Chapter 34: Clown

“All done, let’s call it a day.”

They patted the mud and water off themselves, confirmed the pit was completely buried, then turned and left.

Pouring rain drenched countless desolate graves. Dark red blood mixed with mud and water rolled down the cliff. Dozens of seconds later, two more figures, cloaked in ponchos, trudged up from the bottom of the hill.

“Here should be fine…”

Carrying a glass kerosene lamp, the two scanned their surroundings, not noticing the dark red mud and water flowing in the darkness, and walked directly towards the freshly dug pit.

They placed the cloth bag they were carrying on the ground, took out their shovels, and began to dig bit by bit beside the dark red pit.

“…A-Yan will get better, right?”

Rain pattered on their ponchos. The woman’s hands, clenched pale within her sleeves, were trembling slightly, and her voice was hoarse.

“He will,” the man digging the earth said in a deep voice. “The heart has been delivered, and the surgery should have already begun… Tomorrow, tomorrow we can go to District Two to see him!”

Hearing this, the woman’s expression softened slightly. She glanced at the black cloth bag at her feet, her eyes filled with guilt.

“It’s A-Ling who suffers…”

“We must keep this secret forever.”

“What if A-Yan asks about his brother when he comes back?”

“Then we’ll tell him his brother passed the law enforcement officer exam and was transferred to District Seven… and can’t come back.”

“Will he believe that?”

The man didn’t speak, simply thrust the shovel deep into the ground and forcefully turned over a large section of soil.

“Just bury it like this,” he said.

Together, they dropped the black cloth bag into the pit and gradually buried it.

The woman hesitated for a moment, picked up a wooden plaque from nearby, seemingly wanting to write something, but the man stopped her.

“What are you doing?”

“No matter what, it was a mother-son relationship… Let’s put up a tombstone for A-Ling.”

“No, putting a tombstone here—what if law enforcement officers or others see it?”

“Then…”

“I told you, from now on, bury this matter deep in your heart.”

The woman remained silent for a long time, but still threw the wooden plaque aside. Seeing this, the man gently comforted her:

“It’s okay… When we wake up tomorrow, everything will be over.”

The two took one last look at the spot, then turned and disappeared into the rain.

The heavy rain washed over the dark red soil, as if to cleanse away their hatred and resentment. Two solitary graves, separated by a thin layer of sand and earth, were connected to each other.

Just as everything was about to fall silent amidst the downpour, an eerie gray spread from nothingness…

The Gray Realm, intersecting.

“A-Yan… A-Yan!”

Tears streamed uncontrollably from Chen Ling’s eyes. He frantically clawed at the mud and sand with both hands until his fingertips were a bloody blur.

He didn't know what had happened after the Gray Realm intersected, why only he had survived… No, Chen Ling hadn't truly survived; he had merely become himself.

But at this moment, who he was no longer mattered.

This world had played a cruel trick on Chen Ling, allowing him to die at the hands of Chen Tan and his wife, who had raised him… Yet, at the same time, the world had played an even crueler trick on Chen Tan and his wife.

Chen Ling’s vision blurred with tears, and the events of the past two days flashed wildly through his mind.

The Gray Realm intersected, and a figure struggled to rise from the mass grave, wounds on its chest gradually healing. Countless crimson eyes opened behind it, and rainwater on the ground converged to form a line of characters: Audience Expectation: 17;

A broken safety charm, stuck to a splinter of wood beneath his fingernail, swayed gently in the wind;

The second calamity that attacked Ice Spring Street might not have existed at all. From the very beginning, it was Chen Ling himself… or rather, his deranged self after his expectation value dropped below 20 right after resurrection.

He was controlled by the audience, slaughtering half of Ice Spring Street until they were satisfied, then slowly making his way towards District Three…

“No, it can’t be like this…” Chen Ling murmured to himself. “It’s impossible that it was just me… all along?”

On the back mountain, he had washed the opera robe clean by the stream and handed it to Chen Yan… but when he was questioned by Jiang Qin, the opera robe inexplicably reappeared in his arms;

Chen Tan and his wife, being escorted away by the law enforcement officers, stared intensely at him, their gazes seemingly passing through Chen Yan’s body, roaring insults;

On Frost Street, the law enforcement officer Jiang Qin followed his finger, looking into the darkness of the street corner, but only saw a blurry shadow;

Chu Muyun stood at the doorway of the dilapidated house, holding a letter, and said to the empty room: “I heard, Mr. Chen needs a doctor, so, I came…”;

The empty room was being repaired;

The torn cotton overcoat was mended;

But from beginning to end, no one had spoken to Chen Yan.

All of this seemed to indicate that Chen Yan had once existed… like a ghost by his side, or perhaps, merely his own strange delusion.

Chen Ling kept digging, and the soil beneath gradually began to seep blood-red. Just as he was about to continue, a hand suddenly grabbed his wrist…

Immediately after, a large red opera robe was gently draped over him, shielding him from the swirling snow.

Chen Ling froze.

He looked up to see the familiar young man crouching before him, tears streaming down his face.

“Brother, stop digging… I beg you, please don’t dig any further, okay?”

“…A-Yan.”

Chen Ling stared at him, his hands, covered in blood and mud, rose as if to touch Chen Yan’s cheek… He touched it.

“A-Yan… are you alive?” Chen Ling’s voice trembled slightly. “You are alive, aren't you?”

“I…”

Chen Yan glanced at the blood-stained soil, then lowered his head, not daring to meet Chen Ling’s eyes.

“I’m already dead, brother…”

“But you’re clearly right here!”

“I’m here because of your power.”

Chen Ling paused. “Me? How could I have such power, I…”

Before he could finish, a raging blizzard enveloped Chen Ling’s vision. The next moment, Chen Yan’s figure vanished again, as if he had never been there.

Audience Expectation 5Current Expectation: 63

Chen Ling’s gaze involuntarily fixed on the two lines of characters that appeared in the snow. As if he had realized something, his pupils slightly contracted.

The “Audience” possessed the power to influence reality.

Since his transmigration, they had influenced things around him more than once: the water stains in the kitchen, Dr. Lin being pranked, the gnawed boning knife… But ever since Chen Yan appeared, they seemed to have stopped interfering in his life.

So, Chen Yan's appearance in his eyes was also the "Audience's" masterpiece…?

“…It was you.”

Chen Ling’s blood-soaked hands clenched tightly. He glared at the emptiness before him, veins bulging on his neck:

“You made me see him… you made me accustomed to him… From the very beginning, you merely used him as a prop, to deceive my emotions, and then you destroyed him with your own hands…”

“You’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time, haven’t you?”

Audience Expectation 5

The appearance of another line of small characters completely ignited the suppressed rage in Chen Ling’s heart. He abruptly scrambled up from the snow, his red robe howling in the storm, like a furious lion!

“Are you satisfied now?!!!”

“Have you seen enough of this play?! Are you enjoying it?!!!”

“Did I perform well?!!!”

“Fuck you all!!!”

Chen Ling seemed to imagine countless crimson eyes peering through the curtain in that dim grand theater, watching him talk to Chen Yan for days, watching him agree to perform with Chen Yan at the school's New Year's Eve party, watching Chu Muyun standing alone deep in thought…

They designed everything, they knew everything. They watched his performance, pouring out his emotions on stage, their lips in the darkness curving into an uncontrollable smile…

He felt like a clown, a jester indulging alone in a false performance for others' amusement.

His chest heaved violently, the flames of his anger seemingly enough to consume the heavy snow. He frantically searched the snowy ground, trying to find a knife or a gun to end this absurd life.

He refused to be a clown, and even more so, a mere plaything for the "Audience."

Just then, his foot suddenly slipped, and several items slid from his pocket, falling onto the pristine white snow, reflecting a faint silver gleam…

Nine silver coins.

They were the "payment" Qian Fan had personally handed him with a smile that morning.

The moment he saw the silver coins, Chen Ling’s pupils contracted. He stopped, a flicker of clarity appearing in his angry eyes, which then morphed into an even stronger hatred.

He stood silently for a long time, then bent down and picked up the silver coins one by one.

“…Fine,” Chen Ling’s voice was incredibly hoarse. He slowly raised his head, looking towards District Two, his eyes gleaming with an unprecedented murderous intent and madness!

“You want to see a good show, don’t you…?”

“Then I’ll…”

“Give you another performance.”

Chen Ling smiled, his smile amidst the swirling snow like that of a demon.