Ch17 - Good Morning, Master Lu Xu

Ji Xiunian knew his memory was fairly excellent; he would at least have an impression of anyone he had met before.

But other than Lu Xu, everyone in this group of five standing in front of him was unfamiliar, so he had asked the question.

It was just after he spoke that the four people behind Lu Xu became shocked.

“Geges, he’s asking us, right?”

“Seems like it…”

“Oh my god, Ji Xiunian can see us!”

…

Ji Xiunian had already thought there was something weird about these people. Now he was even more convinced that something was wrong.

What did they mean by ‘he can see us’? A group of four big people was standing in front of him; it would have been strange if he couldn’t see them.

Wait a moment…

Ji Xiunian’s gaze landed on the F4 again, and his sense of dissonance grew stronger—

It was terribly hot in Dongcheng right now. Many of the trainees walked around shirtless. When he looked at the four people in front of him again, their long sleeves and long pants looked so hot, but none of them were sweating.

Looking down, he could only see Lu Xu’s shadow on the ground. Not only did the other four not have shadows, their feet weren’t even touching the ground.

Normal people wouldn’t not have shadows, normal people also couldn’t overpower gravity to float mid-air…

An answer called out. Ji Xiunian suddenly felt his breathing become heavier, his scalp becoming numb.

The apartment F4’s reaction wasn’t much better than his; they were huddled together, shuddering.

This was the first time they had been seen by a human in all the years they had been ghosts. They didn’t know whether to escape or silence the perpetuator.

Ji Xiunian was a little confused, but he forced himself to calm down. Although this wasn’t the first time he had seen something strange, four of them at once was a little unacceptable.

After he managed to shift his gaze away from the four “people”, Ji Xiunian couldn’t help but ask Lu Xu, “What’s your… relationship with them?”

Starting from when he had run into Ji Xiunian, Lu Xu had been watching his reaction with interest.

It was clear that Ji Xiunian, was entering a state of shock after suddenly coming face to face with the ghosts. He obviously wasn’t used to this sort of situation.

Lu Xu more or less made an internal judgement. He heard Ji Xiunian asking the question, and changed his expression into one of confusion. “Ah? Nian ge, who are you talking about? And I’m in A-rank, you know that…”

The boy in front of him had an extremely confused look on his face, obviously not understanding what Ji Xiunian had meant. Those four “people” were standing right behind him, but he hadn’t noticed them in the slightest.

Ji Xiunian then realised that Lu Xu couldn’t see those strange things, and became quiet.

“Nian ge, are you all right?” Lu Xu’s tone was concerned, like a warm-hearted, caring junior.

“Nothing, I misunderstood something, it has nothing to do with you.” Ji Xiunian tried his best not to look at those four things, and he didn’t want to scare Lu Xu either, so he didn’t say anything.

At this time, the door to the directing office suddenly opened again.

Fan Zeng walked out, on a call. He saw Lu Xu and Ji Xiunian standing outside the door, and casually asked, “You two still haven’t gone to rest? What are you doing standing here?”

You two…

Two…

Ji Xiunian was once again sure that he was the only one who could see those four things.

At this time, Ji Xiunian’s inner self was in turmoil. Even his view of the world was starting to crumble.

He Xinghua had never imagined Ji Xiunian would be able to see them, but when he thought about it, it was quite good. Other than Lu Xu, there were other people who knew of their existence. The feeling of their existence being recognised was not bad.

From Lu Xu’s reaction, it was obvious that he was pretending to not see them. They didn’t know why, but as the observant F4, they would play along.

The four ghosts looked at one another, and entered a strange, shocking, and short state of calm.

Lu Xu hadn’t been prepared to stand there in the hallway, so he said to Ji Xiunian, “Nian ge, if there’s nothing else, I’ll head back and rest first.”

“Go ahead.” Those words were definitely said to Lu Xu, but Ji Xiunian couldn’t help his gaze from going towards those four.

Lu Xu pretended like nothing was happening, and politely bade goodbye to Ji Xiunian, then lightly went up the stairs.

The four ghosts looked at one another, then finally decided to follow the Master Grim Reaper. They looked at Ji Xiunian guardedly, then slowly floated their way in a line up the stairs.

Once they floated their way across Ji Xiunian, they didn’t forget to politely nod their heads in greeting. He Xinghua even opened his mouth and said to him, “What a coincidence, Ji laoshi. I didn’t think I would bump into you here. My mother and I both really like that movie you were in, ‘Seeing Ghosts’. Laoshi had such emotion…”

“Seeing Ghosts” was the first suspenseful crime thriller film that Ji Xiunian had acted in, three years after his debut. It told the story of the sinister human heart, and had absolutely no relation to ghosts.

However, there was a ghost right in front of him, sincerely telling him about what he liked. Ji Xiunian suddenly didn’t know whether to say thank you or what.

“All right, stop talking so much.” Tao Yingbo saw that Ji Xiunian didn’t look very happy to see them, and knew that the Film Emperor wasn’t very keen on communicating with them. Out of politeness, he still nodded to Ji Xiunian in greeting, then urged He Xinghua, “He already left, better catch up.”

F4 lined up as a group, and after greeting Ji Xiunian, went to catch up with Lu Xu.

Ji Xiunian watched as they went upstairs, making a guess in his mind—

So the four of them were here for Lu Xu?

But looking at how Lu Xu acted, he didn’t even know that he was surrounded and entangled by ghosts.

Ji Xiunian’s heart was in turmoil, to the point of considering whether he should go to a therapist. He felt that this was all just an illusion, but it was also all too real.

After Fan Zeng finished his call and returned, he saw Ji Xiunian standing there, motionless, his handsome face a little shocked and a little confused.

He raised his hand and waved it in front of Ji Xiunian’s eyes, asking in concern, “Xiunian, why are you standing there in a daze? Did something happen?”

“I…” Ji Xiunian hesitated for a moment, but nodded his head in the end. “Nothing, just tired from not sleeping well last night. Fan ge, I’ll go back and rest first.”

“Go on, go on. You have to sleep more.” Fan Zeng and Ji Xiunian had known each other for so long; he naturally knew Ji Xiunian didn’t sleep very well.

In addition, Ji Xiunian had agreed as a favour to come onto this show. However he looked at it, Fan Zeng’s concern towards Ji Xiunian was genuine.

After Ji Xiunian went upstairs, the four weird fellows had long since disappeared. He didn’t know if they had followed Lu Xu or not.

The mentors’ dormitories were next to the director’s group, with each person getting one room. The rooms were furnished comfortably. It was quite a good accommodation.

Ji Xiunian went into his own room, and felt that whatever had happened just now was too ridiculous.

“How can there be ghosts in this world?”

“It must be because I’m too tired, that’s why I’m hallucinating.”

…

The wind came in through the window, carrying the curtains along with it in a swaying motion. At first glance, it looked like someone was tugging on them.

“Stop it!’

Realising that he was imagining more things the more he thought about it, Ji Xiunian immediately got up and went to close the window. The curtains stilled again, and even his emotions became a lot calmer.

A handsome face was reflected in the glass window, his gaze heavy, as though there was something weighing on his heart.

Up until he lay on the bed to get ready to sleep, Ji Xiunian couldn’t stop thinking about it.

In the end, Ji Xiunian, a determined realist, still picked up his mobile phone to enter into the search box the words “what happens when you see a ghost”.

Various answers popped up in the search engine results, and the top suggestion was to not panic, take your phone out and take a picture with the ghost then post it online to borrow the ghost’s popularity to get clout…

“What kind of bullshit is this?”

Ji Xiunian, on one hand, felt that the answer was a bit dumb. On the other hand, he felt that he was the one being too paranoid.

He exited out of the page, and opened his photo gallery, immediately seeing the photo he had taken with Lu Xu.

The eighteen year old boy was beautiful and delicate; his good-natured and clever appearance made people feel good. Ji Xiunian’s impression of Lu Xu was not bad, but he couldn’t help but feel worried when he thought about that group of things following behind him.

The protective charm around his neck fell to one side. Ji Xiunian raised his hand to hold onto it, and felt his heart calm down a lot.

In the past, he used to simply treat this as the final gift that his mother had left him, but now he felt that perhaps this item had some other use.

Ji Xiunian lay on the bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep, unconsciously thinking about Lu Xu. If it had just been a hallucination, then everything would be fine, but if it wasn’t, then would the boy be in danger?

He looked at the ceiling like that for a very long time, and when nothing strange appeared after a long while, he reassured himself, “Sleep, sleep. Maybe after I wake up, everything will be back to normal.”

“The Film Emperor definitely saw us!”

“I think so too. When I greeted him, he even backed away a little.”

“Master Lu Xu, what if we get exposed?”

The F4 followed Lu Xu into the dorm, talking amongst themselves about what had happened with Ji Xiunian.

Of course, Lu Xu thought about Ji Xiunian’s expression and felt that it could be an opportunity.

Seeing that F4 were still muttering and discussing whether to avoid Ji Xiunian, Lu Xu shook his index finger and pulled out some pen and paper to write–

“You don’t have to avoid him on purpose. Do whatever you want. Of course, don’t cause trouble on purpose as well.”

There were still cameras in the room. Lu Xu certainly didn’t want to be filmed speaking to himself as he drew weird things.

After gaining Lu Xu’s permission, the F4 were no longer conflicted.

Without waiting for Lu Xu’s roommates to return, they had already gotten up and said goodbye.

He Xinghua had already gone out the door, but he seemed to have remembered something and backtracked. He stuck half his head through the door and asked Lu Xu, “Master Lu Xu, can we go with you to watch when you go to the dance studio tomorrow?”

Lu Xu raised his brows and nodded, smiling, which meant yes.

He Xinghua let out a happy whoop and left, not forgetting to help Lu Xu close the door carefully.

After sending the F4 off, Lu Xu crawled into bed to sleep–

As a Grim Reaper, he was used to 24-hour jobs, but now that he was on vacation, he could experience human life for himself sometimes.

On the morning of the second day, Lu Xu went to the dance studio with his roommates.

“Master Lu Xu, good morning!” With He Xinghua in the lead, F4 had been waiting in the dance studio since early in the morning. Once Lu Xu entered, they greeted him warmly, their eyes wide as they waited for dance practice to start.