Chapter 39

     After finishing work, Shi Xi went to the utility room to try the puppet again to see if she could find out its owner.

     When she pushed open the door of the utility room, Shi Xi found that the gloomy atmosphere brought by the puppet had completely disappeared.

     She furrowed her brow, opened the sack, and saw that the puppet had cracked. Its grotesque face had become serene, and all the evil aura had vanished, leaving it an ordinary puppet.

     Shi Xi only drew a simple sealing spell on the silk ribbon at the mouth of the puppet. It doesn’t have the power to conduct a soul-sending ceremony. The only reason this puppet has become like this is that its owner gave it up in order not to expose themself.

     There were no clues to be found on this abandoned puppet, but Shi Xi did not take it lightly. She still drew a talisman on it to prevent it from becoming evil again.

     The crew of “Sword Shining in the Frost” completed the filming before nine o’clock in the evening. After Shi Xi had a midnight snack, she returned to the dormitory.

     After a busy day and working overtime, Shi Xi was so sleepy that she couldn’t open her eyes after washing up.

     “I hope that evil spirit won’t make trouble tonight, so that I can sleep peacefully…” Shi Xi murmured in a low voice and got into bed.

     After a while, she fell asleep.

     Duan Jingyi had lost face on set and, without even eating dinner, had retreated back to his dorm. As the night wore on, he couldn’t stop thinking about those embarrassing moments. The more he thought about them, the more agitated he became, tossing and turning in bed.

     After what felt like forever, he felt suffocated in the room and, unable to sleep, got up to open the window for some fresh air

     He walked to the window drowsily, pushed it open casually, and was shivered by the cold air that came in, and suddenly became much more awake.

     The window faced the courtyard, and it was very quiet outside, without even a light.

     Duan Jingyi looked at the dark courtyard and suddenly remembered that Xiao Li had encountered an evil spirit yesterday.

     People say Xiao Li woke up one morning to find himself on the rooftop, clutching a grotesque wooden puppet. He couldn’t remember how he got there. Would Xiao Li be like him that night, tossing and turning, and ended up opening the window?

     Once his thoughts started to diverge, they could not be stopped. Duan Jingyi thought of what happened to him again – when he was filming in the ruined temple, the stone he kicked out seemed to hit something. He heard a scream at the time, but others said he heard it wrong.

     What if he didn’t hear it wrong…

     A chill climbed up his spine to the back of his head, and even his palms began to feel cold. Duan Jingyi didn’t dare to look at the yard anymore, nor did he dare to breathe anymore, and immediately closed the window.

     “Crack–” He heard a harsh sound from the window frame, as if it had hit something.

     Duan Jingyi looked down and saw a small hand stuck between the two windows!

     Duan Jingyi felt that a string in his head was broken with a “snap”. He was too scared, and he instinctively picked up the potted plant next to him and wanted to hit the small hand.

     Before the potted plant was smashed, he found that the little hand was gone!

     Is it because he is too suspicious that he has hallucinations? Duan Jingyi was shocked and sweaty.

     Anyway, close the window first! Duan Jingyi put down the potted plant and quickly closed the window.

     The room was closed again, and he breathed a sigh of relief: “It’s better to go to bed quickly and don’t scare yourself.”

     Duan Jingyi turned around and suddenly met a weird smiling face!

     Shi Xi was sleeping well, but was awakened by a system task in the middle of the night.

     She held a stick picked up from the yard in her hand, drawing spells on it while walking towards the dormitory of “Sword Shining Frost”: “Let me see who is making trouble in the middle of the night and not letting people sleep.”

     The houses rented by the two crews were close to each other, and Shi Xi soon arrived at the gate of the dormitory compound of the crew next door.

     The moonlight was very dim at this time, and Shi Xi felt a chill before she stepped into the yard.

     The courtyard door was not locked, and it opened with a gentle push. After walking a few steps inside, she found a person lying on the roof.

     Shi Xi stared at him and found that the person looked familiar.

     The person probably heard the noise, and turned his head very strangely, revealing a familiar face. It turned out to be Duan Jingyi.

     Shi Xi stopped and asked casually: “Duan Jingyi, why are you lying on the roof at night without sleeping?”

     Duan Jingyi burst into tears, crying out, “waa!”” and shouted regardless of anything: “Is it Teacher Shi? Teacher Shi, help me!!”

     Duan Jingyi wanted to shout again, but his left hand suddenly rose up uncontrollably, bent into a weird angle, and covered his mouth tightly.

     It was as if an invisible thread tied his wrist, controlling his every move.

     Duan Jingyi was shaking all over, and kept making whimpering sounds for help.

     Behind Duan Jingyi, a small wooden head quietly poked out, and its blood-red eyes emitted a malicious glow in the dark night.

     Shi Xi looked at the puppet’s face and found that it looked different from the previous one. Its facial features were closer to those of a living person than that one, and its thin mouth was curved upwards and painted with a thin layer of red paint.

     The important thing is that there was no Duan Jingyi’s name on its face, so it had not yet succeeded in seducing the soul, nor had it become Duan Jingyi’s doppelganger.

     Just a moment later, the puppet disappeared out of thin air, and the rope tied to Duan Jingyi’s wrist seemed to break, and his arm fell down.

     After discovering that he could speak, Duan Jingyi cried and shouted again: “Teacher Shi, help me!”

     Although he didn’t know why she appeared here, she was the only one who could save him! The people in the room couldn’t be woken up at all!

     Shi Xi was paying attention to the movements around him while chatting leisurely with Duan Jingyi: “Teacher Duan, why do I remember you said that a cross-dressing monk can’t control the situation?”

     Duan Jingyi’s face, which was originally frightened by the ghost, turned red. How could he care about his face: “Teacher Shi, I was the one who couldn’t spit out ivory from my dog’s mouth before. Who else can control the situation except you! You are a magnanimous person, don’t bother with me…”

     He was afraid that this was not sincere enough, and cried again: “As long as you save my life, I will definitely change my ways in the future and respect you as my adopted parents!”

     “…”That’s unnecessary.

     The smiling puppet suddenly appeared behind Shi Xi, and Shi Xi didn’t move, as if she didn’t notice it at all.

     The smiling puppet magnified it smile, silently raised it exquisitely carved hands, and the thin line wrapped around it fingertips flashed a faint light.

     Just when the thin line was about to wrap around Shi Xi’s neck, she suddenly turned around and hit the puppet head-on!

     The puppet thought it was a sure win, but it didn’t expect her speed to be so fast. When it was hammered to the ground, the smile on it face broke.

     Shi Xi took a closer look and found that it was not the smile that broke, but the whole puppet.

     Well, the spell on the stick was too powerful, and it was directly exorcised with one stick.

 

   【Congratulations to the player “Shi Xi” for completing the “Exorcise Evil Spirits” task, spell talent +5%, you already have 60% of Zhang Qingyu’s spell talent. 】

 

     Shi Xi looked at Duan Jingyi: “It’s done, come down by yourself.”

     She was going back to sleep, and she would talk about other things tomorrow.

     Duan Jingyi looked at the remains of the puppet on the ground in shock, his mouth couldn’t close. Is this the legendary physical exorcism?

     When Shi Xi left the compound, Duan Jingyi thought of a problem. He was hung on the roof by the puppet with a string, but he didn’t have a ladder to go down now!

     After the evil spirits retreated, the compound returned to normal. Duan Jingyi woke up the entire crew by himself – he really had no way to go down.

     The prop master brought a ladder to Duan Jingyi, and he climbed down under the onlookers. Because he was so scared that his legs were weak, he didn’t step firmly on the last step and fell to his knees with a plop.

     This time the commotion was bigger than that of Xiao Li. After everyone knew that Duan Jingyi had encountered an evil spirit, they were so scared that they lost their sleep.

     Someone in the crowd said, “I thought that inviting Shi Xi from the crew next door to come over for a guest appearance would really calm the place down, but I didn’t expect that tonight there would be a commotion.”

     The actor Da Chen thought that Duan Jingyi had a conflict with Shi Xi before, and he wanted to take this opportunity to please Duan Jingyi. He thought about it and said, “It seems that there are fans of Shi Xi in our crew. They always think she is really awesome. There is no script for the ghost-hunting live broadcast. Now they may be disappointed. I told them a long time ago not to be too emotional with the anchor. It’s all fake and acting.”

     Unfortunately, there are really fans of the ghost-hunting live broadcast room near Da Chen. After hearing this, he was not convinced: “The director asked Shi Xi to calm the situation just to calm us down and let everyone not be too scared. He didn’t ask her to exorcise evil spirits. It’s meaningless for you to say that.”

     “Look, you are really emotional again, right? Don’t let people say it’s fake?” Da Chen looked at Duan Jingyi, with a little smugness in his eyes: “Teacher Duan, do you think I’m right?”

     “You are wrong, very wrong.” Duan Jingyi corrected him seriously: “Teacher Shi is really awesome.”

     Everyone couldn’t believe that this sentence came from Duan Jingyi’s mouth. What on earth did he go through?

     Da Chen looked very embarrassed: “Teacher Duan, what’s wrong with you? Are you influenced by her fans?”

     “It was Teacher Shi who saved me. She sent away the evil spirit with a stick.” Duan Jingyi didn’t elaborate. He took a deep breath: “I’m very sorry for waking everyone up. Go back to sleep. It’s safe here now.”

     “Also,” Duan Jingyi looked at Da Chen, his eyes suddenly became sharp: “Don’t let me hear you slander Teacher Shi again.”

     Da Chen’s status was lower than his, so he originally wanted to please Duan Jingyi by insulting Shixi. However, his plan backfired. Duan Jingyi’s cold, piercing gaze made him break out in a cold sweat

     Everyone: “…”

     Is this still the irritable and mean Duan Jingyi before? He must learn a lesson from the ghost!

     Due to the quick decision last night, Shi Xi’s sleep quality was not affected at all. She went to film the next day with full energy.

     In the afternoon, she went to “Sword Shining Frost” to guest star in the second scene. This scene was actually in the second half of the movie. Since she had to go back to the film and television city to continue filming “Phantom”, the director moved this scene forward.

     When she arrived at the set of “Sword Shining Frost”, Shi Xi found that the colleagues in this crew looked at her strangely.

     Duan Jingyi was the most outrageous. When Shi Xi was putting on makeup, he praised Shi Xi for her natural beauty.

     When Shi Xi was waiting for the scene and reading the script, he praised Shi Xi for her professionalism and humbly asked Shi Xi questions.

     During the break, Duan Jingyi not only handed Shi Xi water and held an umbrella, but also took care of Ruan Shu by the way, doing all the assistant’s work. He was completely different from the one who looked down on people before.

     Director Weng also heard about what happened last night. Seeing Duan Jingyi like this, he was actually a little relieved and sighed: “Growing up, good thing.”

     Someone also came to ask Shi Xi about the details of last night, but she fooled them with a few words.

     It was already evening when they finished work. Director Weng said that the expert he invited would arrive later, so he asked Shi Xi to stay in the “Sword Shining Frost” crew for dinner and wait for the expert to arrive and chat before leaving.

     Shi Xi understood that Director Weng hoped that she could pass on some useful information to the expert, and Shi Xi was happy to help.

     The weather has been hotter recently, but there is wind in the yard, so everyone set up the dining table in the yard to eat dinner.

     The leading actors all ate in the house. Director Weng originally invited Shi Xi, but she wanted to eat under the sunset, so she stayed in the yard.

     Shi Xi was eating when she saw a pretty girl holding a live broadcast device and filming the yard. She said as she filmed, “It’s dinner time for the actors now. Let’s see how their meals are~”

     The camera swept over and the actors waved to the live broadcast room generously.

     Shi Xi asked casually, “Who is this? She can actually live broadcast here.”

     “She is a relative of Director Weng. The girl just came back from abroad recently and is starting a self-media business. She wants to film the daily life of the little actor. Director Weng has asked for everyone’s consent in the group. You are not in our group…” Xiao Li, who was sitting next to Shi Xi, explained to her, “Director Weng probably forgot to tell you. He has a lot of things to do recently.”

     Shi Xi nodded and was about to look away, but found that the host’s camera was aimed at her.

     The anchor was stunned on the spot, and then his eyes widened: “Oh my god, friends! I found a super beautiful girl! She looks so good even with a bald head, this is simply the appearance of a leading actress!” 

     Xiao Li felt that the anchor had misunderstood something, and explained: “This is actually from the crew next door…”

     The anchor was surprised to hear this and interrupted Xiao Li: “One person working two jobs, so beautiful and so hardworking, the girl will definitely be the leading actress, I am a fan, what is your name?”

     “My name is Xiaoshi,” Shixi smiled gently, her eyes filled with a radiant glow. “Thank you, I will definitely work hard to become the lead actress.”

     The anchor was stunned: “This name is so familiar, I seem to have heard it somewhere.”

     Xiao Li: “…”

 

     Friends in the live broadcast room:

   【…】

   【Anchor, wake up! Xiaoshi has already become the lead actress. Isn’t she filming “Phantom”? 】

   【Witnessed the new anchor’s car crash, took a group photo. 】

   【Wait, this is Director Weng’s crew, right? Why is Shi Xi eating here? She can’t be here to eat for free, right? 】

   【Is it for filming? Oh my god, this is too low-key. She acting in Director Weng’s movie but there’s no marketing?】

   【I keep getting struck by Shixi’s visuals in the most unexpected places. 】