Is This How the Entertainment Industry Works? (GL) - Chapter 26

In the afternoon, the two went together to meet Yu Lian.

Yu Lian was quite happy to see Yan Zhen, but she froze visibly when she saw Zhao Baoshang. “How are you two still stuck together?”

Zhao Baoshang sat down unceremoniously and asked, “What do you want?”

“It’s a major matter, of course,” Yu Lian chided. “Is this any way to greet your elder?”

Zhao Baoshang ignored her.

Yan Zhen asked with a smile, “Sister Lian, are you asking because you haven’t been sleeping well at night?”

This sentence immediately made Yu Lian’s expression turn serious. She hadn’t originally intended for Zhao Baoshang to know the contents of their talk, but since Yan Zhen had already blurted it out, she continued.

“I’ve been sleeping poorly for the past few years. Once I fall asleep, strange things appear in my dreams,” Yu Lian said, choosing her words carefully. “As you know, the pressure of being an entertainer is high. I saw a doctor, and they suggested relaxation activities like exercise or hypnosis, but nothing worked.”

Zhao Baoshang ordered two coffees and a juice.

Yu Lian continued, “In order to get some decent sleep, I quit my job. It got better after that, but since I took the hosting job for Supernova, the nightmares have returned.”

Yan Zhen asked, “What kind of dreams?”

Yu Lian’s face didn’t look good. “I’m not entirely sure; I just remember a hair-raising, skin-crawling sensation.”

This situation sounded a bit like a vengeful spirit coming for retribution. Yan Zhen was about to ask if Yu Lian had offended anyone when she suddenly noticed a faint, flickering golden thread near Yu Lian’s ear. The thread wavered, drifting out the window before vanishing.

“Is the protective charm I gave you still with you?” Yan Zhen asked.

“I carry it always.” Yu Lian pulled it from her bag. When she placed it in her hand, she realized the charm had somehow lost a corner and looked tattered. She explained hurriedly, “I’ve always kept it alone in a side pocket; I have no idea why it turned into this.”

“It means there is ghostly qi on your person,” Yan Zhen pondered for a moment. “Don’t be afraid, I’ll give you a new one.”

She pulled two more protective charms from her pocket. Yu Lian accepted them gratefully. However, charms can only protect someone for so long; Yan Zhen couldn’t yet grasp the true nature of Yu Lian’s symptoms.

She recalled past supernatural events she had encountered to see if anything was similar. She remembered an old story.

Back then, she had just met the Eldest Princess (who was disguised as a man) in a fishing village. There was a butcher in the village who heard the sound of pigs squealing every night—a cacophony like ten thousand pigs stampeding. When the butcher woke up in the morning, he would find wild game left at his door: sometimes a mangled sika deer, sometimes rabbits or pheasants.

Seeing the bloodiness on the ground, the butcher thought the pigs he had killed had come for revenge. Terrified, he reported it to the authorities to find the truth.

Yan Zhen and the Princess happened to be passing by. The Princess went to look for the source of the blood and found many pelts. She called Yan Zhen over: “It seems a wild beast has mistaken this place for its den and is storing food here. What do you think?”

Yan Zhen disagreed. After performing a divination, she found it wasn’t a fierce beast, but rather a small female leopard repaying a kindness. She told the Princess her theory.

The Princess clearly didn’t believe her. “What spirits or monsters exist in this world, let alone those who repay kindness? If they truly existed, with everyone wanting to be Emperor, why haven’t they gone to conquer the country?”

Yan Zhen said, “Those who want to be Emperor are humans. Spirits and ghosts care about attaining the Way, ascending to heaven, or reincarnating.”

The Princess remarked, “In that regard, they are quite similar to some people.”

Yan Zhen asked, “Are there such people in this world?”

The Princess glanced at her and said, “Certain charlatans.”

Yan Zhen choked for a moment before quickly changing the subject. “I think we should catch the little leopard demon first and tell her about the butcher’s troubles.”

The Princess agreed. “If you can actually catch this so-called demon.”

That night, Yan Zhen set an array. The leopard demon’s cultivation was limited; once she entered the array, she couldn’t escape, roaring that she would give Yan Zhen a piece of her mind. Yan Zhen brought the little leopard demon—who could speak human tongue—to the Princess.

Only then did the Princess realize with shock that demons truly existed in this world, explaining why so many royals pursued the method of immortality. The Princess chatted with the leopard demon and soon coaxed out the whole story. It turned out the butcher’s eldest daughter had once saved the leopard. In gratitude, the leopard brought fresh prey every day. She hadn’t expected to be mistaken for a vengeful monster.

They explained this to the butcher. He was puzzled. “Then what were the sounds of pigs squealing and hooves running that I heard?”

Yan Zhen said, “That little leopard demon thought your family loved pork, so she let you enjoy herds of wild boars in your dreams every night. It was just a misunderstanding of intentions.”

The butcher didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. In the end, he waved it off and accepted the matter.

Wild spirits of the mountains take a long time to understand human nature and often act with good intentions that result in mishaps, just like the leopard demon. While Yan Zhen didn’t think the strange occurrences in Yu Lian’s dreams were for “repaying kindness,” they weren’t necessarily for “revenge” either.

She advised Yu Lian on the placement of decorations to increase the Yang energy in her home. Then, she told Yu Lian to rest easy and wait and see. Hearing Yan Zhen’s words, Yu Lian felt much more at peace.

She said with a smile, “Calling you ‘Master’ almost feels like I’m slighting you. Other masters in the Capital charge a fortune for divinations. If I really stop having nightmares, I must thank you properly.”

Yan Zhen waved her off. “No need to be so polite. You should go set up those items to ward off evil first.”

Yu Lian nodded and left hurriedly with her bag. Yan Zhen then told Zhao Baoshang they should go play chess with Old Zhao.

However, Zhao Baoshang ignored Yan Zhen and walked ahead in a huff. Yan Zhen followed closely behind. “Why are you walking so fast?”

Zhao Baoshang’s face was dark.

Yan Zhen asked, “Where are you going now?”

Zhao Baoshang continued to wear a sour face. Yan Zhen tugged at the corner of her clothes. “Walk slower, be careful not to trip.”

Zhao Baoshang stopped, looked at Yan Zhen for a while, and then turned away again. She was being incredibly difficult. Yan Zhen was truly bewildered. She opened her phone, intending to quietly ask Sister Lian what to do in this situation.

The moment she opened her phone, Zhao Baoshang spotted it. She grabbed Yan Zhen’s hand and demanded, “What are you doing!”

The name “Yu Lian” was displayed clearly on the screen.

Zhao Baoshang was furious. “What are you looking for Yu Lian for?”

Yan Zhen said in a panic, “I… I don’t know, Zhao—”

“Don’t call me by my name!” Zhao Baoshang snapped.

Yan Zhen felt like she was about to fall to her knees. Her heart was crying like a torrential rain, but she didn’t dare show a drop of it. She only dared to ask carefully, “Is it because I called her ‘Sister Lian’ that you’re angry?”

Zhao Baoshang turned her head away. After a moment, she said stiffly, “You just gave her a gift.”

“What?”

Zhao Baoshang pointed to her own pocket. Yan Zhen thought for a long time before finally understanding what she meant.

—The protective charm in her pocket?

She walked over to stand in front of Zhao Baoshang and said, “The one I gave her was a mediocre charm. I’ll go draw a much better one for you tonight.”

Zhao Baoshang turned to leave. Yan Zhen rushed up. “I was wrong! I have another one in my bag; I’ll give it to you first, and then I’ll draw several even better ones tonight and give them all to you.”

That’s more like it.

Zhao Baoshang felt much happier. She took the charm Yan Zhen offered, looked at the lines that resembled a primary schooler’s drawing, and knitted her brows. “So ugly.”