I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

The 10 a.m. showing was already sold out, and the cinema was packed with people. Stephen even saw some people cosplaying as characters from Lu Ban's previous works, and he shamelessly took a photo with them, feeling quite satisfied.

When it was time to enter, the movie theater filled up at a speed that Stephen had never seen before.

In the past, when he went to the movies, many people would arrive late, after the movie had already started and the first part of the plot had almost finished. They would use their phones to light up their way to find their seats, which would disturb other people's viewing experience. If someone went to the wrong seat, they would start arguing, which would completely ruin the movie viewing experience.

This time, the theater was already packed with people even before the commercials were over.

Stephen was very satisfied.

He sent a message to the subtitle team on the chat app, took a picture of the screening room, then silenced his phone and put it in his pocket.

The screening room went completely dark.

After the logos of several film production companies flashed, the familiar Silent Media logo appeared, followed by darkness.

In the darkness, a village was faintly visible.

The camera pans to the village, where a child, dressed in mourning clothes, kneels before the mourning hall, with two coffins in front of him.

With just a few words, Stephen learned that the deceased were the child's parents, and that today was the seventh day after their death, the night when the spirits would return to their parents' graves.

The candles flickered, and the paper money burned quietly in the brazier. The child knelt before the coffin, silent.

Nearby, a man wearing sunglasses watched the scene, seemingly deep in thought.

Just then, a cold wind blew in.

The flickering candlelight flashed twice and then went out.

The child looked up at the extinguished candle, which was still smoldering.

From behind him came a faint call, calling his name.

The child turned around, and the next moment, a hand covered his eyes.

"Some things are better left unseen."

The man wearing sunglasses appeared beside the child at some point, covered his eyes, and shielded him behind him.

He then spoke a few words to the empty mourning hall, essentially telling the child's parents not to worry and to rest in peace so they could be reborn.

After a gust of cold wind, the candles suddenly reignited, illuminating the mourning hall. The child, unaware of what had happened, looked at the man, wanting to know the answer.

"The more you know in this world, the more unhappy you become. Live your life well."

The man patted the child on the shoulder and then walked out of the courtyard.

The camera pans up, revealing rolling mountains under the moonlight.

The title of the movie was written out little by little with a brush.

"Nine Schools of Thought"

Chapter 592 The Seventh Day After Death

As for the opening scene, Stephen didn't find it particularly scary. However, the eerie wind that seemed to be blowing from the back of his neck was quite unsettling.

This part of the plot mainly struck Stephen as very strange.

The flickering candlelight, the swaying white silk, the two coffins, the empty mourning hall—there was an indescribable eeriness about it.

In the West, funerals are not like this. Usually, the deceased is placed in a coffin from the morgue, and after the farewell ceremony, the body is buried immediately. There is no custom of leaving the body in the hall for several days.

In some places with traditional customs, the head of the dead is cut off and placed between the legs to prevent them from being bewitched by vampires and resurrected to return to the human world.

This is a custom from the East.

If Stephen hadn't learned Chinese, he probably would never have understood the meaning of the term "first seven days" (首七).

Moreover, the opening scene has a strange sense of realism. During his years in China, Stephen even felt that this might be a story that recently happened in some mountain village.

No specific ghosts appeared in the entire story, but the atmosphere made Stephen feel that there was something unclean there.

He had previously read the materials on "Nine Schools of Thought" compiled by "Lu scholars" and guessed that this must be the ability to see ghosts.

The concept of "seeing ghosts" exists in other countries as well, but for foreigners, ghosts are things that everyone can see: little girls with holes in their heads, women with pale faces crawling out of televisions, chainsaw killers with sacks over their heads, and blood splattering everywhere—that's what ghosts are.

Or rather, in Stephen's view, there is no such thing as an invisible ghost.

If ghosts can't be seen...

Stephen was suddenly overcome with fear.

Many images flashed through his mind.

For example, in an empty room, the rocking chair moves automatically without any wind, the curtains are drawn, and the water glass moves.

It's a little scary to think about.

Stephen recalls that when The Cry first aired, there were news reports of viewers being too scared to go home after watching it. He used to laugh at these cowards, but then he spent the whole day in the bathroom after watching the movie.

If this movie involves these kinds of things, then I'd better be careful.

Fortunately, the following plot did not veer off into anything supernatural.

After the title appeared, accompanied by powerful and vigorous calligraphy, an era was sketched out.

Amidst the chaos of war and widespread suffering, various powerful factions have seized control of Jiangcheng, poised to make their move...

As the sun rises, a train traverses the vast land.

The camera then pans to the train.

Lu Ban was staring blankly out the window, and sitting next to him was the man with the yin-yang eyes who was wearing sunglasses and had just helped the child's parents return to life on the seventh day after their death.

The land outside the window was ravaged, rice paddies were abandoned, farmers were dressed in rags, and smoke rose in the distance. In the city, the streets were dirty and chaotic, some people were starving and freezing, and others were living a life of debauchery. The contrast between the soldiers walking by with guns and the students talking loudly about national affairs was striking and evoked many emotions.

Stephen comes from a developed country, and he had only seen such scenes in history books after going abroad, so he didn't feel much about them. Even so, the realistic set and the actors' performances still immersed him in the scene.

A child weaved through the noisy train and quickly stole a passenger's wallet.

Lu Ban wanted to speak up to remind him, but the people next to him held him back.

Immediately, the man stood up, brushed past the child, and after a dazzling exchange of glances, the wallet was back in his hands, which he then returned to its owner.

Lu Ban and the man got out of the car together. They exchanged pleasantries, and after the man introduced himself as He Chong, the scene froze and dimmed.

A voice suddenly rang out.

“I never met my great-grandfather. My grandfather told me that he was a very serious person who often wore sunglasses and sternly lectured my grandfather and father. He was not smooth, and even a bit too sharp and old-fashioned. My grandfather said that people who lived through that era were like that, always having some principles.”

He Jiaoyang appeared on the big screen.

This appears to be an interview program, with him in the position of the interviewee. He seemed a little nervous at first, but as he spoke, he relaxed a bit.

This reaction is very real.

The interview segment didn't last long; it only sketched out a general picture of this person through the grandchildren's accounts, giving Stephen a certain impression of He Chong.

As the plot unfolds, more successors of the Nine Schools of Thought appear.

Along with this came the descriptions of the people who came before them by later generations.

In the past, these people were full of vigor and looked like elites, as if they could do anything.

Now, through the memories of later generations, another side of them is revealed.

The woman, who looked so spirited, became gentle and kind as she aged.

The shrewd and calculating man eventually became the most reliable father in his son's eyes.

The singer who pursued fame and fortune returned to his family, and for the rest of his life, he only hummed lullabies in the quiet of the night.

Only those who cannot tolerate the slightest disagreement remain unchanged until they grow old.

Stephen felt he had seen the ending, yet it also seemed like something important was missing.

He became curious about what had happened in Jiangcheng decades ago that caused these changes in the people there.

At least for now, Stephen knows one thing: these people are probably not dead.

It's extremely rare for Lu Ban to make a movie where no one dies.

After all, his last movie destroyed the entire world.

If, by the end of the movie, all these lowlifes don't actually die, then Stephen should respectfully call Lu Ban a compassionate and merciful living bodhisattva.

For Stephen, watching domestic films presents one major challenge: recognizing the faces.

Just as Easterners perceive Westerners as all looking alike, Westerners perceive Easterners in the same way.

In particular, most European and American movies have black characters, so at least people from East Asia can identify some characters by their skin color. But domestic movies are mostly Chinese, and many foreigners are like, "Who is this? Who is this? Who the hell is this?"

I couldn't recognize it at all.

However, Stephen did not encounter such a problem in this movie, because each character was accompanied by a narration when they appeared, and these people had distinct personalities and ways of doing things, which left Stephen with a general impression at least in a short period of time.

This is what acting is all about!

Stephen saw the people in the movie getting tense because of Dai Yuanyang's words, almost to the point of fighting. Soon, He Chong, who had the most fiery temper, took the initiative and the two started fighting.

"effort!"

Stephen had expected to see some flying around or fighting with tables and chairs as weapons, but the way the two fought next exceeded his expectations.

Chapter 593 Kung Fu

Stephen's favorite thing is kung fu.

He even enrolled in a class to learn more.

Stephen strongly agrees with the idea that Tai Chi is a compulsory physical education course in universities.

In his mind, kung fu is either about flying around, flashy and fancy, like dancing, or about seeing the big picture from small details, as fast as lightning.

However, the fight between He Chong and Dai Yuanyang was full of eeriness.

He Chong threw a punch, seemingly ordinary, yet it filled all the gaps in his defenses. Dai Yuanyang was puzzled; it was as if something had taken away the space behind him, and he suddenly shifted back a few steps.

The two exchanged a few moves, leaving Stephen completely bewildered.

While it may not be considered kung fu, each move certainly has that feel to it.

If this is kung fu, their fight was so brutal and realistic, with a touch of the bizarre that Stephen couldn't understand it.