle of the night—scares people to death,” he muttered.

He flipped the phone over. The video was looping, returning to the opening scene of the girl twisting the bottle cap.

His thumb hovered over the screen to switch videos—but the pitiful expression of the girl struggling with the cap made him want to watch a bit longer.

So once again, he couldn’t help watching—and couldn’t help getting scared.

But the second time, he was mentally prepared. The fright was much reduced, and he noticed something: behind each girl, there seemed to be a hand resting on their shoulders, as if controlling them.

He tried to look closely, but the scary shot was too brief—just a one-second freeze-frame close-up. Before he could examine it, the video looped back again.

Since the video was short, Pan Lin watched it again. This time, when the frightening scene appeared, he paused it to look carefully. Only then did he notice that each girl had one eye shedding tears of blood, while the other eye held a clear tear hanging at the corner, about to fall.

The shadow behind them appeared tall, with both hands pressing on their shoulders—like it was manipulating them.

And from the tears of the two women who had become fierce ghosts, it was clear—they were asking for help.

“This video is really high-level, very well designed,” Pan Lin said after watching it a few more times. He simply shared it to a group chat of his disorderly friends, adding the caption: “Come look at beauties.”

‘It’s better to scare everyone together than to be scared alone’, he thought.

【Holy shit, that scared me to death!】
【Sending this at midnight—are you even human?】
【But the ladies are really beautiful, great atmosphere, and the twist is genuinely scary.】
【Look carefully at the last scene—the beauties are actually being controlled. I’m off to save them.】
【How are you going to save them?】
【Share the video so more people see it, hahaha!】
【Exactly—send it at night. Only in the dark of night can you find (scare) your friends!】

That night, similar conversations appeared in many chat windows.

Director Zhong, who had filmed this short video using half a bottle of leftover ketchup and the villa’s ready-made kitchen, had no idea what was happening online. After uploading it, he focused entirely on filming the movie.

Starting with human–ghost interaction scenes had been the right choice. Driven by the outstanding performances of the ghost actors, the human actors also displayed astonishing acting skills. The filming progressed rapidly—it felt like they wouldn’t even need three months to wrap up, saving another round of food expenses. Zhong Jiudao thought happily.

Today’s shoot involved Fu Yue treating her former best friend to dessert. The two male actors were called away separately by Qi Wanlian and the head of the household, Shen Leshan, leaving Fu Yue and Aunt Yang to host the two women.

The dessert was naturally Aunt Yang’s specialty—lotus seed soup. Now that she had reformed after becoming a ghost servant, she tried not to make poisonous food. This bowl of lotus soup was sweet and fragrant, and the two actresses couldn’t help secretly sneaking bites several times, making the scene difficult to shoot.

Because the scene required them to take one look at the soup, turn pale with shock, drop the bowl, and flee in panic.

But the soup was so delicious that even if they resisted eating it, they couldn’t show fear toward such a tasty dish.

After several NG takes, Aunt Yang remained patient, but Fu Yue was already grinding her teeth, her nails gradually lengthening, blood slowly seeping from her forehead. Fortunately, her hair covered it.

Thankfully, Zhong Jiudao was there to suppress her. Fu Yue took out a handkerchief and wiped away the blood.

But Fu Yue was a berserk-type fierce ghost. If this continued, it wouldn’t end well. After two more NGs, even with the director present, she might start eating people.

It was the first time encountering a situation where after too many NGs, the director didn’t scold anyone—but the actor was about to kill someone.

They had to think of a solution.

While the actors adjusted themselves, Zhong Jiudao went to the restroom and heard Qian Duoqun screaming inside.

He quickly opened the door and saw two eyeballs rolling on the floor at Qian Duoqun’s feet, staring with unclosed eyes.

Ever since Qian Duoqun suggested exploiting the ghosts by opening a company, those eyeballs had stuck to him like a shadow.

Even when Zhong Jiudao was present that day, the eyeballs rolled to Qian Duoqun’s feet to glare at him. Now that the crew was busy and Zhong couldn’t always watch over things, the eyeballs—within the limits allowed by the ghost-mark contract—were scaring him every single day.

When Qian Duoqun slept, the moment he opened his eyes, he could see a pair of eyeballs quietly staring at him beside his pillow.

When Qian Duoqun moved props, a pair of eyeballs would roll around in the storage room—no matter which box he opened, he might find a pair of eyes silently watching him.

When Qian Duoqun washed up or shaved, the moment he raised his head, he would see a pair of eyes stuck to the mirror, quietly staring at him.

Regarding this matter, Zhong Jiudao even took time out of his busy schedule to have a talk with the eyeball ghost.

“Have I done anything that violates the ghost-mark contract?” the eyeball ghost asked. “Have I harmed him? I’m just quietly watching him.”

Indeed, this was also the reason why Zhong Jiudao couldn’t directly punish the eyeball ghost.

Every profession has its own rules. Since it hadn’t violated the ghost mark, a proper celestial Master couldn’t punish a controlled ghost indiscriminately.

“Then why do you insist on scaring him?” Zhong Jiudao persuaded patiently and earnestly.

“Because he’s an evil capitalist!” the eyeball ghost said with a strong sense of justice. “When I was alive, I once said—even if I die and my bones are crushed to dust, I will still use these eyes to see it through to the end—to see the downfall of all the corrupt-hearted people in the world!”

Quite a righteous ghost, after all.

The eyeball ghost’s eyes were indeed extraordinary. All its obsessions were concentrated in those two eyes. Zhong Jiudao had calculated before that even if he beat the eyeball ghost until its soul scattered, those eyes still wouldn’t disappear—they would become ownerless eyes.

Without the ghost’s control, those eyes would drift to the ends of the earth, and as long as injustice existed in the world, they would witness it all.

These eyes were a mixture of obsession, yin energy, and a sense of justice. A Celestial Master’s techniques could disperse the yin energy, but couldn’t destroy the sense of justice. As long as the obsession remained, the eyes would not perish.

Even Zhong Jiudao could only seal them, not eliminate them.

Therefore, it was better to keep the eyeball ghost—at least the eyes would occasionally return to their sockets.

As for Qian Duoqun, Zhong Jiudao could only comfort him by patting his old partner on the shoulder: “When you make money in the future, do more good deeds. It will gradually leave.”

“Gradually?!” Qian Duoqun let out a miserable scream.

“…You’ll get used to it. Once you see it often enough, you’ll get used to it—like me,” Zhong Jiudao said.

Qian Duoqun: “……”

No normal person could ever get used to this!

Hearing Qian Duoqun screaming in the restroom, Zhong Jiudao knew the eyeballs had followed him again.

Sure enough, the eyeballs were rolling around on the sink. After shouting once, Qian Duoqun went back to washing his hands on his own.

It seemed he had indeed gotten somewhat used to it.

Seeing this, Zhong Jiudao simply wrapped the two eyeballs in a tissue and took them to find the eyeball ghost.

Upon seeing Zhong Jiudao, the eyeball ghost said firmly: “Director Zhong, no need to persuade me—just destroy me completely! My conviction will never perish!”

Zhong Jiudao: “You don’t need to be so worked up. I’m not here to eliminate you—I want you to help me with something. Make a cameo appearance in the film.”

“A cameo?” The eyeball ghost became excited. “What kind of plot?”

“It’s a story about searching for eyes. I’ll hide your two eyes, and you just have to find them,” Zhong Jiudao said.

“Okay!” the eyeball ghost agreed without hesitation.

“But you need to dress up a bit. Here, this is for you.” Zhong Jiudao took out a pair of 9.9-yuan sunglasses and put them on the ghost, covering the two hollow sockets on its face.

“Alright, I’m about to start filming. Just come to the set and search,” Zhong Jiudao said.

After a short break, filming resumed.

Zhong Jiudao handed two bowls of lotus seed soup to Aunt Yang. She glanced down at them and revealed a blissful smile.

Xiao Yan and Xiao Yun also felt a bit embarrassed. The actors playing ghosts were all working extremely hard, going all out and not caring about their image, applying all kinds of terrifying makeup. They didn’t want to hold everyone back, but this particular scene truly had no horror elements. Fu Yue was also just in modern attire. As low-paid ordinary actresses, their looks were unremarkable in the entertainment industry, and their acting skills were nothing special. Even trying their hardest, they couldn’t achieve the effect Director Zhong wanted.

Aunt Yang once again handed over the lotus seed soup. With the thought “This time I must act well,” the two girls solemnly took the bowls and casually glanced inside.

With just that one glance, both of them screamed in unison: “Ah!!!”

Inside each bowl of lotus seed soup floated a bloody eyeball.

The eyeballs could even move, shifting direction along with their movements. They were so realistic, with a vivid, lifelike quality—nothing like props.

They immediately let go. Just as the bowls were about to fall and shatter, Aunt Yang swiftly caught them.

Holding the bowls, she asked, “What’s wrong? Doesn’t it taste good? This is my carefully made, fragrant and soft lotus seed soup. You… don’t like it?”

Her expression became strange, looking at them with a mixture of heartbreak and reproach—as if anyone who refused to drink it had committed some grave offence.

“No, no! We… we…” The two were too frightened to speak.

Fu Yue also stood up, snatched a bowl, grabbed Xiao Yan’s chin, and tried to force it into her mouth, saying with a ferocious expression: “Drink it! I’m treating you!”

“Help!” Xiao Yan and Xiao Yun pushed the bowl away and fled in panic, the bowl smashing on the ground.

They rushed out the door and collided with a man wearing sunglasses in the corridor.

“H-help!” Xiao Yun grabbed his arm. “There are ghosts chasing us! Please help!”

The man adjusted his sunglasses and said politely, “Of course. When a lady asks for help, how could I stand by and do nothing? However, I’m currently looking for something. Have you seen it?”

“What thing?” Xiao Yan asked.

“Oh, I can’t find my eyes. Without them, I can’t see, so I can’t help you,” the man said, revealing a ghastly white grin.

“Y-you…” The two girls clung to each other tightly and stepped back.

At that moment, two round objects rolled to their feet. Their faces turned pale with fright—they didn’t even dare look down. It was as if their voices were stuck in their throats, unable to come out.

“Oh, found them—right at your feet.” The man crouched down and picked up the two eyeballs.

“Ahhh!!!” The two screamed and ran toward the camera—toward where Director Zhong stood. He could save them!

“Cut!” Zhong Jiudao gave them a thumbs-up. “Good performance.”

The two immediately collapsed onto the ground. Hearing the director’s voice felt like returning to the world of the living.

Xiao Yan shook her head and said, “I’ve acted in so many bad horror films. Every time I thought my screams were loud enough and my performance was decent—but today I finally understand what real fear feels like.”

“Same here. From now on, when I act in scenes with extreme fright, I won’t have to worry anymore,” Xiao Yun said.

“No wonder people say your acting improves when you work with a good director. We really learned a lot this time.” The two hugged and cried, not sure whether they were moved by breaking through their limits or simply terrified.

It was another smooth day of filming.

That night, the ever-busy all-round Director Zhong returned to his room, opened his computer, and planned to look online for a composer—someone not very famous, affordable, but capable of producing high-quality original music—for the film’s soundtrack.

At that moment, Qian Duoqun knocked frantically on his door: “It blew up, it blew up! The video you uploaded a few days ago went viral—just the likes alone are over a million! Hurry up and make a few more videos!”

 

Translator : DarNan