410 Voices [2in1]
Certain individuals were born to be actors, not because of their skills but their experience. After the Spider played by Han Fei killed everyone and the audience realized he was the killer, the audience wouldn’t have the usual hatred directed towards the antagonist but instead they would be overwhelmed by a complicated emotion.
Spider was a killer, he killed himself 8 times but the ironic thing was he had to murder to save everyone. Han Fei used his acting chops to showcase the complexity of the emotions. At the last scene, when Spider walked out from the factory living compound, it was like the audience’s heart was cleansed alongside Spider’s.
Director Zhang had made many movies in his career. It had been so long since he was affected by his own production, but for this ending, he stared at the screen for a long time. Perfect, in all senses of the word.
The role of Spider was meant for Han Fei, it couldn’t be carried by anyone else. Director Zhang didn’t give Han Fei any comments because he felt he was unable to. Han Fei’s understanding of Spider had surpassed everyone present. After Han Fei got into character, even Director Zhang didn’t want to shout cut lest it interrupted Han Fei’s emotions. A young actor in his 20s could do something like this? It was unheard of.
Han Fei didn’t even need to rely on the switch in his mind. Han Fei felt like he was playing both the Spider and himself. After Spider finished his salvation and walked out from the nightmare, Han Fei felt saved as well. If one day the night at the cryptic world was eliminated, the first ray of light would definitely shower on Han Fei. With that belief in mind, Han Fei achieved an unexpected ascendancy of character at the last moment of the movie. There were no lines, no extra effect, it was just a man walking out from darkness, but it was enough to move everyone.
“Turns out there are people born for acting in this world.” Bai Xian, who had been nominated for the best actor, lamented as he watched Han Fei. In Thriller Novelist, Bai Xian was the main character but in the end, he would be killed by Han Fei, it made Bai Xian look like a side character with many scenes. To be honest, not only Bai Xian, the other 8 actors all felt like they were supporting characters in the movie.
“And cut!” After finishing the last shot, Director Zhang rushed towards Han Fei. He was so excited he was at a loss for words. Initially, it was a pure accident that he came across Han Fei in Twin Flower. He was impressed by Han Fei’s skill so he wanted to offer this complicated role to Han Fei as a test. Frankly, he didn’t have much hope in Han Fei at first. After all, the man was only so young. But as the shooting progressed, Han Fei made this most complicated character the brightest feature of the movie.
“Han Fei, you are the most talented actor I’ve ever met, brilliant.” Director Zhang rarely praised people, especially after he got older. In many people’s eyes, he was strict and stern. But on that day, he publicly praised Han Fei before everyone. Facing the praise from Director Zhang and his colleagues, Han Fei smiled sheepishly. He didn’t think he had done anything extraordinary.
Han Fei retired to the dressing room and planned to go home to play the game when the crew member came to get him to take pictures for the movie promo and posters. Because Director Zhang intended to use Thriller Novelist to participate in the upcoming movie festival, the promotional effort began the moment the shooting ended.
While the promotion began for Thriller Novelist, another voice appeared on the internet. It criticized Han Fei for making use of murder cases and innocent lives to gain popularity. Han Fei gained popularity and wealth on the back of the dead. For the sake of his career, he forced the victims’ families to deal with the sadness and pain. Watching Han Fei’s film was like having their wounds torn open again and again. Initially no one minded these voices until someone released a long post and video on the nation’s largest social platform demanding an explanation from Han Fei. Claiming to be the family members of the victims, they pleaded with Han Fei to stop using them for the sake of his own wealth and fame.
The platform itself was widely used but the post was being spread and shared with a supernatural speed. When Han Fei finished taking the pictures for the promotional material, the post and video had already reached the hot search topic for most search engines.
The strangest thing was that the post was always attached to the promotional material for Thriller Novelist. Their number of clicks increased at the same time. Clearly someone was manipulating this. While Thriller Novelist was doing its promotion, this party was targeting the movie and Han Fei.
Han Fei didn’t even know about this. After he changed, he just wanted to head home. However, he was stopped by the crew members. They kept telling Han Fei to calm down and not get angry, it only confused Han Fei further. It was not until Director Zhang arrived in person that Han Fei knew the storm which was brewing online.
“It’s clear that this is the work of a professional team. It’s probably my ‘old friend’ from the industry trying to target Thriller Novelist.” Director Zhang saw the problem immediately. “Han Fei, so sorry for dragging you into this. These people should be coming after me, but since you don’t have an agency, you became their target.” Han Fei had no manager or agent, no one would use money to help him buy clicks online and he had no professional team to help him with image management. If someone wanted to bring down Thriller Novelist, Han Fei was indeed the easiest target.
“This team must have been preparing for a long time already. They are taking the perspective of the victims’ family to garner pity from the public. It doesn’t matter whether you have done those things or not, it is an unchangeable fact that as families of the victims, they are suffering and we are indeed taking inspiration from an actual murder case. Both of these points are truths and they have us cornered.” Director Zhang’s assistant pointed out directly, he was very experienced with crisis control. “The moment we start our promotion, they chose to do something like this. They are riding on our popularity while slandering our name, this is just atrocious.”
While the crew members were discussing the situation among themselves, Han Fei read through the long post and watched the edited video. The video started with interviews with families of the victims. Their faces were blocked off. The families cried and pleaded on video, describing their pain and misfortune. Then their topic slowly moved to Han Fei. They hoped that their family’s deaths wouldn’t be made into movies because they didn’t wish for others to cut into their pain and sorrow.
Han Fei actually empathized with these comments. When he participated in the shooting for Twin Flowers, he had already interacted with the families of all the victims. Han Fei took on a big risk to participate in Twin Flowers because it planted a giant target on his back. One of the reasons Han Fei decided to shoot the movie was because he wanted the public to be more careful of the Butterfly. All of Han Fei’s decisions had been approved by the victims’ families, so these complaints didn’t quite make sense.
The latter half of the video featured a few more family members. They cried until they choked like they were devastated. Among them were Wei Youfu’s father and other families from the human jigsaw case.
“Elder Wei will not do something like this.” Han Fei said after watching the video. “I understand how they did this already. They found actors for the front part of the video, pretending to be the victims’ family to attack me. Later they added the videos from actual victims’ families to lend authenticity to their accusation.”
By then, Han Fei’s eyes were frosty. The real culprit who was manipulating the families’ pain and misery were the people who released this video! It was these people who tore apart the families’ wounds again!
“They didn’t even care about the feelings of the actual victims’ family in order to bring me down. These people are real animals.” Han Fei stared at the screen when a call came in. When he saw the caller Id, Han Fei was startled before he answered it.
“Han Fei! That video is fake! A few days ago, some people came to interview us, they wanted us to boycott you but we rejected them, so they took parts of the interview to piece together that horrible video!” The sound of Wei Youfu’s father and other victims’ families came from the phone. Han Fei had helped the police and captured the killer. Han Fei provided them with closure. They only had appreciation for Han Fei, why would they boycott him?
“Sir, you need to calm down. This is nothing serious. I’ll handle it.” Han Fei’s calmness surprised Director Zhang and the other crew members. This was definitely something serious. One wrong step and Han Fei’s career would be over. “Health is most important. Just stay away from the internet so that you won’t be affected by this horrible news.” Han Fei consoled the families on the phone. He was currently in the middle of the storm but he was still caring towards the others.
Sobbing came from the phone. The aunt of one of the victims felt taken advantage of. She was the one saved by Han Fei at the set for Twin Flowers. She had nothing but thanks for Han Fei. When she was interviewed about her family, she cried because she missed them but that footage had been used to attack Han Fei!
“Han Fei, you’ve helped all of us during the human jigsaw case. In my heart, you are just like my son. Those monsters wanted to bully you, I refused to cooperate with them, none of us did!” Wei Youfu’s father claimed confidently. He was old, so he didn’t understand much about online stuff so he gathered the families of the other victims to try to figure out a way to help Han Fei. The crew members could hear Wei Youfu’s father’s voice from Han Fei’s phone. They had a new appreciation for Han Fei. Behind every medal awarded to Han Fei by the police was a warm human story.
“It’s fine, don’t worry. I’ll deal with these demons.”
After hanging up, Han Fei’s voice changed. He didn’t care how others treated him but to drag in the innocent, using their despair to harm another person? How was that different from the Butterfly?
The video and post were still gathering momentum online. As Han Fei watched the edited video, he hissed out word by word, “They’re really pushing it this time.”
“They’re really heartless. How can they make use of the victims’ families?!” Director Zhang’s assistant scolded.
“They haven’t found any real victims’ families to boycott us, so there is still a chance to turn this around. I’ll have my people go settle this.” Director Zhang was different from Director Jiang of Twin Flowers. As an experienced director in the industry, many people had to give Director Zhang face.
“That’s right, they probably didn’t expect all of the victims’ families to side with Han Fei. Finding people to masquerade as the families, that’s their weakness.” Bai Xian walked over. As a senior in the film industry, he valued Han Fei’s talent and he decided to help.
“Han Fei, leave this thing to us. Don’t do anything reckless.” After saying that, Director Zhang left in a hurry. From his point of view, Han Fei was the innocent victim. The enemy wanted to bring down Thriller Novelist and Director Zhang was not going to let that happen.
All the actors also sided with Han Fei. For both justice and their future, they had to save Thriller Novelist.
Walking to the corner, Han Fei took out his phone to call Jin Jun. Jin Jun said that he was already investigating, Jin Jun promised that he would give Han Fei a report by 10 pm.
The popularity of the Thriller Paradise and the victims’ families kept climbing. Han Fei’s social media account was bombarded by haters. Horrible comments and attacks dominated his page. At that moment, anyone who sided with Han Fei would be torn apart and lambasted. It seemed like it was already over for Han Fei.
Around 8 pm, an old man with greying hair released a video from the hospital. He guarded beside his sick partner and his grandson who had just woken up. He released his own information and told the world how Han Fei had helped his family. This was Lai Sheng’s grandfather.
The video wasn’t watched by many but there were still many accounts scolding and insulting Lai Sheng’s family.
Not long after that, a high school student used his teacher’s phone to release a video from school. He shared his experience with Han Fei, and how Han Fei’s appearance changed his life. This was Qu Yun’s son.
Inside an old house, a well-dressed old man took out all his valid identifications and stood beside the death portrait of his son and daughter in law. He was the family of the human jigsaw case’s victims. Whenever he thought about the case, his heart would bleed but he was willing to stand forward for the truth. This was because he knew Han Fei was also someone’s son and he too would feel pain and despair. A person who had done so much for everyone shouldn’t be treated so unjustly!
This was Wei Youfu’s aged father.
The victims’ families who were helped by Han Fei shared their voices one after another. In spite of their pain, they stood with Han Fei resolutely. One person’s voice might be weak but when they were gathered together, it could move the world.
At 8.30 pm, Xin Lu Police also released a statement. They didn’t side with Han Fei, they sided with justice. They revealed all the donations Han Fei had made to the victims’ families through the police. Han Fei didn’t take a cent from the reward money for the Ziggurat cases. Han Fei had donated every single cent to the victims’ families.
Risking his life to find the truth, and after all that, he still silently donated all of the reward money to the families who needed it more than he did. How could such a gentle soul exist in this world?
If not for the malicious attacks against Han Fei, these silent acts of kindness Han Fei did wouldn’t even be known.
Slowly the voices boycotting Han Fei weakened as more and more people sided with Han Fei.
