Ye Sheng lowered his head and stared at the shredded train ticket scattered across the steps, still feeling as though none of it were quite real.
After Butler Li closed the front passenger door, the black sedan quickly pulled away. Like a streak of light, it sped toward the far end of the dimly lit street and disappeared into the depths of the night in the blink of an eye.
Though it was a summer night at the end of June, the wind still cut to the bone. Ye Sheng stood alone on the broad street, his figure slender. He glanced back at the Bureau of the Unnatural’s reception center, his eyes pitch-black and his thoughts impossible to discern.
After a long while, Ye Sheng suddenly laughed, the sound light and cheerful.
He rarely smiled, but when he did, he was beautiful.
This smile was entirely genuine, filled with the relief of someone waking from a nightmare.
“It’s over.”
Nothing had been derailed.
Nothing had changed.
Pulling his suitcase behind him, Ye Sheng descended the steps and headed toward the road.
He had lived for seventeen years without ever leaving Yin Mountain, yet he couldn’t shake the feeling that he and Ning Weichen had known each other before.
The only hazy memory he possessed was from when he was four or five, delirious with a low fever.
Had they met then?
Forget it. It didn’t matter anymore.
After all, they really wouldn’t see each other again.
Those brief three days could be described as a nightmare aboard a train—or a romantic encounter.
Ye Sheng took out his phone to book a ride.
A burst of glaring light suddenly struck his eyes.
A horn sounded, and a white sedan stopped in front of him.
Ye Sheng paused in surprise.
The door opened, and a driver quickly stepped out.
“Are you Mr. Ye Sheng?”
Ye Sheng nodded.
The driver took his suitcase for him and explained with a smile, “Butler Li arranged for me to drive you to the Yuecheng Hotel near Huai’an University. He’s already reserved a room for you there. He said the university dormitories would be locked for the night by now, so since you have nowhere else to go, you can rest there until morning.”
As the driver placed his suitcase in the trunk, Ye Sheng instinctively glanced back at the street in the opposite direction.
The driver noticed and asked with a smile, “Is there something else, Mr. Ye?”
“No.”
“If not, we should get going.”
“All right.”
When Ye Sheng opened the ride-hailing app earlier, he had already discovered how difficult it was to find a car in this area.
It was the middle of the night. There was no reason to make things harder for himself.
The sedan sped through the neon lights.
When Ye Sheng arrived outside the lavishly decorated Yuecheng Hotel, the manager was already waiting for him in the resplendent lobby.
Dressed in a suit and polished leather shoes, the manager accepted his suitcase with a courteous smile.
“Welcome, Mr. Ye. Your suite is on the top floor. Please follow me. At Butler Li’s request, we’ve also prepared some food for you, which will be delivered to your room shortly. Since you’ve recently injured your throat, the dishes have been specially prepared. We hope you’ll understand if they taste slightly unusual.”
Ye Sheng: “……”
Ye Sheng: “…………”
So this was Ning Weichen’s butler?
He had anticipated that Ye Sheng might struggle to find a car after dark.
He had known Ye Sheng wouldn’t be able to enter the dormitory after curfew.
He had considered that Ye Sheng hadn’t eaten since leaving the train.
He had even taken into account that Ye Sheng’s sore throat made it difficult for him to eat solid food.
Nothing had been overlooked. Every detail had been carefully considered.
If Ning Weichen had grown up in an environment like this, it was no wonder Ye Sheng had initially thought he seemed “fragile and pampered.” The young master had an exceptionally perceptive butler by his side and a private doctor constantly on call. How could he not be pampered?
……It must have been terribly difficult for the young master to suffer alongside him on the train.
Ye Sheng wasn’t used to being received with such enthusiasm. Throughout the entire exchange, he did nothing but nod repeatedly without saying a word.
Only after entering the suite and switching on the lights did Ye Sheng realize how extraordinarily large it was.
There were four rooms on either side, with a master bedroom, guest bedrooms, bathrooms, a study, and even a bar. The gallery walls were covered with works bearing various artists’ signatures, while an entire wall of glass cabinets displayed collectibles. The high ceilings made the interior feel spacious and bright. Outside was an observation terrace overlooking the entire illuminated city.
Ye Sheng had no interest in using any part of the suite apart from the bed. Once the hotel staff delivered his food, he ate a few bites and went straight to bed.
The mattress was soft and comfortable, and the room even carried the faint scent of a sleep-inducing fragrance.
But Ye Sheng couldn’t sleep.
He opened his phone and stared at the bloodred eye. In the darkness, he quietly murmured the name.
“ENIAC.”
Every aberration’s file listed the Category it belonged to. Corpse Monsters, Fetus Girl, and Corpse Stitcher all belonged to Master Storyteller, while search belonged to ENIAC.
If Ye Sheng remembered correctly, ENIAC was the name of the world’s first general-purpose computer.
Its full name was Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer.
So what exactly did a Category mean?
He had been in too much pain to concentrate during the meeting, but he had vaguely caught a few terms: “forum,” “Category,” and “Empire.” He had never heard any of them before, yet they gave him an eerie sense of familiarity.
Forget it.
He tapped the app with his finger and warned it, “I’m never using you again. As soon as I have enough money, I’m replacing this phone. Until then, you’d better behave.”
search seemed to understand him and angrily prepared to bite him again. Before it could attack, Ye Sheng quickly switched off the screen and tossed the phone aside.
Ye Sheng’s biological clock woke him at seven the next morning. As soon as he got up, he began making arrangements for university.
After lying dormant for days, the messaging app on his phone was finally put to use again. First, he contacted his academic advisor to complete the move-in formalities. Then he arranged to collect his key from the dormitory supervisor.
As Ye Sheng left with his suitcase, the manager approached him with a broad smile and handed him an information packet about Huai’an University. Inside was an exceptionally clear and comprehensive map.
Huai’an University had four campuses and covered an enormous area, with several shuttle buses operating within the grounds. The packet marked every bus route and listed the name and purpose of every academic building.
“……”
Ye Sheng nodded to the manager and said, “Thank you,” before turning and leaving, bringing his brief, dreamlike life as a young master to an abrupt end.
The moment he stepped through the hotel’s crystal revolving doors, brilliant sunlight poured down over him. The summer sky was perfectly clear, and the breeze carried the scent of magnolias.
Ye Sheng raised the arm holding the university information to shield his eyes, then looked directly into the sunlight. The gloom that had weighed on him for the past few days vanished completely.
Ye Sheng was fortunate. His dormitory was near the university entrance, and the student affairs office wasn’t far away either, so he completed the move-in process without difficulty.
By the end of June, most departments had already finished their final examinations, leaving the campus nearly deserted. One glance at the map was enough for him to memorize most of the university, so he threw the packet away as soon as he entered the campus.
When he collected his key, the dormitory supervisor thought he was handsome and teasingly asked whether he had a girlfriend.
Ye Sheng shook his head. He had no intention of dating or getting married, yet the question put him in an excellent mood.
It felt like the beginning of a wonderful new life.
The men’s dormitory area was filled with camphor trees, and the air carried the clean scent of laundry detergent. Ye Sheng walked to Building 4 and took his suitcase to Room 404.
It was a four-person dormitory with loft beds above desks. The graduating seniors who had lived there before had already cleared everything out.
Ye Sheng chose a bed at random and began cleaning. He worked quickly. While wiping down the desk, he dislodged a card left behind by the previous occupant.
The messy handwriting, which resembled a dog’s scrawl, read:
[Junior! You absolutely have to date during your first year! Take it from your senior’s bitter experience: the older a man gets, the less he’s worth TUT!]
Ye Sheng stared at it for a moment before a smile escaped him.
But his good mood was soon interrupted by a phone call.
—Huang Yiyue.
Ye Sheng raised an eyebrow, placed the card in the drawer, and stepped onto the balcony.
“Hello? Shengsheng? Have you arrived in Huai City?” Huang Yiyue’s ingratiating voice came through the phone.
Ye Sheng couldn’t be bothered explaining that the train had arrived early.
“Where are you? I’ll come to you now. Give me my things.”
Huang Yiyue laughed awkwardly on the other end.
“I…… Shengsheng, do you really dislike talking to your mother that much?”
“Address,” Ye Sheng repeated coolly.
Huang Yiyue took a deep breath.
“Shengsheng, I can’t get away right now. Go find your younger brother first. I’ll have him bring you to the Xie residence. We can discuss everything else in person. I’ll send you his number and address.”
A string of numbers and an address soon appeared on Ye Sheng’s phone.
The address belonged to a bar.
“One of your brother’s friends is celebrating his birthday tonight,” Huang Yiyue explained.
“Wasn’t he born in winter?”
Huang Yiyue fell silent for a long time.
“Your other younger brother. Xie Wenci.”
Ye Sheng’s finger was already resting on the button to end the call.
Huang Yiyue hurriedly raised her voice.
“Shengsheng! Before your grandmother died, she repeatedly told me that I had to give you what she left behind! She said it contained something extremely important to you!”
Ye Sheng moved his finger away. His eyes darkened as he said quietly, “Huang Yiyue, are you threatening me?”
Huang Yiyue sounded uncomfortable, forcing a false smile into her voice.
“Shengsheng, I’m not threatening you. I just—I just didn’t know how else to see you again.”
Ignoring her false sentiment, Ye Sheng ended the call and searched for the address on his phone.
Xinghai Bar was located in Huai City’s famous entertainment district, a playground for wealthy heirs, several kilometers away from the university.
Ye Sheng only wanted to sever his relationship with Huang Yiyue as quickly as possible. He grabbed his keys and left.
***
Huai City at night, Xinghai Bar.
“I heard you’re getting another older brother.”
A slightly overweight rich kid dropped onto the sofa beside Xie Wenci with a glass of wine in his hand. Waggling his eyebrows, he asked, “Is your family really planning to acknowledge that home-wrecker’s son?”
“Fuck off.” Xie Wenci was slightly drunk, his face flushed. Disgust filled his delicate features. “As if that bitch’s son is worthy. We’re only putting on a show before sending him to marry that old man from the Qin family to bring him good fortune.”
The fat boy’s interest was piqued. “Will he agree?”
Xie Wenci swirled his wine and scoffed. “How could he refuse? That little bastard should get on his knees, thank me for my generosity, and kowtow to me. Do you know where that bitch came from? Yin Mountain.”
The fat boy sucked in a sharp breath.
“Yin Mountain? The poorest, most remote place in the entire country?”
Xie Wenci nodded. “Exactly. If I hadn’t given him this opportunity, he would’ve remained a penniless nobody for the rest of his life.”
The fat boy laughed. “Maybe we should ask whether Old Man Qin is willing. Could he stomach some country bumpkin from Yin Mountain? Old Man Qin might be seventy and unable to get it up anymore, but he still has high standards.”
“Hahahahaha.”
Xie Wenci found the joke amusing and burst out laughing.
“Give it a rest. Old Man Qin is only suffering the consequences of all the terrible things he’s done. He’s following some superstition and finding someone to marry for good luck. Once that person enters the Qin family, he probably won’t even bother with him.”
The fat boy immediately looked displeased. “Fuck. Wouldn’t that mean the little bastard got lucky?”
A vicious gleam appeared in Xie Wenci’s eyes.
“How could he? From now on, won’t we have another toy to entertain us at every party?”
The fat boy sighed.
“Old Man Qin has already lived so long. Why can’t he just die? And the head of the Qin family is actually indulging this nonsense. Honestly, marrying into the Qin family would be an incredible accomplishment in Huai City—if the groom weren’t a seventy-year-old man who’d already stepped down.”
At the thought, anger surfaced in Xie Wenci’s eyes. His pale, slender fingers nearly crushed the wineglass.
The fat boy glanced at Xie Wenci’s delicate, rosy face. He knew Xie Wenci liked Qin Heyu, the Qin family’s current third young master.
“How come no one from the Qin family was invited to Old Wang’s birthday party? He’s been bragging for days that he’s close to Third Young Master Qin, but look at that. They couldn’t even be bothered to acknowledge him.”
Xie Wenci irritably jabbed at the sofa. He had deliberately dressed up for the occasion, only for his efforts to come to nothing.
“Old Wang said something happened in the Qin family.”
The fat boy looked surprised. “What? What happened?”
“I don’t know. Apparently, someone arrived.”
“Huh? Someone arrived? Who could make their entire family wait to welcome them?”
“Exactly.”
Xie Wenci was about to continue when his phone lit up. Slightly drunk, he picked it up with unfocused eyes.
The instant he read the message, however, he became fully alert.
He straightened his back and burst into laughter, his delicate face lighting up.
“Fatty, something entertaining just came our way.”
“What?”
Xie Wenci held up his phone. “The home-wrecker told her little bastard to come find me.”
The fat boy slapped his thigh and laughed wildly.
“Fuck! Has that country bumpkin ever even set foot in a bar? Do you think his clothes still have patches on them?”
“That’s why I said we’re in for some fun.”
Xie Wenci stood, a vicious smile appearing on his face, and walked toward the birthday boy.
***
The taxi driver was listening to the radio while Ye Sheng sat in the back seat.
“Hello, everyone! It’s currently eight thirty in the evening here in Huai City. Welcome to Xiao Zui Tells Stories. I’m your good friend, Xiao Zui1Little Mouth.”
“Tonight, Xiao Zui will continue bringing you all kinds of bizarre, funny, ridiculous, and fascinating stories. Thank you for listening.”
“Our first submission tonight comes from a university student. Let’s call him Student Li.”
“Student Li says there’s a lake at his university called Lovers’ Lake. An abandoned bridge spans the water, known as the Bridge of Truth. According to a campus legend, if a couple stands in the middle of the bridge at midnight and confesses their feelings to each other, they’ll safely cross the rest of the bridge if they’re both telling the truth and genuinely in love. But if either of them lies, the liar will hear someone calling their name from behind before a water ghost drags them into the lake. Student Li says his girlfriend didn’t trust him and insisted that they cross the bridge together. Last Friday……”
While waiting at a red light, the driver muttered to himself and changed the station.
“What kind of creepy bullshit is this? The longer I listen, the worse it gets.”
Ye Sheng dozed with lowered eyes, his face giving nothing away.
He had swallowed an A-level aberration alive. These urban legends now sounded like children’s games by comparison.
But even if they were trivial, he had no desire to hear anything related to the supernatural ever again.
The driver switched to another station.
This time, a female presenter with a warm, captivating voice began speaking after a stretch of soft romantic music.
“All right, the Xiaoya Relationship Advice Line has received another call. Hello, can you hear me, Miss Huang?”
“Hello, Xiaoya.” Miss Huang’s voice came through the radio, distorted by static and sounding dejected. “My best friend and my boyfriend had a fight. I’ve been trapped between them for days, and neither side is happy with me. I’m so frustrated. What should I do?”
“Oh? Can you tell Xiaoya what happened?”
“Well, they haven’t spoken to each other for three days. My best friend says my boyfriend is a tacky scumbag and can’t stand him. My boyfriend says my best friend is a fake, manipulative bitch who tried to seduce him. Oh my God, Xiaoya, whose side should I take?”
Ye Sheng: “……” You should stand off to the side.
Even the water ghost from Lovers’ Lake would be better than this.
Fortunately, the taxi soon arrived at his destination, freeing Ye Sheng from the psychological torment.
After paying, he hurried out of the car. His heart ached when he saw that his balance had dropped by another twenty yuan. It seemed he would have to contact Xia Wenshi tomorrow and start working at the haunted house.
Ideally, he would settle matters with Huang Yiyue tonight.
Only after entering did Ye Sheng discover that Xinghai Bar had been reserved for a private event.
“Sir, are you a friend of Young Master Wang?”
Because Ye Sheng had arrived in a taxi, the security guard immediately stopped him.
But after noticing that his clothes were obviously expensive, the guard paused and asked more tactfully.
Despite calling itself a bar, Xinghai was never open to the public. It was a private club for the children of wealthy families. Tonight, Young Master Wang had reserved the entire venue, and no outsiders were permitted inside.
“I’m looking for Xie Wenci,” Ye Sheng said coolly.
Seeing him address Xie Wenci by name so directly, the guard hesitated before sending someone inside to ask. It wasn’t long before someone returned and allowed Ye Sheng to enter.
Ye Sheng had been busy from morning until night and hadn’t had time to change. He was still wearing the clothes Butler Li had prepared for him at the reception center.
He only wanted to resolve the matter concerning his grandmother as quickly as possible. His expression was icy as he strode forward, completely ignoring the astonished, admiring looks cast at him along the way.
After he disappeared at the end of the corridor, a male receptionist suddenly lowered his voice.
“Did you see what he was wearing?”
The curly-haired female receptionist with red lips looked up. “What about it?”
The man whistled and grinned.
“I recognize the brand. It was founded by a famous Swedish designer and only serves a fixed group of clients. The prices are insane. That outfit he was wearing just now—at least three hundred thousand.”
The woman stared at him. “Three hundred thousand?”
“Yeah. US dollars.”
The woman: “……Fuck.”
Ye Sheng walked down the corridor. Before he could push open the door, he heard the deafening sound of a band inside.
Wang Gaoyang had hired a currently popular band specifically for his birthday. The singer performed passionately onstage, while everyone else sat in their seats, watching the entrance and waiting for the show to begin.
Xie Wenci was young, spoiled, and attractive, so he had always been treated like the group’s precious favorite. Online, he had an account with a million followers, where he cultivated the image of a pampered, temperamental young master.
But those who knew him personally understood exactly how vicious he could be.
The fat boy was growing impatient. “Will he even be able to find his way here?”
“Someone will bring him inside,” Wang Gaoyang said.
The fat boy burst out laughing.
“I’ve never seen a living, breathing country bumpkin in here before. I heard people in Yin Mountain are so poor they can’t even afford food. How tall do you think he is? Do you think he even reaches five foot three?”
Xie Wenci took a sip of wine and smiled.
“Who knows? Record us together when he gets here. I want to upload it.”
The fat boy instantly understood what he meant.
A delicate, pampered young master as adorable as a little swan beside a short, insecure country bumpkin from the mountains—it would create a striking contrast no matter how one looked at it.
If Xie Wenci captioned the video by saying the other boy was his stepmother’s son, he could also reinforce his image as a kindhearted person.
At that moment, the door opened.
Xie Wenci set down his wine with a vicious smile and prepared to welcome his “new older brother.”
Amid the noise, the wealthy heirs waiting eagerly for the spectacle turned toward the entrance.
In the next instant, a cold, pleasant voice cut through the dazzling, restless world around them.
“Xie Wenci.”
Xie Wenci froze halfway across the room.
Everyone else froze as well.
The doors opened, and a tall, slender young man stepped out from the shifting light and shadows.
The expensive pale-brown shirt emphasized his cool, pale skin and delicate collarbones. His black trousers featured an unusual design at the waist that drew in around his perfect figure.
The shifting laser lights splashed him with color, yet they couldn’t dispel the cold hostility from his striking face.
Ye Sheng raised his beautiful face and looked coolly over the crowd, his voice restrained only by the effort it took to suppress his irritation.
“Xie Wenci. I’m looking for you.”
