I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

So-called leaks are sometimes just things that the authorities want you to know.

He led Wang Qing to his bedroom, had him sit down, and opened a video in a folder.

Lu Ban was playing the contents of the archives. He planned to use the video footage of the events recorded in those archives as a prelude to the early and middle stages of the film.

Wang Qing swallowed hard and looked at the screen.

On the screen, a nurse is busy at the nurses' station. It is late at night, and the hospital is particularly dark.

At this moment, a narration begins.

"The department head instructed us to be on high alert during tonight's shift because the patient in room 502 is in serious condition..."

The sound had been processed by Lu Ban and was different from the original. The camera angle was also clever, only the nurse's profile could be vaguely seen, and her whole face could not be seen clearly.

As Wang Qing listened to the nurse's confession, she suddenly felt a chill.

It felt like I was in the nurses' corridor—cold, dark, and with a strong smell of disinfectant.

He felt as if he could actually smell the disinfectant.

The plot is simple: the nurse is going to make her rounds and then takes the elevator to the fifth floor.

However, when Wang Qing saw the large mirror in the elevator, he felt a little uneasy, which reminded him of the side of Lu Ban's living room.

Most of the nurses' perspectives don't show their faces, but rather angles like looking out of a ward window, from a security camera lens, or from behind them. This gives the impression that something unknown is spying on the nurse, which is unsettling.

Just as the nurse left the elevator, the camera deliberately captured a corner of the mirror inside the elevator. Something seemed to flash by there, making Wang Qing's eyelids twitch instinctively.

The nurse came to room 502 and saw the elderly man lying on the hospital bed.

This shot was taken from the ward looking out, but because the ward was so dark, you could only vaguely see the nurse's flashlight beam and couldn't make out what the person lying on the bed looked like. You could only vaguely make out that there was a person.

Wang Qing felt uneasy as he watched the nurse continue walking forward, because no one knew what would happen next. The patient in room 502 had just been mentioned, but the patient was lying there peacefully. What would this nurse encounter?

The flashlight beam shone forward, illuminating the dim light in the room at the end of the corridor. The nurse's narration continued as she walked over.

The camera is presented from the nurse's first-person perspective, as she walks step by step into the darkness, moving closer to the lit room.

According to the previous narration, Wang Qing already knew that this was an intensive care unit, and the room at the end of the corridor was unoccupied.

He saw the nurse shift her gaze to the brightly lit ward.

An elderly man was standing in the ward.

Wang Qing was suddenly startled.

Because the somber narration told him that this was the critically ill old man in room 502.

The old man's face was bluish-black, like a corpse that had been dead for some time. His movements were slow and sluggish, like a puppet being manipulated. For some reason, when Wang Qing saw the old man, he felt a chill run down his spine and goosebumps all over his body. He could even smell the strange, unique odor emanating from the old man.

The nurse seemed startled as well. She quickly gave a few instructions, turned around and fled in a panic. As she walked down the corridor, she looked back and saw the old man still waving at her from the doorway. It was absolutely terrifying.

This part of the story abruptly ends with a question posed by the narrator.

Wang Qing wasn't usually a coward; he'd only get a fright when a ghostly face suddenly appeared in a regular horror movie. But after watching this video, he felt like he had become that nurse, now in a state of near-death experience, his whole body shivering with cold.

He had heard that Lu Ban's movies had an immersive feel to them, and he thought it was just hype. But he didn't expect that even such a short segment could really make him feel the eerie atmosphere of the hospital. It was really too strong.

Even now, thinking back to the hospital corridors and their layout, Wang Qing is a little hesitant to go there.

"How about it?"

A voice suddenly came from behind him, causing Wang Qing to finally unleash his fear. A shiver ran through his body like an electric current, and he trembled, like a person who had been electrocuted and rendered unconscious.

"Holy crap, that scared me to death..."

Unable to hold back his swearing, Wang Qing touched his heart, which was suddenly pounding wildly, and sighed.

"Director Lu, your new movie is sure to be a huge hit!"

"You flatter me."

Lu Ban responded with a reply.

"I'm going to wash my face and calm down; this has a strong aftereffect."

Wang Qing stood up and rubbed her slightly weak knees.

"Oh, remember not to look in the mirror for too long."

Lu Ban made way.

"Don't look in the mirror for too long?"

Wang Qing was puzzled. He went to the bathroom, turned on the tap, filled a handful of water and splashed it on his face to calm himself down a little.

He wiped his face, looked up, and saw himself in the mirror, looking somewhat haggard.

I never imagined that a short video of just a few minutes would turn me into this; it's really embarrassing.

He looked in the mirror and suddenly felt something was wrong.

Wang Qing raised her hand and touched her face.

Then he saw that his reflection in the mirror did not raise his hand, but instead revealed a miserable and eerie smile.

But Wang Qing herself didn't laugh at all.

"……Grass?"

He quickly rubbed his eyes, thinking he must have seen wrong.

But when he opened his eyes again, he saw that there seemed to be a figure standing behind him in the mirror.

"!!!"

A chill ran down Wang Qing's spine, and she immediately turned around, only to find the place empty behind her.

Looking in the mirror again, he saw Lu Ban staring intently at him.

"What the hell...!"

Wang Qing was so frightened that he leaned against the wall behind him. But then he felt something tickling his ear, making it a little itchy.

He reached out to touch it, but when he pulled his hand back, he found his hand was full of hair—a woman's long hair!

"Help! Help me!"

Wang Qing immediately knocked on the bathroom door, even forgetting that she could turn the doorknob.

Soon, Lu Ban's voice came from outside the door.

"Let go of the doorknob first."

He said calmly.

Wang Qing then realized that she had pressed the doorknob firmly, preventing the door from being opened from the outside.

He quickly let go and saw Lu Ban push open the door and stand in the doorway.

"I told you, don't look in the mirror for too long."

Lu Ban glanced at the mirror, which had returned to normal.

"Because the friend in my mirror is a bit shy, if you stare at him for too long, he might feel embarrassed."

He offered an explanation.

"?"

Wang Qing, whose back was already covered in cold sweat, asked a question mark.

Chapter 155 "Movie Report" - Sharp Commentary by Lu Ban

Five days later, the new issue of "Film Report" was quickly released.

Among the key points on the cover, there is a line of text that is neither too big nor too small.

Interview with emerging horror film director Lu Ban.

The article, centered on an interview with Lu Ban, uses the development of domestic horror films as a subplot to showcase the current state of the genre. The reporter also mentions seeing clips of Lu Ban's upcoming film and giving it high praise.

The impact of this magazine article was neither huge nor small.

Film Report is a relatively high-end film magazine in China. Unlike gossip weekly magazines that focus on celebrity gossip, Film Report focuses more on the industry and can be considered a semi-official media. Therefore, this report may just be a feature interview in the eyes of ordinary people, but in the eyes of industry insiders and relatively core film enthusiasts, it is a signal.

On Douban, a well-known film and television exchange and rating website, discussions about this report quickly increased in related discussion groups, some of which included directors, actors, and industry professionals.

[Actor Zhao Kuo]: What was Lu Ban filmed before? I don't think I've heard of him.

[Movie Bricklayer]: Have you seen "One Hundred Poets, One Song" (百人诗) from the online movie forum? It was quite popular a while ago.

[Hengdian Xiaozhi]: I watched it, it was really scary, and it made people feel the same way. I didn't expect him to participate in the film festival this time. It seems like he came prepared.

[Actor Zhao Kuo]: Online movies? Are they really that scary? I feel that online movies are all poorly made knock-offs, and there aren't many watchable ones.

[Ordinary screenwriter A Xiang]: You're probably just jealous. Those web series that aired recently were both popular and well-received. Compared to them, the TV dramas airing on satellite channels now are really disappointing.

[Red Bean Popsicle]: I've seen his previous movies, and I have to say the atmosphere is very well done and the special effects are amazing. Visually, it's on par with big-screen movies. However, the films participating in this year's Yannan University Student Film Festival are all very strong, so I guess he won't win any awards.

[Yan Nan Xiao Liu]: Horror films are a disadvantage because they're not mainstream enough, and he's had too little preparation time. It's only been a few months since his last film was released, so I'm a little skeptical about the quality of his new film.

[Hengdian Xiaozhi]: He stars in all the movies himself, and most of the other actors are newcomers. Once the sets are set up, filming should be quick.

[Movie Bricklayer]: But it's quite rare to see an editor in "Movie Report" praising it like this. I wonder what the actual movie is like.

As seen in the discussion group, many people working in the film and television industry, especially those who have already acted in dramas broadcast on the big screen or television, do not really think highly of online movies and web dramas. Many relatively core enthusiasts also hold a skeptical attitude towards this emerging media.

The main reason is that there are too many of them, and many of them are poorly made or involve deception, which leads the public to see mostly those of low quality, thus solidifying the overall impression.

However, with the popularity of some web series and online movies, coupled with the intensification of competition in the film and television industry, more and more practitioners who originally focused on film and television series have begun to try to get involved in online movies and web series, which has gradually changed the original impression. There were even movies that were originally intended to be released in theaters but were directly released online. The boundaries between traditional and emerging are gradually becoming blurred.

Lu Ban didn't care about these doubts.

He studied the composition of the film festival awards, such as Best Director and Best Actor, which were highly competitive, but awards like Best Special Effects were much less competitive.

After all, it's a college student film festival, and most young directors don't have the ability to attract so much investment to make special effects blockbusters. Their films tend to focus on small things to reveal big themes. Even if they make science fiction films, they're usually science fiction romance films, maybe with some gimmicks like time loops or going back to the past.

Lu Ban's videos, while not many in other aspects, feature a lot of large-scale scenes.

This time, in particular, the self-starting elevator, the thousand-eyed, thousand-throat monster in the room at the end of the corridor, and the final scene of the hospital collapsing are all incredibly realistic, something that most directors couldn't handle.

Therefore, Lu Ban's goal is very clear: the Best Special Effects Award.

Two days after the article was published in Movie Report, Lu Ban's phone vibrated while he was working.