I Share the Same Face with a Monster - Chapter 10

Chapter 28

Zhou Yan suddenly spoke.

“Xu Zhiyi.”

With difficulty, I looked toward the mirror.

He said, “Give it to me.”

I knew what he meant.

Give him my face.

This time, he wasn’t borrowing it.

He was asking me to give it.

Chen Guan laughed.

“See?”

“A monster is a monster.”

I looked at Zhou Yan.

His body was being pressed thinner and thinner beneath the silver blades.

If I didn’t give it to him, Chen Guan would peel him back into that nameless Face-Stealing Monster.

If I did, I might lose this face forever.

All at once, I thought of that night on the red carpet.

He had worn my face and made every camera look at me.

And for the first time, he had made every camera fail to define me.

I asked, “What do you need a face for?”

Zhou Yan said, “To come out.”

“And what will you do once you’re out?”

He paused.

“Stand beside you.”

That answer didn’t sound like a monster.

It was too stupid.

So stupid I almost wanted to laugh.

Chapter 29

I said, “Okay.”

Chen Guan’s expression changed.

“Are you insane?”

Maybe I was.

The most insane thing I’d ever done in my life was hand the thing I hated most, and relied on most, to a monster.

The mirror rippled like water.

Zhou Yan reached out his hand.

This time, I did not fall asleep.

Fully conscious, I watched him peel my face away.

It didn’t hurt.

There was only a hollow emptiness.

As if every gaze that had pressed down on my face since childhood had been torn away in an instant.

Chen Guan screamed, “No!”

The character posters on the wall began to burn.

The actresses trapped inside the photos crawled out of their frames one by one.

They had no faces.

Yet all of them were smiling.

At last, Chen Guan was afraid.

He turned to run.

Zhou Yan stepped out of the mirror.

Wearing my face.

Chapter 30

The sight was deeply uncanny.

A tall man, wearing my face.

Bright, vivid features. Pale lips.

So beautiful it bordered on deranged.

He looked at Chen Guan.

His voice was still a low, hoarse man’s voice.

“Have you seen enough?”

Chen Guan collapsed to the floor.

“I made you.”

“You belong to me.”

Zhou Yan crouched down and reached out, gripping his chin.

I knew that gesture very well.

Seven years ago, Chen Guan had held my face the same way.

Wearing my face, Zhou Yan gave him a smile.

“This face was born for people to look at?”

Chen Guan trembled all over.

Zhou Yan raised his hand.

The Faceless Actresses closed in around him.

There was no blood.

No screaming.

They simply peeled Chen Guan’s face away, layer by layer.

Like tearing down an expired poster.