Chapter Text
If Shen Yuan could, he would scream. So loud it woke the neighbors up. It might help, it might not. Probably not. It won’t. How did he even end up getting here?
Shen Yuan sighed as he watched the children sleep. He had to give up his own bed since that baby future-Scum Villain refused to sleep if Shen Yuan was on the bed. He would scream and cry until he got off, so Shen Yuan had been forced to sleep on the couch. He had moved the couch into his room (which mind you, took a while!) because he obviously can’t just leave them alone.
That Scum-Villain, honestly. He was such a brat. He should have known he wasn’t a cute child. At least the other kid is way more behaved! He didn’t kick, scream, or cry when he was just 10 feet away. Baby scum hadn’t even said a word to him, just glaring at him when he saw him. What did he even do to deserve that!?
And you might be asking yourself, baby? Other Kid? Since when did you have kids Shen Yuan? Well, he’s just as confused as you! The stupid System won’t explain a thing and is basically useless!
Fuck his life.
He wasn’t getting payed anything to take care of these kids. Who drops them off and then just leave? The System that’s who! If there was one kid he’d willingly take care of it would obviously be the protagonist. He’d spoil the boy and raise him like his own!
But nooooo, instead of the easy way, he was given a future Sect Leader (who was practically useless in the novel) and future Scum Villain (HIM? he can tolerate a canon fodder but HIM? ugh! he’s such a brat and a scum, how was he supposed to tolerate him?).
He didn’t know the first thing to do on taking care of children. He was always being taken care of by his family and Nannies. His sister didn’t count because they were raised together.
He was also never the most social in school. Most kids didn’t like him because he was too different and odd. He had scoffed at them, odd? What was odd about reading? But now he realizes why they called him odd. He never acted like a child would. Not truly. So he doesn’t know how children worked….
Faced with this dilemma Shen Yuan knew this is not going to be an easy task. But he doesn’t have a choice in this.
Not at all.
📖🪷📖
It all started on a Monday morning (because of course it did) when Shen Yuan was laying on his bed reading the latest Proud Immortal Demon Way chapter on his phone. Shen Yuan rolled his eyes when he came across another stupid history inaccuracy. Once again, the hack author couldn’t do anything right and posted more of his shit writing. Is it really that hard to search on Google!?
“You sorry excuse of an author! If you have done any research at all then you should know those don’t exist in ancient China, how do you-“
But active anti-fan critic Shen Yuan did not get to finish when he was suddenly interrupted by a screen flashing in his face. It was not his phone.
[Ding!]
[Testing, testing… Can you hear me host? Say yes if you can! (≧∇≦)/ ]
What the fuck.
”What the fuck.”
[Eh… that’ll do. ┐(°ヮ°)┌]
[Greetings Host! I am System, here for the purpose of helping Host in whatever he may need for his journey! ᕙ(‾̀◡‾́)ᕗ]
This… thing, that calls itself System, was what you think would look like. A blue computer screen with the voice of google. Or siri. Or whatever because what the fuck? And what was up with those emoticons anyway?
Bigger question is, is he going insane!? He can’t be having hallucinations, he’s only 20! Too young!
“What the fuck!?”
[Well that can’t be all of Host’s vocabulary. That’ll be bad for the kids! ( ˘･з･)]
Shen Yuan could spit blood, what kids!?
[The kids that will be in your care of course! Well, for the time being anyways. I’m sure Host will do an excellent job! (･ω･)b]
And suddenly he was blinded by white light and could only hear his own heartbeat for a moment. It felt like time had stopped. When he could see and hear again he was immediately greeted with loud crying and two kids who were definitely not in his room before.
One looked to be either a five or six years old boy. The clothes he had on were messy, had tears and holes and looked like it was a little to small on him. This understandably raised a few questions. He had longer hair (that didn’t look very well taken care of) than most boys did. He was just filthy! Covered in dirt from head to toe (he wasn’t wearing any shoes?) and even a few bruises were noticeable.
The boy in question was looking at Shen Yuan warily from a corner of his room. The boy was holding onto another child who happened to be the source of the crying. The boy seemed to be trying to calm them down but his efforts were fruitless. At this rate Shen Yuan was going to headache with how loud it was.
It was silence between them, no one said anything, then-
“WHAT THE FUCK?”
This couldn’t be real! It couldn’t! He must be in a dream! But everything felt to real for it to be a dream. A hallucination? It could be the only acceptable explanation! Did he eat moldy food somehow? It has a bad habit of leaving expired food and forgetting to throw it away, his oldest brother told him it’ll get him killed one day.
[-5 Care Points! (⋟﹏⋞)]
[Host! You should not say such inappropriate words in the presence of children! (ᗒᗣᗕ)՞ ]
Oh, to hell with that! What are these kids doing in his room!? Who even are the kids!?
[This System is glad you asked Host! (⁀ᗢ⁀)]
[This is Yue Qingyuan (Sect Leader) and Shen Qingqiu (Scum Villain)! Aren’t they adorable?
(♡´艸`)]
… Wait, what!?
Look, alright, Shen Yuan knows and is fully aware that he reads the novel more often than he should at all, and that he can quit it anytime (but doesn’t because surely there’s some hope for the novel, right? right?), but Shen Yuan doubts he’s consumed that much of the novel to have hallucinations over it? Much less of the Scum Villain of all people!
Besides, Yue Qingyuan, Sect Leader, is a noble, so why would he be wearing those dirty… to call it clothes is generous. And the child (practically a baby really, like maybe, 2 years?) he was holding…. That must be the Scum Villain. It’s the only other child present right now.
Well, he figured the two had to have some history with how Yue Qingyuan always seemed to be on Shen Qingqiu’s side despite his Shidi never paying back the favor. Oh and, Yue Qingyuan being killed trying to save him but dying in vain. But it was never revealed! (just another one of Airplane’s alluding plot lines that were never used and forgotten). But no way it went all the way back to children?
Shen Yuan caught himself before he could think of anything else. Why should he? This obviously isn’t real, it was all in his imagination! He just didn’t get enough sleep and was paying the price.
[Nope! Everything is real, Host! (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧]
Just. His. Imagination. Everything was just fine. In fact, everything is so fine that he immediately gets up from the bed and walks out the room. To the bathroom. And then proceeds to throw up his breakfast in the toilet. So clearly… not everything was fine.
It hits him like a truck. Shen Yuan suddenly feels like shit now, his head hurts (so he’s not in a dream), and it feels like a bunch of bricks were dumped on him. He feels nauseous and like his limbs were jelly. He doesn’t do anything but wait for it to pass. Gradually, he feels better until it felt like nothing ever happened.
[Oh!… Sorry Host. That must be a side effect. We never brought on of them to here, and we were on a time crunch…. So this System had to use another way to bring them here. Apologies! (⌒_⌒;)]
Damn, that hallucination is still going?
[Not a hallucination, Host! ┐(´∀｀)┌]
Anyways…. He cleaned himself up and took a moment to breathe in. He can still hear the crying but he willed himself to ignore it. It’s not real. He repeated it to himself in his head.
He needs to talk to someone. He’s pretty sure having hallucinations is not a good thing to be experiencing alone so he just needs to talk someone. Then it will go away by itself and he’ll later do something about it after he takes a well needed nap. It’s fine.
[Host can always talk to this dear System!(´⌣`ʃƪ)]
Obviously someone real. Thankfully it was the weekend so he knows his sister isn’t working. He left his phone in his room though…. Whatever! It’s fine. Just go in the room, get the phone, walk out. Easy!
As he gets to his room the crying gets louder. It’s not as loud as before, but it still hasn’t stopped. Maybe thats a sign its going to go away? He makes a note to research more on hallucinations… he never liked being left in the dark about anything.
The boy was still in the corner trying to calm the baby (? can that scum even be called a baby) down. The boy noticed when he came in and tensed up, pulling the boy closer to him, like he was trying to hide him in his arms. But of course, it’s just his imagination. He grabbed his phone and hurriedly walked out of there.
See? Mission accomplished. He doesn’t know what he was so worried about, honestly. Shen Yuan chuckles as he waits for his sister to pick up. It’s all fine!
”Hey Shen Yuan!!”
Shen Yuan winced at the volume. He loves his sister but he never liked that habit his sister had. Even when you tell her to quite down her volume would just gradually rise up. It’s both equally endearing as it is infuriating.
”Er… bro, why is there crying? What are you watching?”
“… What?”
No way. It can’t… no way.
”Bro it’s super loud. Can you turn it off?”
Turn it off… he wished! Holy shit!
”I’lltalktoyoulater.”
”What?-“ Before she could finish Shen Yuan hanged up. His entire world view was being tilted upside down. He didn’t feel real. So. Not a hallucination. There really is…. This was all real? The kids? That System?
[Well this system did tell Host! (Ｔ▽Ｔ)]
Shen Yuan knees felt weak. Is he going to throw up again? That’s disgusting.
[System can see Host is having a hard time processing. But this System really recommends to check up on the kids. Too quiet! (>_<)]
Oh yeah. The thing was right. He can’t hear the crying anymore. Did the boy- … Did Yue Qingyuan finally calm him down? He should really do something.
[Yes! Host should! Introductions will even be rewarded with Care Points! (ﾟ▽ﾟ)]
Care Points?
[Host’s account as a currency of ‘Care Points’ that can be used to buy special items or scenarios. Host should be warned that should his amount of Care Points drop to 0 or below, Host will be punished.]
WAIT WHAT? What punishment!? No one told Shen Yuan anything about a punishment!
[Should Host fail to take care of the kids and lose all his points, Host punishment will be his account terminated.]
He immediately bolted to his room. Fuck! What kind of karma was this? He has to take care of these to children or else he dies? He’s not stupid, he knows what that computer screen means if his account is ‘terminated’. And he lost 5 points earlier! How many does he even have!?
[Host currently has 95 Care Points! (^^)ｂ]
Good, maybe this can be salvaged. He can earn some of the points back and even more if he's able to. Then he’ll start forming a plan. Plan for what? To not die obviously.
He paused at the door way. The crying stopped.
Oh man. He was really going to do this. Shen Yuan has zero experience on babysitting, he knew he wasn’t up for the job. But he also knew that if he didn’t, he’ll die! Why can’t someone else take care of those two?
[Because it can only be done by Host.]
Fuck you, you shitty System! Shen Yuan takes a breathe to collect himself. He wants to put on a good impression. Hopefully he didn’t accidentally screw things up already.
He enters.