Lu Xing You immediately enlarged the image resolution and carefully examined the anomaly Song Zang had pointed out.
Sure enough, even though the surveillance footage was in black and white, the difference between the expressions of the two Qiu Shuangs was clearly visible.
The Qiu Shuang floating inside the glass was only a faint reflection, but her expression was terrified, her pupils contracted and her mouth opened wide.
Meanwhile, the Qiu Shuang standing outside the kitchen seemed completely unaware that anything was wrong. She was still cheerfully eating onion rings, holding a cup of iced cola in her other hand, looking perfectly happy.
“This thing looks a lot like the face that’s been targeting me.” Song Zang’s voice trembled as he shrank deeper into Yin Chen’s arms.
Lu Xing You looked thoughtful as he typed on another keyboard. “Could this be the legendary Twisted Chaos Form? Hold on, let me look up some information…
“Found it. Look! The defining feature of this type of Aberrant is that they can appear inside any reflective surface. There have been countless recordings around the world suspected to involve the Twisted Chaos Form, but their method of killing is still unknown.”
Yin Chen frowned. “There’s no way to kill them quickly?”
Lu Xing You shook his head. “The only proven method of self-protection so far is to destroy every reflective surface nearby. That can drive them away temporarily. But every human they’ve targeted eventually falls into the Aberrants’ hands and dies violently in all kinds of ways… Damn. There are tons of cases here, and not a single one died normally.”
“All right.” Yin Chen’s eyes cooled slightly as he pulled Song Zang tighter against him.
If there truly was no escaping once someone had been targeted, then he had even more reason to never leave Song Zang alone. They would have to cover the bathroom mirror too, just in case.
Just then, Song Zang spoke weakly, his face pale. “Brother Lu, I think this information is inaccurate.”
“How so?”
Song Zang pointed at the computer screen. “The person reflected in the glass looks more like the real Qiu Shuang.”
“What? You mean the one outside is the fake?”
“At least at this particular moment, she’s fake.” Song Zang bit his lip. “Do you believe me?”
“Of course I believe you,” Yin Chen answered without hesitation, rubbing Song Zang’s shoulder soothingly, though his own expression was less than pleasant. “Hah. You really do understand her well… Stop biting your lip.”
Song Zang instantly sensed the resentment radiating from him and hurried to placate him. “Who says that? I obviously understand you best. Last night, I knew at a glance that he wasn’t you!”
“All right, you two ancestors. If you want to flirt, go back to your room and do it. Come look at the surveillance footage.”
Lu Xing You was both sleepy and speechless. As he complained, he dumped instant coffee powder directly into his mouth, then continued muttering, “Song-Song, you’re right. Qiu Shuang’s behavior is really strange. It looks like she wasn’t eating all that food voluntarily.”
In the surveillance footage, Qiu Shuang cheerfully ate her snacks. The very second she finished, her entire body suddenly stiffened, and she hurried outside as though a ghost were chasing her.
She was not going back to work.
She was trying to flee the resort!
Halfway through her escape, her steps abruptly stopped. Qiu Shuang froze in place again, then turned around and walked back toward the kitchen, her frantic footsteps once more becoming light and cheerful.
That was right.
She went back to secretly eating again.
Once or twice might have been explainable, but Qiu Shuang repeated the same behavior over and over for a full three hours.
This was absolutely not simple laziness or slacking off.
It looked more like someone desperately struggling to survive while enduring unbearable torment.
The situation was becoming obvious.
Qiu Shuang had been taken over.
Unlike what Yin Chen had encountered, where several identical impostors had simply been copied into existence, this thing had directly usurped Qiu Shuang’s consciousness and forcibly taken control of her body.
Thinking back on it now, the Aberrant that had silently replaced Xu Ji Dong and Xu Meng was probably also this Twisted Chaos type, hiding inside reflective surfaces and quietly eroding their minds.
Qiu Shuang struggled against it many times.
Eventually, she became desperate and yanked hard on her own hair to keep herself conscious.
At 1:25 p.m., she crashed into Lin Wen Jing’s arms.
Crying, she said something to her. Lin Wen Jing grabbed her hand, and the two of them ran toward the sea together…
“They entered a surveillance blind spot, so we can’t see exactly what happened afterward. Then later, Qiu Shuang’s body washed ashore…” Lu Xing You frowned. “That fake Lin Wen Jing never appeared again either. Did she just swim straight out into the deep sea?”
Yin Chen said indifferently, “Whatever happened, this place isn’t safe right now. There are at least two Aberrants wandering around out there, possibly more. Don’t sleep too deeply tonight.”
“Obviously. I’m getting creeped out just looking at the computer monitor now. Technically this is a reflective surface too… Jeez.”
As he spoke, Lu Xing You turned his chair and looked toward Li Jun. He raised his voice. “Did you see any future danger today?”
Li Jun was helping Xia Zhi Zhi carry dishes. Hearing the question, he honestly shook his head. “No. Nothing.”
“That’s good. Nobody should die tonight.”
Lu Xing You yawned and hobbled into the kitchen on his crutches. He made do with a little pre-cut fruit, then turned around and limped back to his bedroom to sleep, leaving everyone else to eat whatever they wanted.
He was not hungry at all.
Right now, all he wanted was sleep.
Yin Chen did not stop him either. He took out a USB drive and made two copies of the surveillance footage in case the data was lost later.
Song Zang squeezed his way out of Yin Chen’s arms. “Yin Chen, I’m a little scared…”
Reluctantly, Yin Chen caught his wrist. “Scared of what?”
“Could what happened to Qiu Shuang happen to me in the future?” Song Zang lowered his voice. “You know how strange the description of my role mission is. It’s actually very similar to what happened to her.”
The phrase “Do not be replaced” had been repeated three full times.
Yin Chen pinched Song Zang’s cheek, apparently already confident about something. “It’s fine. As long as you eat and sleep with me, that thing definitely won’t dare come out.”
Seriously, why is he touching me again? Song Zang brushed his hand away and returned to the important matter. “But if it never comes out, how are we supposed to clear the game?”
“I’ll handle it.”
Yin Chen’s answer was simple and decisive.
Song Zang immediately put on an aggrieved expression. “You’re still hiding something from me.”
“I’m not.” Yin Chen became serious. “There’s something wrong with this world. I’m still investigating it myself.”
“Then why can’t you tell me?”
“If the information I’ve found is inaccurate, or even completely wrong… telling other people might actually cause serious consequences.” Seeing Song Zang’s displeasure, Yin Chen remained unusually patient and lowered his voice as though negotiating with him. “I don’t care what anyone else does, but between the two of us, there has to be an information gap.”
Song Zang listened thoughtfully. His deliberately aggrieved expression disappeared as he became serious. “Explain more.”
Yin Chen nodded. After thinking for a moment, he slowed his speech. “I’m not a calm person. I have too much information in my hands, and it’s too disorganized. There’s a good chance I’ll make assumptions about something before I fully understand it.
“For example, when I killed Xu Ji Dong, I thought I couldn’t tell anyone beforehand. But actually, there wouldn’t have been much harm in letting you know earlier.
“So you need to keep an eye on me. Your Resistance is high, which means you won’t be easily misled. If you ever notice that my behavior doesn’t make sense, or contradicts the information you currently have, then scold me.”
Song Zang stared at him. “S-Scold you? That doesn’t seem very nice.”
Seeing his stunned, disbelieving expression, Yin Chen suddenly smiled in delight. “Mm. It makes me calm down. I can stop and reconsider whether you’re right to scold me or whether my reasoning is more accurate. Like this afternoon, when you said there was something wrong with me. You were completely right.”
“…Yin Chen, I think you might be a little perverted,” Song Zang said quietly.
“Say whatever you want.” Yin Chen gave him an amused smile, seemingly completely unashamed by the assessment. “Come on. Time to eat.”
The beach cottage did not look nearly as grand as the villa, but inside it still had everything one could possibly need. There was more than enough space for an entire family.
The kitchen was separated by a glass door and stood farthest from the desk, so they could not hear the range hood while talking… but the increasingly rich and enticing aroma of food was impossible to ignore.
Xia Zhi Zhi had cooked four dishes and a soup, working remarkably fast. Apparently, he had deliberately trained his cooking skills so he could present himself among wealthy circles as excellent marriage material, someone capable of creating a warm, homey atmosphere for rich men and women alike.
Making money in this world really isn’t easy. You have to know how to do everything.
Song Zang was impressed. He followed Yin Chen into the living room and came face-to-face with Xia Zhi Zhi, who was standing there awkwardly.
Xiao Xiao was absent, and the relatively easygoing Lu Xing You had also gone to bed, so Xia Zhi Zhi was clearly feeling somewhat uncomfortable.
He deliberately avoided any possibility of meeting Li Jun’s eyes, took off his apron, and said awkwardly, “Um… dinner’s ready.”
Li Jun had also realized that he was extremely unwelcome. Knowing he was in the wrong, he cleared his throat and tried to say something pleasant to ease their relationship. “Wow. Your cooking smells great.”
Xia Zhi Zhi’s eyelid twitched violently.
He backed away several steps. “Sorry, but could you please never compliment me like that again?”
“Then I can compliment you, right?” Song Zang was starving. He pulled out a chair and sat down. “Teacher Xia is an amazing cook. Everything looks, smells, and tastes fantastic. I’m getting hungry just looking at it.”
“Um, Teacher Song, you really don’t need to be so polite either…” Xia Zhi Zhi timidly glanced at Yin Chen, afraid that this big shot might suddenly decide to kill him over something ridiculous.
Yin Chen was in a good mood and had no interest whatsoever in competing over cooking skills. There was even a faint smile in his phoenix eyes. “Enough. Eat.”
To be honest, Song Zang had absolutely no idea what Yin Chen was so happy about.
He could only smile along, then served himself a huge spoonful of scrambled eggs with tomato.
Delicious!
So this is what home cooking tastes like.
At the same time, another cottage was brightly lit.
Wang Ming Yue covered her face, trembling all over, her large beautiful eyes full of disbelief. “What are you talking about? My sister really died?”
Chi Yan lit a cigarette in exasperation and raised an eyebrow. “You genuinely didn’t know?”
“Dad said everything was just a script the production team wrote. My sister is supposed to inherit the Wang family business someday. Going on a dating show to look for love is too improper, so she was supposed to go home early.”
Wang Ming Yue pulled out tissues and wiped her tears, continuing between sobs, “And anyway, I don’t want the family fortune. I just want to be a huge celebrity… So Dad had her come first to set things up for me and gave her a script where she died early. Once I appeared, we could even market ourselves as the wealthy heiress sisters. How did it turn into this?”
Xiao Xiao was equally speechless. “Your family has money and resources. Becoming a celebrity would be ridiculously easy for you. Why would you deliberately play some bizarre green-tea bitch? Who gave you this trashy, embarrassing character setting?”
“My dad, of course! Sister Xiao, you misunderstand him. Dad loves both me and my sister very much, waaah… My sister is gone. What am I supposed to do? I don’t dare go home. Dad already has a bad heart…”
The more Wang Ming Yue spoke, the harder she cried. She looked so miserable and pitiful that she seemed on the verge of passing out.
With a sour expression, Xiao Xiao handed her more tissues. “Wipe your face. Cry less. No matter how much you cry, you can’t go home right now.”
“How could that be?! I’ll call Dad right now.”
Wang Ming Yue took out her phone and tearfully dialed the contact saved as 【Daddy】.
All she received was a cold busy tone.
Chairman Wang had actually blocked her.
“Mystery solved. One sweet little idiot with daddy issues.” Chi Yan clicked her tongue and flicked away some ash. “I’ll have Lu Xing You investigate again later. Maybe that old man from the Wang family has other illegitimate children outside.”
“No. That can’t be it. Sister Chi, how can you say something like that…” Wang Ming Yue stared blankly for several seconds before immediately becoming anxious.
Seeing that she looked ready to cry again, Xiao Xiao sighed and pinched her cheeks hard. “So your dad never told you that coming onto this show could get you killed?! Let me tell you something. More than twenty people have already died during filming! If all you know how to do is cry, you’ll be the next one!”
“…But how could Dad hurt me?” Wang Ming Yue covered her face again. Deep down, she actually understood what the truth might be, but she still refused to accept it aloud. “He recognized me at a single glance. When my adoptive parents sold me into a ghost marriage and I was buried alive in a grave, he personally dug me out.”
Xiao Xiao’s eyes widened. “What the hell? People still bury living women for ghost marriages in this day and age?!”
Wang Ming Yue wiped her tears and spoke softly. “Mm. Dad really loves me. He brought so many people to dig up my grave, and he personally dug through the earth with his own hands without caring about anything else. He cried while digging until both his hands were covered in blood…
“Do you know? I was almost dead. It was his crying that called me back. He kept crying beside me, saying, ‘Daddy’s here. Daddy came to take you home…’ He didn’t lie to me.
“Dad took me back to the Wang family, hired lots of bodyguards for me, formally acknowledged me as his daughter, and hired investigators to look into everything that had happened to me. Even the gangs operating on the streets, Dad personally visited them and warned them, making sure no one would ever dare bully me again.
“He told me himself that from then on, my sister would protect me and all I needed to do was happily pursue whatever I liked. I would never have to worry about anything again. Sister Xiao, do you really think he would hurt me? I don’t believe it. Even if it’s true, I still won’t believe it!”
Xiao Xiao was almost starting to feel heartbroken for her, but she still found Wang Ming Yue’s story suspicious. “If he really loves you, then why would he make you play a green-tea character and risk being hated by the entire internet, then send you into this hell?”
“Actually… there’s another possibility,” Chi Yan suddenly said.
Both women immediately looked toward her with identical expressions of eager curiosity.
Chi Yan ground out her cigarette, her tone serious. “Chairman Wang has been replaced by an Aberrant.”
“What’s an Aberrant?”
Chi Yan explained simply, “A monster pretending to be your dad.”
“But there’s no way I wouldn’t be able to tell…”
Chi Yan cut off her muttering. “How long ago were you brought back into the Wang family?”
“Less than two years.”
“Exactly. You’ve barely lived with your father for any time at all. How familiar could you possibly be with him? Do you really remember exactly how many new age spots have appeared on his face? Even someone you’ve known since childhood could fail to tell the real person from a fake.”
After mercilessly saying this, Chi Yan pulled out her phone and launched a barrage of calls, forcibly waking Lu Xing You from sleep.
Bang!
A loud crash came from a cottage in the distance.
Half asleep, Lu Xing You had rolled out of bed and become so furious that he punched a hole straight through the wooden floor.
“Sis! My dear sister! You only bully me because you know I can’t beat you! AAAAAAH…”
“Shut up. We just finished questioning Wang Ming Yue, and something’s wrong. Hurry up and investigate Chairman Wang’s recent movements. There’s a good chance he’s been replaced by an Aberrant. We need to find a way to kill him.” Chi Yan paused, her eyes becoming ice-cold. “If he hasn’t been replaced, then he deserves to die even more. Either way, kill him as soon as possible.”
“Oh. Okay,” Lu Xing You answered obediently.
His temper from being woken up had clearly not disappeared. He furiously snapped at the wooden floorboards. “I suggest letting Director Chang put a bullet through his head. Quick and convenient.”
“Whatever.”
Chi Yan hung up and calmly opened her system interface, sharing the information in the group chat.
Then she met Wang Ming Yue’s terrified gaze again.
“You’re going to kill my dad? No, no!”
Xiao Xiao could not resist pinching her cheeks again. “Do you want to die?”
“N-No.”
“Then stop asking questions. We’ll deal with the rest after filming.”
“…But I’d be willing to die for Dad. My health is bad anyway. I’ll never accomplish anything great, and I probably won’t live very long.”
“What, Wang Bao Zhu is already dead, and now you want to die too? You want your father’s bloodline to end and leave the Wang family’s huge fortune sitting there for other people to carve up?”
“No. That can’t happen.”
“Then think carefully about what you should actually do. Don’t get so caught up in your own emotions that you start talking about living or dying.” Xiao Xiao squeezed her cheeks harder and warned her, “The two of us are already pretty reasonable. Tomorrow, once you walk out of this room, if you drag everyone down, someone else really will cut you down with one strike.”
“Mmph, mmph…”
Wang Ming Yue responded tearfully and, thoroughly frightened, agreed.
That night, she did not dare sleep alone and insisted on squeezing in with Xiao Xiao and the others.
Beneath the faint moonlight, the Cupid mascot glittered all over with golden powder as it carried a stack of pink envelopes and waddled awkwardly along the wooden walkway.
The sea breeze sent the letters fluttering up and down, barely restrained by the little angel’s plump hands.
One by one, it opened the standing mailboxes outside several cottages, selected the love letters bearing each guest’s name, then puckered its lips and planted a blessing kiss on each envelope.
Afterward, it struggled onto tiptoe and dropped each angel-blessed love letter into the appropriate mailbox, adorably completing its mission without a hitch.
“Cut! We’re officially done for today. Great work, everyone. There’s free fried chicken in the dining hall for a late-night snack. Get some proper rest tonight.”
Chang Mei Jiang stood up in satisfaction and clapped her hands, signaling that the filming crew could finally disperse.
The instant she heard the words “late-night snack,” the petite female employee hidden inside the mascot suit cheered twice. With someone else’s help, she yanked off the mascot head and immediately sprinted toward the dining hall.
“That girl really can’t wait…”
Chang Mei Jiang laughed helplessly.
She did not leave immediately. Instead, she walked steadily across the beach in her towering heels, taking a rare moment to relax by herself.
She decided to stroll in the sea breeze and, while she was at it, check whether any of the staff had left garbage nearby.
She found no garbage.
But out of the corner of her eye, Chang Mei Jiang saw the door of one cottage slowly open, almost without making a sound.
The cottage shared by Song Zang and Yin Chen.
Chang Mei Jiang suspiciously turned around and stared.
She and Yin Chen, who had appeared in the doorway, looked at each other.
“What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?” Chang Mei Jiang lowered her voice.
Yin Chen’s lips curved slightly.
Without the slightest shame, he opened the mailbox and took out the love letter Song Zang had written to him.
Patiently, he smoothed out an almost invisible crease at the corner, carefully opened the envelope, unfolded the pink stationery, and began reading every word with complete seriousness.
Numbly, Chang Mei Jiang reminded him, “What you’re doing is against the rules. You’re supposed to wait until tomorrow morning before reading it.”
“He said my abs are very beautiful and look like they’d feel good to touch.” Yin Chen completely ignored Chang Mei Jiang’s words, narrowing his long eyes slightly. “Then why doesn’t he touch them more often?”
“Because touching someone’s body without permission is sexual harassment…?”
Yin Chen looked confused. “How could it be? I’ve always given him permission.”
Chang Mei Jiang choked.
She silently gave him the standard answer. “Then it’s because he has manners and respects you. Even very intimate lovers still need boundaries.”
“I don’t believe you.” Yin Chen smiled. “He’s extremely satisfied with my body.”
This big shot seriously doesn’t understand human language…
Chang Mei Jiang finally gave up. “Believe whatever you want. I’m leaving. Good night!”
She marched away in ten-centimeter heels at astonishing speed, coming and going like the wind.
Within moments, she had vanished.
Yin Chen slowly finished reading the letter.
When he finally raised his head, the vast, dark beach was completely empty.
He did not notice.
Lowering his eyes, he gently touched the place over his heart.
It was beating vividly and buoyantly inside his chest.
He really wanted to shake Song Zang awake and share this indescribable happiness with him.
But Song Zang would definitely be furious.
Better not.
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