Chapter 16
Countless chaotic "energies" flowed. The staff exuded a gray aura of busy anxiety; the actors shone with colorful emotions, some devoted and some exhausted; further away, under the city lights, a vast and chaotic torrent of desires, obsessions, joys, and sorrows converged and flowed across the city.
In that corner of the set garden, near the lush rose bushes, a faint, almost dissipating, translucent grayish-white energy body was curled up there!
The energy entity took on a blurry humanoid outline, wearing a semi-transparent pink maid's dress simulated by its own energy.
She hugged her knees, her head buried deep in her arms, her shoulders trembling slightly, as if she were crying silently. Her state was extremely unstable, like a candle flickering in the wind, ready to dissipate at any moment. There was no malice in her, only an overwhelming sadness, loss, and... an almost obsessive longing.
Zhuohua's gaze pierced through the semi-transparent energy, revealing her blurry "face"—the face of a young girl, slightly chubby, with large eyes filled with helplessness and panic. It was the "fifth maid" from the monitor!
I see.
A young soul who died young in an accident, his obsession unfulfilled. In life, he was a fervent fan of celebrities, filled with an unrealistic yearning for acting. After death, a wisp of his soul lingered, drifting here driven by his deep attachment to the film studio.
Her power was weak, intangible, and incapable of harming anyone. Her greatest ability was to simulate an insignificant character with her meager energy field, blending into the film crew and greedily absorbing the sense of participation and belonging that she had longed for but could never obtain in her previous life—the sense of participation and belonging that belonged to an "actor." Like a child hiding in a corner, secretly putting on a costume and indulging in a moment of pleasure.
She had always carefully concealed herself, never being noticed by mortals. Until today... Zhuohua's fleeting "martial arts performance" on set, carrying a faint but real fluctuation of divine power, like a pebble thrown into calm water, aroused the subconscious attention of cameraman Lao Wang.
He repeatedly replayed the relevant footage, his attention highly focused, and unintentionally broke through the barrier between the mortal and spiritual realms for a brief moment, capturing the "drama fanatic soul" that had been "invisible" beside them all along.
Old Wang felt that "it seemed like there was one more," which was not an illusion, but rather that his mortal senses briefly glimpsed the truth under the weak radiation of divine power!
The icy blue flames in Zhuohua's eyes flickered slightly, revealing the cause and effect. She understood, but had no intention of killing. Whether this weak, remnant soul, which couldn't even manifest, was annihilated or not would not help her recover her power; on the contrary, it would only increase the karmic burden.
The darkness and silence inside the tent were almost maddening.
"Zhuo... Zhuohua... Can... Can you see that?" The producer's trembling voice, choked with sobs, broke the suffocating silence. He felt like he was about to wet his pants.
Zhuohua withdrew her gaze from outside the tent. The two clusters of icy blue flames in her eyes silently extinguished, and the tent returned to pure darkness.
She didn't answer the producer's question, but casually raised her right hand, her index and middle fingers together, with a barely perceptible, cool and clear icy blue halo swirling around her fingertips.
The halo was extremely faint, yet in absolute darkness, it was like a guiding star, instantly attracting everyone's attention!
The four directors, along with Lu Xiao, felt their hearts leap into their throats! They stared intently at that faint light!
Zhuohua lightly tapped her fingertips, the movement as casual as brushing dust off her sleeves.
Four fine, hair-like, and almost invisible rays of icy blue light shot out silently from her fingertips like living snakes, piercing with unparalleled precision between the brows of the director, producer, cameraman Lao Wang, and post-production engineer Lao Li!
"Well!"
All four of them groaned simultaneously! They felt an indescribable coolness rush into their minds, as if they had been enlightened! Their vision blurred suddenly, and then, like glass that had been scrubbed with strong detergent, their vision abruptly changed... to something else!
The darkness remained darkness. But within this darkness, they clearly "saw" the warm white aura emanating from each other, a aura representing vitality!
I could see the lingering, chaotic, and worn-out smell of different film crews on the prop boxes inside the tent! I even saw tiny, drifting particles in the air... some kind of energy particle?!
What…what is this?!
The immense shock and the upheaval of their understanding left them speechless! An emotion even more overwhelming than the fear they had felt moments before swept over them! Their worldview was utterly shattered and rebuilt in that instant!
“Now,” Zhuohua’s calm voice rang out again, as if stating a perfectly ordinary fact, “look outside.”
Her fingertips pointed again, this time targeting the canvas wall of the tent beside her. The icy blue light of her fingertips touched the canvas lightly.
Swish——
It was like tearing a thin piece of paper!
Silently, a round "window," the size of a washbasin with smooth edges, appeared on the thick canvas wall! Outside the window, it was no longer the pitch-black night of the film studio, but... a strange scene shrouded in a hazy light!
They saw it! They saw it perfectly clearly!
In a corner of the film set's garden, near the rose bushes, a young girl dressed in a semi-transparent pink maid's outfit, her figure so ethereal it seemed she might vanish at any moment, was curled up there!
She hugged her knees, buried her head in her arms, her shoulders trembling violently as she wept silently. An aura of sorrow, helplessness, and despair, like a tangible, cold mist, enveloped her. Her state was extremely unstable; her entire body flickered and undulated, as if she might vanish completely from this world at any moment.
"Ah—!" The producer was the first to lose control, letting out a short, sharp gasp, like a chicken being choked, covering its mouth tightly, its eyes wide open as if about to burst!
The director's legs went weak, and he only managed to stay upright by holding onto the prop box next to him. His lips trembled, and he couldn't utter a single word. Only the sound of his teeth chattering was particularly clear in the deathly silent tent.
Cameraman Lao Wang was stiff all over, his eyes wide open, staring intently at the crying phantom, as if he wanted to bulge his eyes out! He had spent half his life making films, including countless horror movies, but he never imagined that one day he would use this "heavenly eye" to see the "reality" beyond the script!
Later, Old Li's eyes rolled back and his body went limp as he fell backward, only to be caught by Lu Xiao in a flurry of activity.
Lu Xiao himself was utterly terrified! He supported Old Li, his eyes fixed on the scene outside the "window," watching the sorrowful, weeping phantom, his heart churning with shock! This was... a ghost?!
Is this the "fifth maid"?! She looks...so weak and pitiful...not at all like the fierce and ferocious woman I imagined!
Looking at the four people, their souls scattered and their worldviews shattered, Zhuohua felt a faint trace of helplessness in her eyes. The resilience of mortals is truly fragile.
With a slight twitch of her fingertips, the "sky eye window" suspended on the canvas wall silently closed and disappeared, as if it had never existed. The tent returned to complete darkness.
“She…” The director finally found his voice, hoarse as if sandpaper was being rubbed, “She… what is she? What… what does she want to do?”
"Just a poor lost person."
Zhuohua's voice rang out in the darkness, carrying a strange, calming power that instantly soothed the sharpest fear in everyone's hearts. "He wanted to act in life, but he never had the chance. Now that he's dead, a lingering obsession has led him to the film set to indulge in his passion. He means no harm and can't hurt anyone."
Zhuohua's explanation was concise and clear, yet it acted like a stabilizing force, instantly calming the minds of the group who were on the verge of collapse.
A... pathetic ghost who just wanted to act?
It's not a vengeful ghost seeking death, nor a malevolent spirit harming people.
The stark contrast left the four directors somewhat bewildered, but the overwhelming fear in their hearts quickly dissipated like the receding tide, replaced by a sense of exhaustion from surviving a catastrophe and... an indescribable sense of absurdity.
They've been making movies for most of their lives, what kind of scripts haven't they written for demons and monsters? In the end, they were almost scared out of their wits by a ghost who just wanted to "play a minor role"?!
The producer wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, his voice still trembling: "Then... what do we do now? Just... just let her stay here?"
Although I know it's harmless, the thought of an invisible "extras" constantly wandering around on set still gives me the creeps.
“She’s almost gone.” Zhuohua’s voice remained calm. “Obsessions will dissipate, and she will leave on her own. Or…” She paused, as if pondering something.
Just then, Lu Xiao, who had been supporting Old Li and was in a state of great shock, had a slight glint in his glassy eyes in the darkness.
He gazed at Zhuohua's blurred silhouette and listened to her calm narration. The fear in his heart had long been replaced by a more complex emotion—pity. The ethereal figure curled up by the flowers, weeping silently, with its overwhelming sorrow and resentment, deeply moved him. He remembered the hardships he endured as an extra, and his yearning for his dreams.
“Zhuohua…” Lu Xiao mustered his courage, his voice unusually clear in the darkness, carrying a barely perceptible plea, “She…she just likes acting…can you…help her? Let her…leave in peace?” He knew Zhuohua would definitely have a way.
The tent was silent. The four directors held their breath and looked in Zhuohua's direction.
In the darkness, Zhuohua seemed to slightly turn her head and glance at Lu Xiao. Lu Xiao couldn't see her gaze clearly through the darkness, but he could sense it.
After a brief silence, Zhuohua's voice rang out again, carrying a barely perceptible hint of helpless indulgence:
"trouble."
Although it was a complaint, it did not mean any refusal.
She said no more, casually raised her right hand, pointed towards the garden scenery outside the tent, and flicked her finger lightly in the air!
Buzz—!
A faint, melodious sound, like the striking of jade chimes, pierced through the tent and reached everyone's ears clearly! The sound seemed to possess a soul-cleansing power, instantly refreshing the mind!
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