Chapter 1 - Seeing a Movie

At six o’clock in the evening, there was a long queue at the entrance of New Century Cinema.

In twos and threes, couples and office workers alike all lined up at the cinema’s doors, chatting about movies while waiting to purchase their tickets.

This cinema was part of the nation’s largest chain of movie theaters; there was a number of them in every city. In order to allow the audience a more hands-on and enjoyable experience, the cinema recently released a new way of seeing movies.

To simply put it, they would insert the audience’s brain waves into the movie and give them cannon fodder roles. As passersby, they could experience the movie first-hand.

If they displayed an outstanding performance and received a high grade, the cinema would once again release the movie with their performance attached.

Immersing themselves into a film was much more exhilarating than just sitting down and watching it.

This new way of viewing immediately blew up.

Romance movies were the most popular; schoolgirls and boys all wanted to be together with their Gods and Goddesses.

Even if it was a rare piece of bad film, people still wished to go in and experience it. After all, they could backtrack and forcibly reverse the bad plot. Once their grade was high enough, the movie could be shown again, and the box office record would be exceeded.

However, horror movies were the exception–nobody was interested in it.

Currently, the cinema was the place where practically every student and office worker would gather once they were finished with school or work.

Everybody wanted to reverse the plot; everybody wanted to change from cannon fodder to protagonist.

At the entrance of the cinema, Su Min and his roommates huddled together.

It was the first time they were going to experience this new way of “seeing” a film. Only, Su Min’s roommates wanted to play in a romance movie while he wanted to play in a horror movie.

That’s right, a horror movie.

Knowing what Su Min wanted to do, his two roommates tried to persuade him otherwise. One roommate said, “Su Min, do you really want to experience a horror movie? Once you’re in, it might scare you to death. It’s better to go to the literary film and date, like us.”

The other roommate picked up with, “Exactly, exactly. Look at the theater for the horror movie. Up ‘till now, I haven’t seen anybody go in. Let’s just go play in the Mary Sue film together, okay?”

The two earnestly advised.

Because the fright level wasn’t yet determined, nobody had tried to experience a horror movie. If by any chance a problem occurred during a scare, the cinema would have to compensate for the damages.

Even before the advancement of movie watching, there were people who had been frightened to death because of horror films. Now that they could immerse their whole mind into it, wouldn’t it be a thousand times more terrifying?

“It’s alright,” Su Min said, “It’s just a horror movie.”

His roommates saw that he was set firm on his decision and no longer tried to advise him. They sighed, then parted ways to buy tickets for the romance film.

Romance and horror were two vastly different genres, so they each have their own designated ticket booth.

After Su Min handed over his ID, the cashier gave him the ticket. On it were the words “University Thriller”.

It looked no different from an ordinary movie ticket.

Su Min could see the poster for “University Thriller” at the end of the hall. The background showed a school with several starring actors trying to escape from the inside. On the top was the movie’s name, its font dripping with blood.

En… It should be a bad movie.

Not only was it bad, it was also a horror featuring ghosts. No wonder everybody chose to watch it the normal way instead.

The cashier reminded him, “To experience the horror movie, you must first sign an agreement.”

She handed him the form.

Su Min read it. It stated that one: people with heart disease were not permitted to enter the movie, and two: if the audience member was truly afraid and couldn’t take it anymore, they could notify the cinema and be pulled out.

That was reasonable enough.

Real information was required when buying tickets. The cinema used that information to scan the database for a suitable role.

It was also possible to add to the script. If a person had a specific request in mind, they could pay extra to customize the role for, say, someone more wealthy and well-off.

If not, they would begin as an ordinary cannon fodder. The main reason why nobody wanted to experience a horror movie was because its cannon fodders usually only survive for a mere three minutes.

Su Min signed his name and handed the form back to the cashier. He followed a staff member to the designated theater and, to his surprise, found that he was the only one there.

“Am I really the only one?” he asked.

“Yes, you are, sir,” the staff replied.

Su Min let out a sigh in his heart. It wasn’t often that he could have a whole theater to himself.

“Mr. Su, if you are afraid, you can press this button, and we will immediately come to get you out. Right now, you are the first person to experience a horror movie.”

Su Min nodded, “Okay, I know.”

The staff looked at his unperturbed appearance and was a little amazed. “After you enter, the cinema will give you the script, and the information for your role will appear in your mind. If you complete the script, you can come out in advance and see if the storyline was changed. If it did, you can then act accordingly to the situation.”

He looked at the boy in front of him, wondering why such a good looking student would choose a horror movie of all things. Indeed, you couldn’t judge a person by their appearance.

I hope this horror movie will not scare him too much.

The information the staff gave was released on Weibo1.

Su Min knew that if he successfully altered the bad ending, the rerelease of the movie would be shown, and he would become one of the actors.

The staff slightly smiled. “I wish you a pleasant experience.”

After he left, Su Min put on the headset. In front of him was a big screen showcasing the words “University Thriller”.

The details regarding this movie had also appeared before on Weibo.

In order to preserve the mysterious vibe, the director had kept his lips sealed about the movie’s content. All that was known was that after the university experienced a supernatural phenomenon, the protagonist and secondary protagonist got dragged along for the ride.

Of course, that was something anyone with an average IQ could guess.

The director was actually someone very famous in the industry, but he was only well-known for his literary films. He could’ve continued being overpraised in the circle but instead, he chose to change paths and shoot horror movies. One by one, they were stomped on in the streets2.

During the shooting of the first horror movie, all the hot young idols took it as a big cake3 and ate it up.

Then, the movie succeeded…in becoming a target for rotten tomatoes4.

When the selection of actors for the second movie began, everyone felt that the bad hit was accidental, and therefore, still went to eat the cake.

Then, it was cold again.

“University Thriller” was the fourth one. This time, not many actors wanted to take on this cake, so the director had no choice but to work with mostly new actors.

This movie was released at the same time the new way of viewing came out. Su Min could be considered to be one of the first few to see it.

It was also the first time he was going to experience a horror film, so he didn’t know what to expect.

A message appeared before his eyes: [Hello, Su Min. Are you ready to enter and experience “University Thriller”?]

“Yes, I’m ready.”

The next moment, his vision faded into darkness.

It was unknown how much time passed after he fell into a slumber. The lights in the theater gradually dimmed, painting the entire hall with darkness, and the movie began to play.

The words on the big screen radiated a faint, indistinctive glow.

Inside the men’s dormitory.

Due to the school’s regulations, lights had to be turned off at 11 P.M. It was now 11:50. Outside, the balcony was pitch black.

Suddenly, there was a glow in the dorm room, and Su Min was stimulated to wake up.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself standing in front of a mirror with the lights turned off. Laying on the counter was a red candle, its flame swaying in an eerie, intangible manner.

In his hands was a half-peeled apple. The red skin hanged from the body of the fruit, dangling over the bathroom sink.

The most important point, however, was the red nightgown he was wearing. It had two thin shoulder straps that exposed his collarbones. Fortunately, it did enough to cover his chest.

This situation was a bit awkward.

Su Min was confused.

What was going on? What was he doing to himself?

The him in the mirror appeared to be at a loss; his image was pathetic as a whole and even downright ridiculous.

What’s more horrifying was the darkness that surrounded him.

Su Min’s heart turned cold as his mind finally caught up to the situation at hand.

Please, Jing Xian5 .

Legend had it that if you wore red pajamas at midnight and set aflame a red candle in front of the mirror before finishing one complete peel of an apple, you would see the appearance of your other half. However, if the peel was disconnected, you and your other half would instantly die.

Su Min: “…”

Could he have been sleepwalking in the middle of the night to play Jian Xian?

At that moment, the cinema’s prompt came: [Hello, Su Min. Please receive your script as soon as possible.]

Su Min accepted and read it silently.

An electrical light flashed in his mind. The cinema’s script allowed him to remember where he was.

Cannon fodder script. As the name implied, it was a script for cannon fodders.

Unlike the protagonist who had the strings of fate guiding them from beginning to end, cannon fodders usually didn’t live long enough to see the finale, so the script didn’t have that much information.

Su Min’s script only contained the scene of his character’s death. The content of the whole movie was unclear.

All that was written on it was an apple peeling scene.

This character, who had the same name as him, was cutting an apple in search for his other half, but it didn’t take long before the skin broke. Naturally, the request for Jian Xian failed, and the character ended up dying in an obscure manner.

I can’t even live for a minute.

Su Min began to think that the viewers who chose to not experience a horror movie made the right choice; the money used to purchase the ticket only resulted in one minute’s worth of play and blood loss.

The apple was already halfway cut. He could only get this over with.

Su Min never peeled a fruit continuously before. More often than not, he would eat the skin directly, and if he did peel it, he would do so at random.

He was in a sticky situation6.

Su Min whispered, “I hope Jian Xian doesn’t mind.”

His speed was slowed down by a lot due to the fear of breaking the apple peel. However, he was in a horror movie, so who knew whether or not it would disconnect at random.

After all, his death in the script was due to the broken peel.

The more anxious he got, the more likely a mishap would occur. Su Min accidentally cut a little too close to the surface. He looked at the skin tottering over the edge of the sink, just barely hanging on.

Su Min let out a sigh of relief.

Mom sells patches7, so nervous, so irritating.

The candlelight slightly flickered, as if a gust of wind had passed by.

Su Min pursed his lip and did not pause as he continued to peel. He ignored the ineffable chill that crept up his spine and straight into his heart.

Subconsciously, he raised his head.

In the mirror, Su Min could see a vague silhouette of a face. It was as if someone was standing beside him, staring into the mirror with him.

Those pair of eyes seemed to be staring straight at him.

Su Min sucked in a sharp breath and lowered his head. His lips parted and he mouthed out the core values of socialism, “Prosperity, democracy, civility…”

One word after the other.

Maybe it was because the party’s glory had shone on him, but Su Min eventually calmed down. He continued to recite the words while gingerly peeling the fruit.

The whole apple was tremendous, resembling the peace apple8 that people gave each other during Christmas. It was almost completely peeled. He estimated that he would finish in about a minute.

Su Min stopped.

Occasionally, he would find himself positioning the knife the wrong way, almost scaring his own soul out of him.

Fortunately, his luck was good and the peel was steadily increasing in size. There was only a section left before he would have a full peel.

Su Min widened his eyes, intending to witness this last miraculous moment.

Only a section left. He placed his knife in preparation to cut only to see the peel being picked up, then ripped in thin air.

A natural break was impossible; it had been torn off.

Su Min, “…” Good grievances.

There was no one here but him. Only a ghost could’ve done it.

The whole bathroom began to lit up with a feeble red glow from the candlelight, as if the horror movie had placed it here just for this scene. His face could be seen entirely, and the face beside him gained form in the mirror.

Looking at this less than reassuring situation, Su Min was about to throw the apple and run away, but he was stopped by an ice-cold hand gripping onto his wrist.

Su Min couldn’t see it.

His hand was lifted up, and suddenly, there was a chunk missing from the apple, like somebody had just taken a bite out of it.

Su Min stood at a deadlock. The seconds seemed to drag on until the ice-cold feeling on his wrist disappeared.

He glanced at the mirror and caught sight of a man’s silhouette. He was moving his mouth. My god, Su Min was certain the shadow had just eaten the apple.

He couldn’t help but ask, “You, are you sick?”

After that impulse, Su Min remembered his deadly situation at hand and was filled with regret. Not wanting to die after just one minute of experience, he decisively turned around and ran away.

The moment he was out of the bathroom, Su Min felt a wisp of cold air behind him.

He felt something feeling up his butt.

Translator’s Notes:

1. Chinese microblogging website. Kinda like Twitter and FB. ↩

2. They were so bad people wanted to step on them. ↩

3. They thought the movie would become a success and wanted to ride on its coattails(I think…). ↩

4. The original raw was 然后这部成功扑街, which roughly translates to “then, the film was pounced on in the streets”(like my 2nd note). I replaced it with something more commonly used in English. ↩

5. Mirror Fairy. It sounded weird in English, so I kept it in Chinese. ↩

6. The original text was 这简直是在为难胖虎, and I didn’t know how to translate Chinese internet slang so ¯_(ツ)_/¯ (I think it has something to do with Doraemon.) ↩

7. Apparently it means your mom is prostituting. It’s a swear term and is very offensive, but can be used when angry or dissatisfied. ↩

8. http://www.thatsmags.com/shanghai/post/11903/explainer-why-china-celebrates-christmas-with-apples: “In Mandarin, ‘Christmas Eve’ translates to Ping’anye (平安夜, the evening of peace), which also happens to sound a lot like the Chinese word for ‘apple’ or pingguo (苹果). Chinese people have taken the cleverness one step further and given a special name to these Christmas apples: ping’anguo (平安果), or ‘peace apples.’” ↩