Chapter 33#
The Revenge Plan#
At the bottom of the hill was a bus stop, and the sign showed that the Number 87 bus passed by Huai’an University.
Ye Sheng had no money left for a cab back to school. Every coin saved was a coin kept — he was willing to wait even if the bus only came once an hour.
Ning Weichen stood at the stop with him for a little while before a car came to collect him.
It wasn’t Butler Li — it was someone from the Qin family.
The incident at the Qin family banquet hadn’t spread through Huai City’s social circles. The Bureau of Unnatural Affairs kept a low profile, and the Qin family had their own reasons to keep the matter quiet — family scandals stayed within the family. They’d made a deliberate effort to suppress it.
Old Master Qin had been taken away by the police that same night, while the Qin family continued smiling through the rest of the evening as though nothing had happened, seeing their guests off with warmth and grace.
The current Qin family patriarch, Qin Siyuan, had no particular filial devotion toward the old man. He had clawed his way to the top through a field of brothers and sisters — he’d never known anything resembling parental love in a family like theirs.
Compared to his biological father’s safety, what Qin Siyuan cared about far more was how Ning Weichen saw things. He was afraid the chaos of that night might have soured Ning Weichen’s opinion of them.
They needed to explain themselves properly.
“Young Master Ning, Miss Liushuang sent me to collect you.” The driver stepped out of the car with a flattering smile and bowed his head respectfully.
Ning Weichen gave a slight nod, then turned to look at Ye Sheng. “Would you like to come with me to the Qin residence?”
Now that he’d chosen to stay in Huai City and attend university, the Qin family — as his nominal maternal family and a prominent local clan — would need to be dealt with. His father had almost certainly already had a private conversation with Qin Siyuan.
Ye Sheng shook his head. “No need. Go ahead. I have to get back to school — I have things to do this afternoon.” He was working at the haunted house that afternoon.
Ning Weichen glanced around at their surroundings, thought for a moment, and sighed. “It’s not easy to hail a cab out here. Let me have Butler Li come pick you up.”
Ye Sheng declined again. “Thank you. No.”
Ning Weichen studied him with mild amusement and laughed softly. “Why do you keep refusing? You’ve already accepted the title of my fiancé. Isn’t it a bit of a waste not to enjoy some of the perks?”
Ye Sheng: “…”
Damn.
He had suddenly remembered — Butler Li called Ning Weichen Young Master.
If that smile-faced old tiger were to turn around and call him Young Mistress, Ye Sheng was certain it would be the thing that actually killed him.
This had to be nipped in the bud.
“There’s no reason to let our private affairs become public knowledge.” Ye Sheng looked up and spoke flatly. “I’m fine waiting for the bus on my own. No need to trouble Butler Li.”
“All right.”
Ning Weichen laughed once, said nothing more, and got into the back seat of the black car.
Before getting in, the driver turned to Ye Sheng with a polite, deferential nod. “We’ll be heading off then, Mister Ye.”
Ye Sheng couldn’t have been happier to see them go, and said slowly, “Right.”
His luck wasn’t bad today. Not long after Ning Weichen left, the Number 87 bus arrived.
This was only the second stop on the route — the bus was almost empty. Ye Sheng found a window seat, closed his eyes, and caught up on some sleep.
The Qin family banquet had lasted barely a day, and yet he felt as though he’d lived through half a lifetime. He was wrung out.
The Western-style mansion. The ghost child. Luo Xingyán. The good-luck marriage. The necklace. The gun and the note. The Forum. The wanted notice. From the moment he’d walked out of Yinshan and received that first text from Huang Yiyue, everything had been spiralling in increasingly dramatic directions.
Ye Sheng didn’t go back to the dorm. He walked to Number 444, Huai’an Middle Road, and went back to work.
The summer wind moved through the old street, the shade of green leaves weaving overhead like fabric.
Ye Sheng looked up at the outrageously designed haunted house before him and felt, for the first time in a while, like he’d returned to the world of the living.
After Ye Sheng’s photo had briefly trended online, the haunted house had seen a short-lived spike in visitors. But it had just as quickly fallen back into obscurity — the props were cheap, the storylines shallow, and the footfall was back to barely a trickle. Some days no one came at all.
When he walked in, Huang Qiqi and Xia Wenshi were in the front hall, huddled over a portable radio.
Xia Wenshi was holding it up, turning it over with a puzzled expression. “Qiqi, can this thing be operated by remote control?”
Huang Qiqi rolled her eyes. “Boss, what kind of question is that? If it couldn’t be remote controlled, why would I buy it?”
“Just checking. Is it waterproof?”
“It’s waterproof! Obviously — if we’re pretending it’s a ghost from the lake, it has to go in the water!”
Xia Wenshi nodded, and ran through tonight’s plan with her one more time.
“So, we’re agreed. Tonight at midnight, you take the scumbag to Lover’s Lake. Walk to the middle of Zhenzhen Bridge, do your confession thing — then raise your hand. The moment you raise your hand, I’ll trigger the radio in the water to call out the scumbag’s name. If he asks whether you heard anything, make sure you really sell it — look completely clueless and say, ‘Hm? I didn’t hear anything?’ Hahahaha, that’ll scare him half to death.”
Huang Qiqi had pulled herself out of her sadness from the days before, and laughed along. “Perfect. Tonight we are going to make that scumbag run screaming. Hmph, serves him right for two-timing!”
Xia Wenshi nodded, then his eyes lit up as something else occurred to him. “Qiqi — can I livestream tonight?”
Huang Qiqi stared at him. “Boss, you’re still chasing your streaming dream?”
Xia Wenshi admitted it without any shame. “Of course. A person without a dream is no better than a salted fish.”
Huang Qiqi laughed. “Fine, go ahead and stream it. The scumbag has no portrait rights!”
Xia Wenshi was beaming. As a small-time streamer who’d been grinding on Xingyun Live for a few months, he hadn’t made it big — but he’d learned all sorts of tricks for riding other people’s momentum.
Even as people in the streaming world routinely mocked him for shamelessly sponging off his alma mater’s name, he remained entirely unbothered. A man of conviction.
After finishing his chat with Huang Qiqi, Xia Wenshi headed off cheerfully to post an update on Xingyun Live.
[Tonight at midnight — your senior alumni from Huai’an University takes you on a journey into the famous legend of the Lady Ghost at Lover’s Lake’s Zhenzhen Bridge. Those who betray true hearts shall swallow ten thousand needles. Those who betray true hearts shall be dragged down into the water by the Lady Ghost 👻💀]
As expected, the first three comments were all from haters.
[What the actual hell, it’s you AGAIN, “senior alumni from Huai’an University” 🙄]
[Is your name just Huai’an University? Can you form a sentence without it?]
[Never gets popular but never stops piggybanking off others]
Xia Wenshi: “…”
Huang Qiqi: “…”
Huang Qiqi was, at heart, a kind-natured person, and couldn’t bear to watch her boss get roasted.
Also, as a current Huai’an University student, she found this mildly mortifying.
She grabbed Xia Wenshi’s phone. “Let me write something for you, boss.”
A few minutes later, this young woman who had devoured mountains of internet drama fiction produced the following at lightning speed:
[We broke up. He cheated. My best friend betrayed me. One playing good cop, one playing bad cop — they had me completely fooled. This morning I found out in secret that my ex and his new girl are planning to join forces and destroy me — record footage of me and ruin my life.
Fine. I am fully prepared to go down with both of them if that’s what it takes.
Tonight at midnight, tune into livestream room 484848. Come watch me take revenge on this pair of shameless rats.]
Huang Qiqi clapped her hands. “Done.”
Xia Wenshi: “…”
It had to be said — the two posts combined actually had some effect. The comments section was finally no longer a stream of insults about clout-chasing. Instead, it was wall-to-wall question marks.
For the first time in his streaming career, being surrounded by gentle, bewildered question marks made Xia Wenshi feel profoundly moved.
Ye Sheng walked in just as Huang Qiqi and Xia Wenshi were wrapping up the final details of their revenge plan. Huang Qiqi was riding high on anticipation, and the moment she saw Ye Sheng her eyes lit up. She waved enthusiastically. “Junior, you made it!”
Ye Sheng nodded and called out, “Hey, senior.” Then, with the professional conscientiousness of a true part-time worker, he turned to face his employer and said directly: “Sorry I was late this morning, Wenshi-ge. I had something come up last night.”
“Something come up” referred to getting pregnant and acquiring a fiancé.
Genuinely absurd.
Xia Wenshi waved it off. “Don’t worry about it, Xiao Ye! You and I, we’re practically family — you don’t need to explain yourself to me!”
Ye Sheng nodded, checked the time, and said plainly: “I’ll go get started in the storage room.”
“Hold on.” Xia Wenshi was watching him with hopeful puppy eyes, and suddenly lowered his voice. “Xiao Ye, are you free tonight?”
Ye Sheng raised an eyebrow.
Xia Wenshi immediately stood up and moved toward him, reaching out to throw a brotherly arm around Ye Sheng’s shoulders. But Ye Sheng had already taken a step back — his guard against physical contact from near-strangers was always set to high.
Xia Wenshi wasn’t fazed in the slightest. In his view, Xiao Ye was just a cool guy with a bit of a hermit streak. The kid never smiled — you could hardly expect him to be physically affectionate with people.
Still, Xia Wenshi firmly believed that Xiao Ye’s detachment was only surface-level, and that deep down he was a good kid.
Xia Wenshi gave a meaningful look. “Xiao Ye, do your brother a favour tonight?”
“…” Ye Sheng’s pay was calculated by the day. He’d already missed a whole morning, and when your employer asked you to work overtime, refusing wasn’t really an option.
“What is it?”
Xia Wenshi held up his selfie stick and grinned. “Tonight I’m going to Lover’s Lake with Qiqi to put our revenge plan into action. I need to operate the remote for the radio and be in the shot. We’re short one person to hold the phone and run the stream. How about you film it for me?”
Ye Sheng: “…”
Honestly, from the moment he’d discovered that Xia Wenshi’s hobby was paranormal livestreaming, he’d known this employer was a liability. In any previous version of his life, Ye Sheng would have declined on the spot. But right now, his feelings about anything involving the supernatural were complicated and hard to name.
And Lover’s Lake with its Zhenzhen Bridge was right inside the Huai’an University campus — barely a ten-minute walk from his dorm.
Ye Sheng let out a quiet sigh. “Fine.”
Call it making up for the missed morning with an overtime evening.
He wasn’t going to be on camera anyway.
Xia Wenshi clapped his hands in delight.
Huang Qiqi was even more thrilled, her eyes bright with barely-contained tears. “Thank you, junior, thank you — and now that scumbag gets to see what a genuinely good-looking person looks like!”
Ye Sheng pressed his lips together. The situation was making him uncomfortable. “I’ll go clean the rooms now. Just call me when it’s time tonight.” He’d be in the dorm anyway.
“Sure, go ahead, junior.”
Ye Sheng stepped into the doll room and immediately felt Alice’s gaze on him. Alice was perched on the cabinet, and the moment she spotted Ye Sheng coming in with a cloth to wipe down the glass display cases, she happily climbed down the little staircase and sat on the floor at his eye level, her voice bright and clear. “Daddy, where are you all going to play tonight?”
She’d heard their conversation from the front hall. Both of Alice’s button eyes were shimmering with excitement.
Ye Sheng ignored her.
Alice thought about it, and cleverly corrected herself. “Ye Sheng, where are you all going tonight? Can you take me?”
Ye Sheng’s hand paused mid-wipe on the cabinet. In the dim light, his eyes went dark and unreadable. Something had occurred to him. Director Cheng had said that the video of him and Ning Weichen was now circulating across the entire Forum — practically every aberrant would have seen their faces.
So — had Alice seen it? She was an aberrant too, belonging to the Story King’s sector. Did she know about the Bizarre Empire? Did she know about the Forum?
But somehow he felt… Alice didn’t know.
Because she wasn’t high-ranking enough.
Ye Sheng said: “You stay here and behave. You don’t go anywhere.”
Alice swung her legs back and forth with a wistful look. “Oh.”
The storm brewing among Huai City’s elite families had no bearing on ordinary people. At least in the freshman group chat, a crowd was still busy discussing Xie Wenci — the petite internet personality with a million followers — with no knowledge of the turbulence descending on the Xie family.
Every year, the Huai’an University freshman group chat came alive for two reasons: first, the voting for campus belle and campus prince; second, the casting call for the university’s promotional film.
Ye Sheng hadn’t opened any of the group chat notifications — but his dorm had one person who shuttled back and forth between both chats constantly, so the news had a way of reaching him regardless.
[Chen Can: Brothers, vote for me.]
Chen Can had posted a link — the sign-up page for the promotional film. He’d attached a short personal introduction video and was drumming up support everywhere he could.
[Chen Can: Come on, guys, help me out. I’m not even asking to be the lead — just a quick appearance will do. If I get the prime dating privileges for four years of uni, I won’t forget the great kindness you’ve shown me 😏]
People generally had their quibbles with Chen Can’s personality, but nothing too serious.
Mostly, everyone got along well enough and wanted to be decent to one another.
Enough people were willing to do him this small favour.
Nudged by the other two roommates, Ye Sheng went in and cast his vote too.
Free of Huang Yiyue. Free of the Xie family. Free of the Bureau of Unnatural Affairs surveillance.
Only now, he thought, had his university life genuinely begun.
At eleven o’clock that night, livestream room 484848 on Xingyun Live had already gathered a crowd.
[Let us IN]
[I want to see the revenge arc]
[What was up with those two posts?? A doomed love story at Lover’s Lake??]
[Hurry up, my late-night snack already arrived]
[I’m the female lead’s best friend, she already told me the whole script — Venmo me twenty and I’ll spoil the whole revenge plan]
[I’m the bestie from the story, this woman doesn’t know I have a backup plan — Venmo me thirty and I’ll tell you what I’m going to do]
[Scammers get OUT]
[Based on those posts, I have reasonable grounds to believe this streamer is a Huai’an University admissions officer. Every single sentence mentions Huai’an University.]
[Please. I’d believe it more if you said he was a Huaili Institute admissions officer from next door. Classic scheming Huaili move — can’t compete so they just talk trash.]