Dark Tutor
Yu Ban sat upright the moment she received the call.
That soon already?
In the original story, the Original Owner kept getting calls from a stranger who seemed to see right through her life and thoughts—not only knowing what she wanted, but also when she needed to vent.
That person always gave guidance at just the right moments, slowly leading her step by step to darken into the Great Demon King.
The Original Owner went to Jin Hong Hotel because of one of his calls.
At that time, she posted online that she had almost twisted her ankle after being bumped by a certain big shot in the mall elevator.
Not only did he not apologize, but his assistant also looked at her disdainfully, even saying, “Why squeeze in when the elevator is already full? Didn’t you see everyone else waiting outside? It’s like every stray dog and cat wants to get in.”
The big shot only scolded his assistant for speaking recklessly and didn’t ask him to apologize to the Original Owner.
The elevator, which could hold twenty people, had only that big shot, his assistant, and two bodyguards inside.
The Original Owner had gone to the mall for a part-time interview.
She took the bus and arrived late due to heavy traffic.
Seeing the elevator doors open, she went straight in without looking.
She was sure she hadn’t bumped into anyone when entering.
Instead, it was the big shot who impatiently kept pressing the close door button, bumping into her.
After catching her breath, she heard the assistant’s words and felt angry, humiliated, and too afraid to retort.
Because of that little incident, she wasn’t in the right state and failed the interview.
Afterward, the Original Owner felt increasingly wronged and detailed the whole event on an Anonymity Forum.
She hadn’t been registered there long and only went occasionally to vent when feeling down.
The post drew scorn, sympathy, and most of all curiosity about who the big shot really was.
She was careful not to name Zhou Yaohui, nor mention his company or the mall’s name.
When the discussion heated up, she simply deleted the post and quit the forum.
The next day, she received a call from a stranger telling her to go to room 712 of Jin Hong Hotel, saying Zhou Yaohui would apologize to her there.
The Original Owner was sure she hadn’t mentioned Zhou Yaohui’s name or company anywhere, not even the mall.
She was terrified when she got the call and tried to ask for details, but the caller hung up after a few brief words.
She called back, but it was always busy.
She looked up the number—it was an unregistered network number.
She felt a creeping fear of being watched but curiosity won out.
She thought maybe Zhou Yaohui or his assistant saw her post and arranged to apologize.
In the end, she went—and was so shocked by Zhou Yaohui’s corpse that she collapsed, leaving many fingerprints behind.
Malnourished and used to staying up late, the Original Owner’s first encounter with a corpse caused extreme shock.
After being taken for interrogation by the criminal investigation team, she was anxious and scared.
Before the questioning even progressed, she died, and Yu Ban took her place.
After arriving, Yu Ban browsed the Anonymity Forum and noticed the Original Owner always deleted her posts within a day.
She didn’t like arguments, but on the forum, no matter what you posted, someone would always attack it, leading to fights.
The Original Owner came there to vent about her life and sought a sense of belonging, but once arguments started, she found it unbearable and deleted the posts immediately.
Such a personality would only be able to darken into a Big BOSS with a Dark Mentor’s relentless guidance.
But in the novel, the Original Owner wasn’t the protagonist, and the story wasn’t very detailed.
After understanding the situation, Yu Ban waited for the Dark Mentor’s next call.
And now, finally, it came!
She finished the ice cream in two bites and, like shooting a basketball, tossed the paper cup into the trash can.
Only then did she lazily hold her phone and ask, “Which one are you? I want to see a stripper, want to see Mars hit Earth, can your E Building or C Building show me that?”
Silence on the other end.
Yu Ban sneered, “What E Building or C Building? What nonsense are you talking about? Even scams need some skill, are you trying to fool a three-year-old?”
Before she finished, the caller hung up directly.
Yu Ban stared at the phone screen but didn’t call back.
She couldn’t even if she wanted to.
Such unknown numbers are either network numbers or encrypted satellite calls.
But she wasn’t anxious.
The other party wouldn’t give up on her so easily.
They probably hung up because she didn’t sound like the Original Owner.
Not far away, inside a certain tall building, a lanky man quickly opened several apps on his phone, clearly checking the accounts in each.
Each account had a different nickname, but it was obvious they all belonged to the same person.
On Weibo, it was Melancholy Snail; on Douyin, Melancholy Dandelion; on Shu, Unhappy Melancholy Ghost; and on the Anonymity Forum, Little Yu Who Doesn’t Smile.
All contained the character “Yu,” all melancholic, and none had posted anything new today, including the forum.
The man furrowed his brows.
The voice on the call sounded like Yu Ban’s, but why didn’t it feel like the same person?
Meanwhile, Yu Ban was rapidly scanning her own social media.
She knew the other party was definitely monitoring her online, possibly someone she knew.
She had planned to cancel all her accounts and re-register under a new name, but she hesitated.
She needed to keep those accounts to lure that person out sooner.
The book never revealed the Dark Mentor’s identity, only that this person was obsessed with the Original Owner.
After the Original Owner transformed into the Big BOSS and was sentenced to Criminal Sentence, the Dark Mentor even sent threatening emails to the male and female protagonists, promising revenge.
The author apparently wrote this to set up the sequel, but for Yu Ban, it was a curse—wasn’t she trapped inside an unfinished story?
She knew the Original Owner’s ending but didn’t know who had destroyed her.
Before catching the big fish, she had to stay alert.
Yu Ban toyed with her phone.
The caller never called back; he was cautious.
He knew the Original Owner was bullied by Zhou Yaohui’s assistant at the mall, even arranged for her to see Zhou Yaohui’s corpse by accurately naming the hotel and room number.
This person was no small player.
He didn’t just monitor the Original Owner online but followed her to the mall.
Yet Zhou Yaohui probably wasn’t killed by him.
Could he have been hired by Zhou Yaohui to teach the Original Owner a lesson after discovering someone wanted to kill him?
Then why was he now asking her to go to Beihe Apartments?
Neither she nor the Original Owner ever said online what she wanted to see.
What’s so special about Beihe Apartments E Building?
Yu Ban didn’t want to go but was curious.
If she ignored the Dark Mentor completely, this person would definitely step out to see what really happened and why the transformation was so drastic.
She was just debating whether to ask someone else to go check it out when her mother, Song Wenya, came in crying.
“You always say you want to be fair, but in your heart, you only care about your son. You old woman, wait until you’re crippled, Wen Jie will definitely send you to a nursing home. Just you wait, see if I’ll care about you.”
She scolded downstairs while coming upstairs, and seeing Yu Ban calmly watching her, immediately vented her anger on her.
“You brat, what terrible idea did you come up with? The old man’s going to make a will soon, and he said he won’t leave me a penny. He wants our family to move out quickly!”
Yu Ban sighed helplessly, “Whether it’s a good idea depends on who it is. If my daughter kept calling me ‘old woman’ and ‘old man,’ I wouldn’t leave her a penny either.”
Song Wenya angrily pushed her, “Where’s your head? Are you stupid? Our family of three is about to be swept out by your grandfather!”
Before Yu Ban could reply, she plopped down on the sofa, “Anyway, I’m not moving. If they don’t give me any money, I’ll be a Nail Householder.”
“Huh? That’s how Nail Householders come to be?”
Yu Ban admired her cheap schemer.
When it came to shamelessness, who else could compare?
Seeing her daughter only mocking her, Song Wenya was both cold and angry, grumbling as she went to the bedroom to discuss with Yu Daqiang.
Yu Ban realized that after scaring Yu Daqiang, he hardly left the bedroom.
With such guts, he dared to kill people?
She’d have to keep scaring him more.
Listening to the quarrel from the master bedroom, she returned to her room.
She had only been here two days, didn’t have much, so she tidied up to prepare to leave.
Her grandfather’s assets wouldn’t come to her anyway.
Song Hongsheng, though heavily favoring sons and often hitting the kids, was still the best guardian the Original Owner had—a provider of school fees and money for clothes and schoolbags.
More of a parent to the Original Owner than her unreliable parents.
Now Song Hongsheng wanted to sell the house, and Yu Ban definitely wouldn’t cause trouble.
As for where Song Wenya and her husband would live, that was none of her business.
Yu Ban packed up and planned to look for a good place tomorrow to move.
That night, she took out her notebook and listed everyone she knew.
The Dark Mentor had to be among them—he knew her well, but she knew nothing about him, which annoyed Yu Ban.
The Original Owner’s social circle was simple: only two sources, school and family.
She barely had any relatives, no friends at school, and few classmates she could talk to.
She was like a lone wolf—liked to be alone—but her personality was soft to the extreme.
She’d rather suffer than argue and would only snap back when pushed into a corner.
Yu Ban remembered the Original Owner’s complete darkening came from rejection and humiliation by the male protagonist.
That wouldn’t happen this time, and she couldn’t predict what would.
While pondering, Yu Ban wrote down all the teachers and classmates from school she knew by name, plus all the neighbors she could identify, analyzing each.
Unfortunately, the contact was too sparse, and she still couldn’t find any cause.
Staring at the short list on paper, Yu Ban suddenly stopped.
He Zilu!
That girl had bullied the Original Owner and later seemed to have jumped off a building.
University bullying wasn’t slapping or hair-pulling but spreading rumors and ostracism.
He Zilu somehow heard about Yu Ban’s parents’ past and shamelessly spread it around the whole school.
She even asked in the dorm how many years her father had been in prison and how many years her mother had served.
Whenever Yu Ban yawned or showed dark circles, He Zirui would put on a concerned face, asking if she was corrupted by her parents and even wanting to take her to see drug prevention propaganda.
Soon, rumors spread that Yu Ban was using drugs. Everyone avoided her and whispered behind her back.
He Zilu was popular, a student council member, pretty, and good at dressing up.
The Original Owner already resented her, and with repeated targeting, when she moved out of the dorm, she posted on the forum about feeling scared and having evil thoughts—wishing to see her classmates dead and dismembered.
The book mentioned that He Zilu later jumped from the seventeenth floor of a certain neighborhood, leaving a gruesome, shattered scene.
Could that neighborhood be the Beihe Apartments the Dark Mentor mentioned?
Yu Ban immediately stood up.
No, she had to see it for herself.
He Zilu wasn’t a good person, but she didn’t deserve to die.
Certainly not because of her.