The old man with a white beard poured himself more tea, "What's the rush? You've already died once, yet your temper is still so impatient."
"What are you talking about?" Fang Miaomiao blurted out, "I was living just fine in my past life, how could I have died?"
During her last play in her previous life, she vaguely felt something watching her from all around. But when she looked around, left and right, she saw nothing, and the feeling of being watched vanished.
Later, she dismissed it as an illusion. When she was about to call her assistant or driver to pick her up from the set and take her back to the hotel, she found her phone had no signal. Even more terrifyingly, the lively film crew that had just wrapped up suddenly fell silent.
Mustering her courage, she looked behind her. The surroundings were empty, and from time to time, she heard faint curses from women and the crying of children.
Crying?
Could she be seeing ghosts?
This thought made Fang Miaomiao freeze instantly. With trembling hands, she dialed.
Either there was no signal, or the line was busy. Please try again later.
"Damn it." Fang Miaomiao looked at the thick white mist swirling ahead, obscuring everything, and drifting towards her.
She could no longer suppress the deep terror within her and screamed.
When she woke up again, she was already in the hospital.
Her agent, Li Shan, asked her right away if she had seen a ghost.
Then, she handed Fang Miaomiao a surveillance video.
In the video, she was seen repeatedly pressing randomly on a script, then turning around and pressing the script again. The staff around her stood watching, bewildered by her inexplicable performance.
Immediately after, she let out a loud cry and collapsed to the ground.
"Fang Miaomiao, you haven't been having any wicked thoughts lately, have you?"
"Wicked thoughts?"
"For example, hiring some little foreign expert or something?" Li Shan looked at her with a serious expression.
"How is that possible? I'm in the film studio 360 days a year." She scoffed and lay back on the hospital bed. "Do I have time to go abroad?"
"Come to think of it, is it possible someone drugged you?"
This was a rather believable theory in the entertainment industry.
"How could that be?"
As soon as she finished speaking, she heard a child sobbing, and it sounded like they were calling for their mother. "Is there a child outside calling for their mother?"
"Fang Miaomiao, I think your brain is really messed up. How could there be a child here?"
Li Shan retorted verbally but still went to open the ward door and look outside. Seeing the empty corridor, her expression changed instantly.
She quickly closed the ward door and strode towards Fang Miaomiao, "Are you sure you heard something?"
"Mm." She nodded subconsciously, looking for the source of the sound.
Li Shan followed her gaze, her face turning pale. "Fang Miaomiao, it's broad daylight, don't talk nonsense."
The place Fang Miaomiao was looking was out the window. Their ward was on the 19th floor. How could anyone on the 19th floor hear sounds from outside?
"But." Her voice stopped abruptly. "It stopped."
Li Shan, having worked in the entertainment industry for decades, quickly calmed down and had the hospital doctors perform hearing and brain examinations. After confirming she had no problems, she took her back to the apartment.
Fang Miaomiao thought of the scene she had witnessed last night and the "Mama" voice she had heard, which were identical to those two voices.
"Sister Li, what should we do now?"
"Leave professional matters to professional people."
Li Shan said this and made a phone call. The call was quickly answered.
She spoke briefly with the person on the other end before hanging up and nodding, "The company will give you some time off for now. Stay at home and don't go anywhere. Someone will come to see you later. Remember to explain your situation to that person, and be thorough."
After saying that, Li Shan turned and left.
The person Li Shan mentioned arrived quickly. It was a monk.
The monk chanted a few phrases, mentioning karma, entanglements, and inversions of cause and effect, stating that he was helpless.
Li Shan handed him a bank card.
The monk shook his head, said "I can't do anything," and turned to leave.
After that period, a blurry figure would always appear in her mind. He would curl up in the darkness, crying incessantly, and occasionally call out "Mama."
One night, she couldn't sleep and went for a walk in the residential complex.
The stars twinkled in the sky; it was quite beautiful.
Lost in her own world, she turned and accidentally bumped into an elderly man. The old man fell to the ground, unmoving.
"Hello, Grandpa, Grandpa, are you alright?"
"Grandpa, please don't scare me, I... I've been scared out of my wits lately."
"Grandpa."
She cautiously approached to check. She saw the old man's face was pale, and his eyes were half-closed.
She was terrified and wanted to run, but her conscience compelled her to stay at the scene and call for an ambulance.
However, before she could make the call, the old man lying on the ground suddenly sat up and grabbed her wrist. "Fang Miaomiao, the future Film Empress Fang."
"I don't know you. I'm sorry, you've mistaken me. I apologize for bumping into you just now. Grandpa, how about I take you to the hospital?"
"Fang Miaomiao?"
She answered instinctively.
"You are going to die."
She was startled, and her hand stopped struggling.
"You are going to die, but don't worry. Death is also a release. You were not happy in this world, were you?"
Happy?
She felt confused.
She didn't know either.
When she came back to her senses, the old man who had grabbed her wrist had long since disappeared. Only a slightly yellowed hairband woven with hemp rope was left on the ground.
It looked like the one her grandmother had given her, but she had accidentally lost it.
As if by some compulsion, she took the hairband with her.
After that incident, the sounds of children crying no longer reached her ears. Everything returned to normal, as if it had all been an illusion.
Until.
She received an award and was leisurely taking a bath in her apartment.
She opened her eyes and found herself in this place.
...
"The secrets of heaven must not be revealed." The old man with the white beard, while drinking tea, looked at Fang Miaomiao mysteriously and said.
"Old man, how can you be like this? I know I shouldn't have bumped into you, but you didn't let me call for help afterward."
"Film Empress Fang, do you remember what I told you before?"
"What?"
"Tsk, how can an actor have such a bad memory?"
Fang Miaomiao rolled her eyes and found a place to sit down. "You have the nerve to say that. Did you bring me into this book?"
"That's an interesting way to put it. Why doesn't the benefactor consider this to be another world?"
"Because this is a novel written by my black fan, and I happened to have read it."
"Who recommended it to you?"
Fang Miaomiao paused. Yes, who had recommended this book to her? She remembered someone saying next to her that this book was good, so she decided to take a look. But who was it? Why couldn't she remember?