Chapter 11: Things That Once Happened

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“I don’t know. It’s so quiet inside this dense forest. If something had happened, he could have made some kind of sound.” Mo An’s voice was tinged with exhaustion.

“Mo An, are we going to die here?” Duan Ling’s voice was filled with sorrow.

“No.” Mo An tried to reassure her, but his voice sounded forced.

“Don’t you feel as if something is watching us?” He Hongxin’s voice rose and fell erratically.

“He Hongxin, you’re too tense.” Mo An sighed.

“What do you mean by that?” He Hongxin’s voice grew considerably louder.

“What do you mean, what do I mean?” Mo An raised his voice as well.

“Are you saying there’s something wrong with my mind?” He Hongxin’s tone became even more hostile.

“Heh. No, He Hongxin. Are you planning to kill me too?” Mo An’s voice was full of sarcasm.

“Stop arguing. He Hongxin, I feel it too. It seems there really is something in the forest.” Duan Ling stepped in to mediate.

“Duan Ling, are you lying to me? Just telling me what I want to hear?” He Hongxin did not calm down.

“I—”

“—He Hongxin, what exactly do you want? We can’t refuse to do things your way, but we can’t do them your way either. Are you insane?” Mo An’s voice was fierce.

“Heh heh heh... hehe... hahaha...” He Hongxin began to laugh. It started as a cold chuckle, gradually became loud laughter, and finally turned into hysterical laughter.

That brought the argument to an end.

Qian Cangyi scanned everyone’s faces and found that the other actors were doing the same thing.

“Looks like He Hongxin really has gone mad.” Xiao Tian was the first to offer an opinion.

“This environment is too oppressive. It’s certainly possible.” Ning Jing nodded.

The Wise Star raised his right hand and lightly tapped his temple twice before continuing:

“Zhang Sibo has disappeared, leaving only three people. The notebook we saw earlier mentioned Duan Ling and a cold. If the skeletons we found correspond to the five people in the argument, then the last one to die was probably Mo An. After all, He Hongxin had already gone insane.”

“Interesting. None of the three had weapons. In theory, He Hongxin should have killed Mo An and Duan Ling. Yet in the end, the latter killed the former.”

At that, he closed his eyes, his brows drawing tightly together.

“Could it be this way?” Qian Cangyi spoke, and the other three turned their attention to him. The Wise Star kept his eyes closed. “It’s true that He Hongxin’s mind has begun to deteriorate, but he wasn’t lying. What I mean is, he genuinely believed there was something watching him in the forest. It wasn’t a hallucination.”

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“When you put it that way...” Soft Light glanced behind him, then took two steps toward the center of the path. “That’s a little frightening.”

Qian Cangyi looked into the forest. There were countless places where someone could hide. If something really had been watching them all along, it would be extremely difficult to notice.

“There’s another possibility.” The Wise Star opened his eyes. “Zhang Sibo didn’t disappear. He hid himself.”

“Why don’t we walk through it once more?” Ning Jing’s eyes widened.

Everyone agreed.

After returning to the clearing, the five of them once again set out along the narrow forest path.

“I... I can’t run anymore...” Duan Ling gasped between words.

“We can’t stop, Duan Ling. If we stop, He Hongxin really will kill us!” Mo An was panting too, but his breathing remained relatively steady.

“Why is this happening? Sob... Mo An, what did we ever do wrong?”

“Maybe... it’s karma...” Mo An’s voice was quiet, yet exceptionally clear. As he spoke, he seemed to have resigned himself to his fate.

“If we had... Wait, Mo An, what was it we did back then?”

“Back then, we... I—I’ve forgotten. I don’t know why, but I can’t remember.”

“I can’t remember either, but I’m sure it must have been something terrible.” Duan Ling’s tone became calm.

This time, there was no argument. It was simply a conversation between Duan Ling and Mo An.

Yet it revealed an extremely important clue.

“Why won’t they just say it? What the hell!” Soft Light angrily stamped his right foot.

“I hate this kind of thing.” Ning Jing looked disdainful.

“Not bad. It means my guess was correct.” The Wise Star smiled.

Qian Cangyi sighed and said:

“Because of the argument between Yan Ruoxuan and the others, we overlooked something. At the beginning, our goal was to leave this forest. Whether we went deeper into it or returned to the beach, either would have been fine.”

“Now we’ve walked through it four times, and each time we’ve ended up back where we started.”

“Four times is already plenty. If we still can’t get out, then that means...”

He turned to the Wise Star.

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“It means my deduction was wrong.” The Wise Star nodded slightly. “It’s not as if I have any other way. There are too few clues. I can’t even make a proper guess.”

“I didn’t mean anything by it.” To prevent any misunderstanding, Qian Cangyi added, “That’s all.”

“I know.” The Wise Star waved his hand. “Since you brought it up, Cangyi, do you have a better idea?”

“A better idea?” Qian Cangyi’s gaze shifted toward the upper left corner. “I do have an idea, but I don’t know whether it’s actually better.”

“Go on.” The Wise Star extended his right hand, palm upward, making an inviting gesture.

Qian Cangyi thought for a moment, organizing his words before speaking:

“The five people in the forest—Yan Ruoxuan and the others—probably aren’t part of our group. In other words, apart from learning things from the outside, we may also be able to learn things from ourselves.”

“Of course, since we don’t have our characters’ memories, we have no idea what happened in the past. But we may be able to make them appear.”

“Wise Star, you conducted a test earlier. While the Crimson Blood Moon is present, if we leave our roles and discuss matters, our bodies will be controlled by our characters. Using this method, we might be able to make them appear. Of course, I have no idea what will happen after that.”

When he finished, Qian Cangyi looked at the others, waiting to see how they would react.

“Sounds promising. The only problem is, which comes first—the Blood Moon or the curse taking effect?” The Wise Star looked thoughtful.

“It can serve as a backup plan.” Ning Jing offered her opinion.

“It doesn’t seem very safe. Given Yan Ruoxuan’s personality, I might end up dead.” Soft Light’s face was filled with exhaustion.

“That is certainly possible...” Qian Cangyi scratched the back of his head with his right hand.

“We should return to the tents first. Perhaps something will change there.” Xiao Tian pointed ahead with his right hand.

The five continued forward and once again returned to the clearing.

Compared with the first time they had arrived there, the only obvious change was that the sun overhead had shifted to the other side.

So far, the greatest change in the five of them was the cracks in their shadows.

The cracks had grown slightly larger than before, like a time bomb counting down to detonation. No one knew when it would explode.

An ominous atmosphere hung in the air, and every actor was weighed down by troubled thoughts.

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