The next ten minutes were the most terrifying of Ding Mingcheng’s life.
He knew that these scary things were all Song Yucheng’s doing. He knew that Song Yucheng was acting like Han Feiran and dressed like him to scare him. He knew all of this, but he was still terrified.
“Let me go, please get me go…” Ding Mingcheng was scared sh*tless. He tried to hide in a corner, but the mirrors behind him seemed to have rotting hands reaching out from them, reaching for his ankles to pull him into hell.
He did his best to escape, to break through the door and run, but his weak limbs slowed his crawl. The TV screen opposite him played the video over and over, and the people he’d ruined also looked like they were going to crawl out of the screen and seek revenge on him.
“No! NO! I’m begging you! I was wrong! I was wrong!”
Ding Mingcheng was in despair. He felt like he was going mad with fear. He cried, he begged, he threw away all his dignity to ask for mercy, but it was no use. The people he had wronged were not letting him off.
They wanted him to pay with his life.
“Ah!” It felt as though a cold hand had grabbed his ankle. Ding Mingcheng let out a hoarse scream and wet himself.
Ding Mingcheng dashed over immediately when Tang Chi got to the room with policemen in tow. He knelt before him, face streaming with tears and snot, and admitting his guilt.
“Tang Chi, I was wrong. I was wrong!” It seemed like he could not tell if it was a hallucination or reality anymore, and the man they saw was not the usual haughty young master they saw in public.
He was completely frightened out of his wits, and he crawled to the police like they were his closest friends when he saw them, shouting that he wanted to “turn himself in”.
“I was wrong! It’s all my fault! I’m scum and I caused Han Feiran’s death. I’ve hurt so many people. Take me away, I beg you! Take me away!” Ding Mingcheng pleaded and pleaded. He was willing to sit in prison for the rest of his life if he could leave this room.
But the straws he was grasping at, Tang Chi and the policemen, were frozen in place. They could not understand what was going on.
Ding Mingcheng had admitted to his guilt too readily. They had not even questioned him yet, and he’d confessed. More importantly, it looked like he was not in a great mental state, and could have even gone mad.
“I think someone had come by before us. Why else would a rich young master like Ding Mingcheng arrange to meet people here?” whispered a junior police officer to his superior.
The Yuehua Building really was remote. They would have arrived earlier if not for the distance.
The senior policeman in charge scoffed. “Hah! Who knows, it might’ve been vengeful spirits, eh? Didn’t you hear? A bloody letter was sent through the computer system too. All of City B’s elite know about it. With the things this grandson has done, dying ten times won’t be enough to atone for his crimes!”
“True. Time would be better spent if this scum just dies of terror.” The younger policeman nodded in agreement. He didn’t bother investigating further, and simply took Ding Mingcheng away. He’d also heard that the higher-ups wanted a strict investigation, and to take the Yang family down. This whole fiasco today might have been some act of god, even!
What’s more, Ding Mingcheng had been the one to take the initiative to send a message to Tang Chi. The location had been specified by Ding Mingcheng too. Who knows? Maybe he did like this place a lot!
The policeman took Ding Mingcheng away immediately. Tang Chi, on the other hand, took one worried look behind him.
Tang Chi had a feeling that Xie Qianchen had been in the room, and that he definitely had something to do with why Ding Mingcheng was so scared.
Those police officers did not know the backstory, but Tang Chi did. What happened to Han Feiran had happened here.
The calvary had come quickly, and left quickly too. The Yuehua Building was quiet again after the police sirens faded.
Song Yucheng sat at a tea table in a room not far away from the room which Ding Mingcheng had been arrested in. He was expressionless as he made his tea.
The tea leaves floated up in the boiling-hot water. However, Song Yucheng stood and poured the tea on the floor before the fragrance of the tea could rise up into the air.
“Five more. Don’t worry, I will make them pay the price…” muttered Song Yucheng softly. His gentle voice sounded like he was comforting someone, or afraid of scaring someone.
The System was creeped out by his tone of voice, and it wanted to say something but held its tongue in the end.
Song Yucheng straightened up after he was done murmuring and bowed deeply to the spot where he’d poured the tea. He walked away without a backward glance.
He left the Yuahua Building, and the System suddenly cried, “Milord! Why didn’t you just scare Ding Mingcheng so bad that he goes crazy? Or scare him to death? He’s a scumbag!”
“Because he’s not worth it. Only a person who’d alive and sane can experience the torture of living like a dead person. According to the rules of this world, if Ding Mingcheng goes mad, he can be released on medical grounds even though all the charges against him are proven. And if he’s convicted of all charges, his family would be able to arrange for a comfortable sanatorium for him and he wouldn’t need to suffer any prison time at all. How is that punishment?”
“As for death, he’s going to die sooner or later. How will this pay for the suffering of Han Feiran and Xie Qianchen if this bastard simply dies so quickly? Prison is not a walk in the park. If Ding Mingcheng is going to die, then he has to suffer all the pain that Han Feiran did before he can shut his eyes for the final time.”
Song Yucheng was silent after that, but the air of hostility about him was sharper than before.
The things he had used today were all quite readily available. After Han Feiran’s death, Xie Qianchen had bought Yuehua Building with the proceeds from the first script written by Wen Ran. The pictures on the wall, the old tapes, the articles, the room mechanism, and the mirrors which showed the image of vengeful ghosts had all been prepared by Xie Qianchen, with the aim of getting revenge on Ding Mingcheng.
This was the place where Ding Mingcheng had ruined Han Feiran, so he wanted him to pay for his sins here.
Unfortunately, Xie Qianchen’s life had ended before he could finish setting things up. Song Yucheng had arranged for Ding Mingcheng to come here to fulfil one of Xie Qianchen’s wishes.
Song Yucheng sat in the driver’s seat and lit a cigarette. The nicotine went from his nose to his body, and seemed to thicken when he exhaled the smoke, as if burdened with pent-up emotions.
He suddenly asked the System, “Do you guys have any enforcers who eventually collapsed because they took on too much hate from the original hosts?”
The System hesitated, but told the truth in the end. “Yes.”
“How did you guys solve it?”
“By forgetting.” The System’s voice trembled, as if it was recalling some unpleasant scenario. “If the enforcer collapses, the higher-ups will erase the enforcer’s memories of the System and the mission in accordance with the contract. The enforcer will return to normal life.”
“Milord, you…” The System seemed to want to explain something, but it only said one sentence after hesitating for a long time. “In the next world… In the next world, I will definitely find you something easy so you can relax and take a break.”
Its voice was pleading, and a little worried. It was cute, and not like its usual bitchy self.
“Pfft.” Song Yucheng couldn’t help a laugh when he heard how anxious the System was. In that moment, his light and shallow laugh seemed especially gentle.
His laugh was music. The System, which had been worried, suddenly sent a HoldFace.jpg emoji. The quick change in the mood was really goofy.
Song Yucheng laughed harder. He stubbed out his cigarette after a long while, and retorted, “No need to be afraid. It’s just a bid of a bleedover from Xie Qianchen. It’s all under control.”
He stepped on the accelerator and drove off.
Song Yucheng had not been lying. What he had experienced here had been the best. At the very least, he was able to redress the grievances of Xie Qianchen, and in his own name too.
Song Yucheng had a feeling that he won’t be spending as much time in this world as the previous one, so he needed to deal with the rest of the sinners as quickly as possible. Especially Cao Kun — he was going to teach him a lesson he’d never forget!
There was also a lot of work left to be done on Ding Mingcheng’s uncle’s end, and he had a lot of work to finish up.