The five-year-old child, who had just started kindergarten, merely blinked when he saw the red knife still dripping blood pressed against his fragile neck.

Amidst the terrified and panicked cries of other children, that child's behavior was clearly quite different.

Let alone children, even adults may subconsciously call out to the person they trust and are closest to when faced with a terrible crisis that they cannot resist.

Especially amidst a chorus of cries of "I want my dad! I want my mom!", the vast majority of children will subconsciously choose to blindly follow.

But the child with the knife to his neck didn't do that. He neither cried nor called for his parents. He just watched quietly, seemingly without any sense of danger.

He even reached out and touched the blood-stained blade with his delicate white fingertips, then put the blood-stained fingertips in his mouth and sucked on them.

Then, he looked up at the thug who was threatening his life and said, "Why is blood sweet?"

"Uncle, what does your blood taste like? Is it sweet?"

"Can I try?"

"Bang!--"

While the assailant was stunned by the child's words, a gunshot rang out, accurately striking his hand. The assailant cried out in pain and released his grip, causing the child he was holding to fall to the ground.

The thug clutched his pierced wrist and screamed in agony—he showed no mercy when he killed people, but when it came to his own injury and bleeding, he felt the pain.

The boy got up from the ground and dusted himself off.

He seemed oblivious to danger, pain, and all emotions.

He reached up and wiped the blood splattered on his fair face, his dark eyes fixed on the thug writhing on the ground in pain. "It's sweet too."

His tone was tinged with frustration, as if he had completely lost interest in the person in front of him.

Even though it wasn't the boy who fired the gun, and even though he wasn't the one who injured the assailant, from the assailant's perspective, the boy's blood-stained face and body, coupled with his inappropriately indifferent expression, gave off a chilling feeling.

So much so that even when the criminals were finally apprehended and imprisoned, and confessed to their crimes in jail, they still vividly remembered the boy's unusual behavior.

Taking statements requires not only the parties involved but also witnesses. The death penalty for the perpetrator is a foregone conclusion, but it is only to go through the procedures that the victims need to provide statements.

So the principal and security guard from that kindergarten, whose injuries weren't too serious, were all called in. Everyone recalled what happened that day with lingering fear, pale-faced, trembling all over, and choked up several times, needing to drink several cups of water before they could continue speaking.

Perhaps because the perpetrators mentioned the boy repeatedly, after much consideration, the police went to ask the boy's parents for their cooperation in taking a statement and arranging for a psychologist to provide counseling to the boy in order to prevent him from suffering post-traumatic stress disorder in the future.

The boy's parents hesitated before agreeing, but to everyone's surprise, the boy recounted the events of that day very clearly, with an indifferent expression, a calm tone, and no emotional fluctuation.

He was clearly one of the victims, but he remained calm like a bystander, a calmness that seemed out of character for someone his age.

Even more surprisingly, the boy clearly remembered and responded to many details that other people taking statements had not seen or remembered, and he spoke fluently throughout. When recalling those experiences that would be terrifying even for adults, he did not pause at all.

“Your child is very intelligent,” the interrogator tentatively said to the boy’s parents.

For an average five-year-old child, being able to speak clearly, accurately express their thoughts, and completely describe an event with logical coherence and smooth sentences is already quite impressive.

The boy was not only able to recount a long story in its entirety, but he also remained calm and fearless even after being threatened like that.

No wonder it left a deep impression on the kidnapper.

The parents, who had been watching the whole time, held the boy's shoulders with mixed feelings. They had tried so hard to teach him, to hide his specialness and his strangeness, to let him interact with others like a normal child, to let him react to the things around him, to have emotions, to experience joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, to laugh and scold like a normal child. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned.

Their children are just different.

“The doctor said it’s an emotional disorder…” the mother explained carefully.

The boy looked up: "I'm not sick."

The father gently patted the boy's head and sighed, "Let's go home."

"...Later, after a long period of psychological treatment, I was finally able to communicate like a normal person." Rong Yu added this sentence after telling her story.

"So, brother, don't worry, I'm all better now. It's just that the treatment process wasn't very pleasant, so I'm still a little unaccustomed to them."

After a pause, Rong Yu tentatively asked, "Brother, do you also think I was strange before?"

Yin Chengjue: "Did you intentionally hurt someone?"

Rong Yu: "No."

“Then there’s nothing strange about it.” Yin Chengjue didn’t know why Rong Yu would ask that. In his opinion, everyone has a different personality, and there’s no rule that requires everyone to have the same personality.

Yin Chengjue: "No one can accurately define what is normal and what is strange. As long as we do not cross the moral and legal bottom lines, and as long as we manage ourselves well, there is nothing strange about it."

Yin Chengjue: "We are human beings, not mass-produced robots. Even robots are more or less different."

“So, don’t worry too much about what others think.” Yin Chengjue tilted his head slightly and gently rubbed Rong Yu’s face, which was resting on his shoulder. “It’s all in the past. The most important thing is to look forward. There will always be a place ahead that will be better than the past. There will always be a place that can attract your attention and help you forget the unpleasant things of the past.”

Even the largest maple forest eventually comes to an end.

Once Yin Chengjue could see the tents set up by the film crew in the distance, he put Rong Yu down and bent down to straighten the wrinkled corners of his clothes.

"Focus on filming, I'll be watching you from behind the camera," Yin Chengjue said.

When Rong Yu returned, it happened to be his turn to film an action scene.

The action scenes in "Blood Mist" are not like those in martial arts or fantasy dramas, nor are they urban supernatural dramas. There are no special effects in post-production because it is a modern drama. The way of fighting cannot involve flying over rooftops or having one's feet leave the ground too much, otherwise it would seem unrealistic.

Director Chen invited several martial arts instructors to teach the main cast and Rong Yu their moves. Because of the need for a good presentation, their moves had to be cool, their posture had to be upright, and their movements had to be clean. Otherwise, once the show airs, it will be a warning to create screenshots and memes!

So, under the guidance of the martial arts instructor, the main characters painstakingly began stretching, bone setting, and leg loosening...

The entire set was filled with pitiful wails and the cracking of joints.

Yin Chengjue had previously witnessed Rong Yu beating up thugs on trending topics, and given his dance background from his trainee days, he wasn't too worried about Rong Yu learning such cool martial arts moves.

Rong Yu did indeed learn very quickly, which made his martial arts coach very pleased.

After the main cast had memorized the movements, the 50th act of the fourth case of "Blood Mist," titled "Maple Forest Vampire," officially began.

Upon seeing the vampire painting with blood and tears streaming down its face, the rich second-generation was so frightened that he took several steps back. Wu Xiaoqing, however, stepped forward and stared intently at the painting.

Rich kid: "Maybe we shouldn't look at this? It's creepy!"

Wu Xiaoqing: "Go and bring a chair over."

Rich kid: "Huh? Why?"

Wu Xiaoqing: "Stand up there and dismantle the painting."

Rich kid: !!!

Director Chen: "Hey! Rong Yu! Your eyes look wrong!"

Just now during the intermission, the props team had already set up the equipment and projected the photos of Yin Chengjue onto the picture frame hanging at the corner of the stairs.

Previously, those picture frames contained specially made white paper that could be used to project images, allowing for the later addition of bleeding eyes, blinking eyes, and bleeding mouths.

When facing a blank sheet of paper, Rong Yu's acting was quite natural; it was impossible to tell that she was facing a blank paper frame. But when Yin Chengjue's face was projected onto it...

Director Chen: "Hey! Rong Yu! What's wrong with your eyes! You're questioning that painting, not appreciating it, do you understand?"

Rong Yu: "...I understand."

The new actor playing the rich second-generation was forced to do several takes because of Rong Yu, but he didn't show any impatience. Instead, he smiled and said, "Director Chen, why don't we just use the original blank paper? Blame it on President Yin being too handsome. It's easy to be distracted by him."

The other main characters, who hadn't yet appeared, chimed in with a laugh: "Yeah, if the vampire portrait worshipped by the villa owner looked like this, we'd all want to offer ourselves as sacrifices."

"Huh? What's that word again? The Embrace?"

Yin Chengjue narrowed his eyes dangerously and licked his teeth: "Oh ho ho? It seems you don't want to be human anymore and want to experience the feeling of the First Embrace?"

"Huh? Is that alright, Mr. Yin?" Perhaps because Yin Chengjue had cooperated with them during the photoshoot and closed the distance between them, these new actors realized that Yin Chengjue was not like the rumors suggested, and began to try to joke with him.

Yin Chengjue: "Impossible. Have you ever seen a capitalist who sucks blood into his stomach and then sends it back?"

The others: "..." Holy crap! This analogy is so true!

Filming resumed, and Rong Yu tried her best to regain her composure. Together with the actor playing the rich second-generation, she dismantled the picture frame and then discovered the secret passage hidden behind the huge picture frame.

A strong smell of blood wafted from the dark passage, forcing the two to quickly cover their noses.