Chapter 12#

Lover’s Lake#

Xie Wenci’s face stiffened. He held the cup, stopping halfway, neither advancing nor retreating.

Ye Sheng suppressed the irritability in his heart, his tone cold and concise: “Huang Yiyue asked me to find you. Let’s go, to the Xie family.”

Xie Wenci’s face turned white, then green, then red. Finally, furious, he questioned with a dark face: “You are Ye Sheng?”

“Mn, I am.”

Even a fool could see Xie Wenci’s uncooperativeness.

Ye Sheng had no good feelings towards the people of the Xie family, and his principle of treating others with kindness went offline once again.

He checked the time on his phone and turned it off, then said: “My dormitory curfew is at twelve o’clock at night. If you are not free today, go back and tell Huang Yiyue to send the things to my school another day. I won’t take the initiative a second time. She knows I’m a freak and what I’m capable of.”

Huang Yiyue knew he had Yin-Yang eyes and could see lonely souls and wild ghosts. So growing up, besides disgust and disdain, she also suppressed a fear of seeing dirty things. Huang Yiyue was not well-educated and was superstitious about ghosts and gods. This sentence of his was enough to make her tremble with fear.

Oh, afraid that he would summon little ghosts for her.

Ye Sheng twitched the corner of his mouth sarcastically.

“Biological mother” really seemed like a four-character curse to him.

Xie Wenci looked at the indifferent teenager in front of him and couldn’t squeeze out a word for a long time.

The group of rich second-generation kids behind him also stopped talking.

Fatty forgot to turn off the video recording on his phone, capturing the confrontation between Xie Wenci and Ye Sheng clearly.

Xie Wenci’s appearance was that of a cute boy next door. He had been sailing smoothly in the circle relying on this face and had gained countless fans on the internet. However, his delicate features were completely crushed when facing someone with truly sharp and exquisite looks.

Appearance, temperament, clothing, every aspect.

Seeing that he didn’t speak, Ye Sheng looked indifferent and turned to leave.

If this was the show of strength Huang Yiyue wanted to give him, then she really dug a big pit for herself.

“You stop!”

Xie Wenci shouted angrily. He couldn’t believe it—how dare Ye Sheng? A mistress’s son, a piece of trash from Yin Mountain, actually had the guts to give him attitude!

Ye Sheng didn’t look back and ignored him.

Xie Wenci almost cursed out a bellyful of mean and vicious words, but thinking of the Qin family’s disgusting request, he held it back and clenched his fists. “I’ll take you to the Xie family.” Xie Wenci compromised and said: “Huang Yiyue went out today and won’t be back until around ten o’clock tonight. I’ll take you there.”

Ye Sheng stopped and frowned.

Ten o’clock.

Round trip is enough.

After Xie Wenci followed Ye Sheng out, the rest of the people in the bar reacted.

Fatty realized later and turned off the phone camera, muttering “Oh my goodness”.

The birthday boy Wang Gaoyang swallowed, then turned his head with glowing eyes to grab Fatty’s phone: “Did you record just now?”

Fatty nodded: “Xie Wenci asked for it, so I recorded it.”

Wang Gaoyang looked anxious: “Send it to me, send it to me quickly.”

Fatty knew his hobby and said warily: “What are you doing, did you take a fancy to him?”

Wang Gaoyang showed an interested smile on his wretched face: “Don’t you think it’s exciting?”

Fatty felt that lust was really a knife above his head: “This is the person the Xie family wants to give to Old Man Qin.”

Wang Gaoyang: “I know, it doesn’t matter if I just play around.”

A frail young man who had been silent suddenly spoke: “But I feel that he doesn’t look like someone to be trifled with.”

At this time, Wang Gaoyang had already grabbed Fatty’s phone and opened the video.

The beginning was Ye Sheng’s extremely cold “Xie Wenci”. His voice was calm and waveless, but it hooked onto people’s hearts like a hook.

Wang Gaoyang’s heart itched: “A country bumpkin with no power or influence, what’s so hard to mess with.”

The frail young man shook his head: “He came from Yin Mountain. Have you forgotten that besides poverty, Yin Mountain is also famous for its crime rate.”

“The criminal trait on him is quite obvious.” He took a sip of wine and said with complex eyes: “And the clothes he is wearing are designed by Stephen. This famous Swedish designer only serves a few fixed clients, and the Xie family is not on the client list.”

Fatty was stunned: “Damn, Stephen? I know, my mom is crazy about him. Every single item designed has a market but no price, a square scarf costs tens of thousands of dollars.” His jaw almost dropped: “You mean his whole outfit was designed by Stephen?!”

The frail young man said: “Yes.”

Fatty considered himself a genius and pondered in context. Immediately his pupils quaked, and he shouted loudly: “Damn, so he robbed this outfit? He must be crazy poor, daring to rob anyone. Which of Stephen’s clients is a simple character? Then he hit the muzzle.”

The frail young man: “…”

Although he really wanted to refute this retarded inference, he couldn’t find a suitable reason to explain it. Thinking about it carefully, he actually felt that what Fatty said made some sense.

The two shivered together.

Wang Gaoyang was still watching the video.

In the lens, Ye Sheng’s face was outlined cold and sharp by light and shadow.

He was drooling, his gaze almost piercing through the screen.

After a long time, Wang Gaoyang finally reluctantly turned off the phone, and then showed a determined smile to his two friends: “I want to pursue him.” Pursuing a powerless and poor college student from the mountains to get into bed, he was really experienced.

Fatty: “…”

The frail young man: “…”

Fatty kindly advised him: “You are not just having a knife above your head for lust, you have a gun above your head for lust.”

Wang Gaoyang sniffed: “I think you are worrying blindly. The Xie family and the Qin family are united by marriage, so it’s inevitable that they are close. Maybe his outfit was given by the Qin family. After all, he is going to marry the old man, it can’t be too shabby.”

Fatty thought for a while and suddenly realized: “You are right.”

The frail young man twitched the corner of his mouth, drank another sip of wine, and stopped talking.

They were just fair-weather friends anyway, if he couldn’t persuade him, then forget it.

If that teenager was really not to be trifled with, Wang Gaoyang deserved it; if that teenager was just a paper tiger, they would have more fun in the future.

Anyway, it’s all watching a show.

*

Xie Wenci didn’t have a driver’s license. He was used to being flattered and protected, and was always picked up and dropped off by special personnel. His small face was green with anger. He originally wanted to call his spare tire to come over, but thinking of the way the people in the room looked at Ye Sheng just now, he angrily chose to call the butler. Today was not the time, he didn’t dress up well.

Ye Sheng didn’t speak the whole time. He looked at the prosperous and splendid night in this gold-squandering district, his eyes full of impatience, only thinking about going back to continue tossing his bed.

The Xie family’s driver came quickly.

The anger Xie Wenci had just suppressed rose again, wanting to get in the car and ridicule Ye Sheng properly.

Unexpectedly, Ye Sheng opened the passenger seat cleanly and sat in without raising his head. After getting in, he lowered his head to play with his phone, looking like he didn’t want to have any contact with him.

“…”

Xie Wenci felt that taking the initiative to chat with him was also degrading, so he resentfully opened his phone, logged into Weibo, and posted a short essay full of malice.

[Today Aunt Huang’s son was brought to Huaicheng. Aunt Huang said that his son has lived in Yin Mountain since he was a child and doesn’t understand anything, so she asked me to show him around the house. I went to see him, and he seemed to dislike me very much, looking at me warily all the time, and always saying some strange things, asking how much my phone cost and how much my shoes cost. After taking him into the house, I found that he likes to hide food to eat, enters my bedroom to take my things, and wears my clothes as a matter of course. I’m very uncomfortable, but I don’t know how to tell him.]

This was actually what he imagined Ye Sheng to be like.

Inferior, greedy, sensitive, a clown-like existence.

His Weibo fans were very active, and soon there were many replies he was satisfied with.

The top comments were all die-hard fans.

[It’s really disgusting to take my baby’s things randomly, typical “I’m poor so I’m right”]

[Cibao is really too kind. Letting a mistress’s son in is already thinking highly of him, yet he still has the face to treat himself as the master.]

[Yin Mountain? To be honest, not stereotyping, but people from Yin Mountain have somewhat disgusting personalities.]

[Please stay away from our rich and beautiful young master, you low-class goods [loudspeaker] Please stay away from our little swan, you poor ghost [loudspeaker]]

Xie Wenci smiled with satisfaction, and the hatred in his heart finally dissipated a bit.

Ye Sheng had long been used to making full use of his time. On the way to the Xie family, he took the initiative to contact Xia Wenshi, saying that he could start work tomorrow.

Xia Wenshi opened a haunted house after graduating from university, barely counting as a startup boss, and wished he could pour his heart out to his employees. He created a group called [Scare You Jump Haunted House Work Group]. Besides him and Xia Wenshi, there was also a girl with a small yellow flower as her avatar in the group.

[Xia Wenshi: Sprinkle flowers sprinkle flowers sprinkle flowers, welcome newcomer~! Spin around spin around spin around, junior welcome to join our loving big family~!]

Ye Sheng: “…”

He exited the chat interface and wanted to open the recruitment app to find a new job immediately, but seeing the red eye in the lower right corner, he silently returned.

Forget it, making money to change phones is important.

Ye Sheng typed stiffly.

[Ye Sheng: Senior, when do I start work tomorrow.]

[Xia Wenshi: You can start anytime. Qiqi is in the store, just find her. I’m not in Huaicheng these two days.]

[Ye Sheng: You are not in Huaicheng?]

[Xia Wenshi: Yeah, I’m doing a supernatural live broadcast in a haunted house to earn money to pay your wages.]

Supernatural live broadcast???

Ye Sheng: “…”

This time he really exited the chat interface and went to find a new job again.

But Xia Wenshi was really enthusiastic, sending him messages frantically, and the phone kept vibrating.

Ye Sheng looked through part-time jobs but didn’t find anything suitable. When he returned to the interface, Xia Wenshi had already sent more than a dozen photos. In the photos, he and several people were squeezed into a dark little house. Men and women were holding selfie sticks, looking like a group of anchors doing supernatural exploration together.

[Xia Wenshi: It was not in vain that I tried every means to sneak into this murder villa. Before I went off the air, the popularity of the live broadcast room broke 50,000, and the number of online people was 100. Becoming a big anchor is just around the corner.]

[Xia Wenshi: Wuwuwuwu I will definitely work hard to pay your wages [fist].]

…Maybe this is the bitterness of every startup boss.

Ye Sheng sighed faintly. He didn’t want to pay attention to how hard the boss’s entrepreneurship was, he just wanted to focus on his own future.

[Ye Sheng: Boss, I won’t be an NPC, but I can be a cleaner, prop master, and cashier. If the haunted house is short of people, I can do anything first.]

Because Xia Wenshi’s salary was really high.

[Xia Wenshi: Wow, junior, are you that capable? I really found a treasure! Don’t worry, the cashier and NPC are already taken, it’s your sophomore senior sister. Just right, you can get to know each other, Qiqi come out quickly to welcome the newcomer Qiqi @Huang Qiqi.]

He @ for a long time but no one responded.

[Xia Wenshi: Where is the person! Where the hell did you go! @Huang Qiqi @Huang Qiqi]

The girl named Huang Qiqi finally bubbled up, but she was lacking interest and forced a smile to welcome Ye Sheng.

[Huang Qiqi: Hello junior, welcome to join the haunted house [laugh][welcome][firecrackers]]

Then said to Xia Wenshi.

[Huang Qiqi: Boss, I’m sorry, I’m in a bad mood today. You guys chat first, when the junior comes tomorrow, I will explain the haunted house matters to him clearly.]

[Xia Wenshi: What’s wrong with you?]

[Huang Qiqi: My best friend and my boyfriend quarreled.]

Ye Sheng: “?”

He vaguely had a bad premonition.

[Xia Wenshi: Ah? What happened?]

[Huang Qiqi: Sigh, they have been in a cold war for three days. They have to pass messages through me when chatting. It’s so hard for me to be caught in the middle.]

Ye Sheng was sure.

This is the “stand aside” lady from the radio station.

[Xia Wenshi: Sigh, what a big deal, just let them take a step back for your sake.]

[Huang Qiqi: But my face doesn’t work. My best friend insists that my boyfriend bring a gift to apologize to her in person, otherwise no talk.]

Ye Sheng felt that joining this haunted house and meeting these two people was really hitting the jackpot.

He lowered his eyes and typed expressionlessly.

[Ye Sheng: Senior sister, is there a possibility. You are an outsider in their affairs and it is inconvenient to intervene.]

You should just stand aside and stay away from these two people.

[Huang Qiqi: Wuwuwuwuwu junior, what should I do.]

Ye Sheng was not skilled in dealing with people, let alone handling such complex relationships between men and women in the mortal world, so he didn’t speak again.

Instead, Xia Wenshi was awakened by him and reacted.

[Xia Wenshi: Fuck, Qiqi, I think you have a bit of green on your head.]

[Huang Qiqi: What?]

[Xia Wenshi: Your boyfriend and your best friend are not right. Are they hooking up behind your back?!]

[Huang Qiqi: No way, but my boyfriend and I just walked the Truth Verification Bridge at Lover’s Lake last month, his love for me is real QAQ]

[Xia Wenshi: Huh? Then walk it again, maybe the water ghost in the lake was sleeping that day.]

Ye Sheng: “…”

Ye Sheng: “………………”

The first person Ye Sheng met after leaving Yin Mountain was Ning Weichen, then Director Cheng, the group from the Unnatural Bureau, and Butler Li. None of them were easy to deal with.

Now back in the real world, watching the conversation between these two, he had a feeling that the world was colorful and magical.

Xia Wenshi and Huang Qiqi discussed for a long time, and finally nailed it down, asking Huang Qiqi to drag her boyfriend to walk the Truth Verification Bridge again, solving the scumbag first and then the plastic best friend.

Huang Qiqi was a bit timid.

[Huang Qiqi: Boss, do you think there are really ghosts in Lover’s Lake]

[Xia Wenshi: I don’t know. If I knew there were ghosts in Lover’s Lake, I would have gone there with my phone to squat long ago. Seeing a real ghost can increase a lot of popularity.]

[Huang Qiqi: Then what if he lies and really gets pulled down by the water ghost, I’m a little scared QAQ]

[Xia Wenshi: No, sister, although I am a man, I still want to tell you that feeling sorry for men is the beginning of misfortune for beautiful women. Let the scumbag go to hell.]

Ye Sheng did not join their conversation, he had no desire to express anything about such things.

He exited and searched for Lover’s Lake Truth Verification Bridge. When he heard it on the radio, he didn’t realize it was something from Huaian University. The search results came out. Some people did die in Lover’s Lake, but they basically drowned while swimming in summer. There was no such thing as being killed by water ghosts in the middle of the night. It’s just that these dead people had basically played the game of Truth Verification Bridge to verify their true hearts, so this grotesquerie became more and more mysterious.

Ye Sheng, who was extremely sure that there were ghosts in the world, turned off his phone, lowered his eyes and touched his abdomen, frowning slightly.

The matter of the fetus girl was not as smooth as he thought.

Sister was very quiet, but he could still clearly feel that there was something in his stomach, very light, but very cold.

The car arrived at the Xie family very quickly.

The Xie family’s villa was in the famous rich area of Huaicheng.

Ye Sheng ignored the landscape, architecture, and fountains here, and walked into the house after getting off the car. Xie Wenci was forced to swallow his sarcastic words again, and kicked the car door fiercely in anger.

When Ye Sheng went in, Huang Yiyue had just returned. She still carried a faint scent of temple incense on her body.

It seemed she went to worship Buddha.

The woman who walked out of the house quickly was nearly forty years old but still couldn’t hide her gaudy appearance. When she saw Ye Sheng, astonishment clearly flashed in her eyes, but it was quickly hidden, and a smile was forced on her unnaturally maintained face.

“Sheng Sheng.”

Huang Yiyue was dressed in jewelry and precious stones everywhere. This noble lady had liked such luxury for ten years.

Ye Sheng said: “I’m here, give me the box.”

Huang Yiyue opened her lips: “Come upstairs with me.”

Ye Sheng nodded and walked upstairs.

Huang Yiyue looked at the strange yet familiar teenager in front of her from behind, feeling a sense of unreality of time dislocation.

She still remembered what Ye Sheng looked like when he was just born, weird and terrifying, bloody and fleshy. She screamed at the first sight.

Unexpectedly, time was like a carving knife, polishing such a skinny monkey-like premature baby into what he is today.

Huang Yiyue said: “Go to the innermost room on the third floor.”

The door was not closed. After Ye Sheng walked in, he was almost amused by the layout of the room. There was a photo of Huang Yiyue holding him when he was a child hanging on the wall. It was probably the only one, and he didn’t know how she dug it out.

After Huang Yiyue closed the door, she said bitterly: “Sheng Sheng, Mom has really been thinking about you all these years.”

Ye Sheng said: “You still have half an hour.”

Huang Yiyue knew Ye Sheng’s temperament.

After all, she was his mother and had dealt with this freak when he was a child. The same thing could only threaten Ye Sheng once at most. Thinking of the evil things about him, she actually didn’t dare to gamble.

She honestly took out the dark purple box. The box style was old, the kind of thing that rural elderly people would specifically keep to store things, not special.

There was a shell-style lock on it.

A very strange lock. No keyhole, no password, just placed here. Ye Sheng saw dense chisel marks and chop marks on the box. It seemed that Huang Yiyue thought there was something good hidden inside and tried to pry it open, but failed.

Huang Yiyue pursed her bright red lips and said: “Sheng Sheng, Mom gives you the box. Can you stay tonight and chat with Mom?”

Ye Sheng ignored her, took the box and turned to leave.

Huang Yiyue looked ugly and angry, but quickly changed into a tearful look. She grabbed the corner of Ye Sheng’s clothes, and tears flowed down unconsciously. The tears were real. Thinking of her hardships in the Xie family step by step, and the disdain and toying of the original spouse’s children towards her, she felt sad and bitter.

Now that there was finally a chance to turn the situation around, how could she let it go.

“Sheng Sheng, there is a banquet in a few days, can you accompany Mom to attend it?”

“Your biological brother Shaorong is only twelve years old now, he can’t attend. By then… by then Mom will be alone again.”

Her eyes were red, as if she was really the most pitiful woman in the world.

“Let Mom have someone to rely on, okay? Over the years, the children of the Xie family’s original spouse have looked down on me. Every such banquet is torture for Mom. You don’t need to do anything, just stand there. Seeing you there, Mom will feel at ease.” She sniffed and said huskily: “Mom also wants everyone to know that I, Huang Yiyue, have such an excellent son.”

Ye Sheng looked back at her like he was seeing a ghost, threw off her hand, and walked out with the box.

Even with Ning Weichen’s acting skills, he could intuitively feel it was a bit fake.

Could Huang Yiyue still deceive him?

People who can’t act are often the best at seeing through the truth.

Huang Yiyue suddenly shouted: “Sheng Sheng!”

“Promise Mom once, okay? Mom didn’t think about threatening you. Didn’t I give you the box as soon as you came? I really just wanted to see you.”

She choked with red eyes: “Sheng Sheng, do you want to know… what Grandma said before she died?”

Ye Sheng played with the shell key on the box with his fingers.

Huang Yiyue said: “Your grandma chattered a lot with me on the last day. You accompany Mom to a banquet, and Mom will tell you everything, okay? Grandma kept talking about you before she died.”

Ye Sheng loosened his fingers, turned his head, his eyes like glass beads soaked in water, and his tone was also cold: “Huang Yiyue.”

Huang Yiyue burst into tears before he spoke. She broke down and said: “Actually, your grandma also scolded me. She asked if I regretted leaving you behind to run towards wealth and glory? I regret it now, but I can’t go back. Your grandma was also sad and distressed watching my life in the Xie family. She said if Sheng Sheng was here, he would definitely not let his mother be bullied like this. I really regret it, Sheng Sheng.”

She had tears in her eyes and said softly: “Your grandma’s biggest regret is that our mother and son turned against each other. Just treat it as acting in a play, for Grandma to see, okay?”

Huang Yiyue promised repeatedly: “Just once.”

Ye Sheng stared at her with bottomless eyes.

Huang Yiyue sobbed and pleaded with tears: “I’ll pick you up at Huaian University in a week, okay, Sheng Sheng.”