Chapter 62: Old Four’s Family Situation
Jiang Mang’s residence was not far from Yu Shi’s. She knocked on the door a few times, and Yu Shi opened it while putting on his coat.
“Zhou Shi, hurry up and change your clothes,” she said. “She said that Ninth Master Feng—”
Yu Shi interrupted Jiang Mang, turning to the girl behind her and asking, “You are Xiao Duan, right? Can you tell us what happened?”
Xiao Duan repeated what she had told Jiang Mang earlier.
Yu Shi asked again, “You said that the steward sent you to find us, correct?”
“Yes,” Xiao Duan replied, her gaze shifting.
“The steward had told us not to approach the lake house at night. I will ask again: are you certain?”
Seeing Yu Shi standing inside the door and repeatedly questioning with a calm demeanor, Jiang Mang’s drowsy mind gradually cleared in the night breeze, and she looked at Xiao Duan with a skeptical gaze.
Xiao Duan started urging, “Yes, hurry up, don’t delay!”
She urged urgently but with a hint of panic. Jiang Mang watched her eyes as they avoided direct contact.
Jiang Mang said, “Something feels off!”
“There is indeed something wrong,” Yu Shi said, pulling out his recording phone. “Go find the old steward and ask what’s going on.”
Surprised that he had recorded the conversation, Xiao Duan appeared visibly flustered and said, “The steward is already resting. We can’t disturb him at this hour!”
Yu Shi replied, “But you just said that Ninth Master Feng is ill and the steward sent you to find us. He should be awake and waiting for us at the lake house, shouldn’t he?”
Xiao Duan stammered, “I mean, I mean the steward went to rest right after he spoke, so… so…”
Jiang Mang cut her off, “Alright, enough. No need to cover up; the more you try, the worse it gets!”
She had already realized that this was a plot against them, and she was infuriated. Being someone who couldn’t tolerate such things, she immediately caused a commotion.
“Let’s go, we need to find the steward and get this cleared up!”
Seeing that she was about to escalate the situation, Xiao Duan finally couldn’t hold it any longer and begged tearfully, “No, it’s my fault, I made it all up. I was just trying to play a prank on you. I apologize, please forgive me! Don’t go looking for the steward!”
Fuming with anger at being deceived, Jiang Mang snapped, “Do I look like a fool to you?”
In the middle of the night, the old steward was awakened. Xiao Duan had been working at the house near the lake, which was under his jurisdiction. As soon as Yu Shi played the recording, the old steward’s face darkened, and he had Xiao Duan subdued for further questioning.
Xiao Duan cried out, “Help! I was wrong, please forgive me, old steward!”
Yu Shi said, “Wait a moment. Aren’t we going to find out why she deliberately tried to harm us?”
“Don’t worry, we will get to the bottom of this,” the old steward replied, turning back with a kind smile. “It’s late, so you two should head back and rest well.”
Jiang Mang, standing beside Yu Shi and in agreement with him, said, “This matter concerns both of us and can’t be dismissed so easily. If you refuse to let us know, I’ll take her to the Security Office myself and file a report to get it sorted out!”
The old steward shook his head with a smile, as if amused by her naivety. For families like theirs, who dealt with demons, the Security Office had no authority over them.
But after all, they couldn’t find any other five yin and five yang destinies to replace them for a while, and they still needed two people to work.
The old steward said with a friendly attitude, “You’ve misunderstood. I’m not trying to quietly handle this to cover for anyone. It’s just too late tonight. I promise I will get to the bottom of this and tell you everything as it is.”
“I can see you’ve been startled tonight. Let me make the decision. Tomorrow, I’ll give you a day off to visit your family.”
As they left the old steward’s courtyard, Jiang Mang could still hear Xiao Duan’s cries and remained silent throughout the journey back.
Just before they reached their residence, Jiang Mang asked, “Zhou Shi, who do you think did this?”
Yu Shi replied, “The person who was punished by the Feng family after our last argument—Alin.”
Jiang Mang was shocked. “Really? How did you know?”
Yu Shi said, “I guessed.”
In fact, it was part of the original storyline. Alin had coerced Xiao Duan into luring them to the lake house at night, resulting in one dead and one injured.
“It’s terrifying. I almost believed it!” Jiang Mang said, feeling a wave of relief. “Who would have thought that a strictly managed family like this could have such incidents! If you hadn’t exposed the plot, we might have really gone to the lake house…”
Yu Shi said, “Even if you had gone, nothing would have happened.”
The reason for prohibiting them from approaching at night was that Ninth Master Feng’s condition was unstable and he might pull people into his illusions indiscriminately. The previous caretaker had gone mad after being pulled into the illusion for various reasons.
But the Feng family was unaware; they had actually been pulled in before, and nothing had happened.
Even if he really went there at night, he would probably just work the night shift to catch butterflies.
“True,” Jiang Mang said, feeling relieved and cheered up. “So we get an extra day off tomorrow. I can use it to visit everyone!”
“And you, are you still not going back?”
“This time, I might go back,” Yu Shi said.
Since becoming Zhou Shi, he hadn’t been in touch with the original owner’s family and had stopped sending money to the original owner’s parents. They had frequently disturbed him with calls and messages during this period.
Yu Shi decided to address this issue.
…
The next day, the two of them left the Feng family residence together and parted ways at the entrance of the Feng family’s grand mansion.
Jiang Mang took the subway, while Yu Shi took a cab and asked the driver to take him to West City.
Leaving behind the antique Feng family mansion, the modern high-rises and orderly streets outside finally gave Yu Shi a sense of familiarity.
As the car stopped at a red light, Yu Shi noticed the eye-catching 3D screen outside a nearby building. It displayed a vividly realistic plum blossom grove, with petals falling in a way that seemed so real you could almost catch them if you reached out.
“You’re here for the first time, right? That entire building belongs to the Mei family. There’s a huge shopping mall inside. You know the Mei family, right? The demon exorcists…”
The driver, like many in his world, enjoyed chatting with passengers.
Yu Shi politely engaged in conversation, discussing everything from the Mei family to the cost of living, and even the driver’s second uncle’s colleague’s niece, who had been possessed by a demonic nightmare and had become a troubled, unrecognizable presence, running amok in the streets every day.
Yu Shi asked, “Could it be a mental illness? Has she been taken to the hospital for an evaluation?”
Seeing Yu Shi’s skepticism, the driver became animated, offering various examples to prove that she was indeed possessed by a demonic nightmare.
“Don’t doubt it. We have a neighbor with a young son who went to the Ming family as an apprentice—he’s going to be a future demon exorcist! He said it himself, so there can’t be any doubt!”
This was a difference from Yu Shi’s previous world. Here, if something was reported as haunted or abnormal, it was quite likely to be true.
Upon arriving, Yu Shi got out of the car and looked at the new residential area in front of him.
The Zhou family had previously lived in an old, rundown neighborhood. After sending their eldest son, Zhou Shi, to the Feng family, they received a substantial compensation and moved to a new place. Now, the three of them lived in the newly built Mingjiang Garden community.
If a residential development had the character “Ming” in its name, it was generally constructed by a company under the Ming family, one of the Four Great Families.
Besides their demon-exorcising activities, the Four Great Families also had various other profitable ventures, as Yu Shi had learned from his chat with the driver earlier.
The community was well-managed, but Yu Shi was stopped at the entrance.
“There have been some strange incidents in the community recently. For safety reasons, we’re not allowing strangers in. If you know a resident here, you’ll need them to come down and get you.” The security guard, with dark circles under his eyes and a dull expression, spoke in a wooden tone.
After waiting for a while, Yu Shi was finally met by his parents.
“Oh, our Xiao Shi is back!” Mother Zhou, beaming with joy, took his arm and guided him inside, asking with concern, “How have you been at the Feng family? Oh, look at me asking, it must be great there. The Feng family has everything!”
“I can see he’s been doing too well!” Father Zhou, fuming, added, “You went and didn’t even call home. Your mother tried to reach you but couldn’t get through. What are you up to? Your wings have grown!”
“Ah, don’t be so harsh on Xiao Shi. He might just be too busy. But now he’s back to visit us.” Mother Zhou interrupted her husband and then asked, “You have one day off, right?”
“Yes, I’ll head back after a while,” Yu Shi replied.
Yu Shi had only seen the Zhou family through the eyes of the original owner. To handle the situation properly, he needed to see them in person to understand what they were truly like.
“Why the rush to leave? Stay for lunch! I’ll go buy some groceries soon and make you a good meal. Your younger brother misses you too, so catch up with him!” Mother Zhou said.
Yu Shi had been considered unlucky because of the date of his birth. In their hometown, such children were believed to attract ghosts, so he was sent to live with his grandparents in the countryside shortly after birth, while his parents moved to Xiangcheng for work.
They sometimes wouldn’t return home for a year, initially sending Yu Shi some money occasionally. But after the birth of their second son, they devoted all their affection to him.
They claimed raising children in the city was too expensive and stopped caring for Yu Shi, who grew up with his grandparents.
After Zhou Shi’s grandmother passed away, he depended on his grandfather. Last year, his grandfather also passed away. Zhou Shi’s parents finally brought him to live with them after his grandfather’s death. However, Zhou Shi soon realized that their willingness to take him in was only due to the large sum of money from the Feng family.
What they once criticized about him had become an asset in terms of earning potential.
As they reached the base of Building 6, they encountered a man and a woman burning something and bowing their heads. The woman was crying, her sobs eerie and disquieting.
His mother’s expression changed as she quickly turned away. “Let’s go, let’s go! Don’t look at them!”
In the elevator, she continued to complain, “They said the Ming family’s developments wouldn’t have such problems, but it’s all just advertising! Last month, an old person from their family died and wouldn’t leave. Now they’ve become one of those things! If we hadn’t just moved here, we would have considered moving again!”
“The Ming family doesn’t send anyone to handle these issues. If something really happens, no one will want to live in their properties!” Father Zhou said, frustrated. “You’ve been with the Feng family, haven’t you learned anything? Deal with this, or your mother, your younger brother, and I won’t feel safe living here.”
Yu Shi looked at the smiling Ming Wang statue in the elevator and replied lightly, “No, I haven’t.”
“What good are you then!” Father Zhou snapped.
“Alright, alright, stop blaming him. He’s only just arrived; what can he learn?”
The Zhou family’s new home wasn’t very large, but it was new and well-decorated.
Zhou Shi’s younger brother, Zhou Li, was only in his teens. He barely showed any respect for his older brother, merely glancing at him before returning to his game.
“Always playing games! Your brother’s back, so talk to him!” Mother Zhou scolded.
Zhou Li showed his impatience, got up, and retreated to his room, slamming the door behind him.
Yu Shi noticed that the house had only two bedrooms: one for the Zhou couple and one for Zhou Li.
He observed quietly as, at lunch, Mother Zhou prepared a hearty meal and continually urged him to eat, showing a warmth and affection as if Yu Shi were her most cherished child.
However, midway through the meal, she brought up a topic as expected. “You don’t know, but the houses here are so expensive. We just paid the down payment, and now we have to pay the mortgage every month. You know, your dad and I don’t earn much. Our salaries barely cover our needs, and your younger brother has to attend tutoring classes. The fees are so high…”
“I was thinking,” Mother Zhou said, “since your salary is quite high now, you could help with the mortgage each month. After all, this house will belong to you and your brother in the future, right?”
Yu Shi, having seen and heard enough, realized that this was not the family he wanted. He shifted from his earlier silence and looked directly at the Zhou couple.
“I came back to tell you that you should no longer contact me from now on.”
Mother Zhou’s smile froze, while Father Zhou, enraged, slammed his chopsticks down and shouted, “What’s this? Are you disowning us? You ungrateful little wretch, I’ll beat you to death!”
Accustomed to their eldest son’s weak and gloomy demeanor, Father Zhou had never been defied by him before. He tried to slap Yu Shi, only to have Yu Shi grab him by the collar and pin him to the table.
Dishes and utensils shattered on the floor, and food spilled everywhere. Mother Zhou screamed, and Zhou Li stormed over to push Yu Shi.
Yu Shi kicked Zhou Li, sending him crashing to the ground.
Mother Zhou’s screams grew louder as she rushed to help her son, her façade of maternal affection finally breaking. “What are you doing?! Let go of your father!”
As Father Zhou struggled underneath, Yu Shi kept him firmly pressed face-down into the greasy soup.
“I didn’t want to resort to violence,” Yu Shi said calmly. “I came here sincerely to discuss things with you. I believe we’re not suited to be family, so I hope we can go our separate ways from now on.”
“Why are you so angry? You’ve never really cared for Zhou Shi. You should be satisfied with the money you got for him.”
Seeing Yu Shi’s calm demeanor, Mother Zhou suddenly screamed in fear, “No, you’re not Zhou Shi! You’re possessed by a demon!”
“Exorcist! Quick, get an exorcist!” Mother Zhou pushed her younger son, Zhou Li, toward the door, urging him to run for help.
“Please stay calm. I live at the Feng family’s house. If there were any problems, they would notice,” Yu Shi said earnestly.
In the midst of the chaos, there was a sudden knock on the door. Zhou Li, who had already reached the door, opened it immediately and shouted, “Help! There’s a madman in my house!”
Strangely, the rhythmic knocking stopped abruptly once the door was opened, but no one was outside. Instead, a pair of black footprints staggered across the clean floor.
“Ugh… ooh…” The air was filled with painful groans, sounding like an old man’s voice but even more hoarse and dry.
