This actor is full of tricks.

The Seventh Day Since the Mist Descended

Lin Jue wrote the information down in his memo and then asked, "President Dong just said he knows this person named Qin Lang. Were you friends before?"

"Actually, we're not really friends; we've only met a few times." Dong Jian shook his head.

"Then why do you remember this person so clearly?" Lin Jue pretended to be very professional, tapping his fingers on the screen as if he were seriously performing the duties of an investigator in the Investigation Department.

When asked this question, he noticed that Dong Jian's face stiffened for a moment and his body trembled slightly: "Mr. Zhou, let's talk about it in my office."

There must be something going on here that Dong Jian doesn't want too many people to know.

Lin Jue greeted Brother Wang and then followed Dong Jian out. When they arrived at the park director's office at the far end of the amusement park, Dong Jian, who had been silent the whole way, finally spoke: "Mr. Zhou, would you like something to drink? Coffee or tea?"

"Plain water is fine." Lin Jue habitually looked around the office environment. From the office's decoration, it was clear that Dong Jian was a relatively low-key boss. Perhaps because the amusement park's overall performance was not good, the office's decoration was very simple.

There was a glass cabinet against one wall, filled with old discs and videotapes. Inside the cabinet were three small mannequins: the first was a complete human body, the second was a body with its skin peeled off, revealing its muscles, and the third was a skeleton.

"Dong Jian would buy these models? What would he do with them? These things aren't really suitable for collecting..."

Dong Jian brought Lin Jue a glass of warm water and noticed the latter's gaze as he examined the cabinet. With a nostalgic expression, he said, "I'm a movie buff and very nostalgic. I love the days when I was young in the last century watching DVDs in the home theater, so I've collected a lot of movie DVDs and videotapes. Among them are a few master tapes that I bought at a high price."

“These days, there aren’t many people like Mr. Dong who collect old movies. Most people prefer fragmented videos,” Lin Jue praised. As an actor, he had a good impression of people who loved movies.

"It's just some hobby I have when I'm bored," Dong Jian said modestly. "Please sit down, Mr. Zhou."

Lin Jue sat down on the fabric sofa, took a sip of water to moisten his throat, and then continued the previous topic: "President Dong, now it's just you and me in the room, can you tell me the reason now?"

Dong Jian sat down opposite Lin Jue and began to recall: "On December 5th, 2013, I was not yet the director of this amusement park, but I was the deputy director. At that time, Qun Jiankang's father had basically retired to the second line due to health reasons, and I was the one who managed the amusement park most of the time."

"Back then, the amusement park wasn't in its current state of decline. Every day, the number of visitors was huge. That was the busiest but also the most fulfilling period of my life."

Seeing that the other party seemed to be getting into a memoir, Lin Jue quickly changed the subject: "President Dong, please get down to business."

"Oh, look at me." Dong Jian smiled awkwardly: "As people get older, they like to reminisce about the past."

"On December 5, 2013, that was the first time I met Qin Lang. He came to me with a camera and an assistant, saying that he wanted to borrow our amusement park to film a documentary about his two children. He hoped that our staff would cooperate with him to act out a play, and he even paid a lot of money."

"Playing along?" Lin Jue placed his cup on the coffee table. "Playing what kind of act?"

"At that time, our amusement park had the largest haunted house in the entire Sanjiang City. Qin Lang said he wanted our haunted house staff to put on makeup and run around the amusement park to catch people."

Let fake ghosts from a haunted house go around grabbing people in an amusement park?
What do you want to do?
Lin Jue's eyes flickered: "What kind of play is Qin Lang planning to put on for whom?" "Yes!" Dong Jian nodded emphatically: "He said at the time that he was going to put on a play for his two children."

"According to him, because of the fog, terrifying and eerie things have happened all over the world, and he wants his children to avoid facing this reality and live in the lies he has made up."

"So he came up with the idea of ​​using staff members to play fake ghosts to pretend to be grabbing people everywhere, and then telling his children that there are no real ghosts in the world, and that the ghosts they see are just his actors, cooperating with him in making the film."

He said that only in this way would his children not be afraid of the fog or the eerie, but would only think that everything was fake, and that their father was just making a horror movie.

Upon hearing these words, Lin Jue immediately thought of a very classic movie from his previous life.

The Truman Show

Truman lived in a giant film studio from birth, his daily life broadcast to audiences worldwide during filming. From his school days to starting a family and building a career, Truman lived a life of a grand lie.

The dean's actions are a reverse Truman Show; he turns the whole world into a play, saying the fog is a prop and the eerie things are just actors in makeup, and shows it to his children.

"Oh right, after he finished filming here, he gave me a videotape. Let me see if I still have it." Dong Jian walked to the cabinet, rummaged around for a while, and finally pulled out a dusty videotape from a packing box at the bottom of the cabinet.

“Found it.” He handed over the videotape.

The videotape had no name, only the date December 5, 2013 printed on the side.

"Can it still be played?" Lin Jue's memory of videotapes was still from elementary school, and he didn't know how long these things could be preserved.

"It should be fine. These things can usually be preserved for twenty years. I happen to have a VCD player here, so I'll take a look." Dong Jian took out an old-fashioned VCD player from the cabinet, moved it in front of the TV, fiddled with it for a while, and then inserted the videotape into the VCD player. After the static on the TV screen flickered for several years, the video started playing.

"It still works." Dong Jian sat back on the sofa, while Lin Jue stared intently at the television.

The video quality wasn't very clear ten years ago; it was shot from a first-person perspective, giving it the feel of watching a memoir by a deceased wife.

The television footage showed two children holding hands and skipping forward, with Happy Paradise amusement park in the background. The footage showed that the amusement park was indeed very popular at the time, with long queues forming at the ticket booths.

"Daddy, hurry up! If we're any later, we'll have to wait in line for ages." The little girl walking ahead turned around, her face scrunched up with worry as she urged him on.

The person recording the video laughed and replied, "Okay, Dad will catch up with you soon."

That was indeed the dean's voice. Lin Jue had heard it before when he was at school, but compared to the voice in the video, it lacked some of the weariness and coldness, and instead possessed a vibrant energy. (End of Chapter)