Chapter 1: The Actor Ghost Goes Home

"Who... am I?"

Boom—

Pale lightning flashed across the ink-like clouds,

Rain poured down, a thunderstorm like the wrath of gods drenching the muddy earth. In the reflection of the rippling puddles, a vermilion figure was shattered.

It was a young man wearing a bright red actor’s robe. He stumbled through the mud as if drunk, his wide sleeves fluttering in the gale. The mud on the surface of the robe was washed away by the rain, and that blood-like crimson was shocking in the dark night.

"Stop making noise... stop it!"

"All of you, shut up!"

"I’m about to remember... I’m about... to remember..."

"I have a name... a name that belongs to me!"

The young man’s wet black hair hung to his brows, his unfocused eyes full of confusion. As he struggled to move forward, he held his head with both hands, as if struggling to recall something.

His roar echoed on the deserted street, but it didn’t travel far before being swallowed by the endless curtain of rain.

Thump—

In the dimness, his body tripped over a protruding stone and fell heavily to the ground!

A streak of scarlet blood rolled down from the young man’s forehead. He lay there blankly, and suddenly, as if remembering something, a glimmer of light appeared in his murky eyes.

"Chen Ling..."

A name suddenly flashed through his mind.

The moment he uttered these two words, a memory fragment drifted out from the endless whispers that were almost bursting his head, merging with this weak body.

"What is this... time travel?"

Chen Ling frowned. He kept digesting the memories of this body, his brain aching as if it were being sliced apart.

His name was Chen Ling, 28 years old, an intern director at a theater in the capital. After the theater performance that day, he was alone on stage designing the actors' movements when a violent earthquake struck. He only felt a pain in his head and completely lost consciousness.

Now that he thought about it, he was most likely crushed to death by a falling spotlight...

At this moment, Chen Ling was also digesting the memories of this body bit by bit. To his surprise, the owner of this body was also named Chen Ling, but their basic understanding of the world was completely different. The fragmented memories fought each other, and Chen Ling felt his brain was about to explode.

He kept taking deep breaths and struggled to climb up from the ground, his robe covered in black and red patches, looking extremely disheveled.

For some reason, his body was incredibly heavy, like the exhaustion one feels after staying up late for four or five days to write a script, as if he had been completely hollowed out...

"Let’s go home first..."

His exhausted body and fragmented thoughts made it almost impossible for him to think, so he could only rely on the instincts of this body to walk in the direction of "home."

Although he didn’t know how he got here, the original owner of this body had memories of this place. He would take this road every day after taking care of his younger brother at the clinic. From here to home, it usually took only two or three minutes.

But for him at this moment, this journey was unprecedentedly long.

The rain, carrying bone-chilling cold, flowed over Chen Ling’s body. He couldn’t stop shivering. After walking in the rain for ten minutes, enduring the cold and exhaustion, he finally arrived in front of the door he remembered as home.

Chen Ling fumbled in his pockets for a while and found that he didn’t have the keys on him.

So, he skillfully fished out a spare key from the bottom of the newspaper box by the door and opened the door.

Creak—

Warm light spilled from the room, illuminating a corner of the dark, rainy night and Chen Ling’s pale face.

The moment he saw the light, Chen Ling’s tense nerves naturally relaxed, and the cold and exhaustion on his body seemed to be dispelled a little by this lamp.

He stepped into the house and saw two figures sitting on either side of the dining table, their eyes red and swollen, as if they had just finished crying.

Hearing the sound of the door opening, the two were stunned for a moment, then turned their heads at the same time.

"Dad... Mom... I’m back."

Chen Ling, with a dizzy head, subconsciously prepared to change his shoes at the door, only to find that he was barefoot from the start. At this moment, the soles of his feet and the spaces between his toes were almost filled with mud, leaving two large black footprints on the floor.

The two figures sitting at the dining table saw the red-clad Chen Ling pushing the door open, and their pupils contracted violently!

"You... you..."

The man’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He opened his mouth wide, looking as if he had seen a ghost.

"Mom... is there any water at home? I’m so thirsty." After returning home, Chen Ling’s spirit completely relaxed, and his consciousness was on the verge of fainting. He muttered to himself while stumbling into the kitchen, picking up the water bucket on the dispenser and drinking greedily.

Gulp, gulp, gulp...

In the kitchen, the red-clad figure was like a beast, greedily swallowing water.

The water leaking from the corners of his mouth dripped onto the floor, forming puddles that reflected the two terrified, pale faces in the living room.

"A... A-Ling?" The woman forced herself to gather courage and spoke with a tremble, "How... how did you get back?"

Chen Ling was swallowing frantically while holding the bucket, completely unable to hear the woman’s words. Then, as if he felt that drinking this way was too slow, he stuffed the fist-sized opening of the bucket directly into his mouth and bit it off in one go!

The synthetic plastic was chewed hard, and the rushing water poured into his mouth, refreshing and satisfying!

"Walked back."

A voice came from behind Chen Ling.

Yes... behind him.

At this moment, Chen Ling was still immersed in swallowing water, but his voice clearly fell into the ears of the two,

as if in the invisible void behind him, there stood another red-clad Chen Ling, spreading his hands and answering as a matter of course.

"The rain was a bit heavy, I think I got lost."

"Seems like I fell a few times on the way, and my shoes are gone..."

"Mom, I made the floor dirty. If you’re not in a hurry, wait for me to clean it up when I wake up tomorrow... I’m too sleepy now."

Looking at this hair-raising scene, the man and woman in the living room felt a chill on the back of their necks. The kerosene lamp flame in the glass shade kept flickering, as if an invisible hand was playfully toying with the wick.

Their faces were pale, but they just stood stiffly in place, not daring to move.

Finally, the bucket was drained.

Chen Ling wiped his mouth, put down the bucket, turned around, and stumbled toward his bedroom, leaving a black footprint with every step...

"Dad, Mom... you guys go to sleep early too, goodnight."

He mumbled a sentence, closed the door behind him, and then there was a dull thud of a heavy object falling onto the bed.

The living room fell into dead silence.

I don’t know how much time passed before the two figures, who looked like statues, stiffly turned their heads... and looked at each other.

The flickering wick stabilized, and the eerie kerosene lamp flame barely illuminated the dim living room. They sat on the chairs, trembling, with no trace of blood on their faces.

"He... is back." The man spoke hoarsely, "How is this possible..."

"If he really is A-Ling..."

"Then who... did we kill last night?"