The pitch-black sky was torn apart in great swaths. Savage lightning bared its fangs, thunder roared, and heaven and earth seemed almost overturned, on the verge of collapse.
The production crew was in chaos too. They had started packing up as soon as they received Nan Qing's warning. Sure enough, they had only just finished notifying the viewers when the rain came pouring down.
The expensive equipment could not get wet, and everyone scrambled to load it into the vehicles.
The rain grew heavier and heavier, forcing everyone to shout to be heard. Xi Juan hurried over and grabbed Xu Zhen.
"Where's Nan Qing?"
Xu Zhen stumbled under his grip and shouted, "Huh?"
The sudden downpour hammered against the umbrella. Xi Juan repeated himself before Xu Zhen understood and shouted back:
"He came back ages ago-"
"He's in one of the vehicles up ahead, not sure which-"
"That kid's smart. He was the one who warned everyone-"
"Teacher Xi, let's go. This rain's getting heavier. We'll be in danger if there's a landslide!"
Xi Juan glanced at the trucks over there, their engines already running, and nodded.
"Let's go."
The rain-soaked mountainside was too slippery. Nan Qing had no idea how long he rolled before he finally stopped.
The muddy ground gave off a strong, earthy smell. His clothes and shoes were soaked through, clinging stickily to his body.
Rainwater filled his eyes, throat, and ears. Under the pounding rain, he could barely open his eyes.
His leg was broken too.
The whole world seemed to have descended into chaos. Nan Qing fumbled for a tree trunk and dragged himself, inch by inch, beneath an overhanging rock.
Under the lashing rain, fear began to rise in him uncontrollably.
Perhaps it was the water flooding his nose, perhaps it was the nearly inverted world before his eyes, or perhaps it was the patches of stickiness all over his body. All those sensations tangled together, always bringing back his previous experience of death-
A dull ache, excruciating pain, stabbing pain.
A thick haze of blood obscured his eyes. His throat and nose were full of blood, his legs lay limp on the ground, and a sticky pool of blood surrounded him.
He heard so many noisy voices, heard security guards driving the crowd away, heard exclamations and sighs of pity from the crowd, heard someone remark, as though they had narrowly escaped death, that a few more steps and they would have been crushed too...
All he felt was terrible pain. His body slowly grew cold in the sticky pool of blood, and even his consciousness began to fade...
But he could not even bend his fingers. All he could do was count down what remained of his life, little by little, in terror and despair...
He could not hear an ambulance siren, but he heard his manager swearing.
"What kind of parent is that? All I said was that I was Nan Qing's manager, and he hung up on me!"
Of course no one would answer the phone.
His mother had gone abroad to heal her broken heart and had changed her number long ago.
His father had found someone new. Apparently, they had already held their baby's one-month celebration.
The outwardly harmonious family had fallen apart years ago, and the pampered young master Nan Qing had long since ceased to exist.
He was like a wandering ghost roaming the world, drifting from that world into this one, yet always the one who did not belong.
No one loved him.
No one loved him.
Under the lashing rain, the boy huddled beneath the overhanging rock shivered uncontrollably.
He felt cold and in pain. Even the chill of the wind seeping in seemed to pierce his bones, leaving his body trembling without end.
The downpour lashed the earth. Nan Qing began to lose body heat, his teeth chattering.
He did not know what he was holding on for.
He understood better than anyone that he was simply someone superfluous. In his last life and this one, not a single person cared about him.
He should have died long ago.
Died beneath that massive billboard falling from the sky, died at Huo Yuzhou's hands on that rainstorm night, been struck dead by a speeding car as in the plot, or died today...
His existence had no meaning to begin with. Perhaps death would be a release.
Large tears rolled down his pale face. Nan Qing slowly hugged himself tighter, until the bone in his leg began to ache and go numb...
It was not yet four in the afternoon, but Mount Pingqiao was shrouded in dark clouds, pitch-black.
By the time Huo Yuzhou reached the foot of the mountain, the production crew's vehicles had already driven out.
The silver-gray Aston Martin cut a ghostly shadow through the downpour, then braked sharply, forcing the SUV leading the crew's convoy to stop.
The crew's driver swore as an exceptionally tall figure stepped out of the sports car, his expression so dark he looked ready to kill. His intensely oppressive presence made hearts tremble.
"Where's Nan Qing?"
Director Xu, sitting in the back, recognized him at once. He hurriedly leaned out and shouted,
"Mr. Huo, Nan Qing was the one who warned us. He should have come down long ago!"
Huo Yuzhou's expression was grim. "Open the doors!"
Xu Zhen's heart lurched. Not daring to delay, he pushed open the door and got out.
He led the way, directing the drivers to open their doors one vehicle at a time, then inspecting the people inside each one.
With every vehicle ruled out, Xu Zhen's heart sank further.
By the time the door of the large truck at the very back opened, Xu Zhen's face had gone white.
"How could this happen?"
"Call the police! Right! I'll call the police right now!"
Xu Zhen took out his phone with trembling hands, but the signal in the mountains was poor. His phone was as useless as a brick, and even after several attempts, he could not get the call through.
Huo Yuzhou's dark gaze swept over the people inside the truck until he sharply picked out a particular figure.
"Nan Qing was with you earlier. Where is he?"
The PD was utterly panicked. "Teacher Nan Qing said it was going to rain and told us to hurry down. He said it was awkward for us to carry the equipment and told us to go ahead..."
"The rain was so heavy, and the mountain path was slippery. I didn't notice when he disappeared at all..."
"I thought he'd gotten into another vehicle. I thought he'd come down already..."
The sinister-looking man's jaw was taut, his eyes filled with a terrifying killing intent that made everyone's scalp prickle.
The Bai Family's car arrived close behind and stopped beside the rain-lashed road.
Just then, a thunderclap boomed across the sky, lighting up all of Mount Pingqiao.
A trembling voice rose from the crowd, filled with a horrifying dread.
"Landslide!"
"Director! Let's go! Hurry!"
"Otherwise, we're all going to die here!"
Bai Yanxiu, who had just learned what had happened, stopped in his tracks. His pupils contracted sharply as he looked at the collapsing mountainside not far away.
Before everyone's eyes, the handsome man who had descended like a god of slaughter exchanged his car for the crew's SUV, his expression cold.
He pulled open the door and climbed in with his long legs, then sped toward the landslide amid the interweaving thunder and lightning.