Chapter 25: Human Skin Script (3): Busy Feet

A dead person among them?

They had all met outside the villa and come together. Everyone had introduced themselves and shared details—names, where they were from. It was the easiest way to identify each other. There was no room for error.

Xie Lincheng, Lou Hao, and Wen Danning were shocked, though they hid it well, and then quickly dismissed the idea.

The other four were different. They openly stepped back in alarm. Zhuo Heng even yelped, “Damn!”

These baffling actions just left Xu Xiye confused.

“So there’s a dead person? Uh… do you know who it is?” Wen Danning asked gently.

Xu Xiye looked at her with an even stranger expression. “Shouldn’t you be asking the Director that? Or check the script. Isn’t it written there?”

Wen Danning: “…”

The others: “…”

So you were talking about acting the role of a dead person!

Of course a ghost film needs a dead person! Xu Xiye constantly failed at understanding the thought processes of outsiders.

BOOM!

After a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder, the rain poured down even harder.

The crew drove several cars out from the underground garage, apparently for them. They needed to film a scene of arriving at the villa in the rain.

“Alright, come over.” The Director shouted at them through his megaphone again. “Actors, to your positions!”

Xie Lincheng: “Lu Ren, we’re heading off now.”

Xu Xiye: “Okay.”

To get from the villa’s front door to the underground garage entrance, they had to walk through the rain. Zhuo Heng was at the back. Xu Xiye called out to him. “Did you memorize that number from just now?”

Zhuo Heng: “Yeah, I memorized it.”

He even recited the number back.

Xu Xiye: “Mm-hmm, good. If you…” He thought about how to phrase it. Mentally ill people always had trouble recognizing they were sick. “If you ever feel too stressed out or your memory gets confused, you must call me, okay?”

Just now, he hadn’t been able to connect with the puppy’s gaze. He’d researched this. The best time to borrow eyes was when they were emotionally unstable—startled and jittery.

Zhuo Heng: “Call you? Then what?”

Xu Xiye said with a serious face: “Then I’ll take you to get treatment. If you’re sick, that is.”

Zhuo Heng didn’t understand. Zhuo Heng was stunned. “Got it. I gotta go.”

Xu Xiye: “Go on.”

Zhuo Heng ran out into the rain. As he reached the garage entrance, he shook his head, just like a wet dog.

Xie Lincheng and a guy with a buzz cut were playing a couple. They shared one car. Zhuo Heng was in a car by himself.

Everyone had sedans. Everyone except Lou Hao. He drove a motorcycle.

A metal body with sleek, powerful lines and contours. Even someone like Xie Lincheng, who knew nothing about bikes, could tell how expensive this ride was. But right now, it was raining. A thunderstorm. Laughable.

Lou Hao gritted his teeth, his cool, handsome face twisting in frustration. It wasn’t that he minded getting wet. For someone destined to become a powerhouse, what was a mere rainstorm!

What frustrated him was that he truly loved riding motorcycles, and he truly loved this one!

Many things in the Inner World were reflections of reality. It wasn’t strange to see identical things here. He’d been through many polluted zones, but this was the first time he’d encountered one that knew their personal details so well.

The Director told them to move their cars to designated spots. As Zhuo Heng passed by, Lou Hao gave him a cold glance and abruptly asked, “He talked to you?”

Zhuo Heng: “Huh? Yeah. We talked.”

“It was you he picked!” Lou Hao looked him up and down, arrogant and displeased.

Lou Hao’s intuition told him Lu Ren was a special figure. To be singled out by a special figure for a private talk—it was like the “old man in the ring” picking the protagonist. Fine if it wasn’t him, but Zhuo Heng?

Was it because he hadn’t acted cool and domineering enough in front of him?

That guy Zhuo Heng… Lou Hao couldn’t see anything special about him at all. Except for a pair of eyes that looked exactly like a dog’s.

Did Lu Ren like dogs?

Lou Hao was troubled, but quickly regained his cool demeanor. “What did he say to you? Spill it honestly. I am willing to contemplate it with you.”

Zhuo Heng: “…” Everyone here is so weird.

Zhuo Heng: “He said that if I’m under too much pressure or my memory gets messed up, I can call him. He’ll take me to see a doctor.”

See a doctor? Could it be some hidden plotline or hidden location?

“Hey! Hey! You two still dawdling! Get in! Get moving!” The Assistant Director, that irritable director with the grotesquely mismatched limb proportions, had spotted them and started cursing.

Amidst the booming thunder, the first car drove out.

The sky was low and heavy, darkness seemingly merging with the earth. Visibility was extremely poor. Windshield wipers swung frantically, yet sheets of water still streamed down the glass. The rain was showing signs of intensifying. If they didn’t hurry, driving might truly become impossible.

Lou Hao put on his helmet, swung a long leg over the bike, and leaned low. He accelerated, quickly overtaking the cars ahead.

Zhuo Heng drove a red luxury car. He was at the very back. Driving back, he was the first in line. Their cars were all on the same road, driving in the same direction. Maybe it was the darkness, but even though they weren’t far apart, he could no longer see anyone, or any car.

In a daze, it felt as if he was suddenly the only person left in the world.

He had been completely isolated by the storm.

Zhuo Heng felt a crushing pressure and suffocation.

How did they normally film in the real world? Chase cars with cameras, or set up equipment up ahead. Whatever the method, it shouldn’t be like this.

Zhuo Heng’s car moved very slowly. Even with the headlights on, it was useless in this rain. His gaze constantly strained forward. Suddenly, he met a pair of white eyes.

Those eyes floated in the air, turning to look at him. Zhuo Heng’s heart gave a violent lurch. Then he saw a hand waving beneath the eyes.

It was the Director.

The Director’s body hair was very thick. At a glance, besides the hair, his eyes were the most prominent feature. But now, he seemed to be all hair, with only his eyes still exposed.

The effect was as stark as seeing a black man’s teeth in the dark.

Zhuo Heng panicked at this realization.

His headlights shone over, and he saw the hand waving more urgently, probably signaling him to drive faster.

Zhuo Heng pressed the accelerator. His speed increased a little. The Director’s hand disappeared.

He swallowed hard, thinking: No matter what, whatever happens, at least I’m not alone here.

He just needed to pick someone up and drive back to the villa.

Anyway, the professional big bosses were here. He was just along for the ride.

What Zhuo Heng didn’t know was that not only was he not alone, but there were more presences here than he imagined.

He failed to notice that some of the falling raindrops were black. Above him, a vast expanse of dark raindrops spread out from this road, extending all the way to the position of the last car.

The rain was falling so fast. Xu Xiye’s feet were very busy.

Splitting, crawling, turning into countless, densely packed black unknown substances. All while splitting his focus to watch the main actors perform.

He was so busy.

He’d come for this job, partly drawn by the words “daily pay,” but largely also to see how a movie was made. Now, the extras weren’t needed as background decoration, the sky had turned as dark as night, and it was raining heavily. With these elements combined, how could Xu Xiye possibly resist staying put?

Just as he was getting antsy, the Boyfriend said, “I was born in the water. I feel like going out for a stroll.”

The Girlfriend: “Then go. We’re not in any scenes right now. And didn’t the Director tell us to get into character? We’re tenants here to relax. Going out to play is perfectly normal.”

Xu Xiye nodded solemnly. “That makes sense.” Since that was the case, it couldn’t even be called slacking off.

All three decided to go. But all three just looked at each other, none of them moving immediately.

“Ahem. Ahem.” The Girlfriend coughed a few times. “Then I’ll go first?”

Xu Xiye and the Boyfriend nodded. After her, it would be the Boyfriend, and Xu Xiye would go last.

They’d just met, they weren’t familiar. How embarrassing would it be to shed their human forms face-to-face?

Following the raindrops, he climbed up into the sky. This was something he was very skilled at. The nature of his original form and his perspective allowed him to take in all the scenes below.

Not that he could truly “see” it all. He only had two eyes. Relying purely on his eyes to see, he’d never be able to take everything in.

Xu Xiye looked at the Puppy Guy driving the car, then at the nail-sized black fly next to him. The fly had a human face on its head.

It flew through the night sky, sometimes resting on the cars. In this environment, it was almost impossible to spot.

“Are you also here to watch the show?” Xu Xiye asked.

The fly-man was sprawled in a small corner in front of the windshield. It was slow to react. When still, its form seemed dazed. When flying, it was very agile. Even such heavy rain didn’t hinder it.

Xu Xiye waited a moment before the fly-person responded.

It turned its head, revealing that pale human face more clearly. It had compound eyes and didn’t need to rotate its head much to see in all directions.

Its gaze paused on a few raindrops that remained black in the air. After a long while, it spoke. A buzzing sound, but Xu Xiye understood.

It said, “I am not.”

Xu Xiye: “But I’ve seen you all watching them.” There was, of course, more than one fly-person. One or two seemed to be following each of the main actors.

Another long pause. The fly-person said, “We are also actors.”

“?” This time, Xu Xiye was surprised. “Can you even be filmed?”

The fly-person paused, then said, “We are actors who need to be present, but don’t need to be specifically filmed.”

Xu Xiye: “Ah, like those details you have to look closely to see.”

Fly-person: “Correct.”

Xu Xiye: “I play a passerby.”

Fly-person: “I know. Just someone passing through.”

Xu Xiye and the fly-person’s conversation grew smoother and smoother. Inside the car, Zhuo Heng remained completely oblivious.

Of course he had to be oblivious. When someone else was working, how could he possibly shout out their conversation? Not only would it disturb them, but it might even get recorded. He’d definitely get yelled at by the Director.

He was very careful about this.

After the chat ended, Xu Xiye didn’t speak to the fly-person anymore. After all, the fly-person was also on the job.

The rain poured harder and harder. Visibility ahead became even worse. Zhuo Heng could no longer see where the Director was.

He slowed down, drove a little further, and finally saw a white figure standing by the roadside.

The script said someone would hitch a ride with him. They’d compared plotlines. The one riding with him was a girl with braids, an art student studying painting, named Su Qing.

She was wearing exactly that—a white cotton-linen dress.

The woman was waving.

Seeing a familiar face, Zhuo Heng relaxed. He stopped the car, and the woman walked toward it.

However, in the next second, Zhuo Heng’s pupils constricted sharply.

He didn’t know how that woman was walking. The posture was bizarre. She seemed to be walking step by step, yet also seemed to blink and cover a large distance.

Zhuo Heng gripped the steering wheel so hard his hands hurt, his body unconsciously pressing toward the driver’s side door, trying to put distance between himself and the woman.

Zhuo Heng wanted to immediately start the car and leave. But wanting was just wanting.

The woman was now standing outside his car.

Her face pressed against the window.

Thud, thud, thud, thud.

The window was being knocked on.

[Your name is Zhuo Heng. Driving back to the city, you encounter a sudden, severe rainstorm. The water on the road is deepening, visibility dropping to near zero. The vehicle is no longer safe to drive.]

[You see a villa not far from the road. It’s a holiday villa that rents out rooms. You decide to spend the night there.]

[While slowly driving towards it, you encounter a pitiful woman. She wants to hitch a ride with you to the villa.]

[“Sir, can you give me a ride? I’m so cold.”]

[She says this to you.]

[She is terribly cold and appears injured. You decide to let her in the car.]

“Sir, can you give me a ride? I’m so cold.”

The woman’s face was still pressed against his window. Through the relentless wash of the heavy rain, Zhuo Heng could only make out a blurred, ghastly pale face. Her lips moved faintly, and sound seemed to seep in. He couldn’t hear clearly what she said, but he knew what she was saying.

Because the script had updated.

He hadn’t dared throw the script away. He’d kept it tucked in his jacket pocket. He hadn’t touched it, and certainly didn’t take it out now, but he knew it had updated.

It had detailed the earlier synopsis.

This was a ghost film. None of them were playing ghosts, so someone else was.

This woman was an actress, playing the hitchhiker. He should open the door and let her in.

Given a proper reason, Zhuo Heng was unlikely to refuse. He unlocked the door.

The car door was pulled open. Zhuo Heng held his breath and saw the woman’s head poke in. His eyes darted around wildly, and he practically squeezed his eyes shut as he shouted, “Yeah, get in.”

“I’m all wet, is that okay?”

“It’s fine.” It wasn’t his car, anyway.

“Thank you. You’re so kind.” The woman sat down in the passenger seat and closed the door. Zhuo Heng didn’t notice the nail-sized fly that had flown into his car.

The car slowly started moving again. Zhuo Heng didn’t quite dare to look at the woman’s face. From his peripheral vision, he caught a glimpse of her long, slender calves—ghastly white skin marked with faint blue and purple bruises.

“It’s so warm in your car,” the woman sighed. Then, she took the initiative to explain her situation. “My name is Bai Luwei. I had a fight with my boyfriend over some things, and he just left me here in a fit of anger. I didn’t expect to run into a storm, or for it to take so long to flag down a car.”

Zhuo Heng: “Your boyfriend sounds like a real piece of work.”

Bai Luwei lowered her head and smiled. The smile was bitter, yet carried a pitiable, delicate charm. “He’s usually very nice. As warm-hearted as you are.”

Zhuo Heng: “Ah. Oh, oh. Is that so?”

It was other people’s relationship drama; Zhuo Heng didn’t feel it was his place to comment much.

He furtively glanced at the woman beside him. Outside, it might have been psychological pressure, but once she was in the car, he realized she still looked very human, and very beautiful at that. Just like her name: a white rosebush under the morning dew.

The type that easily evoked a protective instinct.

Bai Luwei: “The rain is so heavy. Are you planning to drive all the way into the city?”

Zhuo Heng: “No. I’m going to spend the night at that villa next door.”

“That villa…” Bai Luwei murmured softly. Then, looking ahead at a new white figure that had appeared, she said, “Another woman is trying to hitch a ride with you. You sure are popular.”

Indeed, another white silhouette was standing by the roadside up ahead. The figure raised a hand to flag them down.

This must be Su Qing, one of their own.

But for some reason, hearing Bai Luwei’s remark, Zhuo Heng felt a cold chill run down his back.