—

Feng Xiuyun's boyfriend was actually Zhang Feng.

Jiang Luo recalled the information he'd seen before—Zhang Feng was only twenty-four this year, a full six years younger than Feng Xiuyun.

Even though Jiang Luo wasn't part of the Entertainment Industry, he knew what would happen if an un-debuted trainee were exposed for dating a behind-the-scenes Program Team staff member six years older than him.

But the strange part was here.

Zhang Feng was already twenty-four, no longer young, desperate to debut—why would he choose romance at this time? Jiang Luo didn't mean to look down on Feng Xiuyun, but he knew men's baser nature all too well. If the partner were beautiful, young, pretty, and wealthy, that would be one thing. Feng Xiuyun was already thirty, plain-looking, just a minor behind-the-scenes worker—she couldn't help Zhang Feng at all.

Zhang Feng dating her was almost certainly for some other purpose.

But what kind of purpose would drive someone desperate to debut to risk destroying his own future just to get close to Feng Xiuyun?

Jiang Luo read through the diary again and found that all of it had been written within three days. In other words, Zhang Feng had taken only three days to approach Feng Xiuyun and make her fall for him.

Three days later, Feng Xiuyun was dead.

And before that, the three trainees Li Zhen, Chen Liuzhi, and Lin Xiao had already died.

Put bluntly, Zhang Feng looked connected to the truth behind Li Zhen and the others' deaths in every way—but why hadn't he died?

Three characters flashed through Jiang Luo's mind: substitute corpse.

Had Feng Xiuyun become Zhang Feng's substitute corpse?

"Did Feng Xiuyun leave anything else?" Jiang Luo asked.

Lu You carried over a large cardboard box. "This box of things was hidden by Feng Xiuyun under her bed. We haven't looked through it yet."

The three of them bowed to the box and opened it. Inside were neatly arranged storage bags.

The contents were bizarrely varied—a cookie half-eaten, a used cup, a moldy apple.

On each storage bag was a Note.

"The hair tie he gave me."

"The cup he used."

"The things he said to me."

At the bottom of the box was also a folded deep-blue bedsheet.

Lu You and Ye Xun unfolded the sheet. In its center were a few drops of blood.

There was a Note on the sheet too.

Jiang Luo picked it up, glanced at it, and frowned. "The two of them slept together."

This was Feng Xiuyun's first proof.

The two holding the sheet flushed, hurriedly put it back, and sheepishly stepped away.

The Note on the sheet read: "I didn't expect this step to come so quickly... but it doesn't matter. He likes me a lot. Every time we meet, he hugs and kisses me. I asked him why he liked doing that, and he said he wanted to leave his scent on me... Even though I don't know why he seemed relieved afterward, I'm still happy. Even when his attitude toward me turned impatient as he left."

The Dead Ghost, who had been watching from the side, suddenly spoke. "She's the substitute corpse."

Coinciding with Jiang Luo's own thought, he looked at him. "Why do you say that?"

The Dead Ghost said, "Zhang Feng left his scent on Feng Xiuyun's body, which can deceive the Ghosts that want to kill him."

Something was going to kill Zhang Feng. After learning this, Zhang Feng bided his time, got close to Feng Xiuyun, became intimate with her, made her fall in love, so that the Ghosts hunting him would mistake Feng Xiuyun for him. Feng Xiuyun died, and Zhang Feng escaped.

How did Zhang Feng know he was going to die?

And where did he get the method for a substitute corpse?

Zhang Feng, Li Zhen, Chen Liuzhi, and Lin Xiao must have done something to bring this killing curse upon themselves.

Jiang Luo pointed at Feng Xiuyun's box. "He used Feng Xiuyun as his substitute corpse, and all it took was kissing, hugging, and sleeping with her?"

The Dead Ghost nodded.

He didn't remember anything, but these things surfaced in his mind like instinct. "Hugging can only leave your scent on someone briefly. Fluid exchange is better—for example, kissing—but you don't need to go all the way."

"That's enough to fool Ghosts that don't identify people by sight."

Lu You suddenly understood. He looked at the box with sympathy. "Then she was deliberately killed by Zhang Feng."

Zhang Feng's insides were rotten and foul.

If, as the Dead Ghost said, going all the way wasn't necessary—that alone was enough to fool the Ghosts. But Zhang Feng still slept with Feng Xiuyun. He was simply worried that ordinary kissing and hugging wasn't safe enough, so he coaxed and deceived her, making sure she could stably become his substitute corpse.

He exploited a woman's love for him like this—appallingly selfish.

And the reason Zhang Feng chose Feng Xiuyun as his substitute corpse was simple.

Feng Xiuyun was low-key and introverted. Among the staff, she was practically invisible—no background, no friends. Even if something happened to her, no one would pursue it.

Feng Xiuyun was thirty and had never dated. Zhang Feng could easily coax her heart away. Even if his relationship with her were exposed, who would believe the words of an ugly, old behind-the-scenes worker?

The public would only think Feng Xiuyun was talking nonsense, unable to tell reality from the Dream Realm, fantasizing that she was dating a young, handsome trainee.

Zhang Feng had truly thought of everything.

Jiang Luo laughed coldly. "He thought it through beautifully."

But now, although Feng Xiuyun had died in Zhang Feng's place, Zhang Feng clearly hadn't escaped whatever was behind him.

Jiang Luo closed the notebook. "Let's go look at The Warehouse."

*

Zhang Feng had practiced dance all morning, growing more and more irritable. With a dark expression, he went alone to the Toilet.

There was no one in the Toilet. Zhang Feng washed his face and looked up at himself in the Mirror.

He had solved the weight on his chest—he should have felt relaxed. But after seeing how the other trainees in the practice room were doing, fear and jealousy rose in him again.

He'd thrown that thing away. Without its blessing, could he still successfully debut?

There were only eight debut spots, and there were still many people ahead of him.

Zhang Feng thought viciously: let those people die too, just like the wish he'd once made.

Zhang Feng dried his face with paper, then looked at the Mirror again—and felt something was off.

Why hadn't his expression changed at all?

Zhang Feng made a strange expression, but in the Mirror, even as he smiled happily, his face remained unchanged.

What was going on? Zhang Feng panicked.

Someone suddenly knocked on the door outside.

Zhang Feng walked absently toward the door, his panic turning to greater irritation. Who knocks on a Toilet door? Doesn't a Toilet door just push open?

Right—a Toilet door just pushes open.

Zhang Feng froze. Beads of cold sweat broke out at his temples, a chill shooting up his back. "Who?"

The person knocking outside didn't speak, still knocking on the door.

Zhang Feng's heart leaped, his hair standing on end in an instant, a creeping sensation rising from his neck. With trembling hands, he locked the door and stepped back two paces.

"Who are you, who?!" he said in terror. "Speak!"

The knocking continued at a steady rhythm.

Zhang Feng was scared out of his wits. He covered his ears neurotically, but the knocking still passed clearly through his palms to his ears. Zhang Feng suddenly roared: "Stop knocking!"

The knocking outside stopped abruptly.

Zhang Feng exhaled in relief, then tensed again. He walked carefully to the door, wanting to see if the person outside had left, but there was no peephole on the door, no glass window nearby.

Zhang Feng's breathing grew heavier. He didn't dare open the door, but this silent waiting was more agonizing than when the knocking had been there. After a long hesitation, he lay on the ground and peered out through the crack under the door.

The crack was two fingers wide—just enough for one eye.

Zhang Feng pressed close to the crack, gripping the gap between the floor tiles, his forehead flat against the door.

His eyeballs swept from left to right. Outside the door, there was no shadow of legs.

Whatever had been knocking was gone.

Zhang Feng came back to life. He gasped for breath, completely collapsing onto the floor.

Don't overthink it, don't overthink it... maybe it was just some trainee playing a prank, trying to scare him.

Those things had already been dealt with. Nothing would come after him anymore.

Zhang Feng steadied himself, trembling with fear. Just as he was about to stand, he instinctively glanced once more toward the crack—and met another eye, wide open and staring.

That eye had no idea how long it had been watching him.

"..."

"Aaah!"

*

The four of them—Jiang Luo and the others—were heading toward The Warehouse.

On the way, Lu You sighed wistfully. "I really want to go back to School. Here, except for the cafeteria being good, nothing else is as nice as our School. Every day it's just eating and training—so boring."

Jiang Luo asked coolly, "Isn't good cafeteria food enough?"

Lu You fell silent.

The Dead Ghost asked curiously, "Go back to School?"

"We're still in School right now," Lu You explained. "Dead Ghost, have you ever been to School?"

The Dead Ghost looked lost for a moment, then hesitantly shook his head.

"He's an undead. Even if he went to School, it would have been centuries ago," Ye Xun said lightly. "Dead Ghost, where's your Great Sword?"

The Dead Ghost said, "Hidden in the dorm."

Others struggled to hide a Mobile Phone, yet he could stash his Great Sword—Lu You gave him a thumbs-up in admiration.

The Dead Ghost thought for a moment. "I also hid over twenty lenses."

"Why hide lenses?" Jiang Luo couldn't follow an undead's logic. "By the way, how did you get into this program?"

The Dead Ghost told them about being scouted by a talent agent, and about the twenty-year contract he'd signed with the manager.

"Twenty years?" Lu You sucked in a cold breath. "Isn't that a scam?!"

"Why are you getting worked up," Ye Xun deadpanned. "He's not even human."

Lu You scratched his head. "Right."

As they spoke, The Warehouse had arrived. As the Director had said, the location was extremely remote, and The Warehouse itself was dilapidated. Several windows were shattered, weeds growing thick in the corners.

The iron door was rusted. Jiang Luo pushed it—the door was locked, no way in from the front.

Ye Xun found a window they could climb through. "Here."

They jumped in through the window, the landing kicking up a cloud of dust. Jiang Luo fanned the dust from his face and saw several muddy footprints on the ground.

Ye Xun compared the muddy prints with Zhang Feng's shoes and said with certainty: "Zhang Feng came here."

The footprints led to a window on The Warehouse's back wall. Jiang Luo followed them, scanning The Warehouse from the corner of his eye.

Inside The Warehouse were some battered tables, chairs, and electrical appliances, with long screws scattered on the floor. Against the left wall sat a small table that was slightly cleaner than the rest.

Beside the table were four cardboard boxes serving as seats.

Jiang Luo said, "That table is strange."

Ye Xun followed his gaze. "Go take a look?"

Up close, there was also a broken bowl on the table. A clump of black ash had gathered at the table's corner. Jiang Luo rolled it between his thumb and forefinger and smiled. "Incense ash."

"Were they playing Cup Divination here?" Lu You said, surprised.

Cup Divination is a game like Pen Spirit or Plate Spirit—it can predict answers to questions. The thing is sinister; what you summon is always a Ghost, and if you summon one and don't send it off, disaster will follow.

But Jiang Luo hadn't seen any trace of such Ghosts in this incident.

Could these people really have been killed by Cup Divination?

Then what about the Faceless Monster in the darkness?

That monster had pushed Jiang Luo to the point where he didn't dare stand anywhere dark now, afraid that the moment the light was gone, the monster would already be at his side, taking his life when he was unprepared.

Jiang Luo clicked his tongue. "Let's follow the footprints first."

They climbed out through the back wall window of The Warehouse, their feet landing on mud. The rain had only stopped this morning; the ground hadn't dried.

Garbage was everywhere—half buried in the mud, half poking out like big radishes, leaving no place to step.

A line of footprints ran through the middle of the mud, stretching into the woods. Jiang Luo felt a flicker of relief—thank goodness it had rained last night, or they wouldn't have found Zhang Feng's trail this easily.

The woods weren't dense, but the muddy ground made the path difficult. They walked about twenty minutes, following the footprints to a Trash Heap piled high like a mountain.

The stench was overwhelming. Jiang Luo went green, covering his nose. "His destination was the Trash Heap?"

Ye Xun pinched his nose, his voice muffled: "Did he throw something away here?"

Jiang Luo: "...We don't have to dig through garbage, do we?"

Ye Xun's eyes gleamed with curiosity. He said with firm resolve: "The truth is right before us. Dig."

Jiang Luo: "..."

You really can't go on missions with Ye Xun—his curiosity is too strong. To get at the truth, he could suppress his fear and even actively dig through garbage.

Ye Xun rolled up his sleeves, found two relatively clean plastic bags to put over his hands, and urged: "Hurry up."

Lu You was used to this. He skillfully found three pairs of plastic bags, handed them to Jiang Luo and the Dead Ghost, then shoved the Dead Ghost forward, cheekily saying: "Dead Ghost, your nose is sharp—you go first. Remind us if you smell anything with Zhang Feng's scent."

The Dead Ghost nodded obediently and began searching through the garbage, shielding his two friends behind him.

The stench of the garbage disrupted the Dead Ghost's sense of smell, but soon he caught a different scent among it.

The Dead Ghost followed the scent, opened a cardboard box, and found a package tightly wrapped in plastic bags.

"I found it." He turned around.

The four climbed down from the Trash Heap, intending to look at what they'd found on the spot, but the smell there was so foul they'd vomit from another whiff—so they simply went back to The Warehouse.

But even after leaving the Trash Heap, Jiang Luo could still smell the stench.

He tilted his head to sniff himself, his breath hitching, and quickly turned his face away.

The smell of the Trash Heap had already clung to him.

Jiang Luo was disgusted by his own smell, but suddenly thought—if he'd been in this state last night, wouldn't Chi You have been sickened by him?

Should he use this method tonight to disgust Chi You?

But Jiang Luo quickly abandoned the idea.

It was too foul—even he couldn't stand it.

This was a stupid method that hurt the user as much as the enemy.

The Warehouse was far from the Trash Heap. Back inside, the Dead Ghost set the plastic bags on the table. "Something's off about this thing's aura."

He took the contents out of the plastic bags. They were wrapped in layer upon layer of thick plastic wrap. The Dead Ghost peeled off the wrap, revealing a transparent Glass Jar about two palms wide.

Inside the Glass Jar was a withered, bald infant.

The infant's arms and legs were like dead branches, eyes tightly shut, skin dark.

Black qi swirled around the infant. Lu You's face darkened. "It's a Little Demon."

Little Demons and Kumarn Tong are extremely similar, but they are not the same thing. Kumarn Tong are made when white-clad ajarns, with hearts of compassion, take in wandering child souls and invite them to be enshrined—these are good. But Little Demons are the opposite: made by black-clad ajarns through cruel methods. Even in death, the Little Demon does not close its eyes; its grudge is heavy—these are evil.

A Little Demon's power is stronger than Kumarn Tong's—faster to act, greater in effect—but the backlash is also immense.

Jiang Luo hadn't expected Zhang Feng would dare to keep such a thing.

He stepped forward, picked up the plastic bags, and rewrapped the Glass Jar. "The infant Zhang Cheng saw by Zhang Feng's feet must have been this Little Demon."

Just then, the Director called them, his tone panicked. "Master, something's happened to Zhang Feng."

*

Zhang Feng had been found collapsed in the Toilet. The Program Team sent him to the Hospital, but when Zhang Feng woke up, he started screaming and went mad.

He kept covering his face, crying: "My face! My face!"

When Jiang Luo and the others arrived at the Hospital, they heard a nurse say, shaken: "The patient just brought in went crazy, gouged his own eyes out—ripped them right out. Several nurses threw up."

Another nurse, hugging her own arms, her hair standing on end: "He scratched his own face all up, but he was still smiling. He's mad, absolutely mad!"

Jiang Luo exchanged a glance with his companions and quickly walked to the Hospital Ward.

Zhang Feng had been given a sedative by the doctor and was now lying in bed, limp.

His face was covered in bloody scratches from his own nails, and where his eyes should have been were bloody holes. The Director closed the door and complained: "He almost scratched a doctor just now, insisting the doctor's nose was his nose. I think he's possessed. Masters, take a look—is he possessed by a Ghost?"

Jiang Luo looked Zhang Feng over and laughed coldly. "No. He just realized he has no face."

The Director didn't understand. Jiang Luo walked straight to the bedside and looked down at Zhang Feng.

Zhang Feng saw him and grew agitated again. "Where's my face? Where's my face!"

Jiang Luo curled his lip. "Your face is gone. Shouldn't you be the one to answer that?"

Zhang Feng froze.

Jiang Luo set the Glass Jar containing the Little Demon on the table beside his bed and said coldly: "You must recognize this thing. You raised a Little Demon and then abandoned it—the backlash is your own doing. You've only lost a face now. If you don't want to lose your life, then tell us the truth about Li Zhen and the others' deaths."

Zhang Feng trembled all over. "I-I don't know..."

"The four of you played Cup Divination and summoned something. The others died one by one, but you got a way to avoid death—finding a substitute corpse," Jiang Luo said coldly, piecing it together as he went. "Feng Xiuyun died, and you didn't have to. You thought you'd escaped death, but then you noticed strange things still happening around you... When you see the new trainees, you think of the dead Li Zhen and the others, and the truth of their deaths. You're terrified, afraid, worried you'll still die—but you comfort yourself that someone already died in your place, so you don't have to. Isn't that right?"

Zhang Feng went deathly pale. Jiang Luo mocked: "Since you don't want to talk, we can't stop you from going to your death."

He made as if to leave, and Zhang Feng shouted desperately: "Don't go!"

He reached out to grab someone, but tumbled miserably from the bed to the floor, tears and snot streaming. "Save me, please, please save me!"

Jiang Luo and the others stopped, turning their faces to look at him.

"What you said is pretty much right," Zhang Feng cried out. "We—we played Cup Divination, and we summoned a Faceless Monster! The Faceless Monster said it could grant our wishes. Li Zhen and the others wished to debut, but I was blinded by greed—I made a wish. I wished that everyone ahead of me would die, so I could debut in the center... The Faceless Monster agreed."

"But before anyone else died, Li Zhen and the others died first. That's when I realized that to have a wish granted, you have to pay with a life first."

"What's the point of debuting if everyone's dead?" Zhang Feng was agitated. "Those few days I was going crazy, and on top of that Fu Wei came to mock me. What does he know? Does he think having that face of his means he has everything? I'll take him down with me if I die! I found a way to make the Faceless Monster target him, then went to my Little Demon and begged it to protect my life, but the Little Demon couldn't stop the Faceless Monster either. In a rage, I threw the Little Demon once and cursed it for being useless... The next day I snuck off to the Internet Cafe to look things up, and I found the method for using a substitute corpse."

Zhang Feng found Feng Xiuyun the easiest target, so he struck without hesitation. He made the Faceless Monster mistake Feng Xiuyun for himself, and Feng Xiuyun died as expected.

But afterward, the strange events around Zhang Feng hadn't stopped. If Zhang Cheng hadn't seen the infant Ghost by his side, Zhang Feng wouldn't have known the Little Demon had already begun its backlash, trying to kill him.

Zhang Feng crawled forward, shivering, trying to grab Jiang Luo's leg. "Please, please save me..."

Jiang Luo stepped back a few paces and looked back. "Have you called the police?"

Ye Xun nodded. "Police are on their way."

Zhang Feng collapsed on the floor.

They left the Hospital. Lu You exhaled. "Because of Zhang Feng's wish, the Faceless Monster threatened the Program Team into continuing the recording. It's also targeting Fu Wei. If we don't deal with the Faceless Monster, this isn't over."

Jiang Luo lit a cigarette and suddenly said, "The Faceless Monster has targeted me too."

But...

A wild idea popped into Jiang Luo's head.

Could he make Chi You face off against the Faceless Monster?