The next day in school a confrontation happened.
Despite being 'unpopular', Zhao Xuefeng was really well known by the student body. Which is, like, exactly what popular means but what fucking ever. He'll just note that plot hole in his notebook and tell the author to either make him popular but in a school filled with small hearted people or make him a delinquent with a heart of gold type with a crude and straightforward sense of justice which both repulses and attracts many people.
For now though Jia Hyson will just grit his teeth and ignore it even though he loathes the whole 'he was just an average boy with average looks and low popularity but somehow is beloved by a thousand beauties' trope. Like yeah he gets it's meant to immerse the readers into being more in tune to the character and many people love that sort of thing but ugh, Jia Hyson prefers the author to either make a good believable excuse or just straight up say that they were cute okay?
Jia Hyson: 'There's no such thing as a plain person, there's ugly, attractive and cute.'
Bebe: 'That's actually really nice-'
Jia Hyson: 'And I am willing to fuck them all.' (•̀.̫•́)b✧
Bebe: '...' (°ㅂ°╬) Hehe this guy should go burn to death a second time.
Li Daguo however held a more straightforward simple character design that Jia Hyson did not dislike. He was rich. He was handsome. He was athletic but not too smart. He was hot tempered and a bit too crude to be endearing. A textbook example of a cannonfodder bully. His bully friends were more or less the same in this standard to varying degrees.
For example, Chu Mei, Li Daguo's girlfriend, is what one would get if you mixed Nalan Chyou and Ming Bo up. That is to say she's a rich white lotus bitch with relatively low IQ. The only way one could figure out who she was from the others is that her boobs were honestly massive. Not even Chinese standards of big, they were like triple D's at least. It was frankly a little amazing they were real since she didn't have any foreign blood in her and Tian Shun who have seen her parents pick her up from school, swears her mother is flatter than pancakes.
Surprisingly she wasn't the slutty cheerleader stereotype of that group. That title undoubtably belonged to a girl named Wu Xiaoli, a very pretty lass with pouty lips, long lashes and legs that go for miles. In the original story she had a secret crush on Zhao Xuefeng and tried multiple times to get him to abandon his ragtag friends- who were all very attractive and popular in their own rights thinking about it- but of course as the protagonist how could he? This made Wu Xiaoli awfully jealous of Ming Bo and Nalan Chyou and that resulted in… well absolutely nothing because most of the 'plot' happened in the house where the bullies were not.
When Jia Hyson read this in order to refresh his memory he was tempted to see if he could be one of those modern day techno-ghost who can posses social media and murder this shitty author who couldn't even cannonfodder correctly. Wu Xiaoli could have been a redeemable decent piece cannonfodder! She had good feelings for the protagonist and a somewhat typical but still moving backstory for why she was so sexual and stereotypically slutty.
Jia Hyson: 'Spoiler alert: It was hardcore daddy issues and a shitty first love.'
Bebe: 'Are we talking about the origins of Wu Xiaoli or my shitty Host here?'
Jia Hyson: 'Wow low blow.'
Jia Hyson: '…But touché.' Except it was more like he was the shitty first love but, semantics.
Anyway, other than Li Daguo there were three other males. Zhu Xiaosheng, a middle-upper class intellectual who most likely uses bullying as a way to vent his repressed feelings caused by his grade-obsessed parents. Zeng Hai, a straight up delinquent who has a puppy dog loyalty to, and only to, Li Daguo who once defended him from being wrongly accused of cheating and avoided expulsion. And then lastly there was Luo Qiu, someone who used to be a star athlete with a dream of taking over his family's small mixed martial arts dojo but due to an unfortunate incident can only beat up other people to feel better about himself.
Jia Hyson: '...'
Bebe: '...'
Even though they were only given a few lines in the whole story and their backgrounds were only summarized in even less sentences, when compared with the average-popular, justice-loving yet weak protagonist, the pure white lotus rich miss love interest, the tsundere female supporting lead and the nerdy occultist male supporting lead... don't they seem like better main characters than the actual main characters? They may have acted like scum but it seems like they had depth- a trait more important in a character than any good personality.
It was a good thing Jia Hyson had decided to go for quantity over quality in his plan. Even though more people could make the less attentive readers more confused, the characters that have the power to stand out will inevitably do so in such an environment. Like panning for gold, the more dirt you pull out the higher the chances to find riches.
Bebe: 'Host that is such an old metaphor, it's like you really belong in this timeline ah.'
Jia Hyson: 'One, that was a simile you uncultured swine, and two, if you imply I'm old again I will do nothing but masturbate in my next life, story or no story.'
Bebe: '...You just want an excuse to shove something up your ass.' Bebe doesn't have anything against homosexuality much less bisexuality but this flaming piece of bi garbage really was too disgusting.
Jia Hyson: '...no.' I want a new system. This one knows me too well.
Anyway, the confrontation happened as a result of what most high school confrontations happened as a result of. That is to say, over a pretty face. Namely Tian Shun's.
To be fair his face was awfully pretty.
Between the pair of them, Jia Hyson and Tian Shun had agreed on a vague plan of attack to convince many people to come to the demon house. First he had casually expressed interest in the occult and supernatural to both peer groups. Hao Fan, the goth nerd, caught the bait easily and they quickly became much closer despite his initial cold hostility and envy toward Tian Shun. It quickly spread that Tian Shun liked the supernatural and horror, making every guy think he was cool and edgy, and every girl think him a handsome idol with an irresistible brooding dark side.
Jia Hyson: *Sigh* 'It doesn't matter what world one goes to, face value will always be higher than the value of gold.'
However it really could be seen how influential Tian Shun was in the school despite being there for only a short few weeks. As a result of this piece of news, there had been a spike of interest toward anything even remotely spooky. Zhao Xuefeng and his friends took advantage of this interest to monopolise more of Tian Shun's time. Even though other than Had Fan none of them held too much of an interest toward the subject, for the beauty they could easily learn ah~
Li Daguo and his gang, seeing their new friend spending so much time with the people he had insisted were just losers, started feeling an unprecedented sense of crisis and also joined in the trend in order to coax Tian Shun back.
Therefore, when the two groups met in the middle of the hallway… confrontation.
"Zhao Xuefeng," Li Daguo spits out as he catches sight of him. Before he had never liked the nosy, self-righteous idiot. It was already bad enough that he had two girls clinging to his side with his goody-goody 'I'm just an average guy, I don't realise I've got two hotties drooling over my nonexistent abs' shtick but ever since he had gotten all stuck up about being Tian Shun's best friend he had become particularly repulsive to the eye. "What are you doing in this part of the school? You're too stupid to be here with the students on the advanced track," He sneers at the three follows, "All of you."
Nalan Chyou gave the bullies a look filled with frustrated grievances while she held back a spitting mad Ming Bo. Hao Fan clenched his jaw and fists as he glared at Li Daguo but also didn't say anything. It was true after all. While at the very least Nalan Chyou was quite intelligent she wasn't gifted and Hao Fan's grades didn't reflect his intelligence well due to his slacking and disinterest in class subjects so none of them had any need to come to the area of the school designated to host special classes for children with a high enough grade or some other speciality like athletics or acting.
Zhao Xuefeng however in contrast lifts his head up defiantly, "Picking up Shun from his advanced calculus class," his cool response garnered appreciative and blushing looks from Nalan Chyou and Ming Bo.
Zhu Xiaosheng, the cruel intellectual, pushes his glasses up and smirks, "Shun is it?" He asks in a deceivingly mild tone with a hint of mocking, "You sound so very… close. Tell me, does Tian Shun know you call him that?"
Zhao Xuefeng flushes, he hadn't meant to say his name so intimately it's just… it had slipped out. Forcing his bashfulness down his temper flares up to compensate, "W-we're friends! This afternoon we're all going to watch a horror movie with Shu-Shun so you guys can just scram!"
Li Daguo's eye twitches. This damn fool really thinks the world revolves around him. How irritating. "Really? But us and Tian Shun have already made plans to go over to my place. My uncle is a collector of rare things and he offered to show us some geniune relics from the exotic lands." The truth was he hadn't made any plans with Tian Shun but with the way his eyes lit up over that old 'cursed' book he gave him from his uncle's collection, Li Daguo was confident he would say yes anyway.
"So what?!" Ming Bo rebuts loudly with derision, "Brother Xuefeng waited an hour in line just to buy the midnight premiere tickets to surprise Brother Tian!"
Nalan Chyou nodded like a chick pecking on rice, "Yes! Yes! Xuefeng is very kind and considerate especially to Tian Shun who is still new to the place. Li Daguo please be understanding,"
Zeng Hai the delinquent was unmoved by Nalan Chyou's fairy like looks and sweet pleas, snarling he gives the opposing group an annoyed look, "Do you think Brother Daguo's Uncle is easy to get ahold of? Even this Laozi who has been over at my good brother's almost everyday for four years can only catch sight of that old man twice!"
Li Daguo glares lightly at Zeng Hai but doesn't argue or chide him for his words making the scary delinquent grin like a happy husky. Chu Mei, Li Daguo's girlfriend also doesn't hesitate to defend her man. "You guys are too narrow-minded!" She complains with a pitiful look that would move many men as long as it was not compared to Nalan Chyou's own pleading expression. "Even celebrities wait in line and yet you make Zhao Xuefeng sound like he climbed the face of a cliff! Just because he did something slightly difficult does not make our plans less important!"
Wu Xiaoli, the slutty one, looked torn for a moment. She was fond of her friends but she really liked Zhao Xuefeng and felt herself ache at his embarrassed and enraged expression, "Guys, why don't we just join them at the movies?" Her voice sweet and soothing like a cold vanilla milkshake, it was a voice born to coax men and women alike, "I know the handsome uncle who runs the place, I'm sure he'll give us some tickets, he always saves a few in case."
"You would," Ming Bo sneers with disgust. She looks down on girls like Wu Xiaoli the most.
"Oh don't act like you're on such a high horse," Chu Mei snaps, "At least Xiaoli has never panted at her best friend's man like some horny bitch!"
"Wha- as if I would!!" Ming Bo's face goes red with indignation and embarrassment, her eyes shift guiltily to Nalan Chyou's exquisite face of concern and Zhao Xuefeng's handsome face that wasn't even looking at her. She felt annoyed at the lack of attention by her secret love and couldn't help but let her poisonous mouth open, "Like I would want some piss poor idiot with no parents! I only hang out with him because sister Chyou pities him a little, why else do you think we're still with him? I, I have better tastes than that!"
Nalan Chyou and Hao Fan sucked in a cold breath and Ming Bo instantly felt remorse. "Ming Bo!" Nalan Chyou scolds.
Ming Bo flushes but her high pride made it difficult to apologize, especially in front of so many people. She lowers her head and stays silent in response. If Jia Hyson was there he would have wanted to slap her for being so annoying.
Honestly, once you reached the point of dismembering the bowels of a trespassing young lady who thought it was a good idea to try graffiti a haunted house- like come on, out of all the ways you can act rebellious- and then coloring the viscera with all the colors of the rainbow with the graffiti spray, the concept of men shouldn't hit ladies kind of becomes very unimportant in the grand scheme of things. Jia Hyson was very pro-gender equality. Regardless of whether one is a guy or a girl, he and his other ghostly friends will murder them if they muck around in their ghost house. Of course some ghosts there do have bias, preferring to kill men over women and vice versa. Luckily there were many ghosts so it's not like there were many issues with the matter anyway.
Actually, it's a wonder why the demon house hasn't been completely demolished and drowned in holy water at this point. With the amount of suspicious and brutal deaths it certainly warranted it. Plot reasons most likely. Also stupid people. And, hehe, corrupt law enforcement. Li Guiren really did well in that aspect. If Jia Hyson physically could he would have definitely tried a relationship with him if he had known.
Even though Jia Hyson didn't think he was capable of giving much romantically, he had affection for only two people in this lifetime and in terms of that alone Li Guiren would have been the clear winner. Li Guiren is loyal, competent, trustworthy and more importantly Jia Hyson has a better understanding of his personality than Tian Shun's currently. And it helped that his mature looks were especially to his tastes. Mnnn... those well defined muscles... that slight stubble he gets in the morning that Jia Hyson could imagine scratching against his skin... the streaks of silver starting to show in his hair which gave him a distinguished and sexy older man look... (º﹃º )
Bebe: '...Host. You're drooling.'
Back to the matter at hand, the two groups began to bicker and argue. Tian Shun hadn't learnt nothing from the boarding school experience straight from hell, his mental state and his insight in other people's mentalities was naturally very good. He had spread the seeds of discord subtly, viciously and far too easily between the two already rather hostile groups as well as given them a need to impress and wow him.
To the people in both groups Tian Shun was an existence clearly above them. As the male supporting lead playing the 'cool one' his looks were superior to most which already gave him a big advantage. His attitude was cool but not cold, polite but still edgy and held a distinct scent of attractive danger that made it easy to lure in these teenagers looking for small thrills and a way to feel special. And Tian Shun was also intelligent in both studies and current trends. Plus, his family background was decent, even the richest parents must show respect to Li Guiren's high standing in law enforcement.
Humans were social creatures with many complex views about individuality. One view is that the quality of the group reflects the quality of the individual. Having a person in the group with impressive credentials will make the others who had managed to befriend such a person seem more impressive as well. Whether objectively or subjectively, Tian Shun was clearly someone that people would want to be with in any shape or form.
For students who are currently at their most sensitive about these sort of social hierarchies and insecurities Tian Shun was either an addicting drug or a golden ticket. Either way, they were incredibly receptive to his subtle hints and subliminal messaging and the conclusion of the whole confrontation ended up more or less exactly as Tian Shun had wanted. Even Jia Hyson could not have manipulated these teenagers as well.
"You know what," Zhao Xuefeng steps forward toward Li Daguo angrily, "Fuck you! You say all this shit but we both know that you're just faking it all just to impress Tian Shun! Tian Shun deserves better than making friends with a bunch of lying bastards!" He accuses full of righteousness.
Li Daguo snorts, "Even if he deserves better than hanging out with us, we both know he certainly deserves better than hanging out with you people. Who says it's a crime to learn to like new things? Besides, isn't that the pot calling the kettle black?" He sneers, "Hypocrite."
He turns around with his posse, unwilling to let Zhao Xuefeng have the satisfaction of the last word, "End of this week is Tian Shun's birthday, I'll throw a party at the infamous haunted murder house on the edge of the forest, the one past the monastery." Li Daguo announces loudly, "It'll be the biggest party of the year, everyone is invited, even you fools." Li Daguo glances back with a smug look, "If you have the courage anyway."
Zhao Xuefeng clenches his fists. Those guys were truly terrible. He needs to find a way to reveal their true colors to Tian Shun.
…
Four days later many people in the upper school years were abuzz at the end of week party at the infamous haunted house. Juniors were interested in boasting about partying in such a forbidden place. Seniors were interested in showing off how little they cared in front of the cute juniors. The girls were interested in both the thrill and letting loose.
Of course there were a lot of people who were either too wary, too dismissive or too uninterested to go. These were the people with some common sense, survival instinct or the introverts. Jia Hyson would definitely have been all three. Like damn no matter how cool it was or how unreal ghosts were in his origin world he would never go to a well known haunted house at night like what, for one thing no, for another, hell no, and lastly, he is way too lazy to get out of bed at that hour.
Fuck he misses sleeping. Just a few more days and then it'll finally be over. Like hell he was staying around after the plot ends, he has no lifespan okay? What was he going to do, wait until a protagonist with super exorcism skills comes along to finally end his life? Haha yeah fucking right.
His ability to empathize was at zero after so many years as an evil wraith who wracked up negative energy like nobody's business and his ruthless practicality was sharpened like the blade he once gutted a young monk up like a fish with. The only attachments he held of this world are Li Guiren and Tian Shun but with [Psychotic Break] having recently leveled up to level 12, the attachment is relatively shallow at best. Like well loved childhood toys, they were dear to him and he cherished them but ultimately they were not worth his prolonged suffering.
Both men seemed to sense this a while back somehow and the closer the plot was about to begin the stickier they became. A tentative truce was formed between them. They even stopped accusing each other of physical assault and violation in order to maximize snuggle time.
Well that wasn't true.
More like they stopped getting into big arguments and started sabotaging behind the scenes in order to maximize their snuggle time. Li Guiren couldn't actually snuggle Jia Hyson but the way he gazes longingly at Jia Hyson when they spend time together definitely felt like a really strong, choking embrace so it was close enough.
Jia Hyson's gaydar hasn't been in the best condition for a while now as seen by his previous surprise with Drake and Monroe, and now Li Guiren and Tian Shun. But he's not completely stupid in the emotional intelligence department okay? He can clearly see Li Guiren and Tian Shun were fighting and they were totally willing to kill each other for him. Which would be incredibly upsetting if Jia Hyson could feel that emotion clearly again.
Honestly, if he wasn't in such a messed up love triangle in the first place he probably wouldn't have considered leaving so quickly. He may not have much heart left but it was still there! But his presence in the household is corrupting, and not just because he's an evil ghost who promotes negative emotions with his aura. Even if he did choose to stay after the plot in order to accompany the pair to the end of their lives he's afraid with the way they're going he wouldn't have to accompany them for long anyway.
Bebe: 'Bebe has to agree, those two are psychos. Bebe doesn't even know how Tian Shun managed to get so many different types poisons!' To be fair, this was the sort of horror story world that didn't give too much sense to their inhabitants. And Tian Shun had the sort of popularity now that could make many daughters and sons whose parents have a medical slash horticultural background want to die for him. The math was fairly easy to add up but a little harder for the police to prove.
Li Guiren at least didn't ingest much of the poisoned meal, spitting it out and forcing himself to vomit after his second bite. Unfortunately there was a lot of different poisons in there, clearly someone was going quantity over quality, and Li Guiren had to be rushed to the hospital to get his stomach pumped.
In retaliation, Li Guiren may have or may not have framed Tian Shun for minor criminal activities such as shoplifting, and not so minor activities like drug pushing and attempted murder, which resulted in a few overnight stays in a jail cell he may or may not coincidentally share with various violent slash drunk slash high criminals that may or may not have been given suggestions to rough the pretty boy up a little.
It was all very fucked.
...Jia Hyson kind of likes it. (◕‿◕)♡
It was honestly unfortunate he was impotent- even Tian Shun's special constitution couldn't change his limp noodle, a fact that he can't help but mourn every goddamn day- because it would have been really fun to throw some possessive hardcore jealous yandere sex into the chaos as well.
Sometimes at night when everyone was sleeping he would imagine himself being tied up on a bed with chains, no, binding talismans, getting brutally fucked into the mattress by Li Guiren while a tied up Tian Shun is forced to watch on the floor. The embarrassment of being watched by a younger man who adored you get defiled by his hot mature father, the way Tian Shun would probably seethe in wrathful envy and hatred but be unable to restrain his base desires, growing aroused at the sight of his crush groaning and moaning as he takes in the large cock like the slut he is. Li Guiren would fuck him hard, oh god yeah, he would fuck him so hard, the years of pent up desire building up for this very moment. He wonders if the small dumpling he had raised would call him a dirty two-faced bitch, tell him he has such a slutty body, always teasing them like a whore, maybe force him to spread his legs and expose everything to their voyeur... fuck that would be so hot! Of course, he wouldn't mind if it was the opposite way round as well ah. Being forcibly pinned down by a much younger man was also a very stimulating feeling too~ ♡
Bebe: '...' Disgusting. These psychos deserve each other. It's all so abusive. Bebe hopes they play each other to death.
Anyway, there wasn't much to say other than the two men were getting clingier. Jia Hyson just wanted to point that out to anyone who thought that him being impotent would lead to a ruined sex life. Which. It does. But the fact is he has two hot guys sabotaging each other for him and that clearly means that he's doing something something okay.
Bebe: 'Does it really?'
Jia Hyson: 'Do you have two attractive systems chasing after you?'
Bebe: '...no.'
Jia Hyson: 'Hmph, that's what I thought hehe!'
Bebe: '...' Fucking bastard.
...
Friday evening the demon house was filled with a life that it hadn't had for so long. Arguably ever. At least over sixty students were present, the average age was seventeen and the average alcohol content in their body was enough to make them tipsy at the very least. It was easy to say that Li Daguo did a great job and it was probably not far off to say it is the biggest party of the year for these teenagers.
However as the sun went down it was inevitable that a few of the younger and weak hearted ones wanted to go home. The yin energy in the house could now be one of the most spiritually rich in the region, maybe in all of China to be honest, and even through the warm haze of alcohol there will always be some people that can sense this chilling wrongness.
Of course there are also some people who would ignore their instincts because let's be honest, people get anxiety a lot, it's easy to dismiss their odd feeling to that or other things. It can be called stupid in hindsight but in the moment, a spark of fear can easily be extinguished by ignorance. One can only shake their head and say it's a pity. So before midnight came only a few people left, dragging some of their reluctant friends or roommates back with them leaving around fifty to sixty people left including the main cast and bully characters who were more like Tian Shun's lackey characters to be honest.
Jia Hyson who was watching it all invisibly with the rest of his ghostly crew couldn't help but salivate a little. The turnout was really greater than expected, there were even some outsiders who came to join the fun. That Worldbreaker working in the background did not disappoint when he offered to serve up a lot of people for them. Xu Xia who was clinging to his arm giggles.
"It's been so long since we had so many friends to play with at the house. I'm so happy!" She beams making the other three basement ghosts shudder lightly. Even though they've more or less made up, it was still hard to let go of the trauma made by that psychotic bitch.
"Don't hog them all to yourself!" The Bullied Schoolgirl pouts cutely, her blood red eyes darkening at the sight of so many teenagers. It was her favourite type of victim. Her gaze especially lingered on the more arrogant looking and extroverted girls.
Jia Hyson pats her on the head making the Bullied Schoolgirl calm down a bit from her excitement, "Aiyah, don't worry there's plenty to go around. You all remember who you should leave till last?"
All the ghosts nod their heads like obedient little children. Even if they couldn't remember they definitely recognised Tian Shun from aura alone, he'll give him a signal if they forget. Everyone was trembling with eagerness, Jia Hyson was no exception. Finally, it will all end tonight.
"Well then," Jia Hyson cracks a wide and sinister looking smile, "Let's get the party started shall we?"