Ren Chenbai was crazy.

When she realized this, Luo Cheng was hiding in her dorm room under the covers, her whole body cold as she stared at her phone.

The video Ren Chenbai had posted had shot to the top of the trending list in less than ten minutes, riding on Li Weiming’s current top-tier fame, causing a massive uproar everywhere.

Luo Cheng didn’t dare to click on the video at all.

Just by reading the comments, she knew that Li Weiming must have lied about that incident, slandering Luo Zhi.

Now that the video provided irrefutable evidence, everything from before naturally became a huge joke.

Luo Cheng’s palms were also sweating. She kept clicking on the newly emerging posts, watching the comments and reposts skyrocket.

Except for a portion of Li Weiming’s fans who refused to believe it, constantly demanding proof of whether the video had been modified or re-edited, the tide of public opinion was completely one-sided.

Suppression and being shelved? Severe psychological problems? Only recently summoned the courage to walk out of the shadows?

Was it the kind of suppression and shelving that came with a basic salary and a demand for solidifying basic skills, or the severe psychological problem left by saying a full four words of “happy birthday”?

Summoning the courage to walk out of what shadow? The one where he had insidiously presented himself at the door but failed, and was then sent out of the hotel completely intact with a car called for him?

The taunts and ridicule under the video were getting harsher and harsher. The more real Li Weiming’s pain and hesitation had seemed before, the more it became an extremely shameful and absurd joke now.

The characters he had played were dragged out and repeatedly mocked, his non-existent basic skills critiqued, and his Weibo screenshots were paraded for all to see. As for his fans’ proud boasts of “punishing evil and promoting good,” they were even more thoroughly scrutinized and publicly shamed. Several people had already deleted their accounts…

Even though it had reached this point, Ren Chenbai seemed to feel it wasn’t enough. He didn’t even intend to leave this small group of die-hard fans for Li Weiming. Just a few minutes later, he posted another audio recording.

Li Weiming’s own words, his shameless pleas to Ren Chenbai, his dismissive mockery of his fans, finally landed like a heavy slap across the faces of those fans who were still deceiving themselves and putting up a last-ditch resistance.

Within a short while, several major brands had officially announced the termination of their endorsement contracts with Li Weiming. The crew of a drama Li Weiming was currently filming also urgently announced a change of actors. According to the comments, the matter was even more complicated. Li Weiming’s Weibo post was already suspected of serious defamation and might lead to a lawsuit and a prison sentence…

All because of what Ren Chenbai had posted.

Why on earth would Ren Chenbai suddenly do such a thing?

Luo Cheng stared at her phone screen, her heart pounding with panic.

Li Weiming was looking for Jian Huaiyi everywhere. He had even gone through intermediaries to get her phone number and asked her where Jian Huaiyi had gone.

…Where had Jian Huaiyi gone?

Luo Cheng unconsciously tightened her grip on her phone.

She wasn’t home that night, but she knew what Ren Chenbai had done at the Luo family’s house.

That day, it had truly almost ended in a death. Jian Huaiyi had been beaten half to death by Ren Chenbai and was still in the hospital now.

Was Ren Chenbai going to take revenge on everyone? To take revenge on everyone who had been unkind to Luo Zhi, because Luo Zhi…

She was startled by the sudden vibration of her phone. Seeing “Ren Chenbai” on the caller ID, she was instantly enveloped by intense fear. She immediately reached out and forcefully hung up, then threw the phone far away.

The dull thud of the phone hitting the bed board also caught the attention of the other people in the dorm.

“Xiao Cheng?” The person on the lower bunk poked her head out and gently tapped her bed board. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

Luo Cheng huddled tightly under the covers. After a long while, she finally spoke, “It’s nothing…”

“Were you scared by the trending topic? I just saw it. This Li Weiming is too outrageous.”

The person on the lower bunk suddenly remembered. “Xiao Cheng, don’t you have his contact information? You were about to collaborate with him, weren’t you?”

“I don’t!” Luo Cheng denied in a panic, then realized her tone was too strange. She managed to compose herself. “I’m just—just in the same company as him. CEO Jian, CEO Jian wanted him to mentor me…”

“Right, you also signed with a company. You’re both at Huaisheng Entertainment.” The person on the lower bunk didn’t think much of it and just advised her, “Don’t associate with people like this in the future, to avoid trouble.”

Luo Cheng was still panicking from that call. She nodded randomly a few times and grunted in agreement.

…Her roommates didn’t know her real relationship with Luo Zhi and Huaisheng Entertainment, nor did they know her specific family situation.

Luo Zhi had never taken her to school, had never appeared in front of any of her classmates, because she wouldn’t allow it.

When Luo Cheng started school, Luo Zhi had just debuted as a singer. It was revealed that he had used his family background to pressure people on a variety show, causing a huge uproar online.

Luo Cheng didn’t want people to point fingers at her, didn’t want people to say she was Luo Zhi’s sister, so she had repeatedly emphasized that Luo Zhi was not allowed to appear in front of her classmates.

“The previous general manager of Huaisheng was also unlucky. How did he get involved in something like this?”

The girl opposite was also on Weibo and sighed, “I remember he seemed to have debuted before. He was handsome and sang particularly well. His whole future was ruined by such a scumbag.”

The person on the lower bunk didn’t watch variety shows and didn’t know about Luo Zhi’s past. She had only caught up on the whole story this time because of the trending topic. “He looks like a really good person in the video. Maybe those past scandals about him using his power to bully people were also frame-ups.”

“What a coincidence, he also has a younger sister named Xiao Cheng, the same name as you.”

The girl opposite was watching the video. She glanced at Luo Cheng on the upper bunk and dragged the progress bar back and forth a few times. “But she’s much more insensible than you… Even if her brother didn’t agree to her entering the entertainment industry, she shouldn’t have argued on his birthday and even smashed the cake.”

“She didn’t wish her brother a happy birthday either, right?” Another roommate joined in on the gossip. “Otherwise, there would be no need to have that Li Weiming say it specifically.”

“It seems she was the one who said she wanted to celebrate her brother’s birthday and tricked him into going to the hotel,” the person on the lower bunk also thought so and took over the conversation. “Even if she didn’t know, she would probably feel very guilty about it…”

Luo Cheng hid on the upper bunk, her heart growing more and more flustered as she listened.

She was vaguely glad that these few roommates didn’t have the habit of watching live streams, nor did they follow celebrities, so they hadn’t seen her and Luo Zhi being cornered at the hotel entrance… But this was not a long-term solution.

Luo Cheng subconsciously picked up her phone, opened WeChat intending to send a message, but stared at the chat box she had opened for a long time.

…Why had she opened the chat with Luo Zhi?

Why was her first reaction still to ask Luo Zhi for help, to have Luo Zhi help her deal with those live stream recordings?

Luo Cheng looked at the last message in WeChat. She could hardly remember when it was sent… No, she remembered. It was that day when the whole dorm was unable to sleep because of a final group project. She had posted a frustrated message on her Moments, which Luo Zhi had seen and liked.

Luo Cheng was already worried and angry. Seeing Luo Zhi’s like, she couldn’t help it and went to vent her temper on him.

Long paragraphs of venting and complaining. A roommate who went to get water had accidentally glanced at it and smilingly teased about who had made the gentle and elegant department belle so angry; it must have been something particularly outrageous.

Luo Cheng had casually made up an excuse to brush it off, but she had also rarely felt a bit of regret and sent Luo Zhi an apology.

Luo Zhi was very happy because of this message and had even solemnly said thank you to her.

Luo Zhi’s last message to her was, “It’s okay, you have your brother.”

…

The messages stopped there.

Luo Cheng looked at that message.

It was as if she had suddenly, finally remembered something.

Something she had deliberately set aside for days, even leaving home and hiding in the school dorm to avoid thinking about it.

…The day the cruise ship capsized, Jian Huaiyi had come down from the rescue boat, but Luo Jun was not seen.

Jian Huaiyi had hidden in his room, refusing to speak no matter how much he was asked. Only at the very end, under his father’s pressure, did he have to admit that there had been some conflict on the ship.

They had run into Luo Zhi. They had argued fiercely over something. Luo Jun had lost his temper and pushed him and Luo Zhi.

Luo Jun had pushed him and Luo Zhi into the water. Now he had been taken away by the police and was being questioned.

Luo Zhi was missing at sea.

“Xiao Cheng saw it too,” Jian Huaiyi said, his face pale, looking up at her. “Didn’t she?”

…

Luo Cheng’s face turned pale bit by bit.

She had indeed seen it.

She was right there on the side, watching her eldest brother get angry at Luo Zhi, pinching Luo Zhi’s jaw to force his head up, only to be separated by Jian Huaiyi who stepped in between.

Her mind was in too much of a mess. She didn’t dare to say anything, so she had returned to school from home that very night.

Luo Cheng looked at Luo Zhi’s WeChat profile picture. She subconsciously wanted to tap it, then pulled her hand back.

Luo Zhi was missing at sea, but she didn’t believe anything would happen to him.

Luo Zhi was a very good swimmer and was calm in emergencies. He would definitely find a way to save himself in that situation.

Her thoughts were actually the same as Ren Chenbai’s. She didn’t think Luo Zhi would… Luo Zhi was always fine. He could always turn danger into safety. This time would definitely be the same.

…But why did Ren Chenbai suddenly seem to have gone crazy, starting to frantically take revenge on Li Weiming?

Luo Cheng didn’t dare to think about that possibility. She opened the chat with Luo Zhi and quickly typed “Where are you,” sending it without a second thought.

She waited for a few minutes. Seeing no reply, she sent a few more messages in a row, briefly telling him about the family’s situation.

She told Luo Zhi in WeChat that the family was in complete chaos now. Dad was sick, her eldest brother was being punished, Jian Huaiyi had been injured in a fight, and she had heard that the family business was also in serious trouble.

Luo Cheng watched as the messages she sent filled the screen. She bit her lower lip hard, about to send more, when Ren Chenbai’s call suddenly came in again.

Luo Cheng screamed in fright. She was fumbling to long-press the power-off button when a message from Ren Chenbai also popped up at the top of the screen.

Luo Cheng just glanced at it, and her hands and feet instantly turned cold.

Ren Chenbai was reminding her, hypoglycemia.

Hypoglycemia, coma, Luo Zhi.

Luo Cheng trembled, slowly moving her finger away.

She didn’t dare to hang up anymore, nor did she dare to turn off her phone. She answered the call and climbed down from her bed, wanting to leave the dorm to take the call.

“Xiao Cheng,” Ren Chenbai’s gentle voice came from the phone. “Stay in the dorm. You are not allowed to go out.”

Luo Cheng hid her phone and walked to the door under the surprised gazes of her roommates, only to be frozen in place by that voice.

“Did you see the video? I have something to ask you.”

Ren Chenbai said, “Who is your second brother?”

His tone was clearly unchanged from usual, but it was as if some invisible coldness was quietly seeping out, slowly entangling its new prey.

Luo Cheng didn’t have the courage not to answer. She timidly said a name, but Ren Chenbai was not satisfied.

“Say it in full. Is this something that can’t be seen in public?” Ren Chenbai said. “Louder. Say it to your roommates.”

Ren Chenbai asked patiently, “Who is your second brother? What does he do?”

Luo Cheng’s face turned even paler. She stiffly turned around bit by bit, leaning against the door, looking at her roommates who were staring at her in astonishment.

Ren Chenbai would not have the patience to repeat the question a third time.

“My, my second brother is,” Luo Cheng heard herself stammer, “is from Huaisheng Entertainment, the general manager.”

Her roommates, not knowing the inside story, stared at her in astonishment. One of them couldn’t help but ask, “Luo Zhi? The one in the video?”

“Someone is asking a question,” Ren Chenbai heard the voice on the other end and gently coached her, “You need to answer.”

Luo Cheng opened her mouth, her voice tinged with tears. “…Yes.”

“I’m at Sea-view Villa, looking at the surveillance here. I saw you bring Luo Zhi to the villa.”

Ren Chenbai continued to ask amiably, “Where did you lock him up?”

Luo Cheng’s tears instantly welled up. “Brother Chenbai, I know I was wrong. Please don’t be like this. I’m scared, Brother Chenbai…”

“Other than Luo Zhi, no one will care if you’re scared,” Ren Chenbai said. “Luo Cheng, where did you lock Luo Zhi up?”

He said, “Answer in full, just like before.”

This time, Luo Cheng didn’t dare to speak at all. She clamped her mouth shut, her body trembling uncontrollably.

“Do you want me to post this surveillance video online too?” Ren Chenbai’s voice slowly came through the phone, tightening around her neck. “Xiao Zhi’s condition in this video is not good. I don’t want to post it. He cares a lot about his image.”

“Don’t!” Luo Cheng screamed. She couldn’t hold on any longer and collapsed to the ground, drained of strength. “I, I locked my second brother in a storage room. I don’t know what it was for. It looked like a storage room…”

“And then you went to have dinner with your family,” Ren Chenbai said. “And you forgot him here.”

Ren Chenbai said, “You forgot him for a whole night.”

Luo Cheng trembled. She collapsed under the disbelieving gazes of her roommates and repeated woodenly, “And then, and then I had dinner with my family, forgot my second brother, forgot him for a whole night.”

“And then you showed some kindness and brought him food,” Ren Chenbai asked. “Why was the food you brought all muddy?”

Luo Cheng said in a low voice, “It was raining. I, I dropped the food, accidentally, in the mud.”

“And then you made him eat it,” Ren Chenbai said.

Luo Cheng opened her mouth. She wanted to beg for mercy, wanted to escape this dorm with a volume Ren Chenbai couldn’t hear, but she didn’t have the courage at all.

“Speak,” Ren Chenbai said. “And then you left him in that room again until dawn.”

Luo Cheng’s body was already numb, tears falling uncontrollably. “And then I made my second brother eat… Brother Chenbai, I didn’t mean to! It was raining that day, I was too scared. As soon as it got dark, I didn’t dare to move…”

“As soon as it got dark, so you didn’t dare to move.”

Ren Chenbai suddenly laughed softly. “Xiao Cheng, do you know if it was day or night when you escaped after you were abducted?”

Luo Cheng was crying so hard she couldn’t breathe. She wanted to shake her head vaguely, but then suddenly realized she actually knew the answer—she had been too young at the time, too young to remember much. But when her family had shown her the records from that time and told her how she had escaped, they had mentioned the time.

She had run out in the middle of the night while those people weren’t paying attention. She happened to be discovered by the police not far away and was thus sent back home…

“Do you believe it?” Ren Chenbai slowly wove a story. “A four-year-old little girl who doesn’t dare to walk as soon as it gets dark, smart, brave, and lucky, runs out from a group of vicious criminals in the middle of the night and happens to run right next to the police.”

Luo Cheng’s body completely froze.

She seemed to be instinctively resisting, not wanting to listen to Ren Chenbai’s words anymore, but she couldn’t move at all, so she could only listen as that voice grew colder and colder, continuing to speak in her ear.

“It’s okay if you’ve forgotten. There happens to be a documentary,” Ren Chenbai said. “Didn’t you want to go so badly?”

Luo Cheng was firmly held by fear. She spoke with a trembling voice, “I don’t want to anymore, Brother Chenbai. I don’t want to anymore. I don’t want to go at all…”

She suddenly remembered something, something that made her whole body feel as if it had been instantly frozen by water colder than the icy sea that day.

…She had given Ren Chenbai the liability waiver with her signature on it.

Once you signed that liability waiver for joining the crew, you had to be with the crew for the entire duration, semi-immersively witnessing or even personally experiencing all the facts that had happened in the past.

Although she already knew the chances of being selected were low, Luo Cheng still held a glimmer of hope, afraid of missing any opportunity from Director Gong Hanrou’s side while she was stuck on the cruise ship and couldn’t make it in time.

So she had signed the agreement in advance and given it to Ren Chenbai for safekeeping.

She was full of confidence that she was prepared.

“Brother Chenbai, I don’t want to go anymore, I’m not going… My skills are not good enough, I’ll drag down the crew.”

Luo Cheng frantically tried to find a reason. “The crew will definitely despise me. I—”

“There’s an A-cast. You’re just a substitute. It’s already been arranged with them,” Ren Chenbai said. “The contract has also been sent over…”

“Ren Chenbai! What on earth do you want?” Luo Cheng swayed unsteadily. She curled up her body tightly, wretchedly avoiding the gazes cast upon her, and cried out in a breakdown, “I didn’t mean to! I didn’t know my second brother’s condition was already so bad. When I saw him in the middle of the night that day, he was still fine—”

Luo Cheng had never faced this problem directly. It was only at this moment that she was suddenly hit hard by her own words.

…

The middle of the night that day.

In the middle of the night that day, Luo Zhi had dragged his right leg, walking slowly into the woods.

Luo Zhi couldn’t walk properly. He had to rest for a long time after walking just a few steps. He wouldn’t go around the obstacles in front of him, as if he had already lost some of his senses.

…Still fine?

A Luo Zhi like that, how could he have survived the shipwreck?

Ren Chenbai didn’t ask her this question, but just gently, over the phone, said in her ear, “We’re all going to hell.”

There was no sound from Luo Cheng’s side.

…

Ren Chenbai hung up the phone.

He was now sitting in the “storage room” Luo Cheng had spoken of. Before coming here, he had just personally searched every corner of the villa.

He had searched every place Luo Zhi might be hiding. When going down the stairs, he had accidentally missed a step and seemed to have broken his leg. Only then did he know how much it hurt to break a leg.

When he found out Luo Zhi had broken his leg, he had still been pleased with his plan to lure Luo Zhi back to the Luo family and let him see Mrs. Luo’s true colors. He had been so lost in thought that when he looked up from his desk, he saw his mother with a frown and a complicated expression.

That day was the first time his mother had punished him. His mother had made him swear that no matter what happened in the future, he must not harm Xiao Huo Miao.

Bringing Luo Zhi home from the hospital to recuperate, Ren Chenbai had hidden outside the door and seen his mother sitting by Luo Zhi’s sickbed, holding Luo Zhi and sobbing, constantly saying sorry.

Ren Chenbai had never seen his mother cry. He didn’t know what he had done wrong and was so panicked that he froze at the door.

“In the future, when you’re sad, just run, run far away,” his mother had held Luo Zhi, saying to him over and over again, “Don’t mind your brother. You don’t have to take care of him. Don’t take care of him. Remember to run.”

Ren Chenbai had never asked his mother why she had said those words to Luo Zhi.

He was just thinking that Luo Zhi seemed to be really bad at running away.

Ren Chenbai picked up his phone and opened the sample footage sent by Director Gong Hanrou’s crew.

Through interviews with many of the parties involved, the pieced-together complex clues could already restore a part of the scene at that time.

The child actors performed well, but they were, after all, children who had been doted on and raised with care. In the end, they were still missing a certain feeling.

Ren Chenbai watched the sample footage. He slowly saw the seven-year-old Luo Chi. The boy, covered in injuries, was carrying his younger sister on his back, stumbling as he fled.

The footsteps behind them were getting closer and closer. Vague figures could already be seen, but there were still two minutes before the auxiliary police would arrive on their routine patrol. At this rate, they would be caught and beaten to death before help arrived.

Luo Chi gritted his teeth and put his sister down.

“Don’t cry,” Luo Chi said in a low voice. “Hide-and-seek. Xiao Cheng, hide-and-seek.”

The empty, remote alley was frighteningly dark. His sister was too scared to move, her face covered in tears, her small, soft hand tightly gripping his fingers.

Luo Chi pulled his hand out bit by bit.

He no longer looked up, but just pulled off his sister’s jacket, randomly gathered some fallen leaves from the roadside, wrapped them up, held them in his arms, and turned to run into another alley illuminated by a streetlight.

Those people caught up with him. Discovering that what he was holding was just a bundle of fallen leaves, they were furious and slapped him hard, knocking him to the ground.

Amidst the falling fists and feet, Luo Chi curled up to protect his head and neck, protecting that piece of clothing.

“It’s okay,” Luo Chi said. “It’s okay.”

He was engulfed by a sharp ringing in his ears, dizzily protecting those fallen leaves. “You have your brother.”