Looking at Li Guiren's glittering black eyes and lovely little smile as he insists on watching a bunch of grown men die the host and system pair truly felt the corruption and bleakness of the world. Aiyah, look at this, they've ruined a perfectly good and sweet dumpling. Now it's bitter black dumpling. They really deserve to be shot ah.
Jia Hyson: 'Bebe…'
Bebe: 'Don't talk to Bebe, Bebe cannot even look at Host right now.' Bebe has interned as a Villain System for the system world equivalent of five months and felt that it had never met someone as despicable as its current Host.
Jia Hyson: QAQ
The plan was fairly simple. Now that Jia Hyson had the information of the other cultists down, they can send everyone an anonymous letter informing them they knew everything that went down back then, that they had proof and that they were willing to sell this evidence back to them for a price or they'll sell it to the presses. After which, they will give a date, time and place to meet and negotiate. The date will be in around four weeks time, on the fourteenth day of the seventh month, a day before Ghost Day, the day which ghosts are able to supposedly move more freely and those in the lower realms can cross over to this one. The time would be just after sunset. And the place?
Obviously the demon house.
While Li Guiren is at school, Jia Hyson writes down what he wants to say and gets Bebe to copy it onto other pieces of paper before folding it up and placing it in envelopes. Luckily for them, Li Guiren was a very independent child so on the weekends no one raised an eyebrow at the boy going off on his own with a doll and a sackful of letters to post.
Shen Wan before breaking up with Li Du, had been plagued by nightmares and was 'convinced' the house was haunted and had to move out soon. To be perfectly honest, Jia Hyson didn't expect that she would actually gift the house to her scummy boyfriend out of spite. He really did this because there was some genuine negative energy hanging around due to his constant presence for so long and he felt he should at the very least stop her from going to an early grave. Shen Wan was fairly innocent and it wasn't like Li Guiren suffered badly under her care so he felt it was the bare minimum he could do.
Also. He needed to practice his nightmare skills.
But the stuff before that as well obviously.
...what was it he said before?
Bebe: 'That scaring her off from an early grave was the least you could do?'
Jia Hyson: 'Yes! Yes! Right! That!'
Bebe: '...' You clearly only did it for the latter reason Host.
Either way, it was an unexpected boon for Jia Hyson. He had a place with a decent amount of yin energy, he was close to the demon house and he didn't have to worry about moving to Mexico or something given Li Du's rather promiscuous cuckoo bird nature. Li Du and Li Guiren were also pretty pleased by the development. For Li Du he was happy to finally get a home base that was more or less rent free and for Li Guiren he liked living in the place he found Wei in.
In fact, when the doll room was cleared up and ready to be refurbished, Li Guiren actually asked to turn it into his bedroom. It should be noted this was against Li Du's, the servants' and Jia Hyson's wishes. Especially noting the last one. Because Jia Hyson is a good fucking parental figure!
Bebe: 'Haha quick fooling yourself Host.'╮(╯∀╰)╭
Jia Hyson: '...' Wuwuwu his system is too mean!
He didn't mean to corrupt the child so early okay? Maybe make him a bit cynical, distance him from his father and more dependent on him in the process but how was he supposed to know the kid would just straight into being a murder voyeur?! And now he's going to sleep in a yin-infested room that even monks will not feel comfortable in! He may have a strong yang body but he's still a child. Who knows how the yin energy may seep in and influence him in the future?
Fuck! This kid is already revealing his extreme tendencies! Thinking about the future makes Jia Hyson a little scared now ah. Forget going back to the light side and betraying him, Jia Hyson's now worried he's going to go off the rails dark and absorb his energy for like, like, world domination or something! That was even more unacceptable than the first option!
What was he? The Tesseract?!
Jia Hyson: '...Actually, that would be pretty cool.' (￢_￢;)
However in the end it seemed that there wasn't much to worry about. Li Guiren was still the happy, naughty child like before, maybe a bit stickier but that was more endearing than anything. After a few weeks Jia Hyson and Bebe would no longer fret about him living in such a room and throw it to the backs of their minds in favor of other more pleasant things.
Like the upcoming cultist massacre.
Every time Jia Hyson thinks of it he chuckles evilly, his beautiful face turning malicious and poisonous. Bebe who could see both what is on the outside and the inside of it's host had to sigh. He truly fit the villain character very well, seductive and handsome on the outside and a scummy blackhearted inside. The villain systems have simply made such a huge loss ah.
Now that the letters have been sent, preparations have to be made. Because Jia Hyson depended on Li Guiren for travel, and Li Guiren refused to leave him unless needed, compromises had been made to achieve a good amount of efficiency. After classes, Li Guiren would rush out to the demon house with Jia Hyson hidden in his satchel bag and stay there till the evening.
During this time while Jia Hyson was instructing the other ghosts in the basement and improving their strengths, the boy would be forced to sit nearby and finish his homework. However Li Guiren truly did not mind being left out like this. After all it could not be helped that he was not a ghost, even he was green eyed in jealousy at the attention Wei was giving them he did understand he could not join in. But the more prominent reason to his forgiving attitude was...
"Wei! Wei!"
Jia Hyson who was in the middle of instructing Xia Cuifen and trying to see if she could develop the Hair Control skill immediately stopped mid-sentence to flyover to his family's little dumpling. "Yes Xiao Ren?" He asks, swirling around the small child, "What's wrong?"
Li Guiren pouts, his cute face scrunched up in a frustrated manner as he pitifully points at the question on the sheet. "Wei, I don't understand," He whines giving Jia Hyson an imploring look.
Under such a gaze, how can his heart not soften?
"Aw, don't worry Xiao Ren, let this big brother show you what to do," Jia Hyson coos and drifts closer. He begins to patiently explain the mathematical problem in a clear and easy to understand manner. In case Li Guiren still didn't understand, he would use his hair to form numbers and shapes to give examples.
Even though he wasn't top student smart, he didn't shame his family and got fairly high marks for most subjects earning a place in a good university. Not to mention he had experience tutoring kids. Teaching this sort of old-school grade school was nothing.
Bebe: 'Sometimes Bebe forgets you're an actual intelligent human being.'
Jia Hyson: 'Fuck you, don't you have my student records or something?' (ಠ_ಠ)
Bebe: 'Bebe did, but then Bebe saw the teachers' comments about how you were a polite, shy and well-mannered young boy and then treated it all as a fart.' (ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
Jia Hyson: '…Roll!' (凸ಠ益ಠ)凸
Li Guiren smiles, this is why he was still in such a good despite being pushed into the literal and metaphorical corner when they visit the demon house. He relishes the fact that if he needed any help with questions, Wei would stop what he was doing almost immediately to help him. Not to mention, Wei never rushed through them or treated him with impatience no matter how many questions he asked, making his heart warm with affection and joy.
When he saw the ghosts looking at his Wei's back and himself, similar to how he looked at them when Li Guiren was left alone with his homework, the satisfaction was overwhelming. When Wei wasn't looking he gave them all a small sneer, sticking his tongue out at them. No matter what, Wei's favourite would always be him!
The ghosts: '...' What to do? The boss's kid is such a stinky brat. Really want to spank him ah.
It's easy to fall into a comfortable routine like this. Jia Hyson would be smuggled to Li Guiren's school and spend time exploring around through the shadows of the buildings, interested to see what it was like in the 'old days'. Who wasn't a little curious about the sort of education their parents and such got when they were young? Granted this was going to be some differences between worlds but still, other than a few more ghosts and monks and ancient themed things there wasn't much differences.
During lunchtime, Jia Hyson will occasionally come out to show Li Guiren the supernatural side of the school. The English teacher who hanged herself. The principal who was stabbed by the student he raped. The chemistry teacher who died because his students tried to pull a prank on him by putting chemicals into his water bottle. The female student that been raped to death.
...This was a really bad school ah.
In fact, Jia Hyson was fairly sure this is where one of the demon house ghosts- The Bullied Schoolgirl- would originate from. After all, there weren't many schools around and honestly, there is too many ghosts in this place to not have a bullied schoolgirl ghost. That's like, the main ghost you have in a haunted school okay?
After school, Li Guiren three times out of five, would head straight to the demon house with him. The other two times is when his friends occasionally ask him over to play or the odd chance Li Du was there. Since the crime they planned was very severe it was vital they needed to avoid earning enough suspicion to warrant summoning one of the monks over. Plus, Jia Hyson couldn't help but feel guilty over ruining an innocent child's life like this, even though he lost a lot of his consciousness he still tried to make up for it by encouraging Li Guiren to socialize and do more outdoor activities.
Luckily, Li Guiren was naturally fond of athletics and sports, even though he is reluctant to separate from his Wei, playing soccer in the sun is still much more appealing to him than doing homework in the damo basement. Ironically enough, because of this, many teachers have praised Li Guiren for his improved grades in academics and athletics. Not to mention, Li Guiren had a very popular lively personality and a good face, it was because he had to keep moving around with Li Du that he had developed a more reticent personality in public so now that he was finally living somewhere his attitude and popularity in school also improved.
To the average bystander, Li Guiren's life looked to be flourishing, but the truth is, he was slowly rotting from the inside.
Jia Hyson knew this but he really couldn't do anything about it. Well. He could but… he can't. No, maybe it was more like he won't. His emotions felt a lot like his current state, it appears and disappears but ultimately, it was never there in the first place, an echo of when he was alive.
All Jia Hyson could bear to do is just make the little boy as happy as he could given the sinister fate that had been given to him the moment he entered Professor Shen's secret room.
The good news is, that Li Guiren is very happy. He gets to spend so much time with Wei, and now that he's taken a more proactive role in Wei's plans he felt they were even closer and Wei had become even more attentive as a result. As the planned day drew near, it wasn't only the spirits who were getting excited, Li Guiren was as well.
However, with these people looking forward to the day, there were others that inevitably felt cold dread toward it.
"You still haven't found out who sent this?!" Politician Song yells with red eyes. "If this gets leaked it's over! It's all over!"
Head of the Education Association Board Zhang Wei frustratedly rubs his temples with one hand as he moves his ear away from the phone. "You think I don't know that? But how could we possibly pinpoint who sent this? There's no return address and the new postal service branch established here does not ask for every single identity of those that submit mail."
"This is all your fault!" Politician Song bemoans, "If you hadn't invited me-"
"Shut up!" Zhang Wei snaps, "It's not like I asked you to keep coming back!"
"Fuck you, you colour-seeking wolf!" Politician Song curses, (Apparently this insult is for older men, calling them predators that prey on the young) "How you got to where you are today continues to baffle me!"
Zhang Wei grinds his teeth at this hypocrite, after all, Politician Song had gotten his popularity as an advocate for helping orphanages, donating to help educate the young and so on, so on. It was how they got acquainted in the first place. "…Just bring your share of the money and meet me at the address fifteen minutes before the transaction is supposed to take place. If we're lucky we can meet whoever it is that has the evidence and get them to pin the crime on Wang Fang."
Wang Fang was part of the cult but at the same time he is a growing thorn in their side, doing his best to 'clean up' all the corruption in the government. Using such an excuse he has begun to air out various dirty laundry of his rivals while conveniently forgetting to investigate his own backyard. Currently he was associated strongly with the idea of Righteousness and Honour, who would know he was actually a pervert who loved the feet of beautiful boys? Apparently, before Bai Li Wei's death he had begged their leader to at least preserve the boy's feet which were the most lovely he had ever seen, and was so heartbroken about the loss he was bedridden for five days.
Needless to say, neither Politician Song, Zhang Wei and some of the other cultists looked up to him very much. To them who knew the man's true perverted side, it was hard for them to reconcile with the idea that this man may one day bring their careers down with his information network.
"Hahaha, not bad, not bad!" Politician Song immediately changed his tune at the suggestion of framing Wang Fang, "Occasionally you have some good ideas too! Yes! Let's do that! Bring more money if the blackmailer needs more convincing too!"
"Of course," Zhang Wei states flatly, "I must go get ready,"
"Okay, I shall see you fifteen minutes beforehand then."
Making a noise of confirmation, Zhang Wei hung up the phone and sneered. That Politician Song is a real piece of work. It was time he got what's coming to him. Zhang Wei took out the money he had withdrawn a week ago, as well as a small handheld pistol taped under his desk. Checking his watch Zhang Wei nods to himself and begins to leisurely read a book to calm his nerves.
Later, he leaves for the demon house. One hour early.
When he arrives, he can't help but frown at the drab and abandoned appearance as well as the rural and empty surroundings. Whoever the blackmailer was, they were really paranoid to go to such lengths for a private location. Then again, Zhang Wei smiles coldly as he pats the gun hidden under his clothes, it's a perfect place to hide a body.
If he kills the blackmailer and steals the evidence then wouldn't he be the one in power? No more bootlicking idiots like Politician Song, or getting constant headaches dealing with those snakes like Wang Fang, not to mention all the other benefits he could squeeze out of the other rather influential cult members! Money! Influence! Power! Zhang Wei's eyes glitter with greed and excitement as he enters the house.
"Hello?" He calls out, "I'm a receiver of the letter you sent, I'm here to make an exchange!"
Zhang Wei shivers, somehow it was colder inside the house than outside. How strange.
"...Come down the hall," A low male voice says, he sounds muffled but it was still loud enough for him to hear clearly. Probably wearing a face mask to cover up his identity. Zhang Wei sneers. It's a decent idea, to bad it'll do no good when he's dead. Still he complies.
"...To the room on your left."
"...Go to the bookcase."
"...Push it to the side."
"..Head into the tunnel and down the stairs."
Slowly, Zhang Wei feels something is amiss as he follows the instructions. It's only when he sees the hidden entrance does he feel a cold chill of realization run through him.
At first he had assumed the blackmailer was just a little ahead of him, leading him on to wherever he had hidden the evidence however, when he entered the room the blackmailer wasn't there. Consequently he felt something wrong but after the next instruction he just thought the other person was in the hidden room... but if that's so, then how is it possible the instructions spoken were so loud and clear in his ears?!
Not to mention, how does he know exactly where he is every time?!
Feeling nervous he calls out, "I, I... how do I know you don't have bad intentions for me? Why don't you come up instead?"
There was a short pause and Zhang Wei waited for a response, sweating nervously. His hand itches to take out the gun but he can't afford to show his hand too soon.
Finally he hears someone clicking their tongue. His back immediately is drenched in cold sweat and every hair he has is immediately standing on end. It sounded like there was someone right next to him!
"Tch. You're much smarter than the other two. Oh well." The male voice mutters, the soft muffled effect completely gone and now it's clear to Zhang Wei that there's somebody right there behind him. It's all been a trap!
Whipping around with his gun pulled out, he looks around frantically, only to find there was no one in the room with him. Fear truly breaks out now. Could it be the blackmailer knows martial arts?! He had really underestimated the other person!
"Hey, hey, watch were you're pointing that." The voice says, clearer than ever but there was still. No. One. There! "Someone could get really hurt."
"Where are you?!" Zhang Wei screams, than he has a thought, "Are there microphones and cameras?!" The room is dirty enough to hide them, it would make sense but... the voice had none of the static a recording would give off...
"Where am I?" The voice asks, a smirk in his voice, "Why I'm. right. here," each word was louder and louder until Zhang Wei could swear that he felt a breath on his ear at the end. Instinctively he knows he has to get out of here now. However, before he can even get away an invisible pressure on his chest firmly pushes him back.
For a moment Zhang Wei couldn't register what was going on. All he could do was fall heavily onto the ground, staring blankly as the bookcase is quickly pushed back. When he finally came back to his senses he curses and yells as he starts to bang and shove at the bookcase. After a few minutes he realizes the bookcase which had been so easily moved before with only some required strength, was now unable to be budged, completely blocking him from escaping and locking him in the darkness.
It was even colder in the tunnel than it was in the house.