Yin Xinyue smiled. “Brother Zhang, you’ll always be the most handsome man in my heart.”

I asked Li Mazi, “Do you want to be a minor character?”

Li Mazi laughed. “It’s good to be on TV, isn’t it? It gives me more chances to show my face. Li Meng would be proud when he goes to school! It’s not like anyone’s father can be in a drama!”

“Okay, I’ll talk to the director.” Yin Xinyue nodded.

“Right, where are we going to stay tonight?” asked Li Mazi.

“There’s a bus that takes people from the filming location to the hotel. You can also stay in this town. All the houses are empty,” said Yin Xinyue.

“Where are the people who used to live here?” asked Li Mazi.

Yin Xinyue smiled. “They temporarily moved out. The film crew has rented the entire town! I often travel abroad to film, so I don’t have a preference. It’s up to you where you want to stay.”

If this small town had a bed, a pillow, and a blanket, I could just spend the night here instead of taking a bus back to the hotel.

Mr. Xu stopped the car in front of a barn. It was their makeshift prop storage. He called a few men to help him move the antiques. They would start making the props at night.

We didn’t disturb him and went to find the director. On the way, we saw a large, dried pool encircled by a police line. I asked Yin Xinyue, “What happened there?”

“Nothing much. They found some dead bodies,” answered Yin Xinyue.

“What?” I was shocked.

Yin Xinyue hurried to explain. “It’s not what you think. Two days ago, this pool suddenly dried up, and a few old skeletons resurfaced.The film crew called the police, and they later figured out that the bodies had been dead for a few hundred years. They even found some artifacts.”

“Perhaps they were the remains of tomb robbers,” Li Mazi added.

I observed the shape of the mountain ranges around. This place had good geomancy, which made it a fortunate land. I asked Yin Xinyue, “What’s the most popular family name in this town?”

“It should be the family name Gao!” answered Yin Xinyue.

I concluded that the residents of this town could be the descendants of tomb keepers. In ancient times, tomb keepers received a lot of benefits from the imperial court. For example, they were exempted from paying taxes, and they could receive some aid. Gradually, they formed a town here.

It wasn’t a good sign when a pool suddenly dried up. I hoped there wouldn’t be any problems here. Otherwise, we would become like Conan, who found murder scenes everywhere he visited.

Yin Xinyue introduced us to the director. Of course, she didn’t tell him our real identities. She just said that we were antique businessmen.

The director readily agreed to pay us the rental fee for the items.

Then, he asked, “Mr. Zhang, you’ve been in this antique business for years. Have you studied strange antiques?”

I recognized the hidden meaning behind his words. I frowned and asked, “What kind do you mean, specifically?”

“The kind that can change a person’s fortune,” the director said mysteriously.

Is he talking about an

 otherworldly item?

My interest was raised. “I do know a thing or two about this kind of artifact.”

“That’s great, then!” He sounded excited. “Could you check this item for me?”

After I agreed, the director led us to a small room. I saw a small altar on the table, but there was no God statue on it. He then took out a red fabric bag from a drawer. When he opened the bag, I saw a broken Guan Yu statue.

“This is an antique my teacher gave me. It’s miraculous. Thanks to its protection, my works these years have been famous and sold very well. Two days ago, it suddenly broke into pieces. I’m worried as this can’t be a good sign!” The director sounded worried.

“When did it break?” I asked.

“After the booting ceremony. I didn’t dare to tell anyone as I didn’t want to scare them,” said the director.

I picked up the broken statue and studied it. From the details, this statue wasn’t really old. It was made with modern technology. I guessed that it was mostly a psychological thing, and the item wasn’t a treasure.

However, it wasn’t a good sign that the Guan Yu statue was broken. It could prove that a powerful spirit was around that even the Martial God Guan Yu couldn’t suppress.

“Has anything strange happened to the film crew these days?” I asked.

“Something strange?” The director thought then answered, “Nothing of the sort, but we had an unexpected incident. Two days ago, the main male lead had a car accident. He broke his legs in the incident. I didn’t have any other solution, so I had to replace him with the second male lead.”

“How haven't I heard about this?” Yin Xinyue was shocked.

“Ms. Yin, you weren’t here at that time.”

“Did it happen after the pool incident?” I got an important clue.

“Yes, it did.” The director nodded. Then, the way he looked at me changed. He looked as though he was talking to an old immortal who could predict everything.

I mentally raised an eyebrow. I took out a business card from my pocket and gave it to him. “Actually, I work in this business.”

The director received the card and looked puzzled. “May I ask what an otherworldly item is?”

I gave him a brief explanation. The director was delighted. “Sir, I think my Guan Yu statue is also an otherworldly item. I hope you can fix it.”

I didn’t know if I should cry or laugh. First, his statue wasn’t an otherworldly item. Secondly, I couldn’t repair antiques. However, I knew how strong psychological effects could be, especially in this case. After all, the drama had just started filming a few days ago, and I shouldn’t make them worried.

I convinced him and told him that I could perform a magic ritual to invite Guan Yu’s spirit to enter another statue and protect him and his production. The director appreciated me a lot.

After saying goodbye to him, Li Mazi said, “This director is funny. That’s just a cheap statue that can be bought on the street, and he’s made it his treasure. If that’s a real antique, the pickle jar in my house is a national-level, protected artifact…”

“Tomorrow, we’ll go to town to buy a few things,” I answered indifferently.

“Little Brother Zhang, are you trying to be polite to me? You can just tell me what to buy,” said Li Mazi.

“No, I also want to ask around for more information!” I answered.

At night, we had dinner in a big courtyard. The chef of the film crew cooked a big table of food. However, Li Mazi and I didn’t know anyone but Yin Xinyue, so we sat with her.

All the people here were from the movie crew. There were no famous actors or actresses around. When the men started drinking together, they then bragged about the celebrities they had worked with before. Afterward, they started to discuss some showbiz rumors. Everything was very exciting to me, which changed my understanding of some directors and famous movie stars.

“The world of entertainment is really exciting,” I told Yin Xinyue.

“Well, movie stars are also humans, and humans aren’t perfect. Since I’m here tonight, they are somewhat embarrassed, so they haven’t discussed the more disgusting rumors.” Yin Xinyue smiled at me.

“Dear, do you want to go to the toilet now?” I teased her.

“You should go first!” Yin Xinyue laughed and punched me.

After dinner, a staff member took us to a house that had two bedrooms. The view and rooms were nice. As we didn’t have anything to entertain ourselves at night, we turned off the lights and went to bed early.

I shared a room with Li Mazi. He had drunk a lot, and he started to snore loudly soon after, which made me unable to sleep. Yin Xinyue suddenly sent me a message. “Brother Zhang, come here!”

I put on more clothes and walked to her room. Yin Xinyue covered herself in a blanket, and her face was pale. “I was sleeping. Then, I felt something blowing air on my face. I was so scared that I woke up. I also heard footsteps outside my door!”

I looked through the window and saw that pool outside. I was certain that there was something strange inside. Yin Xinyue hugged me. “I’m scared. Brother Zhang, please stay with me.”

“Okay! I’m going to get something from my room,” I said.

Yin Xinyue didn’t want me to leave, so I turned on the light and found a bag of salt on the shelf. The salt had hardened. I crushed the salt and sprinkled it on the windowsill and the threshold.

I then found a kerosene lamp. I wiped some soot off the glass bulb and smeared it on Yin Xinyue’s shoulders and glabella.

As I lay next to her, she weakly asked me, “Is it okay now?”

“Yeah, even if there are wandering ghosts, they will ignore this room. However…”

I was about to say that they would find Li Mazi when I heard him scream. “Oh shoot! Help! There is a ghost!”

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