“Ahhh!”
Seung Hyeon was startled and fell to the side.
“Senior! What’s wrong?!”
Tae Jeong immediately helped him up.
The old man’s figure had completely disappeared.
“T-that old man was right in front of me—”
Seung Hyeon frantically looked around, but no one was there.
“What are you talking about, Senior?”
Tae Jeong looked puzzled.
Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.
Seung Hyeon felt as if his heart was about to explode.
The presence, as if something were right next to him, did not go away.
He turned on the camera again and started filming the area.
At that very moment, with the camera rolling, an old man in the middle of the rice field slowly waved his hand.
He was signaling them to come closer.
“Hold on.”
Seung Hyeon started heading straight toward the rice field.
“Senior, what are you doing?”
Tae Jeong stood up and tried to stop him, but Seung Hyeon shook off his arm and walked forward.
Splash, splash.
Squish, squish.
Seung Hyeon trudged through the muddy rice field, his feet sinking with each step.
If the field owner saw him, they’d surely be furious.
“Oh, seriously.”
Tae Jeong looked around awkwardly, feeling uneasy.
“Senior! Are you crazy?! Or are you possessed?! Why are you doing this?! If the owner sees us, we’ll get caught!!”
Tae Jeong freaked out, but there was no one else around to witness it.
Seung Hyeon continued to approach as if in a trance.
Based on the ‘sensation’ he had felt so far, this old man seemed closer to a vengeful spirit than a malicious one.
A malicious spirit would hold ill will toward unspecified groups of people, but a vengeful spirit seeks revenge against a specific person who wronged them.
If left alone like this for too long, the spirit could forget who wronged them and evolve into a malicious spirit.
And judging by how he kept asking to be ‘let out,’ Seung Hyeon was convinced that there was a secret hidden here.
Soon, he arrived at what seemed to be the place where the old man had been standing.
There was no rice growing in that spot.
Frowning, Seung Hyeon began to dig a bit into the ground.
It didn’t take long before he uncovered a gravestone lying flat.
It was so old that the letters were barely readable, but the large stone had its edges neatly cut.
It was unmistakably a ‘gravestone.’
“Hey! Park Tae Jeong! Call the police!”
Seung Hyeon waved his hand and shouted.
Tae Jeong quickly made a call to the police in a panic.
***
Soon, the police arrived.
Red and blue lights flashed brightly in the dark, murky surroundings of the rice field.
After changing into clean clothes they had in the car, Seung Hyeon and Tae Jeong showed the police the video footage they had recorded and pointed out the location of the gravestone.
The police then entered the rice field and started pulling out the gravestone.
Shortly after, the field’s owner, who had been contacted late, arrived at the scene in a rush.
He looked extremely anxious, furiously smoking a cigarette and yelling about trespassing on his private property.
Seung Hyeon and Tae Jeong filmed both the man and the police alternately.
When the police finally pulled out the gravestone and checked the inscriptions, a shocking fact was revealed.
The owner of the gravestone was none other than the field owner’s father.
For some reason, the son had removed his father’s gravestone and thrown it in the middle of the rice field.
It was also revealed that this had happened 30 years ago.
The field owner explained that he had a strained relationship with his father due to family issues. Even after his father’s death, he fought bitterly with his siblings over inheritance and didn’t receive his rightful share of the estate.
However, regardless of the reason, desecrating a grave was a serious crime.
Then, another shocking revelation came to light.
As his family history was uncovered, Seung Hyeon was shown a family photo.
The moment he saw the photo, Seung Hyeon felt as if his legs would give out.
It was an old black-and-white photo. In it, the grave’s owner (the father) appeared younger, posing with his family. Standing next to him was an elderly woman in a traditional hanbok.
Judging by her posture and demeanor, she seemed to be the mother of the man buried under the gravestone — the field owner’s grandmother.
But the chilling part was that the elderly woman in the photo was identical in appearance and outfit to the grandmother who had handed Seung Hyeon the photo.
This elderly woman had already passed away decades ago.
She was, in fact, the grandmother of the ‘field owner,’ the man who had thrown away his father’s gravestone into the rice field.
It seemed possible that, in an effort to bring peace to her son’s spirit, the grandmother had returned as a ghost and sought out Seung Hyeon for help.
Was the series of misfortunes that followed caused by ignoring the grandmother’s tip-off?
If so, would everything go smoothly from now on?
Seung Hyeon silently gazed into the eyes of the elderly woman in the photo.
***
After returning to the broadcasting station, Seung Hyeon and Tae Jeong immediately started the editing process.
They captured the peaceful and beautiful scenery of Miho County exactly as it was, producing the final broadcast version of [Beautiful Landscapes]. At the same time, they submitted the footage of their encounter with the old man’s ghost and the discovery of the gravestone to the newsroom.
The video included the scene where the field owner arrived and protested, capturing the intense atmosphere of the moment.
Along with the footage, Seung Hyeon also relayed the accounts he had heard from local residents regarding the field owner’s son. This allowed the newsroom to create an in-depth report rather than just a brief news segment.
As a result, the production team for the variety program [Beautiful Landscapes] ended up assisting the newsroom.
The incident itself turned into a highly compelling episode.
After hearing the story and reviewing the footage, Kim Baekchun, the head of cultural programming, immediately summoned Seung Hyeon.
“Did a ghost really reveal this to you?” Kim Baekchun asked.
“Yes, you saw the footage, didn’t you? I have no connections to that area. How could I have known?”
Seung Hyeon waved his hands as he spoke.
“Alright, I’ll inform the newsroom. First, we’ll have the newsroom report on it with some intensity. Then, we’ll air it on [Beautiful Landscapes]. I’ll make sure they mention that it was the production team from [Beautiful Landscapes] who discovered it.”
“Okay, alright.”
Seung Hyeon nodded repeatedly.
He felt like everything was finally coming together.
***
[Cruel Son Arrested for Disposing of His Father’s Gravestone in Iksan, North Jeolla Province]
[Gravestone Discarded Due to Family Property Dispute]
[RBS ‘Beautiful Landscapes’ Production Team’s Tip-off Unveils Crime from 30 Years Ago]
As expected, multiple news articles flooded the internet like a burst dam.
At the same time, Seung Hyeon uploaded the preview for [Beautiful Landscapes] on YouTube.
The official preview was broadcast regularly on the RBS channel, but this was also an effort to promote it online.
And it was surprisingly effective.
People who watched the news and left comments ended up seeing [Beautiful Landscapes] through YouTube’s algorithm.
Naturally, the news of the discovery of the gravestone was linked, drawing the attention of netizens.
– At this point, does the PD of [Beautiful Landscapes] have some kind of supernatural power or something???
– How did they even find it?
– There was a similar case like this before. While filming something else, they stumbled upon a crime scene.
– It’s not common, but it’s not unheard of either.
– Now I’m curious about the full episode, lololololol.
– Never even heard of the RBS channel, lol.
Hundreds, then thousands, of comments were posted on YouTube.
The number of views quickly surpassed 10,000, eventually reaching 100,000.
Of course, the number of ‘likes’ on the video wasn’t particularly high.
People who had seen the news had expected to find a video of the moment the gravestone was discovered.
However, since [Beautiful Landscapes] mainly focuses on showcasing landscapes, that particular scene had been left out of the preview.
This led to complaints from netizens.
But, of course, this was all part of Seung Hyeon’s strategy.
It was a ‘bait’ to draw more attention to the main broadcast.
On the day of the broadcast, Seung Hyeon and Tae Jeong sat in a pork belly restaurant, drinking soju and watching [Beautiful Landscapes] on the store’s TV.
The footage they had edited was broadcast just as they had prepared it.
However, the specific scene that many netizens had been eagerly waiting for did not explicitly appear.
And that, too, was part of Seung Hyeon’s plan.
***
The luck of encountering the old man’s ghost and discovering the gravestone.
Thanks to Seung Hyeon’s added strategy, this time things turned out differently.
Heavy users of various online communities meticulously analyzed every frame of Episode 9 of [Beautiful Landscapes].
[Screenshot of what appears to be the old man ghost spotted in Episode 9 of Beautiful Landscapes.jpg]
[Revealing the face of the ‘Grandfather Mangtae’]
[The face of the old man ghost seen in the news]
This time, even without Seung Hyeon uploading anything himself, netizens captured and shared the ghost’s image on their own.
Since the news had already reported the incident, rumors spread among netizens that a ghost might also appear in Episode 9. As a result, they analyzed every frame of the episode with intense scrutiny.
– Wow, how did they even find this? lol Their dedication is incredible.
– He looks ordinary, though…
– The ordinary ones are scarier.
– That son is a complete [expletive]. Regardless of the story, he abandoned his father’s gravestone.
– They should bury him in the rice field just like he did to his father.
– Does [Beautiful Landscapes] have some kind of shaman on the team or something? They’re ridiculously good at sensing ghosts, lol.
– At this point, they should just rename the show to [Beautiful Ghosts], lolol.
– If they start a horror show, I’m watching the live broadcast for sure.
– This is a work of art by PD Choi Seung Hyeon from [Ghostism]. This guy should just chase ghosts full-time, lol.
For the third time, netizens started moving on their own, and some even left comments demanding a new horror program centered around Seung Hyeon.
Observing these reactions, Seung Hyeon decided to upload the newsroom’s report footage to the official RBS channel.
The 15-minute edited video showed the moment the old man ghost first appeared, Seung Hyeon’s reaction, and the scene of him walking into the rice field. It also included the arrival of the police and the field owner.
Only the faces of the field owner and the police were blurred.
After the video was uploaded, it quickly became a ‘trending video’ for a brief moment.
The video didn’t just draw viewers searching for [Beautiful Landscapes]. It also caught the attention of users looking for horror or urban legend content, causing the video’s popularity to skyrocket.
Additionally, interest in the rewatch services for Episodes 7, 8, and 9 (covering Taeyoung Town, Mural Town, and Miho County, respectively) surged, breaking record sales.
Countless enthusiasts, hoping to spot the ghost for themselves, flocked to rewatch the episodes.
Insights revealed that this trend wasn’t limited to domestic viewers — North American and Japanese netizens were also among those flocking to the show.
Meanwhile…
CP Lee Yeolsang and Director Kim Baekchun saw an opportunity.
They pondered the idea, ‘Could we use ghosts to tackle unsolved cases?’
While many considered this unrealistic, the viral success of the video and the meteoric rise of [Beautiful Landscapes] prompted Director Kim Baekchun to call an emergency meeting.
