Trembling At A High Altitude - Chapter 43

Chapter 43: Plot-In-Plot

Upon hearing the director’s words, everyone looked at Li Teng at the same time.

Something seems a little off here?

Li Teng had killed Mrs. Guo?

A human couldn’t kill a ghost, right?

‘As if you don’t know who the ghost is’?

Mrs. Guo wasn’t a ghost?

In that case, who was the ghost?

“The roast chicken was a little salty. I gotta go get myself some coffee.”

As if he hadn’t noticed how everyone was waiting for his response, Li Teng got up, walked over leisurely to the coffee machine, and dispensed a coffee cup for himself.

The director didn’t say anything else. She stood still where she was. As she was wearing a mask, no one knew what sort of expression she currently had on her face.

Right at this point, Mrs. Guo finally walked over from the corner of the street. She looked furious.

The pretty boy quickly jogged over to her.

He was about to ask her something when Mrs. Guo shoved him away.

When she saw the director standing in front of the cafe entrance, Mrs. Guo sped up and ran over.

She protested loudly to the director, “Director! I object to this! Why was I still sealed and without any ghost abilities after I alighted from the bus when I’m acting as the ghost? Instead, I was killed by him with the bar chair! This is a serious violation of the rules!” Her voice shook as she spoke. It was evident that the events at the bus stop had left a huge psychological trauma on her.

She had also finally understood at that time why Li Teng had brought a bar chair with him—it was to kill her with it!

Damn! And she had really died because of his bar chair, too!

The director replied to her, coldly, “You’re acting as a ghost. It’s not like you’re a ghost.”

Mrs. Guo was thoroughly confused. “What do you mean?”

The others didn’t quite get it, either.

The woman in the sunglasses, however, suddenly realized something. She quickly walked over, reached her arm out, and picked up both of Li Teng’s covered lots. Then, she took his bamboo sticks out of the covers.

Li Teng had publicly revealed his lots to everyone back then, yet a problem had cropped up. In that case, the problem must lie with his bamboo sticks.

True enough, everyone had been deceived by him!

On Li Teng’s bamboo sticks, the words, You’re the set lighting technician, were written on one of them, while the words, Alight at the first stop, were written on the other.

There was certainly nothing wrong with this.

However, on the bamboo stick with the words, You’re the set lighting technician, there were three other words written underneath—You’re the ghost.

The woman in the sunglasses went through the events in her mind carefully. At that time, when Li Teng had revealed his bamboo sticks, he had slapped the sticks onto the table with a loud smack. However, only the top part of the stick with the words, You’re the set lighting technician, had been visible. The tiny words, You’re the ghost, had been covered by his palm!

As there were words only on the top half of everyone else’s bamboo sticks, the possibility that there might be more words at the lower half hadn’t occurred to anyone.

Was there any conflict between You’re the set lighting technician, and You’re the ghost? No, there wasn’t.

The woman in the sunglasses understood all of this instantly.

Mrs. Guo rushed over and snatched Li Teng’s bamboo sticks from her hands. When she saw the additional words at the bottom, she was incredibly perplexed and furious. “What’s going on? What does she mean when she says that I’m acting as the ghost, but I’m not the ghost?”

Everyone else was also confused when they saw the bamboo sticks.

“It’s very simple, just that it’s a little roundabout to explain. This scene is a little different from regular scenes—this is a plot-in-plot,” replied the woman in the sunglasses.

Then, she added, “The eight of us are a film crew in itself. However, the content of this scene we’re filming is that we’re acting as another film crew! Additionally, this film crew that we’re acting as is filming a horror movie. Within this film crew, there are members acting as the lead character and the side characters, as well as members acting as the ghost. There are also lighting technicians, cameramen, and so on.

“The one acting as the ghost is just a normal actor of the film crew.

“However, the lighting technician is a ghost hidden among the film crew members! The bamboo stick has also indicated this with You’re the set lighting technician, and You’re the ghost. A ghost has snuck into the film crew by pretending to be a lighting technician. In the film crew, the ghost is in charge of the lighting technician’s duties, and this particular ghost is the real ghost.

“It’s just that Li Teng didn’t let us see the bottom half of this bamboo stick.

“The director has said that only one person among the eight of us is a ghost. However, she didn’t say that only one person among the eight of us was acting as a ghost.

“Mrs. Guo had drawn the You’re acting as a ghost lot, but she was not the ghost. She’s just acting as a normal actor in the film crew—a normal actor that’s acting as a ghost.

“Meanwhile, Li Teng had drawn the set lighting technician lot. In this movie we’re filming, the lighting technician is the real ghost among the film crew, a ghost that wants to kill everyone in the film crew. Therefore, Li Teng is the real ghost.

“One is an actress acting as a ghost, while the other is a real ghost that’s pretending to be a lighting technician.

“The actress acting as a ghost thought that she’s the ghost, but she’s actually just an actress. When she alighted from the bus together with the lighting technician when she was taking the last bus, she had, in truth, alighted with the real ghost.

“Although the real ghost didn’t have any points in his account and couldn’t redeem a ghost’s supernatural powers, he had a bar chair…

“In the case of the actress acting as the ghost, even though she has points in her account and even possessed a ghost’s supernatural powers, she couldn’t use them even after she alighted from the bus because she’s not the ghost.

“A ghost without supernatural powers and a normal actress acting as a ghost came together and got into a fight, where the ghost without supernatural powers lifted a bar chair and struck the normal actress dead with it.

“That’s roughly what had happened. Am I right, Li Teng?”

The woman took off her sunglasses and gazed at Li Teng intently.

Although filming had taken place in the middle of the night this time, she still wore her sunglasses out of habit.

This was the first time she had taken off her sunglasses in front of everyone.

Li Teng gave her an irrelevant answer instead and replied, “You have such beautiful eyes.”

The woman put on her sunglasses again, reached over, and pulled Li Teng by his ear. “Give me back my chicken!”

Li Teng reached out and grabbed her wrist. He said, “We’ve already reached an agreement on this just now! I even specially confirmed it with you! I said, “You gave me this roast chicken on your own accord, right? I didn’t cheat you into giving it to me! You’d better not get into a petty dispute with me after I eat it!”, and you had replied, “Yes, so just eat it!”! How can you go back on your word so soon? Pretty lady, one must be kind and honest in life. Be reasonable, alright?”

When the spectacled man, who was standing at the side and watching the commotion, heard Li Teng utter the words, “One must be kind and honest in life”, he wished he could smash his own head against the wall beside him.

That fellow was actually still alive, and he had even tricked everyone into sympathizing with him!

Just what kind of person was he?!

How could anyone be this shameless?!

How could someone this shameless bring himself to say things like, “One must be kind and honest in life”?!

The woman in the sunglasses didn’t let him off. If not for the fact that Li Teng’s behavior had triggered her feelings of sympathy, she wouldn’t have bought him the chicken.

She asked, “Is that so? Then what were you putting on that act for when you arrived? You were clearly the ghost that had killed someone, so what was that dejected and despondent look of yours for? Who were you trying to trick?”

“Which part of that was an act? When I was fighting with the demonic granny, the cashew nuts in my pocket had dropped all over the floor. What a pity that was! The moment I thought of that, I was so sad. Very, very sad,” replied a grieving Li Teng.

“…”

“Fine. But you had also said that time was almost up and that you were here to bid farewell to all of us. What did you mean by that, then? Were you trying to trick us into sympathizing with you?” asked the woman in the sunglasses again. She had almost cried when she heard what he had said. Little did she know that she had been tricked!

Li Teng had a helpless look on his face as he replied, “Filming for this scene has ended, so time is indeed almost up for us because we’ll have to return to our respective pillars soon. Is there anything wrong with bidding farewell to all of you?”

“You also said that you’re someone that’s dying soon and that there’s no point in investing in you. Weren’t you trying to garner sympathy by saying that?”

“Think back carefully, from the beginning till the end. I’ve never once said that I’m someone that’s dying soon. I only said that I’m someone that’s leaving soon. Aren’t you leaving after filming ends?”

“You—”

“I—”

“Let go! Don’t grab my wrist!”

“I’ll let go if you don’t pull my ear.”

“…”