Son, Mom Wants to Borrow Some Money from You

After Su Yang sent his message, a deathly silence fell over the group chat.

A few seconds later, Su Yang's phone rang. The call was from an unknown number.

At a time like this, Su Yang didn't have to think to know it was Zhao Shengshen.

Sure enough, when he answered, Zhao Shengshen's voice came through the phone.

He spoke quickly, and Su Yang could hear how anxious he was.

"Su Yang! Where are you right now? Are you in danger?"

"What did you mean by what you said in the group? Was it an unnatural death involving a Sequence Ability?"

Su Yang turned to look at the tentacle he had severed. Blood was still flowing from its cut end, and it gave off waves of a powerful stench.

He didn't know what kind of disgusting creature it was... but it was definitely dead.

"I'm safe right now. It was an unnatural death involving a Sequence Ability!"

"The deceased... was my homeroom teacher. The address is City Garden, building five, unit two, apartment 8-5."

"Okay, I'll be there right away. Your own safety comes first!"

"Beep, beep, beep..."

Zhao Shengshen hung up.

Su Yang put down his phone and looked intently at Teacher Zhao.

Looking at Teacher Zhao's bulging eyes, Su Yang felt a distinct sense of unreality well up in his heart.

But there were the bloodstained sheets, the bleeding monster on the floor, and the corpse lying in Su Yang's arms.

Every last thing was showing Su Yang the truth.

The teacher who had been alive and well, teaching him just yesterday, had met a violent death here.

Come to think of it, this was the first time someone Su Yang knew had died.

But strangely enough...

Su Yang felt neither fear nor anger, but a calm... a calm he couldn't put into words.

Su Yang reached out, closed Teacher Zhao's open mouth, and drew his eyelids shut, giving him a final measure of dignity.

Teacher Zhao had spent most of his life conscientiously teaching and nurturing students, and he had been a responsible teacher to Su Yang and the others. But no one had expected him to meet such an end.

As Su Yang smoothed and arranged Teacher Zhao's remains, he felt a vibration from inside Teacher Zhao's clothes.

Su Yang reached over and felt around. From the feel of it, it was Teacher Zhao's phone.

That vibration just now was probably someone sending Teacher Zhao a message.

Su Yang took out Teacher Zhao's phone. It had no password, and Su Yang unlocked it with a gentle swipe.

The screen displayed voice messages, one after another, that hadn't been opened yet.

Looking at the contact name on the screen, Su Yang hesitated for a while before opening the voice messages.

Voice messages played from the phone, one after another, in the gentle tone of an elderly person, a voice washed soft by time.

06:15.

[Mom]: Son, Mom wants to talk something over with you. Could you lend me a thousand yuan? I want to buy your dad an electric scooter.

[Mom]: It was windy and rainy yesterday. Your dad rode his bicycle back from the restaurant and got rained on for a whole hour!

[Mom]: Once the corn we planted ripens and we sell it, Mom will pay you back.

12:23.

[Mom]: Son, Mom knows it's hard being a teacher in a big city. Life isn't easy for you either, so don't worry about what I said this morning, okay? {laughs}

[Mom]: Have you eaten? Your dad brought a steamed fish back from the restaurant at noon today, and it was still whole! Nobody had touched it at all. People in the city are always so wasteful these days...

19:07

[Mom]: Son, why aren't you answering Mom?

[Mom]: Did something happen at work? Tell Mom about it!

Su Yang fell silent.

He gently typed a line of text on Teacher Zhao's phone.

But after a long while, Su Yang deleted it all.

He wasn't her son and had no right to reply to her messages.

It was heavy, far too heavy.

In the end, Su Yang marked each voice message as unread and exited the chat with [Mom].

In the chat list, Su Yang saw many unread and read messages.

For some reason, Su Yang opened them one by one.

07:02

[Principal]: Teacher Zhao, why aren't you at the meeting yet? Stuck in traffic?

[Principal]: You're late for the meeting. Your perfect attendance bonus is gone this month.

07:32

[Principal]: The meeting's already over. Where are you?! Don't you want your bonus?

08:00

[Principal]: Still not here!! I've had other teachers cover your classes today! Your salary for this month is gone!

[Muyang Bank]: Hello, today is the final payment date for your credit card. Please make your payment before the end of the day!

August last year, 07:34

[Yashi]: I've thought about it for a long time. We should break up. My parents insist on buying an apartment downtown.

[Yashi]: After all these years, thank you for being by my side. You deserve someone better!

July the year before last, 21:34

[Dabing]: The guys are all waiting for you! The usual place! Get here quick!

After spending several dozen minutes looking through the messages, Su Yang silently put down Teacher Zhao's phone.

During those dozens of minutes, Su Yang seemed to have seen the latter half of Teacher Zhao's life.

Su Yang felt as though a sledgehammer were pressing down on his heart.

It was oppressive, terribly oppressive.

He looked again at the foul-smelling tentacle. The next moment, Su Yang charged at it and hacked away wildly!

"His life was already so hard! Why did something like you have to come along too?!"

"He was trying to keep living! What right did you have to take his life?"

Su Yang hacked the tentacle into pieces, but... it made no difference.

Teacher Zhao was already dead.

What had died along with him were the efforts of the first half of his life and the hopes of several elderly people.

"Beep!"

The phone in Su Yang's pants pocket vibrated again, making him stop attacking the tentacle.

In the Soul-Reaping Bureau's group chat, there were a whole bunch of messages tagging him.

[Old Wang with the Anywhere Door]: Su Yang, what's going on? Can you tell which Sequence Ability it was?

[Old Wang with the Anywhere Door]: It was most likely someone from the Fierce Ghosts. Watch out for any other remnants of the Fierce Ghosts nearby. They usually operate together!

[Su Yang]: I can't tell which Sequence the ability belongs to. It's a tentacle that smells like a dead rat.

[Old Wang with the Anywhere Door]: Are there any other clues?

[Old Wang with the Anywhere Door]: Su Yang? Why aren't you answering?

[Old Wang with the Anywhere Door]: @Su Yang?

In apartment 29-5, unit two, building five of City Garden, a blur of movement rushed out.

He didn't take the rickety elevator down. Instead, he leaped straight down from the eighth building!

The blur was none other than Su Yang!!

Just now, Su Yang had suddenly remembered that Ren Yexue had said it too!

She had smelled a dead rat under her bed last night as well!!

There was a tentacle like that in Ren Yexue's home too!!!

On the chat app's screen.

[Su Yang]: Whatever you do, don't push the bed aside! Wait for me to get there!

[Su Yang]: Ren Yexue! Run! Get out of your home, now!!

But Ren Yexue seemed to be asleep and didn't respond to Su Yang's messages.