Forced into a romantic relationship

Chapter 383 True Value

Let's rewind a little.

"Trust me, everyone, our movie will definitely do well at the box office. Don't underestimate it just because it's low-budget; there are plenty of movies in film history that have achieved big success with small budgets, and our movie will be one of them! Also, I already have an idea for the sequel, so feel free to sign up in advance. Veteran actors can skip the audition..."

The torrential rain outside showed no signs of stopping, its noise quickly drowned out by the director's eloquent speech as he began to envision the filming of his next movie.

The assistant didn't listen to a word of what he was saying. He was worried about whether the car outside was parked properly. The entire crew only had this one barely usable car. If it got damaged by the rain, given the crew's tight budget, they might not even be able to afford to rent a car. They might have to carry the equipment back to the studio more than ten kilometers away.

Hopefully, what the director said is true, otherwise we'll have to sell him to pay everyone's salaries...

The assistant, filled with anxiety, was about to lead the applause as the director finished speaking when he suddenly witnessed an incredibly horrifying scene—

Suddenly, accompanied by a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder, a blurry black shadow appeared at the window behind the director!

The assistant was certain that although the shadow was blurry, it was definitely a human shadow!

Other members of the crew also noticed this scene, and their faces immediately showed surprise. Those who were a little less brave even exclaimed.

Only the director, whose back was to the window, was unaware of this. He was very dissatisfied with everyone's reaction and frowned, saying, "What do you all mean by this? What, do you think my movie won't sell, or do you suspect that I'm just making empty promises to you?"

"Director, you're behind..."

Xiaoliu cautiously pointed behind the director, intending to kindly remind him, but to her surprise, the other party became even more unhappy and scolded, "How many times have I told you? I'm timid. I told you not to raise your head and face me! I know the arrangements for the rest of the time, I don't need you to remind me!"

Xiaoliu quickly lowered her head and backed away, saying, "No, Director, I meant there's something behind you..."

"Something?" the director sneered. "What is it? In the middle of the night, is it a ghost?"

The air was deathly still, with only the deafening sound of the torrential rain.

Seeing that no one spoke and they were just silently backing away, the director's expression gradually stiffened, and cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He suddenly remembered the "glowing head in the rain" he had seen when he went to the toilet that night.

He swallowed hard, momentarily lacking the courage to turn back. He could only slowly approach the crowd, his voice trembling as he said, "I'm easily frightened, please don't scare me..."

An actress was almost in tears, stammering, "Director...director, is this really...really not a special effect you created specifically for reshooting scenes...?"

"What special effects?"

The director's heart was pounding. He didn't dare look back at all. The more frightened everyone looked, the more terrified he became.

Seeing that no one answered, he became anxious and angry, and hurriedly urged, "Xiao Liu, quickly look at what's behind me!"

"Director, I can't see..."

"why?"

"Didn't you tell me not to look up..." Xiaoliu said weakly.

The director nearly spat out blood: "I'm allowing you to look up now, so hurry up and see what's behind me!"

"oh oh."

Xiaoliu then looked up, and the terrifying makeup made the director's already wildly beating heart tremble even more violently: "So, what's behind me?"

Xiaoliu swallowed hard and said seriously, "Director, I think that looks like a person..."

The director's breath hitched, and he almost burst into tears, his voice trembling as he asked, "What do you mean by 'like a person'?"

"Because it is just a shadow."

"shadow?"

"Yes, it was outside the window at first, but then it went through the wall and into the house."

A shadow that can pass through walls...

The director was initially startled, then suddenly realized a serious problem—

"Then...where is it now?"

"Of course it's behind you," Xiaoliu replied honestly, standing on tiptoe to get a closer look. "It's almost right next to you."

The director was struck dumb, mechanically turning his stiff neck and turning his head to look behind him.

He saw a blurry humanoid shadow, which was now less than a few centimeters away from him.

"Ghost!"

The horror film director was terrified. Countless horrifying images from horror movies flashed through his mind, and he immediately turned and ran.

As he moved, the previously slow-moving black shadow behind him was stimulated and sped up to follow.

Seeing this, the crew members dared not linger in the lobby and scattered in panic.

As a college graduate with a bachelor's degree, the director understands one principle well: when being chased by wolves, you don't need to run faster than the wolves, you only need to run faster than your companions.

Therefore, he immediately fled to the second floor. The ground floor was crowded with people, making him a large target. Anyone with a brain would know where it would be easier to catch the shadowy figure. The second floor was much safer than the first floor...

The director secretly congratulated himself on his quick thinking, glanced down at the building, and his eyes widened in fury—

The dark figure actually rushed straight upstairs!
"Damn it, why are you chasing after me when there are so many people downstairs?!"

The director was on the verge of tears. He had already exerted all his strength to run, so he pushed off again and managed to increase his speed a little. But how could human stamina compare to that of a ghost? The speed of that dark figure was simply unbelievable, almost instantly closing in on him.

In a critical moment, the director's adrenaline surged. He lunged forward and rolled into the stairwell, pushed open the door of the room closest to the stairs, and without even bothering to lock it, scrambled under the bed, barely daring to breathe.

He had just tried to close the door, but because he was in such a hurry, he didn't use enough force, so the door didn't close properly and there was still a crack about the thickness of a thumb.

The pale light from outside the hallway seeped into the room through the crack in the door, forming a bright line that just extended to the edge of the bed.

"Can't see me, can't see me, can't see me..."

The director broke out in a cold sweat, silently praying that the dark figure would wander into another room and not find him.

Time passed by, and the hallway was silent, as if no one was there. But he dared not be careless and covered his mouth, hiding under the bed without moving.

He secretly vowed that if he could leave safely this time, he would definitely seek compensation from his friend for emotional distress. There was clearly something wrong with this villa. However, he quickly realized that this kind of standard sentence structure of "if I could do this, I would definitely do that when I get back" would be a typical flag-setting in a movie, so he quickly put the idea aside.

Whether it was because of the deliberate act of planting the flag or not, the next second, there was a creak, and the door was suddenly pushed open. With the light from outside the hallway, a long shadow could be clearly seen standing in the doorway.

The director was stiff all over, and his breathing almost stopped.

"Don't come in, please don't come in... Ghost Brother, Ghost Sister, Ghost Daddy, anything is fine! If all else fails, we can make a deal. I'll help you film a documentary, and you just have to spare my life, okay..."

He kept muttering nonsense to alleviate his fear, but unfortunately the dark figure outside the door obviously couldn't hear his inner monologue and slowly walked into the room.

Its position perfectly blocked the crack in the door, completely blocking out all light from coming through, plunging the room into darkness. The director's heart sank; he could see a blurry black shadow moving back and forth in the room, as if searching for something.

Clearly, he was the person they were looking for.

"It's okay, don't be afraid. The movies say ghosts don't bend over. I'm under the bed, it can't see me..."

He tried his best to comfort himself, but he still couldn't stop the dark figure from coming to the bedside.

The light in the room seemed to have been completely swallowed up, leaving not a trace of light.

The director held his breath and even had to put a finger in his mouth to control his trembling teeth.

Fortunately, the dark figure did not linger by the bed for long. It seemed that after searching the bed without success, it turned to leave.

The director secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

However, the next second, the dark figure turned around again, and a terrifying, hideous ghost face suddenly appeared in front of him.

……

Han Zhou stared at the note in his hand, puzzled. If this was a hint from a mysterious brocade pouch, it was far too difficult to understand—

"Before today, I hated dreaming."

"And what about after today?"

"I will try my best to like it."

This looks like a nonsensical conversation with very little content, so little that it's impossible to extract any useful information.

He was having a headache. The mysterious brocade pouch was arguably the least cost-effective item. Whether it could be used successfully depended on luck, and even if it was successful, the information it provided was quite difficult to understand and could hardly help him solve his current predicament.

If this thing could be rated, I'd give it a terrible review...

Han Zhou thought to himself that he wanted to throw the note away, but then he thought that it might be useful in the future, so he decided to try to put it back in the brocade pouch.

The mysterious pouch, as a shop item, can be returned to the inventory. If it can help carry some items and reduce the weight, then it can be considered to have some use.

He was pondering how to squeeze the most out of the brocade pouch when his expression suddenly changed. He forcefully pulled open the pouch, held it above his head, and peered inside.

He only noticed now that there was a line of small characters inside the brocade pouch.

"Take half a sleeping pill and consume half of your current points, and you will arrive at the place you wish to go."

"Take the other half of the sleeping pill and consume half of your current points again to return to the starting position."

"Note that when you return to the initial position, all memories from when you left the initial position will be erased, and any traces of the impact on reality during this period will also be corrected. If you wish to retain them, please use the 'Anchor Point Freeze Device' in time during this period."

Han Zhou never expected that there would be words inside the mysterious brocade pouch, and judging from the content described in these words, it was undoubtedly a way to find Xiao Xiaoxiao.

It's really not fair to blame him for being careless, because the text was so small, and the color of the text was exactly the same as the color of the brocade pouch, that a normal person couldn't see it at all.

And who would have thought that the real useful part of this so-called "mysterious brocade pouch" was not the note inside, but the brocade pouch itself?

I doubt any normal person would have thought of that.
Han Zhou had already anticipated that this was probably the correct way to open the "mysterious brocade pouch," as the text on the pouch was consistent with the usual style of the status bar.

In other words, the truly useful information was always in the brocade pouch, not in the words on those slips of paper.

If I'm not mistaken, he probably missed out on truly useful information during those previous successful uses of the brocade pouch.

As for why the status bar was so boring, and why it even had a misleading note to mislead him, he really couldn't understand it.

However, there's no time to think about that right now. The most urgent thing is to find Xiao Xiaoxiao as soon as possible. Since the status bar has provided a method, he just needs to follow it.

Seeing that everyone was still racking their brains trying to figure out how to find Xiao Xiaoxiao, he coughed lightly to draw everyone's attention to himself and said, "Don't worry, everyone, I already know how to find Xiaoxiao."

Everyone was taken aback. Ouyang Lianyu asked urgently, "How do we find it?"

Mo Yixia held her cup, seemingly lost in thought: "Are you going to use some unreasonable means?"

Seeing everyone looking over, she rested her chin on her hand and said in a matter-of-fact tone, "Since it's an unreasonable disappearance, then it's reasonable to find it in an unreasonable way, right?"

Han Zhou wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he had a feeling that she had foreseen this all along.

He avoided eye contact and carefully replied, "Indeed, some unconventional methods are needed..."

"Could it be some kind of soul-summoning ritual?" Gu Zheng asked suspiciously.

She had no doubt about Han Zhou's words.

Mo Yixia glanced at her and said unhurriedly, "As far as I know, summoning spirits only works on the dead."

"I'm talking about a similar method, stop interrupting!" Guzheng had more important things to do and didn't want to argue with her.

Zhong Ling looked at Han Zhou and said softly, "Is there anything we can help you with?"

"no need."

Han Zhou smiled and shook his head, "You guys wait downstairs for a while, just chat casually, I'll be back soon."

"You're going out?" Zhong Yin frowned slightly. "Then I'll go with you."

He reached for the umbrella.

With the rain pouring down outside, she wasn't comfortable letting him go out alone.

Han Zhou was taken aback, not expecting Sister Yin to care about him so much. He chuckled and said, "I'm not going out, I'm going upstairs."

"Upstairs?" The group exchanged glances, puzzled. "You mean Xiaoxiao is upstairs?"

"probably……"

Han Zhou didn't know how to explain, but fortunately Mo Yixia came to his rescue, saying, "Since it's an unreasonable method, we probably wouldn't understand it even if we explained it, so let's just wait here as he suggested."

“But…” Ouyang Lianyu was a little worried.

"I believe Han Zhou will give us all a reasonable explanation when he returns."

Mo Yixia interrupted her, tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, and looked at Han Zhou meaningfully.

"Is it right?"

(End of this chapter)