13 1.9

Ling Wǔshì rushed Takeru to the hospital and waited outside the emergency room. He clearly saw the beat-up look that Takeru has as he lay on his arms like a lifeless and worn out doll. He sat down on the plastic chairs just outside the E.R. and sunk into deep contemplation.

Back then, wasn't he like that? Before he reached the pinnacle of life in his original life, he was beaten black and blue, and his face swelled like a pig's face. His body used for their extreme and unreasonable actions, fed with drugs, and used as a punching bag when something didn't go as they planned it. He Míng lived half his life worst than how a prostitute live. He didn't remember what happened in between, but he remembered the part where he killed every single one of those scum and break away from that horrible and hellish place. He lived the other half of his life with the elite class, dressed smartly and charmingly, luring everyone's eyes to stare at him and trapping them into his beautiful scheming trap. And when he eliminated everyone, he was seated at the highest throne, holding the wealth of the others while bathing on their dirty blood.

[Fox: Host, your phone is ringing for a long time...]

He Míng break away from his line of thought and nodded to the system, taking the phone in his hands, his mind wanders again. In this mission world, he is not someone significant that needs to help the Male lead or anything. He's not a person who will empathize and lend a hand to someone, be it in the original life and nor in this mission world. Instead, he'll play as Master Showman and lead every character to their own demise.

"Hello?"- Ling Wǔshì answered the call and received a loud scolding from his Mother.

"Ling Wǔshì! What did you tell Lalaine today?! What breaking up?! Did you know that she was crying pitifully to me as if you bullied her? Lalaine even said that you two will marry each other?! Young man, come back home after school! We're not done talking!"- after that, the call ended. He blinked twice before looking at his phone screen. Ling Wǔshì's mom is amazing, she already deduced everything that Lalaine wants to plot against him.

"Young man, are you a relative of this person?"- The doctor went out of the E.R and questioned Ling Wǔshì.

"No, Just his classmate, how is he?"- Ling Wǔshì asked and got the full report about Takeru's condition. His face was dark and menacing, looking down at Takeru sleeping on his bed in the private room that they transfer Takeru in.

[Fox: internal injuries will heal for two months, bruises and fractures three months, concussion on the head one month, external injuries healing at two months. Host, Male Lead will be bedridden for three months at most.]

"I know that- tsk. I didn't know that exposing such farce in the university will lead to this kind of outcome. At most I expected more sneers and badmouthing and bullying, but to the point that he'll be bedridden for more than a month? Who in the right mind will be sane enough to actually kill inside the university?"- He Míng clicked his tongue together as he looked outside the window of the room. The sun was unusually bright at this hour as the heat in the city raises at twenty-eight degrees celsius.

"Anyway, I'm sure that someone has a hand in this incident. Did you get the list of the people inside the library, Fox?"

[Fox: Yes, I will send the list to your phone.]

"Should I visit him always like this?"- He Míng asked the system while sitting down and making himself comfortable on the sofa.

[Fox: Please remember one of the Main Missions is to stay close to ML for three hours a day, so yes, you should visit him often.] The system reminded his carefree Host with sweat sliding down its fur.

"Pain in the ass. Everything about crushing and molding this stupid, naive, rebellious, doubtful male lead is enough to let me write a whole volume of curses about him."- He Míng said in a groan as he stretched out on the sofa.

[Fox: Host, please bear with it. Also, Marie and Leo will be here in a minute.]

"Gotcha, go ahead and scram- wait that's a bit of a harsh word... just piss off."- He Míng frowned and shun away the system.

[Fox: ... it was nice knowing you and all...wuwuwu]

"Don't cry here, so noisy, tch!"- He Míng said with a frown so evident in his face. The system looked at him with a wronged expression, its small body shaking like an earthquake as it floats midair.

[Fox:... Host! You're such a sadist! *cries*]

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Go already."- He Míng said and watched the system vanish while sulking. Before three seconds pass, Leo and Marie came inside the room and saw Ling Wǔshì staring "worriedly" at Takeru on the bed.

"President Ling! How is he?"- Marie asked and sensibly sat at a comfortable distance from Ling Wǔshì, Leo put down their bags on the coffee table.

"Three."- He mumbled, making Marie and Leo bewildered. What three? Three minutes? Hours? Days?

"W-What is that number, President Ling?"- Leo asked him this time and sat at the single couch on the opposite side of the President.

"The Doctor earlier said that he needs three months to recuperate. It's that worst that I was more than shocked when he told me that."- Ling Wǔshì said and folded his hands on his lap as he sat up straight.

"I-I see..."- Leo mumbled before looking coincidentally at Takeru from his bed. Well, no doubt it'll take months for him to recuperate, getting one-sided physical attacks will really put you in this situation. Speaking of one-sided...

Leo looked back at Marie who met his eyes and started to sweat. As soon as the word got out that the President of the Student Council of K City University "beaten-up" one-fourth of the population of students in the university, everyone was eyeing their every move. Even their parents are questioning them. They need to discuss this with him, however, seeing his bad mood and concerning himself to Takeru, they might hit a nerve... or a landmine and get a bad result- no- more worst result than Takeru's situation.

Leo wanted Marie to tell it to the President, but seeing her sweat too much, fidgets, and tremble at her seat, it's safe to say that he'll be the one to press the button that'll create a man-made disaster of the present.

"Hm? Why are you trembling, Marie? Something up?"- Ling Wǔshì looked at her with a tilted and confused look, his question was on the spot that made Marie hiccuped in surprise before she told him that it's nothing, giving obvious signals to Leo to inform the President already.

"You sure? Did you got scared earlier? Haha... I guess I was pretty scary huh?"- Ling Wǔshì made a light joke but the two didn't buy it.

'Pretty scary? President... we heard you say "predator"... What's pretty there? It's all scary!'- Leo shook a bit before trying to calm himself.

'Yeah right! What 'Pretty Scary' huh?! You're so damn scary earlier! Eeeek!'- Marie felt her insides tremble in fear while forcing a laugh for President Ling.

"Ah, that reminds me, President Ling... we have something important to tell you."- Leo said and looked away from him when he looked at his way.

'The smiling face actually is making it hard for me to tell the news, what should I do? Can I just postpone this talk for tomorrow?'- Leo gulped hard and tried not to flinch when President Ling asked him what it was.

"Uhm... you see... After you left the university..."- Leo started to sweat when he felt the air change inside the room, it was eerie cold, it makes him even more nervous.

"What is it? Don't leave me hanging. If it's hard to say then just speak bluntly, I'm pretty sure you're just the messenger here."- He said to him that made him sad. It's true that he is the messenger right now, But why does it have to be him? How did the Secretary of the Student Council become a Messenger? He needs a raise or something...

"Yes, After you left the library, the incident reached the Headmaster and the Parents of the students you... taught a lesson. They demand a public apology and ask you to provide medical fees for their children's expense."- Leo summed up the news for him and started to sweat again.

'President Ling, why are you smiling? Is the news a good one? Is it? It's not, right? Don't smile.'- Leo thought and gulped his saliva.

"Heh~ I thought K City University only shelters geniuses and capable students, I didn't know brats and bastards are mixed in."- The two started to shiver and placed a polite smile on their lips. The President is smiling, but he is not happy. How can someone have such a bright expression but a scary aura? It both baffles and scares them to death.

"You two can go ahead and tell your parents what "exactly" happened, don't hold back and tell them everything. Tomorrow, I'll do this so-called 'Public apology' and shake the whole Elite Society. It needs a lot of cleaning, don't you two think the same thing?"- He asked with a smile. Leo and Marie nervously looked at each other before nodding at his words.

They excused themselves and left, He Míng loosen his necktie before heaving a loud sigh.

"I'm not patient as a normal person, but these missions and tasks are testing my patience- especially this good-for-nothing jerk who almost close to cross the afterlife if I didn't interfere. Tch!"- He Míng looked at the body on the bed with a look of displeasure on his face.

He waited for two more hours for the main mission to ping him a notification that it is done, browsing the list of names that the system gave him on his phone. The system kept saying the couple, for the last three weeks but it never identified which couple was the target. He Míng felt a throbbing headache coming, Why does that entity launch a faulty and inexperienced system to pair with him? Seriously? He needs to know why?

He called his butlers at the Penthouse and assigned them to gather information about nouveau-riche couples for last month and current month that were studying in K City University. He also told them to hire a guard for Takeru inside the Hospital before ending the call.

He Míng stood up and looked back at Takeru's unconscious form before frowning. There it was again, the scent of fresh unearthed soil was starting to overwhelm the whole room, riding the cold wind from the AC. He cannot describe the feeling and scent other than it's very heavy and unsettling. He turns around and left the room with his bag, not looking back once.

++

The Ling's Family mansion is erected at the heart of the Elite Society. It has a red-tiled roof and white walls, a three-story building with a lavish garden, and a large fountain in the middle. When Ling Wǔshì walked at the entrance of the mansion, rows of maids and butlers greeted him in a synchronized manner before taking care of his bag. They put down a pair of soft slippers to change for his black shoes and took his vest and necktie. Walking towards the large living room that is on the left side of the grand staircase, Ling Wǔshì immediately saw his elegant mother in her white corporate attire drinking tea with a fine-china porcelain set. His father beside his mother on the long couch reading the newspaper.

"There you are, Ling Wǔshì, come and sit with us."- His father spared him a glance and told him to sit. Ling Wǔshì blinked before walking towards them, squeezing in between his parents. They both looked at him with a strange expression, he didn't pay attention to them and grabbed a cookie to eat from the coffee table.

"*cough* Ling Wǔshì, about earlier... what kind of slut did you just play with?"- Ling Wǔshì's mother whose name is Elaine Ling asked with an arched brow, placing her teacup down and putting her gaze to him.

"What kind of food did you feed that monkey in makeup to actually dare to tell your Mother that you both will marry? Ling Wǔshì, who are you mingling with?"- His father whose name is Ronghei Ling asked him with a deep frown.

"I was just playing around, the pink princess thought I was serious with her and started to create her own falsity and spread it far and wide in her connections."- He said in a calm tone and ate another cookie.

"Cut connections with those kinds of people, Why do we want to associate with such despicable people?"- Ronghei Ling snorted and looked back at his newspaper with a frown.

"Exactly, those scum saying that my child was asking for their support in the exchange of popularity is nothing but a big farce! Thinking about their smug looks while looking at me made me angry so bad!"- Elaine Ling frowned as well before leaning against the sofa.

"Do not worry, Father, Mother, They just want to fantasize too much from our immortal-like beauty and power."- Ling Wǔshì said and ate his third cookie. He felt a pat on his head, it was his mother who was smiling at him.

"Well, humans are such ugly and greedy creatures, reaching their dirty hands to us like some kind of prized possession they want to grab for themselves. Just always be careful outside, Okay son?"- His mother reprimanded him and he nodded.

"By the way... I took two hundred and fifty students down in a one-sided fight."- Ling Wǔshì said that made his parents pause and looked at him with a surprised expression.

"You what?"

"A one-sided fight?"

"It's nothing big... or maybe it is big, The Headmaster and the scum students' family might knock on your doors at work but do not fret, I'll straighten them up dump them all at the dumpster in one shot."- He said and stood up, They both looked at him and watch him walk away waving back at them while talking.

"I'll borrow our intelligence sector and gather dirty water and stench from their families. So just sit back and enjoy the circus show tomorrow."- He said ad went upstairs to his room.