Zhang Jun ended up legally arrested for the crime of money laundering and was due for court in 15 days. Seeing as this was a crime with a maximum sentence of up to 20 years and a minimum sentence of 16 months, both with fines, the family head was high strung with worry and started making important calls the minute he returned.
The Zhang madam was operating on auto pilot as she walked up to her room. She just could not believe that there was a possibility of her beloved son going to jail. Even when Li Shiyu tried to speak to her the old lady ignored him. After all, all these wouldn't have happened if the omega trained his child properly and steered him away from the path of evil.
She secretly blamed Li Shiyu even though she had been aware of the moment when her grandchild swiped the money and even encouraged her son to pool in the money into the Zhang conglomerate.
Zhang Ye had been unresponsive all day. The SIB had tried their best to get him to speak and even when Li Shiyu and the Zhang madam coaxed the kid, he remained unresponsive.
This caused them to be alarmed as Zhang Ye was usually a bubbly child so they called in a psychologist. After sometime with the kid, the psychologist had diagnosed him with slight PTSD and without knowing the direct cause, the alpha woman had attributed it to the child being triggered by the uncoordinated emotional state of the adults that morning.
The SIB unit had to let the child go after a long day. They never really planned on using the child's testimony anyways. At that age, the child was considered an incompetent and uncompellable witness in court.
They were more interested in the child's abilities. A prominent hacker at such a young age would have been a wonderful fruit to be nurtured by the government. Too bad his mental state was suddenly unstable. They still planned to check up on the child from time to time to be sure though.
They could not pin the crime of stealing on the child as his actions were subject to coercion by the adults around. They also could not pin the crime on any adult as there was no proof of Zhang Jun, Li Shiyu or any other adult for that matter, influencing the kid's thoughts and actions.
The inhabitants of the Zhang mansion all had a silent dinner. The silence wasn't the comforting type but was one filled with repressed anger, grief and blame. The fact that He Yuan did not show up for dinner totally skipped their minds. Each person was too absorbed in their own thoughts to notice.
Well each person except Zhang Di. The kid kept looking at the stairs leading to the East wing and even when it was time to prepare for bed, the kid did not forget to glare hatefully at the East wing before following after the nanny to his room.
He Yuan observed them from the video feed. He made sure to eat earlier in order to avoid them. The looks Zhang Di kept sending to the East wing did not go unnoticed. He snapped the laptop shut and prepared for bed. He couldn't go after the ring with the adults around.
If the kid decided to scream and draw attention, there was no way he would be able to explain himself and keep Li Yexi from looking shady.
[He Yuan.]
He Yuan woke up to 888's call in the middle of the night. "What?" He answered as he rubbed his eyes. At 888's indication, he looked over to the door.
The door knob was turning slowly, painfully slow. It was borderline creepy. He already knew it was Zhang Di. Li Shiyu's kids had a specialty for being creepy but it seemed the deranged cultivator should be blamed instead.
He Yuan tsked in annoyance, walked over to the drawer to grab a duct tape and then walked over to swing the door open.
Zhang Di's eyes widened and he opened his mouth to scream. He Yuan didn't give the kid the chance as he dragged him in and snapped the duct tape over his mouth.
This cultivator really had a knack for making trouble didn't he? Since He Yuan did not go over to the kids' room like he expected, he decided to sneak over to Li Yexi's room instead.
He probably thought He Yuan was asleep so he planned to come in here and scream, drawing the attention of the adults here and making it look like He Yuan had brought him here.
He would then use the commotion when the adults were hollering at Li Yexi and accusing him of debauched crimes to demand for the ring. This method was not full proof but he didn't have much of a choice.
There wasn't much he could do from a kid's body and earlier, he had lost the connection with the other half of his soul. He had no idea what the omega did with the ring but he had to get it back as soon as possible.
He Yuan quickly pulled the ring off Zhang Di's finger and the kid suddenly froze and stared straight ahead with blank eyes.
Next, he grabbed the hammer and smashed the ring to pieces. The earlier process was repeated but this time, he absorbed the cultivator's soul without the help of Li Yexi's soul thread. This was because the loss of one half of the man's soul had caused a huge damage to the other half.
Without fully absorbing the cultivator's other soul, He Yuan gently ripped off the duct tape from Zhang Di's lips. He winced when he saw that the area around the kid's lips were a little red.
So he took the kid over to the kitchen, grabbed an ice pack and placed it against the little boy's lips to reduce the redness. Next he rushed over to the West wing, sneaked into the kids' room and placed him in his bed.
Zhang Hua was fast asleep in hers whilst Zhang Ye was sleeping in Li Shiyu's room. The state of his child must have left the omega in shock.
"888, the kids would be fine right? It wasn't their fault they were possessed by a rogue cultivator so it would be unfair if they lived the rest of their lives in a vegetative state."
[No need to worry. They're experiencing what is known as soul shock. It would naturally wear off in five days, alongside any memories of the cultivator that resided in them.]
He Yuan let out a breath of relief. "That's great." And then he went back to Li Yexi's room to fully absorb the cultivator's soul.
The next day, Li Yexi discovered that Zhang Di was in the same state as Zhang Ye. He rushed over to the Zhang madam and family head in alarm. The family head left the case to the Zhang madam to handle as he was focused on pulling strings in other to either get his son to stay out of jail, or reduce his possible sentence.
Although the Zhang madam held a grudge, both kids were still the Zhang family grandchildren and so she pulled her connections in order to invite the best psychologists and even psychiatrists to examine them.
None of them could come up with a concrete explanation for the kids' mental state but surprisingly, five days later, the kids returned to normal. The only difference being that they were much more quiet and reserved and had none of their previous maturity.
The Zhang inhabitants just attributed it to the aftereffects of their sickness. The government caught wind of the news that Zhang Ye was back to normal and called him in again but they were disappointed to find that the kid had no idea what they were yapping about.
Soon enough, fifteen days had elapsed and it was time for Zhang Jun's court trial.