The film The Maoshan Demon Slayer Chronicles is without question a masterpiece. For many people, the first time they saw it, they had the overwhelming sensation that they never knew a film could be made this way.

The movie employed a vast array of new techniques. Whether in special effects, plotting, or even music, it was groundbreaking in every respect.

Many people have watched this film more than ten times—some far more—and know the dialogue, plot, and music inside and out. Yet one detail has always puzzled fans: when the end credits roll, a line of text appears on screen: "Please do not leave. There is an Easter egg after the credits."

Everyone knows what an Easter egg is. In many countries abroad, the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox is Easter. As children, many Westerners play a game of hunting for Easter eggs on that day, and inside the eggs are hidden small gifts. Finding one is a thrill. The Easter egg is therefore the most iconic symbol of the holiday—representing surprise and hidden secrets.

Everyone eagerly awaited The Maoshan Demon Slayer Chronicles' Easter egg. But when audiences patiently sat through the film's absolute end, they discovered there was nothing there at all. The promised Easter egg was nowhere to be found.

Numerous journalists interviewed the film's director and several actors about this. Their answer: there had originally been a music video at the end of the film. However, after the film was completed, the first audience—the Standing Committee of the Politburo—watched it and unanimously declared the music video unacceptable, its influence too harmful, and ordered it removed. Chairman Chen Ke reportedly disagreed, so the Standing Committee members put it to a vote. The final tally was one to N, and the resolution to remove the music video was passed.

This explanation left the vast majority of audiences baffled—and even more curious.

As everyone knows, The Maoshan Demon Slayer Chronicles was entirely conceived by Chairman Chen Ke, and its fantastical imagination remains ahead of its time even today. The Chairman was also the inventor of the music video—the MTV format. His daughter later carried the art form to new heights, and she has said that many of the ideas came from the Chairman himself.

So for the Easter egg of The Maoshan Demon Slayer Chronicles—this music video—to be vetoed by the Politburo Standing Committee was almost inconceivable. The Chairman's prestige at the time was sufficient to push any proposal through.

Reportedly, the line of text at the end of the film—"Please do not leave. There is an Easter egg after the credits"—was preserved only because the Chairman stubbornly refused to let it be deleted. It is also said that the Chairman was extremely satisfied with this music video and declared it would even surpass The Maoshan Demon Slayer Chronicles itself.

All of it became a mystery—one that persisted for fifteen long years. Shortly after The Maoshan Demon Slayer Chronicles premiered, the Second World War began, and strict media controls sent every journalist who tried to investigate the mystery home empty-handed.

Fifteen years later, however, the assistant director of The Maoshan Demon Slayer Chronicles, upon learning he had a terminal illness, took a copy of the film negative he had privately duplicated years ago and fled to a Western country, finally solving the mystery.

In his own words: some things should not be buried.

As many people know, Chen Ke personally wrote the screenplay for The Maoshan Demon Slayer Chronicles, served as its executive producer, and even made a cameo appearance in a boss-level minor role that was nothing short of jaw-dropping. It is called a minor role because the character appears for only thirty seconds, and Chen Ke finished filming in just two hours. It is called boss-level because this character is the hero's master—the Maoshan practitioner's own teacher—a figure comparable to the great wizard Dumbledore in Harry Potter. The fifty-eight-year-old Chen Ke's look in the film is nothing less than iconic. Unlike the traditional Taoist practitioner with long hair, flowing beard, and horsehair whisk, the Chen Ke of the film retains his familiar appearance—clean-shaven, with close-cropped hair—merely donning rustic clothing with a touch of makeup. The most visible change is his whitened eyebrows. Yet the image of a transcendent sage—one who gazes down upon the world while harboring mountains and seas within—left every viewer awestruck. Especially those eyes beneath the white brows, blazing with otherworldly light, so dazzling that one could scarcely bear to look. He appears only in the practitioner's flashback during the film's most oppressive passage: when the hero reaches his darkest moment, recalls his master's teachings, and finally regains the strength to overcome.

In the film, Chen Ke's master character is set at over a hundred years old—reportedly inspired by a famous Taoist Master Zhang from China's Ming Dynasty. Chen Ke's performance was a triumph, but it also produced troubling aftereffects. Many viewers—Asian audiences in particular—took it as ironclad proof that Chen Ke was a heavenly deity descended to earth. They fashioned images of his character from the film into devotional scrolls, a practice especially prevalent in Southeast Asia, and not uncommon in China itself. Chen Ke vigorously suppressed this during his lifetime. The moment he died, the portraits proliferated like wildfire. Today, if you visit China, you will see them at restaurant cashier counters, dangling from taxi drivers' rearview mirrors, and displayed prominently in friends' living rooms. He has, in the plainest possible terms, become a god—an exorcist of demons and slayer of evil, possessed of boundless power.

But what no one knew was that Chen Ke appeared in the end-credits music video for a full thirteen minutes—and the filming took an entire twelve days!

When this MTV was finally leaked, it caused an immediate worldwide sensation. Before the stupefied gaze of the entire world, Chen Ke—clean-shaven, close-cropped hair—with the help of makeup artists and cinematographers, looked a full thirty years younger, virtually indistinguishable from a man in his twenties.

Then the MTV's story begins. On a pitch-dark night, Chen Ke takes his girlfriend out to the countryside. Right before her eyes, he transforms into a werewolf. Then the camera cuts—the story returns to a movie theater. After the terrified girlfriend leaves the theater, that iconic, beloved song begins:

It's close to midnight

Something evil's lurking in the dark

Under the moonlight

You see a sight that almost stops your heart

You try to scream

But terror takes the sound before you make it

You start to freeze

As horror looks you right between the eyes

You're paralyzed

'Cause this is thriller, thriller night

And no one's gonna save you

From the beast about to strike

You know it's thriller, thriller night

You're fighting for your life inside a killer, thriller, ow

I'm gonna thrill you tonight

Darkness falls across the land

The midnight hour is close at hand

Creatures crawl in search of blood

To terrorize y'all's neighborhood (I'm gonna thrill you tonight)

And whosoever shall be found

Without the soul for getting down

Must stand and face the hounds of hell

And rot inside a corpse's shell

I'm gonna thrill you tonight (thriller night, babe)

The foulest stench's in the air

The funk of forty thousand years

And grizzly ghouls from every tomb (I'm gonna thrill you tonight)

Are closing in to seal your doom (oh, yeah)

And though you fight to stay alive

Your body starts to shiver

For no mere mortal can resist

The evil of the thriller

'Cause this is thriller, thriller night

There ain't no second chance against the thing with 40 eyes, girl

Thriller, thriller night

You're fighting for your life inside a killer, thriller

'Cause this is thriller, thriller night

'Cause I can thrill you more than any ghoul would ever dare try

Thriller (ooh-ooh), thriller night

So let me hold you tight and share a

Killer, thriller, killer, thriller here tonight

'Cause this is thriller, thriller night

Girl, I can thrill you more than any ghoul would ever dare try

Thriller (ooh-ooh), thriller night

So let me hold you tight and share a killer, thriller, ow

The emergence of this music video finally and completely revealed why the Politburo had ordered it removed.

It was not because the music video was bad. It was because the supporting cast was far too illustrious...

Chen Ke had always been one to introduce new things, and dancing was one of them. The famous Zhengzhou Song and Dance Troupe was founded by him personally. Every weekend, many Party and state leaders would grace the dance floor with their moves.

But I digress. The music video at the end of The Maoshan Demon Slayer Chronicles originated from a bet—a wager about the state of world affairs.

As filming neared its end, Chen Ke had a sudden inspiration. He made a bet with the members of the Politburo Standing Committee, as well as other committee members. The exact terms of the wager are lost to history, but Chen Ke successfully tricked the losers into joining him in filming a music video.

It is said that Chen Ke was extremely excited at the time. He told everyone that even if the day came when The Maoshan Demon Slayer Chronicles was outdated, this music video—Thriller—would never go out of style, replaying again and again for eternity.

And so the Standing Committee members boarded Chen Ke's pirate ship. The Zhengzhou Song and Dance Troupe's weekend activities were replaced by filming. At the same time, the actors who played American Presidents Washington, Lincoln, and the others in the film also came to participate. These performers, together with the Politburo Standing Committee and committee members, completed the greatest music video in human history—Thriller!

Just imagine it: American Presidents, China's political elders and rising stars, all following Chen Ke's lead, dancing the zombie dance together. The very image is enough to send one into uncontrollable excitement.

The Maoshan Demon Slayer Chronicles was art as parody. This music video, however, can no longer be called the art of parody—"a pandemonium of dancing demons" would be more appropriate.

Just look at the cast. In addition to veterans like Zhang Yu, Li Runshi, Wu Xiangyu, Li Shouxian, and others all followed Chen Ke, performing the excruciatingly shameless zombie dance—to such a degree that one cannot help but wonder: had China and America secretly reached a G2 agreement long ago to carve up the entire world?

Please forgive me for using the word "shameless" to describe this music video. It is an unflattering description for our revolutionary forebears, but I truly cannot find a more accurate adjective.

When this music video was broadcast on European television stations for the first time, every single viewer was utterly dumbfounded.

Nobody could believe their eyes. Japanese and Southeast Asian audiences declared in unison that their eyes had been blinded... Even the most serious of gentlemen admitted that the sight of Li Runshi, Wu Xiangyu, and the others gyrating their hips and stretching their torsos was suffused with a palpable air of depravity...

According to the recollections of the production staff, during filming Chen Ke told everyone it was just for fun—no need to be nervous. The audio was also dubbed in afterward. So Li Runshi, Wu Xiangyu, and the others naturally treated the whole thing as nothing more than a recreational activity.

It was only when the music video was finally completed that everyone discovered exactly what shameful thing they had done.