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Chapter 57: 57

“Ah Cheng, are you sure Director Jiang will call?” The female manager paced nervously in the room. “Why don’t you call the director to apologize?”

“What’s the hurry? It’s only been 21 hours and 36 minutes. Director Jiang needs me.” Ah Cheng chuckled confidently but his anxiety was belied by his fingers that scratched against the leather sofa. “Everything is within my calculation. Trust me, the crew is now in a pickle and they’ll come crawling to get me to save them soon.”

“Really?” The manager took in Ah Cheng’s twitching legs and wandering gaze. In the end, she sighed tiredly, “Then we shall wait some more.”

…

“Jiang Yi, do you know how much negative impact it’ll cause to change the main character at this juncture? Do you know how much effort I’ve used to persuade the agency behind Ah Cheng to sponsor this project? Do you really think there are sponsors out there lined up for this film?”

“I’ll try my best to cut down on the budget further. Furthermore, if you ask for my honest opinion, we’re paying too much for Ah Cheng to play this role. The money he gets doesn’t match the work he puts in. In comparison, this other actor…”

“That’s enough. You’re giving me a headache. Fine, I’ll give you three more extra days. Use these three days to clear your mind and really see what’s important here.” Sister Long then hung up the call. Director Jiang and the two scriptwriters were left in the smoky room.

“Director, are we going to edit this script again?” The scriptwriter took out a cap to cover his balding head.

“Everyone has worked extra hard for the past few days. We should take a short break for now.” Director Jiang then lit a cigarette and chased the rest out of the room.

After Han Fei left the set, he stopped to chat with the victims’ families. He wanted to gain more information to get to know his roommates better. After all, he shared the same roof with them. Through stories told through their loved ones, the ghosts in Room 1044 took on color and life.

“I am sure they will feel your love and adoration. They know that they are missed.” Sitting with the families, listening to their remembrance, a feeling which Han Fei never felt before rose within him. Flimsy as it was, there was a thread that connected the warm, real world and the eerie, hellish game world. The thread crossed the border between life and death, linking both together. Han Fei could not help but wonder if there was a higher purpose to the existence of this Perfect Life game…

At 5 pm, just as Han Fei was about to bid the families farewell, he got a call from Li Xue. After moving away from the others, Han Fei accepted the call. “Have you found anything on Meng Changan?”

“Not really. More clues surfaced when we looked into Meng Changan but they all pointed towards Meng Changxi!” Li Xue’s voice drifted out from the phone. “Furthermore, the crime scene report at the black house was just out. We found DNA traces of two individuals, one was He Shouye, and the other Meng Changxi. Other than that, we pulled up the copy of the traffic cam from several years ago. We spotted Meng Changxi at the street adjacent to where He Shouye died in the car accident. Now we suspect He Shouye’s car accident might not have been an accident after all.”

“You think it was Meng Changxi who killed He Shouye?” Han Fei pulled up the victims’ relationship web in his mind, “Why would he kill He Shouye? There was no connection between them.”

“He probably did it to silence his accomplice. Like what I suggested, they are both killers who might have exchanged each other’s targets. After the deal was completed, to keep his evil deed a secret, Meng Changxi murdered He Shouye.”

“Is it possible that someone has framed Meng Changxi? Isn’t it a bit convenient that everything points towards him?”

“There’s that possibility, which is why we have not put out a warrant for Meng Changxi yet.” Li Xue’s tone changed. “To ensure that we do not get the wrong killer, we dig very deep into both He Shouye and Meng Changxi’s past. We did not find anything truly incriminating other than the ones we already have on Meng Changxi. However, He Shouye was a different case. It was like we had opened Pandora’s Box. He was not a local, he was married and had his son before he moved to the city. We paid a visit to his former neighbours and went through a lot to search for his ex-wife.”

“Ex-wife?”

“That’s right. He Shouye was divorced. According to his neighbours, He Shouye was a real model citizen before he was a married man. He was their village’s prime bachelor. However, after his marriage was confirmed, his real persona was revealed. The man was a horrid gambler and wife beater. It only got worse after their son was born. He Yuhuai was born with a congenital disease. He was frail and weak. He Shouye was not satisfied with his son and he vented his anger on both the boy and his mother. Domestic violence was common. Eventually his wife could not suffer his wrath anymore and escaped from home. However, she did not bring her son with her.

“He Shouye used He Yuhuai’s life to threaten his wife to return. He said he’d kill the boy if she refused. In the end, the wife had to go to the police. They got a divorce after that.

“After the divorce, there was a big argument over the estate settlement, both parties wanted the house but neither of them wanted the burden of the child. Some of their neighbours teared up talking about that boy. He had no friend and he was always locked up at home. He grew up in fear. His parents took out their negative emotions on him. The sound of a boy crying had never ceased at their house. The neighbours often heard He Shouye roar, ‘Boys don’t weep! Stop crying or I’ll snap your neck!’

“Perhaps because of his firstborn, He Shouye developed an extreme hatred towards kids. According to his neighbours, He Shouye could be perfectly normal at one moment but go crazy the next if there was a child crying around him. In the end, both parties shared their assets evenly, and the boy was given to his mother. The tragedy did not end there though. The mother did not want the boy. She only gave birth to him because He Shouye wanted a child. So one day, she brought him to somewhere very far away for a game of hide and seek. When it was the boy’s turn to hide, the mother abandoned him.

“He Yuhuai’s mother did her own hiding, taking all her money from the divorce. After the police found the boy, they had no choice but to bring him back to his father. You knew what happened next. News surfaced that a millionaire’s son at Xin Lu suffered from kidney disease. When He Shouye found out his son was a possible donor, he made a private transaction with the businessman.

“This whole tragedy started with that boy. If his family had showered him with some love, and learned to accept him, then perhaps the rest of the tragedy could have been avoided.”

Li Xue told the story and a particular person kept appearing in Han Fei’s mind. The boy who lived in the room beneath his in Perfect Life, the boy by the name of Weep; The boy who stood alone by himself, the boy who kept up this game of hide and seek that had no ending in sight; The boy who lived in a house filled with nothing but the sound of crying.

‘Perhaps I should spare some time to talk to Weep…’ The name He Yuhuai echoed in Han Fei’s mind. He planned to meet Weep that night.