TRYMBPIETM: Like a Ghost Story (3)

The female ghost could not understand Chi Qingzhou’s reaction and subconsciously glanced at him twice.

It’s so strange, it seems like this person only has half a soul.

Take another look.

It’s so strange that only the half of his soul that is more true, kind and beautiful remains in his body.

Take another look.

How strange, only the part of his soul that is good, and beautiful remains in his body.

No wonder he speaks and acts more like a ghost than her.

The female ghost was shocked and stared at Chi Qingzhou in confusion, forgetting to look away.

The man in Chi Qingzhou’s shadow narrowed his bloodshot eyes.

He was very dissatisfied, sneered and warned: “What are you looking at?”

As soon as the words fell, the cold and twisted power suddenly exploded, covering the sky and earth, pressing towards the female ghost, suddenly waking her up from her thoughts.

Everything in front of her eyes began to change into an irregular state, and the scent of death filled the interview room.

A world-destroying ghost!^[1]

There is actually a world-destroying ghost living in this person’s shadow? !

The female ghost’s face changed drastically. Her instinct made her refuse to continue communicating with Chi Qingzhou. Without waiting for Chi Qingzhou to speak, she closed her eyes and hid back in the yin energy, repairing the wound on her hand that was burned by the Buddhist beads.

Chi Qingzhou felt regretful and lost: “Leaving now? I haven’t made friends with her yet.”

The man comforted him, “It’s okay, there will be chances in the future.”

Chi Qingzhou: “Okay.”

He blinked, turned his head to look at the camera that was still running, slowly raised the corners of his lips, revealing a strange smile without any warmth of life.

A pale face exactly like his emerged from his shadow, with hazy peach blossom eyes and a cold smile.

The man in the shadow glanced at Chi Qingzhou and didn’t care much.

As long as his contractor isn’t wronged, isn’t it normal to have a little fun?

He stretched out his hand, grabbed an invisible object from Qi Ming’s body, and stuffed it into the shadow.

“It’s time to nourish your soul.”

He lowered his voice, embraced the half-damaged soul in the shadow, and sank back into the darkness.

Chi Qingzhou waved to him, cleared the broken pieces of the ceiling lamp on the sofa aside, and sat back happily.

…

Qi Ming suddenly woke up.

He looked at Chi Qingzhou in a daze. It seemed that there was nothing wrong, but also that something seemed to be wrong?

Was it because he was too tired and just lost his focus for a moment?

He looked at the cameraman who had been filming.

The other party nodded, indicating that the camera equipment was functioning normally.

That must be an illusion.

Qi Ming hadn’t slept well these past few days, and after doing interviews all afternoon, he was indeed a little tired.

Anyway, he had already exceeded Mr. Xiao chi’s requirements, so he asked Chi Qingzhou a few more questions perfunctorily and ended the one-on-one interview hastily.

Maintaining outward politeness, Qi Ming said goodbye to Chi Qingzhou, then hurriedly left the interview room with his staff and walked towards the program team’s exclusive workroom.

Everyone seemed to be blind throughout the whole process and did not notice the broken ceiling lamp at all.

Chi Qingzhou stood up and stretched.

He took out his cell phone from his coat pocket, searched for a while and found his assistant’s number, asking him to drive over to pick him up.

The assistant hurriedly said, “I’ve arrived at the underground garage at Putao Terrace, but they won’t let me in to pick you up. I’m at the elevator door of the garage on the second floor below ground, and you can see me when you come down, Brother Zhou.”

Chi Qingzhou responded, hung up the phone, and walked briskly towards the elevator.

“Xing Shuangzhan hasn’t been in such a high-quality mood as today for a long time. I hope everyone on the program team likes the small gifts I gave them.”

…

After leaving the interview room filled with gloomy energy, Qi Ming soon felt much better.

While talking to the cameraman about the footage he had just captured, he was fantasizing about the gooddays when he would be able to rely on Mr. Xiao Chi to overthrow the station’s gold medal host, and an excited smile unconsciously appeared on his face.

The director was slumped in his chair, looking at the script with a gloomy face. He caught sight of his smug expression, quickly thought of something, sat up with a frown, and called out to him.

“Xiao Qi, have you finished your individual interviews? You look so happy. Did you get some big news?”

The director is a veteran of Putao^[2] TV and has a lot of influence over the higher-ups.

When Qi Ming heard his voice, he immediately stopped, made a gesture to him, and shook his head and sighed hypocritically.

“Oh, who else could it be? It’s that illegitimate child Chi Qingzhou. Before, I thought he knew the ways of the world, but who knew he was so careless with his mouth. He dares to say whatever he should and shouldn’t say, and no one can stop him.”

The director was extremely surprised: “Is it true? You are not kidding me.”

Qi Ming: “It’s true. It’s guaranteed to be more real than Pearl.”

The director was puzzled and curious, so he simply waved to the cameraman and asked him to take out the memory card and put it into the computer, wanting to see what incredible things Chi Qingzhou had said.

Anyway, the video footage had to be edited later, so the cameraman didn’t think much about it and just did as he was told.

The director was holding a computer, while Qi Ming and the cameraman gathered behind his chair, watching the video with him with a smile on their faces.

At first the video was normal.

Qi Ming walked into the interview room, shook hands with Chi Qingzhou, exchanged names, and sat down on the sofas on both sides of the table.

The setting sun shone through the window, casting a dazzling light beside the sofa, which was reflected in Chi Qingzhou’s eyes and turned into dancing fragments of light, making his outstanding appearance even more stunning.

The director touched his chin and felt that he had found a good publicity point.

He simulated a lot of editing effects in his mind, but before he could choose a satisfactory one, the next shot stunned him.

In the picture, Chi Qingzhou sat obediently on the sofa, looking at Qi Ming politely, as if waiting for him to ask questions.

Qi Ming suddenly jumped up as if he was sick, and danced towards Chi Qingzhou.

He was mumbling some strange things like “your watch must be a fake”, “it’s a cheap product from a Taobao stall”, “you’re not a professional and you don’t attend training classes, you’re so unprofessional”, etc. His joy was evident in his words, as if he had caught some big news.

Chi Qingzhou just sat there, looking at him quietly, his eyes confused, the corners of his lips raised in an unchanging, beautiful and even a little weird arc.

It seemed as if he didn’t understand what Qi Ming was saying, and there was no trace of life in his body.

A chill rushed from the soles of their feet to the top of their head.

The three of them stared blankly at the bizarre video footage on the computer, their upper and lower teeth chattering uncontrollably.

The director almost subconsciously found a reason.

“On the way back from the interview, did anyone touch the camera? The original version of the video may have been replaced.”

The cameraman’s eyes widened and he denied it.

“Impossible! Chi Qingzhou was the last guest. We came back directly after the interview. I was holding the equipment the whole time, and we didn’t meet anyone else on the way.”

His scalp tingled. He stared at the smiling Chi Qingzhou on the screen and swallowed hard.

Qi Ming’s mind went blank and he couldn’t say anything. He stood blankly behind the director, his lips trembling.

He suddenly felt very cold.

The cold air was like the rainy weather in the south on a winter day, penetrating into the cracks between his bones.

Above his head and shoulders, three fires invisible to ordinary people swayed slowly, as if being blown by a wind that did not exist in the physical sense, and weakened little by little.

He held the Buddhist beads that he had bought at a high price in his hand in panic, as if this would make him safe.

The ringing of the cell phone broke the almost suffocating silence.

The director took a look and saw that it was Mr. Xiao chi calling.

He picked up the phone, and Mr. Xiao Chi asked casually, “Have you done what I asked you to do?”

The director hesitated, “Almost.”

The other party laughed sarcastically, “That’s great, I have one more thing for you to do.”

…

Just after 9 o’clock in the evening, Chi Qingzhou finished taking a shower and suddenly received a call from the “Scenery Along the Way” program crew.

The staff politely said that there was another segment to be recorded tomorrow and hoped that Chi Qingzhou would arrive at Putao terrace on time at 8 o’clock tomorrow morning.

Of course Chi Qingzhou agreed immediately and comforted the staff who were a little embarrassed.

When he hung up the phone, the system, which had been silent since the afternoon, suddenly popped up.

[Host, don’t be fooled by them! There is no new segment to record at all, they just ask you to re-record the individual interview! They are just trying to torment you on purpose! 】

【These people are no good, you have to be wary of them! ! 】

The system was screaming at the top of its lungs in Chi Qingzhou’s mind, like a devil’s voice whispering in his ears.

Chi Qingzhou couldn’t help but frown and rebuked it: “Why are you slandering others again? Even if they really asked me to re-record a one-person interview, they must have their reasons.”

The system was choked and the code was running wildly.

Chi Qingzhou must be mentally ill! What difficulties do they have?

It was obvious that they received a call from Chi Qingzhou’s brother during dinner, and wanted to embrass him (CQZ). That’s the only reason!

You have drunk up an ocean of suffering, but others have no sufferings at all!

Chi Qingzhou argued: “Don’t think too badly of people. It must be due to some force majeure that they had to make this decision.”

System: [……]

It is really going to collapse.

In the afternoon, it suddenly discovered that there were supernatural elements in this world. It spent a lot of energy to detect them, and was surprised to find that there was a world-destroying ghost in Chi Qingzhou’s shadow.

According to the power standards of this world, evil spirits are divided into five levels from weak to strong: resentment, evil deeds, misfortune, disaster, and world-destruction. Among them, the world-destruction level is the most powerful, the most dangerous, and the most uncontrollable.

No matter how the host managed to contract such a powerful evil spirit, even with its support, he can still be bullied like this. This shows that he is the worst of the worst, not even worthy of being plastered on the wall.⁵

The system couldn’t help but feel sad.

There are so many candidates waiting for it, why did bind itself to such a person?

But there is no way, it still depends on the host to complete the task.

It tried to make its tone kinder.

[Host, you are such a kind person. People who get to be your friends must be lucky, right? I want to be friends with you too. Chi Qingzhou smiled and said, “I have never had a friend like you, and I also want to make friends with you.”

System: [In this case, then we are friends! 】

【Host, I am a mechanical life form and I have never made friends before, but I heard that good friends are there to help each other out of difficulties, right? 】

Chi Qingzhou thought for a while and said: “I don’t have any difficulties.”

System: [……]

Who asked you! You are such a genius at ending a conversation! !

It collapsed and said: [I mean I have! I’m in trouble! Chi Qingzhou: “Oh, what’s the difficulty?”

System: [You should have read some online novels, right? Systems like ours usually have performance indicators, and if the indicators are not met, they will be recycled and destroyed. 】

【As long as you complete a few tasks, I can escape the fate of being destroyed. You are so kind, you will definitely help me as a friend,right?

Qingzhou held up his chin and said, “Tell me about it.”

The system quickly displayed the carefully selected tasks.

[This is it, “Slap Actor Song’s face during the live broadcast of the second season of “Scenery Along the Way”.⁶ 】

The smile on Chi Qingzhou’s face disappeared.

“Why don’t you change despite repeated admonitions? What did Mr. Song do wrong that you want to slap him in the face?”

System: [No, the mission requires this -]

Chi Qingzhou: “You are wrong. The mission requires you to do bad things, do you have to do bad things?”

System: [I just don’t want to be -]

Chi Qingzhou: “Remember, there must be love in the world.”

System: [I know——]

Chi Qingzhou: “You must be kind!”

System: [……]

Chi Qingzhou emphasized to himself: “All my friends are kind.”

The system was silent.

After a long while, it asked quietly: [Host, don’t you have any ordinary friends who are not too kind? 】

Chi Qingzhou turned his head and showed a relaxed and happy smile.

“No, they all disappeared.”

System: [……]

Are you serious?

Are these friends of yours actual friends, or just narrative tools?

1. “Only the positive, virtuous part of Chi Qingzhou remains within his physical form. ↩︎
2. “滅世級厲鬼” (miè shì jí lì guǐ) can be translated as “World-destroying level vengeful ghost” or “Apocalyptic-level vengeful ghost”. ↩︎
3. The other man in the shadow. ↩︎
4. Grape, the fruit. ↩︎
5. He is worthless. ↩︎
6. metaphorically ↩︎