DSMC Chapter 172.1

Why was Yan Jiyun so certain that the female ghost would appear in the teaching building?

Of course, he had reasoned it out himself. Actually, it wasn’t that difficult to understand.

He had pieced together all the information from the three instances and finally understood how this instance worked. Once he figured that out, finding Teacher Qu was only the natural next step.

If Teacher Qu’s consciousness were divided into layers from the outside inward, there would be three layers.

The first layer was the superficial one: the [Mermaid] instance. It served as an introduction, allowing them to discover that there was something special about Teacher Qu.

The second layer was the middle layer: the [Innocence] instance. It allowed them to understand Teacher Qu’s personality and the starting point of his life, while requiring them to discover the fact that he suffered from dissociative identity disorder on their own.

The third layer was the innermost one, where the ultimate answer lay. It was also the layer that brought them closest to the truth behind Teacher Qu’s alters. 

Put more simply, entering Teacher Qu’s consciousness was like peeling an onion. They had to strip away the outer layers little by little, until finally digging out what was hidden inside. They had already reached the innermost layer. As long as they figured out why Teacher Qu had never recovered after developing his dissociative identities, he would wake up.

Yan Jiyun had always known what problem he needed to solve.

He had initially thought this instance would be difficult to complete, but unexpectedly, by the fifth day after arriving here, the truth had almost completely surfaced.

Yan Jiyun’s body still hadn’t fully recovered, and his personal taxi stair-lift service was doing an exceptionally diligent job. He carried Yan Jiyun all the way upstairs.

Even Ci Shen himself didn’t understand why he was willing to carry a stray kitten around. Of course, the cat did look quite clean.

The reason Yan Jiyun had come upstairs was because Qi Feng was already prepared. The players should all be trying to find a way to lure the female ghost out.

Su Xiran’s death had already been investigated thoroughly. What they needed to investigate now was the cause of the female ghost’s death. As for Female Ghost No. 2, Yan Jiyun felt that she was simply a red herring created by Teacher Qu’s secondary personality. If No. 2 and Qu Wanqiao hadn’t had the same face, he might have been fooled as well.

Filming was the best way to lure the female ghost out.

The filming location had been changed to the third floor, and Yan Jiyun had a part in the scene too. He had achieved his purpose in bringing Ci Shen here.

After reaching the third floor, Yan Jiyun waited until Ci Shen wasn’t paying attention, then jumped out of his arms and quickly slipped into one of the classrooms.

Ci Shen had no intention of looking for the black cat. He really was distracted by the set around him.

It was no different from an ordinary senior-year high school classroom. The desks were piled high with books.

The next scene to be filmed was a flashback to their high school days. This had been added by the greasy Director Jiang. After getting extra screen time, Si Hao suddenly became cocky because he was now the protagonist of this scene. He had to play a ghost and scare everyone, so he had far more shots than before.

In the classroom two doors down, Yan Jiyun transformed back into human form and reappeared in front of everyone.

The reason he didn’t appear in cat form was simple. Qi Feng wasn’t an idiot. As soon as he smelled the medicine on the cat, no matter how outrageous it sounded, he would realize something was wrong. At the very least, he would suspect that Yan Jiyun was the “new owner,” or directly guess that there was an inevitable connection between him and “Caramel.” The latter answer might sound absurd, but it happened to be the truth.

The fact that the two of them had entered this instance at the same time had simply been an accident. They could worry about everything else after clearing the instance.

Although the greasy Director Jiang had been hiding as one of the personalities, he was still quite familiar with his work. When he saw Yan Jiyun come over, he immediately told him to hurry up and get ready, without making things difficult for him at all.

When Qi Feng saw Yan Jiyun reappear after disappearing for an entire night, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Yan Jiyun naturally walked over to him and pretended to flip through the script. As he passed Qu Wanqiao, he noticed that his fingers were trembling slightly and that he was holding the script upside down. He was probably still incredulous about Director Jiang coming back to life and was now worried about whether the other party would retaliate against him.

Yan Jiyun thought to himself that the infighting between these personalities was truly intense.

You can’t stand seeing me doing well, and I can’t stand seeing you alive. You can live well, but you absolutely can’t live better than me.

They were about to film the next scene when Qi Feng seized the opportunity to ask Yan Jiyun, “Any new discoveries?”

Ci Shen and Yan Jiyun had appeared one after the other, so there should have been something going on.

As expected of an advanced player, Qi Feng had spotted the problem immediately.

Yan Jiyun’s gaze fell on the script, and he directly shared Main Mission 7 with the several teammates nearby. They should understand once they saw it. Still, he told Qi Feng, “I found Qu-laoshi’s main personality.”

Qi Feng said confidently, “It’s Ci Shen.”

Yan Jiyun raised an eyebrow. “You figured that out already?”

Qi Feng said, “You and him appeared at the same time. The timing was too coincidental.”

Yan Jiyun said, “We’ve found the main personality, but we still need to find all of Qu-laoshi’s personalities. I’ve shared the mission with you. The number of personalities is unknown.”

Qi Feng said, “I guess there are seven.”

Yan Jiyun asked, “Because of the seven dolls in the nightmare?”

“Yeah. That’s my current guess.”

“I’m guessing about the same.” Yan Jiyun saw the greasy Director Jiang approaching out of the corner of his eye and hurriedly asked, “Did the script change again?”

Qi Feng nodded. “Yeah.”

Yan Jiyun said, “This greasy Director Jiang isn’t the same one as before. He’s switched to another personality.”

Qi Feng said, “I originally thought he was possessed by a ghost. Looks like that’s not the case.”

Yan Jiyun said, “There’s only one real ghost. She’s the one we’re supposed to help.”

“The first female ghost to appear?”

Yan Jiyun nodded. “Yeah. Any new discoveries?”

Qi Feng was silent for a second before saying, “She kept wandering around the third floor of the teaching building just before dawn. We all saw her, but she didn’t attack anyone at the time. She might have been at her weakest then, or she might have been recalling something. It could also have some special significance.”

Yan Jiyun pointed at the classroom. “This classroom on the third floor?”

Qi Feng nodded. “This one. Now that you’ve told me Director Jiang has switched personalities, I think I understand what he’s planning.”

Yan Jiyun finished the thought for him. “He wants to increase the main personality’s suffering, force the main personality to emerge, and then eliminate him.”

Qi Feng said, “And coincidentally, you brought Ci Shen here.”

Yan Jiyun said, “Talk about perfect timing.”

Who could have imagined that the greasy Director Jiang’s plan would play right into their hands? He wanted to use the plot to stimulate the female ghost into appearing, while they also needed to find the female ghost and help Teacher Qu resolve his emotional knot.

This instance really contained far too many unnecessary elements. Perhaps this was simply the result of the personalities tearing each other apart. The consciousness had fused together from different personalities, and that was why it had become such a mess.

Ci Shen suddenly walked toward Yan Jiyun, seemingly wanting to talk to him. But Director Jiang walked over at that moment and called out to Yan Jiyun and Qi Feng.

The greasy Director Jiang said, “You two are indispensable protagonists in this scene. Don’t screw it up later.”

Yan Jiyun didn’t particularly like this Director Jiang. He gave him an insincere nod, exchanged a glance with Qi Feng, and then found his assigned seat.

This was a flashback scene. The memory they were filming depicted the female protagonist being cruelly mocked by her classmates before her death. The two protagonists played by Yan Jiyun and Qi Feng had become her classmates in this scene. If they didn’t act according to the female ghost’s wishes, they would be mercilessly beaten by her.

Yan Jiyun turned around and asked Qi Feng, who was sitting behind him, “What if the female ghost really beats us later? We’re not actually going to act according to the script, are we?”

Qi Feng lowered his voice beside his ear. “Of course not. Just like when we filmed that romance scene. It doesn’t matter how we act. As long as we make it out of the space, the filming counts as complete.”

Yan Jiyun said, “It doesn’t matter anymore anyway. We need to get the truth about the female ghost’s death out of her. Oh, right, what happened with Su Xiran?”

Qi Feng briefly told him the cause of Su Xiran’s death.

It turned out that Su Xiran appeared to be a kind big sister in the entertainment industry, but behind the scenes, she actually acted as a pimp for some wealthy businessmen and rich second-generation heirs. She targeted actresses who were minor celebrities or who could never seem to make it big. Eventually, this developed into an entire industry chain.

During this process, someone went too far and caused a death. The person who died was the biological older sister of the second female lead.

The reason the second female lead’s sister had trusted Su Xiran so much was because they had attended the same high school. Su Xiran had been her senior, while the second female lead’s sister had been one grade below her. She had never imagined that Su Xiran would lead her into a trap. When she discovered the truth about being sold for sex, she commited suicide by throwing herself from a villa’s top floor. 

The incident had happened a year ago. Because the villa was secluded and someone had deliberately concealed the truth, the case was ultimately closed as an accidental death — the girl had supposedly gotten drunk and accidentally fallen from the balcony.

After the second female lead learned that she and Su Xiran were in the same production, everything had fallen perfectly into place. She decided to take revenge herself. She used the rumors surrounding Mingya High School and its “October 1st” incident to lure Su Xiran to the rooftop by sending Xiao Tang a text message that night, then pushed her off the building.

That was the truth behind Su Xiran’s death.

Yan Jiyun asked Qi Feng, “What about that female student who looks very similar to Su Xiran? The one named Su Jingran?”

Qi Feng was just about to answer when the greasy Director Jiang called out, “You two, stop whispering. Everyone get ready!”

The greasy Director Jiang shouted, “ACTION!”

All the actors immediately entered filming mode. Because this was a flashback scene, the greasy Director Jiang had recruited quite a few players as extras. Their entire team had been dragged into it. For the first time, Yan Jiyun had enough courage to face a supernatural instance head-on.

There were plenty of them.

They weren’t afraid!