Dense as Steel
Jiang Yiming thought nothing of it and replied politely, "All right, please give me the address."
Although he was tired, he still had to earn whatever money he could.
"Mm, I live in the Red Building Residential Complex, building A, unit 3, apartment 1514. Come quickly~"
Hearing the address, Jiang Yiming remembered at once!
He had done a job at that home yesterday. The customer seemed to be a young married woman who lived alone. She was ordinary-looking and spoke in a coy, simpering voice.
Remembering that he had already done the job, he immediately said, "Wait, that's not right! Didn't I already do your place yesterday?"
"You did it yesterday, so you don't want to do it again today?" The voice on the phone grew gentler and gentler.
Jiang Yiming grew angry. "What do you mean by that? Are you implying I didn't do a good job?"
Some businesses depended on repeat customers. Others couldn't afford them.
Take waterproofing, for instance. If you finished a job at someone's home and they called you back to do it all over again, that meant your skills weren't up to scratch. You hadn't done it properly and had to go back and redo it!
The cockroach business was the same.
As Jiang Yiming saw it, if a customer whose home he had treated yesterday wanted him back today, that meant they thought he hadn't done a good job and wanted him to redo it.
But yesterday, he had clearly sent the Centipede Gu crawling into the cracks and cleaned them out thoroughly. If there was still a problem, that was an insult to his Gu!
Hearing his tone, the woman hurriedly explained, "No, you did a great job yesterday. I got a bottle of red wine today, and I wanted to thank you with it."
Hearing that, Jiang Yiming breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good. Since there's no problem, I can rest easy. I can't drink and drive, so I won't come over. Otherwise, it'd be hard to get home."
"I have a spare room," she hurriedly said.
"Your place only has one bedroom. Where would you get a spare room? I'd better not come over," Jiang Yiming said seriously.
"Fine, don't come! You're dense as steel! Beep~"
The call ended.
Jiang Yiming grinned, put away his phone, and left.
He got on his bicycle and roared at the sky, "Women will only slow down the speed at which I make money."
Drunk driving wasn't an issue on a bicycle; he simply didn't want to do anything unrelated to making money.
He had done two extra jobs that day, so he was late heading home.
The streetlights along the sidewalk had all gone out.
As he passed a shopping mall, the poor visibility caused Jiang Yiming to trip over a ground lock at the entrance.
"Fuck! They even put a lock here!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, before he could get up, he heard wind whistling overhead!
He looked up to see a human-shaped shadow falling straight toward him!
If it hit him, he'd be reporting to the King of Hell for sure!
"Ah!"
There was no time to dodge. Thinking quickly in a moment of crisis, Jiang Yiming remembered the Void Spiderweb skill!
"Go!"
He flicked his hand, sending a Void Spiderweb shooting out.
The Void Spiderweb shot out with tremendous force, striking the shadow squarely and sticking it to the wall.
Retract!
The moment he said it in his mind, the Void Spiderweb instantly retracted.
The shadow fell and hit the ground with a dull thud.
It really was a person!
Fortunately, the spot he had fallen from was already close to the ground, so he should be all right.
Jiang Yiming walked over and took a closer look by the moonlight. The man who had fallen was in his forties.
"Are you all right, sir?"
The man slowly sat up. He seemed dazed from the fall and didn't notice anything unusual.
After sitting in a stupor for quite a while, he finally looked at Jiang Yiming and said apologetically, "Sorry, I nearly fell on you."
Still shaken, Jiang Yiming waved his hand. "Forget it, forget it."
The man had gone so far as to jump off a building, yet he was still thinking about apologizing. He probably wasn't a bad person.
Though Jiang Yiming had never met him before, he still tried to persuade him. "Sir, you survived that jump, so it must be heaven's will. Don't try to kill yourself again. Please, keep living."
In the moonlight, the man's face was filled with bitterness. "There's no such thing as heaven's will in this world." He paused, then pleaded, "Young man, could you talk with me for a while?"
Jiang Yiming thought for a moment and finally nodded.
The bitterness on the man's face eased a little. He turned and pointed at the huge shopping mall behind him, then said slowly, "This Rainbow Shopping Mall used to be mine."
"My wife and I started out with a street stall. After more than a decade of weathering wind and rain, our business grew better and better, and we finally had the Rainbow Shopping Mall."
"During the busy season, we could make over a million in a month! I once promised my wife I'd open Rainbow Shopping Malls all over the country! What a pity... In just two or three years, everything changed. Now this mall belongs to a scumbag named Tu Ming!"
Jiang Yiming was puzzled. "Even if your business failed, was there really any need to jump off a building? At least you still have your family."
The man gave a self-mocking smile. "Family? I'm all alone now."
"If that scumbag Tu Ming had used legitimate means to take our mall, my wife would never have been so upset that she ended up in the hospital, much less died of grief a month ago!"
"After I buried her, I lost my reason to keep living too..."
"Sigh... I still can't swallow this grievance! I can only become a ghost and take revenge on that scumbag!"
The more the man spoke, the more agitated he became.
Jiang Yiming had never experienced what the man had gone through and didn't know how to comfort him, so he could only listen quietly at his side.
A moment later, the man turned and took a long, deep look at the mall's sign. Then he slowly turned back and pulled a wallet from inside his clothes.
"I spent quite a bit of money on lawsuits these past two years. My last bank card is in this wallet. Meeting you before I die must be fate, so I'll give it to you. The PIN is 727317."
Jiang Yiming pushed the wallet back. "Sir, you might have misunderstood. I never take things from people for no reason."
"Oh?" The man was a little surprised.
There really was someone in this world who would push away a juicy piece of meat already in his hands!
Seeing Jiang Yiming's character, the man smiled. "Actually, there isn't much money on the card, just enough to buy me a funeral wreath. I'd like you to use it to buy me one, and whatever's left can be your payment. That's not too much to ask, is it?"
Jiang Yiming still didn't take it. "You can go on living..."
"There's no need to try to persuade me." The man calmly cut him off. "After my wife died, my heart turned to dead ashes. To make sure I'd die today, I drank poison before I jumped. It should... be taking effect soon."
Before he had even finished speaking, he really did slump onto the ground and start retching!
"What?! You drank poison?! I'll take you to the hospital right now!" Jiang Yiming hurriedly got up.
The man shoved him away. "It's no use. No one can talk someone who truly wants to die out of it. What good would going to the hospital do? I'd still die. Leave while I'm still alive, so no one gets suspicious."
There was determination in the man's eyes.
Jiang Yiming was neither a master psychologist nor a negotiation expert. He had no way to talk someone determined to die out of it.
"Sir, are you really not going to the hospital?!" he asked one last time.
The man's face had turned red from retching. "Stop talking. Go..."
With that, he forced the wallet into Jiang Yiming's hand.
Jiang Yiming thought for a moment, then finally got on his bicycle and disappeared into the darkness.
After riding a few dozen meters, he promptly pulled out his phone and dialed 120.
He would leave a professional matter to the professionals.
If even the professionals can't save him, then I'll honor our agreement and use the money on his card to buy him a funeral wreath!
He simply couldn't stand by and watch someone die without helping.