Luo Jun received a call from Ren Chenbai.
…
A video was playing before the caller ID suddenly popped up on the phone screen.
It is a short clip shot with a mobile phone. The angle is not very good and the picture is not clear. It should not have been shot in a normal way.
Indeed, it was not. Gong Hanrou’s crew quickly took appropriate action and held the person accountable.
The publisher deleted the video quickly, but copies had already been circulated on the Internet and were so popular that it was impossible to delete them completely.
Ren Chenbai in the video has obviously gone crazy.
A person with normal thinking ability, basic logic and rationality would not be able to do those things.
Ren Chenbai slumped in the filming room that the crew used for interviews.
Ren Chenbai kept talking to everyone.
Those words were completely illogical, chaotic, confusing and vague, but they were spoken quickly and urgently, as if they were afraid of any rebuttal.
...He said he had a younger brother.
Ren Chenbai told everyone that he had a younger brother who was very smart and outstanding, and was brought home from the seaside by his mother.
Ren Chenbai actually knows Luo Zhi better than they do.
Because of that completely distorted, paranoid, and even neurotic gaze, Ren Chenbai indeed understood Luo Zhi better than most people.
Ren Chenbai knew that Luo Zhi liked to paint in a sunny room, and that Luo Zhi no longer sang because severe tinnitus and hearing loss interfered with her judgment and grasp of musical sounds - this deterioration was largely due to the influence of her emotional and physical condition.
Ren Chenbai knew that Luo Zhi was actively seeing a doctor, but many problems could not be cured simply by medication.
Ren Chenbai kept talking. Luo Zhi's mastery of color was admired in the professional field. Later, he couldn't paint well, just because he was in a bad mood. Luo Zhi actually has three songs that she hasn't released yet. Just the lyrics, music and demos alone have attracted several music companies to compete for them with high prices. The reason why she hasn't released them is simply because she is not satisfied with the singing...
As Ren Chenbai was talking, he saw Luo Cheng.
He looked at Luo Cheng, and seemed to wake up briefly for a moment. His intense fear of reality made him look particularly hideous, yet he suddenly felt a vague and evil pleasure.
He suddenly said to Luo Cheng that Luo Zhi also had an outstanding eye for choosing scripts. After all, film and television companies ultimately rely on ratings, and Huaisheng Entertainment was able to turn things around thanks to the scripts chosen by Luo Zhi.
Luo Zhi's talents are all in these things. Luo Zhi has a natural and keen sense of emotions. Those paintings are beautiful because of the warm passion contained in the colors, those songs are beautiful because the tunes seem to flow out from long-lost dreams, and even the intuition for choosing scripts is based on this.
But Luo Cheng no longer had the opportunity or qualifications, and Luo Zhi didn't even leave the script to her - after Luo Cheng helped Jian Huaiyi get rid of the company, Luo Zhi put the script up for sale online.
"Do you consider this revenge? This is not revenge. He doesn't deserve it."
Ren Chenbai stared at Luo Cheng, as if he could see through her thoughts. He slowly twisted his face into a sneer that he didn't know whether to mock others or himself: "He just doesn't care about you anymore."
…
Luo Jun was reading this sentence when the call came in.
Perhaps because the situation in the video was too abnormal, Luo Jun was subconsciously stunned when he heard Ren Chenbai's voice on the phone.
"Where are you?" Ren Chenbai's tone was relatively normal compared to the video, but his voice was strangely hoarse. "Where are you? Are you looking for him?"
Luo Jun slowly put down his phone.
He looked at where he was.
He was sitting on the mottled floor of a small room in a cheap black hotel that was extremely shabby. The window was so small that he could not see the sky outside clearly.
…
He knew what he was doing. He was self-righteously atonement through this hypocritical self-torture in an attempt to alleviate his guilt. In fact, he envied Ren Chenbai. He would rather go crazy.
"I'm not looking for it." Luo Jun sat there in a daze for a long time, and finally said, "I can't find it."
This was obviously not the answer the person on the other end of the line was waiting for. They suddenly fell silent, and their breathing slowly began to exude a chilling chill.
Ren Chenbai took a few breaths and said hoarsely: "Since."
He seemed to have difficulty speaking complete sentences. He uttered a few words before being interrupted by gasps: "In that case..."
Luo Jun turned on the off screen of his mobile phone.
Ren Chenbai was not awake yet. Even after talking a lot, he could still hear the same mumbling in his sleep as in the video - except that this might be another most horrifying and chilling nightmare that he could not escape no matter what.
"Ren Chenbai." Luo Jun interrupted him in a low voice, "What do you see now?"
There was a dead silence on the other end of the phone, even the panting sound stopped for a few seconds before it resumed: "What?"
Luo Jun looked at the mottled patterns on the floor. He was also somewhat frightened by his own thoughts. He was probably crazy in a sense. He even wanted to copy the nightmare that Ren Chenbai was having.
But it's better to be in a nightmare than to be awake.
He had no way of falling asleep, and even after taking medicine, it only lasted for a few hours. He kept playing the game that Luo Zhi liked, and even managed to appeal to get Luo Zhi's game account back - a decision that he regretted for a long time.
The only unread message on Luo Zhi’s game account that has not been clicked is the official birthday greeting.
The envelope icon was still closed and Luo Zhi did not click on it.
He once thought that this period of pain and torture would only last a limited time and that time would smooth out the past.
There will be a day when he still feels a tightness in his chest and can’t breathe when he thinks of his brother, but he will be able to live with these shackles, living in a pretense of calmness.
…
But he was not eligible for probation, he was not even as good as Ren Chenbai.
"I'm not as good as you." Luo Jun looked at his phone, "I know so much about him."
Luo Jun said: "I don't know anything."
Luo Zhi lived for twenty-three years, which is actually not a short time.
However, due to too long a period of neglect, indifference and deliberate alienation, Luo Jun had almost no direct idea of what had happened to Luo Zhi in the past twenty-three years.
Time will smooth out the past, but what if there are always new punishments and tortures coming?
He knew nothing, and everything that had happened to Luo Zhi was new to him.
He couldn't help but look for the puzzle pieces that he had broken and thrown away with his own hands. Every time he found a piece, it was like a slow-moving knife cutting him.
"How ridiculous I am." Luo Jun said, "You call him your brother, I hope this is true."
If it was really Ren Chenbai's illusion and Luo Zhi became a child of the Ren family, everything would not be like this now.
How could there be such a cowardly brother who would imagine that his younger brother could be taken home and protected by someone else?
The younger brother fell asleep in the sea, and as an older brother he felt sorry that no one else took him home.
Look, a new form of Lingchi.
You deserve it.
He was jealous of the chaotic nightmare that Ren Chenbai was trapped in, which was detached from reality.
Luo Jun suddenly said: "I asked someone to look for it in the sea."
He could hear the breath on the other end of the phone suddenly quicken. Luo Jun looked at the floor in front of him and continued in a low voice: "I can't find it. I've been looking for it for a long time. It's a sea. There's no way to drain it."
"I'm outside, I'm outside." Luo Jun's voice sounded like he had suddenly swallowed a large piece of wet sand.
He swallowed hard and then continued, "I'll get him a certificate."
"Get a certificate." Luo Jun said, "If successful, you can get the things he left behind."
Ren Chenbai fell into the trap just as he expected.
The breathing on the other end of the phone started to become chaotic, and even the voice became anxious and trembling: "Where are you?"
Luo Jun gave a place.
He hung up the phone without saying a word.
Luo Jun sat there in a daze for a while, finished watching the video, and then stood up with difficulty.
How could I not fall into the trap?
Even if that life-saving straw is just a cold illusion in a mirage, how can one resist rushing over and grabbing it tightly?
Faced with a prison sentence that would never end in reality, even going mad and drowning in a nightmare made up of mirages and living a life in chaos and trance seemed like a luxury and luck.
...after obtaining Luo Zhi’s death certificate and estate distribution.
Will Ren Chenbai share that nightmare with him and drag him down as well?
…
Two days later, Luo Jun got the answer.
He woke up in the hospital and gradually recalled what happened after the phone call.
As a direct relative, he obtained Luo Zhi's death certificate and the notarized inheritance that Luo Zhi had made during his lifetime.
Then he met Ren Chenbai.
Ren Chenbai was already like a half-dead wandering soul, but what he did seemed to have touched the other party's bottom line.
Ren Chenbai rushed over like a madman and almost broke his neck. Someone called the police, Ren Chenbai was controlled, and he was sent to the hospital...
Luo Jun touched his throat.
He couldn't remember any more feelings, only the horrible feeling of suffocation.
No matter how my chest expanded and contracted, not a single drop of air could get in. I couldn't move, and my vision went dark.
...What if you drown in the sea?
If it wasn't just suffocation, but drowning in the cold sea, how much more torment would it be than this feeling?
Luo Jun put on his shirt and used the collar to cover the bruises.
He managed to find Xun Zhen and asked for a visiting opportunity from the other party. He was led by the nurse into a special ward with a fence and saw Ren Chenbai tied up tightly with restraints.
…
He met Ren Chenbai's gaze, and the look in his eyes made his heart sink.
Ren Chenbai stared at him, his bloodshot eyes looking like poisonous vines.
The vines grew and twisted, slowly wrapping around his hands and feet, and he seemed to be pulled and growing on the ground.
...Ren Chenbai seemed to wake up.
Luo Jun stood outside the viewing window.
On the table in front of Ren Chenbai, he saw Luo Zhi’s death certificate and the notarized inheritance certificate.
Luo Zhi has done inheritance notarization, which is nothing special in itself, and Luo Jun has also done it.
In their circle, many people do this as soon as they become adults, and it doesn't mean anything special. It’s just that the large-scale interests involved are usually relatively complicated, so getting the estate notarized in advance can save a lot of trouble.
What is special is that the distribution of Luo Zhi's inheritance is very trivial.
It was so trivial that when Luo Jun provided relevant evidence and obtained Luo Zhi's inheritance distribution agreement, he even thought that Luo Zhi had written this thing as a diary.
"The notary office is very convenient nowadays. You can send the video directly to them. Just say whatever you want, and they will pick out the key points and help you turn it into a formal contract."
Ren Chenbai was still staring at Luo Jun. He spoke more fluently and a smile slowly appeared on his face. However, the gloom in his eyes made people feel cold. "Have you seen his video?"
Luo Jun was silent. Of course he knew who the "he" Ren Chenbai was talking about, and of course he had watched the video.
Even though I knew that it was another torture that could skin a person alive... that was Luo Zhi who could move, talk, and was still alive.
The early footage looked pretty normal.
Luo Zhi mostly records videos while she is busy with her work. His tone was very flat and his eyes were not in the camera, so he must be looking at a computer screen or a document.
But from that time on, the kind of overly detailed and trivial things had already begun to emerge - Luo Zhi even left some things for the department managers who followed him at Huaisheng Entertainment.
In the video, Luo Zhi is sitting at her desk, biting a lollipop and rubbing her forehead at the documents spread out on the table.
He really doesn't like doing this kind of thing and is not good at this kind of work.
Leading his own team to revitalize Huaisheng Entertainment, Luo Zhi was responsible for setting the general direction, selecting people, purchasing scripts, and choosing resources. As for the contract documents in these standard processes, they have always been thrown to the managers of each department.
Luo Zhi sorted out the documents, categorizing them while explaining what was in the video.
It is best to leave the appropriate resources to the marketing department. These resources are long-term intention contracts signed with him personally. If he intends to withdraw one day, he has the right to recommend a suitable candidate to take over.
There were also several very good scripts, but the current size of the company was not able to produce the best results, so he bought them with his own money and left them to the film and television production department.
Artists can only sign with the company, but the agent assistant team is polished little by little. With a slight adjustment to the contract, the artist manager can pack up and take them away at any time...
It’s not that Luo Zhi hadn’t tried to give it directly, but unfortunately none of the managers would let him finish.
No matter how he considered the occasion, looked for opportunities, or hinted subtly, as long as he mentioned "what if I'm not around anymore", those people would be more anxious than the other to stuff his words back into their mouths and swallow them back into their stomachs.
Luo Zhi had just sorted out all the documents when someone knocked on the door happily. It seemed that the first episode of a drama had become a hit, and those people asked him to go out for a celebration party.
Luo Zhi also happily responded and went to open the door while hurriedly ending the video recording.
…
Most of the videos from that period contained this kind of content.
The company's momentum is getting better and better, and Luo Zhi has more and more things to be assigned.
He distributed all these things, and was prepared to let every manager take away any results that were produced by his team and were aimed at him personally when he changed jobs.
"Young Master Luo." Ren Chenbai still had that chilling smile on his face, as stiff as a somewhat weird mask. "Do you know what this means?"
Luo Jun didn't say anything, but just silently flipped through the videos provided by the notary office.
...What does this mean?
This means that Luo Zhi never intended to leave the things in the Luo family’s company.
This shows that Jian Huaiyi’s current predicament is not due to his eldest brother’s self-righteous revenge.
How could he forget that Luo Zhi had never been wronged since childhood. No matter how many shady tricks Jian Huaiyi used, Luo Zhi would make him pay the price.
If we only talk about the confrontation between the two of them, Luo Zhi has never suffered any loss - if not, Luo Zhi would not be labeled as "naughty" and "trouble-making" by them.
But how can we only discuss the confrontation between the two people?
If Jian Huaiyi used these shady tricks in order to snatch away Luo Zhi's parents' trust and family closeness, and in order to take away Luo Zhi's entire position and identity in the Luo family... then he, his father, his mother, and Luo Cheng are the referees.
Is it necessary to confront such a referee?
Since when did Luo Zhi stop explaining anything to them?
Even if he took over Huaisheng Entertainment, it was natural for Jian Huaiyi to be sidelined. As long as they get rid of the control of the board of directors, the managers with real power will be able to put Mr. Jian in their offices as a mascot in a matter of minutes.
It is true that the board of directors fell apart because of the misfortune of the Luo family... but even if there was no misfortune in the Luo family, after Luo Zhi's death and the estate distribution agreement came into effect, these people would naturally receive contact from the notary office.
At that time, as long as the department managers of Huaisheng Entertainment jump ship with a lot of high-quality resources, scripts, and elite teams, the next employer will be eager to welcome them with drums and gongs and sedan chairs.
Luo Zhi has a way to protect his people and a way to make Jian Huaiyi pay the price.
This means that he is not even qualified to avenge Luo Zhi.
…
Luo Jun raised his head and was about to speak, but found that Ren Chenbai's eyes were fixed somewhere behind him.
There was nothing there, and this fixed gaze gave rise to something eerie. But Ren Chenbai's expression had changed slightly.
The poisonous gloom suddenly disappeared and turned into a kind of highly nervous panic.
Ren Chenbai's vision began to blur again, but his body, restrained in the chair, began to struggle, staring anxiously behind him.
"That's not what I meant... No, no, I'm not having another attack."
Ren Chenbai stared behind him and stammered to explain: "I hate him, no - no, I know I have no right, I am taking it out on him, I hate myself, don't be angry..."
He was so nervous that he almost collapsed. Luo Jun almost suspected that there was someone behind him and couldn't help but look back.
…
There is nothing but quiet air.
Luo Zhi in the video is making other arrangements.
The timeline began to extend backwards, and the closer it got to the time point they were in, the more focused Luo Zhi recorded the video.
Luo Zhi became more focused and was in better condition in the video, even having an exceptionally relaxed and chatty fantasy.
Luo Zhi could no longer paint a picture that would satisfy the founder who was far away abroad.
The last few paintings that Luo Zhi was satisfied with were collected by him and handed over to a trustee for safekeeping. Luo Zhi explained in the video that if his grandfather suddenly remembered to ask him, he should ask someone to send him a painting in order.
You have to follow the order. When you send the last painting, it happens that you have run out of ideas and stopped writing in anger... Then you can naturally change to sending photos.
I don’t know when Sister Zhao Lan will be able to come out of the shadows. If she is still alive at that time, I will definitely go over and celebrate with her with champagne.
If he is no longer here, help him deliver the gift.
He actually wanted to give this gift before. If she doesn't have nightmares when seeing his name and isn't gripped by her previous fears again, then she must have completely gotten over it and will be the bravest sister in the world.
I saw several people speaking up for him online today. I was so happy. Isn’t it a bit weird to chase them for red envelopes? I hope he can release a song for him in the future when he has the chance.
He tried his best to record the song better, and the lyrics thanked everyone who believed in him - he knew someone must have spoken for him. It’s just that the overwhelming abuse and curses were so much that they drowned out everything.
...Or I should leave a special card for Fang Hang and ask him to find a few people to help and chase after him to send out red envelopes.
In the later videos, Luo Zhi spoke more and more, to the point where it seemed like there was no other suitable place for him to speak except here.
Later, the sound in those videos gradually disappeared.
Luo Zhi herself didn't know about this, but she was still talking about it very seriously. It was obvious that he was starting to have health problems. Sometimes he would fall down without warning in the middle of recording, and sometimes he would suddenly forget what he was saying or even what he was doing.
"The doctors in my hospital suspect that he has a tumor in his brain." Ren Chenbai said suddenly.
Luo Jun came back to his senses.
Ren Chenbai was in that delirious state for a very short time, just a few minutes, before he regained consciousness.
He seemed to be really struggling to change. Even though he hated Luo Jun so much that he wanted to tear him to pieces, he didn't dare to do it like before. He just lowered his head and leaned dejectedly in the chair.
Ren Chenbai's voice was hoarse like a roar: "If it weren't for——"
He swallowed back the words halfway through.
But Luo Jun knew what he was talking about.
If I hadn't suddenly fallen ill.
If she hadn’t been sick... Luo Zhi would have wanted to live.
Luo Zhi was distributing his inheritance, but when she said these words, her expression clearly showed that she really wanted to do these things herself.
Luo Zhi wanted to get away from everyone and start a new life somewhere where there was no one. Later in those videos, when he became confused, he would start talking about this.
Luo Zhi could have left, as he had already got a boat ticket.
It was because his plans were disrupted, and he was unable to see a doctor in time and detect any physical abnormalities in time.
Because Ren Chenbai destroyed his car, he couldn't go far.
It was because Li Weiming’s fans exposed his whereabouts, because Luo Cheng blocked him in the hotel, and because the head of the Luo family allowed him to be left in that place. Because each of them had seen Luo Zhi once that night, and each of them had made Luo Zhi's condition worse...
It was because during the shipwreck, Luo Jun forgot that he had a younger brother.
"You want to know about my nightmare?"
Ren Chenbai slowly moved his eyes and looked at Luo Jun: "My nightmare is what he would be like now if I didn't exist in the beginning."
After being brought back to the hospital from Wanghai Villa by Xun Zhen, Ren Chenbai has been trapped in countless such nightmares. Every night he watched himself throwing the conch away over and over again, and every day, these nightmares came to him from all directions.
He finally had to find out about it. No matter how he escaped or where he went, these nightmares would always find their way to him and would appear before his eyes again and again.
...If he didn't exist at all, what kind of life would Luo Chi be living.
Luo Chi held a concert on a high platform where tens of thousands of people were watching, and the light banners formed a sea of light. Luo Chi drove his favorite car to chase the wind on the vast grassland, and Luo Chi placed his easel on the sea of clouds in the mountains.
Luo Chi held his mother's arm, and when his mother pinched his ears and shook them, his face turned red, but his eyes were brighter than anything else.
He finally knew what he had destroyed.
He wandered in those nightmares, confused and miserable, wishing he could die, but he was obsessed with looking at Luo Chi in the hallucination to forget the even more cruel truth.
"Luo Jun." Ren Chenbai stared at the figure in front of him, "You woke me up."
Ren Chenbai asked: "How can I thank you?"
When he saw the death certificate in Luo Jun's hand, even his cruelest nightmares were shattered.
His bones were pulled out by reality and crushed into powder bit by bit.
He was finally locked up in this mental hospital, watching all the nightmares while awake, as well as the reality that he had destroyed with his own hands.
Luo Zhi will never come back.
Luo Jun was enveloped by a thick chill. He wanted to shake his head and escape immediately, but he was still standing there unable to move.
"Are we dreaming together?" Ren Chenbai was already hopeless, but a cold smile appeared on his face, "If it weren't for you, if you weren't his brother..."
Luo Jun's throat moved, and was again climbed up by the invisible force and slowly entangled.
He thought that lingchi was the most painful, but it turned out not to be. He wanted to steal Ren Chenbai's nightmare, but now they all had to stay awake to face it all.
Luo Jun didn't even know how he suddenly fell down. He was surrounded by nurses and doctors who came running over. He lay on the ground with cold hands and feet. He opened his mouth and tried his best to breathe in, but not a single breath of air flowed into his chest.
The air around seemed to be sucked out in an instant.
All the punishment, torture and pain he had received so far seemed to be less despairing than this simple realization.
Luo Chi once wanted very much to live.
Luo Chi arranged his affairs after his death alone. He carefully and solemnly considered everything in those videos. Any bit of kindness would be remembered by Luo Chi.
Luo Chi wanted to survive, and Luo Chi clearly wanted to do those things himself - when did everything finally get pushed to a completely different place?
From which video clip did Luo Chi start to feel relieved and expectant when he explained what would happen after his death?
Luo Jun couldn't swallow any air.
...If he hadn’t become Luo Chi’s brother.
He was going to wake up to have this nightmare.
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