DSMC Chapter 169.2

The two of them opened the four files again. Apart from Su Qiran, who was a boy and could therefore be ruled out, the other three were girls. That saved them quite a bit of time — they only needed to compare the three girls.

In the original [Mingya High School] instance, everything still took place on the school grounds, so finding a student’s records and digging up their gossip had been relatively easy. But the upgraded [Mingya High School 2.0] had completely cut off the channels through which they could gather information.

Su Ziran had been one year older than Su Xiran when she entered the school, so the ages didn’t match. She could be eliminated.

That left two: Su Xiran and Su Jingran. They were the same age and had been classmates.

The photos from ten years ago had become somewhat blurry with age. Both girls wore their hair the same way and had identical black-rimmed glasses. Under the dim lighting, it was genuinely difficult to tell which one was Su Xiran and which was Su Jingran. In any case, neither of them looked much like Su Xiran.

Yan Jiyun thought of Si Hao’s unmistakably plastic-surgery-enhanced face. “Could she have had plastic surgery before entering the entertainment industry?”

Shi Yan: “Possible. I lean more toward Su Xiran. Their ‘Xi’ only differs in tone sandhi.” (希 used first tone, while 喜 used third tone. While they’re different, if you pronounce them in actual conversation, it’s easy to be mixed-up.)

Yan Jiyun continued comparing the two one-inch ID photos in the files. “Don’t you think they look really similar? They almost look like twins.”

Shi Yan: “Twins who both wear glasses?”

Yan Jiyun: “What if one of the girls was the one who jumped to her death back then, while the one seeking revenge now is actually the other girl? Maybe this girl is taking revenge for her best friend.”

Shi Yan: “If that’s the case, then a girl would understand another girl better and have an easier time getting information out of her. Your guess becomes quite reasonable. And the person seeking revenge could currently be with Qi Feng?”

Yan Jiyun suddenly looked up at Shi Yan. “Do you remember what the female ghost looked like?”

Shi Yan: “A blue-gray face. It was impossible to make out her real appearance.”

Yan Jiyun: “Su Xiran is the target of her revenge. She must have done something back then, or known something and kept quiet. And we still don’t know what happened to Female Ghost No. 1.”

Investigating the victim’s social connections was clearly a very important part of this instance.

Who exactly had a grudge against Su Xiran?

After obtaining the two matching files, they hadn’t come away empty-handed. At the very least, they now knew that Su Xiran had attended Mingya High School for all three years, which classes she had been in from freshman to senior year, and what her grades had been.

What Yan Jiyun hadn’t expected was how strange the grades of Su Xiran and Su Jingran were.

Su Xiran had been an excellent student during her freshman and sophomore years, while Su Jingran had been near the bottom of her class throughout those same years. Yet during their senior year, Su Xiran’s grades suddenly plummeted, while Su Jingran shot into the top ten in her class. The teacher’s comments at the back of her file even described her as a student who had “accumulated strength over time before finally breaking through.”

Strange. Why was it like this?

Had something happened during their senior year that changed both girls’ fates?

The October 1 incident?

Yan Jiyun asked Shi Yan, “Who was the main writer of the Mingya High School script?”

Shi Yan: “It should be Director Jiang. I was on the same bus as him, and he was discussing the plot with the screenwriter.”

Yan Jiyun: “The script was written in advance, so everything should follow it. What about the producer? Did he make any suggestions about the script or anything?”

Shi Yan: “Before we got off the bus, the producer had a bit of an argument with Director Jiang.”

Yan Jiyun: “They’re not on good terms?”

Shi Yan: “They seemed fairly harmonious to me.”

Yan Jiyun: “The fact that they argued is important. Can you tell me exactly what happened?” He had a feeling he’d missed a lot of important information.

Shi Yan described the scene to Yan Jiyun.

When he woke up at the time, he was already on the second bus. Most of the people around him were NPCs, with around a dozen players mixed in among them.

When he woke, he calmly observed everyone on the bus. Aside from a few players he’d encountered in the Mingya High School instance, everyone else was unfamiliar, including the NPCs. This was the first time he’d encountered an instance where the main storyline suddenly changed after entering, so he was somewhat bewildered.

Shi Yan saw the new role he was playing in this new instance.

The other players on the bus should all have been awake as well. It was easy to tell who was looking around and assessing the environment. He quickly calmed down, and soon heard people discussing something in the front rows. Their voices rose and fell, with one person sounding particularly agitated.

Director Jiang was sitting on the left, while the producer was on the right. The two had different opinions about one of the scenes.

Director Jiang: “That’s exactly how this scene should be written. Otherwise, how are we supposed to make the people who did something wrong back then feel guilty?”

Producer Ci Shen: “Why can’t we change it? If you shoot it this way, you’re going to get attacked by Qu Wanqiao’s fans. This is already a low-budget movie. If his fans don’t support it, we might not even make back our costs.”

Director Jiang was clearly getting angry. “Ci Shen, this is my script. You just have to trust me. You approved the script in the beginning, and now you want me to change it? I’m telling you, no way.”

Producer Ci Shen: “Fine, fine, fine. I can’t win an argument with you. I know your script is good and very creative, but mystery films aren’t exactly popular in the current market. And with supernatural elements on top of that, it’s even more niche. So no matter what, you absolutely cannot make Qu Wanqiao’s character look that bad! Absolutely not!”

Director Jiang: “If he wants to be an actor, then he has to follow the character profile. We showed him the character biography when he accepted the role. He could accept it, so why can’t you?”

Ci Shen: “He accepted our script because of me. He even lowered his fee. But his company won’t accept it.”

Director Jiang: “What his company accepts or doesn’t accept has nothing to do with me. The contract has been signed, so he has to shoot the script I wrote. If an actor has this many opinions, then why be an actor? Why doesn’t he write his own script, find his own investment, and direct it himself? Anyway, your demand is completely unreasonable. I won’t change it, not a single word, not a single sentence. And I’m about to start filming. There’s no point in arguing about this with me now.”

Ci Shen: “Why is it impossible to reason with you?”

Director Jiang finally said, “I spent three years writing this script. The scenes involving the protagonist and important supporting characters will not be changed.”

Ci Shen was silent for a moment before saying, “Are you still hung up on what happened back then—”

Director Jiang: “Producer. Ci, watch what you say!”

That was where Shi Yan’s recollection ended.

Yan Jiyun mulled over the information Shi Yan had given him.

Why had Director Jiang told Ci Shen to watch what he said? Did the two of them both know what had happened at Mingya High School?

Yan Jiyun confirmed again, “Director Jiang kept saying he wouldn’t change Qu Wanqiao’s scenes?”

Shi Yan: “I’m certain. He said he wouldn’t change any of the scenes.”

Yan Jiyun: “But after I appeared, Qu Wanqiao suggested a change to one of the scenes to Director Jiang, and he agreed. He didn’t show any dissatisfaction at all.”

The two exchanged a glance and instantly understood something.

Sure enough, the details were what mattered. They really needed to communicate properly with their teammates!

Shi Yan was also somewhat annoyed with himself. At the time, he hadn’t realized that the initial argument between Director Jiang and Ci Shen would turn out to be so important.

There were only Qi Feng and Gu Wenzhu left at the filming location now, so they needed to hurry back.

Yan Jiyun finally understood why female ghosts kept appearing on the set.

So that’s what was happening!

But just as the two were about to leave the archive room, they discovered that the door wouldn’t open.

Shi Yan shook the archive room’s door. It didn’t budge. “What’s going on? It’s just a rotten wooden door. How could it possibly not open?”

Yan Jiyun: “The temperature around us is dropping. They’re coming.”

Shi Yan: “Who?”

Yan Jiyun rubbed his arms. “The ghosts hiding on campus.”

He was already fighting through this instance while sick, and having to face wave after wave of chilling yin energy was genuinely troublesome. He just hoped it wouldn’t make his illness worse.

Shi Yan: “You know who Qu-laoshi is?”

The main mission of the new instance was to find Teacher Qu. Shi Yan hadn’t gone through the other two instances, so he was missing a lot of crucial information. Only Qi Feng, Yan Jiyun, and the others who had returned from the other instance knew the details.

Yan Jiyun: “I’m not certain yet. It’s only a guess for now, but I’m probably about eighty or ninety percent right. What we need to do now is help Qu-laoshi uncover the truth about what happened back then. Once that’s resolved, he’ll truly reveal himself.”

Shi Yan: “Then who’s obstructing us now?”

Yan Jiyun: “Of course it’s also Qu-laoshi. We have to find all of them.” Only, this one was an alter. 

And it seemed they’d encountered another one now. They just didn’t know which one it was.

Yan Jiyun had never worked with Shi Yan before, so he didn’t know his habits.

The injury on his shoulder and back wasn’t particularly painful, but the cold made his head ache, and whenever the chilly yin energy appeared, his head immediately began to feel heavy.

Shi Yan: “It’s suddenly gotten cold.”

Yan Jiyun gripped the cross hanging against his chest. “Use your props if you’ve got them.”

Shi Yan immediately pulled out a peachwood sword.

Yan Jiyun: “Does that thing actually work against ghosts?”

Shi Yan: “It should work a little.”

As they spoke, a stack of books suddenly flew toward them!

Yan Jiyun and Shi Yan dodged to opposite sides. That was an entire stack of books, not a light bundle of documents. They came flying at them from all directions, leaving Yan Jiyun and Shi Yan with no choice but to find somewhere to hide.

Neither of them made a sound. Once they hid, the books floating through the air suddenly stopped.

Yan Jiyun tried poking half his head out from behind the archive shelves, only for another book to come flying at him. Neither he nor Shi Yan could figure out where the thing was.

He whispered to Shi Yan, “Does your flashlight still have any battery?”

Shi Yan: “A little.” He swept the flashlight beam around them. “I don’t know where that thing is.”

Yan Jiyun looked up and immediately saw a white figure drifting down from the archive shelf opposite them, its head lowered as it stared at Shi Yan.

He pointed above Shi Yan’s head. “It’s right above you.”

Shi Yan really was quite fearless. After Yan Jiyun pointed it out, he swung the peachwood sword horizontally overhead. The female ghost let out a shriek and slammed into the shelves in the back.

Yan Jiyun thought the sound was a little strange. He didn’t have time to worry about whether he was scared or not. He immediately picked up the flashlight Shi Yan had dropped and ran toward the female ghost, shining the flashlight directly into her face!

The female ghost raised both hands to shield her eyes. The light was genuinely blinding to her.

Yan Jiyun grabbed hold of her long black wig and ripped it off. “Too bright?”

The “female ghost” whose wig had been ripped off: “……”

Her eyes were filled with confusion and unwillingness. “How did you figure it out?”

Yan Jiyun continued pointing the flashlight directly at the “female ghost’s” face. “An air conditioner makes noise when it’s running. Your acting is terrible, Xiao Tang.”

Yes, she was Xiao Tang, Su Xiran’s assistant.