Illusions, Lies, Truth

Translated by lucathia (proofread by Taffygirl13 & Trespasserby)

She heard the door open, but Yu Shu remained sprawled on the chair, too lazy to move.

Two tall figures walked into the study, one wearing black and one wearing white. They were so striking that she could not ignore them.

The one wearing black respectfully said, “Mistress, as you surmised, something has happened. Your deductions are astounding. You were able to tell that something was wrong simply from seeing a live feed of the fire alarm going off at Jiang Ziya’s university.”

Yu Shu felt aggrieved as she looked at her two sons, as if there was nothing left to live for. Why the hell did I give birth to them—No! I haven’t given birth at all, b-but… Fine, this is close enough to “giving birth.”

“Why are you acting so strange?”

Hold Keeper swept his eyes up and down to check on her condition. She was not injured, and she already had a cup of coffee next to her. She had been using her computer. There’s nothing wrong!

Yu Shu weakly waved her two sons over. They walked to her in confusion, only then discovering the video of Hold Keeper performing an exorcism playing on the computer.

However, this was different from the actual scene. In the video, House Keeper and Hold Keeper were two practically transparent figures, and their voices could not be heard at all. Only the students at the scene could be heard panicking endlessly. The entire video was just like a horror film—the type without any special effects added.

“You sure performed a good exorcism, huh?” Yu Shu mocked, “Why don’t I send you to church? Let’s see if they’ll accept a familiar as an exorcist?”

Hold Keeper lowered his head and remained silent, docile for once. Instead, it was House Keeper who opened his mouth and analyzed in all seriousness, “The quality of this video is poor. Perhaps it will not be considered real.”

Yu Shu helplessly said, “The blurrier it is, the more real it appears. If it were completely clear, people might treat it as a clip from some unreleased movie. A blurry video like this appears more like something someone used their cell phone to record and personally upload to the net.”

When he heard that, House Keeper, who had turned an entire one year old this year, failed to think of a solution as well and could only fall silent.

Yu Shu sarcastically stated, “This display has likely earned the church plenty of followers. They should really award the two of you with a special service medal for familiars.”

The two sons who had caused trouble obediently stood in front of their mother without daring to say a word.

Mommy Yu held her head and continued, “I left comments to control the situation, hoping to make it look like someone used an unedited film as a prank, but someone kept getting in my way. There’s something wrong with this situation. Tell me! Just what has Jiang Ziya gotten into this time?”

Even though Yu Shu had not seen Jiang Ziya in the video, she had sensed something was wrong after watching the live feed. That so-called fire alarm had rung piercingly in her ears. Then, when House Keeper had told her that it was Jiang Ziya’s university, she had immediately called Jiang Ziya. As she had expected, the call had not connected. She had wondered if he had turned his phone off because he was asleep, so she had called the landline of the neighbors across, with little care that it was the middle of the night or whether or not the neighbors were asleep.

Jiang Yu, half asleep, had told her that Jiang Ziya had gone to participate in his society’s night venture at the university and had yet to return.

Hah, just who else could this mess originate from?

After House Keeper told her everything in detail, he said, “Even though Jiang Ziya wished for our help, we saw that they had already broken free and also had an actual exorcist with them, so we dared not dally.”

Although Jiang Ziya had promised that he would interfere, House Keeper still had not wished to invite unnecessary trouble. The moment he had seen that the situation was in hand, he had immediately taken Hold Keeper and left posthaste.

Yu Shu frowned. At this moment, several sounds went off from her computer. This was a notification she had set. It would go off when certain IDs left messages.

These people just won’t give up!

Yu Shu placed both hands on her keyboard, about to fight hand-to-hand. Given the speed of her typing from her many years of experience, there was no way anyone could uncover her two sons who had played at being charlatans! 𝐟𝓇ℯ𝒆we𝒃𝘯𝒐νe𝑙.co𝚖

However, when she glanced at the screen, the message shocked her.

A homicide had actually occurred at the university.

The comment section of the video, which had originally almost petered out, now surged into activity once again.

One Who Flutters: A homicide? Was it lovers?

Top of the World: I heard that three people have died already.

Proud Shut-In: For reals? That can’t be!

Yu Shu watched as more and more comments were left. The number of times the video was viewed grew exponentially. Several IDs even jumped out and claimed that they were present on campus and began to tell a colorful rendition of the entire situation.

Top of the World: I’m not pulling your leg! This whole thing is super weird. The three of them all died in different places: bathroom, Pond of Meditation, and also the location of this video—the medical department!

Getting Rich on 8/8: Heh, you still dare to claim that this video is fake? “My Sons are so Freakin’ Handsome,” come out and face reality!

What are they pulling here?

Yu Shu keenly realized something was wrong. It was not strange that a homicide had happened at the university. What was weird was that it had only just happened, yet there were already so many people posting about it and disclosing everything that had happened in great detail.

If they only knew one murder location, it was possible that they were the person who had discovered the corpse. Although they should have been warned by the police not to disclose any specifics when they contacted the police, there were so many idiots in the world. They might agree on the surface but immediately post online afterwards. That was not unusual.

But, they know all three murder locations. Damn it, who else can this be but the murderer themselves?

It Has Begun: Isn’t this the Seven Wonders from our school?

Yu Shu fixed her eyes on that ID—It Has Begun. Earlier, this was the first person who had jumped out and turned the discussion back onto her two stupid sons when she had already diverted the topic. They had battled with their words for quite a while, too.

Originally, she had successfully gotten the others to treat this video as a prank from the university students. However, now that there was a homicide, all attention had been drawn back. It was no wonder that It Has Begun had not put much effort into arguing with her, only occasionally responding to push the topic up. They probably already knew from the start what would happen next!

This has to be the murderer!

One Who Flutters: Which seven? I never knew our school had so many wonders.

It Has Begun: The Seven Wonders include the smiling student who jumps off the building of the literature department, the wishing corpse of the Pond of Meditation, the large mirror in the bathroom, the anatomical model in the medical department, the human head basketball at the courts, the nonexistent ninth floor of the abandoned campus, and the thirteenth bookcase in the library.

Below, they even posted a detailed explanation of the Seven Wonders, including exactly what would occur, how to make them happen, and what cases had already happened before.

This person is trying to stir up trouble!

She made a phone call, dialing Jiang Ziya’s number. This time, it actually connected.

“Is this Yu Shu?”

“No, it’s House Keeper and Hold Keeper’s mom! Hey, you have a messaging app, right? Give me your account name. I’m going to send you the link to a video. If you have connections, forward it to the police. If I’m not wrong, the person leaving comments is probably the murderer.”

“You already know that there’s been a homicide?”

Jiang Ziya sounded extremely shocked.

“Everyone from your university who knows how to use the net already knows!”

“How is that possible?”

“Cut the crap and give me your account name already. I’ll message you the link to the video. Just take a look at the comment section below and you’ll understand!”

After they exchanged their account information, not only did “Grand Duke Jiang is Fishing” appear on Yu Shu’s sparse friends list, an additional two friend requests showed up—specifically from “Slay Teeth Debris” and “Detective Exorcist.”

Yu Shu was taken aback. She could guess that “Slay Teeth Debris” was Lu Yang, since his code name as a practitioner was Slay, and he had made quite a name for himself. But who in the world was this Detective Exorcist?

She then saw that Detective Exorcist had written on the friend request: Hello, I am Lu Yang’s father. There was even an accompanying smiley face.

She speechlessly accepted the friend requests. Then, she messaged the url to Jiang Ziya, and she even went ahead and took screenshots of the suspicious accounts and comments to send over as well. With so many comments, it would be difficult to spot what was crucial at a glance.

Grand Duke Jiang is Fishing: Thanks. The police say you’ve been a great help!

This message rendered Yu Shu speechless. It’s only been a few minutes, and you’re already telling me “the police say.” The police have got to be right next to you!

Immediately after that, she received notification of another friend request. The handle was all proper. This has to be his real name.

Hu Lican: I am the captain of a small police squad.

“…” Yu Shu accepted the friend request even more sullenly than before. Ever since she got to know Jiang Ziya, her circle of acquaintances was expanding at a startling speed.

Grand Duke Jiang is Fishing: Oh right, give my thanks to House Keeper and Hold Keeper. They saved a lot of people!

Hah, they sure did. They really saved a lot of people, so many that they’ve gone viral! My son even pretended to be an exorcist from the church. Luckily, there aren’t a lot of actual exorcists in Taiwan—oh, but I should probably count that Detective Exorcist.

If that Detective Exorcist dares to take my son as a pupil, I’m going to choke Jiang Ziya to death!

“Ever since meeting Jiang Ziya, I feel like I’m becoming a saint. I’ve helped again and again with no end.”

She felt completely exasperated, but it wasn’t like she could pretend she had not discovered who was likely to be the murderer. Three young lives were now gone, all because of that “It Has Begun,” and who knew what they were planning!

She had the feeling that things would not end just like this.

Yu Shu frowned, a foreboding feeling in her heart. With how things were unfolding, this foreboding feeling might turn into quite the headline.

I’m really too lazy to care. My deadline is just around the corner, and my editor Ye Luo said she’s going to come live at my place if I can’t turn in the manuscript—Her editor had really been pushed to her limits. Ever since Ye Luo had come over and met House Keeper who had just been “born,” she had never again dared to say that she would come and stay.

Yu Shu felt conflicted. However, another notification from her computer sounded.

Top of the World: New secret info! Stuff was going wrong at the abandoned campus way before this!

Yu Shu watched as the other person typed up a bunch of stuff about the strange deaths of the homeless and also the female student who had died on the eighth floor. Now, the number of students who had died had gone up to four. Each of the deaths involved the Seven Wonders. There were still three more wonders. Would murders continue to happen? They then began to criticize the police for not doing anything, for allowing the security of the university to be so shoddy. It was unpreventable that a bunch of others jumped in on the criticism, their fervor completely at odds with how late it was.

Seeing that, Yu Shu frowned and immediately opened a bunch of different websites. It was as she had expected. Although official news posts had not appeared yet, nearly all of the scrolling news text at the top of each website was about the serial murder case at the university.

They’re purposely trying to blow this up? Yu Shu was doubtful. She failed to understand what this “It Has Begun” was trying to do and began to contemplate it.

Even though hiding at home meant it should be very safe, for some reason, her sons had found a very troublesome “father” for themselves. If she had to say whether or not they would get dragged in, Yu Shu could only respond with “hah.” Is there even a need to make a guess?!

“Mistress.” House Keeper carried over a delicious basil omelet and apologetically said, “Have some food first before you continue to ponder over this. It is already well past your dinner time.”

As Yu Shu gazed at her son who was so freakin’ handsome, a sudden realization came to her.

“That person wants the Seven Wonders to come true!”

But why?

Yu Shu felt it very unfair that she was the only one expending brainpower. She immediately tidied up the information and tossed it all at student Jiang Ziya. Then, she asked if her conjectures were correct.

It was too painful to only have guesses and no answers. Yu Shu said as much.

The response she received was an address. Yu Shu was familiar with it. It was the address to a well-established 24-hour café.

I hate going out.