Fine and dense rain was floating outside the car window. Half of Yu Rongshi's face was buried in the shadows, while the other half appeared and disappeared under the light of the street lamp.
At that moment, he recalled what happened many years ago. The strings stained with blood from fingers in the brightly lit practice room late at night; the songs that were written and stolen one by one; and the painful price paid to resist the thief who could travel back in time before the dawn of victory...
That name that was lost in the past, erased from the timeline, and that few people remembered except him.
"... Next time you do these things, you can call me," he said.
"Why?"
"Nothing, just some fun." Yu Rongshi said with a smile.
Yi Wan silently looked at his profile in the rearview mirror. Yu Rongshi looked relaxed, as if he was talking about something for fun.
But he could not help but feel the tense joints when he saw Yu Rong.
"Teacher Yu, you are actually a good person, but you just don't want to admit it." When the car passed the convenience store, Yi Wan suddenly said, "On the contrary, they are not as good as you think. As for Bo Jiang and the others, as long as you know them well enough, you will find that they are not as bad as you think."
Yu Rongshi didn't answer for a long time. Finally, he smiled softly and said, "You know too much."
There was something awkward in his voice.
Although he felt awkward, Yu Rongshi still couldn't help but glance at the rearview mirror when he was getting off the viaduct. Yi Wan leaned against the window, still expressionless.
But he used his finger to draw a smiley face on the white mist on the car window.
The smiling face and Yi Wan's eyes fell into his eyes at the same time. Yi Wan's eyes were still blank, innocent and calm, just like the eyes he usually had when he passed by all the stories.
"Can we stop here? Let's buy a bottle of hot drink." Yi Wan suddenly said.
The two parked their car next to a convenience store in the middle of the night. The convenience store was a bit shabby and had been there for several years, with a yellow sign on top. The two went in wearing masks and came out wearing masks, squatting on the side of the road and sharing two paper cups of oden.
The night in S City was very dark, and the stars seemed very bright. Yu Rongshi looked at Yi Wan, who was eating in small bites, and asked, "Have you ever eaten oden in this restaurant before?"
"No." Yi Wan held the paper cup, his pale face slightly steamed by the food, "I just stopped because I saw it when I passed by."
Go wherever you want to go, and stop wherever you want to stop. It's not for meeting someone or triggering some events.
Isn’t this kind of life great
Yu Rongshi couldn't help laughing. He took a bite of the meatball, and the hot and warm soup in his mouth splashed randomly in every direction from the crack.
"… So, where did you throw the Painted Skin Ghost?" he asked vaguely.
"What Painted Skin Ghost?" Yi Wan asked with an innocent expression.
"I guess it was Chi Jixia's dream... Never mind." Yu Rongshi smiled softly and shook his head, "Just play dumb."
It's pretty good to live like this.
Always pass by the world that belongs to men, and always be a passerby who only tries to pass by other people's stories and occasionally do good deeds.
A passerby who has no superpowers but is smart enough and not a man.
Yu Rongshi felt his heart relax more than ever before. The past and the burdens that had weighed on him were relieved at that moment. For a moment, he felt that he could write songs after a long absence.
What dripped on his strings was no longer the blood shed in competition with others, but the flowers of summer, the maple leaves of autumn, and the tens of millions of stars in the night sky that twinkled like life.
Even the plain-looking drunk with long bangs stumbling in the distance became cute.
This is an ordinary life, an ordinary world.
"Yi Wan." Yu Rongshi suddenly spoke, "Yi..."
"Um?"
Then he saw another man rushing towards the drunk from the side.
The man was dressed in a suit and leather shoes, his eyes were bloodshot, and he looked like a madman. Yu Rongshi's eyes moved, and he was about to take out his cell phone to call the police, and then...
"Shen xx! Do you f*cking think that I can't find you just because you grew a beard and fled to another city? The contract hasn't expired yet, and I won't let you leave. Tell me, where is your child? Where did you hide the child?"
"Child... Child... How can a man get pregnant! If I had known, I shouldn't have signed the contract... Gu xx! Our child... is gone!"
The drunk struggled hard, and the wind blew away his ordinary bangs, revealing a pair of soul-stirring and clear eyes. In short, they made his ordinary face look twenty points more lively.
The two fought in the alley for a while, and finally the drunk man nestled in the arms of the man in the suit and cried loudly. The man in the suit hugged him and said in a hoarse voice: "Yangyang, the contract is not over yet, let's go back."
The two hugged each other and got into the car. An old lady came out of the window of the residential building above them, looked at the two people hugging each other and shouted: "The noise at night is 50 decibels, can't people sleep? I should not have bought a house near the bar. There are people making noise here every night..."
Yu Rongshi: …
"What did you just say?" Yi Wan turned around and asked.
Yu Rongshi: "Nothing, let's go back first."
He threw the two paper cups into the trash can, but left the shopping slip. The small piece of paper seemed to have a different kind of power. He put the paper in his wallet with a soft look in his eyes, and decided to keep it as a souvenir.
The return trip still took twenty minutes. Yu Rongshi was concentrating on driving in the front seat. Yi Wan sat in the back seat, leaning his head against the window.
He silently looked at the lights of the city. The lights fell into his pupils. He closed his eyes, as if closing the flame behind him into his eyes.
This time, the interference test on the Bo family story was successful.
He .
The test to wake Qin Xuexin up...seems to have been successful.
Yi Wan went back to the hotel and had a very comfortable sleep. But when he woke up, he saw Chi Jixia sitting cross-legged on the bed next to him, staring at him with her eyes dimly.
Yi Wan:
Looking at Yi Wan who had returned safely, Chi Jixia finally uttered only one sentence in a weak voice.
"I had a dream about ghosts," he said.
Yi Wan looked at him and blinked: "Is it scary?"
"… It's not scary. It's not that scary, just normal scary, no." Chi Jixia was very weak. "Okay, it's a little scary."
Yes, after Yi Wan left last night, he entered his golden finger dream again.
Chi Jixia originally thought that Yi Wan was actually a painted skin ghost. This guess made him feel awkward no matter how he thought about it. However, in folk legends from ancient times to the present, painted skin ghosts are cunning and changeable, so it is not surprising that Yi Wan has such strong acting skills.
Although Yi Wan's face was still human skin outside the dream, Chi Jixia finally went online to find several Feng Shui stores and asked for a few amulets. The amulets arrived by SF Express, and Yi Wan went to the dinner. Chi Jixia fell asleep holding the amulet with doubts, and once again entered his own golden finger world to test it.
It's just like seeing a ghost again.
Then Chi Jixia appeared...
The whole world was beyond his imagination.
"Don't miss it if you pass by! Chang'an's first season of Chongming's performance!"
"Indoor tickets are 5,000, outdoor tickets are 3,000, cheering cards are 500, standing tickets are 800, and you can get a brochure for free when you buy any ticket!"
"Ah, Brother Chongming, please marry me!"
"Ji Chongming, is this your real and beautiful wife? Woohoo."
Chang'an City was decorated with lights and full of joy, and young men and women came and went to salute the birth of the new idol. They held banners and cheering signs and followed the floats into the city, shouting "Ahhh" to "welcome the airport".
"Brother Chongming, this 'Luke' is so beautiful!"
"Dear audience friends, please allow me to introduce you to a treasure - our idol, Ji Chongming."
Chi Jixia was stunned on the spot.
What about the intricate conspiracy? What about the mysterious ghosts? What about the lingering sorrow, the magnificent young woman adventure poem
What's going on with this star-chasing scene where the streets are deserted
He asked his subordinates to inquire in the identity of Leng Qiu, and then he found out that in the one and a half months that passed in and out of the dream, the Painted Skin Ghost disguised as "Ji Chongming" used his rich experience in fan circle management and marketing hype to successfully become an international superstar and super idol in Chang'an City by singing operas. Even the children of princes and nobles favored him.
Chi Jixia:?
This plot can no longer be explained by confusion.
Why would a painted-skin ghost make his home in his world of "Rangyouchou"
Why would a Painted Skin Ghost know about fan circle knowledge and cheering light signs
Why is it that after entering this world, a Painted Skin Ghost does not become a bloody, earth-shaking demon, nor does he become a stunningly beautiful Chang'an enchantress, but... a...
Idol?
The cold and desolate world was confused by the Painted Skin Ghost. Chi Jixia had no way of rehearsing in such a world. He sent someone to bring "Ji Chongming" back to his house to find out the truth, but he only received a letter in reply.
There are a few big characters written in brush on it: "Idols do not have private contact with big fans."
Chi Jixia: ? ? I’m contacting you privately, you bastard
… It seems that Fang is really a ghost.
Chi Jixia had a dream that exhausted him physically and mentally. In his dream, the Painted Skin Ghost acted like an idol, and Chu Qianqin in the dream world became a die-hard fan of the Painted Skin Ghost. Wherever he went, he could see the Painted Skin Ghost's support posters. The Painted Skin Ghost had turned his world into another one.
In this world, it is almost impossible to rehearse for the play. Chi Jixia woke up from the dream in grief and anger, and the cheering song of Painted Skin Ghost was still echoing in her mind.
The Painted Skin Ghost was someone else, not Yi Wan. But this sudden Painted Skin Ghost did change his life upside down.
Chi Jixia was not only irritable, but also depressed. He stared at Yi Wan, like a fox with messy fur. Yi Wan paused and stretched out his hand: "Touch it?"
Chi Jixia: …
Only then did he realize that he had uttered the words "My world has changed..."
He turned his head away, stared at Yi Wan with his eyes slanted, and muttered softly: "That ghost thing really hurt me badly... ah ah."
He fell backwards and lay on the bed. Yi Wan sat beside him and said, "You have another scene today, can you still act?"
"Are you concerned?" Chi Jixia said.
Yi Wan: "I'm worried about you..."
"… It's too late. We can't finish the reshoots within this week. Do you remember that we only have ten days of schedule here?" Yi Wan said worriedly.
Chi Jixia: …
"Don't worry about that. I won't waste your time." He said angrily, "You have no chance today. You can rest in your room."
"Oh..." Yi Wan said, "Your phone is ringing."
He pointed at the cell phone that Chi Jixia had placed beside the pillow.
A text message was displayed on the phone. The content of the message was short but clear.
"Jixia, mom will come to the crew to pick you up."
…
Chi Jixia's scene today was with Yu Rongshi. Yu Rongshi's status and reputation were here, and Chi Jixia was under more pressure. Since he couldn't fall asleep, Chi Jixia didn't force himself. While doing makeup, he sat on a chair and read the script.
"Xiao Chi has become more diligent." Several makeup artists joked.
"… Um."
Chi Jixia stared at the script. He had a good memory and memorized the long lines in an instant. After finishing the makeup, the crew thoughtfully gave him half an hour to rest.
"Xiao Chi, are you okay?" the system asked worriedly.
Chi Jixia didn't answer it.
Chi Jixia stood in the lounge, closed her eyes, and began to move according to her memory.
"Ji Chongming is dead."
"Ji Chongming? He's dead."
"Ji Chongming? He—is dead, hahahaha!"
Actually, it's not that difficult. Chi Jixia knew that he had traveled through time as Leng Qiu so many times, so even if he had never traveled through time, it would be easy for him to experience his emotions.
He has that ability.
But there is always something not quite right.
Chi Jixia always felt that something was not right.
It's not his movements, emotions, lines, or appearance... He walks on the stage in the imaginary world, but can't find a standard answer that suits him to act. He can reproduce all the movements of Leng Qiu, but he can't create movements - create movements that he thinks are the standard answer to Leng Qiu's behavior.
Where is the standard answer
Is what he did... really his own
"Jixia!"
"Jixia."
"Jixia!"
At that moment, it was as if extremely distant voices came out of his memory. The woman's voice was first full of anger, then ecstatic joy, and finally, the incident a few years ago that made him completely quit the film industry for two years and become a trainee.
'What are you acting? What exactly are you acting? How's your acting? Wasn't it good before?'
'… You seem to have lost your soul.'
That sound was like a thunderclap. Chi Jixia looked at himself in the mirror. His posture and movements were exactly like what Leng Qiu should have done in all the performances. Only his eyes were expressionless.
Is his expression correct? He asked.
…
Yi Wan was walking alone on the set. It was fine, he was alone in the room anyway, so he might as well go out for a walk.
He hadn't walked a few steps when he saw a woman coming from a distance. The woman was wearing a costume, with eyebrows and eyes painted, as if the crew had just finished a performance. She said to her assistant: "... I don't know what happened to Chi Jixia today."
It’s Qin Xuexin.
“…Maybe.” The assistant was about to say something bad, but was startled when he saw the person in the corner, “Ah, Yi Wan!”
After turning to Yi Wan, Qin Xuexin's beautiful yet mean face was in a trance for a moment. At that moment, her expression was a little distorted, as if she was struggling with some emotion, and her fingers covered her temples, which seemed to be a little painful.
Finally she said, "Yi... Xiaowan, good afternoon. Thank you for what happened yesterday."
The assistant looked at Qin Xuexin's current appearance, his expression as horrified as if the earth was collapsing.
Yi Wan just nodded and made a gesture that said, "It's hard to talk about this in front of outsiders." Qin Xue also understood. Her face was a little red, and she felt a little uncomfortable after seeing him. She could only say, "Are you here to see Brother Yu? Or are you here to see Xiaochi?"
"Did anything happen on the set?"
"Today's Xiaochi... well, he actually acted well, but his emotions weren't very good." Qin Xuexin said hesitantly, "Why don't you go and take care of him. He must have gone to the bathroom."
Yi Wan nodded and was about to leave. Qin Xuexin felt a headache when she was about to leave, but she still insisted: "Yi Wan..."