How did I become famous?

Chapter 99: The Shadow of Light (Seeking first subscriptions and monthly tickets!)

The movie has officially begun.

After the dragon emblem appeared, a picture of "Mona Lisa Smile" filled the entire screen.

It was accompanied by soothing music.

As the view gradually recedes, flames engulf the portrait.

The music gradually quickened its pace.

Then a pair of hands appeared on the screen and took the painting off the wall.

Then, the entire room came into view.

This is a house that is burning fiercely.

Inside, you can still see some shelves with burning DVDs on them.

The center of the house was not yet on fire.

There were two boys, about ten years old, standing there.

One has black hair, and the other has blonde hair.

A man lay sprawled at their feet, a pool of blood beneath him.

The blond boy clutched the "Mona Lisa's Smile" tightly, his face filled with terror: "Chen Qing, we've killed someone!"

"Don't worry about it." The black-haired boy held a DVD player in his hand, his smile flickering in the firelight. "We are different. We will become the gods of the new world."

In an instant, the flames engulfed the screen, and the two boys walked out of the house and into the distance.

Their shadows stretched out, and the blond boy's shadow transformed into a humanoid monster with two horns.

The shadow of the black-haired boy transformed into a figure wearing a top hat, with a clown whose face was half crying and half smiling.

Then the clown's shadow took up the entire screen.

Then the screen went completely black, and a sentence appeared on it:

My sky has no sun; it's always night, but it's not dark because something has taken the sun's place. Though not as bright as the sun, it's enough for me. With this light, I can treat night as day. I've never had the sun, so I'm not afraid of losing it.

Then, accompanied by a heavy piano note, the movie title "Shadow of Light" officially appeared in the center of the screen.

Twenty years later

At a roadside barbecue stall, Chen Qing, with a stubble and melancholy eyes, smoked and drank alone.

A middle-aged man sitting across from him took a drag of his cigarette and asked, "Have you thought this through? If you go undercover, you can come back in three years. With this meritorious service, it won't be long before you're in my position."

"Don't mess with me, bro. Three years later, then another three years... who knows how many years that will take?" Chen Qing laughed in a roguish way. "Brother Huang, I've made up my mind. I'm planning to resign and go back to my hometown."

"Alright, the local conditions for that serial murder case over there aren't good enough. We'll request support from here. Go check it out first." Officer Huang took a skewer and started eating. "Also, the case involving your parents, brother, and sister has been solved for ten years. Don't think about it anymore."

After quickly finishing his skewers, Officer Huang patted him on the shoulder, then stood up and wiped his mouth: "I'll hold onto your resignation letter for now. Call me when you've really made up your mind."

"Um."

Watching his superior leave, Chen Qing silently drifted into memories.

It was noon ten years ago, and I was at school.

Later, he received news that his parents, brother, sister and brother, who lived in his hometown, had all been brutally murdered.

He rushed back overnight, only to find four corpses in the morgue.

The suspect was quickly apprehended.

Based on the clues at the scene, the suspect must be the murderer, because besides the family of four, only his fingerprints were found at the scene.

Furthermore, the missing DVD player was also found at the suspect's residence.

The suspect denied being the murderer, saying that the person was already dead when he arrived.

But the only evidence at the scene was his fingerprints, and the stolen goods were at his residence. With conclusive evidence, the case was considered solved.

But only Chen Qing knew that he was not the murderer.

Because besides the DVD player in the living room, there was another DVD player in my brother's bedroom.

However, according to the on-site investigation, the DVD player in the house was gone.

The suspect only admitted that there was a DVD player at the crime scene, and that he had taken it. But before he could do anything about it, he was arrested.

Chen Qing concealed the fact that there were two DVD players in the house.

Back to the present, he took out his plane ticket and checked it; it was for tomorrow's flight.

He smiled and called out, "Boss! Check, please!"

In a music store, Kira, with blond hair, sat behind the cashier, listening to music with his eyes closed.

A painting of the Mona Lisa is also hanging on the wall of the music store.

The wind chimes rang at the door, and someone pushed the door open and entered.

Kira stood up and went to greet him: "Welcome, what would you like to buy?"

The man who entered was Chen Qing, with melancholy eyes, an unshaven beard, and a cigarette dangling from his lips.

He glanced at Kira and smiled, "My house was just renovated, and I'm thinking of buying a sound system."

"Come over here." Kira led him to sit down in front of the Mona Lisa painting, and then fiddled with the sound equipment under the wall.

A gentle, magnetic female voice slowly rang out. Kira, with his eyes closed and an expression of rapture, said, "Standard Hong Kong product, over ten thousand. Plus a local cable of over a thousand, the highs are sweet, the mids are accurate, and the lows are deep—in short, it's crystal clear. If you want it, I'll give you a discount; ten thousand for you."

Chen Qing raised an eyebrow: "That's good?"

"It's a friend I haven't seen in ten years, so this is a friend's price."

"I use it to watch movies, it doesn't need to be this expensive." Chen Qing took out a cigarette and offered it to him. "How long have you been back?"

"Thanks, no thanks." Kira pushed the cigarette away and smiled, "It's been over ten years, hasn't it? I came back after graduating from university. What have you been doing all these years?"

"Be a police officer."

"Are you back on vacation?"

"It's to investigate a case." Chen Qing lit a cigarette. "There's been a series of murders in town recently, have you heard?"

"It's all over town, everyone's panicking." Kira got up and opened the window to let in some fresh air. "Everyone's saying the killer is a psychopath. He specifically kills teenage girls, but he doesn't assault them, he just cuts off their arms and takes them away. I remember your sister was one too... I'm sorry."

Chen Qing took a drag of his cigarette and chuckled, "It's nothing, ten years have passed. And the murderer has been brought to justice, it's all in the past. I happen to like watching old movies, how about selling me that DVD player?"

Kira glanced back at the DVD player and chuckled, "We're old friends, and that thing won't sell anyway, so I'll give it to you."

Inside the movie theater, Zhang Xixi leaned close to Su Mulin's ear and whispered, "Mulin, aren't you the female lead? What's wrong?"

Su Mulin, with a dark expression, hummed in agreement.

She appeared in the flashback scene with Chen Qing in the movie just now.

It's still two shots.

One was a body lying in a pool of blood at home, missing both arms.

One is a corpse lying in the morgue.

In short, they were all corpses.

Because of this, Fang Bie also sent her several red envelopes.

Each red envelope contains ten yuan.

This is the female protagonist that Fang Bie mentioned.

And she was also on camera later.

It was when Chen Qing was paying respects to her family that her black and white photo appeared on the tombstone.

Miss Su's face darkened even more.

Inside a cinema in Shenzhen and Hangzhou, the only three audience members didn't need to worry about disturbing others because the theater was booked out.

This time, it was Old Su who had a dark expression.

"That kid Fang Bie said he'd cast your sister as the female lead, but the female lead turns out to be a corpse? She doesn't even have a single line!"

Su Shi laughed: "It seems that Xiao Lin hasn't won over Brother Fang yet, otherwise he wouldn't have done this."

He nudged Su Zhe beside him with his elbow: "You're a professional, so what do you think of the movie now?"

"I still don't understand it at all," Su Zhe said calmly. "But the pacing is pretty tight, so I'll have to keep watching. But since Fang Bie called it an art film, it's probably a story about human nature. And there's a plot hole: Chen Qing's memories say the deceased was his brother, but Officer Huang says the deceased was his younger brother. That's a pretty serious plot hole. Bro, I might have won this bet."

Su Shi remained noncommittal: "Let's wait and see."

The movie continues.

Chen Qing went to the cemetery to pay respects to his parents, siblings, and friends. He didn't say anything, but his originally melancholy eyes gradually became firm behind the flames of burning paper money.

The film's pace then suddenly quickens.

Chen Qing and his colleagues searched everywhere and then looked for suspects with case files living nearby.

However, after investigating several cases, no motive or time for the crime was found.

At this point, whether as a provocation or not, the serial killings that had previously stopped began to reappear with new victims.

Moreover, this time the killer was even more audacious; he even mailed the victim's arm to the police station.

Chen Qing and his colleagues immediately began investigating who sent the email.

But in the end, they discovered that it was an anonymous email.

But it wasn't entirely without clues; at least they found one thing: it was mailed within the same city.

After various investigations, both overt and covert, Chen Qing found the sender of the mail.

He was an old man who lived alone.

He said that someone gave him 500 yuan each time to help mail these things.

In other words, the perpetrator has not yet left the town after committing the crime.

In fact, Chen Qing already knew who the murderer was, and he even knew that the murderer in this case was the same person who killed his entire family ten years ago.

But he had no evidence.

Having obtained a lead, he forcibly detained Kira.

Less than half an hour later, he led his men to the old man's residence.

But just as he was about to take the old man to see if the person who asked him to deliver the package was Kira, the old man suddenly died just as he was about to enter the police station.

Right in front of everyone, he suddenly foamed at the mouth and died on the spot.

According to the forensic examination, he died of cyanide poisoning.

Cyanide poisoning can kill in just a few seconds to five minutes, but more than fifteen minutes had passed since they picked up the elderly man and brought him to the police station.

During this time, the old man did not ingest anything, and he had no wounds or needle marks on his body. There were no syringes or razor blades in his clothes.

Chen Qing then went to interrogate Ji Liang.

Keji Liang seemed completely unconcerned by his gaze, and said with a smile, "According to the law, if you can't find evidence within forty-eight hours, you'll have to release me."

Enraged, Chen Qing went up to throw a punch, but was subdued by his colleagues.

Looking at Chen Qing, who was being held down by several people, Ji Liang said calmly, "Now you understand, right?"

The law is useless to us.

"Nice! It's done!"

Inside the theater, Liu Mang turned around and saw that the packed theater was completely silent except for the sound of the movie; all the audience members were intently watching the screen.

He knew that "The Shadow of Light" was a success!

(End of this chapter)