Chapter 2

"Which one?" Liu Lan walked over, following the direction Jiang Qi pointed to, and accurately locked onto *The Mask Club*.

"This is the exclusive I just mentioned." Liu Lan took the book from the shelf and placed it in front of Jiang Qi.

Jiang Qi picked up the box, opened it, and counted the contents: six character books, a host manual, and two stacks of clue cards.

Jiang Qi flipped through the first two pages of the top character book. The paper quality was good, and the texture was nice, with the unique smell of new books. However, the cover was a bit ugly, almost entirely black, with a silhouette of a man, and nine large Songti characters—*A Silent Black-Haired Man*.

Jiang Qi continued flipping through the book. Each cover was similar, with blurry silhouettes, some frontal and some side views. The host manual had a silhouette of six people, all wearing masks, like a group photo.

"This is an emotional script," Liu Lan said.

"An emotional script?" Jiang Qi picked up the box and looked at it again. The dark cover didn't seem to fit an emotional script at all. "Why did my sister buy an emotional script? She was complaining to me last night that emotional scripts are just a bunch of sycophants, and she said she would never buy one."

Yet now, an exclusive emotional script was right in front of him.

Ha, my own sister.

"Lao Bing said this script is free, some kind of promotional trial. I'm not sure about the details," Liu Lan pointed to the publishing information on the box. "It's probably an exclusive from a new studio. I couldn't even find this studio online."

"However, the quality of the script is decent. If you have time now, Jiang Qi, you can take a look. You'll need to help with the performance later."

"Thank goodness for you. This script definitely needs a male role. Without the performance, it wouldn't be interesting."

Jiang Qi followed Liu Lan's finger to the corner where the publisher and author names were squeezed, the text so small it seemed afraid to be seen.

*Card Game Studio*.

*By Mr. X*.

The name didn't sound like a serious studio.

Jiang Qi wasn't particularly interested in reading the script. The system hadn't yet prompted him that the store was activated. Based on his years of experience, the way to activate the store was to walk around inside.

He hadn't been to the second floor yet.

"Are all the rooms upstairs for script sessions?" Jiang Qi asked.

Liu Lan nodded: "Yes, there are five script rooms, and the bathroom is upstairs. I can show you."

"No need," Jiang Qi stopped Liu Lan. "I can check it out myself."

With that, Jiang Qi went upstairs.

Jiang Qi found that the second floor was significantly larger than the first. From his estimation, the two floors combined might be nearly 400 square meters. The second floor had seven rooms: one Japanese-style room, one European-style room, two modern rooms, one traditional room, a storage room, and a changing room.

After checking out the bathroom in the corner, the system panel in his mind showed the script store as "in operation."

No other new items appeared.

Jiang Qi returned to the first floor, where Liu Lan was sitting at the front desk, chatting with a friend. She seemed to be discussing a dragon and lion dance exam, which left Jiang Qi utterly confused.

Liu Lan was in the middle of her conversation, so Jiang Qi didn't want to interrupt her. He decided to take the box and sit on the sofa to read the script.

Jiang Qi picked up the first script and carefully examined the silhouette on the cover.

*Silent Black-Haired Man*.

Jiang Qi opened the first page.

*You are John, a foreigner.*

*You grew up in a dysfunctional family, with a deranged mother, an eccentric father, and much older siblings. This family environment has shaped your current introverted and silent personality.*

*Almost every morning, you are not woken by an alarm clock, but by your mother's shrill screams and hysterical crying.*

In a daze, Jiang Qi seemed to hear a sharp female voice.

"Fuck off! You son of a bitch, get out of my house, I don't want to see you again!"

The high-pitched shouting, the rude slamming of the door, and the low sobs startled Jiang Qi, causing him to look up. He found no one around, the store door was still tightly closed, and Liu Lan was staring at her phone, not speaking.

"Liu Lan, did you hear any noise?" Jiang Qi called out loudly.

"Noise?" Liu Lan was confused. "No, did my voice message disturb you? I'm sorry."

No noise?

Jiang Qi looked down at the script again. Could he have been too engrossed in reading?

Not likely.

Jiang Qi scratched his head and continued reading.

*There are almost no intact household items in the house. Whether glass or ceramic, nothing can last more than two days. Your mother is responsible for hysterically smashing everything she can see, leaving the debris for you to clean up.*

*What you can do is greet your mother in the morning amidst the chaos, and search the kitchen for something edible.*

*You have three older siblings, all of whom have fled this twisted family. Only your eldest sister, Sonny, occasionally returns, only to be shouted at and driven out by your mother.*

*You have no idea how this divorced couple, who now hate each other, once fell in love. You can't imagine that your mother was once a well-known beauty in the slums. Almost every day, you hear your drunk mother loudly cursing your father, blaming him for ruining her life, and calling him a liar and a scoundrel.*

*She often sits on the ground, her lusterless hair like a bundle of dead grass, hammering the walls, which are full of stains and no longer white, and covering herself in ketchup and mayonnaise, occasionally letting out a shrill scream that draws the neighbors' anger.*

*Madwoman Lola, everyone calls her that.*

*Compared to your unstable, alcoholic mother who lives on government welfare and your father's child support, your father is a relatively normal person.*

*His financial situation is not good, and he often fails to pay child support on time. Whenever your father fails to pay, your mother runs to his house, shouting and causing a scene, which always ends with the neighbors calling the police. She then throws you at your father like a piece of trash, only to come back and pick you up once he pays.*

*You feel like a rag, used when needed and discarded when not, with no one to pick you up, and simply retrieved when needed again.*

*You have long been accustomed to this life. In fact, you prefer living with your father. Although you feel he doesn't like you, he is at least a normal person and occasionally plays the role of a father, allowing you to experience a normal family relationship.*

*Your father lives in a wealthy neighborhood, which is a world apart from your home. The environment is beautiful, the streets are clean, and each house is meticulously painted, with gardens filled with carefully cultivated plants. There are even police patrols at night. This neighborhood has no crying or shouting, no suspicious needles in the corners, and no discarded empty bottles on the streets. It was your childhood dream home.*

*However, your father's house stands out in this neighborhood. He is like a homeless person who wandered in and refused to leave, living in a 30-square-meter narrow house, and having to use a public toilet two blocks away.*

*To live there, your father has to wake up early and work hard, cleaning the entire neighborhood. He could have chosen an easier job, but only this job allows him to live in this neighborhood. To this day, you don't understand why your father is so stubborn about living in this wealthy neighborhood. He has no large house facing south, no garden, no kitchen, and no bathroom, and lives in a small, cluttered house, eating cheap convenience food.*

*You think your father might, like you, enjoy the environment here.*

Jiang Qi: ...

What kind of environment does he enjoy?