Chapter 39

The sound of the violin was elegant and pleasing to the ear, floating slowly, as if telling a very long story, carrying a very, very light melancholy.

Such music made Pearl’s dancing become sorrowful. Wearing a bright red dress, her dancing skills were excellent, beautiful as a brilliantly blooming camellia.

She danced for as long as the music played. As expected of someone from a movie, she didn’t show the slightest hint of fatigue.

Even Xie De felt his hands aching from playing.

Finally, the sound of a car came from the distance, the music came to a sudden halt, and the dance ended.

Pearl was still immersed in the sorrow of the music. Wiping her tears, she asked.

“You play so well, who taught you?”

Xie De looked at her with complex eyes, looked at the small violin, and said with a bit of loss in his tone.

“My mother.”

In reality, Xie De taught himself the violin. He was very interested in music for a while, and while scrolling through videos, he was attracted by various show-off scenes, so he confidently learned the violin, even fantasizing that he was a musician.

However, in the end, faced with the choice between the moon and sixpence [1], unable to pluck the moon, he could only bend down to pick up the sixpence. Life is like that, and the violin was shelved.

To actually play it again under such circumstances now, he couldn’t help but feel somewhat emotional.

His emotion made Pearl even sadder. She empathized, so she couldn’t help but comfort him somewhat helplessly.

“I understand you, I know. My dreams were also cut off by my mom. My mother is often like this too. She denies me, attacks me, makes me suffer, wants me to walk the same path and become a farm girl, staying here forever. I didn’t mean to kill her.”

Pearl stepped forward and grabbed Xie De’s hand, tearful.

“I beg you, please don’t be sad anymore, you’re breaking my heart.”

Uh… you’re overthinking it. But this is perfect, it delays things a bit longer.

Xie De had already seen a man walking towards them from far away.

Pearl smiled.

“I know how to make you happy, let’s kill her together! I’ll help you dismember her piece by piece, and then you can use her meat to feed the crocodiles.”

Pearl walked over quickly and picked up the pitchfork, her eyes filled with incurable madness.

“Your name is Pearl, right?” the man suddenly spoke.

“Yes, that’s right.” Pearl turned around happily, but in the next second, her smile froze on her face forever. A bullet accurately hit her forehead with a bang. Blood splattered, and a few drops even landed on Xie De’s face.

The dark green eyes were forever calm. The blood-red drops staining the area below his eye highlighted his cold white skin. The cigarette butt had long since fallen to the ground. Xie De looked up, a cold smile of disdain on his lips.

“How much longer are you going to watch from there?”

Qiu Shanyi struggled to stand up.

“You, you have a gun, why didn’t you just kill her from the start?”

Because he was still going through the plot at the beginning. If he rashly killed the main boss of the story, he might be stuck in the movie forever. As for now, the man in the distance was running over frantically, but his wife had already fallen into eternal slumber.

The script of Pearl ended. The wind beside them became even fiercer, blowing so hard it was almost impossible to keep their eyes open.

…………

Xie De didn’t explain to Qiu Shanyu. Instead, he asked her.

“Where is Zhang Qiuyue?”

“I don’t know. As soon as I woke up, I was dragged to the farm by that woman. I was too scared, I don’t know anything anymore. I think Zhang Qiuyue might already be dead.” Qiu Shanyi sniffled, speaking in agony.

Xie De, expressionless, wanted to light another cigarette, but unexpectedly, a familiar voice came from behind him.

“Sir, do you need me to light a cigarette for you?”

Holy crap!

Qiu Shanyi screamed again and fell to the ground.

Xie De directly pressed the gun in his hand backwards against Pearl’s head. Another shot, and he killed her once again.

“Gibberish! Are you kidding me? What’s going on?”

However, just as this question left his mouth, he realized that Gibberish’s voice actually wasn’t coming from beside his ear, but from the sky above.

The voice carried anxiety, “Host! Wake up quickly! Your first movie is over, you’ve fallen into an M-rated movie!”

The M-rated movie, Inception.

Xie De jolted awake instantly.

He found himself leaning against the wall of the movie theater. Qiu Shanyi had disappeared once again. It was just him alone, there was no one around at all.

Gibberish was right. Maybe the movie he was just in was the easiest one, and this one was supposed to be the hardest!

Are you kidding me?

He has to get through Inception?

Wait, the protagonist seems to be here too. Right at this moment, some movement came from ahead.

…………

Wei Yanchi was holding a bouquet of bright red roses. Surrounded by towering skyscrapers, he was sitting on a park bench basking in the sun.

Soon, a person walked over from a distance, their smooth silver hair extremely beautiful.

Xie De sat beside him.

“What are you doing?”

Wei Yanchi’s eyes held a joyful smile.

“I’m basking in the sun, and waiting.”

“Waiting for what?”

“Waiting for you to appear.”

This was truly a touching sweet nothing. Xie De chuckled, his magnetic voice vibrating in his chest.

“Why are you waiting for me?”

“Of course it’s to,” Wei Yanchi paused slightly, before speaking again, “kill you.”

It was unknown when a fruit knife appeared in Wei Yanchi’s hand, plunging viciously into Xie De’s abdomen. Blood instantly gushed out, covering his hands.

Wei Yanchi’s hand gently stroked Xie De’s incredulous eyes.

“You don’t look like him at all, you know.”

The fruit knife was pulled out, swiftly and decisively slicing through the carotid artery of the person in front of him. This time, blood sprayed all over Wei Yanchi. The Xie De in the dream clutched his neck, falling to the ground in agony. Really, not alike at all.

He hated this color, so he opened his eyes, returning to the movie theater once more. Some movement came from ahead, and he looked up.

It was the same features again, the same silver hair again.

Honestly, couldn’t these dreams have a bit of originality? Although it’s true he likes Xie De, don’t they know how fake their acting is?

A flash of impatience crossed Wei Yanchi’s expression. The fruit knife in his hand and the fresh blood on his body made him look simply like a homicidal maniac.

Even more so than the girl in the previous movie.

Xie De froze, beginning to doubt if the Wei Yanchi in front of him was real or just a dream.

Wei Yanchi directly stepped forward and pinned the person in front of him against the wall. They were very close, the scent of cedar tobacco washing over him. He smiled with a bit of wickedness. The fruit knife in his hand was seamlessly concealed at his wrist, pressed against Xie De’s abdomen.

“And what are you going to ask me this time, sir?”

Ask what?

“…What kind of crazy spell are you having?”

This one seems a bit real.

Wei Yanchi tilted his head, feeling a bit like some small animal.

“Mr. 39?”

Xie De stiffly felt the knife pressed against his abdomen.

“Gibberish, is this one real, or a dream?”

“…Real, it’s just that he probably thinks you’re fake.”

It’s good that it’s real… good my ass!

Xie De pressed his gun against Wei Yanchi’s head.

“Get lost.”

Alright, it seems this one is really real. Wei Yanchi felt that he was a bit crazy right now, maybe his head wasn’t clear. Maintaining this posture, he tossed the fruit knife onto the ground, lifted a strand of Xie De’s silver hair, and with a kind of fearless, crazy smile in his eyes, gently kissed this strand of silver hair, ambiguous and affectionate.

–

[1] The Moon and Sixpence – symbolizes the conflict between lofty artistic ideals or dreams (the moon) and mundane, materialistic reality (the sixpence)