Chapter 28: Human Skin Script (6): Has a Head

Xu Xiye now had two things on his mind.

First, the Pollution Source, which related to his part-time career ambitions. One should have a career.

Second, his special ability: the power to see through others’ eyes. This also was actually related to finding mental patients—i.e., Pollution Sources.

Director Liang had said that if he wanted to do something here but couldn’t, it was because he hadn’t grown up yet.

His former Boss had also expressed the hope that he would grow up, saying it would happen naturally.

Anyone naturally grows up. Xu Xiye certainly knew that. But his human form was already that of an adult, and his true form was already so immense. He had always felt he had already grown up.

Now, thinking it over, he actually hadn’t. He wanted to borrow others’ eyes but couldn’t always do so on demand. He thought if he sought Blue Eyes, he could find him. But even when he became so huge, Blue Eyes still managed to escape the range he could cover.

Infuriating.

He truly hadn’t grown big enough.

Xu Xiye opened his mouth and took another couple of bites of air… He needed to figure out how to ingest more air and still grow healthily.

And they said the Pollution Source might be Bai Luwei. If not her, then one of these other Outsiders. All of them were main cast. They had to keep filming. Surely the show couldn’t just stop halfway because the lead went into a psychiatric hospital, right?

If the lead was gone, his job was gone too.

So, better wait until the filming is over.

Xu Xiye didn’t go looking for that group of Outsiders. It was TV-watching time now. He had specifically asked the Director for a room with a television.

The Outsiders were still discussing the Pollution Source.

Since this Contaminated Zone was full of eyes they couldn’t locate and couldn’t avoid, discussing in their rooms or not made no difference.

Among this batch dragged into the Polluted Zone, aside from Zhuo Heng, who was a bit more jumpy, everyone else acted calm and composed. Xie Lincheng had thought it would take at least three or four days before anyone showed signs of witnessing Anomalous Phenomena. Who knew Zhou Cao would be such a surprise?

Once Mental Contamination started, it was like a fly finding a crack; stopping it wasn’t simple.

With Zhou Cao like this, others might be vulnerable too. Xie Lincheng swept a half-smiling glance over the others and said, “This is the Inner World, the Anomaly’s territory. Seeing anything abnormal here is normal. Shouting, screaming, panicking—all unnecessary. Everyone, keep your mental state stable. Otherwise, I fear you won’t last until we can leave.”

Lou Hao remained coldly silent.

Wen Danning said gently: “If you see an Anomalous Phenomenon, speak up. We can analyze whether there are any clues related to the Pollution Source.”

The usually quiet forensic doctor, Li Sha, said, “On my way back driving, I saw a corpse in the bloat stage. Just a glimpse, it vanished quickly.”

Her tone was very calm, as was her expression. “I don’t believe this was an Anomalous Phenomenon from my own mental instability. Whether it’s the Human Skin Script or a corpse, these things don’t trigger fear in me.”

Lou Hao: “Not an Anomalous Phenomenon, just an Anomaly here. I also saw one lying flat on the ground, thin as paper.”

After saying this, he stood up. “I’m leaving.”

Meaning he had no interest in going around chatting with Anomalies one by one. If Anomalies wanted to chat with him, well, that was a different story.

Xie Lincheng also stood up, all social grace. “If he won’t chat, I will. I quite enjoy chatting with Anomalies.”

Wen Danning nodded. That was her approach too. What the others did was up to them.

Su Qing, Li Sha, and Zhuo Heng chose to return to their rooms and rest. Although nothing concrete had physically happened, today had indeed put their minds on edge.

Zhou Cao didn’t leave. He followed Xie Lincheng. Xie Lincheng looked confused: “Why are you following me?”

Zhou Cao had a cool-toned complexion and wore an earring; he looked the part of a brooding, handsome man. At this moment, he looked at Xie Lincheng with a serious expression. “You are my boyfriend. Of course, I have to follow you.”

Xie Lincheng: “?”

Xie Lincheng: “…”

Right. He currently held the status of ‘boyfriend.’ Discussing marital problems with Anomalies under the camera lens wouldn’t be appropriate.

Xie Lincheng and Wen Danning learned some information from the Anomalies in the Production Team.

The script was provided by Bai Luwei. The villa was provided by Bai Luwei. The Production Team was hired by Bai Luwei.

The entire Contaminated Zone, the entire script’s center, was Bai Luwei.

Everyone was trapped inside the script. They were restricted by its rules. They had to kill the protagonist within the protagonist’s own script.

But, the Pollution Source is a collapsed Anomaly. So what caused Bai Luwei’s collapse? How much overlap was there between the script and reality?

~

Zhou Cao lay alone on the bed in his room. A single candle was lit inside. The rain continued to pour outside, punctuated by thunder and lightning now and then, showing no sign of letting up.

Zhou Cao turned over, lying on his side facing the candlelight, his face pale.

He had wanted to sleep with Xie Lincheng.

He liked men. Xie Lincheng not only had superior physical attributes but also experience dealing with Anomalies. Staying with him would undoubtedly be safer.

Here, he was Xie Lincheng’s boyfriend. Sharing a room would be completely justified.

But Xie Lincheng had refused him, citing that the two were currently in the middle of a fight in the script.

Zhou Cao was very unhappy. A layer of gloom added to his already brooding face.

Then, as he thought of something, a few traces of fear mixed into that gloom.

He grabbed the script tossed on the table. The texture under his fingertips was smooth and delicate. Remembering this was made of human skin, his fingertips trembled slightly.

This skin seemed to have grown onto him, into his brain, merging into one with him. Without needing to look deliberately, he already knew the contents.

[Your name is Zhou Cao. You have a boyfriend you are currently dating. You love him very much, and he says he loves you too. But his flirtatious nature makes you deeply suspicious. You are perpetually caught in jealousy and doubt.]

[Storm. The car is stopped at the roadside. You can’t help but try to get intimate with him, but he rejects you yet again.]

[Finally, you explode. After a huge argument, you tell him to get lost.]

[You drive slowly behind him, hoping he will turn around on his own and admit he was wrong. But he doesn’t. Instead, he gets into someone else’s car.]

[In that moment, you want to destroy the person in that car.]

Destroy the person in the car.

Once at the villa, he found out: the person in the car was Wen Danning.

Watching Xie Lincheng and Wen Danning discuss things with perfect understanding, Zhou Cao was very silent. And he truly felt jealous.

The script was describing him.

No, that wasn’t right. He liked Xie Lincheng, he was prone to jealousy, but he wasn’t that malicious. Not so evil that he would want to destroy someone over something like this.

Zhou Cao felt a difficulty breathing. He thought of Bai Luwei’s bloodied, mangled face.

A face deliberately destroyed by someone.

The more Zhou Cao thought, the more absorbed he became. That face grew clearer and clearer in his mind. He turned over irritably. The next second, his pupils abruptly constricted.

Beside him, lying face-to-face with him, was a woman. The woman’s face was a mangled mess of blood and flesh, but her pair of eyes were wide open, staring fixedly at him.

~

Lou Hao lay on the bed, head resting on his arms. After a short while, he kipped up into a seated position.

The villa was large, and the second floor had many rooms. Enough for the eight of them to stay.

Bai Luwei was separated from him by just one room.

Between them was Lu Ren.

Although Lou Hao had contemplated just killing the Pollution Source on day one, he wasn’t reckless or impulsive. Could the impulsiveness of an Intuition-Type Ability User ever be genuine?

All seemingly impulsive actions were his intuition guiding him toward the most advantageous direction.

Right now, he couldn’t sleep.

His intuition told him that passively following the plot step-by-step would get them trapped.

Since killing the Pollution Source meant facing the contamination directly anyway, and the longer you dragged it out, the stronger the contamination became, then he’d just go deal with her now!

Lou Hao’s thoughts were resolute and full of bravado, but he didn’t move from the spot.

Because his intuition told him this operation wouldn’t succeed.

Lou Hao heavily lay back down. The spring mattress let out a loud “BOOM.” Not two seconds later, he sat up again, patted the weapons in his pocket, and strode toward the door.

Neither action worked elsewhere. Then let him test the Pollution Source’s methods sooner rather than later.

The entire villa was without power, pitch black everywhere. Lou Hao didn’t even light a candle. He moved extremely fast, arriving at Bai Luwei’s door.

He didn’t notice that, as he walked past, a certain unidentified Black Substance blending into the shadows hastily scrambled out of the way, scared of being bumped into.

This was Xu Xiye, blending into the darkness.

Xu Xiye had finished watching TV. In the dead of night, he naturally didn’t want to sleep. He’d already done his crawling around outside. So he was in his room, researching how to eat air.

Was Xu Xiye an idiot?

Of course not.

Even if, sometimes in his true form, it was hard to tell where his head even was, he definitely had a brain.

Xu Xiye was certain that the air concentration differed in various areas. To verify this, he transformed back into his true form, becoming very large. The Black Substance filled the entire room, a portion stretching out through the gap in the open window to the outside, and a portion into the hallway.

He could easily fill the entire villa, but he was too embarrassed to, since it wasn’t his villa and others were living here. So he only occupied a small part of the hallway.

This was fine, because the sky outside was vast.

No matter what he did, his true form was more convenient than his human form. Xu Xiye used this method to perceive the different sensations each area gave him.

They were different.

They should be two different types of energy.

Xu Xiye was tossing and turning (figuratively), still unable to figure out how to use this energy, when someone suddenly opened a door and walked out, nearly bumping into him.

It was that Outsider called Lou Hao.

An Outsider, not sleeping late at night, barging into a girl’s room!

Wait, it was filming time. The Director said there were hidden cameras everywhere too, recording the lead actors’ performances 24/7, and they’d just edit out the best clips later.

And he, an elusive extra, happening to witness this kind of thing—should probably go take a look, right?

Anyway, he wanted to take a look.

Downstairs earlier, Lou Hao had even said Bai Luwei was the Pollution Source. So thinking, Xu Xiye clung to the door Lou Hao had opened and secretly peeked inside.

But soon, Xu Xiye formed a question mark.

Lou Hao, who had initially seemed to charge in, was now walking in place.

Xu Xiye stared.

Lou Hao took one step, two steps, three steps… in place.

There was no Bai Luwei in the room. After hesitating a moment, Xu Xiye could not resist and walked in too.

He circled around Lou Hao several times, from top to bottom, wanting nothing more than to twist his body into a giant question mark.

Before he could figure anything out, Lou Hao’s hands and feet suddenly stopped moving. His hands were plastered to his sides, his feet together. His chest heaved violently, and his body started twisting in bizarre, unnatural ways.

Xu Xiye: “??”