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ITTMB 134

Fake Goods

It was a very-hard-to-answer question. Ning Ning hesitated for a very long time. Just as she was about to answer, a hand reached out across from her, Boss Qu stopped her. “Hold it…think about it carefully before you answer me.”

After that, he quickly walked out of the room, the view of his back looked like someone who was escaping.

As it turned out, he was also afraid to hear the answer.

 

Although the culprit was yet to be found, Director Chen suppressed the incident and said that Chen Shuang He ate something that did not sit well with his stomach. The filming continued.

Without the male lead, the shot naturally shifted towards the others. In the following days, they primarily filmed the scenes between fake Juliet and her father.

Previously, after his illness had acted up in the conference room, although fake Juliet had saved him in the end, she had also given herself away a little.

Juliet’s Father started to suspect the authenticity of this daughter.

“A!”

 

“Father.” Ning Ning entered the room, her eyes were darting around a little. “You’re looking for me?”

Qu Yan closed the newspaper. “The weather is pretty good today, let’s go for a walk.”

The person who helped him up was a new face, he had already gotten rid of the original secretary. Chen Shuang He could not fend for himself, not to mention the secretary. The last time Ning Ning saw the secretary was on the streets, they were in rags, holding a bowl as they begged.

The two of them went out, sitting inside the car. After the car started driving for some time, Ning Ning asked, “Papa, where are we going?”

“To the hospital.” Qu Yan said.

 

Ning Ning shuddered, she forced a smile. “Didn’t you go to the hospital yesterday for a check up? Why are you going again?”

Qu Yan looked at her with a complicated expression.

The smile slowly disappeared from Ning Ning’s face, she asked quietly, “…Is it a paternity test?”

The two of them did not speak for the rest of the way. As they got closer and closer to the hospital, Qu Yan’s chest was puffing more and more violently. Just as the car was about to stop at the hospital’s entrance, he suddenly yelled, “We’re not going anymore! Turn back! Turn back!”

Ning Ning turned her head abruptly and looked at him.

Pulling out at the last minute, he was also afraid of the truth.

 

“Cut!” Director Chen shouted, “Very good, it passed.”

During break time, Ning Ning looked for Director Chen. “Director Chen, since we’re already here, I want to go over and visit Chen Shuang He.”

She pointed at the hospital room across. Coincidentally, Chen Shuang He was accepting treatment in the same hospital.

“You’re unexpectedly caring towards him.” Director Chen laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m not planning to substitute him. I called the hospital yesterday, he’s recovering well, he can come back and continue filming tomorrow.”

He only called the hospital, he did not visit him personally.

At that moment, Ning Ning started to really suspect that Chen Shuang He was actually a stepchild.

 

Later on, Ning Ning still had to wait for the filming of the day to end before she could find the time to visit Chen Shuang He. Thanks to the fact that the two of them were small time actors, there was only one reporter snooping around, there was not a single enthusiastic fan visiting.

Ning Ning sat in the ward and said to Chen Shuang He, “From now on, you cannot leave my side.”

Chen Shuang He was eating an apple at the moment, he choked upon hearing those words. He pounded his chest a few times and swallowed the apple with great difficulty, coughing twice and looking at her while feeling flustered. “…What are you saying all of a sudden?”

“The masked man behind Qu Yan.” Ning Ning was worried that he was not clear on the gravity of the situation, she told him bluntly, “He wants to kill you.”

 

Chen Shuang He was dumbfounded. He was a smart person, he put two and two together and asked, “The person who poisoned me was him?”

Ning Ning nodded her head.

“Why?” Chen Shuang He was puzzled. “I don’t even know him…did Qu Yan put him up to it?”

From his point of view, the two of them didn’t even know each other, there was no hatred nor grudge. On the contrary, Qu Yan gave him a lot of unhappiness…this man who had appeared out of nowhere took all of the roles that were originally his, made acquaintances with everyone he was originally acquainted with, taking all the spots that he originally had. The fake had ascended the throne, the rightful owner had been shoved to the side instead. If you were talking about grudge, Chen Shuang He definitely held a grudge, if you were talking about hatred, if Qu Yan was deliberate in his action, then they definitely had hatred towards each other.

But Ning Ning shook her head. “Let me tell you a story.”

Now that it had come to this, she did not want to hide anymore. She told him the story of the first time she stepped into Life Theater—the disturbing incidents, the joys and sorrows of the movie—they came out of her mouth and became a story. Within less than half an hour, she had finished it.

 

“…When I realised that I had transmigrated into a movie, I was thrilled to bits. I felt that it was a place God has given me to hone my acting skills. I started acting as the republic period lady I had transmigrated as, relying on the love of her father, willful and reckless, arbitrary and tyrannical.” Ning Ning let out a helpless laugh at Chen Shuang He. “After that, I got into character.”

“Got into character?” Chen Shuang He furrowed his brows.

“You are also an actor, you know the impact of getting into character on an actor, especially for an actor who got into character for the first time.” Ning Ning nodded. “In that period of time, I was a completely different person. Even till now, I am still unable to completely shed the effect of that movie… No, that was not a movie at all. Afterwards, I found out that what I had transmigrated into was not a movie at all. The movie was real, the people in the movie were real too. Through Life Theater, I had returned to the past.”

 

Chen Shuang He wanted to call bullshit, but if her story was bullshit, then what was his story?

The current him, didn’t he also return to his past through Life Theater?

“That person definitely is guilty of the most heinous crimes, but I can only get him to confess to his crimes. If you want me to kill him…I won’t be able to do it.” Ning Ning said slowly, “It’s the same for you. I really disliked you in the past, you disliked me too. But no matter how poor our relationship was, if you wanted me to watch as he put you to death…I couldn’t do that.”

Chen Shuang He lowered his head, avoiding her gaze for a moment before he hemmed and hawed. “That was the past, the relationship we have now is not bad.”

Ning Ning was taken aback. Before she could say anything, a cold voice suddenly rang out behind her.

 

“Is that your choice?”

Ning Ning’s face turned pale. She turned her head to see a scalpel as bright as snow.

“Watch out!” Shi Zhong Tang’s voice rang out outside the door. He seemed to have just gone out and returned to see what was happening inside. He conveniently grabbed the rice box that was in the hands of an older woman beside him and threw it straight in front of him.

The rice box smashed Boss Qu’s arm and made him lose his grip on the scalpel.

The older woman first watched her rice box fly away, then she looked at a floating scalpel that was slowly getting closer to her, prompting her to shout, “Ghost!”

After shouting, her eyes rolled over and she fainted.

She was not the only person there to deliver food to the hospital. Some of the few other older women who had seen what had happened screamed like fancy sopranos, others threw their rice boxes and ran away. Seeing that the situation was getting more and more chaotic and that there were more and more people rushing over, Boss Qu hmph-ed coldly, threw the scalpel away and walked out of the door amidst the chaos.

 

Shi Zhong Tang breathed a sigh of relief. He did not stop Boss Qu as he gave way to him, then looked back at the two people behind him.

“Who’s going to give me an explanation?” He pointed towards the doorway. “Why did this fellow suddenly fly off the handle?”

The hospital was not peaceful at night. Although the doctors and nurses had tried their best to talk about scientific facts to the patients and their families, a few older women still could not rest easy. They had a few monks over for consecutive nights, saying that they wanted to bless their sons’ ward.

 

After the discharge paperwork was done, Ning Ning and Chen Shuang He saw such a scene just as they left. Chen Shuang He asked her under his breath, “Should we get the WeChat of these masters? We can exorcise those two later.”

“Exorcise my ass.” Ning Ning answered him, “It’s the age of science, masked people are not even ghosts.”

“Then what are they?” Chen Shuang He asked.

How should I know? Ning Ning turned around and looked at Shi Zhong Tang.

Shi Zhong Tang laughed without saying a word. He reached out and touched Chen Shuang He’s face, his fingers were warm. “We can feel you, touch you, we can also kill you, what do you think we are?”

Only humans could commit murder, not ghosts.

 

It was already very late when they got back to the hotel. For the sake of the next day’s filming, Ning Ning very quickly bid Chen Shuang He farewell. Just as they were about to return to their rooms, Shi Zhong Tang stopped them.

He opened and closed his mouth for a long time, before he suddenly giggled and said, “Why not the two of you study the script in a hotel room tonight?”

Ning Ning, “…”

Chen Shuang He, “…”

Both of them had the same thing written in their eyes: Bro, are you kidding me?

 

“I was joking.” Shi Zhong Tang put his arm around Chen Shuang He’s shoulders. “Let’s go, Little Boy Chen. After thinking about it, I decided not to give you such a good deal… Oh, that’s right.”

As he was walking, he turned his head and looked at Ning Ning. He restrained his cynicism and said in a serious manner, “Ning Ning, make sure you close the door when you get back. No matter what you hear tonight, don’t open the door.”

What did he mean? What would she hear at night?

 

In the middle of the night, Ning Ning woke up to the sound of someone singing.

She pricked her ears up and listened for a moment before pulling off her blanket and switching on the lights. “…Qu Yan? What are you doing in the middle of the night?”

Qu Yan was walking around at her doorway, his shadow crept in from underneath the door, it moved side to side along with his movements.

“Is she really my daughter?” He could not sleep at night, so he was reciting lines outside her door. This line belonged to a monologue. When he returned from the hospital, Juliet’s father could not sleep. He held up a candlestick and paced up and down outside of his daughter’s room, talking to himself in a quiet voice, “Of course she’s my daughter. The looks are identical, the personalities are identical, their love for me are also identical…”

“What if she’s not? What if she’s just an imitation?”

The shadow stopped moving all of a sudden, the man outside was standing still.

 

He might have been the same as Juliet’s father who had used the master key in his hands to open the door, using his bloodshot eyes from the lack of sleep to quietly stare at the fake daughter who was lying on the bed.

“Then she better continue to pretend to be her.” The pale white candlelight illuminated her face, he laughed as he sang quietly, “Don’t wear anything other than a red dress, don’t have any hairstyle other than long hair, don’t stop loving Papa, otherwise, otherwise…”

Ning Ning shuddered. The singing outside the door had stopped, the shadow in the door crack had vanished as well. Qu Yan had left, but he left with a warning, warning her: You best continue to pretend to be my daughter, if not…

 

The night lapsed. The next day, Ning Ning returned to the crew with panda eyes.

Because of her lack of sleep, she made an amount of mistakes while filming. She was mercilessly verbally abused by Director Chen, they redid the shot several times. After she finally passed with great difficulty, Ning Ning rested on a chair, completely spent. Shi Zhong Tang came over from Chen Shuang He’s side, touching her cheek.

“You look so frail.” He said, “Do you need me to contribute my healthy body to provide nourishment for you?”

The corner of Ning Ning’s mouth twitched. She supported her head with one hand and said quietly, “Thanks, but I am not a succubus.”

“I was joking.” Shi Zhong Tang asked her gently, “What happened last night?”

Just as Ning Ning was about to answer, her eyes suddenly looked straight in front of her.

 

Chen Shuang He was currently acting in a monologue scene. He did not manage to get Qu Yan to die in the conference room, payback finally befell upon him one after another. He wore a crumpled suit, his hair was in a mess. He held his phone up to his ear and shouted anxiously, “What did you say? The restaurant was closed down? Twelve customers had food poisoning… Damn, it must be that old bastard…”

Before he could finish, another call came in, he looked at the screen of the phone: Old Bastard.

While he was hesitating on whether to answer, two people rushed over from the side like the wind.

Ning Ning grabbed his left arm, Shi Zhong Tang grabbed his right arm, the two of them forcefully dragged him along at the same time as they ran.

With a loud crash, a magnificent and heavy chandelier came crashing down, smashing the spot Chen Shuang He was just standing on.

 

The crew was in disarray again, Director Chen shouted, “Calm down, everyone calm down…”

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle… Amidst the cries of the crowd, the remaining lights also sizzled twice before they went out at the same time.

“What the heck is going on?”

“Did the power go out?” 

“Did some asshole turn off the main switch?”

 

It was pitch black, their phones lit up one by one, the sparse lights looked like fireflies floating above tombstones.

“From now on, neither of you are allowed to leave my side.” Shi Zhong Tang said imposingly, “Go.”

He led both Ning Ning and Chen Shuang He as they slowly and cautiously walked towards the exit.

There was something good about the dark—neither parties could see each other, neither parties could hurt each other.

But right at this moment, Chen Shuang He’s phone rang.

 

He took it out and took a look, the caller ID was displayed: Qu Yan.

At the same time, behind the three of them, a dagger that was bright as snow slid out of its sheath.


Author’s Note:

[Ah Xia’s Debutante Tea Time.]

Little Angel: “Are they about to fight?”

Ah Xia: “Yes, they are about to fight.”

Little Angel: “Can they win?”

Ah Xia, “Let me calculate—Demon Hunter Shi Zhong Tang lv89, Priest Ning Ning lv30, Mascot Three Minutes lv10…this group can get past the stage, but they would face some difficulty.”

Little Angel, “Can I, a lv89 Holy Knight, provide support? If I alone am not enough…Lich Ning Yu Ren lv70 [because of her death, so she could only be a lich or a skeleton king], Necromancer Director Chen lv60 [his sole desire is to revive Ning Yu Ren], Main Tank—my father—Director Shi lv55 [300kg thick skin and flesh], Bard Pei Xuan lv88… Nevermind, delete that last one. That’s right, may I ask what your job is…?”

Ah Xia, “Top Convenience Store Worker, Hot Bento skill lv999.”


E/N:
Ah Xia is our Author-sama’s nickname. We think “Three Minutes” refer to Chen Shuang He.

Author-sama is just assigning MMORPG’s jobs/classes to her characters (along with the level).

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4 thoughts on “ITTMB 134”

  1. Wha— what just, what just happened? So you’re telling me that Boss Qu… doesn’t see NN as his daughter anymore? Oh… Tell me I’m wrong.

  2. “Demon Hunter Shi Zhong Tang lv89, Priest Ning Ning lv30” …this power dynamic between the ML and FL is typical of hetromance, especially in chinese web novels, but it’s disappointing.

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