Translator: CinderTL
How could this be?
The situation was beginning to deviate from the initial predictions. Originally, Jiang Cheng thought that Lin Chen was unaware of Li Maoshen and the others' actions, and that her death was the result of an accident during one of their filming sessions.
But now it seemed that Lin Chen not only knew about the affair between Li Maoshen and Yu Youwei, but she was also fully aware of the filming plans they had concocted.
She had secretly read Li Maoshen's diary, and even when they gathered to discuss their plans, Lin Chen stood silently outside the window, watching them.
She knew all about this deception!
But... why? Why didn't she choose to expose it or resist?
A sense of foreboding began to ferment in Jiang Cheng's heart. He vaguely felt that this matter was not as simple as it appeared on the surface.
The diary entries started on May 7th. Li Maoshen complained that the platform wouldn't allow them to push the boundaries, and his videos weren't gaining popularity, so he began to plot how to create a viral video.
This continued intermittently until June 10th, when everything was finally prepared, and they began filming.
Throughout this process, the tone in Li Maoshen's diary entries was one of enthusiasm and determination. But just two days later, the tone in his diary changed.
During the first filming session, there was an issue with the lighting, but Li Maoshen didn't seem to think much of it, considering it a minor problem.
Then, during the second session, Li Maoshen began to hesitate in his diary, as if he had encountered some inexplicable trouble.
By the third session, after returning from filming, Li Maoshen's emotions were unsettled. They had captured a black figure in their footage, but it wasn't one of their own. Song Xiaoyou, who was supposed to play the Ghost, hadn't even appeared yet.
In the fourth session, things took an even more bizarre turn. Yu Youwei, who was pretending to be the Ghost, encountered something terrifying while trying to scare Lin Chen.
She said that while hiding under the bed, someone grabbed her foot. She also mentioned that Lin Chen was acting strange—her head could instantly turn around, and from both the front and back, she had no face, just hair covering both sides! Although Li Maoshen claimed that his accomplices were using this as an excuse to demand more money, he still went to the temple to pray, showing that he was genuinely spooked.
Jiang Cheng's expression shifted slightly. It seemed they had encountered a real Ghost during the filming.
And it had started from the very first session.
Just as Jiang Cheng was hesitating, he saw Lin Chen beside him suddenly move. She slowly put down the diary she was holding, then lowered her head, covering her face with both hands.
Jiang Cheng didn't hear any sobbing, but he saw Lin Chen's frail body shrink together, trembling slightly. The scene was inexplicably heartbreaking.
It was unclear how much time had passed, but the surrounding darkness gave Jiang Cheng a sense of impending danger. Finally, Lin Chen in front of him stopped.
She slowly stood up, went to the kitchen to pour a large glass of water, then returned to the bedroom. She pulled open the pillow Jiang Cheng had slept on earlier, revealing a white plastic bottle underneath.
She unscrewed the bottle and poured out a handful of pills.
They were sedatives.
For most people, these are a widely accessible type of sleeping pill.
After enduring prolonged torment, Lin Chen had finally chosen this desperate path. She had already broken down, hoping to end everything through death.
Jiang Cheng instinctively stepped forward, wanting to snatch the pills from her hand.
But something eerie happened—his hand passed right through Lin Chen's body without any resistance.
Once, twice, Jiang Cheng tried to stop her, but it was impossible. At this moment, Lin Chen was like a holographic projection.
He and Lin Chen were not in the same time and space. He was a traveler who had come a long way, only able to watch events unfold without the power to change them.
This was very much like a Nightmare.
No matter what they did in the Nightmare, no matter how well they did it, they couldn't alter the established facts. The past couldn't be changed. All they could do was try to survive as best as they could.
But Jiang Cheng reached into his pocket, thinking of that painting.
The painting Lin Chen had left behind.
Perhaps that painting could stop all of this.
Make her understand the terrifying things that would happen after her death. The black-clad man, Wu, was Lin Chen's creation. In a sense, Lin Chen was the source of everything.
She wouldn't understand what kind of monstrous creature her despair had created, nor the endless, spine-chilling Urban Legends that followed.
Using Wu's benevolent side to dispel the despair in Lin Chen's heart—that was the only way to break the cycle.
But just as he touched the painting, ready to take it out and show it to Lin Chen—
"Don't move." A deep voice came through.
Upon hearing that voice, Jiang Cheng immediately froze. He recognized the owner of that voice.
It was Wu.
At that moment, a dark shadow stood a few meters behind him, on the small balcony.
The hem of the black trench coat was occasionally tugged by the wind, and the lean figure stood there like a battle flag planted in the ground.
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Under the brim of the hat were a pair of crimson eyes.
Jiang Cheng's fingers, clutching the painting, twitched slightly.
But the next second, he heard the sound of a blade being drawn.
It was hard to describe the feeling. The blade hadn't even been fully unsheathed, yet a chilling aura had already spread, the pressure from the blade's edge suffocating him.
With his back to the black-clad Wu, Jiang Cheng slowly, very slowly, withdrew his hand from his pocket and wisely raised it. "Don't do this, brother," Jiang Cheng said. "Let's talk this over."
He had also considered the possibility of instantly taking out the painting and waking Lin Chen, but after some thought, he decided that preserving his life was more important. As long as he was alive, there would always be a chance.
In those brief dozen seconds, Lin Chen had already swallowed a handful of sleeping pills.
Her thin figure sat by the bed, and Jiang Cheng watched helplessly as she gradually lost consciousness and collapsed onto the bed.
"She's already dead, isn't she?" Jiang Cheng looked at the pitiful woman before him, his tone calm. "After she died the first time, you saved her."
Things were becoming clearer. The time displayed on the electronic clock on the wall confirmed that the real Lin Chen had already died long before the recording, from an overdose of sleeping pills in a suicide attempt.
But after her death, she had been revived by some bizarre force.
No need to guess—this was the work of the figure behind him.
After waking up, she continued to use her previous body. Though outwardly there was no change, internally, her body was gradually rotting.
This was also why the police autopsy report had reached such a conclusion.
At the same time, Lin Chen had lost the memory of her death, but the arrival of the police later reawakened it.
Unable to accept herself like this, Lin Chen's emotions collapsed once more, and she chose to jump from the balcony.
This was the actual time of Lin Chen's death as understood by ordinary people.
As for the anomalies that appeared during the filming, it was because Lin Chen had already died by then, so he naturally possessed some of the abilities of a Ghost.
A human pretending to be a Ghost, scaring a Ghost pretending to be a human—Jiang Cheng couldn't help but think that Li Maoshen was truly a genius.
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(End of the Chapter)
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