Chapter 68#
The People in the Story (Part 5)#
The director looked at the shot, becoming more and more amazed. After a long silence, he turned his head to ask Huang Qiqi, “Can we really not change the lead actor for the promotional video?”
Huang Qiqi said resentfully, “No.” If they could change the actor, she would have already run to the principal’s office and begged on her knees.
The director’s expression instantly became extremely painful.
Then he silently comforted himself… forget it, I’ll just edit it well later.
September in Huai City was the season of thunderstorms. The rain outside was getting heavier, and thunder even started rumbling in the evening. Boom! Lightning flashed like silver snakes, illuminating the dark silhouette of the rain-drenched old gymnasium.
The promotional video was to be filmed over five days. Huai City Communication University was far from here, and it was inconvenient for the director and the photography team to travel back and forth, so they brought simple bedding and planned to sleep inside the old gymnasium.
Huang Qiqi suggested, “Director, actually you can sleep in the dorms with the boys?”
The director shook his head and refused, “No need, no need, we’re used to this. The weather forecast says there will be a thunderstorm at ten o’clock tonight. You guys should go back early and be careful on the road.”
Huang Qiqi nodded, “Oh, okay.” But just as she was about to leave, Xie Wenci suddenly stood up, revealing a pure and harmless smile, and said, “Ah, how can we let that happen?”
Xie Wenci looked at everyone gently and said, “Everyone has been tired all day. It would be so unfair to let the director stay in the gymnasium while we go back to sleep in the dorms. In my opinion, since the promotional video is going to be filmed for five days, we might as well sleep in the old gymnasium with the director. It just so happens that everyone can bond and make future filming easier.”
His ulterior motive was obvious, but many people present had their own hidden agendas just like him.
Chen Can was the first to raise his hand in agreement.
“I agree. We can also play Truth or Dare together.” He winked at Ye Sheng like a buddy. “Hehe, Xiao Si, it’s so boring with just the two of us in the dorm. Let’s stay here with the director.”
Ye Sheng gave him a cold look. You can’t stop people when they want to court death.
Freshmen who had just entered university were still full of curiosity about everything new, unafraid of hardship or trouble.
If it were the sophomores or juniors who were addicted to slacking off, they would definitely head back to the dorm to play games and sleep without looking back.
Xie Wenci’s proposal actually received agreement from quite a few people.
Ye Sheng spun his keys, turned around, and left with Ning Weichen to get dinner.
Xie Wenci couldn’t hide his excitement and smiled, “Everyone has worked hard. Why don’t we go eat together? To celebrate the smooth filming of our first day, dinner is on me tonight.”
He planned to look at Ning Weichen with a hint of shyness. But when he turned around, he found that Ning Weichen and Ye Sheng were already gone.
Xie Wenci: “???”
Xie Wenci was furious.
The restaurant Ning Weichen chose was exactly as Ye Sheng expected, with the words “robbery” written between the lines of the menu. In this famous sky restaurant in Huai City, there were only the two of them tonight. The waiters served the dishes quietly, without saying a word.
Every brick and tile, every blade of grass and tree in the sky restaurant was quiet and elegant. Sitting by the window, one could overlook the entire Huai City shrouded in heavy rain.
Ning Weichen smiled from across the table, “Is acting fun?”
Ye Sheng looked down, studying the knife and fork in his hand. “It’s okay.”
Ning Weichen chuckled lightly, “I thought you were enjoying it.”
Could there be any joy in this?
Ye Sheng twitched the corner of his mouth in disbelief and stabbed the knife heavily into the steak on his plate, making a sharp sound. He really didn’t want to talk nonsense with Ning Weichen, so he looked up directly, his tone calm and serious, “Ning Weichen, tonight, I want to go check out the basement of the old gymnasium.”
Ning Weichen: “The basement?”
Ye Sheng: “Yes.”
Ning Weichen elegantly cut the food on his plate and smiled, “Speaking of the old gymnasium, I got some news from the Huai City police and forgot to tell you.”
“The worker who went missing back then was originally a supervisor for the gymnasium project. Later, after several unhappy arguments with the vice-principal, he was fired. Before the supervisor went missing, he was depressed and drank alone. The police said it’s highly likely he accidentally fell into the river after drinking, since his body hasn’t been found after so many years.”
“Actually, the police suspected that strange tale, but they didn’t dare to convict anyone based on a ghost story that might be true or false.”
“The Huai City police once identified Yuan Shou as a suspect because he had a motive for murder. However, without any witnesses or physical evidence, they had to let it go.”
Ye Sheng didn’t speak, frowning almost imperceptibly. Indeed, in a society with Heresies and ghosts, the police would only be more cautious and careful in handling cases.
Ning Weichen’s movements were skillful and fast as he put down the knife and fork.
He picked up the plate with the cut food and handed it to Ye Sheng, his peach-blossom eyes full of affection, smiling as he said, “Brother, for you.”
Ye Sheng: “…”
Sometimes, such meticulous thoughtfulness is terrifying when you think about it. After all, the person doing this wasn’t naturally gentle or easy to get along with.
Just as Ye Sheng was about to refuse, Ning Weichen had already swapped the plates in front of them.
Ning Weichen said, “If you’re not used to Western food, come to my apartment next time. Although I’ve been a bit busy lately, I’m very willing to cook for you.”
Ye Sheng said, “Forget it, I’ll do it.” He didn’t trust the cooking skills of this young master Ning Weichen at all, let alone believe he could cook home-style Chinese dishes. Ye Sheng grew up in Yinshan and had been cooking for himself for over ten years. He said this almost without thinking.
But after saying it, he was stunned.
When did his relationship with Ning Weichen become intimate enough to discuss who would cook at home?
Ning Weichen seemed to think the atmosphere was excellent too, smiling thoughtfully.
On the way back, it was already pouring rain.
Ning Weichen said, “Do you want to listen to music?”
Ye Sheng shook his head, “Put on the radio.”
Ning Weichen nodded.
The radio station with the highest listening rate in the evening slot in Huai City was always [Little Mouth Tells Stories].
Ye Sheng was already very familiar with its gentle and soft prelude.
Previously, he had always been in a hurry to get to the main topic, listening to the female host tell various bizarre and strange stories. Now, listening to this music calmly, Ye Sheng found it quite pleasant.
Some of the stories told by Little Mouth were true, some were false, but without exception, they all happened in Huai City.
Huai City was like a blank territory occupied by the Story King, the most dangerous and also the most safe. So far, he hadn’t encountered a Heresy from outside the Seventh Sector.
Perhaps, before the Story King finished the story of the Urban Night-Crawler, other Heresies wouldn’t think of approaching.
The female host’s voice was sweet and gentle.
[Good evening everyone, welcome to Little Mouth Tells Stories.]
[Ever since the news about the Night-Crawler spread, Little Mouth has received a lot of submissions every day. A contributor interested in Buddhism said: He thinks the Urban Night-Crawler isn’t necessarily a hero; he might be performing a ritual. After all, the six roots in Buddhism correspond to the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind. The people who have died at the hands of the Night-Crawler so far have already accounted for the eyes, ears, tongue, and body. The contributor suspects that the Night-Crawler’s next target might be someone with a poor sense of smell or someone with evil intentions.]
[Although we don’t know why the Night-Crawler is killing people, or what he ultimately intends to do. But we hope that such a hero who eliminates harm for the people can exist in Huai City a little longer. After all, he is now a legend executing justice in the darkness.]
At the end of the radio program, that dialogue, seemingly hidden at the end of time, appeared again. The thunder and rain outside the car were deafening, but sitting inside the car listening to the little boy’s tender and immature voice seemed to take one to a pure land of the soul.
The pure land here didn’t refer to the void and mysterious world of gods. But the utopia that every human being once created for themselves.
In fact, the essence of a story was never about blood and regret from the beginning.
—In childhood, it was humanity’s initial longing and understanding of the vast world.
Ye Sheng closed his eyes, almost automatically looping the little boy’s words in his mind. He had once asked Duan Shi who the person that gave her power was. Duan Shi, weeping tears of blood, had trembled and said, “It’s… the storyteller.”
—Dad said there are three kinds of people in this world: the storyteller, the listener, and the people in the story. And those who grow up listening to stories will one day become the people in the story.
So what is the Story King’s story? Did he also grow up listening to stories?
Ye Sheng recalled those clues bit by bit. It was just China a hundred years ago, everything shrouded in a layer of dusty fog. At that time, technology wasn’t developed, and the internet was just starting. There were no e-books, only bookstores lining the streets and alleys.
Ye Sheng pursed his lips, constantly conceiving and simulating in his mind palace. He walked through the foggy streets, over the bluestone roads, past the hawking of candied haws. Finally, he stopped in a corner of a simple wooden bookstore a hundred years ago and saw a short, thin child.
The moment he saw the child hiding in the shadows of the bookshelf, Ye Sheng felt a stinging pain in his mind like an electric shock, but he held his breath and continued forward.
The old sunlight shot in through the cracks in the window, floating with yellow dust particles.
Ye Sheng wanted to get closer, but the child squatting on the ground reading a book secretly suddenly turned his head like a startled bird.
He was emaciated, malnourished, uneasy in the bookstore, like a little mouse. When he looked up, there was a pair of extremely quiet eyes in his bony sockets.
At that glance, Ye Sheng’s soul almost trembled with pain.
He didn’t even have time to see clearly.
His chin was already pinched by a cold, slender hand.
“Ye Sheng.”
The voice was as cold as a deep pool.
Ye Sheng woke up and met Ning Weichen’s obscure peach-blossom eyes.
Ye Sheng gritted his teeth and directly grabbed Ning Weichen’s wrist. He swallowed the blood welling up in his throat and said quickly and calmly to Ning Weichen, “Ning Weichen, the Story King is a child! A human!”
He would never forget those eyes in the dream just now.
Those eyes were very quiet. Too quiet.
Like a silent world, like stopped time, like… the end of a story.
Ning Weichen stared at him for a long time, silent for a while, then suddenly smiled. His cool fingertips touched the center of Ye Sheng’s brow, and he said with no emotion in his tone, “Brother, it seems the Story King… has decided to come find us personally.”
Ye Sheng gritted his teeth, a trace of deep hostility appearing in his eyes. He knew that the brief dream in the car just now was the Story King deliberately appearing by following his thoughts. He had disrupted the Night-Crawler’s plan regarding “ears” and “deafness,” and the Story King had finally targeted him.
The car had stopped in front of the old gymnasium. Ye Sheng looked at the huge monster in the rain, the hostility in his black and white almond eyes not yet fading, and said, “That’s good.”
When Ning Weichen went to park the car, Ye Sheng didn’t use an umbrella and took a few steps onto the steps of the old gymnasium. The streetlights were cold and pale. As soon as Ye Sheng took a step, he smelled a faint scent of blood hidden under the osmanthus flowers. He looked down and saw the rain washing the mud from the side onto the white stone steps, oozing a ghostly red.
Ye Sheng stood motionless. He took out his phone and took a picture of the bloodstains on the steps.
After another deafening thunderclap.
Search refreshed the screen.
[Category Section: Story King]
[Ghost Name: Human Wall]
[Ghost Level: B]
[Overview: The mixer crushed his body. His hair, eyeballs, bones, and flesh were all mixed into the cement, built into the strongest and toughest wall along with steel and bricks.
post scriptum: Poor honest man. The underground space he was obsessed with during his life was ultimately not built, but it doesn’t matter, kind and hardworking people will always get their wish.
—April 23rd, 5:16 PM]
This was a post scriptum written many years ago.