Chapter 27: 2.11

Feeling spirited from the praise Li Guiren bravely leads the way down, holding the doll carefully as he chatters on cheerily about how cool this all was. There was absolutely not a trace of fear in his face. Jia Hyson couldn't help but admire the ignorant bliss that came from being such a simple child. Even he, an evil small ghost, was feeling deep unease the further down they went into the creepy tunnel.

He may not feel too much anymore but he can remember emotion. The more negative the better though. If he sees something that he knows disgusted him he will thus treat it disgustedly. And this place, this place was pretty disgusting. No place for a child.

There was mold! It was so dark! Did he hear a rat?! Σ(･口･)

"Xiao Ren," he says nervously, "Don't, don't go too fast. This old place is a bit slippery and damp. Be careful, watch your step ah,"

Li Guiren rolls his eyes but there was a pleased little smile on his lips, "Aiyah, I know, I know," he replies a little exasperatedly. His ghost friend was too nice, it was hard to believe he was capable of breaking someone's hands with his hair alone.

Even though hurting people like that is very wrong, they had hurt Wei first so it was okay. Li Guiren has decided to protect his friend until the very end. Like Police Detective Xi with the pretty Miss Chen Huifang. Except, Li Guiren decides in his heart, Wei was much better looking than Miss Chen. Un, cannot compare.

(⺣◡⺣)♡

Once they reach the end Jia Hyson shudders at the sight of the room.

It looked way too similar to his own death basement.

Did... did all crazies have the same taste in interior design? Why was it all grey cement and black candles? Seriously, there are no guidelines about the color of these things. The dark magic niche group is allowed to have walls of color!

If Jia Hyson would have a creepy ritual room he would make it all blood red. Red walls, red candles, red lighting. Can you imagine how freaked out one would be after crossing a dark tunnel to see such an unexpected yet still disturbing sight? The impact would be much bigger! Even better, it would be harder to see the bloodstains and markings, was it a clean room or was the red all from the blood of the past victims who knows?! Such a nice surprise for later! (╯✧∇✧)╯Hahaha!

No, no, an even better idea is to own a forest and chase his victims around until they find a secret door. Once they escape through after some twists and turns they'll find themselves in an underground small forest! The grass would be filled with a bloody ritual circle, trapping them and filling them all with despair! Yes! And there must be cameras too! ψ(｀∇´)ψ This Laozi wants to see them cry!!!

Bebe: '...' Bebe wants to know how long Host has thought about this but Bebe is too afraid to ask. Because any answer is the wrong answer.

While Jia Hyson chatted with his system to ward off the anxious feeling inside him at the reminders of his past. Li Guiren who was a child that seemed to hold no fear, explored the place with great interest. Jia Hyson felt this was a little abnormal. The yin energy in this place was so rich and dense he felt immediately revitalized and strengthened, but most living people would definitely feel sick and cold, not to mention fearful and uneasy. However it seems the child barely noticed the yin energy, too wrapped up in searching for clues like his favorite character Police Detective Xi.

'The kid seems to have a rare yang body,' Bebe who was more informed about these sort of fantasy world dynamics, comments. 'Bebe doesn't believe he has a pure yang body or he would fully repel yin-based creatures such as host but he has enough to be greatly unaffected by many effects of ghosts, can even fight against them if trained. The temple would happily take him in.'

Jia Hyson: '...what a nice double edged sword I've picked up.'

Aiyah he felt very complicated by this sudden unexpected small golden finger. On one hand, he doesn't have to worry too much about Li Guiren getting sick or any strange side effects because of staying too long by his side which would expose him to a lot of yin energy, on the other, this will make him harder to control when he grows up. If Li Guiren ever wanted to turn his back on Jia Hyson and kill him...

Ah, that sort of dog blooded scene of child betrays parent for the greater good or for a woman is too beautiful to think about. Let's not contemplate it again. Lest Jia Hyson with a [Psychotic Break] at level 10 does something that he currently is emotionally unable to fully regret.

Bebe: '...' Aiyah Bebe doesn't want a Host with a special skill that allows him lose what little empathy he has and is able to seriously consider killing children. It's already enough that it's Host is a pervert with SM tendencies, that lusts over any good face, and likes to imagine terrible horror-themed scenarios to anyone who has annoyed him okay? Which Overseer did he offend to get such a scary host?? Can Bebe apologize??

"Wei, Wei!" Li Guiren suddenly calls out, "Look!"

Jia Hyson glances at Li Guiren, still lost in his unethical thoughts before he violently broke out of his daze, "Li Guiren!" He shouted, "Don't step on a skull! What are you doing?! It's dirty!" This bear child-!

Li Guiren pouted but inwardly he was deeply satisfied. Wei had been silent for a while, looking at him with a cold, unnerving gaze which had unsettled him. He truly felt that if he let his friend continue thinking whatever he had been thinking about it would be very not good for him.

Wei may be a good person but he was still a spirit that came from bad intentions. It was up to Li Guiren to make sure he doesn't fall too deep! Like Police Detective Xi and his cold young genius protege he was trying to nurture Zhang Song. Zhang Song is a very good boy but sometimes he can't help but do bad things like beat a robber almost to death or set a trap which causes the evil CEO to go permanently blind and deaf.

Later on Jia Hyson, who hadn't been out long enough to understand the current media trends, will realize that Police Detective Xi wasn't a children's cartoon kids enjoy to watch on Sunday mornings but a dog-blooded crime show that mothers like to watch on the weekends because of the thrill and the handsomeness of the cast. It also served as good talking material as some of the episodes could get very messy, life, death, mercy and despair. It wasn't a bad show, just... not one really suitable for children to watch.

One episode is about an hour and the show aired everyday with reruns. There was no way someone didn't notice Li Guiren was watching mature content. Jia Hyson sneers at the so-called adult supervision the kid had. No wonder he was still so weirdly calm after seeing Professor Shen get attacked, as well as those other messy events.

However that was in the future and currently Jia Hyson was still under the impression that his family's dumpling was very innocent and cute but a little too brave for his own good. To casually play with a human skull- goodness! Even he hadn't been exposed to mild gore until he had been about ten okay!?

Bebe: '...what?'

Jia Hyson: 'Look, it was my first time taking care of goldfish okay? And the pet lady said it was fine to feed them live worms. How was I supposed to know they would get a craving for flesh?!'

Bebe: '...what.'

Jia Hyson: 'Ah, my mother's favorite fish Fatty was the first one to get hit. So sad, one day he had two eyes the next he only had one. Could see the pink little curve where the eyeball used to sit. Poor Fatty kept swimming at an angle for two days before he finally disappeared.'

Bebe: '...how many goldfish did you have?'

Jia Hyson: 'I think around sixteen? We also had those snails that cleaned the algae. I suspect they are responsible for us being unable to find the remains.'

Bebe: '...' what a massacre.

Jia Hyson: 'Long story short the last one standing after a fortnight died of a stomachache.'

Bebe: '...' wow

Jia Hyson: 'The moral of this story is that cannibalism will fill your stomach but not necessarily your heart.' •̀.̫•́✧

Bebe: '...' Isn't the moral of the story not to give you small things to raise lest you turn them into killers?

Jia Hyson: 'Damn, you know what, I'm really craving some fish and chips right now.'

Bebe: '...' Please stop.

Li Guiren obediently lifted his foot away from the skull, and suddenly Jia Hyson could sense the room give a sigh of relief. Actually, the presence of the spirits had become even stronger like previously they had been hiding and now they were peeking out, "Who's there?!" He shouts, "Show yourself!"

There's a pause, as if the demand needed to settle into the room before it could be processed. However after a moment the room immediately went even colder than before. Li Guiren shivers, his little breath now visible. Jia Hyson felt a little distressed for his pitiful cold dumpling but it was muted enough to ignore in favor of staring at the trio of ghosts that appeared.

One woman and two men. The woman was dressed elegantly, her black dress decorated with hand sewn white flowers with honey gold centers. One of the men was also dressed up expensively, a silk crimson tang suit filled with dragons and the other was more conservative and scholarly, wearing glasses and a simple western long-sleeved white shirt and grey pants. They were all equally very attractive, not defying gravity beautiful like Bai Li Wei but definitely good-looking enough to be strong contenders for Asia's next top specter.

Jia Hyson appreciated their appearance for a moment before appreciating the trio's own reaction to his beauty. Since they were all ghosts they could easily see each other unless they actively hid. If Jia Hyson preferred to live inside the doll the other ghosts will only know a ghost is inside the doll but not necessarily their appearance. Since Jia Hyson dislikes living inside it however, the trio could see Bai Li Wei's beautiful ghostly figure floating around the doll and the boy holding the doll.

Their expressions could be described as the shock of realizing there were truly mountains beyond mountains. That there was always something bigger and better than you in the wide world. The little boy was so cute and lovable holding a pretty doll and the young ghost was simply too stunning to look straight at! The aesthetic combination of the three subjects together greatly outweighed their own trio.

They hadn't been dead for that long, did the next generation eat heavenly pills to suddenly look so good?

Meanwhile the family dumpling was looking around cluelessly. If the ghosts don't purposely show themselves it is hard for living people, especially those with more yang energy in their bodies to see them. Since women are more inclined to yin attributes they are naturally a little more sensitive to these sort of things but on the downside they'll be more affected by ghosts as well. Which makes sense given women seemed to always be the first one to sense something amiss in the starring group of a horror scenario, well, unless they were ditzy bimbos or those people who refuse to believe in anything but science right up until a ghost plunges a hand into their chests and rips them apart into bloody messes.

Their pale faces would contrast delightfully against the crimson blooming meat flowers bursting out of their chest, crimson vines curling out from their exposed ribs down cooling flesh, they could only give a helpless squawk of dismay, shock and indignation before they fall into an ungainly heap on the cold floor...

Bebe: 'Host, your internal monologues have gotten gorier...' The plot ideas and short stories it's host has recorded in Bebe's data for when he can finally write again were all horror stories and tragedies. Not one single happy ending and not one intact body after death. Very hard to read. But it was unfortunately still very good, better than a lot of other stories and so Bebe, with nausea and the data equivalent of gritted teeth, keeps secretly reading it over and over.

"Wei? What's going on? Are they here?" Li Guiren felt puzzled and irritated at being left out. His mood was even worse because he couldn't see Wei but those other ghosts probably could. That wasn't fair, Wei was his friend! Wei can only be seen by him, held by him, they must share all their secrets and help each other forever! This sort of illogical possessiveness was hard to understand for most people but young little Li Guiren felt it was made perfect sense.

Patting the boy on the head soothingly, a silent gesture to keep calm and quiet, Jia Hyson then turned to the three ghosts with a faint polite smile. The trio who was still struck dumb by his beauty were simply blinded by this barely present smile. Aiyah, it was already unfair enough to be so pretty okay? Why is it when he smiles the beauty is doubled, no, tripled? How devastating!

"Hello," Jia Hyson greets nicely, unwilling to make a bad impression for his future housemates as well as the keys to uncover the mystery behind this house. "My name is Bai Li Wei. You must be the original tenants?"

"Yes," The woman spoke up first, looking a little awkward but not uncomfortable receiving unexpected guests, "I am Xia Cuifen, the scholar over there is Zhou He and the other one is Bai Honghui."

"Hello," Zhou He fiddles with his sleeve nervously and Bai Honghui just nods and makes a sound of acknowledgement, crossing his arms in an intimidating 'I'm waiting' posture.

Jia Hyson gives all three of these pretty people a thumbs up. An independent courteous woman, a shy intelligent gentleman and an arrogant rich boy. Aiyah some of his favorite flavors along with stoic military virgin, wild animal tsundere, passionately lustful yet timidly romantic and obliviously pining idiot.

"Wei?" Li Guiren calls out again.

Jia Hyson sighs and leans over to whisper in Li Guiren's ears a quick introduction, unwilling to show his corporeal state since he wanted to save energy in case he must fight. However, just this action alone made the three ghosts shocked.

"You can communicate with him?" Zhou He questions with wide eyes. "How?"

With a weird look at them, Jia Hyson answers easily, "By putting spiritual energy into your voice?"

The three were once again looking at him with dumb looks.

Jia Hyson looks at these 'old hands' with confusion and a bit of contempt. They've been haunting this house for over thirty years right? And yet they can't even figure out how to imbue some spiritual power into their voices? They have such a good environment to cultivate the negative energy but their potential as ghosts seems fairly bad, can't even do basic ghost shit. Don't they know hearing an invisible person crying in an abandoned house like this is one of the most unnerving things to hear in the middle of the night? There's no point of being a ghost if you can't communicate okay? Aiyah such a waste, no wonder the quality of paranormal activity in the story was so terrible despite being a haunted house for over a hundred years.

"Spiritual energy?" The woman carefully questioned.

The contempt in his eyes deepens, "You do realize we are spirits right? We need to absorb negative yin energy to improve our spiritual states which is essentially energy. Hence, spiritual energy." His tone has immediately turned cold and sternly condescending. The three adult ghosts suddenly recalled the memory of a teacher back when they were still quite young, sneering down at the class as they all failed to answer a simple maths problem asking how they could possibly not know such a basic thing. The young teenage ghost had the exact same unsightly expression and tone. Even the pressure they felt back then was the same, the pressure of someone of a higher status looking down on you.

Bai Honghui, the domineering looking aristocrat was even more intimidated. He had a very good family background but very strict and high standards to uphold meaning he had constantly been terrorized by many of his childhood tutors, especially his etiquette ones. For a moment he had the irrepressible fear that this little jade ghost would bring out the rattan and hit the back of his legs.

Subconsciously they all shrank away with ashamed faces.

Pretty faces and empty heads! Jia Hyson spat inconsiderately in his mind as he looked at these three seniors quivering silently like lowly quails. While he doesn't want to admit it, over time Jia Hyson could vaguely feel his temperament become more short tempered, controlling and vicious. If he didn't already have a lifetime of bickering friendship with his system or felt such a strong similarity with his past love, Bebe and Li Guiren wouldn't be treated with such a friendly attitude still. He knew he had to train up the ghosts in this mansion but who knew the first batch was so incompetent?!

Other than the fairy in the mirror, the doll ghost which is himself, the three specters in the basement which must be this trio, the story also mentions a few other spirits that Jia Hyson has to keep an eye. There were at least six more important ghosts, the drowned girl in the bathroom, the phantom shadow in the hall, the disfigured child who wants to play, the black bride looking for revenge, the doctor that enjoys experiments, and the toy soldier that constantly makes rounds around the house. Each had potential but had ultimately acted as nothing but soy sauce for most of the story, if this could be translated into movie terms, they were all basic bitch jump scares. Scary at first, but ultimately bland, boring and frankly a little annoying.

The three specters were possibly the most soy sauce to ever soy sauce, in fact, they were so lame the basement was officially considered a safe space in the group by the third time they entered. Just vague white silhouettes in the corner of the room where you can occasionally hear their whispering. Even at the climax of the story they failed to do anything but whisper a little louder than usual, making the individuals feel their hair stand on end before running out unscathed. Jia Hyson had been stunned as he read about such useless ghosts and now all he could feel was utter disdain.

It seems old ginger doesn't get spicier with age. They just turn stale. 눈_눈

Bebe: ...those old gingers aren't getting spicier but his old Host certainly is.