DSF Ch1

Chapter 1 – Director Q has arrived

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　　“Everyone, we have reached our destination. I’ll lift my phone higher so everyone can see if it’s this place or not.”  

　　Zong qi looked at the 153 displayed on his stream viewcount, his heart a patch of gloom.

　　He didn’t know how long he would have to stream just to reach the minimum viewer count this month while relying on the people from the past half hour.

　　He wouldn’t have money for food if he couldn’t reach the minimum this month. Not only that, the new landlord had already threatened him, if he couldn’t pay up the rest of his rent money by this Saturday, he’ll kick him out the door. 

　　Broke. He’s really so broke, broke to hell.

　　Zong qi was an unlucky university student whose graduation date got postponed, working as a supernatural streamer instead.

　　As the internet developed, livestreaming, an innovative new job had revealed itself. 

　　There were streamers who streamed game, streamers who sang and danced, and even streamers who streamed chatted with their fans on voice call. 

　　Supernatural streamers were a subcategory of outdoor streamers, they usually streamed themselves going around the infamous haunted places in the city, bringing their audiences a sense of thrill. 

　　Zong qi didn’t have anything notable, only that he was optimistic and looked pleasing to the eye. 

　　In the end the platform that signed with him didn’t care about his personality, deciding solely to use that face of his. 

　　Just for this face, the streaming company had even personally planned a whole story for him. 

　　Who would’ve thought that after Zong qi had took the company phone and investigated every area’s streamers. He found out just how much of a difference he and the other talented streamers had and decided to quietly enter the category of supernatural instead. 

　　Everyone: …

　　This is abusing heavenly material!

　　When it came to ghosts and gods, Zong qi was stuck between believing it and not. 

　　Because ever since he was little, he had never seen anything supernatural happen. If he had really met a ghost, he would believe it. But if he didn’t, then it’ll always remain in a state of ‘to be determined’. Basically it’s just the chinese version Schrödinger’s cat– materialism.

　　It’s fine to change your viewpoint after meeting a ghost. You can even increase your life experience, a blood price. (t/n: they say 血赚 but when i searched it up it gave me weird things i didnt understand so im assuming its blood price or smth) 

　　As to why Zong qi, as a university student, is working as a streamer, it’s all because his graduation this year was postponed. 

　　The two Praxis credits that he had coincidentally lacked. (t/n: Praxis is the process by which a theory, lesson, or skill is enacted, embodied, or realized. “Praxis” may also refer to the act of engaging, applying, exercising, realizing, or practicing ideas) 

　　He was lucky that he passed his oral defence and only needed to wait till September, when the school reopened to earn the credits he didn’t have to get his graduation certificate. (t/n: im not at uni yet so i have no idea wtf these terms are. Im hoping it makes sense lmao) 

　　About his major… 

　　Zong qi is a Directing and Theatrical Production Major. This was the major where you lose your job the moment you graduate. If you didn’t have connections, you could never get into a film crew and even wanting to eat would be difficult. 

　　So before that happened, the Zong qi with no graduation certificate could only walk the road of live streaming, a freelance job that didn’t require any qualifications but could still get earn him some food money. 　　Just as he started daydreaming, a few comments floated onto his phone screen.

　　[Yo! It’s really the Jujube Mental Hospital in Jiang Zhou! Mad respect streamer, I salute your bravery] (t/n: why tf they would name the hospital after a food, i will never know)

　　[Sick, the big guys said only a few supernatural streamers would dare come but here we are]

　　[There’s nowhere the streamer wouldn’t dare to go! He even went to the mysterious Heart Kindergarten last time. Don’t look at the fact that he’s still in school, his bravery is 100/100, even better than some of the big bros of the society.] 

　　[Isn’t it? Sigh, the people in this stream is really too little. Such a passionate streamer is hard to come by, hopefully he’ll get big one day.]

　　…… 

　　The place Zong qi planned to explore this time was indeed Jiang Zhou’s Jujube Mental Hospital.

　　This mental hospital was famous in Jiang Zhou city. 

　　Anyone talking about ghost stories in Jiang Zhou would definitely bring up this hospital. 

　　It was obvious that most viewers in the stream also know this. 

　　But knowing was knowing, the most important introduction mustn’t be forgotten.

　　Zong qi cleared his throat and began his own exaggerated version of telling the background information.

　　“20 years ago, this mental hospital suddenly had a huge fire.”

  　　He showed everyone the burn marks on the old hospital’s walls, “It was unknown how this fire had been started. Some said that it was because of a medical mishap while others said it was because the hospital accepted bribes and trapped in a bunch of abnormal people, bearing hatred in their heart, they lit the place on fire.”

　　“All in all, the loss they experienced after that fire was huge. There people who were seriously ill and psychiatric patients who were locked in their rooms were all burnt to death in the fire.”

　　“After that, the hospital moved to the western suburbs and left this lonely old building behind. In all these years, many rumours of ghosts in this dilapidated building circled around. The most famous one should be that one ghost hunting stream from back then.” 

　　To create the right atmosphere, Zong qi didn’t use his usual joking tone. Instead, he lowered his voice and kept it monotonous. Pairing it with the burnt building behind him, it really created a bone-chilling feel. 

　　Surprisingly, this worked really well and scared quite a few viewers. 

　　[I have a really deep impression of this place. My grandpa would always say that although our quality of life has went up, people became bad, the crime rate every year higher than the last. It would be big news if this kind of fire happened 20 years ago, unlike what it is now] 

　　[He’s not wrong. But I remember there was a streamer who washed his hands cleaned and stopped streaming after coming here once. Though ghost hunting usually can’t be done for long anyways, the ones that have been doing this for more than 2 years can be counted with one hand. Hopefully this streamer can hold on]

　　[I’m already shaking] 

　　[This place feels kinda weird, I’m starting to believe the stories after watching the stream a few times. You have to be careful, streamer]

　　Zong qi revealed a kind smile after getting the results he wanted. 　　“Alright alright bros. This streamer here has been scared since young. (t/n: prolly talking about the “ghosts” he’s seen) I’ve heard these kind of stories a hundred times already. And even if it wasn’t a hundred, it would at least be 80. What coward would come out and hunt ghosts?”

　　He said as he held his phone up and walked forward. 

　　After circling around the wilted grass, cutting through the broken walls, leaping past the dirty yellow and black police lines lying on the floor, he finally reached the entrance of the hospital. 

　　The doors of the hospital was in disrepair for a long time. Two tattered rust doors hung on the door frame, on it’s edges was a deep yellow, revealing only a slit of darkness from within. (t/n: yeah i had no idea what description that was im sorry)

  　　Zong qi’s glanced at the edge of the doors discreetly. 

　　He had come here a few days ago and saw the door being open. 

　　But now it oddly looked like someone had latched the door from within.

　　There were secrets behind ghost hunting. 

　　Zong qi knew that a lot of his fellow streamers would not only go to their destination beforehand but also write their own scenarios and get some of their friends to be the actors. Some would even go as far as to put their own props around, literally becoming the director of their own show. 

　　But Zong qi has never done that.

　　It wasn’t only because he always chose the place most ghost hunters wouldn’t dare go, the most important reason was that every time he went ghost hunting, there would always be weird accidents here and there.

　　For example, the previous previous previous time he went ghost hunting on an unlucky road and was scratched by a passing car. Zong qi called the police immediately after and when the police came and reprimanded the driver, they found out that there were drugs in the car. Thus they cuffed the driver on scene and took him away.

　　Or in his previous previous adventure to the basement of a kindergarten and unintentionally solved a sexual assault case on children, bringing both evidence and person to the police. 

　　Or when he went to the silk factory last time and found landmines from the Revolutionary period. He panicked and called the special forces to quickly seal off the surroundings. 

　　The higher-ups in the Jiang Zhou police force all know his face already, the way they looked at him was like looking at a real-life Detective Conan.

　　This brought in a few audiences that came from ‘Legal Daily’, there were also some grandpas that started watching, wearing their reading glasses and chatting, quietly promoting him.

　　In this regard, Zong qi was helpless. 

　　Maybe this was because of something in his body that he couldn’t change unless he went back to his mother’s womb. 

　　“Since we’ve already reached the entrance, let’s not waste our words and begin hunting ghosts.”

　　Zong qi looked at his watch, showing everyone where the needle was pointing to, “It’s just nice 12 in the afternoon. Everyone knows that midnight is when Yin energy is the strongest, so according to that logic, afternoon should have the most Yang energy.”

　　“However, there is this saying, things go in reverse when pushed to the extreme. Strong Yang energy births Ying energy. Because of the low amounts of Yin energy in the late afternoon, it coincides with the law of Taijitu[1]. The Yin energy capable of existing during the afternoon must be extremely evil, so to go ghost hunting at this point, you’ll either get out whole, or…”

　　[I can answer this one. Or the streamer will solve another case, picknose.jpg]

　　[Hahahahaha god it’s too funny, this sarcasm is too much! Let’s leave the streamer some face, leave some food for the pandas!] (t/n: sarcasm part is internet slang which directly translates to bamboo, which is why they say leave some food for the panda)

　　[Kekeke, welcome everyone, to XX broadcast, where every Wednesday afternoon will be a super (rule) nat (of) ural (law) show]

　　“Nonono. Be more serious everyone, there’s no way anything will happen this time!”

　　Zong Qi pouted, reaching out to push the door open. 

　　Unexpectedly, the door wouldn’t open. 

　　The black-haired boy shone his flashlight into the inside and noticed that there were two bricks blocking the door. 

　　So he pushed against the door harder.

　　“Creak——”

　　The old metal door made a blower-like sound as it was being pulled, revealing an opening just big enough for one person. 

　　The cold wind poured out through the dark interior and brought along the stench of decay, raising one’s hair. 

　　“How was the door blocked? Did a beggar move in?”

　　Zong Qi lowered his head and studied the red bricks he had pushed away from the door. 

　　The way they were placed clearly meant that it was blocked from the inside. Adding onto the background of this abandoned mental hospital, the atmosphere instantly turned cold.

　　[Not only was there a fire here, there are also ghosts. What kind of brave beggar would dare to stay here?]

　　[Exactly. Streamer, do you think everyone is you?]

　　[Let me make a prediction, it’s definitely not a beggar, most likely it’s the new criminal suspect!]

　　[Yes! History repeats itself!] 

　　Zong qi ignored the joking chatters in his stream and raised his flashlight. He leapt over the door and walked into the mental hospital. (t/n: door as in some doors have barriers at the bottom i have no idea what its called so)

　　“We should be looking at the corridor and the lobby of the hospital.” 　　Inside the door was completely dark. The bright sunlight of the afternoon swam outside of the windows sealed with wood, not a single strand of light could enter. 

　　The walls of the corridor were broken and burnt, the paint from the ceiling of the first floor were curled all the way to the corners. It was clear for them to see that the fire that year was humungous. 

　　Such a large corridor only held the sound of one person’s footsteps. 　　As the chat was energetically talking about their surroundings, Zong qi shone the floor with his flashlight. 

　　This place had been abandoned for a long time, a thick layer of dust caked the floor and as long as someone had walked past there were bound to be footprints. He had only stepped around the corners when he had come 3 days ago, limiting the amount of traces that showed he was here. 

　　Now, the floor had shown clearly that there was a path that had been swept clean.

　　Zong Qi pictured the movement and thought it was similar to someone dragging something heavy while walking.

　　The chat had also found this odd.

　　[Eh? Why is there no dust on the floor?]

　　[Looking at the width, it feels like something left by crawling…]

　　[Holy shit, the big bro from upstairs really has a good imagination. Your chat shocked me on a perfectly good afternoon] (t/n: upstairs basically just means the guy above him that chatted)

　　[Alright, today’s broadcast I shall watch till here. I will now perform a leaving ‘ceremony’] (t/n: google tells me that the word used here is something they do after a court hearing or whatever)

　　[What… Is there really a need to be so dramatic, upstairs? What kind of ghost hunting nowadays don’t have a preplanned plot. It’s probably just the streamer himself doing this to scare you]

　　“Looking at the traces, if it isn’t a beggar, then it should be some problem kid coming to play a prank.”

　　Zong qi gave his final verdict, “Let’s not think about such supernatural reasons. This streamer here is very truthful, even ghosts don’t dare come too close. The healthy successor of a new generation of… s o c i a l i s m.” (t/n: healthy here means that he was born on a good time, kinda like fengshui i guess? Google says its an outdated term :D)

　　Zong qi’s words weren’t actually wrong. 

　　He was born on Nongli[2] 5 May. This was the year’s hottest time, his Bazi[3] was that he was very persistent. He’s never caught a cold ever since he was little, energetic and his limbs were warm throughout 4 seasons, as if he was a heater himself.

　　He interacted with his viewers while following the undusted trail to the second floor.

　　Just as they arrived, something unexpected had cut in. 

　　Zong qi didn’t know which part of the wood he had stepped on, a sharp and eerie sound suddenly sounded from below his feet. 

　　He was checking what had happened when a black shadow flew past the camera, scaring quite a few viewers who had been watching the stream tensely into screaming. 

　　“What black shadow?”

　　Zong qi asked excitedly after seeing the chat, raising his flashlight and walking towards the direction his chat pointed to.

　　Zong qi was a Directing and Theatrical Production Major. 

　　This major sounded really cool, but in reality, it was only after learning did they know that it belonged to the Tiger Balm major. Not only did they have to go to the compulsory director class, they also had to do acting, photography, videography etc. All the things related to taking a movie, they had to learn. (t/n: not sure about the tiger balm part but i assume its slang for something like, you have to learn a bit of everything or smth) 

　　To make him use these talents in streaming was abuse, the only times they could be shown was when he was panning his camera. 

　　The light scanned the two sides of the corridor, the frightening black traces on the door could still be seen. 

　　Looking at the horrifying image on the screen, the viewers all sucked in a breath. Zong qi, this immoral person’s expression didn’t change a bit as he continued his explanation.

　　“These are the hospital rooms of the mental hospital from before, there’s still reinforced metal locks outside. Regarding the black traces you guys saw, it’s possible that it’s the blood of the patients who couldn’t escape in time… woah, you little rascal. Case closed, it’s a mouse.”

　　A fat, grey mouse lay behind the dust, vanishing from everyone’s sight the moment the light shone over.

　　The viewers that couldn’t catch a breath: ……

　　Aren’t you too calm???

　　The rest of the ghost hunting didn’t really have anything worthwhile, a large half of it was the chat scaring themselves. 

　　Zong Qi walked from the wards to the canteen, even running up to the third floor where the fire was the most serious. He kept feeling around the floor, scaring the chat into crying. 

　　“It’s just us scaring ourselves, there’s really no point. Let’s listen to you all and follow the traces on the ground we saw before.”

　　After going around the place, Zong Qi felt that ghost hunting this time was missing some excitement. Thus he decided to listen to the far fetched ideas the chat suggested and went back down to the first floor.

　　The floor was the same as when he had come in. 

　　The traces on the floor snaked into the deep parts of level 1, swerving into one of the bathrooms. 

　　Zong Qi shone his flashlight towards it, noticing that at the far edge of the door was a flurry of footprints. These footprints were messy, a thin layer of dust over them, proving that they weren’t recent. It’s probably been a few years.

　　”Since it’s pointing towards the bathroom…”

　　Just as he was speaking, his phone suddenly made a crisp “ding dong!”.

　　It was a message. 

　　Zong Qi’s eyelids twitched. In the next second, the text to speech in chat started speaking. 

　　[Do you want to direct a thrilling horror film?]

　　[Congratulations! You have received Alpha access to the system, Horror Film Director. Signing actors with potential, come and shoot the film that fits you the best and build an empire of your own!] 

　　Zong Qi had an ominous feeling after seeing that message.

　　As he had expected, he saw the perfectly fine stream suddenly turn black, displaying the no signal sign. 

　　This phone was given to him by the company. It wasn’t bad, but it had a little problem: Every time a phone call or a message came it, it’ll cause the signal to become unstable. Having no signal after the line cut was also a common occurrence.

　　He shouldn’t have made such a low-level mistake. He opened the message inbox before reopening the stream.

　　How the hell did this trash commercial get here? It even knew what his major was.

　　“Of course there’s no such thing as privacy in the Big Data era.”

　　Zong Qi sighed, deleting the message before he had even finished reading half of it. 

　　“Kacha.”

　　The message was thrown into the recycling bin heartlessly. 

　　There were already really little viewers, and now he even cut the stream at the most exciting part. Zong qi could already imagine the number of fans he will lose after that.

　　”Sigh.”

　　Zong qi was a bit disheartened. He powered off his phone and walked into a cubicle with his flashlight raised. He planned to continue after his phone had reconnected to the internet.

　　However, Zong qi didn’t know that in his pocket, the phone had lit up without anyone’s touch.

　　[No potential problems detected, TOS accepted, “Horror Film Director” auto-downloading activated]

　　This time it wasn’t a message that popped up. 

　　Blood red words surfaced on the lock screen, a black and white yin and yang fish gradually emerged, forming a Tai Chi pattern, as if it were flowing, glowing with an ominous light.

　　[1%……10%……53%……78%……91%……100%……]

　　[Application has successfully been downloaded on your phone]

　　[Restarting… Welcome, the only director.] 

　　Almost at the same time, countless other phones had received the same message.

　　[All actors please take note, Director Q has arrived]

　　The only thing different was that the apps on these phones were all called “Horror Film Actors”.

　　There was only one phone in the whole world with the app called “Horror Film Director”. 

　　In a place very far away, the paintbrush drew a dark blue arc on the white canvas.

　　The man raised his eyes abruptly, broken pieces of lights floating within the pupils hidden behind plain glasses. He gazed at the paint on his paintbrush, an indifferent expression on his face. 

　　The bright sunlight shone in through the french window, resting in the deepest parts of the studio. 

　　– There was someone… who got the director role before he did.

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[1] A taijitu is a symbol or diagram in Chinese philosophy representing Taiji in both its monist and its dualist aspects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taijitu 

[2] The traditional Chinese calendar (officially known as the Agricultural Calendar [農曆; 农历; Nónglì; ‘farming calendar’], Former Calendar [舊曆; 旧历; Jiùlì], Traditional Calendar [老曆; 老历; Lǎolì] or Yin Calendar [陰曆; 阴历; Yīnlì; ‘yin calendar’]), is a lunisolar calendar which reckons years, months, and days according to astronomical phenomena. In China, it is defined by the Chinese national standard GB/T 33661–2017, “Calculation and promulgation of the Chinese calendar”, issued by the Standardization Administration of China on May 12, 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_calendar 

[3] The Four Pillars of Destiny, as known as “Ba-Zi”, which means “eight characters” or “eight words” in Chinese, is a Chinese astrological concept that a person’s destiny or fate can be divined by the two sexagenary cycle characters assigned to their birth year, month, day, and hour. This type of astrology is also used in Japan and Korea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pillars_of_Destiny 

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Translator has something to say: this chapter was so long ahhhh. anywayssss i dont have an editor and my attention span is suuuuuper short so forgive if i make any mistakessss >< hope you enjoy~~

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