Those Years I Employed Non-Humans as Actors

In order to stay within his budget, newbie director Zhong Jiudao rented an infamous haunted house as his filming set. For many years, nobody had lived in the haunted house, but it was inhabited by plenty of evil spirits from the last century. They gathered behind Zhong Jiudao, wanting to teach a lesson to this human who had stepped into their territory. But who could’ve thought that Zhong Jiudao, completely unperturbed, would take out his movie script and read it aloud to the occupants of the haunted house?

Ghosts: Huh? If we substitute ourselves into the role of the ghost in the script, it actually feels… pretty cool!

Putting away his script, Zhong Jiudao asked the group of ghosts: Anyone interested in shooting a movie? I’ll pay the salary by burning joss paper*.

Ghosts: What kind of movie is it?

Zhong Jiudao: A movie about the satisfying revenge of a ghost.

The ghosts scrambled to raise their hands: Me! I want to do it!

Zhong Jiudao: You guys have to audition for the roles, line up here for the screen test.

(*Joss paper, also known as ghost or spirit money, are papercrafts made to emulate money that are burnt as offerings for the dead.)

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A fresh graduate from an acting school, Z-list actor Luo Huai took on a supporting role in a horror movie. Although the filming crew was lacking in budget, the director had a good personality and the staff was kind. The senior actor who played the role of the ghost had great acting skills and was very dedicated, patiently giving him pointers during filming.

Senior Ghost: This won’t do, you have to act more convincingly. If you can’t do it, how are you going to trick those humans into your territory?

Luo Huai: Huh?

Senior Ghost: I mean—you can only convince the audience with your acting if you give a genuine performance.

Luo Huai: Thank you, senior! You’re so nice!

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A light-hearted supernatural entertainment industry story. Pairing: Zhong Jiudao (gong) X Luo Huai (shou). Celestial master slash movie director who uses ghosts as free labor X actor who was born with a constitution that easily attracts ghosts.