u003cCongratulations, Host. Jiang Li has awakened.u003e Zhan Rong saw the notification which was hard to miss since it popped up with the blue panel. A time-check was even included in it, 8:30 pm. She temporarily stopped unpacking the items and dresses brought with her on a trip to a town in Zhejiang province which was near to another extremely remote village.
Like the previous semestral break, her exclusive pet ghost went into hibernation and she had no choice but to complete a mission to wake him up. Thankfully, she already experienced the worst at Zhao village so she was not as unprepared as before.
Misfortunate events still happened because no matter the amount of preparation made, there would always be small or unexpected things unaccounted. But none really impeded her as Zhan Rong had a greater determination to wake Jiang Li up since he had already become a part of her normal life.
She felt it. Unlike six months ago when she first experienced the trap of the system but still managed to resist, her mind fell into a bit of disarray on the first and second day of the mission when she summoned the system to call Jiang Li only to get no response.
It was quite funny, but indeed, in six months, a ghost did make her comfortable and used to his presence. She became more active in finis.h.i.+ng the mission, and she had to say, there was quite a difference between simply surviving and striving for a goal since it would always be the latter giving greater results and efficiency.
The trip was still hateful though. It did not lead her to any beautiful place, showing her only ugly scenes.
Zhan Rong chose to forget for now the unpleasant memories a.s.sociated with that village which was also one of the small partners of the syndicate.
"My reward is here." Zhan Rong turned around after reading what was on the panel.
Skin that was deathly pale. Slightly upturned brown eyes that could easily capture souls yet still made him appear pure and nice. The lips were pale, but it could not be helped due to his ident.i.ty. But overall, it was an appearance that made her feel like everything she experienced in the past week was worth it. Just how the h.e.l.l could a d.a.m.n ghost be this good-looking?
Anyway...
"Jiang Li!" Zhan Rong"s eyes were like stars that instantly twinkled upon seeing her ghost appear before her eyes. He looked to have teleported into the room, though he could have also pa.s.sed through the wall.
"Look at this girl." The man who was still irritated by the latest news he got suddenly felt it had become easier to breathe. When he arrived, he saw the solemnness in Zhan Rong"s expression too so the fact that his arrival lit up her face made him feel wonderful.
Even without the girl saying a word, it was easy to guess what she was thinking right now and what she felt about seeing him again.
How nice that even though they belonged to different species, their control over each other"s mood was still as powerful.
"Welcome back, I guess." He said with a laugh to the beautiful college student who was already checking him out, probably, for another set of clothes to order.
"It"s you who disappeared." She said with a slight pout.
In front of others, specifically of mercenaries and bodyguards helping her out in the strange business that she established half a year ago, Zhan Rong would always sport a calm face, looking mysterious and domineering. To her schoolmates and other acquaintances, she was a nice, mature, adventurous young lady who only became scary when completely annoyed.
This spirit was only the one who witnessed a more carefree, selfish, and at times immature and irrational side of her. Was it because he was her mentor? And exclusive model? In this world, apart from the system, this guy must be the only one who saw the most number of faces she could actually make.
Like right now.
"Jiang Li. Do you know what I went through when you were not around?"
Pouting her lips slightly, Zhan Rong looked disgruntled. Her face became sadder remembering she was not allowed to bring up the system even to anyone, not even to this ghost. She was guessing Jiang Li did not even have any idea that he was actually given to her by the system.
She could not explain it well. So she used her face to show that she was really aggrieved. "Shouldn"t you be guilty? I suffered so much."
Jiang Li flew over and asked. "So what do you want to learn this time? I will make sure to double the effort in teaching to make it up to you."
Zhan Rong went back to stuffing her clean clothes into the closet. There was no dirty laundry in her luggage since she was the type to dry-clean her clothes first before returning to the city. While her hands moved, her gaze darted towards the ceiling as she pretended to think it over.
A couple of moments later, she narrowed her eyes at her pet ghost. Almost a minute pa.s.sed before she realized her brain wandered to the wrong zone, subconsciously visualizing the next outfit to burn for him.
"Ugh. His sinful face and body are really too much."
Even though it was her who got distracted, the blame got thrown to the innocent ghost leaning on the wall adjacent to her bed with folded arms. She briefly closed her eyes and recalled something serious.
"Jiang Li, do you know?" After a minute, she opened her mouth and sat prettily on the edge of her bed. She was done unpacking and was looking at the options given to her by the system. Unfortunately, none of them was what she wanted right now.
Zhan Rong continued, "Before coming here, I had a talk with an annoying old man."
"Old man?"
If Jiang Li were not maintaining a good image, he would have furrowed his forehead already. "There"s only that guy, right?"
Sure enough, the answer matched his guess.
"It"s my father." She said with a bored look on her face when no change in his expression occurred.
"You once told me that you two are not close since he already has a new family. So what did he say?" Jiang Li tilted his head. "How is it related to my earlier question?"
"Well, I was asked to go on blind dates, and I have no choice but to go since the old man kept bringing up my last name. Perhaps you could help me with that?"
The ghost blinked his eyes as his lips suddenly pressed into a thin line. Then he opened his mouth again, "Did you say... blind dates?"
Zhan Rong nodded and his countenance remained the same, although, in his heart, he instantly felt annoyed. Had it not been for his skillful control of his facial muscles, his expression would have looked ugly now.
It was not really hard to understand. But really? Some stupid old man asked a married lady to meet other guys in hopes of tying them through marriage?
Mild irritation crept on Zhan Rong as she explained the situation. Jiang Li listened. And when he felt like he could no longer maintain a straight face, he excused himself after promising to go with her at the reserved dinner spot.
"It"s already late. And I can see that you are tired so you should go to bed now."
The girl asked, "You won"t suddenly go away, will you?"
To this, he shook his head. "I won"t. I promise to go with you to the rendezvous place."
Zhan Rong looked at him for a few moments before she hesitantly nodded.
He made sure to appear like he returned to her necklace to appease her. An hour or so later, when it was confirmed that she had fallen asleep, he went out. The ghosts roaming outside, mostly his subordinates in charge of ensuring the safety of the neighborhood 24/7, flinched when he pa.s.sed by them.
"Be vigilant. I have to leave for another area to settle some issues." He said to them.
"Yes, king." Those who could speak replied slowly.
That night, Jiang Li traveled several miles to reach Mr. Zhan who was living with his new family at the neighboring city. The wrinkled-face old dude reminded him of Zhao Bolin"s irresponsible parents so his resolve to deal with Zhan Rong"s father double. Yet when he was about to use the usual scare tactics, he remembered there was one thing people like Mr. Zhan really feared.
"Ugh. Restraint. Don"t think of murder. He"s still technically your father-in-law even if he doesn"t know you exist."
It took a long while for the red veins in his ghostly eyes to disappear and for him to retreat to the study of the middle-aged magnate.
Tomorrow morning when the stock market opened, no buy trade could be conducted for the Zhan Corporation. The sudden crash of every brokerage platform, which mysteriously only affected listed companies related to the Zhans, caused people to sell their shares in a heartbeat. The bond market was also weird. And several properties, whether a factory, a mall, or a corporate building, were sighted with several unclean beings even though it was daytime.
Because the media immediately saw the situation, they hyped it up further. This was something already out of Jiang Li"s influence.
Anyway, no people were really harmed in this revenge. Except for Mr. Zhan, and perhaps some executives and major shareholders, who nearly had a heart attack. Nearly. Since Mr. Zhan only got heartache from the millions of losses he was getting every pa.s.sing hour. He was still healthy physically. Because even though the ghost despised him, it was only a fit of momentary anger that needed some venting, not to the point of wanting his demise.
In the afternoon of the same day, a meeting was formally held between Zhan Rong and a guy called Huang Ming, grandson of the fifteenth richest man in the country.
Jiang Li was floating behind the girl unseen by others. The ghost was actually unnerved but he did not prevent the meeting. With a smile that did not reach the eyes, he bombarded the panel with words, dictating her what to say to "test" the sincerity of the other party...