Chapter 46: The Variety Show Begins Filming

Although he didn’t know why this Old Cat Spirit had suddenly jumped out with such a death wish, Xie Sui had no intention of wasting words on it, nor did he care to understand its psychological journey.

Since it had actively come out to seek death, he would simply send it on its way. There was no need to exchange words with such an evil creature.

Five plumes of black smoke rose from Xie Sui’s shadow.

The Old Cat Spirit let out a disdainful huff, its shrill voice full of mockery. “Do you think I would come unprepared? Besides, I already know what kind of thing you are.”

As it spoke, it tore open the white clothing covering its chest.

The Old Cat Spirit’s body seemed to be hollow. It directly ripped open the loose skin and flesh of its chest, then reached inside and pulled out an exquisite, palm-sized figurine.

The Old Cat Spirit threw the figurine onto the ground. Upon contact with the earth, the figurine instantly grew, transforming into an adult woman.

The woman lay on her side on the ground, her clothes so filthy that their original color was completely indiscernible. Her long, curly hair was a tangled mess, matted with yellow mud and black-and-white filth that looked like chicken droppings. Her fair face was streaked with grey and black-it looked as if she had just rolled through a garbage recycling center.

Yet even in such a wretched state, her beauty could not be hidden.

That face was so stunning it hardly seemed human; it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call her a goddess descended to earth. Even those who hated her most couldn’t find a single flaw in her features.

“Holy crap! That face! Isn’t that the famous ‘vase¹‘ actress, Wen Yue? How did that old man pull a whole person out of his chest? How is that even possible?”

“Old Liu is amazing, he even managed to get a top-tier celebrity like this into the livestream.”

“Who are you calling a vase? The sour grapes are practically leaking through the screen. Your idol isn’t even qualified to be a vase. My Yue-yue easily outshines everyone. Stay mad, you haters are just jealous of her looks.”

“Brainless fans, get out. This is a livestream, not your goddess’s comment section. If you want to control the narrative, go back to social media.”

“We’re doomed. Why did you have to provoke them? Couldn’t you just ignore it? This sister’s fans are crazy; the livestream is going to be raided in a minute.”

Seeing this person appear, Xie Sui paused for a moment, but he did not stop the One-Eyed Five Gentlemen from preparing their attack.

Xie Sui recognized the woman; she was one of the regular guests of the program, Wen Yue.

Not long ago, when the production team had the guests prepare for their livestreams, Xie Sui had seen Miao Xinyi preparing to film herself removing makeup, Shi Shen preparing to chop wooden boards, and Su Caichuan climbing onto a roof to stream the rural scenery. Only Wen Yue had been missing.

At the time, he hadn’t thought much of it, assuming she had gone elsewhere to stream and wasn’t with the main crew… He never expected she had been kidnapped by the Old Cat Spirit.

However, it was quite strange. Wen Yue had gone missing, yet the production team hadn’t looked for her. Had no one noticed she wasn’t streaming?

What Xie Sui didn’t know was that Wen Yue’s temper was proportional to her beauty. She had a terrible personality, was extremely irritable and prone to outbursts, and loved acting like a diva. When the production staff couldn’t find her for the livestream, they simply assumed she found it troublesome and didn’t want to do it.

No one dared to offend her. Since this livestream wasn’t particularly important and was just to let the guests get used to the process, they figured if she didn’t want to stream, she didn’t have to.

This resulted in Wen Yue being missing for half a day without anyone noticing.

The One-Eyed Five Gentlemen emerging from Xie Sui’s shadow slowly coalesced into human forms. Seeing another Old Cat Spirit appear, the five ghosts were overjoyed.

Hey, another free chance to show off.

If the five brothers could stay by Xie Sui’s side in the future, these two Old Cat Spirits who were assisting with their own lives would be the primary contributors.

Under Xie Sui’s direction, the One-Eyed Five Gentlemen turned back into five clouds of black smoke, attacking the Old Cat Spirit at lightning speed.

Seeing the five ghosts strike, the Old Cat Spirit was so frightened it instinctively let out a piercing cat screech. It arched its back and leaped far away, rapidly dodging the attack of the One-Eyed Five Gentlemen.

The impression this Old Cat Spirit gave Xie Sui was that it was both incompetent and overconfident.

Xie Sui couldn’t understand why it had kidnapped Wen Yue, nor could he understand why it confidently treated this woman as a trump card.

He had no relationship with Wen Yue. Even if the Old Cat Spirit used her as a hostage, he wouldn’t stop.

Not long ago at the restaurant, when Chef Shao had threatened him with the lives of everyone in the building, it hadn’t worked at all. Why did this Old Cat Spirit think he would stop his attack just because of Wen Yue?

As long as he killed the enemy before they could kill the hostage, there was no need to slow down. In the face of absolute strength, tactics like coercion and threats were completely useless.

Watching the One-Eyed Five Gentlemen chase the Old Cat Spirit into the distance, Xie Sui walked over to Wen Yue and helped her up.

The actress was merely unconscious; her breathing was normal, her heartbeat was steady, and she had no physical injuries.

Just as Xie Sui was about to call Liu Wuyong over to help support her, he suddenly felt a chill on his chest.

He looked down to see Wen Yue’s hand pressed against his chest. A large patch of dark red liquid instantly stained his white shirt.

Xie Sui looked at Wen Yue with confusion.

Wen Yue, who had been unconscious just a moment ago, had woken up at some point. She looked up at Xie Sui, her seductive eyes flickering with an eerie green light, her red lips curled high-her smile was identical to the sinister grin the Old Cat Spirit had worn earlier.

Xie Sui let go of her, and Wen Yue’s body tilted, falling to the ground.

He dipped his finger into the dark red liquid on his chest and examined it closely.

Xie Sui looked blankly at the Wen Yue controlled by the Old Cat Spirit. “This is dog blood, right? What do you mean by splashing dog blood all over me?”

After waiting for a while without seeing any expression of pain on Xie Sui’s face, the Old Cat Spirit was also stunned. “You’re not afraid of black dog blood²??”

Xie Sui was equally baffled. “Uh, why should I be?”

Wen Yue’s expression twisted for a moment, then she pulled out a handful of glutinous rice³ from somewhere and flung it at Xie Sui.

Xie Sui still didn’t react at all.

Wen Yue let out a piercing scream, her voice tinged with a breakdown, full of despair and disbelief. “You’re actually not a zombie?! That’s impossible! You have no Yang energy, and the death and resentment in your blood can attract rotting corpses. With that ghostly appearance, what else could you be if not a zombie? How can you not be a zombie? Are you actually… human?!”

Xie Sui was speechless. “Why can’t I be human? Who said I had to be a zombie?”

He gripped his white shirt with a bit of heartache. This piece of clothing was almost completely dyed red by the dog blood; there was no way it would ever wash clean.

Xie Sui sighed and pressed his hand onto Wen Yue’s head.

He looked at the woman possessed by the Old Cat Spirit, a flash of blood-red light crossing his eyes. “Alright, alright. If you don’t have any other tricks left, then hurry up and die.”

Liu Wuyong looked helplessly at his phone, where the live stream had gone black.

Just moments ago, when Xie Sui had unhesitatingly let go and allowed Wen Yue to fall to the ground, his stream had exploded.

Wen Yue’s fans, who had rushed in upon hearing the news, flooded the screen with comments accusing Xie Sui of abusing their “Sister.” Within seconds, Xie Sui’s stream was forcibly shut down by the platform and his account temporarily banned due to the massive number of reports in a short period.

Liu Wuyong’s expression was numb as he switched back to the backend of Xie Sui’s streaming account.

Under Xie Sui’s only status update, the comments were multiplying exponentially. Wen Yue’s fans had swarmed from the stream to this post, greeting Xie Sui’s entire family with every polite-sounding insult they could muster.

Impressive. This woman’s fans were truly insane.

Although it was only a temporary ban that would be lifted in a few days, the tactic was disgusting. Had these fans lost their minds over a celebrity? They could have used this energy for anything else.

Liu Wuyong sighed, posted a status update on his own account explaining the reason for the sudden end of the stream, and then walked toward Xie Sui with his phone.

After Xie Sui finished purging the Old Cat Spirit’s divine sense from Wen Yue’s body, she fainted again.

The Old Cat Spirit died with many grievances. It thought it had been fully prepared, not only controlling a human to kill a dog for its blood but also stealing glutinous rice from the village just in case.

It had been confident. It believed it could kill Xie Sui with the dog blood and glutinous rice before the One-Eyed Five Gentlemen caught up. Once Xie Sui was dead, the One-Eyed Five Gentlemen he controlled would no longer be a threat.

However, the premise of all the Old Cat Spirit’s preparations was that Xie Sui was a zombie.

Although nothing about Xie Sui’s body seemed human, he was indeed a human being.

The reason the death energy on him was so heavy was that his body had experienced death once while in the womb; it was Xie Sui’s reincarnation that had made the fetus’s heart beat again. Furthermore, before his biological mother gave birth to him, her body had been in a state of brain death with a dissipating soul.

Add to that the fact that the person who raised Xie Sui had made him sleep in a Corpse-Nurturing Land for several years to ensure he grew up successfully, it wasn’t surprising that he would be mistaken for a zombie.

Xie Sui didn’t have to wait long before the One-Eyed Five Gentlemen, who had been hunting the Old Cat Spirit, returned.

To show off in front of Xie Sui, the One-Eyed Ghost had intentionally refrained from killing the Old Cat Spirit immediately, instead bringing it before Xie Sui to tear it to shreds.

Once the Old Cat Spirit died, the rotting corpses wriggling nearby instantly lost their vitality, scattering on the ground like ordinary pieces of meat.

Liu Wuyong walked over to Xie Sui’s side and crouched down, peeking at Wen Yue lying on the ground.

Even though she was a top-tier beauty, Liu Wuyong found it hard to feel any goodwill toward her given the frantic actions of her fans.

“Boss, she…” Halfway through his sentence, Liu Wuyong suddenly stopped.

He saw the visually striking, massive patch of blood-red on Xie Sui’s chest.

“Boss, don’t move. Stay still, let me stop the bleeding first…” Liu Wuyong hurriedly scrambled to take off his jacket, wanting to help Xie Sui bind the “wound.”

“It’s fine, the blood isn’t mine,” Xie Sui stopped him. “Take this guest back to the village first. I’ll stay here to deal with these corpse pieces.”

They couldn’t leave the pieces of the rotting corpses here. It wouldn’t be good if the villagers or the production crew saw them.

Thinking of the crew, Xie Sui suddenly realized that Old Liu had been streaming earlier, so he asked, “By the way, Old Liu, you’ve ended the stream, right?”

Liu Wuyong sighed again and handed the phone back to Xie Sui. “Not only is the stream over, but we can’t stream for the next two days.”

Xie Sui: ???

Liu Wuyong pointed at Wen Yue lying on the ground. “Reported by this lady’s fans. It takes three days for the platform’s review to unfreeze the account.”

Xie Sui fell silent.

Fine. At least it was only temporary and not a permanent ban.

Xie Sui tucked the phone back into his pocket and rolled up his sleeves, preparing to drag the corpse pieces away. Liu Wuyong picked up Wen Yue, intending to carry her back to the village.

However, just as Liu Wuyong lifted Wen Yue, another accident occurred—Wen Yue suddenly woke up.

She slowly opened her eyes. Upon seeing the weathered, decadent face of a middle-aged man so close to her, the big star first let out a piercing scream and then slapped Old Liu hard across the face.

The long nails of her manicure swiped across the side of Liu Wuyong’s face, instantly adding four bloody scratches.

Xie Sui, who hadn’t walked far, heard the scream and quickly turned around, walking back with fast strides.

Then he saw Liu Wuyong, whose head was tilted to the side from the slap, looking stunned, and Wen Yue, who was struggling desperately and screaming frantically in his arms.

Looking at the four bleeding scratches on Liu Wuyong’s face, Xie Sui’s footsteps paused.

Wen Yue was just an ordinary person, and a victim who had been controlled by the Old Cat Spirit. It was natural for an ordinary person to be terrified upon waking up in a strange environment and finding themselves being held by a stranger. This was just an extreme reaction out of panic, not intentional, so he couldn’t blame her…

After chanting this to himself several times, Xie Sui took a deep breath, suppressed the anger in his heart, and said to Wen Yue in as gentle a voice as possible, “I’m sorry, we startled you. This is my assistant. I’m Xie Sui, a guest performer participating in this variety show. You should recognize me, right? We were streaming here when we found you unconscious on the ground. We mean no harm; we just wanted to take you back to the village.”

Wen Yue recovered her composure. She blinked, looking at Xie Sui with a cold snort as she said in a sarcastic tone, “Of course I know who you are. The ‘resource hire’ personally delivered to the studio by the company chairwoman herself… who wouldn’t be impressed by that?”

With that, she looked at Liu Wuyong, who was still holding her, and rolled her eyes in utter disgust. “Xie Sui, since you two were the ones who found me, why aren’t you the one carrying me? Why let this freak hold me instead? This guy looks like a total mess, he reeks of that pathetic, sweaty stench of a shut-in otaku. It’s disgusting. I’ll have to take a long bath when I get back…”

“Liu Wuyong, let go.” Xie Sui’s voice was icy.

Liu Wuyong, who had been dazed by the slap, hadn’t snapped out of it until now. Hearing Xie Sui speak, he subconsciously followed his boss’s order and immediately let go.

Wen Yue crashed to the ground with a sharp scream.

Xie Sui looked down at her and said expressionlessly, “We’re both quite filthy, so we wouldn’t dare hold someone as noble as you. Seeing as you’re so energetic now, why don’t you walk back yourself?”

Lying on the ground, Wen Yue’s tears fell instantly. Her pitiful, delicate crying face was enough to soften even a heart of stone.

“Are you even men? Do you have no empathy? You—”

Xie Sui simply picked up a rotting corpse arm from the ground and tossed it in front of Wen Yue, cutting off her endless accusations.

Seeing the severed limb flying toward her, Wen Yue’s eyes widened, and she scrambled up from the ground instantly.

Only now did she notice what those things scattered on the ground nearby were—they were all filthy, nauseating pieces of corpses!

It wasn’t that she was afraid; she just found it purely revolting.

Having participated in so many seasons of this supernatural variety show, she had been somewhat hardened to such things. Seeing body parts didn’t exactly scare her. Moreover, in her mind, those things on the ground were likely just props from the production crew…

But it was still so gross! Were Xie Sui and his assistant just handling those disgusting props? And he dared let his assistant touch her with hands that had handled those foul things?!

Even the production staff wouldn’t dare treat her like this. How did they have the nerve!

Wen Yue was so angry she was speechless. She shot Xie Sui and Liu Wuyong a vicious glare before limping back toward the village.

She would remember this grudge! As long as Xie Sui dared to step into the entertainment industry, she wouldn’t let him off. Just wait, she would make sure his reputation was ruined, that he was spat upon by everyone, and that he would eventually slink out of the industry in disgrace.

Xie Sui and Liu Wuyong worked until the middle of the night before they finally buried all the corpse fragments in the graves within the woods.

It was unclear what Wen Yue told the production crew after she returned, but while Xie Sui and his assistant were gathering the remains, not a single staff member came to look for him.

When they returned and finished washing up for bed, the producer very tactfully advised Xie Sui not to take things to heart with Wen Yue. He claimed her temper was just like that—blunt and outspoken, but she didn’t actually have any bad intentions.

The producer was suffering inwardly; he couldn’t afford to offend either of them. Xie Sui had Zhou Yayun, a director of Yayun Entertainment, backing him, while Wen Yue had over a hundred million fanatical fans across the internet.

Xie Sui indicated his understanding and didn’t say much else.

With the matter of the zombie and the old cat spirit completely resolved, the production crew rested in the village for two days. After drinking the talisman water sent over by the Inspectorate Bureau’s clerical staff for two days, they finally received notice that they could leave.

The Law Enforcement Team informed the crew that the observation period had ended. No dangerous factors were found on the staff, so they were free to depart from the village.

On March 29th, the production crew officially began filming.

The first segment to be filmed was, naturally, the guests finding the variety show’s filming location on their own.

After leaving the village and driving for several hours into a remote, uninhabited area, the crew stopped and set up camp in front of a hillside.

Xie Sui had originally been grouped with Nie Pengpeng and Miao Xinyi.

The other group consisted of Shi Shen, Su Caichuan, and Wen Yue.

Because Nie Pengpeng had gone ahead to the recording site two days prior to escort the kidnapped girl with Captain Yan, the producer decided to pick one person from the other group to step down, ensuring a fair two-on-two situation for the guests.

The producer didn’t think much of it when picking the person. He had the best relationship with Su Caichuan, and since Su Caichuan was a non-celebrity, it didn’t matter if he had more or less screen time.

Thus, he said to Su Caichuan without much hesitation, “Chuan-zi, since there’s an extra person, why don’t you step back and move with the recording crew?”

Su Caichuan was about to agree with a smile, but unexpectedly, Wen Yue was displeased.

The beauty, who often used her looks as a weapon, put on a sour face and said irritably to the producer, “I think you’re intentionally trying to let Xie Sui’s team win, aren’t you? Even for a rigged game, this is too much! In our group, besides me, Su Caichuan is the only one with a brain. And you’re leaving me with Shi Shen, who’s all muscle and no brains?”

Although Wen Yue could have chosen to step down herself and let Su Caichuan and Shi Shen find the location—which would have been both easier and a guaranteed win—she refused to give up any opportunity for screen time.

After all, for Wen Yue, who had no talent for acting, was unwilling to work hard, and sang out of tune, this variety show was her only platform for rapid follower growth.

The slighted Shi Shen looked a bit embarrassed, but being his usual good-tempered self, he didn’t argue with Wen Yue. Instead, he took the initiative to say, “Then I’ll just take this chance to slack off. Wen Yue, you and Su Caichuan do your best. Whether our team wins or not depends on you two.”

Since the cameras hadn’t started rolling, Wen Yue didn’t hesitate to roll her eyes at Shi Shen, her face full of disdain. “Then just stay put. Why act like you’re ‘slacking off’ just to make us look bad? Do you think we aren’t tired enough already?”

Shi Shen shook his head helplessly and said nothing more.

Since guests were allowed to bring two assistants while searching for the filming location, and Xie Sui only had Liu Wuyong, Shi Shen—who wasn’t participating in the recording—lent one of his assistants to Xie Sui to keep things fair.

Of course, this ‘traitorous’ act of his drew another round of complaints from Wen Yue.

As the four guests searched for the filming location, the director’s team and the camera crew would follow and film them, but they would not provide any hints.

However, they were ultimately a standard paranormal exploration variety show rather than a wilderness survival program, so they wouldn’t force the guests to find their own way out of the middle of nowhere.

The production crew had prepared fifty fixed routes for the guests. The four of them only needed to search for clues in the vicinity to identify the specific paths among those fifty that would actually lead to the filming location.

There were five routes in total that led successfully to the destination. Whichever team arrived in the shortest amount of time would be declared the winner.

In addition to the clues laid out by the crew, there were also pre-arranged jump scares hidden nearby. However, as long as one was familiar with the show’s usual tactics, these scare points could be avoided in advance. Everything depended on how the people gathering clues handled the situation.

Xie Sui and Miao Xinyi formed one team, while Wen Yue and Su Caichuan formed the other. The two teams chose opposite directions and began searching for the clues the crew had placed nearby.

As the director’s shout of “action” rang out, the cameras started rolling, and the variety show officially began recording.

The moment she was on camera, Wen Yue’s demeanor shifted completely.

Under the lens, she was gentle and sensible. She did whatever Su Caichuan asked of her, never complaining about being tired or having a hard time.

She had long since grown accustomed to living in the spotlight. Even if she was rolling her eyes toward the heavens in her mind, the flawless mask of a smile on her face wouldn’t show the slightest crack.

Just as Su Caichuan was leading her through a patch of knee-high wild grass, Wen Yue’s peripheral vision suddenly caught sight of a cave not far from them.

She saw a woman dressed in white standing inside that pitch-black cave, beckoning to her.

Translator’s Notes