Director of a Suspense Film

　“A mysterious organisation?” 

　　Gao Mu searched her memory but couldn’t come up with a lead.

　　She furrowed her brows, fingers knocking on the air subconsciously. 

　　Chen Hongyi had repeatedly claimed that he was right, that he was just cleaning up the social dregs and killing the people who deserved to be killed to serve the ‘greater good’. The professional interrogators suspected that there was a possibility that there was someone guiding him in the background. For Zong qi to say that, it had perfectly matched up with their hypothesis.

　　“Yeah.”

　　Zong qi recalled the conversation between the murderer and the person on the phone, “I heard the murderer and the organisation call at the crime scene, besides… they seemed to have an Ouroboros mark.” (t/n: so like if u rmb a cocktail snake i tled last time its ouroboros now i made a mistake in ch4 oopsie)  

　　He raised his head and glanced at Gao Mu’s expression. Unfortunately, this officer was a professional at controlling her expression, he couldn’t make anything out. 

　　However, at the mention of the word ‘ouroboros’, the pupils of the policewoman with a ponytail shrunk, her face immediately turning extremely ugly.

　　This is the second time Zong Qi saw such obvious emotional fluctuations on Gao Mu’s face.

　　Just when he wanted to continue asking, Gao Mu interrupted him a little hurriedly.

　　“—This isn’t something you should participate in.” 

　　Looking at the other party’s closed expression, Zong Qi knew that Gao Mu’s route was useless, sighing helplessly.

　　Seems that I’ll have to investigate myself. 

　　The black-haired youth touched his hair, “Oh well, since there’s nothing else, I’ll go first. Goodbye, Captain Gao.”

　　“Wait a second.” 

　　Surprisingly, before Zong qi even took a few steps, the officer behind him called him again. 

　　“This is for you.” 

　　Gao Mu handed him a small card, “It’s my private police number. If something happens the next time you go ghost hunting, just call this number directly.”

　　“Thank you for everything, all of these are extremely valuable evidence and information.” 

　　She stood still and saluted him, softening her tone. 

　　“There are some things it’s not that I don’t want to tell you… it’s just that there are many situations where knowing too much isn’t necessarily a good thing. You’re still a student, you shouldn’t be involved in these.” 

　　“Of course,” Gao Mu deliberated it for a second before continuing, “If you coincidentally meet someone with an ouroboros mark on their wrist… please stay far away from them and tell me as soon as you can, this is my personal request.” 

　　A tattoo? 

　　Zong qi clearly remembered that when he fought with Chen Hongyi, he didn’t see any marks on his wrist except for the marks deliberately left at the scene of the murder.

　　Of course, these were all in his heart, an afterthought. He accepted the name card. 

　　Zong qi never expected that even after rerecording, this name card would still end up in his hands. 

　　He said, “Thank you, if I ever see it, I’ll call you.”

　　Gao Mu smiled imperceptibly, “You’re welcome, we’re the ones who should be thanking you. If you have any problems in the future, I’ll contact you through the police phone[1].”

　　According to the truth, it was indeed the officers who should’ve thanked Zong qi, the youth who not only helped catch the criminal but also provided the necessary clues. 

　　Only Zong qi himself knew that his thanks were not only for this name card, but also for the officer who stood up for him when everyone found him guilty and swore upon her police badge to find out who the real murderer was.

　　To thank her for her selflessness, perseverance and kindness.

　　These were the most valuable qualities.

　　……

　　As he walked out of the police station, the sunset was sinking in the distance, rendering a large cluster of fiery red clouds.

　　Zong qi stopped his footsteps and stared at the sky, finding it hard to avoid a sense of separation. (t/n: so like either my brain isnt working or my chinese is failing me cuz this whole sentence didnt make any sense so mtl to the save! I hope its right .-.)

　　In less than a day, he had been wrongly accused of murder, unable to argue, then turned back time, changed the already established past, fought to the death with an abnormal serial killer and successfully knocked the other party out. Finally, he returned to the correct timeline and learnt from the murderer that a scary mysterious organization had targeted him

　　These short few hours were more interesting than the past 22 years of Zong qi’s life. 

　　He was clearly just a small supernatural streamer running around Jiangzhou with a selfie stick yesterday, worrying about his livelihood every day. Today, he got bound to an omniscient horror film system, stumbling back to the road of directing even without graduating.

　　He daydreamed outside the police station for a while before shaking his head and taking the bus home. 

　　“You are sitting in Jiang Zhou bus group number 44, going from Xiayuan to Lijia Village. The door is closing, please get off safely.” 

　　“The bus is moving, please sit properly and hold on. The next stop: Gaunzi Yuan. Passengers who are leaving please remember to bring your belongings and prepare to get off in advance.” 

　　When he got on the bus, it was empty as air. 

　　Zong qi chose a window seat and sat down, listening to the old man and the driver in front of him making useless conversation, a wave of drowsiness washing over him.

　　“Sigh, driver kid. Your bus is getting old huh.” 

　　The old man hit his knee, “Ever since I moved to Jian Zhou from the countryside, I’ve taken this bus to and from the hospital every day. It always cost 4 dollars. But you only charge one yuan for this bus, this is the first time I’ve seen this in two years, how nice!”

　　The driver smiled, “Grandpa has good vision. This is indeed an old car, with at least ten years of history.”

　　The buses in Jiang Zhou have been upgraded several times in recent years. First, each car was equipped with air conditioning, then, it was powered by electricity. This bus had no air conditioning and even used diesel fuel. It also had serious wear and tear within it, it could be considered an antique.

　　“There was something wrong with the power of the bus I used to drive. The company took it back to the factory for repair, so I casually found an old retired car to drive. Fortunately, the performance of this car is still good, there’s no problem.”

　　The driver turned the steering wheel, “I’ll have to drive this old car for the next few months! But there’s something strange. Although the bus doesn’t have air conditioning, it’s always chilly in here, especially when it’s the last shift. It’s cool all while I’m driving, it’s even more effective than air conditioning.”

　　The old grandpa also clicked his tongue, praising in wonder, “Yeah. Right while it’s summer too. When I first entered the bus I thought it was a little cold, it’s just nice in this weather.” 

　　[Minor Plot, ‘Last Bus on Road 44’ has been unlocked, activation condition has yet to be unlocked] 

　　Zong qi was stunned, after getting a huge shock, his bed bugs had all run away. 

　　Sure enough, the second poster lit up in the movie plot section.

　　The poster showed an old bus with the words ‘Road 44’ painted in red.

　　Not far away, the dim yellow light on the roadside had just nice projected over. Through the dusty windows, you could see the sparse figures in twos and threes on the bus.

　　[Minor Plot, Last Bus on Road 44, unlocked] 

　　Zong qi: “…” His back felt cold. 

　　He had studied the plot section of the Horror Film Director System before. It stated that Major Plots would be announced a period of time in advance for the director to select and schedule actors. It was different for Minor Plots, those could start anytime. 

　　Thank the gods, although there was something wrong with this bus, at least the plot had just unlocked. 

　　Most importantly, his improvisational theatre hasn’t ended yet. The system rules stated that within the recording time, Zong qi wouldn’t get hurt from ghosts’ attacks. 

　　Thinking this way, if he had the chance to do improvisational theatre again, he would be able to earn some points. 

　　“Sigh.” 

　　He didn’t know whether his luck was good or bad. Ever since he got this Horror Film System, it kept refreshing Zong qi’s worldview. It also changed his constitution of accidents to a constitution of supernatural accidents. 

　　The black-haired youth put his phone back in his pocket and looked piteously at the driver’s back. 

　　Soon, the bus got to the next stop. 

　　Zong qi slipped out of the car as if he had oil smeared under his feet, accepting his fate and getting ready to spend an extra dollar to change to the next bus.

　　Although Zong qi was ready to accept the fact that ghosts existed in this world when he saw the second Director Right, he didn’t intend to verify it himself.

　　……

　　“Shashasha…” (t/n: uh i have no idea wut this sfx is for lol)

　　The bicycle tires creaked and turned, swerving into the old urban area of south Jiang Zhou.

　　The new urban area of Jiang Zhou was full of high-rise buildings, and a modern commercial atmosphere, intoxicated with money. The old city was synonymous with dirty and messy. Sewage flowed across the city, the land scorched black.

　　Zong qi turned his car around, swerving into a deep alley, driving into the depths of the old city.

　　He was staying temporarily in the dorms at the deepest part of the alley.

　　In recent years, the development of Jiang Zhou has changed with each passing day. Many young people who have dreams of making a career for themselves come here from far far away.

　　Thus the dorms all over the old city became their best choice.

　　The location wasn’t remote, there is a subway station right out of the alley, and the price was very low. Although the environment was a little poor, a single room was completely enough.

　　Zong qi belonged to the salted fish with no dreams who had somehow mixed into them. He was a born and raised Jiang Zhou citizen. In order to treat his grandma’s sickness, he had sold the house, thus he could only live in these low rent buildings. 

　　The black-haired youth parked his bicycle downstairs and took the road his familiar with up. 

　　The stairs of the dorms were steep like centipedes twisting and exposed to the air, together with decades old dirt, stacking up and winding higher and higher. (t/n: my brain is offline i dont think this makes sense)

　　A string of clothes hung in the corridor from each household to dry, coloured flags were raised from a distance, adding some colour to the dark and old building with walls that were peeling off.

　　Today was destined to be an unfortunate day. 

　　Just as he walked up to the second floor, Zong qi noticed that there were a few plastic bags in front of his room. 

　　Looking closer, these bags seemed to contain his stuff. 

　　Zong qi didn’t have a lot of things. After being thrown out by someone in black plastic bags, it looked the same as trash. 

　　“Peng peng peng.” (t/n: door knocking sfx)

　　The door of the rented room was locked shut, even the door lock had been changed so the keys in Zong qi’s hand couldn’t open it. Even if he knocked, no one would answer. 

　　The neighbour who strolled out to fetch water saw this scene and told him the reason.

　　“Today, someone came to see the house and paid the rent on the spot. There was no spare room in the building and the landlord’s daughter-in-law directly took the person to your room. She said that if you came back and asked, I was supposed to tell you that the landlord’s grandmother went back to the countryside for rest, don’t think about taking advantage of her and for you to get out quickly.” 

　　However, these words weren’t the thing that made Zong qi’s heart go cold. 

　　It was the ouroboros mark he found on the bottom of the door. 

The author has something to say:

77(zongqi): unlucky!

The editor looked for me today and said that the title couldn’t have the word ‘horror’ in it, so I had no choice but to change it to suspense. Now I finally know why JJWXC has so many suspense in their titles, turns out it’s because you couldn’t use other words. The authors writing unlimited flow supernatural works have it too hard… wuwu, just make sure not to mistake this! 

[1] google didnt give me the english term but heres the picture 

t/n: i finally know why the system is called horror film director even though the title is director of a suspense film LMAO

On another note, I’ve noticed some mistakes in my translation (what i get for not having an editor T^T) but vision enhancement has been changed to intuition enhancement, i misread the raws (ch3), corpse talisman has been changed to black magic, once again, misread raws (ch5), and ch3 i think there was one part that was fucked up and i deleted some of the tl so ive added it back~~

im rlly tired today so i didnt edit this carefully im sorry if you find any mistakesssssss