Keke Xia wanted to struggle a bit more. She hoped to salvage the situation through Xia Yu, but as soon as Xia Yu and the others woke up in the morning, they headed straight to the Kong residence.
Xia Yu stayed at the Kong house for a day and even slept there. This time, An Siyao and You Xue shared a room, leaving him alone in bed.
Bored, Xia Yu clicked on the game icon and appeared at Wen Ziying’s place.
It was already late at night, and Wen Ziying was watching a movie.
It was a horror film. From the way Wen Ziying hugged her knees to her chest, it was clear that the girl was very frightened.
Putting his feet down, Xia Yu asked Wen Ziying, “Watching horror movies on the second day of the Lunar New Year?”
“This is for inspiration!” Wen Ziying replied confidently. “You came just in time; turn the volume up and let’s keep watching.”
With Xia Yu beside her for courage, Wen Ziying felt much more relaxed.
Xia Yu looked at the computer screen. The movie was a sci-fi film about a parasite that could burrow into someone’s brain, take over their body, and awaken from a block of ancient ice.
Scientists on an expedition to Antarctica unearthed this parasite and engaged in a fierce battle with it underground. Eventually, through the efforts of the female protagonist, the parasite was destroyed—at the cost of the lives of all her teammates.
Thinking everything was over, the protagonist concealed the evidence with a cave-in on the icy surface, and returned from the Antarctic research station to the city. On her way home, she saw a news report on a street display screen stating that another expedition team had brought back over a hundred of these parasites, which had mysteriously vanished from the laboratory.
Except for a slightly intriguing ending, the rest of the film was quite mediocre. In terms of plot, it strictly followed the female hero template.
After finishing the movie, Xia Yu asked, “Inspiration for what? Are you going to write another horror novel again?”
“Mm-hmm,” Wen Ziying replied. “The publishing house wants me to write another horror novel in two months.”
“Didn’t I tell you to take a break?” Xia Yu was surprised.
“Because I won an award,” Wen Ziying answered.
“What award?” Xia Yu asked.
“My previous book, Lost in the Bamboo Grove, won a foreign horror novel award. It seems pretty famous, and then the sales skyrocketed,” Wen Ziying said with a tone of helplessness.
“…”
In any case, it was good news overall.
“Have you decided what your next book will be about?” Xia Yu asked. Compared to love stories, he preferred horror tales.
“Not yet,” Wen Ziying said. She was actually troubled by this and had turned on the movie for inspiration.
“You could combine dolls with local folk songs, or write about ghosts that kill in dreams, or even about a grim reaper coming to collect souls…” Xia Yu casually offered ideas from Earth.
“Dolls and folk songs?” Wen Ziying asked.
“Mary Shaw with her deadly gaze, wooden puppets as companions for the childless. Meet her in a nightmare deep in the night, and whatever you do, don’t scream.” Xia Yu recalled the plot of the movie “Dead Silence” and described it to Wen Ziying.
“This is a suspense-style horror story!” Wen Ziying immediately grasped the core theme of the story.
“And there’s also the concept of murder in dreams…” Xia Yu continued.
They talked for over ten minutes, and Wen Ziying gradually found inspiration. She asked Xia Yu to come to the desk, spread out the manuscript paper, and pulled out her fountain pen.
As she dictated, Xia Yu wrote out the outline.
“A college graduate named Jia, struggling in life, suddenly starts dating a girlfriend, but this girlfriend is a bit strange—she only meets him at night.”
“A month later, Jia finally couldn’t resist his curiosity and began…”
At this point, Wen Ziying stopped. “No, no, this isn’t really a horror story at all.”
“That’s okay. You can add horror scenes in the middle,” Xia Yu said.
“Then let’s keep going,” Wen Ziying continued to develop the plot.
She slowly got into the rhythm, and Xia Yu was drawn into the story Wen Ziying was telling. Neither of them noticed the figure approaching from behind.
Suddenly, a face appeared right in front of Wen Ziying’s eyes.
Even Xia Yu was startled at this moment, and Wen Ziying was clearly radiating the emotion of “I almost died of fright.”
Regaining his composure, Xia Yu recognized the figure in front of him—it was Wen Ziying’s mother.
“Madam!” a servant quickly arrived and led her away.
Xia Yu patted his chest and exhaled in relief. “You scared me.”
Wen Ziying didn’t respond, still radiating fear.
Xia Yu took deep breaths to help Wen Ziying calm down, but after five minutes, Wen Ziying continued to emit a strong sense of fear.
It was just a sudden scare—was it really that bad?
Xia Yu sensed something unusual.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing. Let’s continue,” Wen Ziying said and resumed describing the plot.
But her narration was halting, and the story wasn’t as compelling as before.
Xia Yu could still feel Wen Ziying’s fear.
It even made him a bit scared as well.
Swallowing hard, Xia Yu asked, “Has anything big happened at your home recently?”
He couldn’t figure out why Wen Ziying was still so frightened. Could it be that what they had just seen wasn’t actually human?
“No,” Wen Ziying’s voice trembled slightly. “I just suddenly felt a bit unwell. Let’s put the manuscript away.”
So Xia Yu reached out, straightened the manuscript pages, and picked them up to tap them neatly on the table.
“Don’t tap,” Wen Ziying’s sense of fear intensified.
Xia Yu stopped and placed the manuscript pages down quietly.
He turned on all the lights and lay on the bed, waiting for Wen Ziying to explain.
Ten minutes later, Wen Ziying returned to normal. She said to Xia Yu, “Sometimes I just suddenly get this feeling.”
“You can tell me. After all, I’m an alien,” Xia Yu coaxed Wen Ziying.
Xia Yu still remembered the mission he had regarding Wen Ziying—to observe and guide her life.
Wen Ziying hesitated for a moment but didn’t speak. “Forget it.”
“Do you really like writing novels?” Xia Yu asked.
This was something he had inferred from previous intelligence obtained from Yu Ningmeng, combined with several observations of Wen Ziying.
Wen Ziying was silent for five seconds before answering, “I don’t know.”
Xia Yu didn’t press further; he patiently waited.
“Why did you ask that?” Wen Ziying countered.
“Several months ago, every time I came here, you were always seeking new experiences to accumulate material, acting like you were devoting your life to writing. Now, you don’t seem to care at all,” Xia Yu replied.
“That’s because the book before last flopped,” Wen Ziying offered an excuse.
“When others’ books flop, they can’t believe it and immediately write a new one to prove themselves. But when your book flopped, you just gave up and switched to writing horror novels. Even after your horror novel became a bestseller, you didn’t seem happy,” Xia Yu pressed Wen Ziying step by step.
This time Wen Ziying was silent for quite a while. After half an hour, she sighed. “Maybe I just don’t like it anymore. Do you want to hear about it?”
“Yes,” Xia Yu replied immediately.
This was undoubtedly the core of the observation mission. Understanding this would allow him to proceed with the next stage of life guidance, thus completing the mission and obtaining that fragment of the star.
Even without the mysterious star fragment, after spending so much time with Wen Ziying, Xia Yu was also curious about her past.
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