Ch39 - Obviously a Fake

Thunder roared and lightning flashed above the apartment building. A storm was obviously brewing.

In the long corridor, five people and four ghosts were gathered together. At first glance, it seemed like they were about to perform some strange ceremony.

Lai Chengshan, who was seated on the floor, was chanting. Along with the thunder from outside the window, it really seemed as though he did have some skills.

The F4 also thought the same and were even considering whether they should go and look for Lu Xu to ask for help, afraid that this person really could exorcise ghosts. However, even the ghosts felt tired hearing him chant, and their bodies didn’t have a single bit of reaction to it. It seemed that he was no different from the fake heavenly masters from before.

Ji Xiunian naturally also watched the F4’s reaction, and he couldn’t help but be even more doubtful of Lai Chengshan now.

He had the urge to ask him some questions, but Lai Chengshan was still there in his own world of exorcism ceremonies. He couldn’t be sure of whether he was a fake or not, so Ji Xiunian could only endure it, and wait for him to finish before asking.

Fan Zeng and the little assistant were seeing a scene like this for the first time, half dubious and half believing. But with the atmosphere and the fact that Lai Chengshan had the aura of a celebrity, the two of them slowly started to believe that he really could exorcise ghosts.

After five minutes had passed, Lai Chengshan finally opened his eyes.

He raised a hand to mop off the sweat on his forehead, and let out a long sigh as he slowly stood up.

Fan Zeng had been quietly standing to the side the whole time, afraid that he would interrupt this skilled person’s exorcism ceremony. Seeing him stand up, he naturally couldn’t hold back from immediately rushing forward and asking, “Master Lai, how is it, have they been sent away?”

Lai Chengshan was in no hurry to reply; he instead described the story of how he had overcome the difficult enemy. “Don’t you know, those few ghosts were abnormally ferocious. Their resentment was deep and they had stayed for too long, they almost swallowed my soul. Luckily, I’m very skilled, otherwise something really bad would have happened…”

Once the F4 heard this, they were done.

There were only the four of them residing in this apartment. By saying all this, wasn’t Lai Chengshan wronging the ghosts right to their faces?

“Rubbish, a mouth full of lies, since when were we ferocious?”

“This clearly shows that you’re touching porcelain, is he trying to falsely accuse ghosts?”

“No, I don’t think I can stand this wrongful accusation, I even want to show him what ‘ferocious’ really is…”

“Brother, calm down, we’re civilised ghosts, we can’t do those kinds of illegal things…”

When Lu Xu heard this Master Lai running his mouth, he just felt like laughing. He only thought about it, and really did end up laughing.

There were very few people speaking in the corridor, and because of this, Lu Xu’s laugh was even more obvious.

Lai Chengshan had just played up the atmosphere and talked about his hardships in ridding the ghosts. However, what awaited him was not salutations and thanks, but Lu Xu’s hearty laughter. He once again looked at the young man whose lips were curved up and laughing at him, his eyes clearly carrying hilarity in them. “I think Master’s surname shouldn’t be Lai but Jia.”

Lai Chengshan immediately reacted, his face turning a bit red. “What do you mean by that?”

“The Master is the one who should clearly understand what I mean.” Lu Xu wasn’t worried by his anger, he just gave the F4 a look. “Let me ask you one thing, have the ghosts really been sent off?”

“That’s for certain. Are you doubting me?” The more calm Lu Xu seemed, the more restless Lai Chengshan’s emotions became. He was thinking that this person was just a brat, what qualifications did he have to question him?

“Master Lai, I have a question I want your advice on.” Ji Xiunian walked forward, his face straight, it was impossible to tell what he was feeling. “How many ghosts did you just send off?”

In the face of Ji Xiunian’s discerning gaze, Lai Chengshan was a little flustered. When he was exorcising the ghosts, he hadn’t broken a sweat, but now that he was being forcefully interrogated, his whole body was sweating. “There are many ghosts inside the apartment. I sent off four or five evil spirits. It’s normal for one or two to be left behind, it’s not possible to get rid of all of them in one shot.”

The person who had been shouting outside the building about how he would extinguish the souls of the dead was now saying some nonsense about how he had sent away the bad and left behind the good. His words were contradictory and illogical. There was definitely something wrong.

Even though Fan Zeng had just begun to believe in him, Fan Zeng’s trust in him was currently in danger of collapsing. “Master Lai, are the ones left behind really not a problem? You didn’t communicate with the ghosts, how do you know which ones are good and which ones are bad. What should we do if you left behind an evil ghost?”

Due to the distrustful gazes abound, Lai Chengshan felt more and more irritable. He had felt uneasy when he had set out earlier today; if he had known, he wouldn’t have taken this order.

“I already said the ones that were sent away were evil ghosts. Why must you doubt this master?” As long as Lai Chengshan insisted that he was right, they couldn’t go and find who had actually been sent away, right?

“Anyways, if the evil ghosts were left behind, would we still be standing here without any issues?”

When Lu Xu heard this he raised his brows and soundlessly relayed an order to He Xinghua.

“Evil ghosts have come ehehehe…” Having received instructions from Master Grim Reaper, He Xinghua was extremely excited. He immediately floated over to the light switch and concentrated on flicking it on and off.

Tao Yingbo was not any weaker and shook the door of the stairwell.

One of the other two members ran over to hit the window, while the other started wailing at the top of his voice.

For a moment, the lights in the hallway flickered. The blustering wind howled, and the thunder and lightning added to the eerie atmosphere. It made people feel like something ominous was about to happen.

Upon seeing this, Lai Chengshan was really panicked.

Truthfully he wasn’t an actual exorcism master, nor could he see ghosts or spirits.

Just being a 70 year old with a 40 to 50-year-old face would make one seem incredible. After pointing out a path for a few little stars, as long as one of them became popular, it would help his fame grow.

After posting a few group photos, he would naturally gain fans.

It really wasn’t that difficult to create the identity of a popular, skilled master, as long as he used his brain and had a bit of luck.

People usually went to him to exorcise ghosts. Lai Chengshan picked a few orders and discovered that in many instances, the haunting was done by people’s minds, not ghosts. When people’s minds had ghosts, as long as he moved his mouth a bit and said he had sent them away for sure, there would be no problems afterwards.

Besides, those with the money to be able to invite him were all wealthy. They had so many houses, they wouldn’t continue living in the one that was being haunted by ghosts.

He could solve the issue of fake ghosts. Once there were real ghosts, he would always close his door and ignore the world outside.

This was how Lai Chengshan had built himself up step by step, slowly creating the identity of a master for himself.

He didn’t believe that what he was doing was cheating others; he merely thought of himself as a ‘psychology master’ wearing metaphysical robes.

He originally thought that ‘Birth of an Idol’ was pretty popular, and that he could bring back some of that popularity with him after he came over. He had already thought up the hot search term on the way there and just needed to contact the marketing company to send it over.

But how could he have predicted that the situation here was something he couldn’t control at all?

Lu Xu obviously did not believe him. From the moment he had arrived, he had been opposing him.

If there hadn’t been any ghosts he could have smoothed things over, but based on the current situation of the building, there were obviously evil spirits at work.

They were already doubting him. Who knew if the evil ghosts would get entangled with him; thinking about this made his head hurt.

Lai Chengshan really regretted coming here. He didn’t want to stay a moment longer. “I’ve already done what I need to do. It’s up to you all whether you believe it or not. Since our cooperation has been unpleasant and there’s no need to force each other, let’s go our separate ways.”

After throwing this out, Lai Chengshan ran off. He didn’t forget to glare at Lu Xu before leaving.

Fan Zeng wanted him to stay, but the other party’s steps were well-oiled and extremely quick as if something terrifying was chasing after him. The 70-year-old person ran even faster than a rabbit. Fan Zeng chased him to the entrance of the staircase until he couldn’t see his silhouette anymore, and was unable to catch up.

Interestingly enough, as soon as Lai Chengshan left, the building went back to normal.

Fan Zeng gasped and said excitedly, “I say, let’s not talk about whether this Master Lai has real abilities or not, but his physical condition is very good.”

“Uh-huh.” Lu Xu nodded at the side. After stealing someone else’s life, how could his body not be good?

“Now that he’s run off, what should we do?” The little assistant stared panickedly at the corridor, fearing that a ghost face might suddenly appear.

He Xinghua leaned against the wall, looking completely innocent. “We’re really not evil ghosts.”

“Everything is fine.” Ji Xiunian looked at the F4, then looked at Fan Zeng and the others. He could only feel that he had blatantly experienced a chaotic farce today. It was better to explain everything clearly as soon as possible, rather than letting the uninformed panic.

“Really?” The little assistant couldn’t help but worry, but when she saw that Ji Xiunian’s expression was tranquil, she felt slightly calmer.

Fan Zeng also hadn’t thought that the events of today would turn out like this. Thinking of Lai Chengshan’s attitude and performance, he was still confused. “I’ll give my friend a call now. What kind of person did they introduce? What bullshit master, he’s obviously a fake.”

Fan Zeng was indignant and wanted to immediately reveal Lai Chengshan’s true self to the public. But he also didn’t want to bring too much attention to the fact that the building had ghosts, and was conflicted. “Xiunian, is it all… really fine?”

Ji Xiunian nodded. “Yes.”

The F4 were only interested in practising. They didn’t even have any time to create a ruckus.

Regarding that female ghost, he could only wait until the next time they met to gauge the situation.

“Then that’s fine.” Hearing him say that, Fan Zeng was more or less at ease. He thought of Lai Chengshan again and couldn’t help cursing him out for being a ‘fake’ again.

Before he could reveal this fraud to his friend however, the little assistant had already exclaimed, “Fan ge, that fake mentioned our Lu Xu on Weibo…”

“What’s going on?”

When Fan Zeng heard this, his first reaction was that it wasn’t anything good. When he took the phone he realized that this Lai Chengshan had actually mentioned Lu Xu’s name—

The reason was because someone had asked him if he had watched ‘Birth of an Idol.’ They wanted to know what he thought of this dark horse contestant Lu Xu.

@Has Lu Xu Debuted Today: @Boundless Beneficence Master Lai V: Master Lai, have you watched ‘Birth of an Idol’ recently? Can you help take a look at if our family’s son @Idol Trainee Lu Xu V can continue walking a flowery path?

The netizen had sent this question on Weibo two days ago and Lai Chengshan had been ignoring it.

But just two minutes ago, he had posted an answer to this question—

@Boundless Beneficence Master Lai V: I’ve never watched these contestant-picking shows but I’m good at predicting the results. I have to first clarify a point—I have not interacted with this contestant before. But from his facial features, I don’t think much of his future. There’s a saying that says ‘your health is your life,’ but this contestant doesn’t look like he’ll have a long life. Let me give a reminder out of goodwill. If you really can’t go on then leave the competition and do something you like. Try not to leave any regrets for yourself.