Chapter 15: Partings and Farewells

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The Wise Star glanced back. His expression was weary, and it took him two seconds to reply.

“We’ll talk about it together later.”

Qian Cangyi nodded, then asked, “What about Rouguang? Why haven’t I seen her?”

“We’ll talk about it together.” After saying this, the Wise Star turned his head back.

By then, Ning Jing and Xiao Tian had also climbed to their feet. Their condition was much the same as Qian Cangyi’s, and after getting up, they came over as well.

“You can talk now.” Qian Cangyi looked at the Wise Star.

The Wise Star did not move. He merely gazed into the depths of the dense forest.

“What about Rouguang?” Ning Jing looked left and right as she spoke, but she could not find any sign of her.

The Wise Star rose to his feet, brushed the dust from his trousers with his right hand, then looked at Ning Jing.

“Rouguang is dead.”

“Dead?” Ning Jing blinked, unable to accept it for the moment.

“What happened last night?” Xiao Tian extended his right hand and lightly touched the Wise Star’s arm.

“Could it be that the character has to see the head, rather than the actor? Whoever sees the head dies?” Qian Cangyi suddenly thought of this possibility.

“Exactly.” The Wise Star let out a faint sigh. “Whoever sees the head dies.”

“But yesterday Rouguang said, ‘Spit it out already.’ Only Yan Ruoxuan could have said that…” Ning Jing’s voice abruptly stopped. “…Could it be that Rouguang never left at all? She was pretending?”

“That is the only explanation for now. I do not know the reason. Perhaps her relationship with Yan Ruoxuan made her unwilling to let Yan Ruoxuan control her body again. Or perhaps she simply did not trust me. In any case, she did not break away then, and she even managed to deceive me.” The Wise Star kept both hands in his pockets, his head lowered, his tone dejected. “If I had been more cautious and confirmed it one more time, perhaps things would have turned out completely differently.”

“You do not need to blame yourself. None of us expected this. We all know in our hearts whose fault it really was.” Qian Cangyi spoke up to comfort him.

“That’s right. Isn’t the reason we are here the Hell Cinema?” Ning Jing lifted her head and looked at the sky.

Qian Cangyi looked at the ground and let out a soft sigh.

The actors who had been acting together only moments ago had vanished in the blink of an eye, without even leaving behind a single “goodbye,” as though they had never existed at all. Only the memories of the others could prove that they had once been there.

Suddenly, he thought of something. If he died in the movie world, what would happen to him in the real world?

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“I have a question. If Rouguang died, what would happen to her in the real world?” Qian Cangyi glanced at the other three.

“She would die in some kind of accident. No one would know what had really happened to us.” The Wise Star turned to look at Qian Cangyi.

“So that’s how it is…” Qian Cangyi smiled. “…That may be for the best.”

“Wise Star, how did you know the way to break the curse was exactly as you thought? What if the actors had to see the skull in order to survive?” Xiao Tian’s eyes were filled with curiosity.

The Wise Star clenched his right hand into a fist and held it before his mouth. After two seconds, he answered:

“Actually, everything began last night.”

“The shadows we saw inside the tent, along with the movements they made, were both a curse and a hint.”

“The head falling off, being picked up, and then put back in place meant that our heads had already been replaced. Of course, this was not replacement in the physical sense. Rather, no matter which way we went, we would become lost in the dense forest and hear strange sounds.”

At this point, Xiao Tian interrupted him. “Replaced?”

The Wise Star nodded. “That’s right. A replacement of the senses—or perhaps a replacement of the soul.”

He continued:

“After entering the dense forest, we saw many things and heard many things. There was also the endlessly repeating forest, and the shadow whose cracks grew wider and wider. But in reality, all of these were merely distractions meant to confuse us. The true killing blow was the food being consumed at an ever-increasing rate. Once the food had been depleted to a certain point, we were bound to see the skull inside the backpack—and bound to die.”

“The question was: who would die? Us, or Yan Ruoxuan and the others?”

“At first, I did not understand. Only later did I figure it out.”

“As Zhang Sibo said, if the situation really was as he described, then we had no way to escape. At that moment, I thought of the Hell Cinema.”

“To the Moon God, Yan Ruoxuan and the others were toys that could be manipulated at will. Our status before the Hell Cinema was no different. However, judging from the movies we had participated in before, it was obvious that the Hell Cinema provided us with a way to survive. Yet this time, I had not discovered any such method. Every path led to death. Therefore, the only place where the real problem could lie was within ourselves.”

“What about the situation I mentioned?” Xiao Tian had not forgotten his question.

The Wise Star shook his head slightly.

“As for the situation you mentioned, Xiao Tian, it is actually very unlikely. You will understand if you think about it.”

“If we did nothing at all, what would happen in the end? The result would be exactly what you described: we would see the skull. Do you think we would die, or survive?”

“To survive by doing nothing would happen to be the opposite of the trap we encountered earlier.”

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At this point, he stopped and looked at Xiao Tian, a confident smile appearing on his face.

“What if that so-called Moon God had anticipated this?” Xiao Tian had barely finished asking when he suddenly sensed that something was wrong. “You deliberately waited for me to ask that, didn’t you?”

The Wise Star did not answer. He simply took out the black notebook.

Qian Cangyi immediately understood. “So that’s how it is.”

“What?” Ning Jing asked, puzzled.

Qian Cangyi turned to Ning Jing and answered:

“The diary in the Wise Star’s hand is the one we found yesterday. That proves what we saw yesterday was not an illusion. If we turn back, we should encounter that skeleton as well.”

“It also proves something else. We were not the first group of five to arrive on the island. Likewise, we may not be the last.”

“The replacement of the heads caused groups of five from different points in time to overlap with one another. That is why, yesterday, we were able to hear different conversations in the dense forest.”

After saying this, he sighed.

Ning Jing took a deep breath, then turned to the Wise Star.

“Wise Star, can you tell us what happened after you saw the skull? And how did you survive?”

Her voice trembled slightly as she asked.

The Wise Star nodded. After thinking for a moment, he answered:

“The way I survived was very simple. Zhang Sibo is an introverted person. I only needed to write the same words in the notebook. He was certain to check the backpack. The moment he saw the skull, I survived.”

“As for the rest of you, I think you still remember. The skull bit down on your ankles, after which you collapsed and lost consciousness. In reality, residual images had already appeared on your bodies at that moment. The skull clamped onto those residual images, tearing at them again and again before dragging them underground.”

“As for Rouguang…”

He sighed and did not wish to say more.

“At the time, did you try to save Rouguang?” Ning Jing asked softly. She knew her question was somewhat impolite.

“Wise Star, having us look first had its advantages. If we died, you could simply check the backpack yourself. A perfect plan.” After Xiao Tian finished speaking, he let out a laugh.

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