“I have forgotten when was the first time that thing appeared in my dream. At first, it hid among the crowd, walking past me as if by accident but for some reason, it has decided to follow me home…” The words seemed to be pulled out of Han Fei’s mind as he stared at the thing in the opposite building. The ‘ghost’ in the nightmare had escaped into real life, he was experiencing the same thing Spider once did. Han Fei really did not expect the enemy would return in this form, everything felt like a planned ‘coincidence’. The Spider that he played stood at the same spot where the real Spider did as they spotted the same ghost.
Han Fei strayed from the script, in fact, Han Fei had no idea what he was saying. He kept his eyes on the pale face and the murderous intention in those eyes. When their eyes first crossed, Han Fei’s heart quivered with fear but after the training at Cattle Alley and he became the Midnight Butcher, Han Fei’s attitude and constitution in real life improved as well. His fingers curled involuntarily as if around a butcher’s knife. Han Fei blinked and the next moment, the thing was gone.
Han Fei kept his eyes on the window at the next building over, he knew the thing would return and it would come closer and closer to him. This layering of fear could grind down a person’s mind but Han Fei was strangely excited about meeting the thing in person. He wanted to kill the Butterfly, be it in the cryptic world or in real life!
Pulling his gaze back, when Han Fei looked at the other actors, they were looking at him differently. The scene continued to progress with Han Fei finishing his part. Then no one said anything to break up the oppressiveness in the small room until the director called for a cut. The shot was perfect. As the collective breath was released, they turned to Han Fei again.
“Why didn’t you follow the script?” Bai Xian paused before continuing, “But I don’t mean that as an offense. In fact, I think you’ve improved upon it. It was like they were the exact words Spider would have said to his other personas.”
“That was amazing! And that gaze you shot towards the opposite building, the sudden change in emotion in less than a second! It was like you had seen an actual ghost! How did you do it?” Director Zhang, who had been behind the camera, walked over. He too was shocked. First, indeed it was Han Fei’s fault for not following the script. He came up with his own lines but they sounded more natural than the ones in the script. The tone, the emotion and the state when he said those words, everyone felt like they were in the same room as the real Spider.
“What did I say earlier?” Han Fei indeed encountered a ghost but he was not afraid. When he saw the thing, the words were automatically pulled out of his mind, he couldn’t recall them anymore.
“You don’t remember? You were that into the character?” Bai Xian was impressed. He did not think Han Fei was bluffing or lying.
“Everyone helped to set up the perfect scene, I suppose I got too deep into the character. If we have to redo the scene, I don’t think I’ll be able to repeat it.” Han Fei then turned to glance at the window at the opposite building. The humanoid thing was not there. The next time it appeared, it would be closer to Han Fei, and Han Fei couldn’t ‘wait’ to meet it again.
“Brother, that was awesome. Since the start of the shooting, you’ve already contributed 2 iconic shots. I am confident you’ll be one of those actors mentioned in future textbooks.” Honestly Bai Xian was quite jealous. Han Fei used his smallest part to contribute the greatest performance and he was only 20 plus. The young man’s future was immensely bright. Facing the waterfall of praises, Han Fei only smiled. He knew very well that his acting wasn’t good enough to provide any iconic scene, he had help from an actual ‘ghost’.
While they took a break, Han Fei immediately approached the police. He carried a few lunch boxes to find the team and hoped that Li Xue would accompany him to investigate the building opposite from Spider’s building. “I saw that thing inside this room.” Han Fei pointed at a door when they reached the 4th floor.
“The door handle and lock are covered in dust. This place has been vacant for a long time already, are you sure about this?” Li Xue called her colleague and she soon got the info on the tenant of this room. The owner of the room died a long time ago. Opening the law enforcement app, Li Xue wanted to use the special tool to unlock the door but the door wasn’t locked at all. They opened the door and there was only a pile of smelly trash inside the room. Han Fei walked over to the window, to the spot where the ghost appeared. He then looked out the window at the movie set. ‘When would it appear next? Would it appear beside my bed when I’m in game?’
Since there was no discovery, Li Xue urged them to leave. As Han Fei moved towards the front door, he accidentally caught a mirror placed at the corner of the balcony. Everything was dusty in the room except this mirror. ‘When I jumped down from the 4th floor, I saw a mirror as well. Could the ghost thing be related to mirrors?’ Han Fei shared his suspicion with Li Xue. The latter put on gloves and took the mirror away as evidence. They would perform tests on it to see if they could find anything. Due to this new discovery, Han Fei wanted to stay longer but Li Xue’s phone rang. It was her colleague telling her Spider’s adopted son had arrived at the living room.
“Han Fei, you’ve been meaning to meet the Spider’s adopted son, right? He’s now at the building where your movie is shot.”
“This timing of his sure is suspicious.” Han Fei exited the room where the ghost appeared. When he reached the stairs, he glanced up. There was nothing there, but Han Fei felt like there were eyes following him behind each of the closed doors. “Alright, let us go see that child who has sold the brain of the person who raised him.” Han Fei and Li Xue arrived at the set. They were quite at ease with each other but the others were shocked. Why would a female officer be tagging along beside an actor? The other actors had their assistants following them but this actor was always accompanied by the police.
“Please make way.” As they entered Room 401, Han Fei met Spider’s adopted son for the first time. And it was inside Spider’s bedroom. Before the child met Spider, he was an orphan like Han Fei, more coincidentally he and Han Fei had both stayed at Happiness Orphanage. Knocking on the half-open door, Han Fei’s eyes wandered over to the man… or perhaps more fittingly, the boy sitting beside the table.
The man’s actual age was around 20 but he had a very young face. His skin was scarily white like they had been bleached. His arms were longer than normal and he wore a whole set of clothes in black. When Han Fei entered, the boy-looking man was closely studying the wind chime hanging by the window.
“What are you looking at?” Han Fei closed the door, to allow him some privacy with the man.
Hearing the question, the young man did not turn around but he did answer. “I’m looking at my father. Shush, keep it down. He’s talking to me.”
