Chapter 2 The Man in the Trap-
The Forgotten River stretches as far as the eye can see, and the black water is like oil.
The cliffs on both sides of the strait are rugged. There is a dilapidated suspension bridge on the Jiuxiao cliff that is swaying in the wind. A small black spot on it is moving slowly. Song Weichen is walking cautiously on the suspension bridge. The wind makes her unable to open her eyes. , there was no time to pay attention to the strange scene in the abyss under the suspension bridge.
On the black water, I saw a boat carrying souls hanging three feet in the air on the waves, quietly walking alone. Standing on the bow was a slender messenger in white robes, with a hood covering his head, making it difficult to see clearly. Gender appearance. I saw him covering his hands with long sleeves, holding a bone lantern with shining teeth, facing the boundless black sea in front of him. Behind the white robe, there was a young woman huddled in the stern of the boat, sobbing, with tears in her eyes.
"Sir, the child is young, and her mother is in trouble at home. If I don't exist... she can't survive."
"My lord, please do well...please allow me three more days in the world, just three more days! Once I have settled my son, I will go with you even if there is no return from now on, okay?" The woman knelt at the stern of the boat and kowtowed to her. White robe, eyes desperate and eager.
The tinkling sound of wind chimes came from somewhere, ringing regularly.
Just as the woman was about to raise her head, a finger suddenly appeared out of thin air and clicked twice. Except for the tinkling of the wind chimes, everything was still.
.
I saw a girl in her early twenties yawning loudly through the iPad screen. The woman on the screen knelt down before getting up. In the upper right corner of the screen, The word "exclusive broadcast" on the video website is very conspicuous, and it is actually a play.
The girl lay slanted and sleepy on the bed. She looked at the time, 14:30, and turned off the noisy mobile phone alarm next to her. The tinkling of the wind chimes suddenly stopped, and she stretched.
"What kind of drama is this? Did I turn on the iPad before going to bed?" Song Weichen was a little confused. She didn't remember watching the drama before going to bed. It felt like she had had a long dream, but unfortunately she could not recall the specific content. She only vaguely remembered a feeling, a light and airy feeling from the dream. She closed her eyes and tried to recall it.
A tall figure with a straight silhouette, he... The alarm on her phone rang again. Looking at the time, 14:35, Song Weichen was a little annoyed. She grabbed her phone and opened the settings, and separated the piles. All five-minute alarms were cancelled.
She felt like she had suffered a big loss because she didn't see the handsome guy's face in the dream clearly.
Song Weichen glanced at the time on the wall clock, exhaled softly, got up from the sofa bed, covered the iPad that was in the pause screen in front of him, rubbed his long messy hair and went to wash his face.
Her biological clock is different from that of most people. Ordinary people work from nine to six and rest at sunset. She is the complete opposite: she rests at sunrise and works at dusk, working the night shift every day, spending long nights laughing and chatting with countless people.
Don’t think blindly.
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She is the "one of a kind" signed by an entertainment company called RealSoul.
RealSoul has a group of the most popular digital virtual idols in the country. There are different types of idols. Some idols sing and dance, some have fashionable makeup, some have mothers and babies, and some have emotional companionship. Song Weichen belongs to the last category. Every night she has a fixed live broadcast. In the company's huge studio, she puts on motion capture equipment and transforms into the popular virtual idol "Dream Eater" to meet everyone.
The so-called "man in the middle", to put it nicely, is the "soul" of the digital virtual idol (Vtuber), the core spiritual power in that "virtual leather case" that truly resonates with other people.
To put it bluntly, it is just a stand-in that will never see the light of day - a real human being acts as a "man in the middle" for an AI that does not really exist. It is inevitable that the fake will be real and the real will be fake at the same time. irony.
But Song Weichen likes this job. She feels that she is the kind of puppet master who manipulated shadow puppets or puppets in the past. She gives the objects sounds, stories and souls, and creates a gentle dream for the world. Isn't it great? ?.
“Dreams are more powerful than reality.” Song Weichen was sitting in the dressing room, applying makeup in front of the mirror, and said to Chen Liang, a famous parent-child anchor who came to watch her live broadcast.
Chen Liang looked at Song Weichen who was clumsily and seriously putting on false eyelashes, with a puzzled expression, "Weiwei, you said you are so good-looking, why do you want to be the winner? Please make your debut where you are and give me Can we old ladies leave a way to survive?”
"Sister Xiaoliang, it's not good to have such a sweet mouth. Be careful of tooth decay." Song Weichen smiled and started to put on another false eyelash.
Chen Liang is twenty-seven years old. She used to be an actress. Later, in her own words, “I survived until I was angry and didn’t get ahead. I couldn’t even work as a special guest actor, so I might as well come to live broadcast to bring goods. "Unexpectedly, she wanted to have a child but was unable to conceive. Instead, she became the leading virtual anchor in the field of parent-child care, with top-notch sales capabilities. What's rare is that she is also very open-minded and likes to watch other people's live broadcasts in the company when she has nothing to do.
"I tell the truth..." Chen Liang looked at Song Weichen and pondered for a moment, "Weiwei, I have come to watch your live broadcast no less than ten times. I don't understand why you have to dress up so formally every time. Makeup, we are all people in a mask, no matter how sophisticated the fans are, they can’t see it.”
Song Weichen looked at himself in the mirror, “Human psychological cues are very strange, I know that fans can’t see the real me. , even if I wear pajamas for the live broadcast, there is nothing wrong with it, but the psychological implication is different. When I wear pajamas, I will give myself a closed-off implication that I am sloppy and don’t want to go out to meet people. But wearing full makeup will be the complete opposite. This kind of hint will be transmitted to oneself first, affecting one's own psychology and behavior, and then transmitted to the fans through the virtual AI image. Although they cannot see us in the holster, they can really perceive us. The quality of our dreams will be really different.”
The most fearful thing is that the air suddenly becomes quiet.
Chen Liang looked at Song Weichen thoughtfully. Song Weichen realized that he had talked too much, and no one liked his junior colleagues who always talked nonsense.
I saw her blink a few times and start to act cute, "Sister Xiaoliang, I'm pretending... No, I made a mistake.
Chen Liang suddenly laughed, "This person, It's different when you have ink in your belly. You deserve to be popular. The number of fans has increased so much faster than ours. Weiwei, I will also wear full makeup tomorrow! ”
.
21:00.
He tapped his fingers on different mobile phone screens. As his fingers moved, many hearts appeared on the screen, and the popularity value of the live broadcast room displayed in the upper right corner became higher and higher.
On the screen was a cute yet mysterious two-dimensional girl. She was playing with a virtual moon in her hand. As the moon turned, the girl spoke, "I am a dream eater. We We meet again. I am the incarnation of the legendary dream tapir spirit, which feeds on nightmares and makes sweet dreams more beautiful. With me by your side tonight, everything you have will be sweet dreams. ”
Unsurprisingly, the voice came from Song Weichen.
I saw her wearing multi-touch motion capture equipment from head to toe. Her movements were so close to merging with the virtual girl on the mobile phone screen that it was hard to tell who was closer to reality.
She looked at the teleprompter screen, "Today, as usual, we will start with fans sharing their dreams. Let's start with the sharing of this friend named 'Sauvignon Blanc'."
——
No one knows that I can see ghosts, not even my fiancée who has been dead for seven years.
As usual, I went to the cemetery to see her on weekends with flowers. Sure enough, she was still there, as if she had been waiting for me. I stood in front of the tombstone and talked about my recent work and life. I even danced when I was excited. If anyone else was there, they would probably think that I was sick. But I know she heard every word I said.
She died because of my drunk driving. Seeing her still laughing in front of me because of the little things, I was in a daze. She was still as beautiful as she was seven years ago, but half of my hair was gray.
I suddenly stopped talking, and she squatted opposite me obediently and watched me silently add paper money into the brazier. I brought a lot of paper money, but I burned it for a long time without finishing it. There was a long silence, "I will never come again. "I saw that her soulless body was even more lost and depressed. I took out a small red notebook. Inside was a photo of me and another woman, wearing a white shirt with a red background. I burned the red book and gave it to her, "This is the certificate my wife just received. You said a man should be single-minded, so I won't come here anymore. You should hurry up and find a good family."
Paper ashes are flying, and the wind is wildfire.
It turns out that ghosts really don’t shed tears. She just covered her face and squatted on the ground, her shoulders shaking. Finally he stood up and smiled at me, his face gradually becoming transparent.
“Hey, it’s the end, why don’t you say something to curse me.”
She disappeared, and I completely woke up from my sweet dream.
I heard from the old man that if a ghost does not reincarnate for seven years, he will never be reincarnated again and will fall into the ghost realm forever.
Is it because I come so often that you haven’t left yet?
Sorry, the photo was generated using ChatGPT, and it was a fake ID issued by someone.
Actually, I got one for both of us. I didn’t want to burn it for you, so I just wanted to keep it as a thought.
——
Song Weichen is a very empathetic person. She cannot finish reading this dream. At this moment, she is trying hard to restrain herself. Her throat hurts from the pressure and she is speechless. Fans seemed to feel Song Weichen's true emotions from the dream-eating state. The words "Eat dreams and don't cry" began to flood the screen, and even became a hot search for a time.
"I'm sorry, I lost my composure", Song Weichen thought to himself, how could they know I was crying since there was no motion capture for tears.
She paused again, "Dream Eater is born with the ability to swallow nightmares and create beautiful dreams. Sauvignon Blanc, I don't like your dream very much. Dream Eater will eat it in exchange for your love for the rest of your life. "We will eventually get married, and we will never wake up from such a sweet dream."
For a while, "We will eventually get married, and we will never wake up from such a sweet dream."
I don’t know who posted this sentence, “Eating dreams is worthy of enjoying the Ancestral Temple!” which triggered a new round of swiping.
.
The live broadcast room was extremely popular tonight, and everyone was very happy, but they did not notice a pair of eyes looking at Song Weichen in the corner, jealousy like a faint flame under the charcoal pile.
The owner of those eyes is Chen Liang.
There were many lights in the shed and it was very hot. Water dropped from the plastic cup of the iced coffee that Chen Liang had just finished taking two sips, making her hands wet. She placed the coffee cup on the hollow wrought iron shelf next to her as if venting her anger, and waved her hands bitterly. A little bit of water on her hand happened to be thrown into the sockets of the pile of wire boards under the shelf, causing a stir in the studio. The lights flashed.
Everyone in the shed didn’t know what was going on. They looked at each other for a moment, and “Dream Eater” was also obviously stunned.
"Is it stuck? Or is the Dream Eater card bug?" Many people asked on the screen, and the number of people online began to decrease. After the director reminded Song Weichen, the live broadcast room returned to normal.
Looking at the pile of power strips on the ground, and looking at Song Weichen in front of him who was wearing a motion capture suit but full of makeup, Chen Liang twitched the corner of his mouth and saw her moving the cup of coffee as if nothing had happened. It was placed "just right" on the shelf above the power strip, and the water droplets coming out of the cup quickly gathered towards the bottom of the cup.
After doing all this, Chen Liang walked to the other side of the studio as if nothing had happened, taking out his mobile phone and writing something while walking.
.
At this time, a fan named "Nanke" made a speech that was slightly out of the blue: Dream Eater, you have been pretending all day long that you can eat other people's food. Will nightmares really lead to retribution, falling into nightmares and never coming out?
It was also a coincidence that at the moment when these words appeared on the screen, the studio lights flickered again for no reason and then returned to their original state. For some reason, Song Weichen recalled the light and airy feeling in his previous dream.
"It's just that the voltage is unstable, don't be distracted," the director's gentle voice came from the headset.
Song Weichen realized that he was distracted.
“What a person has experienced is what he will become.” Song Weichen said, “Nanke, I don’t know what you have experienced, but I think you must be uncomfortable because you don’t even want to dream. "
Shi Meng looked at himself, "Of course everyone knows that Shi Meng is fake, and the so-called Meng Tapir's abilities are also fake. However, all the friendships and wishes generated in this live broadcast room are fake. Really.
The shed light flickered a few more times, and a large amount of moisture gathered in the bottom of the plastic cup of iced coffee and was dripping onto the wiring board.
Chen Liang glanced at where she was standing from a distance, and the smile on her face became more obvious. She even looked at Song Weichen with an encouraging smile.
Tick tock, a drop of water passed through the gap in the iron frame and splashed onto the wiring board.
Tick tock, another drop of water fell on the edge of the socket of the wiring board.
If nothing else, there will be an accident.
.
“Do friends who come to chat with Dream Eater really hope that Dream Eater can create a beautiful dream for them? I don’t think so, but I hope that after telling them, they will have the courage to realize that dream. Or fight against that nightmare."
"But, Nanke, I'm a little angry now. If I am scared by what you just said and have a nightmare tonight, I will definitely pull you..."< br>
Tick tock.
Pop! There was a flash of sparks, and the entire studio was instantly plunged into darkness.
.
It is strange that once there is no light in the studio, the blackness becomes heavier and makes people breathless.
Song Weichen's eyes were dark. She tried to tell herself that the studio had a power outage to calm herself down, but she instinctively felt that something was wrong - where were the people? There must be a commotion of people around, but why is no one talking? The wind is blowing all around, as if I am standing in an extremely empty and high place.
She took two tentative steps in the darkness, swaying and unable to balance her body.
In a daze, Song Weichen felt that she was walking on a decaying suspension bridge, and she stepped on the most fragile wooden board. With the sound of broken wood, the suspension bridge broke, and she Falling rapidly, there is an abyss beneath your feet!