The King of Hell came and went (22): That's a wrap

Static flickered across the old screen.

In the center of the screen, a man and a woman drove toward the setting sun along a mountain road leading to the sea.

They wore smiles that had long been absent from their faces.

They were the smiles of survivors.

Gong Yao and An Ya had finally escaped the curse named Yu Xiaohe-it had all been a false alarm. There were no ghosts in this world.

Just then, the smiles froze on both their faces.

"Yao... did you see that...?"

An Ya turned to Gong Yao in disbelief.

Gong Yao's expression darkened instantly.

Reflected in his pupils was a girl in a white dress, her hair hanging loose, standing in the middle of the road.

Gong Yao clenched his teeth and slammed his foot down on the accelerator-

Beneath a sunset as vivid as an oil painting, a jeep shot off the mountain road, hurtled into the air, and then plunged.

The screen went black.

A man's low voice sounded softly-

"Did you know? My eyes can see ghosts."

After a long silence, the lights came on, illuminating the entire banquet hall.

Applause gradually filled the hall.

"That gave me goosebumps!" Tao Lele shouted.

Yu Xiaohe slumped in her chair and let out an utterly undignified, alcohol-laced burp. "How do I put it? I got scared by the ghost I played myself."

An Ya raised her eyebrows in bewilderment. "We only finished shooting yesterday, and it's already edited today? Does that make any sense?"

He Li was in a psychiatric hospital.

Gong Yao sprawled against the back of his chair, his limbs spread wide and one hand still bandaged, and let out a long sigh.

"Forget whether it makes scientific sense. I never should've agreed to shoot this lousy movie to repay a favor! It nearly killed me."

Tao Lele gave him an ingratiating smile. "Hehe, you were seriously amazing, Yao. Especially when you jumped out of the car yesterday. I was scared to death!"

Time rewound to the day before.

Gong Yao jumped out of the car, and a speeding dump truck came barreling toward him from behind.

Everyone held their breath. Some of the more timid onlookers even shut their eyes.

Gong Yao naturally sensed the massive vehicle bearing down on him too.

His pupils contracted sharply. Somehow, he forcibly arrested his forward momentum, then planted a hand on the ground and flipped himself in the opposite direction!

The dump truck skimmed past him.

At the same time, a tremendous crash sounded up ahead.

The out-of-control car slammed into the unoccupied tractor ahead and burst into flames with a bang.

The sight left everyone shaken, but filming was nearly over, so they could only hurry through the remaining scenes.

Only after all the filming was finished did they discover that Gong Yao had fractured his arm during his narrow escape.

"Ugh... I can't eat anything..."

At the wrap party, Gong Yao leaned listlessly against his chair. Spotting Li Qing nearby, elegantly devouring food with the speed of a whirlwind, he called out in a drawn-out voice.

"Li Qing-I want a little cake too!"

Li Qing looked up, met his gaze, and blinked before reluctantly taking a piece of cake over to him.

Gong Yao pushed his luck. "My arm's broken. I can't eat."

"Oh," Li Qing said, then took away the cake he had placed on Gong Yao's plate.

Gong Yao: "???"

Li Qing: "?"

Gong Yao's gaze was so astonished, with something accusatory mixed in, that Li Qing was utterly confused. He tentatively put the cake back down.

Tao Lele, a seasoned expert at sucking up to Gong Yao, immediately offered obsequiously, "Yao, Yao, want me to feed you?"

Gong Yao said, "Keep your hands away!"

Sulking, he picked up the cake with his good hand and stuffed it into his mouth.

With Li Qing present, Yu Xiaohe felt considerably braver. She asked curiously, "Can your eyes really see ghosts?"

Gong Yao raised an eyebrow, then smiled. "Sure can."

"Huh?" Yu Xiaohe's scalp instantly prickled.

"Ghosts are real?" Tao Lele asked, horrified.

Gong Yao glanced around and said meaningfully, "I can't see ghosts that don't exist, but I can see the demons in people's hearts."

At his words, everyone's expression darkened except Tao Lele's, who remained completely baffled.

A phone suddenly rang.

The producer answered. The voice on the other end was so loud and urgent that everyone heard it clearly.

"We can't contain the public backlash anymore! Someone posted online that people had died on our production even before Meng Tian!"

Someone else's phone rang.

"Bad news! He Li jumped off a building at the psychiatric hospital! They're still trying to save him, but word's already spread!"

"Oh... so it's begun..." Gong Yao murmured.

Just then, Gong Yao's manager walked over, gave Li Qing a strange look, and whispered something into Gong Yao's ear.

"So I've got something coming my way too." Gong Yao smiled.

"You're at a critical stage in the awards selection, and you can still smile?" His manager's face was livid.

Tao Lele asked blankly, "What's going on...?"

Gong Yao said nonchalantly, "Just something they consider a 'scandal.' Personally, I don't care. I'm just a little curious who took these photos."

He turned his phone around, enlarged the photo attached to a malicious trending topic about him, and showed everyone.

In the photo, Gong Yao had a hand braced against a doorframe, standing intimately close to a white-haired young man.

The young man's face wasn't clearly visible, but it was obvious enough that he was male.

In this world, a same-sex romantic scandal was enough to destroy someone's reputation.

"The only other person there at the time was..." An Ya glanced at Yu Xiaohe with a faint, ambiguous smile.

Yu Xiaohe's face turned pale.

She shook her head vehemently and looked at Li Qing. "Li Qing, let me explain. I didn't... no, I did take photos. Meng Tian threatened me into photographing An Ya and Gong Yao... but I absolutely never sent her this one!"

Li Qing regarded her calmly. "I know."

"You... you know?"

"I also know who found this photo on your phone."

"Who... was it?"

"Among us, the only person who spent time alone with you, apart from me, was..."

His gaze settled on An Ya.

"When you and An Ya were discussing how to kill Meng Tian, did you let your phone out of your sight?"

Yu Xiaohe froze.

Then she suddenly realized that Li Qing's focus wasn't on her "discussing how to kill Meng Tian," but on her "not keeping an eye on her phone."

An Ya gave Li Qing a somewhat surprised look, but showed no sign of panic.

Li Qing looked at An Ya again.

"You sent this photo to Bai Cha. That's why you were so certain he would come back."

Tao Lele finally caught on. "An Ya, it was you? You used Yu Xiaohe, and you used Bai Cha too!"

"Used?" An Ya raised an eyebrow. "One was willing to give, and the other was willing to take."

Bai Cha suddenly laughed.

Yu Xiaohe murmured, "Now we're all finished... Bai Cha, why would you do this? What do you gain from ruining everyone's reputation?"

Bai Cha said indifferently, "Don't you find it interesting? When you've wanted something for so long but can't have it, and then one day you watch someone else-"

His cold gaze went first to An Ya, then settled on Li Qing.

"-someone else gets it just like that, without even trying. Do you know how that feels?"

He leaned back in his chair, an exhilarated smile spreading across his face.

"If I can't have it, I might as well destroy it all. Everything can start over anyway. This round is a bust, so let's just start another!"

"What are you talking about?!"

Bai Cha pressed his palms together.

"It's fine. You'll understand in a moment. See you when the cameras roll again."

The moment he finished speaking, the smell of something burning drifted into the banquet hall.