I Share the Same Face with a Monster - Chapter 14

Chapter 40

The face swap had to happen somewhere with an audience.

Zhou Yan said the Face-Stealing Monster took shape through people’s gazes.

If we wanted to return my face to me whole, then everyone looking at “Xu Zhiyi” had to acknowledge, at the same time, that that face wasn’t all there was to me.

I asked him how we were supposed to do that.

He was silent for a long time.

“Go public.”

I froze.

“Go public with what?”

“With Chen Guan.”

“With the fact that you hate this face.”

“With me.”

I thought he’d lost his mind.

He said, “You can say I’m an illness.”

“A hallucination.”

“Dissociative identity disorder.”

“Whatever you want.”

“As long as they understand that you aren’t just the face they think you are.”

I wrote: You’ll be exposed.

Zhou Yan looked at me.

“Yeah.”

Writing this now, I suddenly want to laugh.

He used to want a face so badly.

And now he was willing to let the whole world know that he was a monster without one.

Chapter 41

The livestream was scheduled for Friday night.

Sister Lin refused to agree to it.

But Su Man reposted the announcement.

Her caption read: I want to hear her tell the truth, too.

That night, the livestream’s viewer count quickly broke ten million.

Zhou Yan sat in front of the camera, wearing my face.

I was in the vanity mirror across from him.

His first words were:

“I am Xu Zhiyi.”

The comments flooded in, so dense they covered the screen.

He paused.

“But not entirely.”

Sister Lin’s face had gone white beside him.

Zhou Yan continued, “I hate my own face.”

“I hate having it magnified, judged, bought and sold.”

“I hate that everyone treats it like it’s all I am.”

“But I also live off it.”

“So I hate it, and I can’t live without it.”

Those were the words I’d written for him.

But hearing them come out of his mouth hurt more than I had imagined.

Chapter 42

The comments started spiraling out of control.

Some people called it melodramatic.

Some said, Queen, you’re so brave.

Some asked if this was a publicity stunt for a new drama.

Zhou Yan looked into the camera.

“Chen Guan isn’t missing.”

“He trapped many actresses inside photographs.”

“He also kept a faceless monster.”

“That monster once walked red carpets for me, livestreamed for me, and said the things I didn’t dare to say.”

Sister Lin rushed over to shut off the livestream.

Zhou Yan didn’t stop her.

But the livestream didn’t cut out.

Because every screen lit up.

Phones, tablets, televisions, the giant screens in shopping malls.

The Faceless Actresses appeared.

One by one, they stated their names.

They said in which year Chen Guan had photographed them, replaced them, and sealed them inside pictures.

Su Man started a livestream, too.

She said, “I can testify.”

“I’ve seen that studio.”