I Share the Same Face with a Monster - Chapter 11

Chapter 31

I stood there and touched my face.

Smooth.

Blank.

No features at all.

I didn’t scream.

I didn’t even cry.

Maybe because I’d already paid away all my tears in front of the camera.

Zhou Yan turned to look at me.

He was wearing my face, but the look in his eyes was his.

In that moment, I suddenly understood.

A face wasn’t him.

And a face wasn’t me, either.

Everyone had simply misunderstood that all along.

He walked over and reached out, his hand stopping in midair.

“Do you regret it?”

I wanted to say yes.

But I had no mouth.

Zhou Yan seemed to hear me anyway.

“I know.”

“You’re scared.”

I glared at him.

Though I had no idea how I was supposed to glare without eyes.

But he smiled faintly.

“I’ll give it back to you.”

I shook my head.

He froze.

“Xu Zhiyi?”

I lifted my hand and wrote in his palm.

Get out first.

Chapter 32

What happened in the studio was buried as a fire.

Chen Guan disappeared.

On the same day, several actresses who had long since retired from the industry-or died-were dug up by marketing accounts for nostalgic tributes.

No one knew that, that night, they had finally walked out of their makeup stills.

I disappeared for three days, too.

On the fourth day, Xu Zhiyi appeared at the hospital.

No.

It was Zhou Yan, wearing my face, who appeared for me.

He sat on the hospital bed and endured Sister Lin’s interrogation.

Sister Lin asked, “Where exactly have you been these past few days?”

He said, “Resting.”

“What’s going on with Director Chen?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why is your voice so low?”

Zhou Yan was silent for two seconds.

“A cold.”

I sat inside the mirror, watching, and nearly laughed.

Now it was my turn to be in the mirror.

Not locked up.

Just staying temporarily.

I had no face, so I couldn’t go outside.

Zhou Yan said he would find a way to separate the face and return my part to me.

Chapter 33

For the first time, I learned how strange it was to watch the outside world from inside a mirror.

People out there spoke to my face.

But no one knew the real me was in the reflection.

Zhou Yan was terrible at pretending to be me.

When Sister Lin chewed someone out, he would stare at them for far too long.

He drank coffee with the expression of someone swallowing medicine.

When fans shouted, “Wife!” he asked, “Do you all call her that?”

Sister Lin nearly fainted.

Inside the mirror, I wrote with lipstick:

Don’t talk nonsense.

Zhou Yan saw it.

In a low voice, he said, “They call you that, and you don’t get angry?”

I wrote: Work.

He stared at it for a long time.

“No wonder you hate it.”

I didn’t write anything.

Then he asked, “Am I allowed to get angry?”

I wrote: You’re not allowed to gouge out anyone’s eyes.

Zhou Yan: “…”