CH 11

Don’t bully others.

Ji Chen Ai thought that Zhou Yaoyun would make up with him the next day. As a result, three or four days passed, but Zhou Yaoyun did not take the initiative to say a word to him. Unless necessary, he would refuse to say even a superfluous word, sporting a sullen face.

At first, Chen Ai didn’t take it seriously. But later, when he found out that Zhou Yaoyun was really angry, he took the initiative to apologize, admitting that he shouldn’t have hidden it from him.

Listening to Ji Chen Ai’s apologies, Zhou Yaoyun, who was washing clothes with his head down, turned around, “Brother, do you really know your mistake?”

Looking at Zhou Yaoyun’s serious eyes, he felt inexplicably guilty. “Hm,” he said.

Zhou Yaoyun turned around and casually wiped the water on his apron. He squatted down and looked directly into Ji Chen Ai’s somewhat shifty eyes. “Brother, you promised me a few days ago. If you are bullied, you will tell me, right?”

Ji Chen Ai replied: “… Right.”

Zhou Yaoyun suddenly stretched his hand to touch Ji Chen Ai’s yellowing hair, “Brother, believe me, all right? I will protect you.”

At this moment, Zhou Yaoyun wasn’t like a teenager who had just reached the age of nineteen at all. His eyes were full of firmness, to the extent where Ji Chen Ai could also feel his determination.

Over a period of time, Ji Chen Ai’s positive energy moved over 300, then climbed up to 400 in record speed, constantly increasing. Even if he sometimes didn’t do anything, a prompt sound would notify him about an increase of energy.

For this kind of phenomenon, Xiao Qi’s explanation was: “The person you changed is doing good. So, it’s also positive energy you’ve made for the world.”

Listening to this, Ji Chen Ai asked, “What about the bad things done by the people I’ve changed?”

Xiao Qi laughed happily and said, “Other people believe that ‘human nature is evil[1]’.”

[1]性恶论 [xìng è lùn]: theory of original evil of human nature;  [T/N: Xiao Qi is saying that it is natural human do evil/bad things. So, Ji Chen Ai wouldn’t be blamed for this.]

Ji Chen Ai also laughed. He found that this system called Xiao Qi was really retaliating against society.

After the reconciliation with Zhou Yaoyun, Ji Chen Ai went out again to collect garbage, but he did not meet the several bear[2] children for several days. Ji Chen Ai thought that things would be over. As a result, he met the girl who ran away from him the other day.

[2] bear: naughty

Because Xiao Qi had said that the little girl held no malice towards him, she was not met with the same fate as the other kids. Thus, Ji Chen Ai still had a good impression on her. When he found the girl shrinking herself behind him, he stopped moving, turned around, and asked, “Is there anything wrong?”

When the little girl saw Ji Chen Ai stopping suddenly, she became shocked and looked around. 

Although she was relieved to see that there were pedestrians everywhere, she still hesitated and refused to step forward. 

Seeing the little girl’s silence, Ji Chen Ai asked again, “Is there anything wrong?”

The little girl bit her lip, as if she was mentally doing some kind of psychological preparation. After a long time, she stepped closer to Ji Chen Ai and asked in a faint voice: “Did, did you make them like that?”

Make them like that? Ji Chen Ai thought for a bit, then understood what she meant. He said, “What’s your name?”

The little girl shook her head. She seemed reluctant to tell Ji Chen Ai her name, but she felt that it was impolite, so she whispered, “Sister said that you can’t tell a monster your name.”

Ji Chen Ai laughed when he heard her words.

Looking at Ji Chen Ai’s brilliant smile, the little girl’s fear reduced. She approached a few more steps and murmured, “I apologize for them… Can, can you return them back to normal?”

Ji Chen Ai already thought about the effects of ‘The Devil’s Smile’. He had asked Xiao Qi what those skills were before, but the system’s reply was vague and perfunctory. 

“What’s wrong with them?” he asked.

The little girl said, “They’ve become really strange…”

“How strange?” Ji Chen Ai pressed.

The little girl said, “They laugh all day and all night, and they don’t go to school. When they see garbage, they pick it up. When someone does something bad, they stop it.”

Ji Chen Ai listened to the little girl’s description and suddenly felt that the name of this skill was just too appropriate – The Devil’s Smile, the only one who smiles is the devil.

Those who had no malice, like the little girl in front of him, were not affected by this skill.

The smile on Ji Chen Ai’s face faded by a lot. “They’re starting to do good, aren’t they? You want them to turn back to before?”

The little girl stammered for a while. A short period later, she said, “I, I know that they were wrong that day. Usually, they’re annoying, too. But, but if Xiao Lei continues to do so, sister will be very sad… Sister is very kind to me.”

Ji Chen Ai looked carefully at the girl’s scrupulous appearance. Inexplicable irritability arose in his heart. Was he like this before? Even if he got hurt, even if he was faced with others’ misunderstandings, did he still smile and treat the world well?

Ji Chen Ai stretched his hand and touched his legs, saying lightly, “If you want them to return back to their former self, it is not impossible.”

The little girl’s eyes lit up.

Ji Chen Ai waved to the little girl, beckoning her to come to him, and said, “But you need to pay the price.”

The little girl was stunned. She didn’t move towards Ji Chen Ai.

At this time, Ji Chen Ai took his rubber gloves out from his pocket and said to the little girl, “My gloves are dirty.”

The little girl said weakly, “I, I can help you clean up.”

Ji Chen Ai shook his head, his expression brimming with a shuddering chill, “No, I need a new pair of gloves using your skin to make it.”

Almost instantly, the little girl’s eyes were filled with tears. She stammered, “You, you are really a monster.”

Ji Chen Ai suppressed his laughter and gave a deep snort: “If I’m not a monster, how can I make them like that?”

The little girl cried more sadly, weeping and wiping her tears with her sleeve.

Xiao Qi, who had been silent for a long time, couldn’t take it any longer. Faintly, a sentence was heard, “You are good or bad, oh~”

Ji Chen Ai ignored it, continuing to stare at the little girl.

She slowly lowered her head. Looking at the new scarlet-skinned shoes on her feet, she cried, “Will I die without the skin?”

Ji Chen Ai nodded solemnly.

The little girl said, “Can I go and say my final words to the people at home?” 

“Of course,” said Ji Chen Ai, “I’ll wait for you here this time tomorrow.”

The little girl looked up at Ji Chen Ai and left sobbing. The passersby looked scornfully at him, seeming to despise him for making a little girl cry.

Ji Chen Ai, with an innocent expression on his face, happily wheeled himself back home. He even asked for an extra bowl of rice during dinner.

Upon seeing Ji Chen Ai in a good mood, Zhou YaoYun opened his mouth and asked, “Brother, what are you so happy about?”

Ji Chen Ai used chopsticks to stuff tofu in his mouth. After swallowing it, he said, “I saw an adorable person.”

Zhou YaoYun asked, “Are they more adorable than me…”

Ji Chen Ai silently looked at Zhou YaoYun. Unable to resist Zhou YaoYun’s eyes, he had no choice but to say, “No, my little brother is the most adorable person in the world.”

Zhou YaoYun was satisfied with the answer and hummed an ‘uh-huh’. Then, he used chopsticks to give Ji Chen Ai food.

The next day, Ji Chen Ai waited for the crying girl at the appointed place.

Looking as the little girl came closer and closer, Ji Chen Ai said to Xiao Qi, “Ai, my gloves are here.” 

Yesterday, Ji Chen Ai had asked Xiao Qi whether or not ‘The Devil’s Smile’ could be stopped. Xiao Qi’s answer was that as long as their evil intentions toward Ji Chen Ai was no more, they could stop smiling. Therefore, this skill was used to punish and judge those children’s evil intentions. But, looking at how many days they were punished, it was estimated that they were full of malice towards Ji Chen Ai.

When the little girl came, she looked at Ji Chen Ai as if she had made a great decision. She said, “I’m here, you, you promised to restore them.”

Ji Chen Ai looked at the little girl’s swollen eyes. It’s not hard to guess that the little girl cried for all of yesterday night. He said, “Wouldn’t your mom and dad be sad if you died like this?”

The little girl whispered, “I don’t have any parents.”

Ji Chen Ai said, “Huh?”

The little girl continued, “I was adopted from an orphanage… But it doesn’t matter. I have a sister who is kind to me.”

“So, you are willing to sacrifice yourself to make your sister happy?” asked Ji Chen Ai.

The little girl nodded her head.

Ji Chen Ai looked at her, “Then how do you know that your sister won’t be sad without you?”

“Because sister still has Xiao Lei, ah,” said the little girl.

The little girl had already mentioned Xiao Lei’s name twice. Ji Chen Ai said, “Have you decided yet?”

The little girl nodded heavily.

“Now, tell me your name,” said Ji Chen Ai.

The little girl took a deep breath, “My name is Zhu Yun Ya.”

Ji Chen Ai pulled out a beautifully packaged candy from his pocket and said, “Eat it.”

The little girl began to cry again. She thought the candy on Ji Chen Ai’s hand was something like □□. However, she took it, opened the wrapping paper, and stuffed it into her mouth. She said vaguely, “Swe, sweet?” 

“Of course it’s sweet,” Ji Chen Ai said.

The little girl stared. “Aren’t you a monster?”

“Of course I’m a monster,” Ji Chen Ai replied.

The little girl’s eyes were gloomy again.

Ji Chen Ai continued “But I found a new pair of gloves yesterday. I don’t need you yet. You eat my □□. If you do something bad in the future, I’ll turn you into gloves.”

The little girl said, “Why, why don’t you eat me now?”

Ji Chen Ai said, “Go back and tell them that if they bully others again, they will continue to smile.”

The little girl showed a brilliant smile with tears on her face. She said, “You are not a monster, are you?”

Taking out his gloves, Ji Chen Ai showed an evil expression, “If I am not a monster, how could I have gloves made of someone’s skin.”

The little girl screamed, turned around and ran. Behind her, Ji Chen Ai was bursting with laughter.

Xiao Qi, who watch the whole thing from beginning to end, said that it has had enough with Ji Chen Ai’s bad taste…

Ji Chen Ai said, “Since ‘The Devil’s Smile’ is so easy to use, isn’t the other two–‘The End of the Liar’ and ‘The Stealer’s Regret’–even more difficult to deal with[3]? Xiao Qi, the negative energy is much stronger than the positive energy.”

[3] 厉害 [lìhai]: difficult to deal with / difficult to endure / ferocious / radical / serious / terrible / violent / tremendous / awesome

Xiao Qi replied softly: “Host, only with positive energy can you have legs; negative energy can only break legs, oh.”

Ji Chen Ai: ”……” He had too much fun that he forgot about his bad legs.

Xiao Qi continued: ”The positive energy value from all the good things done by those who were affected by these skills will belong to you.”

Ji Chen Ai thought: No wonder the positive energy value rose up so swiftly recently. Turns out the number of former garbage collectors had increased, ah.

“Keep on working hard. Now you have nearly 500 positive energy values! Positive energy values are harder to get than negative energy values, thus, your first skill can be activated when you have 2,000 energy values,” Xiao Qi explained.

“What skill?” asked Ji Chen Ai.

Xiao Qi said, “Invincible fly fly fly fly legs.”

“Speak human,” said Ji Chen Ai.

Xiao Qi said: “The ability to walk in a short time.”

Able to walk? Ji Chen Ai’s eyes suddenly lit up. He felt like his whole person suddenly had a goal to strive for.

Xiao Qi continued: “But I forgot to remind you that you just bullied and make a little girl cried…”

Ji Chen Ai’s face turned black. It’s unlikely this would deduct his energy values ba.

Xiao Qi said: “Fortunately, you finally gave the little girl candy…”

Ji Chen Ai breathed a sigh of relief.

“So, only a deduction of 10 energy value is fine la,” finished Xiao Qi.

Ji Chen Ai: “……” Fine what fart[4] fine ah. He needed to collect another 10 values through garbage, okay?

[4] 屁 [pì]: fart / flatulence / nonsense / (usu. in the negative) what / (not) a damn thing