#because binghe is scaring all of the actual ghosts

[yipfrey]

thinking about ghost hunter shen yuan (as always playing a sceptic but actually a true ghost believer. probably popular online for his sarcastic but funny commentary) and demon binghe who haunts every ghost location that shen yuan visits

[neoblogcrying]

“Let’s Play a Game” pt. 3

Due to me deciding, ‘heck, let’s make this an actual project,’ i’m celebrating by writing the next part of this series. I guess you could consider it a bonus scene? Thank you to all who are reading and enjoying this! Also thank you for all those who have voted!

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The System Temp chose ‘Shen Yuan’ to main in this life simulation game!

Tch.

Though subtle among the reverberating sound of a chime playing upon the game acknowledging a choice being made, someone made a sound of displeasure.

“Oh? What was that, #1? Are you upset the Temp alluded the route laden with death traps?”

“As long as they chose every single option properly, it wouldn’t be laden with death traps. Don’t scare the temp, they’ll start fearing any option I throw out in the future.”

If it wasn’t obvious by now, System Moderator #1 was the one who was at the forefront of wishing evil upon everyone, whether they be other system moderators or the novel characters. In fact, it was #1’s doing that resulted in the System Temp being summoned to play this Life Simulation game.

Anyone who could plan such a thing shouldn’t be trusted.

“Anyways, pay attention to the screen. A new scene is starting.” The begrudging voice of #1 reminded the temp to pay attention to the screen to see: ‘Bonus scene!’ appear on the screen.

Shen Yuan opened his eyes to hear a tired voice asking him how he felt. In his surprise, he almost jolted up, but a hand pressed down on his chest, effectively keeping him down.

Though the hand kept him grounded, the hand was gentle, as if worrying he’d be harmed in the process. This gentle hand belonged to none other than Qian Cao Peak’s Mu Qingfan! His peak specialized in medical skill and medicine production.

Seeing him here, Shen Yuan sighed and shook his head. “Who was it?”

“Why don’t you guess? Guess correctly and you may get something out of it.”

Despite how cold he was, Shen Jiu cared a lot about him, to the point of being over protective. When one thought about it, it made some sense? Shen Yuan always rationalized it with:

‘If you have such a strong distrust for everyone around you except for one person, they’ll be like your life line and you’ll be damned before you let anything happen to them.’

Of course, he didn’t hate the idea that Shen Jiu trusted him and regarded him as important, but he did wish that his elder twin would relax a bit. There was many a time he would have Mu Qingfan secretly visit their peak to give him a check-up.

Whether it was because he truly worried, or he was trying to appeal to Shen Jiu, Yue Qingyuan had called for Mu Qingfan to give Shen Yuan a look over on more than one occasion.

Given their track record, he’d be willing to guess Shen Jiu… but… a gut feeling was telling him that Yue Qingyuan was the culprit.

As any logical thinking adult, he made his decision. “I’m willing to guess it was the both of them.” Shen Yuan sighed, casually searching for his fan. It was a force of habit to hide his face behind his fan, but it wasn’t next to him now, how unfortunate.

“Correct.”

While Yue Qingyuan made a request personally that he go visit Shen Yuan, the older of the two twins sent word for Mu Qingfan to look at his sickly brother. If he didn’t visit and Shen Yuan died because of it, he would be sure to curse the doctor for years to come (IF he lived that long, that is).

It was true that Shen Yuan fell ill easily when he reached a certain threshold of stress, his immune system wasn’t so compromised that he’d fall seriously ill at random. From what he could tell, most of the time Shen Yuan collapsed, it was due to heavy stress and him overworking himself.

He wished to tell the younger twin to relax, but it wasn’t so simple. He lived his life in secrecy, and he had a slower cultivation speed than his brother, so he always felt stressed to keep up. When Yue Qingyuan visited him in person, he was told about how the secret was out for the disciples of ‘Shen Qingqiu’.

That meant, aside from Yue Qingyuan and Mu Qingfan, only the disciples of this peak knew the truth. No one else knew the truth, but it was only a matter of time before the other peak lords learned the truth.

‘When the time comes, I will cover for them. I won’t let anything happen to Shen Qingqiu.’

That’s what he said before he left. Shen Yuan had an agreeable personality when you caught him alone, but Shen Jiu was difficult to deal with. He couldn’t understand why Yue Qingyuan was so considerate towards the twins. There had to be some hidden history between them, but he could never get enough information out of any party to gain an understanding of their situation.

“As requested, I’ve prepared some ‘medicine’ for you as your prize for guessing properly.” Mu Qingfan slid a small packet towards Shen Yuan, who in turn cast an evasive eye to the medicine.

Look, the medicine was super bitter, and he hated having to take it! He only collapsed from exhaustion! He wasn’t sick! There was no need for medicine! Feeling desperate to escape from being forced to take the medicine, his heart sank when he heard quick, but steady footsteps approaching the room.

As if on cue, he’s coming. Two faces dimmed with resignation as they waited for Shen Jiu to open the door casually. “Are you okay?” Shen Jiu asked, ignoring Mu Qingfan’s existence for a moment.

“I told you, I was only exhausted. There is no need to make me take medicine. I’ll be fine.” Shen Yuan grumbled, avoiding Shen Jiu’s piercing gaze. He was doing so much avoiding today! His neck is getting tired!

Stepping into the room, Shen Jiu picked up the medicine packet and sat himself down next to Shen Yuan imposingly.

The room went cold from Shen Jiu’s domineering pressure. “Listen to the Peak Master’s orders and take your medicine.”

Screw the image. He’s not ‘Shen Qingqiu’ right now! He gripped the edge of the blanket and covered the bottom half of his face in a silent show of defiance. You keep forcing all this medicine he doesn’t need to take on him. He doesn’t want it! “It’s my turn to be the Peak Master, and I don’t want to take it. I’m not sick, so this medicine will be worthless on me.”

When he says it’s bitter, you don’t understand how painfully bitter it is! It’s so bitter… that… that he feels like his tongue could fall off at any moment! It took everything he had to not throw it up! Have you ever tried chewing a pill of pain reliever? You would know how bitter that tastes, but this medicine was much worse!

It was grainy, bitter, tongue numbing, and it was so Ungodly disgusting!

They say the more effective a medicine is, the more bitter it tastes- well this really takes the cake!

“Who is the older twin?”

“…” You always use your age against him in matters like this! If he still lived on Earth, he would have loved to retort with something along the lines of ‘your mother!’ but they shared the same mother.

“Well?”

“… You are.”

“Good. Listen to your brother and take your medicine obediently.” Shen Jiu reached into the blanket to fish out one of Shen Yuan’s hands and placed the medicine in his hand.

DAMN IT! How about you eat it!? You are only 30 minutes older!

Resigned to his fate, Shen Yuan sat up, a ghost of a pout appearing on his face. He was really hoping to get out of it this time. He opened the packet and took a deep breath, downing the entire thing all at once and trying his best not to gag from the taste alone.

It wasn’t until he harshly exhaled that the other two in the room knew that Shen Yuan took his medication. “You did well.” Mu Qingfan patted Shen Yuan’s shoulder as a show of praising him, and he had his hand slapped away by Shen Jiu, and this hit was accompanied with a warning glare.

That was Shen Jiu’s way of keeping his twin safe ‘from harm.’ What’s the point of protecting your brother from the very doctor you called to check up on him?

Really, Shen Jiu is so unlovable and uncute. In comparison, Shen Yuan was quite lovable, and he had a likeable character. “Fine, I apologize.” He sighed, rubbing his temples in exasperation. “I’ll tell you how his body is doing, let’s go for a walk.”

This was a heavily implied, ‘give him some air,’ and Shen Jiu went along with it because it was for the betterment of Shen Yuan’s health. If you wanted the stubborn Shen Jiu to agree to anything, it was easier done if you applied it to Shen Yuan somehow—and the opposite is true for Shen Yuan. Both brothers could easily be twisted if you used their brother against them.

The two left the room, and Shen Yuan was left alone in the room to think to himself.

“What are his resentment points at now?”

[System: Luo Binghe’s resentment points are at 1050.]

FUCK!

Shen Jiu took the time while Shen Yuan was recovering to bully Luo Binghe again! He wanted to cry over how his brother seemed to love courting death. Is being a cannon fodder scum villain that deeply ingrained into your DNA? Will it kill you to be nice to Luo Binghe?

You’re cruel to everyone that crosses you, and even those who don’t do anything to you! Your jealousy is too much!

Shen Yuan cried deep in his heart. If he continued this path, Luo Binghe will turn Shen Jiu into a human stick and maybe look to him for round two!

That’s too frightening! Someone save him! He had to quickly remedy this and hopefully survive the blackening of the protagonist!

He had to treat Luo Binghe better (first he had to get better), and then he had to find a way to increase the protection guard of ‘Shen Qingqiu’. If he remembered correctly, Liu Qingge hadn’t died yet… so he would be an excellent guard against Luo Binghe!

Yue Qingyuan was an obvious member of the Shen Qingqiu protection squad. He was the Vice-president while Shen Yuan considered himself to be the President! Luckily, he was almost at 100% so he could soon start trying to reconcile with Luo Binghe!

You may think that Shen Jiu is overly concerned with Shen Yuan, and that it’s a one-way street, but that wasn’t the case at all. They were both very concerned about the other. If Shen Jiu ever returned to his room injured, Shen Yuan would nervously flit about him, asking him what happened.

Who dares to hurt his brother? Let him catch you outside and he’ll show you what happens when you touch his brother!

Shen Yuan was the type to directly attack someone by humiliating them, but Shen Jiu was the type to fight back with underhanded means. You would rue the day if you became the enemy of them both and they came at you with full force.

Sometimes, it seemed like Shen Yuan was a psychic because he could foresee things happening and prevent them from harming his brother. No one knew it was because he was a transmigrator who read the novel, so he knew what sorts of events to look out for and how to deal with the situation.

Of course, not all things could be stopped, but he did manage to put a halt to a few dangerous scenes here and there.

It wasn’t as though the brothers were blind to what the other was doing, but it did cause them to worry more, ironically enough.

Just like how Shen Yuan was willing to risk his life to safe Shen Jiu, his older brother felt the same way. If you asked Shen Yuan, he wouldn’t let Shen Jiu to throw away his life for his sake, and Shen Jiu would answer the same way about Shen Yuan.

Would they listen though? Absolutely not. Both of them were as stubborn as they come and were fiercely protective of those they cared for.

What? Was Shen Jiu jealous about the consideration Shen Yuan had towards Luo Binghe and bullied him because of it?

No, he wasn’t jealous. He hated the fact that Shen Yuan cared for Luo Binghe when he was trash. Caring for a potential-less disciple would only smear the honor of his brother. WHO DARES DISHONOR SHEN YUAN? You better wash your neck and hope he gives you a swift death!

If not for the fact that Shen Yuan had already told him, ‘If you kill any of our disciples on purpose, I won’t talk to you anymore,’ then Luo Binghe would have lost his life already by his hands.

His brother was such a goody two-shoes, but it wasn’t really a bad thing? If anything, one of them had to have a good character.

It was the brotherly feelings the two of them shared that made Shen Yuan think about his time on earth with his real family. He had two older brothers and a younger sister.

The family he had in this novel almost matched the family he had at home, except he only had one brother.

At least, that’s what he thought until he found out he had an older twin brother who was missing.

He missed his earth family. They must’ve been shocked when he died so suddenly. What an unfilial son he was to die so soon. He offered a silent prayer to his family, apologizing to his parents for his early passing.

Shen Jiu had finished talking to Mu Qingfan and he returned to the room to see that Shen Yuan was staring at his hands, deep in thought, almost unaware of what was going on around him. His younger brother would slip into these episodes of him dissociating if you left him alone for too long, and it worried him.

He always had the misunderstanding that the family he left behind in search of his missing twin brother had bullied him, resulting in him occasionally staring off into space, but the truth was that he simply missed his real family and was overwhelmed with regret.

It hurt knowing he couldn’t do anything to help his brother, and it further spurred his protective feelings towards Shen Yuan.

What neither of them knew was that because the System had split ‘Shen Qinqiu’ into two characters, they were connected by an emotional link. Both were impacted by what the other person was feeling.

So what Shen Jiu thought was a gut instinct that someone was bullying his brother was simply him being worried, or sad over something. That was why he would always come to swiftly question whoever was in the room with Shen Yuan as to how they were bullying his brother.

Even though Shen Yuan was raised by a loving family, he never got close to them, and he kept a cold disposition. It was because his older twin brother was going through such an arduous ordeal, he didn’t have the emotional strength to find happiness himself.

The reason why he’d often get sick was because Shen Yuan had the higher emotional bank of the two twins, so he felt emotions much stronger than Shen Jiu did. It was as if he was drawing in the excess emotions to keep Shen Jiu from going insane and murdering everyone in his path.

He would get overloaded from these intense negative emotions and he’d fall ill.

Those rare moments when Shen Jiu would show compassion to others, or strongly wish for family relations with another person, that was because those emotions came from Shen Yuan.

Their emotions linked them together and so they were easily impacted by the other. Shen Yuan’s dissociation hurt Shen Jiu not entirely because he knew he couldn’t help, he was getting the excess spill over from Shen Yuan.

Hearing his brother speak to him, Shen Yuan stopped dissociating. “I was just thinking about some things, don’t worry about me, brother.”

“Tell me what it is. Perhaps you’ll feel better if you talk to your elder brother about it.”

“I…”

DING!

Shen Jiu has asked what Shen Yuan was thinking about! He cannot answer honestly and say he was thinking about his life on Earth, so he must come up with another answer! How will he answer? Your choice will have an impact on what events will follow in the future! Do choose wisely, because the fate of the characters in the novel are in your hands.

                                               [Thinking about Peak Lords                                                 Thinking about Luo Binghe                                                 I was just thinking about the past...]

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A/N: Yay! A question that won’t be a life-or-death situation (for Shen Qingqiu)! Each question asked will impact the story in some way, and some have more impact than others. It would be unfair for me to say just how important each question is, but every now and again the System Moderators may give you very subtle hints to help you decide! Good luck and hope you have as much fun with this project as i’m having!