Chapter 56: The Yin Hall Gathering (Part 1)

This time Chen Ba was filming a Republican era drama. The male and female leads were a warlord and a concubine. When they reached the part where the male lead invited an opera troupe to perform at his home, the set began having incidents one after another.

The opera troupe was directly hired from a professional team. In the script’s setup, they performed “Visiting the Six Halls,” which tells the story of Mulian rescuing his mother.

That day after filming this night scene, while the remaining few staff members were doing cleanup work, they all simultaneously heard a faint singing voice coming from the stage again. One of the longest-serving crew members quickly realized they had encountered something. He secretly signaled to a few younger ones, telling them to continue doing their work and pretend they heard nothing. In the end, several young men left with sweaty hands and uncoordinated feet.

After returning, they reported it to the crew. Ren Dong heard it and didn’t take it seriously. He filmed this kind of thing year round. Every time he would invite a familiar yin-yang practitioner to sit with the crew. He figured they just encountered a lost wandering ghost. It wasn’t strange for it to get on stage and sing along. After all, it didn’t hurt anyone.

Great, the moment he thought not hurting anyone meant it didn’t exist, a supporting actress in the crew had an incident.

This girl also had her incident during a night shoot. The makeup artists in the crew were all snobbish types. This small supporting actress was unknown and had no popularity. She did her own eyebrows and eye makeup in front of the mirror. This was a skill she had developed bit by bit starting from being an extra. She was quite fast too.

Who would have thought that in this hurried moment, the light above the makeup mirror suddenly flickered, dazzling her eyes. The girl frowned and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, she found her surroundings completely pitch black.

She thought the power had gone out. She took out her phone and called out a couple times, only to discover there was no one around her. All the noisy voices of people had vanished in an instant. Her cold sweat poured down with a swish. Trembling, she turned on her phone’s flashlight function. Fearfully, she glanced at the mirror. This one glance nearly scared her to death.

The only light source reflected a bizarre scene. In the mirror was a face exactly identical to hers, only completely bloodless. Her hair was not tied up, scattered loosely over her shoulders. The black pupils in her eyes were hollow and empty, without any trace of life. It just stared at her expressionlessly.

The girl let out a scream of terror, then her eyes rolled back and she fainted dead away.

After being discovered, she was quickly sent to the hospital. To this day she had not woken up. It was said her vital signs were all normal, but no matter what they couldn’t wake her up.

A small supporting actress having an incident or being temporarily replaced was not a big deal in a large production crew. But the problem was that this girl fainted in such an unorthodox way. According to people present, she first acted as if she couldn’t see anyone else, stood up, picked up her phone, and asked and called everywhere. Then she looked at her phone in the mirror, let out a scream, and collapsed.

If they could diagnose it as a mental illness or epilepsy or something, they could accept that explanation. But this girl was completely healthy, without any illness. At most she was slightly deficient in blood and energy.

After this incident, Ren Dong finally took it somewhat seriously. He invited the yin-yang practitioner to a meal and gave an extra payment, saying it was overtime pay. The meaning was to have him at least stay with the crew until they finished work, ensuring the crew could operate normally and not be affected by these supernatural events anymore.

However, what happened next made Ren Dong somewhat doubt this practitioner’s professional level.

In the opera troupe there was a martial male role performer, over fifty years old, with solid fundamentals. But every time he flipped to the nine-dragon entrance of the stage, he would suddenly lose his balance, as if tripped by something. He checked the stage floor. It was flat and clean, without any foreign objects.

Later after trying a few more times, he noticed that at the instant he lost his balance, the wooden planks below the stage would emit an extremely light “dong,” as if someone knocked from below.

Starting from this scene, he frequently had the same dream.

In the dream he stood on an old stage. Below the stage sat audience members in long robes, but their faces were all blurred. Just like in the real scene, he was doing flips. Halfway through the flip, the gong stopped, and the entire venue suddenly fell silent. All their eyes looked through the blurred faces, staring at him dead on.

In the dream he broke out in a cold sweat from fear, but no matter what he couldn’t wake up.

A voice rustled past his ear, saying: “This stage is mine.”

At this very instant, the martial performer suddenly woke with a start, discovering his right knee hurt terribly. Lifting his pant leg to look, it was red and swollen. That was a position he had been injured in before. But this old injury had never recurred before this.

The next day he truthfully narrated this incident to Ren Dong, feeling that the matter was not as simple as just having a nightmare. It must be related to the several previous incidents at the set.

Ren Dong naturally didn’t let it go. He quickly invited the resident practitioner to examine the martial performer. But that practitioner looked back and forth and couldn’t see anything. He just followed convention and told the martial performer a few lines about dark hair and sleepless nights. Then, afraid his surface-level work was too perfunctory, he stood up and muttered a few things others couldn’t understand, circled into the backstage area, and finally brought a bowl of talisman water for the martial performer to drink.

Of course, this bowl of talisman water had not the slightest effect. The martial performer still had the same dream day after day.

Although Chen Ba wasn’t proficient in Taoist arts, he could see this yin-yang practitioner had no skill. So he actively found the already suspicious Ren Dong and got straight to the point with his own view.

Ren Dong heard him speak with clear logic and immediately cast a hopeful gaze: “Xingye, if that’s the case, then can you…”

“I only slightly understand the surface. Just enough to see through this charlatan’s tricks. You should inform those few friends of yours as soon as possible. Don’t waste that unjust money.” Chen Ba said politely: “Either you find a few more.”

Ren Dong was quite receptive to advice at this point. He immediately used his connections to find a white-bearded old Taoist.

This old Taoist looked very much the part, with an immortal demeanor and kind brows and eyes. Chen Ba saw he somewhat had the bearing of Yun Shan back in the day, and for a moment couldn’t distinguish his level. He let Ren Dong lead him to do his thing.

Once the old Taoist came, the martial performer’s leg was indeed cured. But this old Taoist lingered and wouldn’t leave. After a long time, Ren Dong understood. This old Taoist was actually just selling bruise and sprain medicine. He was using supernatural tricks to inflate the medicine prices. So he quickly swept this old Taoist out the door.

Later, after continuously inviting several practitioners who all failed to accomplish anything, Ren Dong lost his spirit. He thought about postponing this scene and letting the martial performer recuperate somewhere else for a while.

Then the incident that followed forced Ren Dong to invite Chen Jiu out of seclusion.

The prop team produced a Republican era banquet playbill, listing the opera excerpts to be performed in this night scene: “Strolling in the Garden,” “The Startled Dream,” “Longing for the Mundane World,” “Descending the Mountain.”

After the playbill was printed, it was posted on the wall at the filming location. Who would have thought the next day, the set manager discovered an extra line of handwritten characters on the playbill. After “Descending the Mountain,” in traditional regular script, were three characters: “The Yellow Springs Assembly.”

That handwriting was not the font of anyone in the prop team. The set manager thought the art director had added it. But after asking around, everyone said no. The set manager was helpless, reprinted a copy, and posted it up.

But the next day, that line of characters appeared again.

It was said that day the set manager directly broke out in white hair sweat, his face as white as paper. Then for two consecutive days he had a high fever that wouldn’t break. His mouth repeatedly muttered that the crew must have some procedure not done properly, that they had offended something powerful. Crying and shouting, he begged Ren Dong to quickly invite a reliable feng shui practitioner back. Otherwise, if this trend continued, the entire crew would be finished.

Ren Dong certainly couldn’t let the crew be finished. He immediately issued a bounty notice.

Chen Ba’s eyes went straight when he saw that reward money. He immediately made a decision. Fat water shouldn’t flow to outsiders’ fields. This money he had to eat from both ends. That’s right, he would take a cut from Ren Dong, then take a cut from his own junior sister. You had to say this kid could earn big money. Black heart and black lungs, he wouldn’t hesitate to scam his own people.

He一口气 told the entire story of everything that had happened in the crew these days. Ren Dong gulped down several mouthfuls of tea, let out a long breath, and said to Chen Jiu: “Little Chen master, your abilities I’ve heard of. Whatever you need our crew to cooperate with, just instruct us. We’ll coordinate as much as possible and cooperate, alright?”

“Is there still a night scene today?” Chen Jiu asked.

Ren Dong smiled bitterly: “I’ve tried to move the schedule forward as much as possible. But in the latter half of the night, there are fewer incidents. But sometimes the actors’ condition isn’t good, and we really can’t finish in time.”

Chen Jiu said: “Then I’ll watch over you tonight.”

Hearing her words, Ren Dong immediately let out a huge breath of relief, grateful: “Good, good. Whatever props or magical tools you need, whatever things for performing rituals, we all have them here. Just tell me, and I’ll have the set manager prepare everything for you.”

“No need. Bring me some tea and snacks.” Chen Jiu changed her posture: “And get me a folding stool. This one isn’t comfortable to sit on.”

Chen Ba: “…”

Junior Sister, your requests are truly simple and unpretentious.

After the night scene began, the atmosphere clearly became somewhat tense. The male and female leads had several NG takes. A few extra girls in the crowd began whispering to each other. Chen Jiu tilted her ear slightly to listen. They were all complaining that the leads’ acting was terrible and unprofessional.

Occasionally passing staff members would also curiously size her up. They seemed to have heard of Chen Jiu’s identity. Although they saw she was young, they didn’t dare casually approach to chat.

But ordinary staff didn’t dare. The female lead Yu Wan came to find her first.

She smiled and sat down beside Chen Jiu, propping her chin and curiously leaning over: “Little sister, are you the yin-yang master our crew newly invited?”

Yin-yang master? That’s a Japanese term.

“…” Chen Jiu rarely got stuck for a moment. She thought about it, then said: “Feng shui practitioner.”

“Oh my, it’s all about the same thing.” Yu Wan extended her hand, speaking in a spoiled manner: “Help big sister read her palm. Can you tell about marriage?”