CH 9

Feeling a cool and soft touch against his lips, Ji Ning was stunned to find Herinos kissing him.

Overwhelmed, he pushed against Herinos’ chest. It wasn’t that he didn’t like it, after all, they had kissed before inside the vampire novel, but in this world they were just friends so he hadn’t expected Herinos to make such a move. 

Since they were friends without any ambiguous relationship, of course he couldn’t allow Herinos to kiss him.

Pushing Herinos away, he wiped his lips with the back of his hand. He frowned, vaguely angry and asked coldly, “What are you doing?”

Seeing Ji Ning’s expression, Herinos was clearly startled. After a moment of silence he sighed softly, lowered his head and said in a quiet voice, “…Sorry.”

Ji Ning pursed his lips, appearing unhappy. In fact, he was worried that Herinos would do something terrible out of jealousy. 

He was considering how to say, ‘We can still be friends in the future,’ when he saw Herinos stretch out a hand towards him and felt a sudden dizziness wash over him.

“But now you won’t remember…Ji Ning.”

Herinos took the fainted Ji Ning into his arms, the corners of his lips curled in a bitter smile. He gently kissed Ji Ning’s forehead.

“I don’t want you to recall your old memories either.”

Ji Ning woke from his sleep to find himself sitting on the ground next to the actress who played the female lead, whilst Gu Chen stood beside them.

Getting over his confusion, Ji Ning realised they were back inside the basement of the haunted house, surrounded by the salt circle. It seemed the plot had regressed to this time, where Gu Chen revealed he had been possessed by a ghost and stabbed one of them with a knife.

Piecing together the fragments of memory in his head, Ji Ning quickly understood what had happened.

After he fainted, Herinos had modified his memory again, erasing the scene of them kissing as well as deleting all the memories of filming that occurred after Gu Chen attacked the female lead, such as Li Gui’s emotional confession to Ji Ning. 

It seemed that not only Ji Ning’s memory but the memories of everyone on set had been modified and replaced. According to Herinos’ amended memories, there had been a problem with the hidden cameras that took a long time to repair, which was why they had just restarted shooting from the basement scene.

To summarise, because Herinos was jealous he had scrapped all of the previous filmed content and caused them to have to reshoot.

…But this time, would Gu Chen choose to stab him or the female lead?

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Although he was in pain, Ji Ning felt relieved. Following the original plot, he screwed up his eyes and pretended to feel weak. Desperately fleeing from the basement, the rest of the plot was performed.

The following scenes were just a copy of what Ji Ning and Gu Chen had previously performed. In the final act of the film, Ji Ning dragged his weak, bloodsoaked body to shakily pick up the dagger and stab Gu Chen, before collapsing.

The floor changed to a sticky black and as Gu Chen’s spirit was close to disappearing, he desperately gazed towards the female lead, slowly raising his hand as if he wanted to touch her one last time. 

Why hadn’t Gu Chen performed a kiss scene here…

Ji Ning, who was lying in the black goo, watched intently but until the point where the holographic projection simulated Gu Chen’s complete disintegration, leaving only a pile of bones on the ground, he hadn’t even tried to kiss the female lead.

Was the previous kiss scene simply Gu Chen’s own desire? Did Gu Chen really have such a high opinion of him?

The spirit vanished from the old house and the lives he had stolen from his sacrifices was returned, resurrecting those they had thought were dead. 

This was Li Gui’s last wish. Although his final words were “See you in hell,” he couldn’t bear to drag the female lead to her death and even returned the souls he had stolen back to her friends, wishing her a better life for the future. To live happily.

In the final scene, the group of people left the old mansion holding hands. They had entered the house because they had lost their way in the forest, but as they left it, snow white flowers bloomed along the ground, guiding them out.

Once the last shot had been filmed, the movie was officially complete. It would only need some simple technical processing before it could be released on the optical network. In this era, everything was straightforward and efficient.

Part of the crew stayed to clear the various equipment whilst the rest left the set and flew to a popular hotel to eat a meal together. 

The director was very pleased with the final results and specifically praised Gu Chen’s acting ability, saying he was a rare talent he hadn’t seen for many years and would definitely have grand achievements in the future.

Despite such overwhelming praise, Gu Chen behaved modestly and said that he would continue to study and work hard. The director also praised Ji Ning. After experiencing so many different worlds, Ji Ning’s acting skills needed to be perfect.

“I am very happy to have witnessed such an excellent performance from two young people. I’ve suddenly thought of a better plot development but alas, the filming has been completed. I hope there will be further opportunities to cooperate with you two in the future.”

Inside the luxurious venue, the director raised his glass and smiled at Gu Chen and Ji Ning. 

Ji Ning held his wine glass and maintained his reserved personality, keeping a calm expression and not speaking. At the same time he glanced towards Herinos who wasn’t far away. The handsome vampire was holding a glass of blood red wine, his head lowered, concealing his thoughts.

Since he’d left the set, Herinos had been like this, without a smile. Although the surrounding atmosphere was boisterous and noisy, he appeared lonely and out of place.

By pretending that the memory of their kiss had been erased, Ji Ning could still treat Herinos like a friend and naturally asked him if there was anything on his mind. Herinos smiled but did not answer him.

Ji Ning could guess the reason. Before he had passed out he had vaguely heard what Herinos said. Although Herinos didn’t want Ji Ning to remember past events, he knew what had happened himself. 

Their so called past events were within the world of the blood clan novel. Ji Ning had been a vampire hunter who despised vampires because they killed his parents, while Herinos was the blood clan prince. It was understandable that the two of them had a twisted relationship.

In that world, Ji Ning played a painful role where he had to act bitter and hostile every day. When Herinos first approached him, he had pretended to be human. Naturally, after the lie was exposed, Ji Ning had to ‘hate’ Herinos for deceiving him.

Later, for some reason, Herinos had imprisoned him and forced him into a blood pact. They tortured each other physically and mentally until Ji Ning swallowed a silver cross, committing suicide and dying in Herinos’s arms.

Thinking of the experiences of that world, Ji Ning couldn’t help but sigh, feeling a little absent minded. He didn’t notice Gu Chen’s eyes fall on him. 

When Gu Chen looked at Ji Ning his smile didn’t change but his eyes darkened when he saw how Ji Ning looked at Herinos.

He always cared so much about his friend…

Gu Chen’s lips twisted and his expression sank. Although he could put on a mask and conceal his emotions, he was only human and could still feel tired. Now, for example, he just didn’t want to appear perfect.

Gu Chen hadn’t known Ji Ning for a long time, but he cared for him deeply. Since his rebirth, Ji Ning was the first person to reach out to him, but that wasn’t the full story. There was a hidden side to Ji Ning that Gu Chen found himself hopelessly attracted to. 

He wanted to have a closer relationship with Ji Ning but he had always felt that there was an alienation between them. Only in front of that friend would Ji Ning’s expression soften and his defences lower.

Even if he and Ji Ning became friends, no matter how close they were, could he ever compete with Herinos?

The thought flashed through Gu Chen’s mind and he almost laughed. He and Ji Ning clearly didn’t know each other, so why did this irritation in his heart continue? It even seemed to be getting stronger.

Really… 

He shook his head and put down the wine glass in his hand. He shouldn’t drink anymore, maybe alcohol was the source of his unstable mood.

He looked over again at Ji Ning, who had withdrawn his gaze and was speaking to the director.

Even for an actor, Ji Ning was bewitching. Gu Chen watched his beautiful eyes curve in delight as he held his wine glass with slender fingers. The warm light of the room gave him a lazy halo, shining on his eyelashes and lips, making his face look even more ethereal.

At that moment a broken fragment flashed in front of Gu Chen’s eyes. Rather than a hallucination, it seemed so real that he could believe it actually happened. Standing in a thick blanket of darkness he had kissed Ji Ning’s lips and said with a heart full of love- 

“I love you.”

His heart trembled, and he felt a strange throbbing.

…What is this?

At the same time, Ji Ning sighed to himself. Herinos’ memory wipe had caused him some difficulties. The emotional scenes he had filmed with Gu Chen had vanished, leaving no impression at all. It was a shame. If Gu Chen had remembered, it might have increased his goodwill towards him. 

The director raised a glass to toast Ji Ning. Ji Ning raised his glass at his signal and took a sip. The alcohol entered his throat and immediately made Ji Ning feel dizzy.

No way… this body turned out to be useless at drinking… that’s not even enough to describe it, he barely drank a mouthful!

Ji Ning only had time to have this thought before he fell drunk and his vision plunged into darkness.

In the gloom, he heard a distant call, repeating the same two words. 

“Ji Ning…”

“Ji Ning…”

The author has something to say:

A new male protagonist is coming… 

I demand justice for my boy, he’s spent more than half of this novel unconscious – what is the point of having three boyfriends if you’re comatose all the time!!

Also, get ready, our new mystery boyfriend is one of my favourites!!