If Zhong Jiudao had returned even a day or two later, Luo Huai’s colleagues might not have made it

 

A flicker of inner conflict crossed Zhong Hongyan’s face, but it was clear that he did not have the courage to leave home. Even the film’s editing credits had avoided using the name “Zhong Hongyan,” opting instead for his uploader account ID.

“Perhaps it’s better to leave things as they are.” Zhong Hongyan shook his head. “I’ve lived here my entire life. It would be difficult for me to adapt to life away from the Zhong family.”

Change did not happen overnight, and Zhong Jiudao did not force him.

Zhong Hongyan parked the car in the Zhong family’s parking lot. Although it was already past three in the morning, Zhong Jiudao went straight to visit his father.

His mother had heard that he would be returning that night and had been waiting by his father’s hospital bed for some time. She was an exceptionally beautiful and refined woman, as well as a powerful celestial master in the exorcist world.

“You’re back.” Zhong’s mother was sitting beside her husband’s hospital bed. When she saw her son return, a flicker of joy crossed her face. Seeing that her husband showed no signs of waking up, she reached out and took Zhong Jiudao’s hand, saying softly, “I’m very happy that your first film was a success.”

Receiving his family’s blessing made Zhong Jiudao very happy as well. However, considering that they were standing beside his father’s hospital bed, he merely nodded with restrained composure and asked his mother, “How is Father’s condition?”

“He’s already been taken to the emergency department. He was so enraged that his qi became congested. Fortunately, he managed to spit out a mouthful of blood, so the qi didn’t remain trapped in his chest. There’s nothing seriously wrong with him. He’ll recover after a period of treatment,” Zhong’s mother explained.

Zhong’s father was not actually that old, being only sixty. He simply refused to dye his hair and insisted on cultivating an immortal-like appearance, complete with a long beard and long eyebrows. His entirely white hair made him look as though he were ninety.

“Is he really that angry about losing to me?” Zhong Jiudao asked in puzzlement. “Father isn’t such a narrow-minded person.”

“It’s not just because you beat him. The main problem is that The Record of Upholding Integrity suffered disastrous losses. He rarely set aside his dignity to enter the film industry, and his primary intention was to promote the greatness of the celestial master profession to the general public. Yet the world failed to understand the family, and people tore apart his painstakingly recreated exorcism scenes, criticizing them until not a single good thing was left to say. He simply couldn’t bear it,” Zhong’s mother said with a sigh.

Zhong Jiudao remarked, “If he’d hired me as the director and given me half the investment, The Record of Upholding Integrity would have turned out much better than it did.”

“Isn’t that the truth?” Taking advantage of her husband’s unconsciousness, Zhong’s mother pinched the back of his hand hard.

Zhong Jiudao: “...”

“Come stand over here,” Zhong’s mother called to him.

Zhong Jiudao stepped closer and stood beside her. His mother took out her phone and snapped a photograph of the three of them together.

“All right, go back to your room and rest. Once you’ve had enough sleep tomorrow, you should leave,” Zhong’s mother said.

“I haven’t even seen Father regain consciousness. Leaving just like that seems rather unfilial,” Zhong Jiudao replied.

His mother sighed. “I’m afraid that if he wakes up and sees you, he’ll be too embarrassed to face you, and his condition will worsen. If you leave, I can show him the photograph of your visit. He can then spend some time cursing you while staring at your picture, and that should help him vent his anger.”

Understood. If he did not come home, his father might become so furious that he suffered a heart attack. If he returned and his father saw him, the humiliation would likewise infuriate him enough to suffer a heart attack. The only thing that would benefit his father’s health was for him to come home and pay a visit without actually letting his father see him.

After chatting with his mother for a little longer, Zhong Jiudao went to rest in a guest room. Because he had left home in a fit of defiance, the family had sealed off his bedroom and forbidden him from entering. After all, that room was reserved for the future heir of the Zhong family. It occupied the most auspicious position in the entire residence, where even sitting and memorizing texts was more effective than in any other room. Since he was no longer the Zhong family’s successor, he naturally had to relinquish the space.

The guest rooms were primarily reserved for people who came to the Zhong family seeking assistance. A list of fees was posted directly inside each room:

“Purification Talismans: 50,000; Evil-Repelling Talismans: 50,000; Spirit-Suppressing Talismans: 100,000...”

The Five-Thunder Talisman that Zhong Jiudao had previously used against Fu Yue, for instance, cost one million. After all, this talisman possessed tremendous power. It could kill even a vengeful ghost as formidable as Fu Yue with a single strike. Even within the Zhong family, only a handful of people could draw such a talisman. In fact, sometimes two people had to combine their magical power just to muster enough energy to create one. Someone like Zhong Jiudao, who tossed talismans around as casually as sheets of blank paper, was a rare exception.

In recent years, all the Five-Thunder Talismans the Zhong family had used externally had been drawn by Zhong Jiudao in the past. No one knew how many they still had in storage.

Thinking of this, Zhong Jiudao got out of bed, found talisman paper in the guest room, and began drawing talismans one after another.

He intended to draw as many as he could throughout the night and store them in a box. When his mother saw them the next day, she would put them away for safekeeping and use them whenever the Zhong family encountered ghosts or monsters that proved difficult to handle. His father had always believed that their reserves were plentiful, never realizing that Zhong Jiudao was the one who replenished them every year when he returned home.

After drawing talismans for the entire night, Zhong Jiudao finally began to feel tired at daybreak. He lay down and fell asleep, not waking until evening, when Zhong Hongyan shook him awake.

“Jiudao, wake up! The family head seems to be about to regain consciousness. We need to leave immediately. If he wakes up and hears that you’re here, he’ll pull out his IV line, grab his peachwood sword, and come after you with it!” Zhong Hongyan said.

For the sake of his father’s health, Zhong Jiudao had no choice but to leave in a hurry.

He had been busy these past few days and had stayed up all night the previous evening. Even after getting into the car, he was still groggy. He dozed fitfully throughout the journey and only fully woke up when they reached the city centre. He then took out his phone to check whether he had received any messages.

Luo Huai had his wallet with him, and Zhong Jiudao was worried that he might run into trouble. He had therefore set Luo Huai as an important contact, ensuring that he would never miss Luo Huai’s calls, even when his phone was on silent.

The phone had remained quiet all day. Luo Huai was probably busy and had not sent him any messages, which meant there was likely nothing important going on...

Seeing the notification that his social media account had 99+ unread messages, Zhong Jiudao realized that he had been relieved too soon.

Luo Huai indeed hadn’t sent him any messages, but Qian Duoqun had been crying from noon until evening.

Qian Duoqun: I just received the news. Our film has been banned, and it’s being pulled from theatres tomorrow!

Pang Xinhao: Director Zhong, I’m so upset! Why are they treating us like this?

Ji Pan:[I’ve already had someone look into it. Their public explanation is that Fallen Home doesn’t meet the standards for theatrical release, but in reality, someone is deliberately sabotaging us. It seems the investors behind The Record of Upholding Integrity are responsible. They have very powerful connections, and my people can’t do much to help us for the time being.

“People from The Record of Upholding Integrity did this?” Zhong Jiudao wasn’t nearly as upset as the others. He had already earned more than enough from this film, and his share of the box-office revenue would be sufficient to finance his next movie. He remained calm, merely finding the situation somewhat suspicious.

“What did the people behind The Record of Upholding Integrity do?” Zhong Hongyan asked from the driver’s seat.

“ Fallen Home has been forcibly pulled from theatres,” Zhong Jiudao replied calmly.

“What!” Film editor Zhong Hongyan slammed on the brakes.

The car stopped by the roadside. Zhong Hongyan turned around and said indignantly, “What gives them the right? There are plenty of bloody scenes in The Record of Upholding Integrity too, aren’t there? Why ban our film but not theirs?”

Zhong Jiudao thought for a moment before saying, “Actually, I’ve always felt that Fallen home shouldn’t have made this much at the box office. Unlike comedies and special-effects films, horror movies aren’t suitable for everyone. There are still plenty of people who are too timid to watch them. Making fifty or sixty million yuan a day would already have been quite impressive. We have to admit one thing: The Record of Upholding Integrity was so bad that it drove a lot of viewers to watch Fallen home instead.”

Since the two films had been released at the same time and both had come out after the new regulations governing horror and suspense films were announced, it was inevitable that netizens would compare them.

For every person criticizing The Record of Upholding Integrity, there was another praising Fallen home. Tearing one down to praise another was only human nature.

The early publicity for Fallen home had been insufficient. To a large extent, its ability to make a comeback depended on viewers promoting it of their own accord. Yet even that was nowhere near enough to match the overwhelming publicity campaign for The Record of Upholding Integrity.

When netizens praised Fallen home by putting down The Record of Upholding Integrity, many people who had heard of The Record of Upholding Integrity would inevitably end up going to see Fallen home instead. It could be said that Fallen home would have succeeded even without The Record of Upholding Integrity —it simply wouldn’t have achieved success on this scale.

“They just don’t want us to keep making money off their misfortune,” Zhong Jiudao said calmly.

“At present, the only problem is that our film doesn’t meet the standards for theatrical release. However, the review requirements for online films are somewhat more lenient. We can edit it again, remove some of the bloody scenes unsuitable for teenagers, and still try to get it approved for online release.”

“I have no problem editing it again, but the family head has gone too far this time!” Zhong Hongyan was still furious. “If you can’t beat someone, you ban them instead? Isn’t that just cheating?”

Zhong Jiudao shook his head. “I don’t think my father did this.”

The old man cared far too much about his dignity. A loss was a loss. He would rather become so enraged that he coughed up blood than resort to underhanded competition.

“True. The family head was unconscious for a day and a night, so he probably didn’t have the energy to arrange something like this. The people temporarily acting as family head are from the second branch... Do you think they could have done it?” Zhong Hongyan asked.

“I can only say they’re suspects,” Zhong Jiudao replied.

“How despicable!” Thinking about the film he had spent so many sleepless nights editing, losing so much hair in the process, now being forcibly pulled from theaters and requiring yet another round of editing, Zhong Hongyan felt both his scalp and his heart ache.

He had already been wavering after Zhong Jiudao’s invitation the previous night. Now, he was struggling even more fiercely with his inner conflict.

Seeing Zhong Jiudao’s expression as calm as still water, remaining composed in the face of such a serious setback and even urging him to drive to the high-speed railway station as quickly as possible so he could return and deal with the matter, Zhong Hongyan couldn’t help asking sincerely, “Why aren’t you angry or anxious?”

Zhong Jiudao countered, “Being angry and anxious won’t solve anything. If you let your emotions get the better of you, ghosts and monsters might take advantage of the opening. The more critical the situation, the more important it is to remain calm. We were taught this from childhood. You should be quite accustomed to it by now, shouldn’t you?”

“You’re probably the only person in the entire Zhong family capable of doing that!” Zhong Hongyan said. “If those elders in the family could remain unruffled by either honour or disgrace, they wouldn’t have been so unable to accept defeat that they resorted to banning Fallen home.”

Looking at Zhong Jiudao’s composure and then thinking about the behavior of the Zhong family elders, Zhong Hongyan increasingly felt that the family had become rotten to the core.

“Forget it. I’m not going back either!” Zhong Hongyan rummaged through the car and pulled out a backpack. “My ID card, household registration booklet, phone, and computer are all in here. I’m just going to follow you from now on. You absolutely have to pay me more!”

Although Zhong Hongyan had previously turned down Zhong Jiudao’s invitation, he had kept thinking about it. When he left home, he had somehow packed his identification documents without even realizing why. Perhaps this really was how things were meant to turn out.

“Fine. I promise I’ll pay you more than the top star at our company earns!” Zhong Jiudao assured him.

Since he had already decided to leave the Zhong family, the car no longer belonged to him either. Zhong Hongyan left it in the parking lot at the high-speed railway station and called the driver to come and collect it. He sent his family a message saying, “I’m running away from home to follow Jiudao!” Then he switched off his phone and bought a train ticket with Zhong Jiudao.

Zhong Jiudao didn’t waste any time during the journey. Instead, he contacted several online platforms that had previously expressed interest in purchasing the film’s distribution rights and inquired about the possibility of an online release.

The platforms that had initially been enthusiastic now became rather cold and were no longer interested in taking on the film. Only one platform was still willing to give it a try, but it offered little money and wanted to sign a deal based solely on revenue sharing from paid views.

“Revenue sharing from paid views is fine,” Zhong Jiudao agreed immediately.

“If you recut the film and it passes review, I can increase your revenue share,” the platform’s representative said. “There’s just one thing I hope Director Zhong will agree to do for me.”

After hearing the representative’s request, Zhong Jiudao replied, “Let me think about it.”

“What is it?” Zhong Hongyan leaned over and asked.

Zhong Jiudao patted him on the shoulder. “It’s wonderful that you’ve come to help me at a time like this! I’ll tell you all about it once we arrive.”

Zhong Hongyan followed Zhong Jiudao to the hotel where Qian Duoqun and the others were staying, completely bewildered. The moment Qian Duoqun saw Zhong Jiudao, he burst into tears. “It’s gone, it’s all gone! So much money, all gone!”

“Stop crying. Where’s Luo Huai?” Zhong Jiudao asked.

“He’s still recording the last program. Everything after that has been canceled, so he can finally rest,” Qian Duoqun said with a mournful expression.

His tears came pouring down in a steady stream, dripping onto the eyeball hanging against his chest. The eyeball stared at Qian Duoqun without blinking. Its gaze no longer seemed as indignant as before; instead, there was something comforting in it.

Meeting the eyeball’s sincere gaze, Qian Duoqun realized that, at this point, the only one capable of comforting him was actually the eyeball. He immediately clutched it and sobbed so hard that he could no longer speak.

Zhong Hongyan: “...”

Wait a minute. What on earth was the producer of their company wearing around his neck? The moment he saw that eyeball, he was so startled that he nearly drew his peachwood sword!

Zhong Jiudao knew perfectly well that Qian Duoqun was merely grieving over all the money he had failed to earn. A good cry would do him some good. He stayed at the hotel for a while, and when Luo Huai and Pang Xinhao returned, he saw that Pang Xinhao looked so furious he seemed ready to kill someone, while Luo Huai was doing relatively better. His mood was simply extremely low, and the three spiritual flames on his body were on the verge of going out.

Yet even gloomier than Luo Huai was the wallet he held in his hand. Zhong Jiudao noticed that the talisman on the wallet was an intense, vivid red, while the yin energy inside was growing weaker and weaker. Through a gap, he could see that the white paper figurine inside had turned slightly red. It must have happened when Luo Huai was drawing the talisman: he had accidentally dripped some pigment onto the wallet’s opening, and it had run down onto the white paper figurine.

If Zhong Jiudao had returned just one or two days later, Luo Huai’s colleagues probably wouldn’t have held out much longer.

 

--

The author has something to say:

Zhong Jiudao: “Fine. I promise I’ll pay you more than the top star at our company earns!”

Qi Wanlian, the top star at Zhong Jiudao’s company: “Salary? What’s that supposed to be? Ghost money or tomato sauce? And don’t even mention molten cheese cakes. Those weren’t wages paid by Director Zhong; they were gifts from Xiao Luo.”

Zhong Hongyan: “...”

 

Translator : DarNan