APP: Chapter 134

He Xiao’s wrist was grabbed by Xie Chi and he couldn’t escape. His black eyes were gradually stained with yin energy and a bit of red appeared, making some evil darkness appear on the originally honest and upright face.

“Is there any misunderstanding?”

On one side was an old actor who always cared for her and the other side was her idol. Ye Xiaoxiao couldn’t figure out the situation for a while and could only try to remain impartial.

“No misunderstanding,” Xie Chi told her.

Ren Ze asked Ye Xiaoxiao to stand further away. Ye Xiaoxiao stared at He Xiao’s face. Upon taking a closer look, she realized that his temperament and expression weren’t right at this time and quietly stepped back.

Xie Chi watched He Xiao without saying a word. The two of them stood at a stalemate and the atmosphere was low. Finally, at a certain critical point, He Xiao’s tense expression relaxed. He looked at Xie Chi and said, “You are smarter than I thought.”

His real voice was slightly different from before. Xie Chi and Ren Ze couldn’t hear it but Ye Xiaoxiao was familiar with He Xiao and could tell instantly. Ye Xiaoxiao’s expression changed and her heartbeat sped up. He Xiao’s words were equivalent to admitting that she didn’t realize her old friend had changed. If it wasn’t for Xie Chi…

Xie Chi stared at him indifferently.

Ghost He Xiao sneered. “Your words are right and wrong. I am He Xiao but also not He Xiao.”

It seemed that due to the transformation into a ghost, the evil side of his character was infinitely magnified. The previous He Xiao would never show such an expression.

Xie Chi only said, “You are the dead He Xiao.”

Surprise flashed on ghost He Xiao’s face. “You know?”

“The actor He Xiao was in danger but didn’t die. Due to Schrodinger’s cat, you were born. You quietly occupied the magpie’s nest and replaced him.”

Xie Chi spoke of He Xiao’s origin in an emotionless manner. Ye Xiaoxiao thought of He Xiao’s care for her in the past and her heart ached. She asked the ghost He Xiao in a loud and harsh voice, “What about the real Uncle He? He is dead?”

“Xiaoxiao, you don’t need to be sad.” It was another He Xiao but he still had the memories of the past. He mechanically comforted her. “The actor He Xiao is dead but I am also He Xiao.”

“This…” Ye Xiaoxiao looked at his face and her mood was unspeakably complicated. She resisted his words. “How can it be the same?”

This wasn’t the same at all. He might be He Xiao but it was impossible for her to accept him without any obstacles. He killed He Xiao and that He Xiao would never come back. A good third-tier actor died in the movie without any movement and before he could use his many means. Ye Xiaoxiao was very sad thinking about this.

Xie Chi was naturally indifferent to her emotional experience and asked in a business-like manner, “Is it easy to admit because you don’t have a conflict of interest with us?”

He Xiao’s gaze fell on this calm and almost cold young man and secretly thought that he had underestimated this new star too much. He said, “Let’s talk upstairs.”

***

They returned to Xie Chi’s ward and Ren Ze locked the door. Then He Xiao stared at the three of them and spoke bluntly, “You can completely treat me as the actor He Xiao because I won’t hurt you. I just can’t go back with you after the filming is over. I will start a new life in this parallel space.”

Ye Xiaoxiao’s eyes were a bit dim but she didn’t say anything.

After that, He Xiao said some other things but they didn’t matter. Xie Chi became impatient and frowned. “Tell me something practical.”

Killing intent filled ghost He Xiao’s eyes and the red color appeared again as he spoke in a cold voice. “I can’t say it.”

Xie Chi heard what he wanted and the smile on his lips was fleeting. The attitude of being unable to speak already revealed an infinite amount of information.

Ghost He Xiao thought he read it wrong. Xie Chi seemed a bit… happy?

“Ren Ze, let’s go.” Xie Chi glanced at Ren Ze to the side.

He Xiao thought that Xie Chi would continue to forcefully question him. Unexpectedly, Xie Chi didn’t even spare him a glance and led the blank-faced Ren Ze to the door. As they exited through the door, Ren Ze whispered, “Aren’t you worried about him killing Ye Xiaoxiao? Should we call her…?”

Xie Chi shook his head and whispered. “It is safer for Ye Xiaoxiao to stay beside ghost He Xiao than to follow us.”

Ren Ze stared. “Why?”

Xie Chi’s voice was indifferent. “He Xiao was an emotional person when he was alive. The evil thoughts might be magnified by several times but he is most likely to protect Ye Xiaoxiao who has a close relationship with him. After all, he and Ye Xiaoxiao have no conflict of interest. His task is only to kill the actor He Xiao. The ghost He Xiao is definitely better than us. We can’t even protect ourselves so how can we protect her?”

“Then why don’t you keep asking…”

Xie Chi interrupted with a smile. “At present, he has no conflict of interest with us. If I continue to ask then there will be. He obviously doesn’t want to tell us.”

“Questioning requires strength. Currently, I don’t have any.”

He spread out his hands but there was no frustration on his face.

Ren Ze nodded and recognized reality.

Xie Chi blinked and there was a sly smile on his face. “In addition, I know it all.”

Ren Ze was frozen for a while.

***

They stood in front of the emergency department. The night breeze was blowing and Xie Chi lit a cigarette. Red light shone down from the sky and the white body of the cigarette turned red, symbolizing restlessness. Xie Chi took a puff and felt his mind clear a bit. He raised a finger and pointed it at the junction of the two moons in the sky. “Look.”

Ren Ze followed his hand and looked.

He had been staying in the hospital the entire time and hadn’t felt the change in the moon. Now that Xie Chi took him out, he was shocked to find that the red moon was so red while the white moon was pitifully dim in comparison.

At the junction of the red and white moons, subtle changes were still constantly happening. Xie Chi was referring to this. He had also suddenly figured it out.

“You see.” Xie Chi raised his head. “If you look closely at the changes at the junction of the red moon, you will find that there are actually only two types. One is swallowing. The red colored clouds are engulfing the white colored clouds. We have already seen what this symbolizes. Our selves who died in the car accident killed us out of jealousy. If successful, the red color occupies the white color.”

Ren Ze’s eyes widened. He and Xie Chi had been in the faction confrontation ghost movie 1552 Haunted House and he had a deep understanding of factions. He understood it instantly the moment Xie Chi spoke.

There were two moons. They represented the white side and the ghosts represented the red side. In the beginning, the red moon and white moon each accounted for half because in this movie, everyone corresponded to only one self who died in the car accident. There were 12 actors and 12 ghosts.

The ghosts weren’t weak but as long as the actor recognized their identity and called out their name, they would die instantly. It could be said that the power was equal.

Now when Ren Ze looked up at the moon, he had a completely different understanding. The two moons were still big but the balance of the clouds was completely tilted toward the red moon. The white clouds were squeezed into a very small mass, cowering and retreating. It only occupied two-fifths of the area. This was indeed an ominous sign.

“What about the other change?” Ren Ze wondered.

“It is just like the actor He Xiao’s death method—replacement.”

Ren Ze watched as a small white cloud in the sky was replaced by a red one.

Yes, it was swallowing and replacement. This symbolized the two situations that the actors would encounter. Swallowing indicated that the one who died in the car accident would come to kill them. Meanwhile, replacement was the ghosts born in the course of the movie coming to occupy the magpie’s nest.

The two changes of the clouds represented the two ways the actors could die.

The clouds already had this type of change when they entered but their attention was on the plot and they hadn’t thought about what this meant. In fact, if they were asked to think at the time then they wouldn’t be able to think of anything. It was only after it was confirmed that they could go back and understand it.

“Xie Chi, it would be nice if we knew it earlier…” Ren Ze sighed. It was too late to know it now. If they knew it at the beginning then many things wouldn’t have happened. Now they knew but it was useless. On the contrary, it was embarrassing and giving advice in hindsight.

Xie Chi cocked his head and looked at Ren Ze with a smile. “Why so upset? I just made a breakthrough. Why are you showing that expression?”

“Huh?” Ren Ze raised his head, eyes full of disbelief.

Xie Chi smiled. “I know where my main conflict of interest with Ghost Xie Chi and Ghost He Xiao is.”

He continued, “The result of the red clouds continuing to attack is that the white clouds will completely disappear and there is only the red moon in the sky. According to what I said earlier, this means that all the actors have been replaced by their ghost, just like He Xiao, or all the actors are killed by ghosts. It doesn’t matter if it is the former or the latter. The important thing is the conclusion. The conclusion is that there is only the red moon left in the sky and there are no actors left in this world.”

Ren Ze felt that something was about to come out.

“Meanwhile, the white moon corresponds to us,” Xie Chi spoke slowly.

Ren Ze’s heart trembled and a bright light flashed in his mind. “I know! The two moons in the sky are just a vision. At the end of the movie, only one moon will be left in the sky!”

He was shocked the moment he said this. Yes, the world would return to normal in the future but now this world had multiple selves. The rule of the world was that… a world could have only one self.

At the end of the day, only one could stay.

Countless selves were in the same space which was a great sorrow in itself. Since time and space were chaotic, they couldn’t go to the world that originally belonged to them and the world only had room for one of them to live. This was an iron-clad law of the world that couldn’t be violated.

Countless people competed for their home or else they would be met by death. Without a world, there was no self. They had nowhere to go. They could only choose to kill the extra self before the night of the two moons ended.

This was simply a conflict of interest that couldn’t be resolved.

Ren Ze put himself in the situation and thought about it. If he was the ghost Ren Ze then he would make exactly the same decision as the ghost He Xiao. He would kill himself without hesitation and replace himself.

Ren Ze closed his eyes tightly and calmed down his emotions. Then he opened his eyes and told Xie Chi sincerely, “I understand now how much courage ghost Xie Chi needed to find you and cooperate with you.”

The ghost Xie Chi was in the darkness and Xie Chi was in the light. The ghost Xie Chi obviously had the advantage but he found Xie Chi at the risk of exposing huge information. It undoubtedly gave Xie Chi a chance to fight back and gave a part of the ghost’s life to Xie Chi.

Xie Chi nodded. “Yes, he is really interesting.”

“That is why he only spoke a few words when he saw me. He wanted to leave himself enough room to retreat in case I tried to kill him because of the information he brought me. What can he do? These are all risks he has to take and the risks are huge, so he had to hide a lot to protect himself and Xie Xinglan. It all depends on my ability to guess his meaning. It is the same for He Xiao’s concealment.”

Xie Chi was a very self-aware person and had never encountered big problems with his intelligence. He was very narcissistic and loved himself very much. He gave most of his time to himself. Based on this understanding, it was easy for him to figure out what ghost Xie Chi was thinking.

Ren Ze was curious. “Since the contradiction can’t be resolved, why did he find you?”

Ren Ze felt that normal ghosts would do the same as ghost He Xiao, who killed He Xiao in the darkness and then hid among the actors. The ghosts had the actor’s memories and could replace them with no effort.

Xie Chi looked at him and spoke casually, “Perhaps it is because ghost Xinglan loves me and isn’t willing to let me die?”

Ren Ze’s eyes widened. “Is this real???”

Xie Chi glanced at him. “It’s a joke.”

“……” At this time, he was still in the mood to joke.

Xie Chi became serious. “It is very simple. After weighing it, ghost Xie Chi believes in me more than the app.”

“He questions the rules themselves.”

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Proofreader: Purichan