Chapter 4: 004 Agreed Conditions

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He opened his eyes, and as his eyeballs took a tour of his surroundings, Chen Hao found himself lying on a comfortable, warm bed. He sat up while taking in the clean and tidy bedroom of a girl, with the air filled with a faint fragrance serving as the best proof.

"Where am I?" Chen Hao mumbled to himself.

After speaking, he got out of bed and slowly walked towards the door. He gently opened it to find the lights in the living room shining brightly, although the white light was slightly yellowish, emitting a cold and eerie hue. From the bathroom on the right side of the room's entrance, the sound of running water kept pouring out.

Chen Hao's gaze turned toward the bathroom, where on the glass pane of its door, a silhouette was reflected.

Two minutes later, the sound of water stopped, and then the bathroom door opened.

To Chen Hao's great surprise, the person who emerged was his new desk mate, Ye Yuqiao.

"It's you!" Chen Hao gasped, "How come I'm here?"

"Hmph!" Ye Yuqiao coolly turned up the corner of her mouth, approaching Chen Hao. He noticed that drops of water were still dripping from the ends of her long hair.

When she came within an arm's length of Chen Hao, she stopped, chuckled lightly, and explained, "This is my home. I saw you faint on the street downstairs just now, so I carried you back here."

"You carried me back?" Chen Hao found it hard to believe. With Ye Yuqiao's slender build, it seemed impossible for her to carry someone of his size, but from the current situation, it didn't seem like Ye Yuqiao was lying to him; otherwise, how could he end up in Ye Yuqiao's home? Then, Chen Hao sized up Ye Yuqiao standing in front of him once more, realizing this beauty must be a girl with freakish strength.

Remembering he'd been hit by a car at a crossroad near his home, Chen Hao remarked, "I had no idea you lived near our place."

"Yes!" Ye Yuqiao laughed again, still with a hint of detachment in her eyes. "I live near your house, in fact, right under your house."

Chen Hao's eyes widened in astonishment, "What! So that means my house is upstairs!"

"Exactly," said Ye Yuqiao, nodding coldly, a trace of a smile on her face.

The astonishment in Chen Hao's eyes gradually dimmed because he remembered the living room at home with over a dozen kids calling him brother. His gaze shifted from Ye Yuqiao's chest to the living room clock; it was already nine o'clock at night. His grandfather should be home by now. If his grandfather wasn't home, he wouldn't dare to return.

After thinking it over, Chen Hao's gaze moved back to Ye Yuqiao with an embarrassed expression.

Just then, the sound of a dog barking suddenly came from behind him. Chen Hao swiftly turned around, only to see a yellow dog rushing at him. The moment the dog jumped on him, he lifted his foot and lightly kicked the yellow dog to the side.

"Why is your dog so fierce!" Chen Hao turned to Ye Yuqiao for help.

"You can see this dog?" Ye Yuqiao showed an incredulous expression.

"No kidding!" As the yellow dog lunged at him again, Chen Hao became visibly tense. "Hurry up and call it off, or you'll be having hot pot with dog meat with me later."

Ye Yuqiao stepped in front of Chen Hao, brought her palms together, and after chanting a spell, the yellow dog that was once again leaping toward Chen Hao transformed into a yellow talisman in midair and gently floated to the ground.

"This..." Chen Hao was astounded. After being stunned for a few seconds, he slowly crouched down to pick up the yellow talisman on the ground. After scrutinizing it for a long time, he looked up at Ye Yuqiao, his voice trembling as he asked, "What's going on here?"

"Like your grandfather, I'm an Onmyoji too. However, my clientele is different. I mostly service high-end clients. This dog was conjured by a spell, and with it, I don't have to worry about any impurities entering my house," explained Ye Yuqiao, smirking coldly with a hint of disdain for Chen Hao. As a descendant of an Onmyoji family, he didn't even recognize such a basic spell.

"So, you're a witch then!" Chen Hao stared blankly, his mind processing the transformation from an idolized goddess to a fraudulent spiritualist. "By your logic, am I some kind of impurity as well?"

"Hmph!" Ye Yuqiao laughed arrogantly, crossing her arms. She paused, then lowered her head to look down at Chen Hao, who was squatting on the ground, and said, "Ordinary Onmyoji with mediocre spiritual power can't see my little yellow dog. Your grandfather would have a hard time detecting it too without casting a spell. It seems your spiritual power far exceeds that of an average Onmyoji!"

"I'm not any Onmyoji, my grandfather has always discouraged me from meddling with such things since I was a child!"

"Oh? That's strange then!"

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Chen Hao stood up, his gaze shifting back to Ye Yuqiao and he said, "It's getting late, I should head back. Thank you very much for picking me up."

"Wait a minute!" Ye Yuqiao took a step forward, blocking Chen Hao's way; the distance between them was less than five centimeters. Chen Hao could smell the fragrance from her body, as well as her calm and steady breath. "I need an assistant; from now on, you'll be my assistant, okay?"

"I'm a coward!" Chen Hao shook his head, his heart beating wildly, "And I don't know anything. You'd better find someone more capable."

"Being a coward can be overcome with practice, and what you don't know, I can teach." Ye Yuqiao said as she moved closer to Chen Hao, "We'll split future earnings fifty-fifty. I guarantee that within a year you can repay all your family's debts."

Chen Hao's heart trembled. How would Ye Yuqiao know about the heavy debt his family owed? To him, the proposition she made was indeed hard to refuse. He only needed to give it further thought and perhaps discuss it with his grandfather first.

"Let me think about it!" Chen Hao said.

"What's there to think about? If you need conditions, just state them," Ye Yuqiao urged.

Gazing into Ye Yuqiao's bright eyes up close, Chen Hao was momentarily at a loss for words. Then, suddenly recalling the envious and jealous looks from Xie Xiaofeng and the other male students when Ye Yuqiao had been his deskmate earlier that day, he blurted out a condition, "I want you to agree to be my girlfriend."

"No problem, I agree!" Ye Yuqiao replied quickly.

"Ah!" Chen Hao was astonished, not expecting Ye Yuqiao to agree just like that, "You're not joking, are you?"

At that moment, a strange purple light flashed in Ye Yuqiao's eyes, and immediately after, Chen Hao felt an intense dizziness in his head. As he lost consciousness and fell, Chen Hao felt a pair of hands around his neck, but he was powerless to fight back.

When Chen Hao regained consciousness, he found himself lying on a sofa.

"You're awake?" Ye Yuqiao's voice sounded; she was sitting next to him.

Chen Hao, with a sharp look in his eyes, responded anxiously, "What happened? What just went on?"

"You can't possibly have forgotten everything you did, can you?" Ye Yuqiao asked, "From now on, you're my assistant, and I'm your girlfriend."

Chen Hao was utterly dumbfounded, then he started to frantically recall everything that had happened.

"I only remember feeling like I passed out," Chen Hao said in a distressed tone, looking utterly perplexed.

...

After leaving Ye Yuqiao's home, Chen Hao went upstairs and only dared to knock on the door when he saw lights on inside. He knocked while anxiously calling out, "Grandpa, are you home?"

After a while, the door opened, and there stood his grandfather, Chen Che, with a deeply furrowed brow.

"Hao, come in quick!" Chen Che's tone was sorrowful and helpless.

Once inside the room, sitting in the living room, Chen Hao looked around restlessly. Not seeing the dozen or so children from before, he sighed deeply, wondering if the car accident had damaged his optic nerve, making him prone to hallucinations. His grandfather was an Onmyoji who specialized in catching ghosts; if there really were strange entities around, he would have taken care of them by now.

"Hao, my boy," Chen Che said with a sigh, his head bowed, "they just told me that you've seen them!"

"They, who are they?" Chen Hao immediately became tense again after having calmed himself down.

Chen Che lifted his gaze to meet Chen Hao's, his eyes filled with a hint of helplessness as he lamented, "Those dozen children, the ones who call you Brother Chen Hao."

"Grandpa, then what I saw wasn't an illusion!" Chen Hao became grave.

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