Unexpected Overlap

Hua Subai seemed to sense something and turned around, only to find the place empty behind him again.

But he knew that those inhuman things stood all around him, staring at him with those strange eyes all the time.

He turned back, seemingly unconcerned.

No matter what those things are trying to do, he will always find a way to deal with them the moment they are exposed.

The red-clad ghost on the trouser leg stiffly twisted its neck, the broken bones making a cracking sound, and with the slightest movement, a clattering sound could be heard.

A twisted arm tried to pull it up, successfully staining the fabric around Hua Subai's knees dirty as well.

So Hua Subai turned his attention back to them, saying affectionately, "Oh dear... don't be so anxious. You're much luckier than that guy whose face was torn off by Medusa; at least someone knows who you are."

"There's only one slight unhappiness... because I won't tear your faces off until I'm happy."

Upon hearing this, the red-clothed ghost painfully pried at Hua Subai's legs, the action conveying not resentment, but pleading.

The audience... were all wrong.

They still thought too much of Hua Subai as "kind".

It wasn't that Hua Subai couldn't kill Hong Yi no matter what methods he tried, but rather that Hua Subai wanted to torture them recklessly without giving Hong Yi any relief.

They clung desperately to Hua Subai, begging him to tear off their already grown faces and make them disappear completely.

Hua Subai finally laughed out loud, muttering to himself, "If only you had begged me from the beginning... I wouldn't mind being a good guy again."

"You're just scared. You only realized how painful it is to become a ghost now that you know you can't kill me, right?"

"If you could kill me, you'd just be excited to kill me and make your faces grow even more solid."

"How could that be... You guys get all the benefits, huh?"

Hua Subai muttered to himself, his steps never faltering.

The system had already notified him about the Side Quest "Old Stories." He walked to the center of the private room and casually touched a pair of crossed knitted shoes on the dining table, which seemed to exude a peculiar aura.

Suddenly, a truly delicious aroma of food filled the air.

As if a mist had been quietly lifted, a variety of delicious dishes appeared on the table: the duck skin was roasted until crispy and golden, the potatoes were stewed until soft and tender, and the sweet and sour pork ribs were served in a white porcelain plate, bringing a rich sweetness.

The ubiquitous bloodstains and menacing aura also quietly receded.

Hua Subai, who hadn't eaten a single bite, didn't even glance at it. Instead, his gaze fell on a semi-transparent phantom slowly coalescing beside the dining table.

The illusory figure seemed to have just withdrawn its fingers from the same pair of fingers, muttering, "Mingzhu's family was likely murdered. Was it Fang Deming, or Fang Xiao...?"

As they were talking, the illusory figure turned around and met Hua Subai's gaze.

The other person had medium-length black hair, wore glasses with dangling gold chains on their nose, and had a coat that hung naturally. A long, rectangular painting tube hung from one side of their waist.

I wouldn't say they looked familiar, since we'd only been apart for a short while.

"?"

What are you doing here?

The phantom squinted.

Hua Subai was also stunned, but he immediately wiped the morbid madness off his face and regained the gentle demeanor of a florist, saying slowly, "Perhaps it's because we both touched the same thing at the same time. Is this fate?"

Semi-transparent Yu Xing: "..."

Hua Subai was overjoyed by this unexpected turn of events, and his mood visibly brightened. He checked Yu Xing's condition again and then said, "A Xing, it seems that when we're in the same private room, there's a chance we'll overlap in the old events trigger space."

How's your space?

Yu Xing remained noncommittal. Although she hadn't expected to suddenly encounter Hua Subai during the old mission, it wasn't hard to understand that since they were essentially the same space, they could overlap under certain conditions.

The chopsticks on the table were the third object he had touched. Besides the first candle, the second thing that reacted to him was a suitcase in the corner of the room.

The suitcase looked normal, but there were bloodstains on the bottom that hadn't been wiped clean. The congealed bloodstains were very chaotic, and all you could see were swaying figures. From within them came the voices that had been speaking in the candlelight earlier, but now those voices were screaming in terror.

Therefore, he speculated that Mingzhu's family members were killed after expressing their dissatisfaction with the Fang Mansion.

Without these family members who cared for Mingzhu eventually married into the Fang Mansion. It's unknown what she thought about the deaths of her family members; did she marry willingly, or was she forced into marriage because she had no one to support her?

He replied, "It was fine. After the fog cleared, I didn't encounter any danger and immediately started the side quest. The phantom in the room couldn't see me at all; it was more like a projection."

Yu Xing glanced down, a knowing look in her eyes. "It seems things aren't peaceful on your end."

At this moment, Hua Subai suddenly felt the weight of his legs. All the thoughts he had before about continuing to torture the red-clothed ghost vanished from his mind, leaving only one thought.

--These two things are in my way. They attacked me first, so why are they pretending to be pitiful?

"Look, they're clinging to me, making me walk so slowly, while you've gotten so many clues..." The poor Boss Hua spread his hands with a faint sense of helplessness, indicating that he hadn't missed what Yu Xing just muttered, "I just entered the room, I haven't had time to look at anything yet."

"Then why don't you just scatter them? Keep them as toys?" Yu Xing hit the nail on the head, but judging from his expression, it was just a casual remark.

Hua Subai would never admit to that. He calmly wiped the blood from his hands on the hem of his clothes and said in a tone that suggested, "I'd like to do that too, but I have reservations."

"After all, they were once predictors themselves, and we still don't know the reason why they turned into ghosts. What if there's still hope? I originally wanted to keep them to see if anything would change in this scenario. If we could figure out the conditions for Ghostification, we could have one less constraint on our future actions."

Yu Xing carefully examined the miserable state of the two red-clad creatures, thought for a moment, and figured that the humans were beyond saving. Perhaps they didn't want to live like this either. Most importantly, they were ticking time bombs that might get in his way.

"Let's forget about it, it's unnecessary, I don't think it will work."

Upon hearing this, Hua Subai's eyebrows drooped, her expression gentle and pitying. "... That's right, they're suffering too."

He squatted down and looked into the empty eye sockets of the red-clothed ghost.

Then, he placed his palm on top, his five fingers wrapped around extremely fine, thorny vines, and tore them off downwards.

A tattered and mangled face peeled off.

The red robe suddenly transformed into flesh and blood, beginning to writhe, seemingly replicating the explosion of blood mist after the death of the flesh-and-blood ghost in the backyard.

"Ah... Rest in peace." The culprit of the tormenting ghost offered a hypocritical blessing, and the flower vine suddenly pierced into the flesh, greedily consuming it. The pile of flesh quickly lost its color, leaving only shriveled jerky.

The vines, soaked with blood, stood up tremblingly, and a delicate little red flower bloomed at the top.

The blood mist that even Medusa had to avoid was easily dispelled by Hua Subai.

Hua Subai looked up at Yu Xing and found that Yu Xing had watched the whole thing. He smiled quite happily and followed the same method on the other red-clothed ghost, quickly getting rid of the two dragging ghosts and standing up.

"Isn't this flower pretty?" He admired the vines twining around his fingertips, picked the little red flower, and handed it to Yu Xing: "Do you want it?"

"Throw it away, don't touch me with your flowers." Yu Xing is the type who won't trust anyone after being wronged once, so she kept her distance from all the flowers in Hua Subai's hands, taking a step back with a look of resistance.

"Alright, alright." Hua Subai easily released his grip. The little red flower that was being praised for its beauty just a second ago was now crushed under his foot into a bloody mess of flower mud.

His live stream viewership also surged, with the chat constantly buzzing with comments.

[So he could handle the woman in red??? He wasn't handling her before, and dragging her around was just for fun, right?]

[His ability is so strange, it really is flowery, but for some reason I feel it's somewhat similar to Xing's?]

Look at his face! He has two faces!

[If I hadn't been watching the live stream the whole time, I wouldn't have believed that he was the one who ruined the red dress like that, and he even said "Rest in peace"... He's so mean, but I love him so much.]

[I don't know why, but I had a chill run down my spine. For a moment, I felt like Xing was an innocent little girl in a foreign horror movie being targeted by a scheming killer (I mean, in terms of her identity)]

[That's unlikely; at the very least, she should be a female lead in a tragic orphan story.]

Am I the only one who feels something's off about that flower? It seems to carry an extremely strong sense of resentment, which is very ominous. I'm afraid taking it will bring bad luck.

[For a moment, I didn't know if Hua was trying to cause trouble.]

[Hua is too amazing! I'm definitely going to watch every single one of his livestreams from now on!]