Chapter 271: Chapter 232: Crying? Crying Counts as Time Too
The man, seeing the situation turning bad, turned and ran, but Yang Xiao chased after him with a chair in hand. The chase was futile; the room was only so big, and soon Yang Xiao cornered the man and proceeded to give him a brutally inhumane lesson.
The man’s wails did nothing to elicit Yang Xiao’s sympathy. Yang Xiao only regretted that he couldn’t lift the refrigerator and smash it onto his head. "A bully who preys on the weak and fears the strong, what kind of skill is it to beat your wife and child? If you want respect, work hard to earn more money and make your family’s life better, instead of just being a drunkard and a tyrant at home. That’s when others will respect you!"
After a thought, Yang Xiao corrected, "You damn sure are an exception. It’s not right to hit your wife, but you were too lenient with that beast of a son. Remember to hang him up next time you beat him!"
"Bullying classmates, tormenting teachers, spewing filth, so damn rotten at such a young age, what will become of him when he’s grown?"
The more Yang Xiao spoke, the angrier he became. He threw away the chair he had already broken, and gave the man curled up in the corner a savage kick. During the recent "lesson," he had practiced all of Zhu Yina’s martial arts moves, and they were, indeed, quite effective.
The man was barely alive under Yang Xiao’s beating, but Yang Xiao also realized something—he couldn’t kill the man, who only grew weaker and weaker.
Suddenly, Yang Xiao thought of that little beast, who had been out of sight for so long. So young and already so wicked, he couldn’t let him get away.
Yang Xiao immediately abandoned the man and went in search of the boy. He entered the bedroom only to find the boy who was originally down in the corner was gone.
"Hiding?"
Yang Xiao found it amusing. Soon, during his careful search, he discovered a pair of shivering legs under the bed.
He yanked the boy out from under the bed, and the boy was terrified, begging for mercy. Yang Xiao didn’t treat him as a child, to be exact, he didn’t treat him as human at all.
After a series of targeted lessons from Yang Xiao, the boy became much more obedient. Yang Xiao stroked his swollen little cheeks and smiled contentedly.
Under Yang Xiao’s influence, father and son wept bitterly and swore to reform, promising to become useful to the country and society.
Looking up at the time, it was already 11:40 pm. Aside from the first 20 minutes that Yang Xiao had spent advancing the plot, he had been exchanging martial arts skills with the father and son for the rest of the time, even taking breaks when fatigued to have the boy massage his legs.
Using evil to fight evil is the mark of a true hero.
Under Yang Xiao’s forceful pressure, the father and son were compelled to write letters of repentance and apologies to the entire school’s faculty and students, all within a 5-minute deadline. Yang Xiao had no time to waste with such trash; he had important business to conduct that night.
The boy was crying and wailing, so frightened he could barely hold the pen steady. Father and son kneeled at the coffee table, one on each side, a picture of comical pathos.
"Crying? Crying counts towards your time!" Yang Xiao stood behind them, wielding a baseball bat he had grabbed, his expression fiercely menacing.
Finally, under Yang Xiao’s supervision, father and son wrote out the letters of repentance, promising repeatedly and earnestly that they wouldn’t dare to do it again.
With their letters of repentance in hand, Yang Xiao laughed, his smile somewhat ghastly, "Mr. Chen, you wouldn’t say one thing to my face and another behind my back, secretly giving me a bad review, would you?"
The man was so scared his hair stood on end. "No, definitely not, we’re too grateful for your earnest teaching to even consider it!"
"I know your apartment number. Dare to play tricks with me, and I’ll come back tomorrow night to give the two of you another lesson." Yang Xiao grinned, revealing a mouthful of ghastly white teeth.
"We wouldn’t dare! Teacher, please take care. It’s dark in the hallway, watch your step."
"You’re too polite, Mr. Chen, please stay."
Finally, amid the repeated thanks of the Chen Family Father and Son, Yang Xiao left Room 8009. The moment he stepped out the door, the man behind him hastened to close it.
Yang Xiao stood in the corridor for a moment, noticing nothing amiss, before he tiptoed toward Room 8026. It was Mo Daidai’s residence and the key reason for Yang Xiao’s visit that night.
Worried about being discovered, Yang Xiao walked very lightly. As he approached, he almost stopped with every step, carefully listening to the sounds around him.
Standing in front of Room 8026, before he could press his face against the door, he heard a voice from inside, a cough repressed to an extreme.
As soon as he heard the cough, the hairs on Yang Xiao’s back stood on end because the voice didn’t belong to Mo Daidai at all, but an elderly person.
At the same time, there was a "creak creak" sound. In Yang Xiao’s mind, he envisioned a very old lady lying on a rocking chair, the chair moving back and forth.
Yang Xiao raised his head and double-checked the room number. There was no mistake, it was Room 8026, but... but how could there be a strange old person in Mo Daidai’s room?
Where was Mo Daidai?
He had no missions tonight and should have been in his room. Could it be... he had already been killed by this old lady?
The next second, Yang Xiao dismissed the thought, because he heard a familiar voice, Mo Daidai’s!
"Granny, how are you feeling?" Mo Daidai’s voice was gentle, as patient as if speaking to his own family’s elderly.
"Cough... cough cough..." The old person coughed violently a few times before sighing, "Child, I appreciate it, but Granny’s legs are beyond help."
"It’s alright, Granny, if you like, when the weather is nice, I can take you out for a walk," Mo Daidai continued.
"Cough... cough cough... What a good child, but Granny is too old, I can’t handle the hassle. You shouldn’t wander around either, the apartment is dangerous at night."
"What danger? Are you talking about those two people you mentioned before?" Mo Daidai’s voice was sincere, "I have to thank you for last time, or I would have been caught."
"Yes, but remember, child, those two aren’t the scariest things in this apartment. This place is haunted, there really are ghosts!" The old person, agitated, began coughing again, this time more severely.
"Ghosts?" Mo Daidai was still inquiring, "What kind of ghosts? Can you be clearer, Granny?"
There was a long silence in the room, during which Yang Xiao grew impatient before the old person finally caught her breath, her voice fearful, "I don’t know, don’t ask me, my head’s all muddled... Granny’s no good anymore, can’t remember, can’t remember..."
That there was something in the apartment scarier than those two ghosts was something Yang Xiao hadn’t expected. Moreover, he noted the old person’s phrasing—she referred to the ghost couple as ’those two people’, but when talking about the scary entity, she used the word ’ghost’ directly.
The old person herself was a ghost, presumably like most of the tenant ghosts in the apartment, retaining only the memories of the night before their deaths. Hence, the old lady still thought she was human. This suggested that the most terrifying ghost could likely be the ’Source Ghost’ that caused the frequent paranormal events in the apartment.
It seemed that tenant ghosts like the old lady were all killed by this Source Ghost and forever imprisoned within Dongzhou Apartment.
