"Done, let's wrap this up."
The two patted the mud off their bodies and turned to leave after confirming that the pit had been completely buried.
Torrential rain poured down on countless desolate graves, and dark red blood mixed with muddy water rolled down the cliff. A few dozen seconds later, two figures clad in raincoats struggled up the mountain from below.
"Let's do it here..."
Holding glass kerosene lamps, the two scanned their surroundings without noticing the dark red muddy water flowing in the darkness, and headed straight for the pit they had just dug up.
They placed the cloth bags on the ground, took out shovels, and began digging beside the dark red pit.
"...Muyu will get better, right?"
The raindrops hit their raincoats, creating a pitter-patter sound. The woman's hands in her sleeves were pale and clenched, and her voice was somewhat hoarse.
"He will," the man digging said in a deep voice, "The heart has already been sent over, and the surgery should have started... Tomorrow, tomorrow we can go to District Two to see him!"
Upon hearing this, the woman's expression softened slightly. She looked at the black cloth bag by her feet, her eyes filled with guilt.
"It's just that Yifei is suffering..."
"We must keep this to ourselves."
"What if Muyu asks about his brother when he comes back?"
"Then we'll tell him that Yifei has been accepted as an enforcer and transferred to District Seven... and can't come back."
"Will he believe it?"
"..."
The man didn't respond but silently inserted the shovel into the bottom and forcefully uncovered a large patch of soil.
"Just bury it in there," he said.
Together, the two threw the black cloth bag into the pit and carefully buried it.
The woman hesitated for a moment, picked up a wooden plaque from nearby, and seemed to want to write something on it, but the man stopped her.
"What are you doing?"
"After all, they were mother and son... Let's set up a grave marker for Yifei."
"No, if we set up a grave marker here, what if an enforcer or someone else sees it?"
"Then..."
"I said, from now on, keep this to yourself."
The woman was silent for a long time, then threw the wooden plaque aside. Seeing this, the man softly consoled her,
"It's okay... When you wake up tomorrow, everything will be over."
The two took a final look at this piece of land and turned to disappear into the rain.
The heavy rain washed over the dark red soil, as if trying to wash away their hatred and grievances. Two lonely graves, separated by a thin layer of sand, were connected to each other.
Just when everything was about to sink into silence under the torrential rain, a strange gray color spread from nothingness...
The Gray Realm, intersecting.
...
"Muyu... Muyu!"
Tears streamed uncontrollably from Chen Yifei's eyes as he frantically dug through the mud and sand with his hands until his fingertips were blurred and bloody.
He didn't know what had happened after the intersection of the Gray Realm, or why only he had survived... No, Chen Yifei hadn't survived; he had just become himself...
But at this moment, who he was didn't matter anymore.
The world had played a joke on Chen Yifei, causing him to die at the hands of the Chen Tan couple who had raised him... But at the same time, the world had played an even bigger joke on the Chen Tan couple.
Chen Yifei's vision blurred with tears, and scenes from the past two days flashed through his mind like a whirlwind.
The Gray Realm intersected, and a figure struggled to rise from the mass grave. The wound on his chest gradually healed, and countless pairs of scarlet eyes opened behind him. The rainwater on the ground converged into a line of characters... [Audience Expectation: 17%];
Stuck in the debris lodged in his fingernails was a broken safety charm, swaying gently with the wind;
The second disaster that attacked Bingquan Street might not have existed at all. From the very beginning, it was Chen Yifei himself... Or rather, it was himself after just reviving with an [Expectation] below 20%, losing his sanity.
His body was manipulated by the audience, slaughtering half of Bingquan Street, until the audience was satisfied and leisurely walked towards District Three...
"No, it can't be like this..." Chen Yifei muttered to himself, "Could it have been just me all along?"
On the back mountain, he washed his theatrical robe clean by the stream and handed it to Chen Muyu... But when he was questioned by Jiang Qin, the robe mysteriously appeared in his arms again;
Chen Tan and his wife, taken away by the enforcers, looked through Chen Muyu's body, staring fixedly at him, shouting and scolding;
On Hanshuang Street, the enforcer Jiang Qin followed his finger and looked into the darkness at the corner of the street, only to see a blurred shadow;
Chu Muyun stood at the doorway of the house full of holes, holding a letter, and said to the empty room, "I heard that Mr. Chen needs a [doctor], so I came..."
The unoccupied room was being repaired;
The torn cotton coat was mended;
But from start to finish, no one had spoken to Chen Muyu.
All of this seemed to indicate that Chen Muyu had existed... Like a ghost beside him, or perhaps just his own bizarre delusion.
Chen Yifei continued to dig, and the soil below gradually became stained with blood. Just when he was about to continue digging, a hand suddenly grabbed his wrist... Immediately afterward, a bright red theatrical robe was gently draped over him, shielding him from the blinding snowstorm.
Chen Yifei was stunned.
He looked up and saw the familiar young boy squatting before him, tears streaming down his cheeks.
"Brother, stop digging... Please, stop digging, okay?"
"...Muyu."
Chen Yifei stared at him blankly, lifting his hands covered in blood and mud, as if wanting to touch Chen Muyu's cheek... He touched it.
"Muyu... Are you alive?" Chen Yifei's voice trembled, "You're alive, right?"
"I..."
Chen Muyu glanced at the blood-colored soil, lowering his head, unable to look into Chen Yifei's eyes.
"I'm already dead, Brother..."
"But you're clearly here!"
"I'm here because of your power."
Chen Yifei was taken aback, "Me? How could I have such power, I..."
Before he could finish, a violent blizzard engulfed Chen Yifei's sight, and in the next moment, Chen Muyu's form disappeared again, as if he had never existed.
[Audience Expectation +5]
[Current Expectation: 63%]
Chen Yifei's gaze uncontrollably fell on the two lines of characters that appeared in the snow, and his pupils slightly contracted as if he had thought of something.
"The audience" possesses the power to influence reality.
After he transcended, they had influenced things around him more than once, the water stains in the kitchen, the pranked Dr. Lin, the gnawed boning knife... But since Chen Muyu appeared, they seemed to have never intervened in his life again.
So, the appearance of Chen Muyu in his eyes is also a masterpiece of the "audience"...?
"... It's you."
Chen Yifei's bloodstained hands clenched tightly. He glared at the emptiness in front of him, with the tendons on his neck bulging:
"It's you who made me see him... It's you who made me get accustomed to him... From the very beginning, you just used him as a prop to deceive my emotions, and then destroyed him with your own hands..."
"You've been waiting for this moment for a long time, haven't you?"
[Audience Expectation +5]
Another line of small text appeared, completely igniting the anger suppressed in Chen Yifei's heart. He suddenly rose from the snow, his red robe shrieking in the storm like a raging lion!
"Are you satisfied now?!?"
"Have you had enough of this show?! Did you enjoy it?!?!"
"Did you enjoy my performance?!?!"
"Fuck you all!!!"
Chen Yifei seemed to have imagined that in that dim theater, countless pairs of scarlet eyes were peering through the curtain, watching him converse with Chen Muyu these days, watching him promise to perform at the school's New Year's Eve party, watching Chu Muyun thinking alone on the side...
They planned everything, they knew everything, they watched his emotional performance on the stage, and their mouths in the darkness couldn't help but curl up...
He felt like a clown, a clown who indulged in a false performance alone for people's entertainment.
His chest rose and fell violently, and the flames of anger seemed to consume the heavy snow. He frantically searched in the snow, trying to find a knife or a gun that could end this absurd life.
He didn't want to be a clown, nor did he want to be a tool for the "audience" to play with.
Just then, his foot suddenly slipped, and several things fell from his pocket, landing on the pure white snow, reflecting a silver glow...
Nine silver coins.
It was the "reward" that Qian Fan had personally handed to him with a smile this morning.
The moment he saw these silver coins, Chen Yifei's pupils contracted. He stopped, and a trace of clarity emerged in his angry eyes, which then turned into even stronger hatred.
He remained silent in place for a long time, bending down to pick up those silver coins one by one.
"... Alright." Chen Yifei's voice was extremely hoarse. He slowly raised his head, looking in the direction of the second district, with his eyes flashing with unprecedented murderous intent and madness!
"You want to see a good show, don't you..."
"Then I'll..."
"Perform another one for you."
Chen Yifei smiled, and his smile in the snowstorm was like a demon.