Chapter 44 : Chapter 44

Chapter 44 : A Friendly Greeting from My Dear Brother

As I was pondering how to respond to their messages, my phone suddenly rang.

A call came in.

Coincidence, or had they been trying to reach me all along?

I backed out to check and saw double digit missed calls.

It clicked that my phone's battery drained fast, and none of their calls came through when it had power.

This time, the call was from my younger brother, Yang Yunhan.

He was my parents’ “second try” after I, their “failed main account,” was born.

He’s not much younger than me.

Just as I was about to pick up, I realized I wasn’t the same me anymore.

My voice had changed a lot enough for people who knew me to notice.

If I answered now, what identity should I claim?

My girlfriend?

They knew I had a girlfriend, but that wouldn’t work.

The call was about to hang up automatically.

Since my phone was on, and they’d been calling for so long without giving up, they must’ve noticed it was powered on.

If I turned it off, they’d just get a dead line.

So, I answered.

“Hey, where the hell did you run off to? Why didn’t you pick up any of my calls?”

As soon as the call connected, I didn’t expect my brother’s temper to be so fiery, immediately chewing me out.

With such intense emotions, had my dear parents taken their anger out on him?

“Why aren’t you saying anything? Are you deaf? Get back here!”

He kept venting, not giving me a chance to speak.

His tone confused me.

I’d been a mental case detached from family control since birth.

Yang Yunhan’s attitude was awful, and his commanding tone was the kind I hated most.

Was he telling me to come back or not?

“Speak! Did you run off with that slut next door? Do you know Mom and Dad have been going crazy looking for you?!”

When I heard him call Bai Yu that, my calm expression cracked, and I nearly let loose a string of curses.

But just as I was about to, I stopped myself.

I calmed down.

First, I wasn’t great with insults, hardly enough to shut him up.

Second, arguing like this was beneath me.

It was just venting with no real benefit.

I didn’t answer this call to bicker or vent.

I wanted to see what kind of drama they’d cooked up.

Mainly, I was curious to witness this world’s “biodiversity.”

“Don’t know,” I said, instinctively lowering my voice.

It was noticeably different now, not because I was pretending.

I just couldn’t muster enthusiasm talking to them, so my tone naturally sank.

“You! Hmph…”

He seemed choked by my response, as if my answer left him unable to continue.

“I’m doing fine, thanks.”

I spoke again, curious if he hadn’t noticed the change in my voice or if my old phone’s mic was so bad he couldn’t tell.

“You’re doing fine? You’re doing fine! All you care about is yourself. Do you know what we’ve been through these past few days? Dad stopped going to work to look for you, ran to the Public Security Bureau, who knows how many times, and you’re telling me you’re doing fine?”

Yang Yunhan’s voice grew angrier, almost incoherent.

His outburst made me briefly wonder if I’d gone too far, but I quickly dismissed the ridiculous thought.

Something was off about his emotions being too intense.

He was my parents’ precious little son, pampered to death.

Why would they put so much pressure on him to vent at me?

Had they suddenly grown a conscience and started caring about their occasionally unhinged eldest son?

Or had they done something and needed me to take the fall?

No way…

“Why the rush to find me? Shouldn’t you all be thrilled without me around?”

I asked slowly, trying to recall what happened the day I left.

That day, the trigger for my final departure was… they wanted me to go to Imp Academy?

Imp Academy was a trash-tier academy, but they offered 50,000.

They shouldn’t be that desperate, though.

That 50,000 would only give them a bit of financial cushion.

Oh, right it’d also let them ditch their mentally ill son for good.

As for why Imp Academy paid to recruit, it was because no sane person would choose to enroll there.

If Witch Academy had a bad reputation, Imp Academy was outright awful.

In my past life, it’d be like a diploma mill with no recognized degree, the bottom of the supernatural academy hierarchy.

Its management was like an internet addiction rehab center treating students like less than human.

You could tell from the fact they paid to recruit.

They even took students without awakened Spirit Vision.

In this world, those without Spirit Vision weren’t qualified to touch the supernatural, yet Imp Academy accepted them.

That alone showed their sinister intentions.

Once ordinary students entered a supernatural academy, they were essentially cut off from the outside world.

Unlike my past life, supernatural power drew a clear line here.

Academies tightly controlled this, with ordinary people maintaining society and supernatural beings advancing.

It sounded simple but was hard to achieve.

Even after years of societal struggle, hiding the supernatural world from ordinary people was still the most efficient approach.

That’s why places like Imp Academy existed.

Society naturally assumed the worst about them.

I was at Witch Academy now, so I didn’t know what Imp Academy was really like.

Maybe it was misunderstood?

Even if that chance was slim, I wasn’t about to jump into that pit to bet there wasn’t fire below.

“I’m telling you, come home now. Imp Academy’s recruiters already came to our house. If you don’t come back, I can’t guarantee you’ll have a comfy trip to their academy.”

Finally, Yang Yunhan revealed the key detail.

So, someone had come to the house, and it was about Imp Academy?

I guessed right?

But I hadn’t applied to Imp Academy.

Had they contacted my parents privately?

Did they think I hadn’t enrolled anywhere on the last day, planning to work and run away, so they decided to contact an academy directly?

As long as the academy agreed, they could take me.

Online applications were just for registration convenience.

No surprise Imp Academy would stoop to that for recruitment.