An Unusual Life Beginning with Evil Spirits-Chapter 158 : A Strange Way of Killing

Volume 4: High School Arc - “I” Come to Find You~
I glanced at the sweat on Shao He’s forehead and couldn’t help but frown.
“Tired?”
The courtyard was huge.
Although most of the house was cleaned by smart appliances, some details still required Reina to handle them personally.
With such a big yard, it was indeed difficult for her to tidy up alone.
“Not tired. Actually, with some work, I feel a bit more at ease inside.”
Reina spoke, but there was a trace of helplessness in her voice.
Hearing her say that didn’t make me feel any better.
“Mm… then go ahead and get busy, Sister Shao He. I won’t go out today, so the rest of your time is yours to manage freely.”
I gave Shao He a heads-up.
As my bodyguard, she had to stay close to me at all times.
That was her duty.
Only when I stayed home could she have some personal space.
“Mm, then Yunyan, if you’re going out, remember to tell me.”
“Mm.”
When Shao He was at home, she carried a walkie-talkie.
The yard was quite large, and without one, communication would rely solely on shouting.
Watching Shao He turn and return to her room, I figured since I wasn’t in a rush to review materials, I might as well rest in the courtyard for a while.
I glanced at Reina tending the plants, played with Sha Ha and Wangcai for a bit, fed the fish, sat in the pavilion enjoying the breeze, and strolled around the yard for over an hour before finally heading back to my bedroom.
“Hmm… come to think of it, I’m already sixteen. That should mean I can register a company now, right? Then… what should I do?”
With all the knowledge in my head, I was practically proficient in all common professions on the market, but when it came to actually doing something, I felt a bit lost.
What kind of company should I start?
A renovation company?
Wouldn’t that be competing with my own dad?
Some kind of high-tech research?
Like CPUs?
I didn’t have enough capital…
Developing systems, software?
That could be a way out, but what exactly should I do?
Game development?
That wouldn’t be difficult.
The key was deciding what kind of game.
Thinking about these things, I returned to my bedroom.
“Maybe… I should first get some professional certifications? Let’s think about which ones are relatively easy to obtain?”
I first picked a few industries and thought it over.
The fastest and easiest seemed to be advanced programming.
There were several exams each year and no work experience required.
As for chefs or traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, those were more troublesome.
Both required a certain amount of work experience to apply for a professional certificate.
As for other professions, the required time was even longer.
“Thinking about it like this, even though I have the skills, I lack the corresponding time… Without the time, how can I take the certification exams?”
After thinking it through, I directly filled out my resume and application on the online form of the JYPC National Professional Qualification Certification Center.
“Emmmm… how about drawing instead? Anyway, drawing doesn’t really need any cost, right?”
That’s right… I had the skills in hand.
Unlike professions that required years of grinding to apply for certifications, being an illustrator didn’t need any such thing.
Hmm… how about opening a livestream?
Singing, dancing, that kind of thing—it didn’t really require any investment.
“Thinking about it this way, there were actually quite a lot of options.”
While thinking, I opened Surface Pro, clicked on the inbox, and didn’t unzip the attachments directly from the internet.
Instead, I downloaded all the attached files completely before opening them.
After all, this way I could avoid exposing my identity online.
Once the files were downloaded, I opened the inbox, and as soon as I saw it, I couldn’t help but sigh.
“Shan Xuelin… is actually quite capable.”
That’s right—at least in my opinion, being able to obtain photos of the deceased already showed considerable ability.
I didn’t know how Shan Xuelin had managed to get these pictures, but without a doubt, they were most likely taken by forensic personnel at the scene.
Each one was extremely clear and captured the condition of the deceased perfectly.
The moment I saw the first photo, images of Lili and Bai Yao’s corpses immediately flashed through my mind.
There was almost no difference.
The way they died looked just like being wildly gnawed by some kind of beast.
Moreover, leaving Lili aside, at least Bai Yao and Zhang Yang’s corpses appeared extremely similar.
Both had their intestines wrapped around their necks and were hanging from the ceiling.
The difference was that Zhang Yang’s intestines had been buried directly into the ceiling.
Whereas Bai Yao’s intestines were hung on the chandelier.
Was this… considered a common point?
The methods of death were so similar.
Both were hung up.
What… could this represent?
“Being hung up… suspended… feet not touching the ground… a lack of physical grounding? Insecurity?”
If it were someone else, the first instinct would probably be to analyze the manner of death.
But I didn’t—because I knew that trying to guess the method of killing of a Monster was a joke.
The way they killed could never be deduced using human logic.
So I skipped that entirely.
What I focused on was—why would a Monster choose this method… to kill?
The impression it gave…
“Almost like it has a sense of ritual?”
Yes!
A sense of ritual!
But… the thoughts of Monsters differed vastly from humans.
This sense of ritual, for them, should be completely unnecessary.
Why would it appear?
I lightly tapped my lips with my index finger.
I didn’t know if I’d been influenced by Lu Haochen—this guy liked to tap the table whenever he thought—but my skin was far more sensitive than his.
Tapping the table hurt, so I simply tapped my lips instead.
“Sense of ritual… sense of ritual… why would a Monster need such a specific way of dying?”
“Midnight… a phone call… prior warning… the body… the death… I keep feeling like there’s some kind of connection here.”
If nothing could be found on a practical level, then I had to speculate on a psychological one.
“Midnight—for normal people, whether they believe it or not—it’s always a little scary. Calling beforehand… is that to create fear? Or to give the victim a chance to escape? Never showing its face… whether it was Zhang Yang or Bai Yao, both died right after hearing ‘I’m behind you.’ I don’t know Zhang Yang’s exact details, but Bai Yao definitely died that way…”
As I thought, I got off the bed.
I walked over to the mini-fridge in the room, took out a bottle of Fat House Happy Water, then grabbed two half-cooked cheesecakes, popped one into my mouth, opened the bottle, and took a big gulp.
Instantly, I felt refreshed.
“At the mysterious and slightly frightening hour of midnight, a call comes with a death warning, the killer never shows its face, and the corpse… carries this sense of ritual. No matter how I think about it… such a logical killing method doesn’t seem like something a Monster could pull off.”
But reasoning to this point only brought out another issue.
Looking down at my own little feet… I felt a bit confused.
Why was I already 170cm tall, but my feet were only size 34? At this rate, even if I grew to 180, I’d probably only be size 35?
Emmm… small feet might be cute, but they’re not stable!
I walked to the balcony, gazed down at the courtyard.
Beneath the rippling water’s surface, vibrant koi swam leisurely.
In the southeast corner of the yard, Reina wore a black-and-white maid outfit, watering the plants and infusing them with new vitality.
From the northeast corner, occasional engine roars drifted in, Shao He was inspecting the vehicles between the underground and ground-level garages.
The whole courtyard gave off a peaceful, unhurried vibe.
And all of this made my mind feel even clearer.
“A Monster wouldn’t commit murder with such ritualistic and logical precision, unless…”