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After that, Han Fei turned back to the counter where a sole white candle stayed lit. Han Fei did not say anything but listened quietly to the candle’s cries of mercy. After the candle was half burnt, Han Fei blew out the fire, “Don’t say I don’t give second chances. But you better appreciate it.” As the boss, Han Fei was always fair with meting out reward and punishment. After checking the stock and talking to his employees, Han Fei logged out from the store’s warehouse. As he removed the gaming helmet, the energy went out from him. The morning sun filtered through the gap in the curtain. Han Fei decided to enjoy this rare moment of peace and relaxation. “Survived yet another day, that’s good news.”

Han Fei closed his eyes and drifted off. He only awakened when the knocking came from his door. The first thing he did, before his eyes even fully opened, was to reach for the nun chucks under his pillow. When he jumped out of bed, he was already in a defensive position.

“Han Fei! Han Fei!” Li Xue and another officer’s voices came from outside the door. They knocked frantically. If Han Fei did not answer soon, they might break the door down. “Coming!” Opening the door, Han Fei took in Li Xue and two other officers in full SWAT gear. “What happened?”

“It’s almost 10 am. It’s already 1 hour passed our meeting time. We thought some kind of accident happened to you.” Seeing Han Fei in one piece, the officers sighed in relief. “Yesterday night, Huang Yin was attacked by one of his former patients. Huang Yin was on home visit due to the horrible state of the patient. Huang Yin even personally paid for the cab fare. Huang Yin had gone way beyond his responsibility as a doctor but when he was there, the patient’s condition suddenly worsened and attacked Huang Yin. None of us suspected this patient would be so easily influenced by the Butterfly.”

“Huang Yin was attacked again?” Han Fei could feel Butterfly’s desperation. He had ruined Butterfly’s plan again and again in the cryptic world, in fact, he just destroyed its conspiracy at Cattle Alley yesterday night. So it was understandable that it would go after Huang Yin and Han Fei more intensely now.

“You have to watch out for your own safety too. Butterfly’s behavior is becoming more dangerous and erratic, it feels like it is slowly losing its mind.” Li Xue said severely. “A supercriminal that has lost control? That is way more than just dangerous.”

“I actually have a fairly good idea why it has acted up recently.” Han Fei’s words successfully gained the police’s attention.

“You know the reason?”

“I once saw someone at Spider’s building. That person is most likely Butterfly or related to it. It slowly approached me which gave me a chance to take a better look at it.” Han Fei gave the description of the Reader to the police. When a normal person encountered a ghost who would only get closer and closer, they would not stop to observe them like Han Fei did. As the police took down Han Fei’s description, they were quite impressed by Han Fei as well. After collecting the personal information, Li Xue compared it to the citizenry database, there was no one that matched Han Fei’s description. However, the police still took the info seriously and planned to launch a deeper investigation into this character.

Due to his acting responsibility, Han Fei did not stay with the police for too long. After a quick shower, he took the police cruiser to Xin Lu’s northern countryside. When Han Fei arrived, the other actors were already on set. Director Zhang knew that Han Fei did not work overtime and understood the danger for Han Fei to stay out late at night, so he tried his best to arrange for Han Fei to complete his shoots in the day. The first scene of the day was supposed to be a chase scene between Han Fei and Bai Xian. But since Han Fei was late, the scene had to be delayed.

The crew was no longer surprised when they saw Han Fei exit the police car. There was even a rumor circulating that Han Fei was actually an informant for the police and acting was just a hobby of his. With a great apology written on his face, Han Fei approached Director Zhang. When he saw how haggard Han Fei was, Director Zhang who was normally so stern with actors not only did not scold Han Fei, he even dragged Han Fei to demand an explanation from the police. The senior director said that he understood Han Fei was an important figure to their investigation but they had to cut the man some slack. It made Han Fei feel so embarrassed. He didn’t dare to admit that he looked so tired because he had spent the whole night gaming.

“Han Fei, you better go and take a quick nap first. You should at least look presentable before the camera.” Noticing that Han Fei did not even have a manager, Director Zhang felt sorry for the young actor. How come he only discovered such a wonderful actor so late in his career?

“It’s okay, I can still carry on.”

“I’m the director, I’m the boss here.” Director Zhang had his assistant bring Han Fei to the breakroom while he prepared Han Fei’s afternoon scenes. As he entered the breakroom, Han Fei saw the other actors reading their scripts, he did not disturb them. He walked to the couch at the corner, with the nun chucks still hidden inside his sleeves, he fell asleep.

“How unprofessional to sleep on the job.” Xiao Tong, who was an idol singer, was about the same age as Han Fei but he was much more popular than Han Fei. He had a bigger fanbase but in the shooting of Thriller Novelist, he was treated less favourably than Han Fei. For example, he too was late that one time and Director Zhang berated him in public, but now that Han Fei was late, Director Zhang not only did not scold him, he told Han Fei to come rest in the breakroom. The comparison irked Xiao Tong. He tried to focus on the script but the more he thought about it, the more dissatisfied he felt. He saw himself as good as, if not better than Han Fei. Even though they were of the same age, in terms of family background, number of fans, celebrity clout, fashion sense, taste, commercial value, he was much stronger than Han Fei… at least he saw it that way.

“Is his acting skill really that good?” Xiao Tong glanced at Han Fei but in the end he did not say anything. He took his script and left the room. When the door clicked, Han Fei’s closed eyes flew open. ‘That was Xiao Tong, wasn’t it? Who would the Butterfly influence next to come after me? Would it be someone from the crew or a complete stranger?’

At around 1 pm, Han Fei exited the breakroom, had a quick lunch and sat down for make-up. Director Zhang wanted Han Fei to have more rest so he arranged his scene to late afternoon. Just as the sun was setting, Han Fei entered the set. Han Fei kept looking for traces of the Butterfly but the latter seemed to have expected that. The more one searched for it, the more elusive it would become. It would only appear when Han Fei least expected it.

‘Cattle Alley got ruined and Spider who knew about Butterfly’s past was revived, that must have seriously pushed the Butterfly’s buttons. It has gone after Huang Yin twice already, it would aim me next.’ Han Fei had memorized the appearance of every crew member. With his extraordinary memory, whenever someone showed up once beside Han Fei, the latter would remember their names and faces. The old Han Fei lived in his own world, he was anti-social, introverted and didn’t know how to interact with others. Now he would pay attention to every single individual around him, after all, they might be someone who wished to claim his life.

The sun set around 6 pm. The tingling of wind chime echoed around the building and Han Fei was ready to shoot his last scene for the day. Han Fei’s writer had successfully killed the student played by Xiao Tong. In the House of the Butcher, there were 25 methods Spider had considered to hide the body, and now Han Fei had to select one of them. However, while in the process of hiding the body, Bai Xian who played the Doctor started to suspect the writer. He came to visit the Student and almost walked into the Writer disposing of the body. This escalated to a nervous chase scene.

This was going to be the first big scene in Thriller Novelist so all the crew members were excited. After all the equipment was checked, they assumed their designated spot. Han Fei and the other actors arrived.

Looking around, Han Fei spotted an unfamiliar face. Behind Bai Xian, there was another person who was dressed the same way as Bai Xian did. He appeared to be the new stunt actor. He was there to help Bai Xian complete some of the more physically-demanding and dangerous shots.

With an order from Director Zhang, the building quieted down. An inexplicable atmosphere of anxiety spread across the building. This was the atmosphere Director Zhang desired but not one he had created. A strange smell appeared in the air, no one could tell where it originated from but it was definitely there.

The wind chime on the 4th floor swung lightly. The intermittent tingling sounded like a child’s laughter.

The night breeze blew into the buildings. The black cloth that covered the altars on the stairs fluttered as if the ‘divinities’ inside had opened their eyes.