Live Action Murder Mystery

Chapter 72.1

(The pitfall of time; You and I never met in actuality.)

Since the back of Gu Liang’s head was being pressed down by Yang Ye’s broad and thick palm, he was forced to lean against Yang Ye’s shoulder at the start.

Later, he simply leaned forward and placed his chin on Yang Ye’s shoulder, listening to him speak quietly.

“Gu Liang, I need to apologise to you. I was being impulsive in the morning. People have always said that affection grows but it is restrained by ritual. Instead of kissing you from the get-go, I should have told you about my heartfelt intentions first.

“Right now, I’ve already said the words I want to say, but you don’t need to feel pressured either, and you don’t need to rush to give me an answer.

“Of course. No matter what kind of answer you give me, I have never thought about retreating.”

Gu Liang questioned him in a soft voice: “You’re acting shamelessly by doing this. Are you trying to hang on me?”

Since Gu Liang’s voice was travelling over from his shoulder, it sounded slightly muffled, and with his tepid breath interspacing his words, it started to make Yang Ye’s ear feel ticklish.

The palm he placed on the back of Gu Liang’s head moved downwards to the space between his shoulder blades. Then, his arm constricted to hold him even tighter.

Yang Ye laughed beside his ear and said, “Yeah. I’m going to hang onto you. Unless you tell me that you can’t accept the intimacy between men and it makes you feel sick. That’s innate and I can’t do anything about it.

“Or you could tell me that you hate me as a person, you don’t like me in the slightest, and you feel frustrated whenever you look at me.

“So… do you hate me?”

Gu Liang: “Of course I don’t—”

Yang Ye: “You actually like me a little, right?”

Gu Liang did not answer. It took him a long moment to ask: “But why is that?”

Yang Ye said: “There are so many pining lovers in the world, it’s quite evident that feelings aren’t something you can explain with reason.

“Therefore, if you like someone, you do. Who cares for the whys?”

Gu Liang no longer spoke.

But what he could not deny was that Yang Ye’s words had given him way, way too much.

He had always felt that he had grown up beside a silt, and everything in his periphery was shrouded in darkness.

From the very beginning, he had lived with things that could not be seen in the light.

Together with the surrounding microorganisms and bacteria, they putrefied and abandoned themselves to despair, they formed a group to warm themselves, deceiving everyone including themselves.

He did not want to wallow in the mire with someone else, but he had no choice but to depend on them to live on, because when there was no sunlight, they could still bring him nutrients.

But this did not make him feel that— living was a happy thing, or something that was worth looking forward to.

He was just existing.

Yet, a ray of light appeared, and this ray of light said, it would scatter this haze completely, it would always take care of him.

So much so that, a hand stretched out from the light, refusing to let him sink into the swamp even if he had to forfeit his life. He even brought him out of the sludge, bringing him towards another world that was full of hope.

Towards Yang Ye’s confession, Gu Liang could not give an answer for the time being.

However, without being fully conscious of it, he lifted a hand and placed it on Yang Ye’s back.

He did not raise a hand to hug Yang Ye back; no, he placed his hand on the clothes behind Yang Ye. Subsequently, and gently, ever so carefully, with an even greater sense of cherishment…. he caught hold.

When he felt that small movement, Yang Ye’s heart melted and formed a warm current.

But this warm current was tinged with some grief which made his heart sour and bitter, and it even brought some distress.

— His Gu Liang must have suffered too much, too much hardship, such that when he wanted to give a reply to a person who was professing his ardent love, he was still so cautious and solemn because he did not know what to do.

Yang Ye could only embrace him even tighter and pat his shoulders gently.

* * *

11 o’ clock at night.

Yang Ye and Gu Liang took a shower one after another and prepared to rest.

When Gu Liang walked out in a bathing robe and saw Yang Ye sitting on one side of the bed while leaving the other half empty, he stiffened for a moment.

Yang Ye patted the empty side of the bed as he stared at him. “Come over and sleep?”

Gu Liang: “……”

Seeing his reaction, Yang Ye grinned as he continued to tease him: “Rest assured, before I marry you across the door on a palanquin with eight carriers, I won’t do anything! Do you want me to place a bowl of water in the middle?”

“Less nonsense.” Gu Liang walked over and lied down, “If you dare to do anything, I’ll lay waste on you.”

“Tsk, my family’s Liang Liang is so fierce.”

“Sleep.”

Just as Gu Liang closed his eyes, the card vibrated.

With extreme reluctance, Gu Liang opened his eyes and picked up his card. After reading the plot, however, it was hard to avoid being a little shocked.

— This plot was utter bullshit.

This plot also made Yang Ye delighted.

The pair was originally lying down, but they were now sitting on the bed shoulder-to-shoulder as they studied their respective plots.

After putting down his card, Yang Ye raised his shoulder to nudge Gu Liang. “Hey, the system told me to kiss you.”

“It wasn’t written in such detail, quit adding your own self-improvisations.”

Following, Gu Liang took his pillow, got off the bed, and headed towards Actor Ming’s room.

He did not have the energy to care about the bats in his bathroom.

Sitting himself on Actor Ming’s bed, Gu Liang took out his card and looked through the plot again.

After Earl William bit Actor Ming in the morning, he kept thinking about him constantly throughout the entire day.

On this night at 11 o’ clock, Actor Ming was sleeping in his room alone when Earl William slipped into his room like demons and gods were at work.

When he reached this point, Gu Liang could not resist insulting the script’s choice of diction again.

It’s just lust arousing intent which led to the law breaking and crime committing, that’s all. What the fuck do you mean by ‘like demons and gods were at work’, neither the demons nor the gods asked you to go to another person’s room in the middle of the night to lurk.

Once he was done insulting, Gu Liang continued to read on.

The moonlight trickled through the window, illuminating Actor Ming’s handsome visage.

Earl William looked at him for a long time, and for some unknown reason, he had the unexpected urge to kiss him.

Just as he was on the verge of kissing Actor Ming, Actor Ming woke up and started to resist like his life depended on it.

After a vampire turns a human into a vampire, that human will become a lower tier vampire, and they would be dependent on the vampire that bit them to live.

Hence, no matter how unwilling he was mentally and physically, Actor Ming would feel an instinctive sense of dependency, reverence and obedience towards Earl William.

Lower-tier vampires were born to be suppressed by higher-tier vampires, and they were born to be loyal to higher-tier vampires.

Therefore on this night, although Actor Ming had an intense conflict with Earl William at the start, he eventually acknowledged his allegiance under his kiss out of unconscious reflex.

At the very end, he even felt some pleasure— the pleasure was contradictory and unspeakable, but it was a bodily instinct that was hard to defy.

Actor Ming hated Earl William.

But every time he looked into Earl William’s eyes, he seemed incapable of resisting.

He detested, he loathed himself, and he hated the Earl William who forced him even more.

……

As Gu Liang leaned on the headboard, he narrowed his eyes at the card.

The moonlight contoured his side profile into an indifferent and abnormal thing, his entire countenance was expressionless, without a single ripple or wave.

But inwardly, he was scorning every single phrase used in the script and the nonsensical plot itself.

This familiar wave of melodrama really lived up to his previous evaluation.

However, he could faintly sense that this plot was not purely dog blood, and it was hiding some kind of hint.

Hence, he forced himself to scrutinise the story in a careful manner again.

* * *

At 11:30.

Yang Ye arrived punctually.

Gu Liang slanted his head, raising his eyes to look at him.

Yang Ye walked closer to him. “Tsk, we’re going to act out an intimate scene soon, do you want to practice?”

Gu Liang gave him a sidelong glance. “The script has never forcibly requested for the actual enactment of such details.”

“Then do you want to be kissed by me?”

Yang Ye stepped forward, raising his chin as he continued to recite the stage lines straight out of an ancient setting idol drama. “You are already mine, do you not have this awareness yet?”

That line was so cringe-worthy that Gu Liang felt his goose bumps rising.

Gu Liang stared at him expressionlessly and replied: “I am an actor. I still want to go back to acting. In between acting, I want to perform for my fans. I want to live under the light and enjoy the adulation of my fans. I’m different from the likes of you who hide in dark ancient castles. You can stay in the dark for the rest of your life if you wish.

“You cannot return anymore. You only have two days in your transformation period left after tonight. After two days, you will be just like me, through and through. When that time comes around, the person who will be incapable of seeing light will be you.

“My most beloved treasure, you will never return under the sunlight again.”

“Either you hide in this dark ancient castle until you die, or drink human blood with me and obtain immense strength… when that occurs, you will be like me, unafraid of the light.”

According to the plot, the pair would carry out a period of crazed entangling.

Be that as it may, Yang Ye did not do anything to Gu Liang. Rather, he just sat beside him on the bed, lost in thought, as they waited for the next part of the plot.

It goes without saying that the system did not judge their actions as a rule violation. For this kind of scene, the system had never demanded that it had to be carried out.

But the strange thing was that, apart from the erotic scene of forced love, they did not receive any new storylines afterwards.

Since both of them were sleepy by the end, they promptly decided to lie down and sleep.

On the morning of the second day, the plot finally arrived.

The plot still had the characteristic of a forceful dog-blooded love.

After Actor Ming woke up, he recalled everything that transpired last night and he felt extremely pained.

He was unreconciled to a man treating him like this which made him so ashamed he wanted to die. After he woke up, he tried to bash his head against the wall but he was stopped by the Earl.

“You will not be able to die. I have killed your mortal identity. You are a vampire now and you have an undying body.

“Lower-tier vampires can be killed by higher-tier vampires.

“Therefore, you are only allowed to die when I finally grow weary of you.

“You will live for me, and die for me, your entire life is in my hands.

“Finally, if there comes a day where I want to kill you, I will show you great mercy and allow you to die in my embrace.”

After hearing those words, Actor Ming gritted his teeth and glared at him: “Get lost for me!”

Earl William told him callously, “Good child, accepting your current circumstances is more important than anything else.”

Actor Ming: “You don’t love me, can you let me go?”

Earl William: “You are wrong. Of course I love you. Killing your soul, forever possessing your body…. Is this not love? Can you not sense the intensity and fragrance of this love? How wondrous is it?

“In this world, apart from me, who can bestow you an immortal body, who can entangle with you for the rest of eternity?

“Good child, even heaven and earth cannot do us part.”

Nothing productive came out of his negotiation with Earl William, and even begging for death was of no use. Thus, Actor Ming became increasingly discouraged.

He was unwilling to eat breakfast, nor was he willing to eat lunch.

In the morning, he flipped over the breakfast that Earl William brought for him.

The Earl was not angry and engaged in a period of crazed entanglement with him. When afternoon arrived, he brought him lunch again.

This time around, the Earl did not let him have his way in flipping over the bowls and cutlery. Instead, he held his mouth open and forcefully poured the liquified food into his mouth.

He had specifically instructed the chefs to prepare the liquified food for Actor Ming because he was unwilling to eat by himself.

“You have not fully transformed into a vampire right now, you require food. Even if you refuse to eat, you have to eat! Do not assume that you can die from starvation, there is no possibility of that!”

Whereas the actual situation outside of the script was like this: Yang Ye made some sweet and sour pork ribs for Gu Liang.

Serenely and without making any waves, Gu Liang recited his script lines with Yang Ye before he slowly nibbled away all the pork ribs.

After acting a night and morning of dog-blooded drama and eating their lunch, the pair received a new plot.

— When Earl William saw that Actor Ming was constantly downtrodden with his face awash with tears, he could no longer bear it in his heart. He decided to bring him to the piano room on the fourth floor to play the harpsichord for him and alleviate his emotions.

Once they were done reading the plot and placed down their cards, Yang Ye and Gu Liang exchanged a look. It was apparent that their gazes held some severity.

After all, the experience they had in the piano room last night was still fresh in their memories.

Thus, when they arrived at the piano room that afternoon, Yang Ye’s fingers glided across the piano keys but did not press down once.

The translator has something to say:

Liang Liang, you’re breaking my heart :’))

‘Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being.” — Albert Schweitzer.