Hell-Bent on Death

After Jiang Yiming left, the middle-aged man slowly crawled to his feet. Bearing the intense pain, he returned to the roof.

Facing the evening breeze, he struggled to climb to the edge.

Looking down, he saw an ambulance racing toward him along the pitch-black road.

"Woo~wah~woo~wah~"

The siren woke quite a few people from their dreams. Scattered lights came on in the high-rise across the street, dispelling the darkness around it.

The ambulance had just reached the front of the mall and had yet to come to a full stop.

A final smile suddenly flickered across the man's lips. Then he spread his arms and leaped from the roof.

"Whoosh~"

The wind whistled through his suit as he fell.

In less than three seconds—

"Thud!"

With a muffled impact, he slammed heavily into the ground beside the ambulance, giving the driver a fright!

The people in the building opposite had only meant to watch the ambulance save someone, but unexpectedly witnessed a jump from the roof instead. The scene immediately grew livelier. Some even rushed back into their rooms for binoculars, afraid they wouldn't see clearly.

Who would truly care whether an unrelated person lived or died...

Early the next morning, Jiang Yiming woke up as usual.

As soon as he pulled out his phone, he saw more than a dozen calls from an unfamiliar number. Since his phone was on silent, he hadn't picked up any of them.

He was just about to call back when the phone rang again.

He hurriedly answered, and a gruff voice came from the other end. "Finally got through! Were you the one who called the ambulance in the middle of the night?"

Jiang Yiming was taken aback. "Yes... what happened? Did they manage to save him?"

"He fell from that high up. It was hard to save him. He died not long after reaching the hospital."

Jiang Yiming's expression dimmed. "He actually jumped again..."

The person on the other end continued, "You're a relative of the deceased, right? Sorry for the trouble, but please pay the fees."

So they were calling to collect payment!

"How much do I have to pay?" Jiang Yiming asked.

He had accepted the man's bank card, so he figured it would be fine to cover some of the costs.

"Well, there's a 150-yuan dispatch fee, a 10-yuan ambulance base fare, two yuan per kilometer beyond three kilometers, 100 yuan for CPR..."

"Wait, just give me the total!"

The person on the other end was straightforward enough and gave him the figure. "It comes to 8,860 yuan."

"What?! That much?!"

Jiang Yiming was dumbfounded.

"It's not that much. The ambulance fees only came to a little over a thousand. Most of it was hospital expenses. Even though we couldn't save him, the fees still have to be paid," the person explained casually.

Helpless, Jiang Yiming tried to work something out. "I don't have that much money on hand. Let me figure something out."

"All right, do it as soon as possible." With that, the person hung up.

Hearing that he had to pay more than 8,000 yuan, Jiang Yiming began to worry.

The man had said there was enough money on his card for a funeral wreath, but no matter how he calculated it, one wreath couldn't be worth more than 8,000 yuan!

"I only have a little over 4,000 yuan. I don't know if it'll be enough even if I put it all in..."

With that thought, Jiang Yiming went to a nearby ATM.

He inserted the bank card, and a mechanical prompt sounded.

After a few operations, the balance finally appeared on the screen.

"Th-this much!"

In his eighteen years of life, Jiang Yiming had never seen so much money. It was a full 1.2 million yuan!

Seeing so much money, he was overjoyed. But once the excitement passed, he didn't know what to do.

"I didn't do anything. Do I deserve to take this much money?"

Ever since he was little, he had disliked owing people favors. Sometimes, if he owed someone even a few dozen yuan, he couldn't sleep well.

He really couldn't bring himself to take 1.2 million yuan from someone else all at once.

But if he didn't take it, who could he return it to? Was he supposed to donate it to some institution and let them feast and drink their fill?

That was even more out of the question!

So Jiang Yiming made a decision—to avenge the man!

"I know you hate Tu Ming."

"I can't return this money, so I'll accept it for now. Once I unlock the System Store and grow stronger, I'll avenge you. Consider it my way of repaying this favor!"

Only after making that promise did he withdraw 10,000 yuan and hurry to the hospital.

After paying more than 8,000 yuan at the hospital, he was taken to the morgue to identify the body.

"The bill has been paid in full. You can arrange for someone to take the body to the crematorium today. If that's too much trouble, the hospital can handle everything and take care of the funeral arrangements for you. The ashes will be kept at the West City Crematorium, and you can pick them up whenever you have time," the middle-aged nurse explained at his side, quite familiar with the process.

"How much would it cost in total?" Jiang Yiming asked.

The nurse replied smoothly, "For the full package, 8,800 yuan."

"That much?!" Jiang Yiming's sense of value had been overturned yet again.

"That's already not expensive," the nurse said, accustomed to such reactions. "This is only a mid-range package. If you want something more upscale, there are options for twenty or thirty thousand, even over a hundred thousand."

Just then, footsteps suddenly sounded in the corridor.

A short, stout, balding man in his fifties came swaggering over with a black leather bag tucked under his arm, led by another nurse.

A woman in her early twenties walked on the man's right, while two burly bodyguards followed behind.

"Where's the body? Where is it?" the balding man asked the nurse ahead of him impatiently, a cigarette dangling from his mouth.

"We're here, we're here." Seeing the nurse beside Jiang Yiming, the nurse leading them hurriedly said, "They're here to see the deceased too. I'll leave them to you." With that, she turned and left.

The middle-aged nurse glanced at the balding man and asked coolly, "Who are you?"

"I'm Tu Ming, the owner of Rainbow Shopping Mall, and a friend of the deceased. I heard early this morning that he jumped from my mall, so I had to come and take a look, didn't I?"

The balding man exhaled a mouthful of smoke and smiled. "As his friend, I'll cover all his burial expenses!"

The woman beside him hurriedly chimed in, "Brother Tu, you're so generous!"

"Of course!" Tu Ming laughed. "That's how you should treat a friend."

Jiang Yiming was a little surprised. So this was what Tu Ming was like.

"I've already made arrangements for his burial expenses! You don't need to concern yourself with them!"

The man had hated Tu Ming most of all, so naturally, Jiang Yiming wouldn't let Tu Ming handle the funeral. Otherwise, the man would probably be angry enough to jump up.

Tu Ming glanced at Jiang Yiming and frowned. "Who are you to him? If I remember correctly, he didn't seem to have any family left."

Jiang Yiming's face was expressionless. "Same as you, I'm also his friend. But not the kind of friend who steals his things!"

That was clearly a deliberate jab.

Tu Ming's face immediately darkened. Playing dumb despite knowing full well, he said, "I don't know what nonsense you're spouting, kid!"

Jiang Yiming said no more to him. He turned to the nurse beside him. "Whatever paperwork needs to be done, let's do it now. I'll cover all the expenses!" With that, he headed out.

He still wasn't strong enough to deal with a big boss like Tu Ming, so there was no hurry.

In any case, Rainbow Shopping Mall wasn't going anywhere. Once he was a little stronger, he could go after him whenever he wanted!