Supernatural World Chapter 24: Real or Fake

Translated by Vivian of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

 

Just as a chill ran down Finch’s spine, he suddenly heard Qi Zhen’s anguished cry.

They rushed over hastily and saw Qi Zhen kneeling on the ground and hugging Ling Bai’s body. Ling Bai’s head had been split open, and his death had been so brutal he didn’t even have enough time to make the slightest sound, and Finch could tell that everything had happened very abruptly.

Finch almost threw up; this was a lot scarier than the three previous deaths.

He pushed down his discomfort and asked, “What happened?”

Qi Zhen said sorrowfully, “It was Chen Jia. Chen Jia suddenly appeared, and he tried to kill me. In order to protect me, Ling Bai…”

Could it be that the murderer really was Chen Jia? He killed Mrs. Qi, and now he wanted to kill Qi Zhen? But Ding Xue had said that Chen Jia and Mrs. Qi were working together… Finch’s scalp tingled.

Qi Zhen looked at Ding Xue and said through gritted teeth, “Tell the truth, exactly what happened before?”

Ding Xue said shrilly, “I already said everything I know. I was also injured by Chen Jia, do you think I wanted to die? And he and Mrs. Qi are clearly together, how would I know he would do this?!”

A deathly silence fell over them, and the atmosphere was tense.

Finch frowned slightly. In reality, he felt that this didn’t make much sense. He suddenly remembered the painting and wanted to go back to take a look at it, but he didn’t dare to go by himself.

Cesar suddenly said, “Let’s not split up anymore.”

Finch agreed wholeheartedly!

Qi Zhen was still hugging Ling Bai’s body. In just two short days, he had lost his parents and his best friend, and his sorrow and agony were indescribable. He said hoarsely, “Okay…”

Finch was also a little sad. No matter how messed up this family was, going through something like this was still unbearable…

But they still didn’t know where the murderer was.

Because Ding Xue had lost an excessive amount of blood, it was already hard for her to stand, so the others helped her downstairs to the main hall. The main hall was very capacious, and they could also see very far. Moreover, since they were all gathered together, it would be very hard for the murderer to take them down one by one.

In the stifling space, every second was excruciating.

Finch didn’t know when they would be able to leave.

Having several corpses as companions wasn’t very ideal…

Just as his mind started wandering, he suddenly felt a drop of water land on his pants, but he was confused. Where did the water come from? Finch looked closer at it, shit… it was blood!

He looked up and was speechless.

There was a dead body, its eyes still open and glassy.

Chen Jia was covered in blood, and his body was placed on the crystal chandelier at an unsettling angle. Blood dripped down…

Finch tugged Cesar’s sleeve stiffly, and he was so nervous he couldn’t even say anything…

Cesar looked up but didn’t seem to be surprised. Instead, he turned around and said to Qi Zhen, “Didn’t you want to find Chen Jia? He’s right here.”

Finch was speechless.

Qi Zhen, who had just looked up, was speechless.

Ding Xue, who had lost an excessive amount of blood, was also speechless.

They were thinking the same thing: Aren’t you scared? Ahhhhh! Why would you say that so calmly as if you’re saying that you found your lost cat, ahhh!

Chen Jia was dead, and his corpse had been placed on the chandelier. Clearly, he had already been dead for a while. If he really did kill Ling Bai, then who killed Chen Jia after he ran away? After Ling Bai died, they had all been together the entire time, so no one could have had the opportunity to kill Chen Jia.

Ding Xue suddenly looked at Qi Zhen, her lips pale. “You lied to us, right? Chen Jia died, so he couldn’t have killed Ling Bai, so you must have killed Ling Bai.”

Qi Zhen was stunned, and for a while, he forgot to refute her, because he couldn’t understand how Chen Jia could have died here and who killed him… as well as have had the ability to quietly throw his body onto the chandelier in such a short amount of time.

He looked at the others and saw that they were all looking at him suspiciously.

Qi Zhen’s face paled, and he clenched his hands into fists.

Even he knew that he was the most suspicious now.

Cesar said, “What Ding Xue said is possible. That means that you were the one who killed Mrs. Qi and Chen Jia, and then hid Chen Jia’s body so you could frame him. You then purposely got Ling Bai by himself, and after you killed him, you framed Chen Jia. You had enough time to carry out all of this, and no one can attest to your innocence.”

Ding Xue’s eyes lit up at this, as someone had finally believed her. She glared at Qi Zhen hatefully. “I said that there was something wrong with him from the very beginning, and he also came to my room earlier to try to kill me!”

Qi Zhen’s handsome face contorted in a bitter smile, and he suddenly said, “What you say seems to make sense, but why would I do this, why would I kill my mother?”

Cesar smiled faintly and shrugged. “That was only my deduction, but in reality, there’s another possibility.”

Everyone looked at him.

Cesar looked Qi Zhen in the eyes and enunciated, “There’s someone else here, and this person looks exactly like you. It was him who first went to Ding Xue’s room to try to kill her so Ding Xue would think that it was you. Then, when Chen Jia was trying to kill Ding Xue, he took the opportunity to kill Mrs. Qi. When Chen Jia saw this, he thought that you killed her, so he tried to kill you and accidentally killed Ling Bai. But in the end, Chen Jia was still killed by that person and placed here, seemingly deliberately…” Cesar smirked and laughed lightly. “That’s just because he’s mocking us.”

“Assuming that you’re both telling the truth…” Cesar said slowly, “then he was also the one who killed Mr. Qi at the start, and he knew that Chen Jia and Mrs. Qi had an improper relationship. He also knew that Ding Rong and Mr. Qi had an improper relationship, so that’s why he killed Mr. Qi. Ding Rong would be scared that she would be murdered, and Chen Jia and Mrs. Qi both thought that it was the other person who killed Mr. Qi but hid it from each other. His goal of doing all this… is so you all suspect and kill each other.”

Ding Xue thought that this was absurd, and she coughed. “How can that be possible?! Qi Zhen doesn’t have a twin, he’s an only child!”

Qi Zhen nodded. “Although your deduction seems very reasonable, the biggest problem is that no one looks exactly like me.”

Cesar looked at him seriously and said meaningfully, “Are you sure about that?”

Qi Zhen looked confused.

Ding Xue glowered at Qi Zhen, saying, “It was him, he killed them——”

She had just said this when her eyes suddenly widened, and she looked down at her chest in confusion. An arrow had pierced through her heart, her expression froze slowly, and the last expression in her eyes was fear.

Finch, Cesar, and Qi Zhen looked in the direction of where the arrow came from.

They saw a handsome young man holding a crossbow, and he was leaning against the railing. He looked at them frivolously but sinisterly and placed his index finger on his lips as he chuckled lightly. “Oops, you found me.”

Finch held his breath and looked at him in disbelief.

He looked exactly the same as Qi Zhen.

He was the eighth person that had been hiding among them.

Qi Zhen was also looking at him in disbelief, and his lips quivered as he muttered, “Impossible, impossible, you don’t exist, you don’t exist…”

The young man’s grin widened. “Why am I the only one that can’t exist, doesn’t all of this prove my existence? Or… are you scared of my existence? And you don’t want me to exist.” The man smirked vilely and looked at Qi Zhen in ridicule. After saying this, he turned to look at Cesar and smiled. “And you? Do you also want to kill me?”

Cesar didn’t respond. Qi Zhen suddenly looked up, his expression complicated. He said coldly, “You killed them…” Then, Qi Zhen chased after the man without hesitation!

The young man turned around and fled, laughing as he disappeared in the corridor. Immediately after, a window shattered, and the man seemed to have leaped out of the window.

Finch didn’t plan on moving at all, but he saw that Qi Zhen had already begun chasing after the man, followed by Cesar, so Finch hastily ran after them! When they arrived at the window, Qi Zhen had already gone outside, and the garden at night was glowing with the cold moonlight. Finch hesitated…

He didn’t know how to jump out of the window!

The next moment, he felt an arm wrap around his waist, and he was pulled into Cesar’s arms. They landed lightly on the ground, and Cesar was as steady as ever.

Finch thought, My ex-boyfriend is really good at providing a sense of security.

Then, he looked up and froze.

He couldn’t distinguish between the two Qi Zhen standing in front of him.

The fake one had taken off his jacket, and he was now wearing the exact same shirt as the real one. Their expressions were exactly the same, and they looked at Finch at the same time, shouting angrily, “He’s the murderer!”

Finch was speechless and thought, I’m really not good at these types of things. After all, we only met two days ago. Giving me such a difficult choice like this is like making an elementary school student do calculus!

And why are there two Qi Zhens!

Based on what Ding Xue had said earlier as well as how Qi Zhen had agreed with her, the fake Qi Zhen couldn’t be his twin, but if he wasn’t his twin, then what was he…

Just as Finch was at a loss, Cesar suddenly spoke. His expression was relaxed, and he smiled faintly. “Then you two can fight. Whoever wins gets to live, how’s that?”

The two Qi Zhens were speechless.

Finch was also speechless.

This wasn’t very ideal, was he just going to sit by and do nothing now? There was a twisted killer among these two Qi Zhens!

But Cesar looked as if he was prepared to watch a show.

Finch was stunned, but he suddenly thought of a possibility. Even though this possibility was very preposterous, besides this, why else would Cesar make this decision? Although Cesar looked cold, he wouldn’t actually disregard someone’s life.

Thus, the last possibility was that these two Qi Zhens were both Qi Zhen; they were two different personalities of his.

The other, darker one, was someone Qi Zhen had hidden away, someone that wanted to kill everyone.

If that was true, then there indeed could only be one of them.

The two Qi Zhens looked at Cesar with complicated expressions, but they seemed to both acquiesce in his decision.

Finch said quietly to Cesar, “When did you find out?”

Cesar smiled, and his gaze softened a little when he looked at Finch. He said lightly, “Do you still remember that painting? I guessed it when I saw it.”

Finch thought, But I also saw it, so how come I didn’t guess it…

Suddenly, one of the Qi Zhens said, “You really won’t interfere?”

Cesar nodded.

The two Qi Zhens looked at each other, their expressions icy cold. At this moment, everyone present knew that one of them had to die for everything to end.

In an instant, they both moved and threw a punch at the other!

But at the same time, Cesar also moved.

Cesar clutched the throat of one of the Qi Zhens, and right before he was about to punch the other Qi Zhen, Cesar fiercely threw him down. Finch heard the crack of bones breaking, as well as his ribs being pushed in, unsettlingly loud in the silence…

That ‘Qi Zhen’ coughed out a mouthful of blood and glared at Cesar. “You said… you wouldn’t interfere…”

Cesar raised an eyebrow. “I lied.”

‘Qi Zhen’ fell to the ground, and he knew that he couldn’t survive this fatal injury. He indeed was no match for Cesar, which was why he had hidden in the shadows and taunted them, waiting for an opportunity to kill everyone.

Perhaps, Qi Zhen had already predicted all of this and had known that this day would come, so he had purposely invited Finch and Cesar over…

What a pity, he was so close…

This had been his only chance.

He coughed out blood as he snickered. “How did you know which one was me?”

Finch finally sighed in relief; it seemed that Cesar had been correct, but Finch couldn’t tell at all, everything had happened so quickly…

Cesar said, “You’re right-handed.”

The real Qi Zhen was still standing there, and when he heard this, his left arm moved slightly. He was left-handed, but he didn’t use it frequently. He could also use his right hand, and he hadn’t thought that Cesar would pick up on such a small detail. In the end, it saved his life.

Cesar said, “You’re not him. You’re just a shadow of him that wants to get rid of and destroy everything. Even though you have a body, you’re still not him, and you’re not the same as him.”

He was just Qi Zhen’s reflection in a mirror.

When ‘Qi Zhen’ heard this, he wasn’t angry at all. Instead, he smirked evilly. “You’re very right, but then you should know that killing me won’t do anything… because I will always exist, and I won’t really disappear… I am actually him…”

After saying this, his eyes slowly became lifeless, and he stopped moving.

His body gradually turned transparent and disappeared.

Finch glanced at the spot where ‘Qi Zhen’ had disappeared. Although he was dead, the deceased could come back. There was no ghost here, only the wickedness in someone’s innermost being.

Qi Zhen looked at his other self disappear. He was still standing there silently, but he looked extremely sorrowful without any of the joy of having escaped death.

Finch knew that he was innocent, but he also felt that he wasn’t innocent. He hadn’t killed anyone, but he started everything, and he had involved Finch in it. The sky gradually brightened, and Finch couldn’t wait to leave this place.

But when they returned to the main hall, Finch’s expression changed.

Besides that ‘Qi Zhen,’ all of the bodies in the room had disappeared, and there weren’t even any traces of blood. It was as if they had never existed… no… could it be that they all weren’t human?!

Exactly what had Finch been with this entire time?

Finch suddenly remembered something, and he quickly went to the second floor and searched for the painting. The painting was quietly hanging on the wall, but there was only one sunflower in the vase.

At the beginning of his and Cesar’s visit, Mrs. Qi had said to get just one extra bowl and pair of chopsticks. Originally, there had been eight prepared…

The clock on the wall had stopped at eight o’clock.

Eight people…

Finch looked back in disbelief. Suddenly, a warm hand wrapped around his, and Cesar said, “Let’s go back.”

Finch mumbled, “They’re all him…”

Yes, there hadn’t been the so-called Mr. and Mrs. Qi at all… and there was also never Ding Rong, Ding Xue, Chen Jia, and Ling Bai. The entire time, there was only Qi Zhen. Everyone else was only part of his imagination. This was his world and his world only, his story and his alone.

Finch and Cesar had been the only outsiders.

Finch was creeped out. One person splitting into another evil personality was already scary enough, but Qi Zhen had actually imagined all these people and had lived happily with himself…

Finch turned around and left with hesitation; he didn’t want to stay here for even a minute longer.

Just as they were about to exit, someone suddenly shouted from behind them, “Finch.”

Finch looked back and saw Qi Zhen. Qi Zhen said earnestly, “Thank you.”

Finch had mixed feelings. He hadn’t helped much, so if Qi Zhen wanted to thank someone, he should be thanking Cesar. But as Finch looked at Qi Zhen, he didn’t want to lash out at him; after all, he probably didn’t want this to happen…

Thus, he merely said, “No problem.”

Qi Zhen grinned and looked deep into Finch’s eyes. Qi Zhen thought, No, you don’t know what this entails.

Finch turned around and hastily left with Cesar. When he breathed the fresh air outside, he sighed in relief. No wonder this villa had felt weird; it was because there hadn’t been traces of anyone else besides Qi Zhen living there.

Qi Zhen went back upstairs, his expression calm as he looked at the painting on the wall. After a while, he smiled faintly and murmured, “It looks much cleaner.”

He returned to his study on the second floor, opened a drawer, and scribbled down a name: Finch.

If it wasn’t for you, I probably wouldn’t have been able to get out of here this quickly. This relief really is a blessing… I won’t have to be worried, confused, or indecisive anymore, and I have finally escaped from those people’s violence, indecisiveness, and fakeness…

He opened his window, and from his angle, he just happened to see Finch’s receding back.

Qi Zhen smiled meaningfully and strangely. He seemed to be lonely and lamenting something… 

Qi Zhen thought, When I said thank you, that came from my heart.

Since you freed me, then perhaps you can also free this world. How interesting…