This Damned Thirst for Survival
chapter-61

After crawling out of the hole in the ground in Shen Tucun, the dead ghost sniffed for a long time but could not smell his friend.

He stood at the entrance of the cave for a long time, not knowing which way to go. When the sun was about to set, he came down and saw some humans leaving. He followed them, out of Shen Tucun, and into human society.

The humans always looked at him with strange eyes, commenting on his clothes and looks, and the dead man felt out of place here. Amongst the steel and iron, there are millions of humans, and the dead man stands silent for a while, carrying his sword, at every junction.

Where should I go?

Where are the friends?

Just as the dead ghost is lost in human society, he is approached by a man who calls himself a “talent scout”.

They told the Dead Ghost that if the Dead Ghost signed a contract with them and made the Dead Ghost do what they told him to do, they would allow the Dead Ghost’s friends to find him. The Dead Ghost signed that contract and was sent to the show “Next Stop, Idol”.

Before he arrived, his agent took him to get his hair cut. The dead ghost calmly watched his long hair turn into short hair and heard his agent say, “You have to do everything you can to get on camera, understand? Only then, your friends will see you on TV and come to you.”

The dead ghost was thoughtful, “I see.”

He knew these people weren’t necessarily trying to help him because he had heard his agent say to people smugly, “He’s an idiot, I’ve got a 20-year contract, 20 years, and he signed it without batting an eyelid.”

But the dead ghost didn’t care; twenty years was really nothing to the living dead, and at least these people had figured out a way for him to find a friend too.

But the dead ghost has come to this show having found over twenty shots and hidden them all, and has not seen his friends come looking for him.

So, treating the recording of the show, he wanted less and less to hitch a ride.

This morning, as usual, the dead ghost removed the camera from the hallway of the dormitory and hid it on his body before reluctantly walking towards the recording hall. As soon as he walked in, the crew snapped at him, “Sikui, everyone’s here, you’re the only one left!”

The Dead Ghost walked in silence towards the back of the crowd when suddenly a familiar call was heard, “Dead Ghost?!”

Lu Youyi is both surprised and delighted.

The tall, stocky man with short hair jerked his head up, his eagle eyes sharpening as he looked towards the sound. When he saw Lu Youyi, his pupils clenched and he froze in place.

The Dead Ghost has changed into modern clothes and looks, and at a rough glance, he just looks like a regular handsome guy with a somewhat strange air. With his razor sharp eyebrows and sharp eyes, it has to be said that his looks do not look out of place with a talent show that focuses on beautiful teenagers.

Jiang Luo looks at the dead ghost, who has changed completely, with mixed feelings.

While he was being complicated, the dead ghost had already rushed up and hugged Lu Youyi with all his might. After hugging Lu Youyi, he saw Jiang Luo standing next to him and became even more excited, going up to hug him again.

“At last, my friends, you have come to me!”

Jiang Luo, who was completely gagged by the wide muscles, could not say anything in retort: “……”

The dead man let go of Jiang Luo and said with a grumbling tone, “Friend, why did you leave me in the first place?”

Jiang Luo, who was questioned: “……”

He was genuinely weak for a moment, but Jiang Luo turned his face away and said, “The man who saved you in the first place threatened to kill me if I took you away.”

The dead ghost was convinced and murderous intent set in, “Who is that man?”

Ye Xun and Lu Youyi also looked at Jiang Luo with curiosity.

“I don’t know who he is, but he was called master by the man with the fox mask,” Jiang Luo suppressed the frantic attempt to raise the corners of his mouth and clenched his fist and coughed on his lips, “I tried a lot of ways to get him to save you. When I finally left, it wasn’t that I didn’t want to take you with me, but I didn’t have the strength to fight him anymore.”

Remembering the man whom the fox mask called master, the dead ghost said with a sullen look on his face, “So it was because of this man that our three best friends were forced apart, I remember him.”

Jiang Luo, with his eyes wide open, took the opportunity to add a lot more oil and vinegar.

Ye Xun poked Lu Youyi, ” Lu Youyi, look at Jiang Luo’s expression, do you smell something bad?”

Lu Youyi scratched his head, “Yes?”

Ye Xun thought about it and said, “Forget it, even if he’s doing something bad, it’s still this stupid living dead guy he’s fooling, so let him be happy.”

After a while, there was a sudden cheer from the noisy hall and the crowd looked at the door with burning eyes, “The teacher is here!”

Everyone falls silent and looks excitedly out the door. Jiang Luo looks sideways and follows suit.

The man in a casual suit sauntered in from outside, his voice smiling before he arrived, “Good morning.”

“Good morning teacher!”

“Ahhhhhh good morning!”

The man walked in, his handsome face seemingly glowing under the fluorescent lights. He leaned familiarly against the table, his posture relaxed, and waited for the trainees to calm down from their excitement before he then smiled, “Everyone’s very enthusiastic today.”

” Teacher Qin Fan, we could be more enthusiastic!” One man hissed.

Qin Fan couldn’t help himself and waved his hand, “No, no, no, no, no, no.

The crowd laughed out loud.

As the room heats up, Qin Fan looks at the card in her hand. He is obviously not very attractive, but he has a great deal of flavour in his manner, and the more I look at him, the more charming I find him.

“It’s a game, and it’s a fun game,” Qin Fan smiled, raising his hand and shaking the card. “It’s a submission from a netizen who wanted the show to scare you by pretending to be a haunted house, but the team thought twice about it and decided that a haunted house was nothing new, so they decided to do it differently. ”

Qin Fan seriously propped up his chin, and after scanning the apprehensive and expectant expressions of the trainees, he suddenly smiled wickedly, “Let’s play a game of indoor ghost sighting today.”

“Crap?! A ghost indoors?”

“Ahhhhh I’m already scared, can I not participate?”

“I’m most afraid of this kind of stuff, the showrunners are really bad.”

A wail went through the room.

Lu Youyi silently looked at the lights in the house and then at the sunlight outside, and whispered to Ye Xun, “Are they really scared?”

Ye Xun shakes his head in a not very understanding way.

This “ghost” game was the result of Jiang Luo and his team’s discussion with the director last night.

The team actually wondered if the culprit could be a trainee, and Jiang Luo devised this game after they failed to find out anything in the studio last night. It was a chance to observe the reactions of the trainees as well as an opportunity to give Jiang Luo and his team a chance to investigate.

If Jiang Luo and the three of them did find the ghosts, the game would not be broadcast. If there is nothing, there are staff members who have made up a ghost costume to scare the trainees and send it out as a normal event.

“The crew has collected three ‘see ghosts’ games,” Qin Fan reads, “and the trainees need to be divided into three groups, so I’ll choose a trainee to demonstrate the moves with me before we play these games I’ll choose a trainee to demonstrate the moves with me before we play these games.”

His eyes wandered through the trainees as those he watched struggled to raise their hands, trying to wait to be hit by Qin Fan’s shout.

It’s worth it to be in the same frame as Qin Fan!

Qin Fan said, “The trainee with the long hair in the last row, please come up and work with me.”

Behind the scenes.

The director froze for a moment, “Didn’t I tell Qin Fan not to order these guys up?”

The chief planner sat next to him and watched the camera move to Jiang Luo’s face, which looked as if it had been born with a filter on the screen.

He was so distraught that the corners of his eyes twitched, “It’s over, it’s over, this whole scene has to be cut, I feel bad when I think of such a good looking face disappearing from the finished film.”

The general director was also sighing, “Who isn’t.”

The chief planner said, “The master has already been called up, so if we want to cut it, we have to cut the Qin Fan footage as well.

“Forget it, you don’t know Qin Fan,” the chief director waved his hand, “if you ask him to change, will he listen to you?”

Jiang Luo was stunned by the sudden call.

The trainees looked back in unison.

“I think his name is Jiang Huan? Absolutely, if you give him another shot like that, he’s definitely going to be a hit.”

“By the way, Zhang Feng, there’s a new trainee in your dorm too, right? Who is it?”

Zhang Feng looked at Jiang Luo with a look of cynicism and what seemed to be a hidden fear, two contrasting expressions that made his face twist slightly as he turned away from the trainee who was talking to him and said with his head down, “I don’t know.”

The trainee beside him was speechless: “If you don’t want to say it, you don’t want to say it, so you’re perfunctory to whom.”

On the stage, Qin Fan waved at Jiang Luo, “Come on, don’t be afraid, you’re just doing a demonstration with me.”

Jiang Luo’s eyes flashed as he took a big step forward and said in a very nice manner, “Teacher, you called for me?”

“I’ve never seen anyone with longer hair than you,” Qin Fan joked with him, “I’ve acted in costumes before and my long hair didn’t look as good as yours.”

Jiang Luo lifted a strand of his black hair, which now reached his shoulder blades. The long hair did not detract from the handsome look on his face, which was a mixture of handsomeness and beauty. Even if some of the students did not like him, they suddenly felt a fierce sense of crisis.

“I was thinking of cutting my long hair, it’s a bit of a problem,” Jiang Luo said politely, “You’re joking, I don’t look as good as you do.”

When it comes to serious acting, Jiang Luo is definitely the perfect humble trainee. Qin Fan seemed to like him and kept taking him on for a few minutes before saying, “The name of the first game, I’m sure you’ve all heard of it – playing umbrella in the house, you’ve all done that before, right?”

Someone wondered, “I’ve only ever heard that umbrellas inside the house don’t grow taller.”

“Yes, yes, yes, I’ve only ever heard the expression that you can’t grow taller.”

The programme team brought up the dark red umbrellas. Jiang Luo took the umbrella in his hand and the trainees were given theirs. Qin Fan placed the card in his hand on the table and said, “Let’s open it together. Ready, 1, 2 -”

The crowd opened their umbrellas in unison.

The ordinary people just thought it was all in good fun, smiling and laughing as they attacked each other with their umbrellas. Jiang Luo raises his umbrella and raises his eyes to quickly sweep across the recording hall.

The dark red umbrella tinted the light in the room with a dark red hue as well, striking one’s face with a red glow like blood.

Seeing nothing, Jiang Luo shakes his head delicately at the camera. A few moments later, the staff come up and collect the red umbrella.

Jiang Luo closes the umbrella, but the sunny sky outside the house suddenly bursts with a bolt of sunshine and dark clouds, and it suddenly rains.

The sky flew overcast, and the distant sky was overcast.

The sudden change in weather caught the crowd in the recording hall a little off guard. They had just finished testing the ghosts with their red umbrellas and now, looking at the stormy weather, they were more than a little uneasy.

“Why is it raining all of a sudden? ……”

Qin Fan turned to Jiang Luo and jokingly asked, “Do you believe in ghosts and gods?”

Jiang Luo withdrew his eyes from the rain outside the window, “Don’t believe it.”

Qin Fan did not know whether to believe it or not, but he raised both eyebrows and said, as if in truth, “I still have some faith, and this change of weather has made me a little afraid.”

But after he said this, he continued with gusto, “OK, let’s move on to the second game, let me see, backwards to see the ghost?”

Qin Fan endured a smile and said, “It’s not a very handsome move, but even if it’s not, everyone should have the spirit of the game and do it seriously.”

To see a ghost upside down means that the person’s legs should stand apart and then bend down to look from their body to the middle of their legs towards the back, so that if there is a ghost behind them, they can see it in this position.

Zhang Cheng doesn’t actually believe in ghosts, but he knows the audience likes to see them scared and is happy to act like they’re scared and grab the camera. But after this action was said by Qin Fan, he kept spitting out in his mind how ugly it would be to have a group of idols doing this action, and he really didn’t want the camera to be on him at this point.

Unwilling to do it, Zhang Cheng reluctantly spread her legs and looked back down between them.

Behind him stands none other than Zhang Feng. But he can only see the back of Zhang Feng’s head. Zhang Cheng looks away in disbelief, but suddenly sees a baby’s head appearing in the empty space under Zhang Feng’s head, grinning at Zhang Cheng.

“Ahhhhhhh!!!”

A terrified scream rang out and Zhang Cheng fell to the ground on his buttocks. His face was white as he stomped back on his feet, chills running down his spine as he pointed a shaking hand at Zhang Feng and shouted, “There’s a ghost under his head!!!”

Zhao Ban tried to help him up, and then glanced at Zhang Feng, who had already rushed forward with an ugly look on his face, clutched Zhang Cheng’s collar and raised his fist in anger, “Who are you saying there are ghosts around? There is no ghost around me, I tell you, there is no ghost around me!”

His face was livid, fear and sinister venom crawling and twisting like a centipede on his face, his human face shattered and the filthy rottenness crushed like wall debris, “Try one more word of your nonsense!”

The staff rushed up and pulled them apart.

Jiang Luo looks at Zhang Feng.

He did not see any ghosts in Zhang Feng, but Zhang Cheng did.

Jiang Luo doesn’t have much contact with Zhang Cheng, but he is a good judge of character. Zhang Cheng would never do anything to tarnish his image on camera for no reason, so Zhang Cheng’s claim that he saw a ghost around Zhang Feng is 80% reliable.

The scene became chaotic and the game could not go on. Ye Xun came up to Jiang Luo, who asked, “Did you see the ghost around Zhang Feng?”

“No.” Ye Xun shook his head.

Jiang Luo is thoughtful and suddenly walks up to a camera and knocks on it.

After a while, an assistant came quietly and followed Jiang Luo to the corner, “Teacher, what do you want to say?”

“Give me the previous video later,” Jiang Luo said, “and give me Zhang Feng’s profile and any relevant videos from the past.”

The assistant nods and leaves, and Jiang Luo turns around to see Qin Fan looking at him with a grin on her face.

Jiang Luo smiled indifferently and walked through the crowd to Zhang Cheng, whom Ye Xun helped to take from Zhao Ban, saying, “He is frightened. I can recite Buddhist sutras to calm the spirit, let me recite them to him.”

Zhang Cheng was so frightened that he was out of breath, but after Ye Xun whispered a few words, he calmed down.

Jiang Luo looked down, his hair covering his lips and sliding down the side of Zhang Cheng’s face, ” Zhang Cheng , what did you see?”

Zhang Cheng’s eyes were dull and his lips were purple as he said, “A, a baby.”

“What kind of babies?”

“The dry, dark baby,” Zhang Cheng shuddered violently, “it, it was smiling at me. Its mouth was on top, its eyes were on the bottom, this baby, its head was upside down!”