Chapter 60: Fictional? What We Filmed Is Real!

If he could, Tiger Brother really wanted to rush up, grab director Hou Rongxuan by the collar, and shake him violently until he deleted that unnecessary post-credits scene!

Come on! Let’s pretend we didn’t see this one—just delete it now!

In the front rows, the main creative team rose to their feet. Hou Rongxuan didn’t notice Tiger Brother’s internal outburst at all; he picked up the microphone and followed the host onto the stage.

Xiao He rubbed his neck and followed behind Liu Zehang.

To be honest, this was the first time Xiao He had properly watched the film he’d acted in.

Maybe because that special-effects face looked so different from him, Xiao He watched the whole movie from an audience perspective. His opinion matched Tiger Brother’s roughly—about an 8.7—making it one of the better-rated domestic films.

What surprised Xiao He was that the director actually did cut the sequence of Li Zhicheng’s death into a post-credits scene.

You could tell Director Hou had put a lot of effort into coordinating with his brother-in-law.

After all, Li Zhicheng didn’t die of natural causes; the matter was connected to other cases, and the police were still investigating with no official announcements.

But Hou’s mind moves fast—he omitted the “Zhu Third Brother was murdered” case and simply filmed the scenario of “Zhu Third Brother’s death.”

Who cares whether the person was killed—just ask whether they’re dead or not?

What? Did this reveal police case details? I just really hate Zhu Third Brother and rewrote an ending where he gets killed—who knew it would coincide with reality?

Anyway, a vengeful villain dying is always cathartic—

On stage, Hou Rongxuan held the microphone, thanked the audience, and began introducing the creative team who came for the screening.

Li Hanyue couldn’t attend the screening due to various reasons. Zhuo Jianhua, as the lead, naturally stood closest to the director, followed by Bao Wei and Liu Zehang, while Xiao He stood at the far edge, inconspicuous; many cameras didn’t even frame him.

But when Hou Rongxuan introduced Xiao He, almost everyone’s gaze and the cameras turned to him.

No wonder—compared to the other three who’d already earned audience recognition for their acting, this newcomer with almost no previous work exceeded expectations.

Among the three brothers, Zhu Third Brother was the most shameless, the most animalistic, and Xiao He, with that face, actually conveyed that feeling.

Seeing a handsome guy who looked nothing like the real Zhu Third Brother, people grew intensely curious about Xiao He.

Sure enough, during the audience Q&A, the first person to ask was someone inquiring about Xiao He: “Mr. Xiao He, did you previously portray Mu Ze?”

Xiao He: “...Yes, that was me.”

Looks like the Mu Ze label couldn’t be shaken off.

“Ah, it really is you.” The asking audience member sounded excited. “Did you use AI face-swap for this role? There’s no trace of it—the resemblance to the criminal is uncanny!”

Xiao He looked toward Director Hou. “Credit goes to Director Hou’s filming and the makeup artists’ skills. All on-screen appearances of Zhu Third Brother were performed by me personally; no AI face-swapping was used.”

Hou smoothly took over the topic: “Yes, we didn’t use AI face-swapping this time; we used prosthetic makeup. We’re also very thankful for Xiao’s persistence—despite the scorching summer, he wore that full prosthetic and finished all his scenes.”

Hou then explained why they insisted on recreating Zhu Third Brother and described the communications they had with the victims’ families…

Not to mention the film’s quality itself, these off-screen elements were also special selling points: “actor enduring prosthetic to recreate the fugitive,” “victims’ families supporting the crew and sharing wanted posters,” and so on. Hou spoke passionately on stage, and the audience below listened with keen interest.

Xiao He felt moved; he hadn’t expected Hou to be so eloquent.

But soon the first controversial topic surfaced—

The question came from Tiger Brother, who’d been holding back and had finally snapped.

“I want to ask the production team about the post-credits scene showing Zhu Third Brother’s death. Is there suspicion you forced this through approval? You claimed to help the victims find the fugitive, yet you forcefully constructed an ending where ‘Zhu Third Brother’ dies. Isn’t that contradictory? By doing this, are you disrespecting the victims and their families? Or is this a lie you spun for the victims, giving the fugitive an excuse to continue escaping?”

Tiger Brother’s words were blunt, even elevated deliberately. The audience’s expressions changed; some nodded. Clearly, the dissatisfaction and doubt about that post-credits scene were not just Tiger Brother’s.

Yet Hou didn’t panic. Instead, a smile bloomed on his face.

Obviously, Hou had been waiting for someone to ask!

“Our crew has always respected the original case and respected the victims and their families. We can assure you that all scenes in Killing Life were filmed according to the real case.”

As if fearing people wouldn’t understand, Hou added: “Including the post-credits scene.”

Tiger Brother’s eyes widened.

Huh? What does that mean?

No way, could it be...

“We can’t disclose too many extra details, but we welcome everyone to keep following the case’s developments.”

Hou’s words landed like thunder; the audience immediately began whispering among themselves.

“What? Could Zhu Third Brother already be dead?”

“No way—wasn’t he still wanted? How could they know he’s dead?”

“Could the crew know more than we do?”

“Is this just hype? Are they saying it on purpose?”

“No—Hou isn’t that kind of person; if he lied, the police or the victims’ families would surely clarify.”

Tiger Brother was speechless and sat back down.

But his eyes shifted—he’d thought of a clever plan.

He quietly opened his phone and searched official websites for Zhu Third Brother’s wanted notice.

Zhu Third Brother had been on the run for over twenty years; his photo and wanted information were still listed on some official sites.

This could be verified on the public security bureau’s website and local government sites—being police sites, their authenticity was guaranteed; they wouldn’t collude with the production.

To Tiger Brother’s shock, after checking a few sites, he couldn’t find Zhu Third Brother’s wanted notice anywhere!

Police only withdraw a wanted notice for three reasons:

One, the suspect was captured.

Two, the suspect died.

Three, the wanted notice was legally revoked.

To rule out the possibility that sites simply didn’t keep records from twenty years ago, Tiger Brother checked other wanted notices and even found one that lasted thirty years.

So it was certain—the wanted notice for Zhu Third Brother had really been withdrawn!

Combine that with Hou’s words, and the matter became real.

The case’s real-life prototype, Zhu Third Brother, had actually died!