IRDLZ Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"The scene was pure chaos. Everyone panicked. The closest person to you was Wang Qingsong, the actor playing your father. He can swim, but he's over fifty—there was nothing he could do but stand there helplessly. However, by the time we reacted, Ouyang Hao had already jumped in and pulled you out." Sister Jin was blow-drying Ming Qingqing's hair as she spoke. "Not to meddle, Qingqing, but Ouyang Hao was still wearing a costume that weighed several jin, and he wasn't afraid of sinking himself. That young man really is—"

???

Ming Qingqing: "Ouyang Hao???"

"Surprised, aren't you?" Sister Jin put down the blow dryer, her tone carrying a hint of a knowing smile. "He's actually quite different from the spoiled rich kid he appears to be. That lake was below freezing if he hadn't managed to climb back out, he could have died. Now the whole crew is talking about it. The third female lead, Jiang Yan, is practically oozing jealousy. She even walked off the set. You didn't know, did you? She chased after Ouyang Hao like crazy last year—"

It was clear that Sister Jin's focus was entirely on how her own artist had outshone another actress.

"No," Ming Qingqing interrupted her. "Did you all see it clearly?"

Ming Qingqing was indeed surprised.

But not for the reason Sister Jin thought. It was that "it turned out to be Ouyang Hao."

"Sister Jin, did you see with your own eyes that Ouyang Hao jumped in?" Ming Qingqing confirmed again.

"I was in the van. I only rushed over when I heard the commotion. But the entire crew saw it, how could it be not true?" Sister Jin found Ming Qingqing's question rather odd.

The driver, Xiao Cheng, returned with a cup of ginger tea and passed it through the van door to Ming Qingqing. Lowering his voice, he said, "It had to be Brother Hao. He moved too fast by the time anyone realized what was happening, no one had seen him clearly."

"...? The fact that no one saw clearly is itself unusual. It's not like he can teleport. For an ordinary person to jump in and pull someone out, it would take at least two or three minutes. How could no one have seen it clearly?" Ming Qingqing asked.

Xiao Cheng and Sister Jin both froze for a moment.

Neither could understand why Ming Qingqing was so fixated on this. Sister Jin couldn't help but laugh. "I'm starting to feel sorry for Ouyang Hao. Qingqing, if you don't want to owe him a favor, we can send a gift in the company's name. That wouldn't be—"

"Never mind. Let's not talk about it anymore. I'm going to rest for a bit." Ming Qingqing lay back against the seat.

Her mind was a complete mess.

What about that feeling she had underwater, that everything had stopped?

Was it a hallucination? A ghostly encounter? Or was there something wrong with her central nervous system?

Clearly, what Xiao Cheng and Sister Jin saw was normal, then was she the only one who had felt that inexplicable fear?

And that icy cold touch even in below-freezing water, a human's body temperature couldn't possibly be that low, could it?

In broad daylight, had she seen a ghost?

Ming Qingqing's entire body broke out in goosebumps, and she shivered involuntarily.

Sister Jin thought she was cold and turned the heater up another notch. "Get some rest. Your audition is done for today. There are still a few more people on the director's side to audition, but they'll probably move to a different location. Later, Xiao Cheng will take you home."

Ming Qingqing nodded.

Sister Jin stepped out to coordinate with the production team, while Xiao Cheng waited outside the van.

Ming Qingqing closed her eyes, intending to rest, but the scene from earlier surfaced once more in her mind. The still water, the frozen ripples spreading across its surface—every detail was etched with unsettling clarity. No matter how she tried to rationalize it, it didn't feel like a hallucination brought on by water entering her brain. After all, what kind of hallucination could be so vivid, so precise, that even the faintest ripple suspended in midair remained crystal clear?

The more she thought about it, the stranger it seemed.

After recovering a bit of strength, she put down the ginger tea and immediately jumped out of the van.

"Hey, hey, Qingqing, what are you doing?" Xiao Cheng didn't know what she was up to and quickly followed behind her.

Ming Qingqing wrapped her blanket tighter around herself. Although the sun hung high in the sky, the air temperature was still very low, and the moment she stepped out of the van, she felt the cold intensely. She walked quickly toward the director and the camera crew.

The director saw her approaching and asked with concern, "Are you okay?"

Ming Qingqing said, "I'm fine. Director, did you record the audition scene? Could I take a look?"

"It was recorded, but the camera broke." Director Jiang frowned, turning the small screen toward Ming Qingqing to show her. "I don't know if the camera got knocked to the ground during the chaos, but that part didn't get saved. Today's been unlucky—we'll need to pray before we start shooting."

Ming Qingqing hummed in acknowledgment and leaned in to look.

The monitor flickered with harsh static, breaking up what little footage had been recorded. Only the opening moments of the scene remained intact, after that, the screen dissolved into an uninterrupted stretch of black. Nothing else had been captured.

Ming Qingqing stared at the black screen.

In the sunlight, a fine layer of goosebumps crept up her spine.

This was too eerie.

But the director's team clearly dismissed the broken camera as just an accident, not sensing anything strange. They were busy packing up their equipment, planning to move to a different location to shoot.

"This lakeside is really unsafe. We'll either find a different location or go back to the studio to shoot against a green screen," Director Jiang said.

Ming Qingqing had no choice but to nod.

She wrapped her blanket around herself and sat down on a nearby chair.

Seeing how pale her lips were, Xiao Cheng couldn't help asking, "What's wrong?"

Ming Qingqing looked up at him, unsure whether she should mention the eerie scene she had witnessed at the bottom of the lake.

Even if she did, others probably wouldn't believe her, they'd just think she was under too much stress. In the entertainment industry, it was perfectly normal for people to take medication due to excessive pressure.

Ming Qingqing couldn't help pressing her hand against her ribs. The touch of cold still seemed to linger there.

It must have been a hallucination, right?

Otherwise, how could it be explained?

"It's nothing. I'm just a bit cold," she said to Xiao Cheng. "Let's head back."

Ming Qingqing was an atheist. Rather than believing in supernatural phenomena, she preferred to think she had hallucinated out of sheer terror.

Perhaps the brain, under extreme conditions, secreted some kind of hormone that distorted what she saw and perceived.

She stood up.

Just then, Ouyang Hao who had changed into dry clothes in another van stepped out and walked toward her.

He had taken off his costume and changed into a black tracksuit, wearing a baseball cap and holding a black mask in his hand. He was probably done with his audition too and was about to head back. The ends of his hair, peeking out from under the cap, still had droplets of water clinging to them, he had clearly been in the water not long ago.

When he saw her, he quickened his pace. "Qingqing, you're still here?"

Ming Qingqing watched him approach and couldn't help asking again, "You saved me?"

Ouyang Hao froze for a moment, then laughed. "I just happened to be closer to you than anyone else. There aren't many people in the crew who can swim. I was worried it would be dangerous if we waited for someone else to get there, so I jumped in without thinking."

But as he said this, Ouyang Hao felt a little uneasy inside.

It was true that the moment Ming Qingqing fell into the water, the thought of jumping in to save her had crossed his mind.

But actually doing it, jumping in without hesitation for someone you liked was far from easy.

For one thing, his body instinctively recoiled at the sight of the frozen lake surface.

So at the time, his reaction had been dull and sluggish.

But he didn't know why, he just felt as if someone had kicked him in the rear, and the next thing he knew, he was holding Ming Qingqing by the shore.

And who else could have saved her but him?

It was just that the process of "saving" her seemed to have been completely erased from his memory.

Ouyang Hao noticed the look in Ming Qingqing's eyes and felt a flicker of unease. He quickly raised an eyebrow and said, "Well, this time you owe me a favor."

Ming Qingqing thought for a moment and said, "Send me your account number. I'll transfer you a million."

Xiao Cheng and Ouyang Hao's assistant nearly burst out laughing.

Ouyang Hao looked exasperated. "Do you think I'm lacking that million? If I weren't in the entertainment industry, I'd have to go back home and inherit the family fortune, you know?"

The vast majority of people in the entertainment industry were second-generation rich kids, and Ouyang Hao was no exception.

Ming Qingqing: "Then what do you want?"

Ouyang Hao smiled and said, "How about you treat me to a meal?"

Seeing the hesitation on Ming Qingqing's face, Ouyang Hao couldn't help but laugh. "Come on, I risked my life to save you, and you won't even buy me a meal? That really hurts. We've already worked together on two dramas, having a meal as friends isn't too much to ask, is it? If it's really that hard for you, how about I treat you instead?"

Ming Qingqing had no way out, so she agreed.

Although everyone in the crew, including Ouyang Hao himself, said that he had jumped in and pulled her out, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.

It was a strange feeling, similar to when the food in her refrigerator had mysteriously diminished the other day.

Something odd had clearly happened, but there was no evidence to be found.

At the same time, Feifei took advantage of the absence of the dog and that towering human figure, flattening itself against the floor of the ground-floor room as it sniffed at the lingering traces they had left behind.

This was something cats often did. After sniffing, they would rub their butts or heads on the ground to mark their territory.

And Feifei was doing just that.

However, just as he was rubbing his head against the oil heater that ran twenty-four hours a day, a loud "thud" suddenly sounded behind him—something had crashed down.

It scared him so badly he shot three feet into the air, nearly losing his soul.

He arched his back, his fur standing on end, and spun around to see Xiao Fu drenched, pale as a ghost, and looking like a drowned water wraith.

Exhausted beyond anything he could bear, Xiao Fu no longer cared that his soaked clothes would stain the floor. With a heavy thud, he collapsed straight onto the ground.

"Meow—!" Feifei stared at him, utterly terrified.

But because Xiao Fu had protected him that one time, Feifei's impression of him had improved considerably. After glaring at him for a while and seeing that he didn't move, Feifei couldn't help but creep closer and sniff him from a distance.

Xiao Fu rarely used his "time-stop" ability on such a large scale. After using it this once, he felt like a robot whose battery had been instantly drained. His physical functions had dropped to their lowest point, and he was freezing all over. Kelafulin was a very warm place, but Earth was far too cold.

His limbs seemed to have lost the ability to move, and his thoughts were sluggish. He looked rather like a human on the verge of death.

That fat cat was sniffing around him not far away, but Xiao Fu had no energy to care.

In fact, if the fat cat decided to bite off one of his fingers right now, he probably wouldn't be able to move a muscle.

Fortunately, Feifei didn't see Xiao Fu as a mouse. He had no intention of biting him, instead, he started pacing anxiously, not knowing what to do.

...

After lying on the cold floor for a full half-hour, Xiao Fu finally regained a bit of vitality.

He moved his fingers and tried to get up.

But it was futile.

He struggled for a long time but couldn't manage to push himself upright.

So he lay there for another full hour.

As time passed, Xiao Fu grew more and more anxious. He couldn't just keep lying there forever. Ming Qingqing would come back sooner or later. When she returned, pushed open the dog's room door, and found him lying here like a corpse, how terrified would she be?

Another half-hour passed.

In the distance, he heard the sound of a car pulling into the yard.

Xiao Fu's heartbeat grew faster and faster.

The car door opened, and someone got out.

Xiao Fu's breathing grew faster and heavier.

He pressed both hands hard against the ground, fighting against his severely weakened body. Slowly, he drew his knees in and braced himself against the floor, forcing every ounce of strength he had left into movement until finally, he manages to push himself upright. But his footing was unsteady, he wobbled and barely able to keep his balance, the next moment staggered into the wall. A dull impact rang out as he struck his forehead, instantly swelling into a painful knot.

The pain made his face go even whiter.

Ignoring the lump, he staggered like a broken little robot toward the sofa.

Then under Feifei's terrified gaze he crouched down, wrapped his arms around his knees, closed his eyes, and turned into an egg.

An oval, smooth, round egg.

Its outer shell was golden, but at this moment, the gold was tinged with a lifeless gray.

This egg was about half the height of a person, but it slowly shrank until it was the size of a pebble. Then it rolled into the corner of the sofa, hiding in the darkness, and stopped moving.

For a member of the Kelafulin royal bloodline, the egg state was the form they took before reaching adulthood, it was also the automatic form they assumed when their bodily functions dropped to their lowest point or when they faced a life-threatening danger.

It functioned as a kind of self-repair mechanism.

In this state, a Kelafulin royal could still perceive the outside world, they could even speak, though they couldn't see. But for a creature like the Kelafulins, whose hearing and sense of smell were incredibly powerful, being unable to see wasn't much of a problem at all.

When Xiao Fu had first crashed to Earth, suffering immense trauma, he had slept in his egg form for several years. It wasn't until just before he hatched that he had recovered most of his strength.

Back then, while he was still conscious, he had been about to be kicked into the air by a group of children.

It was the teenage Ming Qingqing who had picked up the egg and placed it inside the chicken coop belonging to the old man in the villa next door.

She had clearly mistaken him for an egg that had rolled out of the chicken coop, but that act had undoubtedly saved his life.

Thinking of those distant memories, Xiao Fu slowly lost consciousness.

After Xiao Fu transformed into an egg, Feifei tried every which way to fish the egg out. But no matter how hard he tried, his chubby body couldn't squeeze under the sofa. All he could manage was to leave his big fat rear end sticking out.

Having gone through an ordeal that day, Ming Qingqing returned home exhausted. All she wanted to do was take a hot bath, pull back the covers, and fall asleep in bed. But then she remembered that she had been out all day and hadn't fed the dog yet. Being a responsible temporary owner, she forced herself to go to the first-floor room first— Dandan's room.

She didn't have the energy to cook. Carrying the bag of dog food, she planned to pour some into the bowl.

But when she entered, instead of seeing the dog, she saw Feifei trying his hardest to squeeze under the sofa.

The floor was covered in water.

Naturally, Ming Qingqing assumed the cat had knocked over the water bowl and spilled it on the floor.

"What's wrong?"

Hearing Ming Qingqing's voice, Feifei rushed over and tugged at her slipper, pulling her toward the sofa.

"I'm very tired, Feifei. Don't cause trouble." She rubbed his head wearily.

"Meow—!" Feifei let out a loud cry.

Ming Qingqing guessed there was something under the sofa maybe one of his toys had rolled underneath.

She and Feifei had lived together for years, relying on each other. Feifei was practically her only family, and she had always spoiled him rotten. So, after pouring the dog food, she reluctantly walked over to the sofa and moved it aside.

Once the sofa was moved, she saw the egg in the corner.

It was damp, about the size of the palm of her hand, lying all alone in the corner—strangely cute.

Where had an egg come from?

Its outer color didn't look much like a chicken egg, and it was slightly larger than one. But what else could it be besides an egg? A goose egg?

Ming Qingqing, lacking much practical knowledge, couldn't be bothered to figure it out. She was so tired that her eyelids were drooping, her forehead felt a little warm, and her mind was hazy. She picked up the egg from the floor, casually held it in her hand, scooped up Feifei, and headed up to the third floor.

She set Feifei down on the floor and walked to the open kitchen. Taking a bag of ice from the refrigerator, she pressed it against her slightly warm forehead.

She absentmindedly rinsed the egg under the faucet and set it on the steamer tray of the rice cooker.

Then she went into the bathroom to take a shower.

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