Xun Zhen appeared on the set of “Huo Miao (Flame)” again.

This time, he had been invited by Gong Hanrou. As soon as he arrived at the reception room, Zhao Lan hurried over to greet him, “Director Xun.”

The reason they had to ask Xun Zhen to come was because of a bit of trouble, not too big and not too small, for the film crew.

Luo Mu had come to the set and, along with Luo Cheng, had thrown the crew into chaos. No one could tell who was sick and who wasn’t. To make matters worse, Luo Cheng was still a signed actress for the production, so they couldn’t just kick her out.

“Contacting the hospital directly would inevitably cause a huge scandal.”

Full of apology, Zhao Lan explained in a low voice, “If Teacher Gong were on set and happened to be seen, they would seize the opportunity to make a story out of it…”

Gong Hanrou had a rigid personality and had made many enemies over the years. This time, while making the documentary, there were people who had tripped up Luo Chi in the past, now hiding in the shadows with extremely guilty consciences, watching.

If it weren’t for the Ming family’s support from behind, those with ulterior motives wouldn’t dare to intervene, and there would likely be many more twists and turns.

This time, with Luo Mu and Luo Cheng causing a ruckus on set, the staff had already arranged for Gong Hanrou to leave in advance. But they still needed someone trustworthy to clean up the mess, to prevent false rumors from spreading.

“It’s alright. Teacher Gong and I are old friends anyway.”

Xun Zhen already understood what she meant and shook his head. “This matter can also be considered part of my duty.”

Zhao Lan was taken aback by his last sentence. “What?”

Xun Zhen just waved his hand and picked up his medical kit. “Where are they?”

Zhao Lan came to her senses and quickly stepped aside. “Please follow me.”

The reason Luo Mu came to the set to find Luo Cheng was that Jian Huaiyi was being investigated for commercial crimes, and the other father and son of the Luo family were too preoccupied to deal with her, so for the time being, no one could control her.

She had heard the news from somewhere and actually came to Gong Hanrou’s set, saying she was there to visit Luo Cheng.

“Luo Cheng hid and refused to see her, so she just waited outside. She told people how disobedient Luo Cheng was, how immature, how she treated her second brother…”

Zhao Lan’s eyes were filled with disgust. “She’s quite skilled at this trick.”

…Of course, Luo Mu was skilled at this trick.

Back when she was accusing Luo Chi, she at least had to weave self-deceiving illusions to convince herself before she could deceive others. But what Luo Cheng had done didn’t even need to be fabricated.

Zhao Lan was utterly disgusted with both of them—that Luo Cheng had only experienced a little of what happened back then through the crew’s scene reenactment, and she was already scared to the point of crying and screaming, finally even fainting from the stimulation.

If she was so scared, why could she so easily do such a cruel thing?

If it weren’t for Luo Chi, this harm wouldn’t have been a simulated scene reenactment, but would have actually happened to Luo Cheng… But what had she done to her second brother?

Luo Cheng herself had proposed to terminate the contract many times, crying and screaming hysterically, grabbing everyone she saw and begging incessantly. She didn’t want anything anymore, just wanted to go far away, to escape to a place where no one knew her.

What place where no one knows her could she escape to? Why does she want to escape now?

She was the one who dragged Luo Chi back into that mire with her own hands.

Zhao Lan led Xun Zhen to Luo Cheng’s room. She was so disgusted with these two from the Luo family that after pouring Xun Zhen a glass of water, she left the room and waited outside the door.

Xun Zhen put down his things and walked to the bedside.

Luo Cheng’s hair was disheveled. She looked haggard and gaunt, lying motionless on the bed.

Xun Zhen didn’t deliberately soften his footsteps as he approached, but she seemed not to have heard at all, just staring blankly at the ceiling with wide eyes.

According to Zhao Lan, Luo Cheng couldn’t bear her mother’s accusations, rushed out of the set and had a fight with her mother. After being forcibly brought back to the set, she became like this.

“Doctor,” Luo Cheng said woodenly. “There’s something wrong with my head. Take me away and treat me, I—”

“Here, I am not a doctor,” Xun Zhen interrupted her. “And you are not sick.”

Luo Cheng’s voice stopped abruptly.

Xun Zhen asked, “Do you remember who I am?”

Luo Cheng moved her eyes to look at him. After recognizing the person before her, intense fear flashed in her eyes.

As Xun Zhen walked further forward, Luo Cheng suddenly struggled to sit up and scrambled desperately into the corner of the bed.

“If I can cure your mother’s illness, I can cure you,” Xun Zhen asked. “Miss Luo, do you really want me to take you away for ‘treatment’?”

Luo Cheng stared at him, trembling uncontrollably, too panicked to utter a single word.

…Of course she remembered this person.

It was this person who had coaxed the truth of those past events from her mother.

Luo Cheng was completely crushed by the truth of this matter.

Why was Luo Zhi harmed because of her back then?

Why was everything originally because of her willfulness? Why wasn’t she told sooner?

Why did Luo Zhi have to save her? If Luo Chi hadn’t saved her then—

“You would have stayed in that kind of place forever.”

As if he knew what she was thinking, Xun Zhen pulled up a chair and sat by the bed. “You auditioned for the role of the abducted female student. You must have reenacted her experience, right?”

The color drained from Luo Cheng’s face instantly. Her body was a little stiff. She forced herself to say in a hoarse voice, “I, I’d rather…”

“Rather be abducted and sold?” Xun Zhen asked. “Are you sure?”

His tone was flat, but Luo Cheng’s pupils froze at his words. She felt as if she had fallen into an ice cave, almost as if she were paralyzed by the bone-chilling cold.

—She still remembered the situation that day. The Luo family could do nothing at all. This person said he wasn’t a doctor; perhaps he really had a way…

The scene from that day’s reenactment instantly seized her throat. The dark, dilapidated house, the sinister, swaying figures… Although she wasn’t actually hit, the realistic sounds of punches and kicks, the screams and cries not far away, and the cold, sinister wind stirred up by the sticks, it was as if she had already died once.

This wasn’t a horror movie, nor was it a performance. If she hadn’t escaped that day, all of these things would have really happened to her.

She was saved by her second brother. Why had she completely forgotten this? If only she hadn’t forgotten, she wouldn’t be in this situation now. If it weren’t for Luo Zhi… No, without Luo Zhi, all of these things would have really happened to her.

…This person has come to make her face retribution.

Luo Cheng’s gaze began to fixate in terror. She gasped for air, her limbs growing weak, and her vision started to dim.

…

A glass of water splashed on her face suddenly pulled her back to reality.

Luo Cheng stared blankly at Xun Zhen before her.

Xun Zhen set the glass aside.

He sighed, pulled out two tissues, and wiped the water that had dripped onto his hand.

Of course, he wouldn’t do such a thing, and neither would the Ming family—even Luo Chi’s old subordinates from his companies would have intervened and thwarted Jian Huaiyi when he tried to set a trap.

Only those completely without a bottom line would assume others have no bottom line either.

Xun Zhen couldn’t even be bothered to explain further to her, simply asking, “What did you and your mother argue about?”

Luo Cheng sat stiffly for a long while before slowly recalling what had happened earlier.

…Luo Mu had finally forced her out of the set.

They had argued hysterically in front of so many people. It felt like people were watching and filming her everywhere. Luo Mu recounted all her malicious deeds to everyone, and she was so ashamed and desperate she wished she could die.

Luo Mu had gained the upper hand with this method again. She looked triumphantly at the crowd of onlookers, then suddenly froze.

The way people around them looked at Luo Mu was also with the same undisguised disgust and contempt.

They looked at them as if they were the most absurd, most nauseating clowns. They found it both baffling and irrational, yet feared being tainted even a little, turning aside to avoid them even when just passing by.

Then Luo Mu finally, gradually, realized what she and Luo Cheng were arguing about.

What could she and Luo Cheng argue about? The things they detested and hated most about each other, the things that had brought them to this state today.

How a sister could be an ungrateful wretch, how she followed her family in tormenting the brother who saved her, how she shamelessly pestered her brother who was already utterly disappointed in her just to get into the film crew, how she still exploited her deceased brother at a time like this, even using it to get into the crew.

How a mother, out of spite, lost two children; how, out of fear of admitting it, she lied, feigned madness and foolishness, and acted hysterically; how she drove away the child who was found to cover up her own lie; how she could actually smile upon hearing the news of that child’s death.

…

“Both are murderers,” someone said sarcastically. “Let’s not compare whose hands have more blood, shall we?”

More and more people began to whisper, then looked up with frowns. Those jeers, accusations, and curses finally became a net falling down.

The illusion, precariously maintained by lies for sixteen years, finally collapsed completely. Luo Mu stood amidst countless pairs of utterly disgusted eyes, and finally, those eyes turned into Ren Shuangmei’s.

The friend she had grown up with, the look in her eyes finally changed from disappointment and bewilderment to an unprecedented strangeness.

It wasn’t even the way one looks at their own kind; it was like looking at some glamorous monster cloaked in human skin.

The people gathered around couldn’t even bear to listen anymore. They turned and left one by one, until finally, only they were left standing there.

…

Luo Cheng suddenly remembered something. She fumbled for her phone and dropped it on the floor because she was trembling too much.

Ignoring everything else, she lunged off the bed and managed to pick up the phone after several tries. She opened the live stream and, in an instant, plunged into the darkest ice cellar.

“This time, your mother has indeed lost her mind.”

Xun Zhen said, “My people found her. She was wandering the streets, pointing at everyone and endlessly saying, ‘You’re all cursing me, all of you are cursing me.'”

Luo Cheng held her phone, her eyes still staring blankly at the comments rapidly appearing in the live stream.

She could hear what Xun Zhen was saying, and she knew what he was talking about.

Luo Mu probably wouldn’t escape from this day.

She would live forever in the gaze of countless pairs of utterly disgusted eyes.

This was her greatest fear; nothing terrified her more. She didn’t even truly care about Jian Huaiyi; even Jian Huaiyi was just a prop for her performance of maternal love…

Luo Cheng suddenly thought of something and looked up at Xun Zhen in horror.

“I was the one who told your mother you were here,” Xun Zhen nodded. “The condition for the exchange was that she would give Jian Huaiyi’s criminal evidence to the police.”

Jian Huaiyi had no feelings for the Luo family from the very beginning, so he was very clean in covering his tracks. The leverage he could be caught on was all due to his lack of business acumen, unlike heirs like Luo Jun and Ren Chenbai who were groomed from a young age.

This leverage could make Jian Huaiyi be suspected, expelled, or even retaliated against by the Luo family, but it wasn’t enough to send him to prison and make him pay a more serious price.

What Luo Mu had done to help Jian Huaiyi was not as simple as just swapping a gift or two or tricking Father Luo into believing a certain award was won by Jian Huaiyi.

Luo Cheng’s throat moved. She gasped for air and struggled to speak, “You… how did you convince her? After all, she and Jian—”

Xun Zhen interrupted her. “Do people from your family need convincing?”

Luo Cheng felt as if an invisible whip had lashed her back. Her body convulsed violently, her face deathly pale.

“I just told her.”

Xun Zhen said, “Jian Huaiyi found out the Luo family had collapsed, so he ran away and abandoned her.”

…

Just like that.

Xun Zhen spread his hands, looking at Luo Cheng, who was sitting rigidly on the floor.

Luo Cheng’s body slowly went limp.

Her mind was a blank. After a long time, she heard Xun Zhen ask her, “Luo Cheng, have you never once thought that you are an extremely selfish, extremely cold-blooded and cowardly, and utterly self-centered person?”

Luo Cheng had heard these accusations many times. At this point, she was numb to them. She stiffly moved her eyes and showed him the live stream. “I… apologized.”

That live stream that couldn’t be turned off, that made her apologize until she was sick of it, according to the contract Jian Huaiyi had tricked her into signing, she couldn’t resist anything.

Luo Cheng had already read many comments. She opened her mouth to read them to Xun Zhen but was interrupted by him.

Xun Zhen looked into her eyes, his expression faintly mocking. “You’re thinking, why did Luo Zhi have to die.”

Luo Cheng’s back convulsed violently again. She stared at him in terror.

“Why did Luo Zhi have to die? Why not live, so he could tell everyone he forgave you.”

Xun Zhen said slowly, “Wouldn’t it have been great if there was no such person as Luo Zhi from the beginning? Or if Luo Zhi had never come back, then none of this would have happened.”

Luo Cheng shook her head stiffly, faster and faster.

She shook her head almost frantically, as if her life depended on it. In that helpless and panicked shaking, there was even a strong sense of fear. “No, I didn’t think that. How could I think that? I couldn’t possibly—”

“Luo Cheng,” Xun Zhen asked, “That day Luo Chi was critically ill, why didn’t you tell anyone?”

Luo Cheng hugged her head tightly.

Xun Zhen took the medical kit, opened it, and took out a syringe.

Luo Cheng’s pupils contracted instantly. “What is this?!”

She had seen Xun Zhen give her mother medicine. That medicine was terrifying. Her mother had indeed told the truth because of that medicine. Now it was her turn. She would surely be unable to resist. There was no way she could escape…

“Medicine to make you believe what I say.”

Xun Zhen injected saline into her arm. “There is no Luo Chi, and no Luo Zhi. Such a person does not exist in this world.”

Xun Zhen said, “You were abducted at the age of four. Now, sixteen years have passed…”

Luo Cheng’s body had gone completely limp from extreme panic. She gasped for air. The suffocating fear she felt during the crew’s scene reenactment returned.

“There is… there is! You’re lying to me! I have a second brother!” Luo Cheng screamed almost hysterically. “My second brother saved me! He’s the one who saved me!”

Xun Zhen shrugged. “Alright, your second brother saved you, but he died to save you.”

“He never came back. You got a new second brother.”

Xun Zhen said, “When you were eighteen, that new second brother of yours tricked you into signing a contract, making you a debtor. You were too scared to tell your family, but you didn’t expect the debt collectors to be so vicious.”

Luo Cheng shook her head desperately. “My second brother came back! Jian Huaiyi is not my second brother… it’s not him!”

She was too afraid of the so-called “medicine,” terrified of falling into the world Xun Zhen described. She refuted his words recklessly. “My second brother helped me beat up Jian Huaiyi, and he told our family. No one at home listened or believed him. Second brother said he would teach me from now on!”

“Alright,” Xun Zhen said. “But your second brother can’t teach you, because you think he’s a bad person and never listen to him.”

“Your second brother was framed and cyberbullied, and he left this place.”

Xun Zhen said slowly, “Jian Huaiyi took over that company, signed you as an artist, and the company ran into difficulties…”

This memory was no longer just a simulation, and it wasn’t distant at all—Luo Cheng’s eyes widened in despair.

A strange hotel room, vaguely familiar furnishings, dim lighting, and unclear figures.

Luo Cheng’s consciousness began to blur. She wasn’t sure if it was because of her rapid breathing and high tension, but she was increasingly gripped by extreme fear. “Impossible, my second brother wouldn’t leave just because of cyberbullying. My second brother is so capable, he left people to save me, he—”

Luo Cheng’s words suddenly got stuck in her throat. She collapsed on the floor, sweating profusely.

“Then,” Xun Zhen crouched down in front of her, his voice as soft as a whisper, “why did he (Luo Chi) leave?”

Luo Cheng couldn’t make a sound.

“Your second brother is so capable.”

Xun Zhen said, “Without you, Luo Chi would have had a very perfect life.”

“He wouldn’t have been kidnapped, wouldn’t have been injured, and no one would have come to steal his identity and name.”

“He would have been more outstanding than all of you. Sooner or later, he would have broken free from your family and gone to a place you couldn’t even see by looking up.”

“He would have been seen by countless people, liked by countless people.”

“Luo Cheng,” Xun Zhen looked at her. “Have you never once thought.”

Xun Zhen looked at her and repeated the question word for word, “That you are an extremely selfish, extremely cold-blooded and cowardly, and utterly self-centered person?”

Luo Cheng’s pupils slowly contracted.

The content that had been repeated countless times in the live stream, repeated until she was almost numb, was now being nailed into her ears word by word.

The voices grew louder and louder. She suddenly heard another sentence.

“Little sister,” that voice asked her curiously, “You knew I almost died, so your first reaction was to hate me, to question me for having ulterior motives, for staging it all myself?”

…

It took Xun Zhen peeling away the final layer of skin to force her to see this.

A hypocritical and absurd apology, a nauseating regret.

Just like her mother, she was putting on a show for others. In her heart, she still blamed Luo Chi.

Because the second brother who always came, didn’t come to save her this time.

“Insisting on hiding on set, are you?” Xun Zhen said. “Afraid to go out, afraid of being pointed at and called a murderer.”

“Can’t stand the scene reenactment, and the person involved is also very resistant to you. I’ll go talk to Director Gong for you.”

Xun Zhen said, “Play your natural role. Play the part of that Mrs. Luo.”

Luo Cheng’s gaze trembled.

She stared blankly at Xun Zhen, shaking her head in plea.

She would be haunted by the voices nailed into her ears until she died.

“Lose him,” Xun Zhen said without looking at her as he walked out of the room. “He is no longer anything to you people.”