The girl nodded. The look in her eyes told that the answer could not get even more obvious. Hey, the past half a year had been like a whirlwind to her. Her problem did not end with just her so-called third eye opening, rendering her to see more filthy things than likable beings like Jiang Li.
There were many traumatic and life-threatening circumstances popping up intermittently within the past six months. It was sotis even scary to breathe. If this were all partly sched to happen by her damn pet ghost, of course, she would want an explanation. In fact, his explanation was what she had been waiting for since yesterday.
She waved a hand, gesturing, 'Go ahead' which he nodded at with a serious expression.
Jiang Li then opened his mouth and Zhan Rong subconsciously watched the movents of his lips.
Yet he said, "Actually, before that, I think you should get so snacks and refreshnts since this will probably take long."
An eye-roll from the annoyed girl ca to him as a reply.
At the sa ti. In the black room.
The villainess was still in her soul form and was obediently staying in her spot. There was no choice anyway since it was impossible to escape. She could only waste her ti away in useless thoughts and fantasies, her imagination strangely so active even though she was in a pitch-black place with no whatsoever illumination.
That situation lasted until a change took place in the room.
On one of the walls a full-length mirror suddenly popped up, brightening up a part of the dark room. There was no sign before its appearance there. Naturally, the villainess was caught off guard.
"Damn. What kind of gimmick is this?" Gu Mochou cursed for the sake of her eyes which she thought had gone blind upon being assaulted by the sudden brightness.
She was particularly not fond of the sudden pain from there. It took her a full minute to recover. But then when her teary eyes adapted to the change, she realized that her sense of sight was actually functioning well. When she looked down, she could see her hands and lower body that strangely looked solid yet intangible, like a cloud of smoke in the sky that could only be seen but not touched.
Gu Mochou exclaid, marveling at her discovery.
She would have taken so more ti to appreciate, or rather, lant about her current state if not for the sound coming from the mirror right in front. It was gentle, like the noise of chi bells.
Before she knew it, Gu Mochou had already floated over, looking into it with curiosity. Probably, because the long hours of boredom had killed so of her brain cells, instead of being wary of it, she even held a playful idea of checking what she looked like there now.
She even told herself, a mirror would not discriminate against ghosts, right? Especially a beautiful one?
'There are a lot of ghost stories where the spirit showed up or scared sobody by letting themselves be reflected in a mirror. I should not be an exception if I will it.' The villainess laughed.
To why she thought of this, once again, boredom.
"I know many skills, but storytelling is not my strength, so"
Fortunately, that voice brought Gu Mochou back to reality.
The villainess was like a frightened rabbit as she stepped back and let out a yelp. The sudden noise had startled her. She had needed a few seconds to collect herself.
"Please do excuse my poor storytelling later."
After a slight grimace, Gu Mochou squinted her eyes at the source of the sound, and shortly, she saw dots of colors appearing on its surface. The small dots of lights were slowly forming a moving image.
'The girl is Zhan Rong.'
'Then this guy' It could only be that ghost king, she concluded.
Gu Mochou's eyes turned fierce. Even if she had accepted her loss, it didn't an she would look favorably at the enemy that had made her eat that loss.
Unfortunately, no matter how angry she was at Jiang Li, the room was a prison that separated her from the material world. Setting aside whether she, as a ghost, would be strong enough to contend against him, she would first have to think of a way to escape from this place.
Gu Mochou knew to recognize her capability. She chose to chant so calming mantras in mind before casting her eyes on the scene playing like a movie in front of her.
To the statent that ca from the ghost, Zhan Rong laughingly said, "I'm all ears. In fact, since yesterday, I am really looking forward to your explanation."
'Yesterday.' Gu Mochou raised a brow.
There was no concept of ti in her current location. Because she was the only one here and the loneliness had been quite a bother, she thought several days had already passed. If the image was happening live sowhere in City B, it ant the ti that went by was shorter than she had estimated.
'Hmm. How surprising.'
'However, no matter how much ti has passed, I'm sure by now they have sold the bug to a poor isolated village similar to Zhao Village.'
'Would that devil cry or regret for his only daughter beca a victim of that very thing that he had done to other won?'
'I really want to know.'
"Alright."
The ghost spoke, uninterrupted by the other girl. Gu Mochou also began to pay attention to the ghost king. She was not that slow to realize that this scene was being shown to her on purpose.
"Once upon a ti there was a kid who got sold to traffickers." began the narration of the ghost.
"Hmm," she humd while casting him an encouraging look.
Jiang Li pretended to not see the girl fiddling her phone for another cloth shop.
He smiled, continuing, "He ended up in a mountainside village, once again put on a sale, as if he were a re item purchased from the city for the purpose of selling expensively in the countryside. A middle-aged widow bought him, a person who only wanted to have soone to support her in her old age. The old lady sched to forever keep it a secret to the child that they are not blood-related."
"Unfortunately, as this kid grew, he displayed signs of being autistic. He was actually the type who looks fine on the outside, even handso. But he couldn't communicate properly with others and has a very slow learning ability. In short, he was dood to be a useless mber of society until his death."
"When the middle-aged lady discovered this, she despaired. She naturally felt cheated of her money. However, it was a ti when dicine was not as developed. At the very least, their poor village had no access to marvelous people called psychologists and psychiatrists."
"Their local midwives were not skilled enough to tell apart babies with or without ntal disabilities by just their appearance. In other words, the old woman had no one to bla apart from her bad luck. And the village chief could not help her refund her money or exchange for another more useful boy."
"In the end, the middle-aged lady could only persist in raising the autistic guy. After so ti, she seed to have accepted everything. She even learned to love him. Her conscience was not yet dead after all. She might have thought he was her only support and he too, no matter how ntally handicapped, was her only relative left. They have to tolerate each other. Especially her, she has to be more open-minded."
"They were poor. One was slow-minded, the other old. It was a miracle that these two managed to lead a peaceful life."
"However, in reality, it was not like they had truly lived a peaceful rural life."
When the ghost king temporarily paused to collect himself, the two girls listening to him were long been frowning. Gu Mochou was even staring intently at Jiang Li. The latter only had no idea about it since they were essentially separated by a dinsion. He only smiled at Zhan Rong who nodded at him in response.
Gesturing with his hands, he continued, "Like I said, their lives, while bearable, was not truly peaceful. From the beginning, they were in a village involved with traffickers. It was already a tradition from a hundred years ago because the village was cursed and no local ever conceived a girl. The buy and sell of abducted people happened regularly, and it persisted even after the autistic guy turned twenty years old."
Zhan Rong looked up, deep in thoughts. She had raised a hand before interjecting. "Is the na of the person Li?"
At that slight pause, she didn't notice that her expression was odd like she was conflicted about whether to be annoyed or to feel pity. Jiang Li shrugged.
"No," he replied before letting out a laugh. "Li is the na of the jerk who made things difficult for you and your friends in that forest. He's just a stray ghost."
Zhan Rong looked up again, the back of her hand supporting her chin. Gu Mochou held her breath in anticipation. Actually, the villainess also began to mumble stuff. From the mont the word autistic was brought up, she shook her head as if denying a possibility.
'What are the odds?' The drumming in her heart began when the other girl asked a na and the ghost denied it.
'But how could that be? His face was different, so was his aura.'
There was nobody to answer the villainess' question. Just like characters in a movie, they didn't care, nor have the ability to care about the conflicted feelings of their viewers.
Zhan Rong only frowned. Jiang Li continued his tale.
"Like what I said earlier, the autistic guy was slow in learning. He was also in anger, in expressing his emotions, and practically in everything. But that didn't an that he completely couldn't function. The grandmother's reason for not helping those won or children who got abducted or trapped in the village was her feeble strength and old age. Likewise, her grandchild had that ntal condition. But when the foolish guy recognized that the villager's practice was wrong, because he was also slow to realize that he's weak and stupid, he didn't think whether he should ddle or not. He just knew he wanted to help those oppressed."
His living listener nodded. A slight smile ford on his lips again.
"Do you know? The first ti he tried to play hero was towards an injured woman who he thought was a goddess that had fallen from sowhere."
"Unfortunately, the villain trying to violate this woman was a youthful farr whose strength had been tested by the soil he was tilling. The handso fool was at ho all year long. The other party was stronger and had a more capable mind, even if the intellect was used in sothing dishonorable. In no ti, the autistic fool was overpowered."
"But that... person's goal was only to buy ti." Zhan Rong asked.
"Yes." Jiang Li added, "It's really just to buy ti. He didn't know if she has completely escaped from the village. But at least she was no longer in sight. He was already happy at that thought. His mind was simple, so chances are he assud the only evil thing to be dealt with was the guy beating him up. Not only that, but the fool also underestimated the resolve of the other."
"Tch."
"Think about it. A beautiful but injured maiden escaped his grasp. How could he be happy about that? If no ddleso guy intervened, he would have been having a splendid ti with the lady already. But that plan got foiled by a persistent fool who kept dragging him down no matter how bad he beats him up."
"Take note that it happened in the middle of the night. There were no others around. The grandma was away."
"Perhaps it was the darkness? Or perhaps this villain injected himself with chicken blood or so sort of drugs?"
Jiang Li stopped. Zhan Rong looked at him expectantly, but when he no longer spoke after a minute, she hesitated before asking softly, "The other villager... killed him?"
The ghost shrugged again.
In the black room, Gu Mochou just stared blankly. The other girl's question sounded a bit stupid to her. But later, she realized, she only felt that way because she knew the answer already. How couldn't she know when she was the woman in that story?
The villainess stared gloomily at the person sitting on the bed and then to the one facing her laptop. Her eyes then settled on the male ghost whose back was facing her.
The voice was nice, but his manner of narrating the story was not remarkable. There were a lot of details missed. He didn't know when to pause to create suspense. It was like he spoke without arranging his thoughts first or planning the flow and the pace.
But those minor things were not important for her right now.
She wanted to know more, how the hell did he know about those? Was it because he was really related to a hell envoy?
Or was it because all along he was Zhao Bolin?
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