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The End
The End
December 2019, Snowpiercer Murder Mystery
There are always unexpected things that subtly change the course of one’s life.
The backstage environment of Snowpiercer remained as shabby as ever. The dressing room’s curtain was torn and dirty, the trash can was overflowing with takeout boxes.
The suit was washed and neatly folded, but the seams of the pants were crooked, and the ironing was done carelessly.
He remembered when he first started, he used an old-fashioned electric iron to press the clothes neatly before wearing them.
Although it seemed like a low-tier small theater, he never thought of himself as a small actor.
The script was very simple: a young man who returned from studying in the US, a greedy and lecherous playboy, with only one defining feature in the setting—handsome.
The actor who played Qin Xiaoyi before was good-looking and knew how to charm the female players, so everyone called him a “little puppy.”
When Diao Zhi Yu joined Snowpiercer, he temporarily replaced Feng Youjin. After a month, he was moved to play Qin Xiaoyi. At the time, the lead actor was a minor actor from TV dramas who looked at him and said, “Diao Zhi Yu, this is your chance. If you play well, you’ll become famous.”
The fame of an immersive theater actor was nothing more than receiving tips and being praised on review sites like Dianping and Weibo.
Diao Zhi Yu had worked part-time as an NPC in several murder mystery games and as a tabletop game DM, so tips were something he earned by default.
When he got this script, the name Qin Xiaoyi caught his eye, and his temples throbbed. He felt as if fate was trying to tell him something.
He played through a performance that felt good. Following the previous actor’s approach, as long as he memorized his lines and looked into the female players’ eyes during interactions, it was fine. By the ninth scene, when he was thrown to the ground and beaten, he didn’t feel much—just pain. After falling a few times every day, it hurt.
That scene just happened to trigger his ending. Lin Qiumei, holding the deceased Ning Zechen, stood up and slapped him hard across the face, her eyes filled with hate and despair.
Lin Qiumei was from the 13th class of Shanghai Theatre Academy and took her acting very seriously. Everyone called her “Little Zhang Ziyi.” This slap was heavy and felt more like a reminder to not mess things up.
The next scene was empty. He sat in room 301 with a red mark on his cheek, opened a Godfather book on the table, and drank a glass of whiskey from the props cabinet.
After drinking, he felt restless. He went out through the back door, and the cold wind blew into his white shirt.
In that moment, he felt his soul leave his body, and his vision blurred. When he regained his senses, he was standing in front of a mall’s floor-to-ceiling windows, still wearing his costume, but something about himself felt different.
His heart raced as he looked at himself in the mirror. His shirt was unbuttoned, his natural curls, his face slightly unnatural from the slap...
Qin Xiaoyi had given him the vision to see everything clearly. He vaguely felt that something had clicked.
Returning to the dormitory for six people, Ning Zechen’s snoring was loud. Diao Zhi Yu sat on the lower bunk, wondering, was Qin Xiaoyi really just a playboy?
Born into the wealthiest family in Rongcheng, with powerful and protective parents, he was forced into this path by his love for Lin Qiumei, even though she didn’t love him in return...
Unable to sleep, he entered the makeup room and applied some red eyeshadow under his lower eyelid. Lin Qiumei patted his shoulder and smiled as she went to the waiting area.
He stared at her disappearing figure and looked back at the mirror, seeing a sickly, haggard, and neurotic version of himself... reality and illusion finally came into focus.
After that, he became the number one popular actor. He didn’t care much about the attention, except that when he looked at Lin Qiumei, his heart ached.
At 21, Diao Zhi Yu often couldn’t get through to his family on the phone. He shared a dorm with small-time actors, had no plans for the future, and was in love with someone who didn’t love him back.
In the basement floor of Rongcheng, the windows were fake murals, yellow sunlight lamps reflected on the floor, blowing snow with a fan. In the corner, moss was growing. Actors came and went, players showed affection and then left, but no one truly cared for him. In the darkness, he and Qin Xiaoyi were born together.
Hu Xiu had already entered the venue with a group from Shanghai Fengyun. Zhao Xiaorou, behind her, was saying, “Diao Zhi Yu is a bit scheming. He didn’t even tell us he was going to play Qin Xiaoyi. What’s he up to?”
“He’s quitting, so he brought his friends from Shanghai Fengyun to say goodbye?”
“I didn’t even notice that the players were from Shanghai Fengyun. I was too focused on the task cards.”
“And I think he’s probably getting revenge. After all, I had the actors in Shanghai Fengyun help me and Du Mingquan get married in-game. Now he definitely wants everyone—including Du Mingquan—to help him get married.”
“Just so you and your in-game partner get married?” Zhao Xiaorou’s tone was sharp: “The kid’s mind is hard to figure out. He’ll get even and double the revenge.”
Unable to vent his frustration, he was now Qin Xiaoyi. He turned to her with gentlemanly composure: “Miss, pay attention when you’re in Rongcheng. Disasters come from careless words, do you understand?”
From the corner of his eye, he saw Hu Xiu quietly laughing, and a faint sense of satisfaction rose in his heart. In Rongcheng, no one could outdo Qin Xiaoyi—not Ning Zechen, not Feng Youjin, not Du Mingquan—Hu Xiu was the one who had played the game seventeen times for him.
“Hu Xiu, why aren’t you wearing the cheongsam I got for you?” Zhao Xiaorou continued: “Forget it, I didn’t bring my camera. Even if you two get married, I can’t capture it. I should reveal my identity. With nearly 8 million followers, I could promote you guys for free, and the shop would probably carry me in a sedan chair.”
“Don’t. I’m here to watch Qin Xiaoyi’s farewell performance. Once he starts acting in theater, I won’t be able to see him anymore.”
“I know, Qin Xiaoyi is your goldmine, your money printer, your sexual fantasy club.”
He pretended not to hear, walked up to the front desk of Rongcheng Hotel: “Boss Bai, give me the best room in the Rongcheng Grand Hotel.”
With Feng Youjin and Ning Zechen, he didn’t spare Hu Xiu a glance—this was his final respect for the last performance.
After all, there would be a formal segment later. Time passed, and his excitement was hard to suppress.
After the first scene ended, there was free activity. Hu Xiu quietly pulled him aside, saying, “How intriguing.”
He turned his head: “What’s intriguing?”
“My role today was randomly drawn, and I got Yamaguchi Fuko. It’s the same character I played when I first came to Snowpiercer, the one who came to your room, and we did the iconic lines together… Is this some kind of karmic cycle?”
In the play, Qin Xiao Yi couldn’t break character easily, so he just smiled, patted her shoulder, and left.
Her gaze followed his back. He felt a bit guilty. In fact, the earlier scenes that Hu Xiu had been obsessed with, he had no memory of her at all.
He started remembering Hu Xiu the day he got hurt, his face bruised. Before that, many female players had come to his group, often handing him love notes or taking his hat and glasses in the game.
After performing for a while, when he was tired, he also sought flirtation with female players in the game, pushing and pulling in a kind of high-level romantic business.
When he said to Hu Xiu, “I remember you too,” it later felt more like a revenge. He recalled that she was a veteran player who came for him, and she even brought a boyfriend.
He didn’t understand. If she really had a boyfriend, why come to the game to find him?
That night, he didn’t sleep well. Even though he had moved out of the dorm, his neighbors were a young couple, and the bed creaked late at night.
He lay on his back, hand behind his head, thinking for a long time. If she was just looking for an affair, maybe he should really break them up.
Anyway, that boyfriend didn’t seem that great. Anyone who could come for Minister Qin should deserve better than such an inferior man.
As expected, Hu Xiu came to find him in the last scene. She didn’t get to his ending in that round, and she looked clearly unhappy.
In the elevator, he wanted to comfort her, but suddenly felt nervous and only managed to say, “Qin Xiao Yi’s ending isn’t that interesting. I don’t like it. It’s too tragic.”
His words were contradictory comfort, but he could clearly see the disappointment in her eyes.
Panicked, he couldn’t explain further. An actor couldn’t explain too much about their character.
But at that moment, he understood. She hadn’t come for him, but for Qin Xiao Yi.
The fragile and sensitive Qin Xiao Yi he portrayed had captured her heart, so much so that when she heard him say he didn’t like the ending, the emotional contrast was written all over her face. As an actor, if you didn’t understand this, how could you break the fourth wall?
He decided to step out of character and find her. He had to make up for it in some way. He opened his phone, and in the taxi app was her address. The girl he saw in the rain, wearing an orange sweater, was her. But he didn’t have her contact info. She only appeared in Snowpiercer, and if one day she stopped coming, they might never meet again.
He stopped going out for drinks with colleagues after work. Instead, he bought a bicycle and started running into Hu Xiu on her way home, pretending it was an accident, just wanting to quietly observe her.
And just like the rain scenes they shot together, every time he met her, the air was filled with the damp scent of rain, and the quiet, ambiguous atmosphere always seeped into his skin.
She was always timid, testing the waters to please him, yet holding back, wanting to get closer, but nervously circling around him.
He remembered every moment his heart raced—when she tripped and bumped into things, when she quickly averted her gaze but still peeked at him.
He had seen too many eyes that were aggressive and insatiable, but Hu Xiu seemed to leave a lot of blank spaces for him.
Apart from seeking comfort in Qin Xiao Yi in Snowpiercer, she never asked for much more.
This feeling made him feel bittersweet. After work, he went back to his empty house, dialed his family’s number, but no one answered. He was fed up with the silence and decided to go out to find her.
Next… he just wanted to be happy like in the play. When he saw Hu Xiu outside Snowpiercer, she was playful, had many ideas, and always went out of her way to try to take advantage of him… absurd, but not unpleasant.
In the play, following the script, there were awkward moments that could push the story forward. Outside the play, when they weren’t familiar, it only led to awkwardness.
And Hu Xiu always had fresh ways to experiment with him. The most ridiculous time was when she sprained her ankle on the road. He carried her, and it felt so warm that he could walk to the ends of the earth. She licked the back of his neck, wet with saliva.
He had also found a knife hidden in room 301. If he wasn’t mistaken, it was hidden by Du Mingquan.
He had talked to the people from Shanghai Winds before. He often got beaten up in the theater, and now he was about to play the martyr in front of everyone.
Dragged into a room, his eyes opened to see the windows filled with people—Du Mingquan, Shen Ling, Chen Mingzhang, and even Hu Xiu and Zhao Xiaoyou… Did these gossipy people have nothing better to do?
Had they finished their tasks on the mission cards? Were they ready for the next big escape game and the knife? Why were they so leisurely watching him get beaten?
Feng Youjin, holding a whip, was torturing him, tied to a chair: “Minister Qin, tell me, what’s with the knife? Did you kill the general?”
“The general died from poisoning.”
“There’s also a knife wound in the back, a penetrating wound. You like to play with Eastern props abroad, don’t you?”
He was still in character: “If you think this will make me fall, you’re smart. But only people like you and Ning Zechen, those insidious people, would hide knives.”
Ning Zechen slapped him—actually just a fake action—the people outside the window and door had already started screaming.
Du Mingquan said, “Hit harder!” Zhao Xiaoyou yelled, “Ning Zechen, why are you unzipping your pants? Oh, Feng Youjin, that whip is so long!”
The two people interrogating him had already broken character. His face turned green. The scene was a mess, with the two interrogators standing on either side, his head tilted back to face two men’s waistbands, and the whip snapping through the air. It was a devastating sight.
Outside the window, Hu Xiu was happily shouting: “Minister Qin, when did you start liking this stuff? What’s going on with you and Ning Zechen? Does Lin Qiumei know?”
He wanted to explode but couldn’t. He wanted to laugh but couldn’t. He had to close his eyes and pretend he didn’t hear anything.
Once the interrogation room door was closed, he didn’t open his eyes. He knew those people were still watching him, especially Hu Xiu. Whenever he played Qin Xiao Yi, she would get so excited.
He slowly opened his eyes a crack, and saw there was no one outside the window—heartless and ungrateful!
Fine, he had time to continue reminiscing. During his short break, it wouldn’t hurt to think a little longer about why he suddenly got so serious with Hu Xiu.
In the coffee shop, she secretly kissed him, and yet he had to pretend not to know. Every day, they competed to see who could act more convincingly, the push and pull of their ambiguous relationship was indeed sweet.
Maybe it was her approach-avoidance behavior, seeing her through the window but not going downstairs; after drinking too much, receiving her call, calmly questioning the relationship between him and Lin Qiumei, even buying theater tickets to wait for him, her gaze completely intending to push him away...
Pei Zhen’s appearance at REGARD and Snowpiercer really angered him.
What did he mean to Hu Xiu? An NPC who could never be promoted to a main character? A childish younger brother chasing her outside of the script?
Could he be just a playmate with whom he could run in the escape room but not share a life? He had once considered giving up, locking himself in at home playing games until dawn, only to hear “pentakill” replaced by “I like you.”
He became serious. Thinking about her trembling soft lips that came close in a hurry but then quickly left; then thinking of Pei Zhen’s uncontrollable kiss in the ballroom—no, he couldn’t accept their story ending like this. If she had written the script before and then given up, now it was his turn to take up the pen.
Only when he pursued her did he realize how sensitive she was. Even when they were together, she often went silent for no reason, lost in thought and unwilling to share her feelings.
He thought, maybe he needed to give himself completely to her to let her feel secure. How could he do that?
In acting training, she would definitely not reject him. The acting lessons for Hu Xiu were basic and entry-level.
She was very smart, and after learning, she would often reverse the roles and make him short-circuit...
The time he really tricked her into coming to his house, he had a fever, sweating, trying to act like a skilled man, when in reality, his heart was about to crack, just wanting to turn into a wild beast without rules... When he held her in his arms, he understood—maybe it was him who couldn’t leave her.
The only time he got angry was when she wanted him to become an idol star, so much so that he almost wanted to break up.
He worked hard to polish his acting skills, only to be rejected from the role by the production team, and the people closest to him told him not to underestimate the industry.
He wanted to ask, when a producer with power says that you could get a role just by sleeping with him, are you supposed to humbly accept it? And at this moment, he didn’t want to use any words to hurt her.
He removed her from the pinned chat, just like picking her from the vast sea of people, holding her close to his heart, then letting her go back into the sea.
Taking Hu Xiu to the department store, Qin Shaoyi opened the jewelry counter and took out a small watch, gently placing it on her wrist: “Do you remember this?”
Shy as usual, Hu Xiu dashed off. He didn’t move, but proudly said to Bai Luoyu, “Bai boss, give me a marriage certificate.”
“Minister Qin, have you not been to the department store for a long time? We don’t sell marriage certificates anymore.”
He stood there, stunned: “What did you say?”
“Rongcheng no longer provides marriage certificates. In this era of war, people are struggling to survive, and with the city in turmoil, who has time to get married? This rule was issued by the general before he died. You’ve been abroad for too long, have you forgotten?”
Every word sounded like part of the play, and Qin Shaoyi’s pupils shook. He repeatedly asked Bai Luoyu, “No more? Really none? Can’t you make an exception and sell me one?”
“Minister Qin, Rongcheng does not circulate marriage certificates, so there is no such thing as an exception.”
“Isn’t this what you all use to make money?”
Bai Luoyu laughed: “Minister Qin, the finance department is yours, and the department store is also yours. You’re talking about making money from yourself, what’s wrong with you?”
Qin Shaoyi turned angrily and left. He ran into Hu Xiu who was delivering something. She was full of excitement, still in character: “Landlady, I came to send something, the contract from America! Hurry, I want to be the first!”
He was flustered: “You’re still sending things?”
“What else?” she replied.
“They don’t even sell marriage certificates here!”
Hu Xiu tilted her head and suddenly laughed: “Minister Qin, don’t get so upset, it doesn’t fit your cool persona.”
He stood in the department store, pressing the contract in his hand, not letting her mail it: “Didn’t you hear me? They don’t sell marriage certificates here.”
“I heard,” Hu Xiu said, reaching up to touch her ear as if comforting him. “There will be other chances.”
He turned his head away, not giving her the chance to touch his ear: “Who wants to get married? I, Qin Shaoyi, won’t marry anyone. I like Lin Qiumei and will marry no one but her.”
Had he known they didn’t have marriage certificates, he definitely would have had Hu Xiu handwrite one before entering.
The players were all his friends from Shanghai’s Windstorm, all waiting for him to write a marriage certificate in Rongcheng to complete his angry obsession.
But now, there was nothing—no marriage certificates in Rongcheng, what a lonely game to play?
Someone knocked on the door. It was Hu Xiu. She smiled as she entered, asking him for a piece of information about zirconium ore.
He recited his lines: “It turns out that the story of you and me was just a script you meticulously planned.”
When they broke up, he was also heartbroken, thinking everything was part of her well-crafted plan. She set a delicate trap he couldn’t escape from, leading him into suffering, seemingly calculated.
He had already thought that they were destined to be strangers, and when they met again in Shanghai’s Windstorm, every performance made his heart race.
The most unforgettable scene was when she stood in the intelligence department with him, exchanging lines: “For old time’s sake, I’ll give you this information. If you come too late, this clue will be someone else’s.”
“But this is the last time I’ll do something for you. Once I walk out that door, Qin Shaoyi will no longer have you in his heart.”
He could hear Qin Shaoyi’s name from many people, but this time was different. Why did he have to act with the gangsters, witness the ceremony for his ex-girlfriend with someone else, and deliver lines for Snowpiercer in the intelligence department—all with his ex?
This net was thrown back over the players above, as they saw the votes for first place rise, with the screen showing the awkward and clumsy new Shen Ling, unable to contain her excitement and madness. His heroine, indeed, would cross mountains and rivers just to come for him.
The players were all close to him, and they had unintentionally led him to a bitter conclusion—
They were all actors, the ones who knew best how to trigger the plot to see the story they wanted to see.
He took out a rose from his pocket and gently tossed it into the air under the lights, his expression as always, lonely and desolate, his heart truly saddened—
Why did he have no fate with a marriage certificate? The matter of unrequited love, once entered into the Snowpiercer, left no room for return. He couldn’t have Lin Qiumei, and playing games with his girlfriend wouldn’t work either.
Du Mingquan and Hu Xiu sat at the same table, half of the people in this room had witnessed their marriage, but today there was no marriage certificate. She couldn’t transform from the Gang Leader’s wife into Minister Qin’s wife. This would probably become his most heart-wrenching event of the year, enough to keep him awake at night with sorrow—
From this moment on, he would no longer be an actor in a murder mystery game, and he would never have the chance to marry with a marriage certificate again.
During the Battle Royale segment, he looked at his team: Dai Li, Chen Mingzhang, Li Ai. None of them needed protection. It was already this late, breaking a rule wouldn’t be impossible, right?
He took the knife from Dai Li’s hand: “Let me borrow this…”
“Huh?”
“I’m going to have the ultimate showdown with Du Mingquan. Today, I’m going to take revenge for the marriage certificate. The matter from 1941, we’ll settle it in 1934.”
“Huh?”
He knew the terrain better than anyone—the traps, the secret passages, the places to ambush, and the most suitable places for direct attack. He knew it all.
In the end, only Du Mingquan was left. Hu Xiu smiled helplessly: “Minister Qin, it’s not that serious, this is just a fictional scenario…”
“You don’t understand, this is a man-to-man struggle.” He extended his hand to Du Mingquan: “Come…”
The knife was drawn from its sheath. Both of them tested each other, the winner would be the one who could scrape off the coating. After a long while, he thought, it was time.
But just then, a figure dashed over—Hu Xiu. Taking advantage of his distraction, Du Mingquan’s knife slashed across Hu Xiu’s body, and the coating on her body became shinier.
Hu Xiu fell into his arms, acting extremely seriously: “Minister Qin, we didn’t marry today, but if I die in your arms now, I’ll have no regrets. We’ll meet again in the next life…”
Qin Shaoyi, holding the “dead” Hu Xiu, struggled to stay in character for a while before finally breaking: “You really know how to act…”
The group emerged from the Snowpiercer, swaying as they prepared to head to an izakaya and drink until dawn.
Diao Zhiyu, having changed out of his suit, repeatedly confirmed with the new actors: the suit had to be properly ironed and kept neat. Qin Shaoyi was a high-cold prince with obsessive-compulsive disorder; he absolutely couldn’t let his costume be ruined.
Hu Xiu’s awkward acting was praised by more than a dozen people in turn. Diao Zhiyu couldn’t take it anymore: “I can’t even bear to watch that embarrassing acting, stop praising it.”
“Improv is interesting because you get players like this,” Du Mingquan said, hands on hips, standing on the side of the road. “Such a pity, how could such a smart girl be your girlfriend?”
“Shut up…”
Hu Xiu and Zhao Xiaoru were side by side, studying their phones, while Li Ai walked beside them, smoking. Diao Zhiyu leaned over: “What? Are you going to see the Super Junior concert?”
“You don’t get it, this is the fun of being a fan girl—I’m even making a light stick.”
Pulling Diao Zhiyu over, Hu Xiu couldn’t help but ask: “Why do you care so much about a marriage certificate?”
“It’s nothing, just for fun,” Diao Zhiyu said, pulling a mint candy from his pocket. “The name on the marriage certificate on your wall is Feng Youjin.”
“My god, he’s also you. Even though I like Qin Shaoyi, as long as we’re together in reality, that’s enough.”
“It’s different…” Diao Zhiyu put his arm around Hu Xiu’s shoulder. “Are you satisfied with today’s Minister Qin?”
He couldn’t explain why he wanted that marriage certificate. The lost expression in the elevator—maybe the girl in front of him had already forgotten.
After all, when lovers hold hands and look back on the sweet memories, they realize that the unforgettable moments they share are completely different.
At 21, Qin Shaoyi, who once lived inside his own body, and at 22, Hu Xiu, who once crossed mountains and rivers for him, were so precious, precious enough that he wanted to forever keep this memory and the Snowpiercer together. This itself had nothing to do with the actors outside the script, Diao Zhiyu and Hu Xiu.
After all, his story as an actor truly began the moment Qin Shaoyi met Hu Xiu.
(The End)
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