Chapter 38: Black Magic

Qin Fanghao didn’t immediately release the video she edited from the material of searching for Old Mrs. Yang. Instead, she first screened it at an internal meeting.

It was just a short video, not worth such a fuss, but Qin Fanghao said, “I think this video is particularly well-edited and will be very impactful. It might be a bit off-topic, though, so could you all take a look and see if it’s suitable? If not, I’ll re-edit it.”

As a promotional account, this video was indeed a bit “off.”

Qin Fanghao’s treatment of the material didn’t focus on how the studio finds people, how professional it is, or how efficient.

The emphasis was on the grandmother-granddaughter relationship between Yang Xiaoyan and the old lady.

A video of about three minutes told a complete story of family affection.

The grandmother suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease, and her granddaughter, still in school, did her best to earn money through part-time jobs to protect her grandmother and care for her meticulously. This also subtly educated viewers about measures to prevent elderly people with Alzheimer’s from getting lost.

But due to an accident, the grandmother still got lost.

The granddaughter searched while recounting her story with her grandmother. The flashback parts used animated interludes instead of actual footage. Coupled with the granddaughter’s heartfelt voice, it was heartbreaking to watch.

Finally, the grandmother was found. All the previous build-up was to highlight the bowl of noodles the grandmother brought out at the end, pushing the audience’s emotions to their peak.

Then, it stopped abruptly.

There was no mention of the other Yang family members or their sordid affairs.

“Is that it?”

“I just took out my tissues.”

“This is too tear-jerking.”

Even Lu Yang, who had experienced the entire event, said, “Your eyes, my eyes, are they not the same?”

Qin Fanghao: “Hehehe, still want to watch? Then I’ve achieved my goal.”

She made a small gap with her hand, a hint of cunning in her smile, like a fox with a successful scheme, narrowing her proud eyes: “There’s still a little bit of essence left.”

Qin Qing found it amusing.

What a confident girl, full of spirit.

When she first met her, she wouldn’t have tried to take the initiative and lead others’ emotions like this. She would probably only listen to others’ opinions and then meekly agree.

Qin Qing: “Alright, stop keeping us in suspense.”

Qin Fanghao then restarted the paused video.

After the story footage ended, a blessing appeared on the black screen.

[Every reunion is a deep tribute to the past. May all those loved in the world be “found.”]

Immediately after, the studio logo appeared.

Found Studio.

After the entire video played, Qin Fanghao asked, “Don’t you think my handling of this transition and echo is particularly good? The only problem is that our studio only appears for the last 3 seconds. What do you all think of this approach?”

What else could they think? Of course, they praised it.

Qin Qing led the applause.

“I felt like I watched a micro-movie. It’s very good, don’t change it. But I noticed that neither Yang Xiaoyan nor the old lady had any frontal shots.”

Qin Fanghao: “Frontal shots would require blurring, which greatly affects the audience’s emotional immersion in the story. When I filmed, I deliberately took more side and back shots.”

Qin Qing smiled: “Oh, you’re already starting to think like a director.” But she was curious, “The animated scenes in the video look quite fitting with the dialogue. What anime did you choose?”

“It’s not anime.” Qin Fanghao was a bit proud when she mentioned this, “I wrote the visual script and storyline, and generated them with AI.”

You couldn’t help but praise her; this girl could even write scripts now.

Qin Fanghao’s talent for visual and emotional perception was undeniable. Without amateur interference, the videos she made by intuition were completely devoid of artificiality and clichés, and were particularly captivating.

Once released, it quickly became the most popular video on the studio’s account. With the promotion of highly loyal fans, it quickly went viral, and new followers surged.

Interaction was also very active.

“I cried like an idiot, and you’re telling me this is actually an advertisement?”

“Even if it’s an ad, I’ll take this recommendation, after all, the story is real.”

“My grandma is also like this. I was a left-behind child, and my grandma and I depended on each other, so our relationship was very good. I didn’t understand before, only thinking she was getting more confused, but later I found out it was Alzheimer’s after a check-up.”

“Children raised by their grandmas can’t watch this, crying to death.”

“Little sister is good, grandma is also good. Sure enough, reciprocal family affection only appears in other people’s families, my family… never mind.”

“Although I wasn’t lucky enough to have a grandma who wasn’t harsh or patriarchal, I still give a thumbs up to the little sister and grandma.”

“I have someone I miss, far away in a distant land…”

“Hugs to the person above. I also hope my loved ones can be ‘found,’ but unfortunately, your studio can’t go to heaven.”

“@the person above, and the person above them. Not necessarily, you can go and watch the previous videos of this studio. They have a bit of a metaphysical feel to them, why don’t you try?”

“Try +1.”

—

The western suburbs of Shanyu City are an industrial zone.

There are old factories, as well as some emerging OEM factories.

These factory areas provide a large number of manual labor jobs for Shanyu City. In these factories, employee turnover is high, and they are always recruiting, including temporary workers.

Feng Qing and Feng Huan were such temporary workers.

They were cousins, from a rural area in a county surrounding Shanyu City.

Feng Qing was two years younger than Feng Huan, but because Feng Huan had been sick and taken two years off school, they were still in the same grade.

The sisters were hardworking and both had good grades. In this year’s college entrance examination, they performed stably and both got into their desired schools, having recently received their admission notices.

With two college students suddenly appearing in the family, the Feng family was invigorated. The parents of both families were even more radiant, looking as if they had shed ten years.

They had nowhere to vent this overflowing satisfaction of their daughters’ success, so they secretly held a celebration banquet in the village, inviting neighbors to celebrate together.

Feng Qing and Feng Huan, as the protagonists, did not attend this banquet.

It was simply too awkward. It wasn’t like they got into Tsinghua or Peking University; it was just an ordinary undergraduate university. They couldn’t survive under the elders’ incessant praise like their parents could. While they couldn’t stop their parents from holding this celebration banquet, they could choose not to attend.

The reasons were readily available.

After the college entrance examination, as soon as they estimated their scores, they went to work in the factory together, and they couldn’t take leave from the factory.

They wanted to buy a laptop for use in college.

Their parents still had old-fashioned ideas, thinking that playing on the computer would affect their studies.

So, the sisters decided to earn the money themselves.

On a rare day off, the sisters rested in their dormitory.

In a ten-person dormitory, only at such times could the two sisters chat properly.

They also saw the latest video released by “Found Studio.”

After watching it, they even discussed it.

They were both left-behind children, raised by their grandparents, so watching this video resonated deeply with them. Compared to the netizens in the comment section, they both felt very lucky.

Their grandparents were still alive, healthy, and not confused.

Feng Qing: “Society is really becoming more open. Even such mystical things can be turned into a business and promoted online. I wonder if it’s really that miraculous.”

Feng Huan found it amusing: “Shamans and spirit mediums are finally online.”

Feng Qing: “I wonder if their studio can really go to heaven to find people. I left a comment; if there’s a follow-up, someone kick me.”

After finishing this one, Feng Qing scrolled to a hot topic that a comment blogger was interpreting.

A new policy that had been hotly discussed recently, regarding several changes to marriage registration.

Feng Qing had seen too many cases of unhappy marriages barely surviving in her village, and she didn’t yearn for marriage.

She always had to complain a few times whenever she saw this policy.

“This divorce cooling-off period is truly amazing. As long as one party disagrees, they need to go through the process again. Isn’t this a vicious cycle?”

Feng Huan: “You haven’t even dated yet, and you’re already thinking about divorce. That’s too pessimistic. This divorce cooling-off period is only useful when you’re divorcing. If you don’t divorce, then it’s fine.”

Feng Qing felt like she was hallucinating, her ears itching a bit.

“No, you’re a bit too optimistic.”

She used a couple from her village as an example.

“Not to mention distant examples, just take Zhao’s Second Son from our back village. The one we call Second Brother. He himself is a cowardly wimp. He didn’t dare to directly say he disliked the blind date arranged by his family, so he ran away to work. His father tricked him back by pretending to be seriously ill to get him to marry and register their marriage. He didn’t dare to utter a single word and actually got married.

“Second Brother Zhao committed marriage fraud. He ran away less than half a month after registering, leaving Second Sister-in-law alone at home to marry and have children. He only came back home for ten to twenty days during the New Year every year. Second Sister-in-law was virtuous and very supportive of his work. It wasn’t until their second child was born that she found out he had set up another home where he worked and had another child.

“Second Sister-in-law made a fuss after finding out, but because that spineless man refused to divorce on the grounds of ‘for the children’s good,’ and the adults from both families also persuaded her to endure for the sake of the children, she lived like a widow for over ten years. I heard her say before that she would file for divorce once the children got married, so that it would look good when the children got married.

“I don’t understand her thinking, but what if Second Sister-in-law one day changes her mind and really files for divorce? According to the current policy, as long as Second Brother messes things up during the divorce cooling-off period and says he’s unwilling, wouldn’t she be tied to the Zhao family for life?”

Feng Huan, for some reason, seemed a little angry. She said, “That’s also because the country realized that true freedom of marriage was never achieved before, and parents interfered too much, so they issued a new policy: as long as both parties are willing, they can get married with just their ID cards.

“If Second Brother and them had this good policy back then, he could have completely ignored his family and married the woman he liked. Second Sister-in-law’s tragedy wouldn’t have happened. He and the person he truly loved wouldn’t be in this awkward, unsanctioned situation, and wouldn’t be talked about like this.”

Feng Qing felt something was off in her tone: “Sis, are you criticizing me?”

Feng Huan didn’t answer that, saying, “Anyway, I think this new regulation is very good. As long as you like someone, outsiders can no longer interfere, and you can get married directly. This is true freedom of marriage.”

The more Feng Qing listened, the more she felt something was wrong. Not only did her sister keep saying “the person I like,” but there was also an uncontrollable smile on her face when she said it. Her heart jolted, and she had a bad premonition.

She stopped playing on her phone, moved closer to Feng Huan, and pretended to be “so gossipy,” pestering Feng Huan with questions: “Sis, do you have someone you like?”

Feng Huan was startled at first, then her face turned red, all the way to the tips of her ears.

This reaction made Feng Qing’s heart sink halfway.

They were in the same class in high school, and she was sure her sister had no entanglements with other boys. So it must have happened after the college entrance exam. The time they could use their phones at the factory was limited, so if there really was such a man, he must have been someone she met at the factory.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want her sister to be happy, nor was she discriminating against male colleagues at the factory, but! If they were dating, it would be extremely inappropriate. And from her sister’s tone, it sounded like she even wanted to get married.

Feng Qing felt her head was about to split open. She had been working here for almost two months; how could she not know what the men in the factory were like?

The HR sister who found them jobs repeatedly warned them to focus on making money and absolutely not to date at the factory. She said that many men she arranged to work in the factory only requested to be in workshops with more young women.

Feng Qing also heard that a pervert who filmed up skirts was just fired from the next workshop, and this month in her own workshop, a man who failed to pursue a young woman with a boyfriend in the same workshop spread rumors about her everywhere. The man was disciplined, but the young woman was too ashamed to face anyone and resigned.

She was just afraid that her sister had also encountered some new male human who had broken through the bottom line of humanity.

Her sister was older than her, but she was much more naive.

Feng Qing’s temples were throbbing.

She cupped her small face, blinking her eyes, playing the role of a little sister very interested in her sister’s relationship.

“Really? Who is it? Have I met him?”

Feng Huan dropped a bombshell.

Shyly and happily, she said, “He’s in the same workshop as me. We’re dating, and it’s been a month already.”

Feng Qing’s inner groundhog screamed. This broken factory worked 12 hours a day. She didn’t even want to move her fingers after work every day. How could her sister have time to date?

Feng Huan had been secretly dating for a month and really wanted to share her happiness with someone.

“He’s really a very good person, and he treats me very well. I didn’t tell you because I was afraid you wouldn’t approve. You’re still young, you haven’t liked anyone yet, so you wouldn’t understand this feeling.”

Feng Qing said sincerely, “If you meet a suitable person, why would I object? Of course, I want you to be happy.”

The key was that he had to be a suitable good man.

Feng Qing didn’t explicitly object but said she was curious and wanted to meet the person.

Feng Huan blushed and agreed. The next day, they sat at the same table in the cafeteria for lunch, which counted as a meeting.

The man didn’t look good at all, and he looked quite old. He spoke pretentiously, as if he wanted to comment on world affairs. Every now and then, he’d add some nauseating melancholy, resentful of his unrecognized talent.

Feng Qing truly felt physically uncomfortable.

She thought her sister’s brain had really gone haywire. A fresh brain, just out of the college entrance exam, how could it be fooled by such a useless man?

And he wasn’t even good-looking. Why would her sister, who used to chase popular male stars with her, fall for someone like this?

Love truly was an unsolved mystery of humanity.

On the day they met, the man brought a cup of milk tea for each of the sisters.

Feng Huan immediately praised the man for being generous and understanding human nature. The man generously waved his hand, saying it was nothing, and he’d treat her sister to barbecue next time.

Feng Qing: “…”

She probably wouldn’t be able to drink milk tea for a long time.

After meeting this man, Feng Qing came back and asked her sister what she liked about him.

Feng Huan cheerfully said, “He’s good to me, he cares about me. He buys me milk tea and orders takeout. He even bought me a whole box of longans; the one he brought back last week was it. I just mentioned that my phone battery life wasn’t good, and he quietly bought me a magnetic power bank.”

Feng Qing felt something was wrong. This “good” felt cheap, not in monetary value but in that it barely counted as effort.

She probed, “But he said he’s 26, six years older than you. And he only has a vocational high school education.”

Feng Huan: “I knew you’d say that. When you like someone, you’ll know that these things don’t matter. And college students aren’t worth much these days; there’s not much difference between a bachelor’s degree and a vocational high school diploma.”

“Uncle and Aunt probably won’t agree to you two.”

Feng Huan’s longing for love cooled a bit, but she didn’t seem to care much: “If they love me, they should bless me. They were never there for me when I needed them, and now that I’ve grown up and don’t need them, I hope they don’t meddle in my life. Anyway, you don’t need a household registration book to get married now.”

Feng Qing stopped provoking her.

She was worried Feng Huan would impulsively marry behind their family’s back.

Just then, the factory was distributing items. She used the excuse of collecting them on behalf of Feng Huan and took Feng Huan’s ID card, not returning it.

She only hoped Feng Huan would get through the honeymoon phase soon and see the man for who he really was.

However, Feng Huan seemed to be falling deeper. In late August, the sisters finished their summer jobs and packed their bags to go home.

At that time, Feng Huan packed two suitcases.

Feng Qing only found out after asking that the man had persuaded her to rent a place outside.

Feng Huan had applied to a local school, and the university was conveniently located in the Xicheng district, not far from the factory area.

The man suggested that since neither of them would be staying in dorms, they could find a place between the factory and the school and set up a small home.

When Feng Huan spoke of this, her face was full of yearning.

“I’ve always longed to go home after school and have someone waiting for me. I didn’t expect this wish to come true so soon.”

Feng Qing wanted to vomit blood.

This time, she really couldn’t just stand by and not stop her, but Feng Huan, being in love, wouldn’t listen to anything.

The two sisters had a falling out, and Feng Huan snatched back her ID card.

Feng Huan: “You haven’t been in love, so I don’t blame you. I know you mean well. But when you face someone who loves you, those worldly standards really don’t matter that much. You’ll know when you have someone you like. And right now, what you should do is bless me, not stop me.”

Feng Qing couldn’t stop Feng Huan.

Helpless, she informed Feng Huan’s parents, her second uncle and second aunt, about the matter.

Feng Huan truly turned against her this time, angry that she was a tattletale.

—

Found Studio received a special order, and Qin Fanghao was reporting to Qin Qing.

Qin Qing: “What in the world?”

Qin Fanghao repeated: “A couple placed an order with us, saying their daughter had been put under a ‘black magic spell’ by a man. This girl, who just graduated from high school, is completely disregarding her family and wants to marry an old man. They hope our studio’s staff can ‘lift the spell’.”

Qin Qing was speechless.

Lift a spell? That was truly not within her business scope.

After the Yang Xiaoyan video was released, their studio gained a bit of popularity. Before, it was all monotonous orders for finding cats and dogs. Now, they finally had some other business.

But the direction netizens were helping her expand her business was a bit off.

Just two days ago, someone came to inquire if they could communicate with spirits, wanting to talk to deceased relatives in heaven.

Today, another person wanted a black magic spell lifted.

She wasn’t capable of black magic (jiangtou), but the description sounded a bit like an old scoundrel manipulating the emotions of a naive young woman.

If it was a swindler, she could definitely take them on.