His heart beats could be heard loudly in his ear and for the first time Qi Cong clearly experienced what it was like to be alive. Seeing Zhao Zhenxun’s somewhat baffled eyes, he grabbed Zhao Zhenxun’s arm and said again, “Don’t suspend filming, I can make up for yesterday’s scene today. As for the song…the song…”

He thought of the ticking time bomb that was the Taskmaster, and for a moment he hesitated to make his debut and give the Taskmaster a chance to hurt more people. Before he could make up his mind, a familiar pain suddenly rose from the depths of his brain and spread.

In a trance, Qi Cong couldn’t help but raise his hand and press it against his forehead. Realizing something, he suddenly hit himself on the head.

Don’t try to snatch my body away again! Don’t ever think about it!

The wave of pain quickly receded after the ferocious rise, and his consciousness gradually returned to clarity. Just as Qi Cong was about to relax some of his tense nerves, a wave of pain came again without warning. His consciousness was shaken, and Qi Cong immediately tensed ro resist the pain, his expression fierce as he one again raised–

A hand reached out and grasped his raised arm, then a tentative call rang out from his side. “Qi Cong?”

Qi Cong froze. His mind flashed through the images of Gu Xun who was sad, expressionless or crazy. His Adam’s apple rolled as he lowered his head and blinked hard to suppress tears. Then he looked sideways at Gu Xun’s urgent gaze and spoke. “Gu Xun, I don’t want to start a company. That’s not my request, that’s not me. I don’t know how to explain it to you, but that’s not–“

The pain that diminished suddenly became violent, the pain several times stronger than before as his consciousness was ferociously shaken. Then Qi Cong found to his horror that his body moved on its own, turned back to the ward and picked up a glass on the bedside table and smashed it. Then he picked up a piece from the floor and rushed towards the outside again.

“If you want to kill the people around you, just say so.”

Qi Cong heard his voice and saw Gu Xun and Zhao Zhenxun who were following him from a distance. He looked at the sharp glass shards in his hand, his eyes widened, and when he noticed that his hand holding the glass shards was trying to reach towards Gu Xun, he became totally furious. He withstood the pain and the shock of consciousness to snatch back some of the control of his body and then turned his hand to slash the glass shard towards his leg.

“What are you doing?!”

His hand holding the glass was stopped in time by Gu Xun, who was looking at him with a shocked expression. The flood of pain helped Qi Cong regain control of his body, his legs went limp and he fell down.

Gu Xun hugged Qi Cong’s body and then quickly broke Qi Cong’s hold on the glass fragment and threw it away. After seeing Qi Cong’s palm cut by the glass, his expression became incomparably terrible. He looked at Qi Cong who was pale and lost focus.

Frightened by Qi Cong’s dangerous behavior, Zhao Zhenxun took a closer look at his state. Then his expression turned grave as he spoke, “Gu Xun, in the end Qi Cong…”

“Stop all his work, I’ll take him abroad–“

Qi Cong suddenly straightened his upper body and hugged Gu Xun hard. He spoke into Gu Xun’s ear. “Gu Xun… I remember it all. “

Gu Xun’s voice stopped abruptly.

“I had a long nightmare, in which you are nothing like you are now. You pestered me, and… almost killed me.” Qi Cong clung to Gu Xun’s clothes and forced himself to say these hurtful words, his heart shrinking in pain. But his tone was getting calmer and colder. “Gu Xun, it turns out that even now, you are still lying to me. You said you would take me abroad…is it to lock me up?”

Gu Xun’s breath became heavy as he raised his hand to hold Qi Cong in his arms, as if he was afraid that Qi Cong would just disappear, and said, “No. I can-“

Qi Cong tightened his hand and pushed Gu Xun away. Standing up and looking at Gu Xun still half-kneeling on the ground, he said, “But I don’t want to hear it. I gave you the opportunity to confess, but you didn’t use it. Even three years later, you chose to continue to cloak yourself in the disguise of the past to get close to me the moment you find out that I had lost my memory. You also said that you would show me the real you. Gu Xun, is it fun to play with me?”

Gu Xun put down the arm that was previously holding Qi Cong and his hand clenched in a fist on his lap. Trying to keep his cool, he got up and said, “Qi Cong I didn’t intend to keep-”

“I don’t know if what you are saying is true or false. I don’t know which expression you show is your true feelings,or a disguise you made up in order to fool me. Gu Xun, you are such a good actor. I have no way of trusting you anymore.” Qi Cong curled his fingers into the palm of his hand and bowed his head without looking at Gu Xun’s expression. “You can go,I don’t need your help. I don’t want to be near a liar. If I could choose… I would rather not have known you three years ago, or not be reunited with you three years later.”

The ward became deathly quiet.

Qi Cong could hear the low and heavy breathing of Gu Xun. In the afterglow he could see the tightly clenched hand at Gu Xun’s side. He withdrew his eyes, lowered his head even more, nails pinching deep into his palm and the glass cut. When he finally became numbed by the pain he managed to sort out his mood and say to Zhao Zhenxun standing quietly at the side, “Brother Zhao, I’m tired. I want to take a break–“

“I’ll wait for you to calm down.” Gu Xun suddenly approached, and despite Qi Cong’s resistance, he forcefully held his hand. Then he took out a soft handkerchief and pressed it against his bleeding wound. In a low voice , with a soothing tone he said, “I’m sorry. Three years ago or three years later, I chose the wrong way to get close to you. Qi Cong, I never wanted to lie to you all this time, you–”

Qi Cong withdrew his hand and turned away from Gu Xun.

Gu Xun stopped talking, looked at Qi Cong’s pale profile and wet eyelashes. Then he withdrew his hand as his fist tightened and said, “Rest well. I will see you again.” After saying that, he glanced at Zhao Zhenxun frowning quietly and standing beside them and he stepped away.

Zhao Zhenxun watched Gu Xun leave, and then looked at Qi Cong and said, “Qi Cong, you and Gu…” He stopped talking after seeing Qi Cong’s expression, suddenly no longer knowing what he wanted to say.

Qi Cong lowered his head, his eyes looking straight at the floor. His face was pale, his eyes a dead gray-black. He suddenly blinked, and his expression returned to its usual calm as he spoke to Zhao Zhenxun. “Brother Zhao, help me contact the crew, I want to make up for yesterday’s scene as soon as possible. And… get me out of the hospital, I’m fine now.”

 

……

 

At 10:30 a.m., Qi Cong was discharged from the hospital and left. He was hospitalized in the same ward as Xiao Liu, who also got discharged from the hospital at the same time. The two of them almost ran into each other at the hospital gate.

After getting into the car, Zhao Zhenxun suddenly spoke. “Xiao Liu has lost her memory.” 

Qi Cong  recovered from his thoughts for a moment before he remembered who Xiao Liu was. He remembered what happened when he fell into the water that day. He sat up straight and looked at Zhao Zhenxun as he asked, “She lost her memories?”

“Yes, I forgot everything that happened after the crew changed hotels. The doctor said that he couldn’t find any cause for her amnesia. In addition, Lian Pengxing said that Xiao Liu appeared on the set yesterday because she was handing over work matters to Lian Pengxing’s new assistant.”

Again, a bout of amnesia, and happening to forget everything after moving into a new hotel.

Qi Cong  leaned back in his chair and remembered what the Taskmaster said when he was taking over his body: “Even if you squeeze me out this time, I can come back again next time. Unless you can guarantee that you will never sleep or get sick for the rest of your life or never have weak willpower…” 

Xiao Liu had deliberately tried to attack his head. A guess formed in his mind.

Could it be that Xiao Liu’s body was taken over by the Taskmaster? Could yesterday’s drowning incident be deliberately created by the Taskmaster? The Taskmaster borrowed Xiao Liu’s body in order to make his willpower become weak due to injury so he could take over his body again, lock him up and create chaos?

Xiao Liu and he weren’t enemies; she also had no motive to hurt him.

The more he thought about it, the more he thought it was a possibility. He felt a chill rising from the bottom of his heart, making him shiver.

So the Taskmaster could not only snatch his body, but also someone else’s?

Then in case the Taskmaster set his eyes on Gu Xun, Shen Jia, or even his parents….

He sat up straight with a jerk. Then there was a sudden pain in his head, followed by a sense of dizziness as an image appeared.

In a classroom-like setting, there was a blurred-faced person holding a ball of light, standing at the forefront of a gathering of people. “The controller is important. It has one and only one chance to activate in each world.

“Once the controller is activated, it can no longer be removed.

“If you encounter a situation where the host body dies or gets out of control–don’t be surprised, you can encounter this type of situation from time to time. When it comes to this situation, you have two ways to solve the problem.

“The first way is to get rid of the controller and use your own soul power to seize another body and continue doing the task. Note that this way has risks and side effects. Whether you succeed or fail to capture a body, your soul will be damaged, and this loss is irreversible. A friendly reminder: when you have to rely on your own strength to take over someone else’s body, it is recommended to choose someone with a weak character that is easily bullied. The soul power of those kinds of people are generally weak and the success rate of taking over their body is higher. Don’t choose someone who appears strong and difficult to mess with. Beware of rebounding and being killed.

“The second way is, if you determine that your host body is no longer available, for example, they have died or you really don’t want to use the body anymore and you no longer have soul power to randomly seize the body of another suitable object, you have one last way to complete the task. To use your own body….”

 

…..

 

“Qi Cong? Qi Cong what happened to you?”

The vision began to fade and then sound slowly faded. The pain in his brain was slowly receding, but for the first time, after realizing what had just happened, Qi Cong wished that the pain would last a little longer.

–This seemed to be a memory from when the Taskmaster first became a taskmaster! Someone was telling the Taskmaster the do’s and don’ts. This important information might help Qi Cong get rid of the Taskmaster.

Qi Cong ignored Zhao Zhenxun’s voice calling out and closed his eyes, trying to sink his consciousness into that vision again.

“Mission failed…. remain forever in the present…. according to your own life…. Destroy…Death…. as a last resort….”

“Most importantly, never let anyone know about the controller and your existence. If anyone finds out, you must erase those in the know at all costs, otherwise-“

 

……

 

“…. Qi Cong? Qi Cong! Xiao Han, turn around and go back to the hospital!”

The voice of the person with the blurred face was covered by Zhao Zhenxun’s suddenly amplified voice. Qi Cong opened his eyes with a swish, his chest rising and falling violently as if he could still feel the warning and killing intent carried in the tone of the person with the blurred face when he said the last sentence.

He was suddenly afraid and extraordinarily grateful.

Fortunately, he didn’t tell Gu Xun anything on impulse. He pinched the palm that had been bandaged, looked at Zhao Zhenxun and said, “No need to go back to the hospital. Brother Zhao, I’m fine. I just suddenly remembered something and became dizzy. I just need to rest.”

Zhao Zhenxun frowned at Qi Cong, looking him up and down, as he asked, “Is it really all right? What do you remember?”

“I remember my mother crying and begging me to go home.” Qi Cong sat down, sorting out the information he just got from the Taskmaster’s memory. His emotions settled a little as his brain suddenly became unprecedentedly calm. He then said to Zhao Zhenxun, “Brother Zhao, my… can the new song be released according to the original plan? I need this debut very, very badly. I promise, this will be the last time I lose control like this.”

……

At 1:00 p.m., Qi Cong appeared on the drama set.

 

Edited by: Antiope1

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