No.
I can't.
He murmured. He looks like a mess. In his head, the word repeated over and over again as if it will change the outcome.
The fate are seal once the agreement has been reached once before.
…..
Li Jie open his eyes, abruptly ended his dream in which he quickly forgotten. His mind already reserved for other things. He look across the room in which he fell asleep.
The furniture made out of wood looking simple and modest, yet all elegant because of the intricate geometrical carving. Not his apartment complex, again today. Not his home.
The relaxing sound of the river made its way into the room, filling in the quietness of the morning.
Natural sunlight peak through the close window, thought a small light peak into the eye of a boy named Li Jie. He rested his head on the wooden table, he groans and frown from the piercing sunlight.
He stretches his body and twist his back. Sleeping on the table is not good for the body, though Li Jie just ignores that fact.
Laying on a bed just remind him of a terrible past where he unable to move a single muscle, his body is not his own to call and he's just a blind spectator only hearing what's around him.
To tell you a story, he was once a salary man was about to go to his sister's wedding. Then, a flower vase fell to his head from the 3rd floor making him suffer a permanent brain damage and he spend the rest of his life till death in bed.
He pity his sister, really. Happy wedding day, sis.
After he died, he was shocked to woke up in a different world and in a stranger's body.
He stretches his hand to the sun, still feel surreal. He's reincarnated in another world with an ancient Chinese setting. His hand is small and so does his body. He wasn't used to have his legs short there's time where he almost fell off chairs and stairs. This time, he carefully reaches his feet to the ground and stand up. He frowns, still not used to how weird this is.
Li Jie was surprised to find a young boy standing beside him, his back lower like a cowardly dog. The boy brow is narrowed from worries, ".... Master? Please, sleep on the bed next time...." The timid boy said, his voice was low even mosquito is louder.
"…" Li Jie forgot the boy's name.
"Master.... Please, it's been half a week. Could you at least, tell this subordinate what's wrong? We need to come to the Soaring Wind Sect before at the end of the week!" His voice getting more anxious.
"...." Li Jie still half-awake, nonchalantly look at the servant. But the servant looks into his half-awake act in a different light and spontaneously drop down to the ground.
His master has a bad tempered, and hates being told what to do, and his anger couldn't easily ease by a little beating.
A rumor circulated in the Wu residence, his young lord once killed his servant because of a simple mishap two years ago. Even the corpse was feed to the crocodile.
Bao Lin was terrified when he found he was assigned to work under him! Bao Lin is an orphan, so he doesn't have anyone to look for him if he's gone or cry if he died, that's too pathetic... Bao Lin determined not end up with that tragic fate.
He's been careful and tend to his every need even if had he's not been asked. But the day they postpone their journey, the Master is acting odd.
He rather sleeps on the floor and the table than sleeping on the bed. Then, he wants to dress by himself and do his preparation when he never done so since birth.
After that, young master always seems lost in thought and daydreaming, unpredictably burst to anger and scream foul language as if he's talking with someone invisible.
Because his master has been so weird, Bao Lin forgot to watch out for his words.
Li Jie is not familiar with the culture yet and thought Bao Lin kowtowed to the ground as a cultured custom he's not familiar with. He walks past Bao Lin and climb on the seat for the make-up table. He is not used to his appearance, flinch a little looking at the bronze mirror.
Emerald pair of eyes and two brows with a sharpness of a knife, his stares will make one unable to move your gaze like a green snake hypnotizing its victims.
His long hair is a sign of wealth and possess the natural air of a noble blood, the son of the Scarlet Blossom Pavilion Patriarch, the richest sect in the cultivation world, an existence of which is not Li Jie's but he have to live in it now.
If he could guess from looks, by the round cheek and big innocent eyes he's approximately 12 years old, his name is Wu Haoyu. Such a young boy with so many potentials, is it not just a cruel joke?
Li Jie caresses his long hair. There's no language gap between him and this world for reasons probably magic. He's also a quick leaner, for a short time he knows how to dress himself in multiple layers of cloth and navigate the building halls. But he can't do his hair, it's long and reach to his thigh's. He always has short hair and never realize how troublesome they are.
It got tangled literally everywhere! His face, his cloth, his finger, and got to his food! Not to mentioned, it hurts when he accidently flips his hair out of his face and it slap his face!
Waiting for the servant, he found the servant basically faceplanted himself to the floor. Lie Jie sigh, he knows that the original is infamous for being a little devil that prey on the innocent soul, whether it's true or not, he's already has lots of other things to worry about other than that.
"Do my hair for me, plea-" he fakes a cough, "Right now." His tone changes to have more demeaner and authority.
"Huh...?" Bao Lin was sure he steps out the line, questioning his young master's decision. The young master Wu Haoyu have a bad temper and like to break things when he's angry. Young Master usually can't tolerate anyone questioning his authority.
Young Master must had enough with him and decide to play with him before he kill him.
"Master! You are the Young Master I serve, yet these few days you refuse to except my service. Why? Is it because I am lacking, and you don't need me anymore?" A ball of anxiousness accumulating from that previous days finally burst, and Bao Lin combust to a tearing mess.
"It's not that...*sigh*" Li Jie gives up and limply sit down on the chair. He picked on the jade comb and straightened his hair."....."
Bao Lin was surprised he's not being punished, he looks up– his master attempting to comb his hair and fail, restart and attempting to do it again and fail again. His Young Master is stubborn and earnest for something so simple.
For some unfortunate miracle, the jade comb got stuck on Young Master's straight hair and he couldn't get it off his head, using force to pull it off result in a painful cry.
Bao Lin is stupid and easy to get lost in the mood. Less afraid of Li Jie, he extended his hand, "Young Master, please.... let me help."
Li Jie was relief someone offer their help to him, his lips arch. "If you can do it better, then yes. You may help me."
....
The first who greeted him on this world was Neo. A mysterious man with mysterious power. Neo can only appear on a mirror and can only be seen by Li Jie.
Apparently, on that day, Neo was on a vacation and looking around in his human form. He walked by Li Jie company as Li Jie's leaving the front door of his company, Neo hit Li Jie's shoulder and Li Jie car keys tangled in Neo's shirt.
Whiles that happening, an office worker was chatting idle by the window with a porcelain rose vase, their elbow accidently knocks the vase and throwing it out the window of the 3rd floor.
"Where's my key?" Li Jie touches his pocket. He turns to his back and search for his missing keys, that's where a vase fell from the 3rd floor fell on top of his head.
So, it's completely Neo's fault that Li Jie body became a waste....
"I'm indebted to you. But I'm not that world's guardian so I can't actually reincarnate you there. If I don't find a way to repay my dept I'm going to be punished. So, I thought I could just reincarnate you into one of the worlds that I have control of?" Neo's voice talk to him by the mirror.
"You're welcome by the way, I pick a fantasy world for you to live in!" He just cant help but to graciously added with a big arch of his lips.
There are only one single strands of sanity left in him to not jump and punch Neo in the mirror he appears. "YOU'RE WELCOME --MY ASS! I CAN'T BELIEVE-"
"Master! What happened?" A boy with a plain brown robe barge in. After sprinting here in a panic, he looks out of breath and his face pale with fright.
It was a distressing sight. Li Jie force himself to calm down. ".... Nothing, get out." Though his voice failed to sound assuring, it was cold as an ice. The servant instantly escapes.
Li Jie face Neo with a furrow eyebrow, Neo was smiling amused by the servant horrified expression, "You'll fit right in." He thought it was funny the servant runs away from Li Jie as if he runs away from death itself. "You know frowning isn't going to help you. Smile for a bit."
"..." Li Jie glare became colder.
"Ok fine, terrible thing to say." Neo doesn't have a physical appearance and looking at him equivalent as looking at the sun while wearing sunglass with a bluish filter, but he does have a silhouette of a human that's not human enough.
Li Jie sigh, "This is useless and hopeless. I already prefer to be in the underworld."
"Wait wait wait! Don't make a hasty decision! How about you get to know about this world first?" Neo urged. "Come on! You are rich, powerful and handsome! Isn't that a good thing?" It's not easy to put Li Jie to where he is, if he does anything rash Neo will pay for the damage control.
"I didn't think of it before, what happened to the original owner of this body? This person is just a child, if I stole this body from him, then I don't want it!" Li Jie has common sense, of course he didn't want to steal a child's life!
"It's fine. That boy died from qi deviation after getting his hands on a high-level elixir and stupidly ate it not knowing that the immense energy cannot be contained in his small and untrained body. I talk to him about lending his body for you and he agrees."
"He agrees?" Li Jie just been in this world for 48 hours, everyone in his environment likes to avoid him and look at him as if he's a bomb that'll explode if not properly treated. It gives off the impression that this boy is known as impatient, arrogant and treated people badly. Maybe it's a lie… "How do I know it's true?" He ask.
"Peh, please, I have plenty of stuff to do then lying to a mortal about needles stuff!"
"Then, why? Isn't his life is basically perfect?" Perhaps, there's more layer waiting to be unfold behind his decision to let Li Jie take his body.
"That I look forward for you to learn about it yourself." There's a glint of excitement in his eyes.
To Neo, human is like his personal toy so complicated he could play with it for eons and not get bored.
Neo can see Li Jie life; he has someone he cherished very much and will do anything for. He is quick to adapt and learn to his surroundings, quick to acted as the arrogant and impatient young master without being told by following the flow. A perfect doll with both brain and heart to survive till the climax."... I wonder if it's you make a difference?" Neo whispered.
Li Jie didn't quite hear it, before he could ask, Neo continues. "How about we made a deal? I can reincarnate you back to your world with your memory and meet your family after you complete a task. How is that sound?"
"You can?" His eyes brighten with hope.
Then, suspicion kicks in. Didn't a moment ago he said he can't reincarnate him back to his world because he's not the guardian-or whatever? Before that even, there's a lot of flaws in his explanation, clearly, he shouldn't trust him. "How about reverse time? My real age ain't young." He raises a brow.
"I can. It'll took a lot from me though. So, you have to do something for me."
Li Jie is still hesitant.
Neo contracts is equivalent of making a deal with the devil. But it's too tempting, the right decision weight down on the fact he wants to see his sister again, no matter what it'll cost him. "Sure... As long as I don't have to kill anybody." Li Jie throws him a glare of suspicion. "Right?"
"Your role is one of the jealous underlings of a villain that bullies the main character." It breaks all of Li Jie hope for normalcy.
"I want you to be the ultimate final villain of this book. You have to make the protagonist experience a pain he'll never forget. And then, you get what you want." Neo sounds' really excited. "Deal?"
He contemplates his thoughts. Scheming and killing is the extent of where this should lead to....
60 years of living on a bunk bed, breathing and not alive. He can still hear his sister, Li Ming cry, lingering in his ears repeating all over again.
At the first week, there wasn't a time she visits that she didn't cry. And Li Ming never cries. She a strong older sister that takes care of him in an abusive household after both of their parents died. If there's a chance to never inflict that pain to her, he would take it.
He can taste the bitterness and uncertainty in his tongue, he swallows it. He takes a deep breath with his eyes close; he opens and his eyes flash a glint of resolution. "Ok,"
A single word, he seal his fate for a lifetime of pain and suffering. He regrets it.