Brother Dao Took the Entertainment Industry by Storm, Fans Beg Me Not to Kill Anymore

The night was as thick as ink that refused to dissolve, and even the wind had stopped on the rooftop.

Everything had settled. After the clamor faded, there was nothing but suffocating silence, as if all the earlier turmoil had been devoured by the oppressive darkness.

Only endless black remained on the rooftop, plunging everything, along with the city behind it, into a deathly stillness.

In the end, all that could be heard was a faint, feeble gasp in the darkness, so soft and weak it seemed like an illusion.

No one knew how much time had passed before a sharp police siren tore through the night sky. Red and blue emergency lights flickered wildly in the dark air, and several blinding beams of light pierced the heavy curtain of night, forcefully tearing a gap in the pitch-black horizon. In that moment, everything on the rooftop was laid bare—

A chaotic mess from the scuffle, blood smeared everywhere, and an unidentified corpse lying on the ground.

The lead officer shone a powerful flashlight, sweeping his gaze around until he finally heard a faint cry for help from the corner.

Instantly, everyone’s attention, along with the beams from their flashlights, turned toward the shadows in that direction.

As the light converged, the sole survivor finally appeared before everyone’s eyes.

—It was a man in a hospital gown, thin and gaunt.The man was clutching his abdomen, but a large amount of blood still seeped out, staining his clothes and hands. Half of his medium-length hair was plastered to his face, making it impossible to see his expression, but his chapped, discolored lips were enough to show how weak he was. When the intense beams of light fell on him, he could only lower his head weakly, as if he had exhausted all his strength and could no longer support himself...

The camera slowly rose, gradually turning into an overhead view, getting higher and higher until the entire rooftop situation was clearly visible. A group of medical staff rushed toward the blood-soaked man, while others moved toward the corpse on the ground. The sounds growing louder were the reports coming through the walkie-talkie:

”Reporting to command center, the rooftop is secured. Target suspect Zhu Feng has been found, confirmed as the sole survivor on site. One unidentified male corpse also discovered. Requesting the medical examiner and forensic team to arrive...”

”Reporting to command center...”

...

The final result of this battle was clear. The one who survived was Zhu Feng.

No, to be more precise, it was his body.

As for whose soul was now inside that body?

No one knew.

But after that, ”Zhu Feng” submitted a large amount of evidence and leads from Mao Yi’s home, successfully clearing himself of suspicion.

His life seemed to return to normal, no different from before. The story ended perfectly as hoped.

—But it seemed that a earth-shattering change had already taken place.

In the elevator, the man lowered his eyes and calmly straightened his tie.

The colleague who entered was clearly wary and guarded around him, almost immediately moving to the farthest spot in the elevator as soon as he stepped in.

If anyone was paying close attention, they would realize this was the same sharp-tongued colleague who had earlier mocked Zhu Feng’s tie as being old-fashioned.

The elevator rose slowly, but the atmosphere between them was incredibly awkward.

In this stiff environment, the colleague forced a smile and said, ”Your tie looks really good today! Did your wife pick it out?”

The man turned to look at him, paused for a moment, then replied, ”We’re already divorced.”

”Huh? Uh, haha, I see... Sorry about that...”

The colleague’s smile grew even more awkward. He immediately shut up, wishing he could jump out of the elevator right then and there.

Fortunately, the elevator finally arrived at their floor just then.

”Please.”

The man stepped aside, motioning for the other to exit first.

Although the order of leaving was the same as before, this time the colleague seemed almost flattered: ”Thanks, thanks.”

It wasn’t that he was being polite; he simply didn’t dare to stay in the same space with this guy any longer. So, while thanking him, he hurriedly left the elevator...

—

And the man’s changes weren’t just limited to that.

The viewers could clearly feel that both his work and personal life had undergone a complete transformation.

At the very end of the film, it was once again late at night.

The man returned home, walked through the somewhat empty living room that no longer held the warmth it once did, and once again stood on the balcony, lighting a cigarette.

After fully recovering from the hospital, he had cut his hair and shaved his beard. Now, his features were no different from the Zhu Feng at the beginning of the story.

But the eyes no longer held that persistent melancholy. Instead, they had turned into a deeper, thicker darkness, profound and dangerous, making it impossible for anyone to guess what he was thinking.

—So who was it that ultimately survived?

Perhaps only the soul inside that body truly knew.

...

Perhaps because the original film didn’t have a post-credits scene, ”Let the Mistake Slide” also didn’t have one. After the screen went black, the story truly ended.

The director didn’t gild the lily by adding an extra scene to explain who the survivor really was. Tiger Brother had a feeling that this grand finale would spark a lot of discussion.

That was because the plot of this domestic version was quite different from the original finale that Tiger Brother had seen.

To put it simply, the original script, ”A Murder of Swapped Identities,” was also made to boost the popularity of a trending idol. That idol was the absolute protagonist in that version, so in the Korean version, the one who ultimately survived was indeed Zhu Feng, but it was the Zhu Feng who was permanently trapped in the killer’s body.

In other words, in the Korean plot, the killer died in Zhu Feng’s body, while Zhu Feng completely took over the killer’s identity, formally inheriting everything the killer had...

After all, this story originally took place in South Korea—behind this Mao Yi stood a massive chaebol family. Zhu Feng, having obtained Mao Yi’s body and replaced him, effectively gained the capital of that chaebol, with money and power at his fingertips, able to control the country’s direction.

So the original version’s ending was a relatively satisfying, feel-good conclusion.

But a plot like that obviously needed to be modified for the domestic market; the story couldn’t go all the way down that dark path.

Thus, the body that ultimately survived was changed to the protagonist Zhu Feng’s own original body.

Because of this massive shift in the character’s storyline, the subsequent ending took a completely different path from the original. The ”chaebol family” that should have been pulling strings in the final act became a ”big tiger” that was brought down by this case. The powerful family that Mao Yi could rely on was ultimately overthrown, and everything he owned turned to dust.

Whether the person who triggered this earth-shattering upheaval was Zhu Feng, who produced evidence to prove his innocence, or Mao Yi, who sacrificed his family to save himself, no one knew.

This ending broke away from the Korean version’s setting, fitting more closely with the domestic context. Although it still had traces of forcibly creating a happy ending and whitewashing Zhu Feng, overall, it was still passable, even better than expected, with logic barely holding together.

Even Xiao He, sitting in the very front row, was surprised by this final ending.

Because this version of the finale was different from the ending of ”Let the Mistake Slide” that he had originally seen.

Note: ”Let the Mistake Slide” is the domestic script; ”A Murder of Swapped Identities” is the Korean script.

The original ending of ”Let the Mistake Slide” leaned more toward a perfect reunion. The original plan was also for Zhu Feng to survive smoothly.

But after experiencing this whole series of events, he reconciled with his life, got along harmoniously with his colleagues, cleared up the misunderstandings with his wife, and the two got back together—the soul swap actually made his life better.

But looking at this current ending, Xiao He felt like Director Zhan had pieced together a new finale from the scrapped footage he had shot.

This ”Zhu Feng,” whose soul’s identity was uncertain, hadn’t built good relationships with his colleagues. But because of the earlier case, their disdain had turned into fear, and the two sides had actually reached a strange peace in the office. Even the new boss was showing him goodwill, making ”Zhu Feng’s” career go even more smoothly.

As for his personal life, ”Zhu Feng” chose to let go of his unfaithful wife instead of clinging on. There was no cliché misunderstanding and reconciliation; instead, it was a more open-ended conclusion.

This kind of ending, in fact, broke away from the hollow, grandiose tone and became more realistic.

Xiao He actually liked this ending quite a bit.

But who was the ultimate winner?

Watching the man smoking on the balcony, Xiao He guessed that he already knew the answer.