I Only Wanted to Take Everyone Like Me With Me

Bang.

Lai Er was thrown into the warehouse. The children inside were jolted awake and stared at him with terror written across their faces.

Then Tuo Lei, his head covered in blood, strode quickly to Lai Er's side, raised his foot, and viciously kicked his body while cursing, "You fucking bastard, are you happy now? Huh? Tell me, you mongrel, are you happy now?!"

Lai Er lay there like a pile of mud, showing no reaction at all.

Ha Luo immediately stepped forward to stop Tuo Lei. "Alright, alright. Don't actually beat him to death."

"So what if I do? After what he did, do you think this bastard can still live?"

"Of course he can't live, but he can't die tonight either." Ha Luo tried to dissuade him. "Don't forget his status. We still have to follow the proper procedures."

Only then did Tuo Lei calm down. Remembering that this bastard was still a reserve Gold Merchant, he truly could not be killed on the spot. At the very least, they had to report it to headquarters and notify the Gold Merchant who had given him the Seed of Covenant.

"Pah!" Tuo Lei spat viciously in Lai Er's face. "Just wait. I'll kill you tomorrow morning!"

With that, he turned and left, leaving only Ha Luo, Lai Er, and the goods.

Ha Luo first swept his gaze over the "goods" in the warehouse. Once he saw that no one dared make a sound, he slowly stepped forward and crouched in front of Lai Er.

"Tell me, why did you have to do this?" Ha Luo said flatly. "Your wife is gone, you failed to save your son, and now you've dragged yourself down with them. Was it really worth it? You could have had a better life, but you threw it away with your own hands."

Lai Er did not respond. There was not the slightest trace of life in his eyes. He looked as if he were already dead.

With a crack, a cigarette was lit by flame, then held to Lai Er's lips by Ha Luo.

"Think about it carefully." Ha Luo stood and left. "Think about whether all this was worth it."

Just as Ha Luo was about to leave the warehouse, Lai Er, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke. "It was you, wasn't it?"

Ha Luo stopped. "What?"

"My village had never been visited by outsiders. For all these years, you were the only one! Even Contract Land didn't know where it was!" Lai Er stared fixedly at Ha Luo. "Only you knew. You sold that information... it was you!"

Ha Luo turned back to look at Lai Er, and coldness returned to his formerly indifferent eyes.

"You really are an ungrateful little cur." Ha Luo spoke slowly. "I originally didn't want things between us to get too ugly. If you somehow survived tomorrow, we could still work together like before. But now, it seems that won't be possible."

"You..."

Before Lai Er could finish, Ha Luo suddenly stepped forward and kicked him hard in the stomach.

"I was the one who brought you out! If it weren't for me, you'd already be keeping your family company!" Having completely torn off the mask, Ha Luo no longer cared to pretend. His eyes brimmed with killing intent. "You filthy bastard, it would've been one thing if you didn't know gratitude, but you even dared attack me... Aaaah!"

Ha Luo screamed because Lai Er had bitten down on his calf.

"You really are a fucking dog!" Ha Luo kicked Lai Er in the back of the head with his other foot, finally forcing him to release his bite. "Fine. Since you want to know so badly, I'll tell you. Yes, I sold the location of your village, and I sold it five years ago, when I brought you out... No, that's not right. More precisely, those villages' locations were my goal. You were just some ignorant stray dog I happened to bring out while achieving that goal!"

Lai Er let out a pained whimper. His mouth was full of blood, making his cry shrill and indistinct.

"Are you happy now? All that bullshit about changing your fate, about making your family realize they were wrong... Let me tell you, the only one truly wrong was you!" Ha Luo roared. "Did you really think you and your family were the same kind as us? In my eyes, you and your family were nothing but monkeys wearing clothes! I gave you a chance to pretend to be human, but that didn't mean you actually became human! You things with no faith, no past, and no future can all go straight to hell!"

Ha Luo's final kick snapped several of Lai Er's ribs.

Lai Er vomited blood in great mouthfuls. At last, all his strength drained away, and he collapsed limply like mud, no longer moving. Yet the fury in his eyes still had not faded.

Ha Luo was also breathing heavily. It took him a while to recover. Then he glanced again at the terrified children in the warehouse, suddenly thought of something, and smiled.

"Come to think of it, I took a quick look earlier. Your child was sent to Rhine, right? And if I remember correctly, you were in Rhine a month ago too, and you encountered a convoy like this one."

Lai Er's pupils abruptly widened. Naturally, Ha Luo caught that reaction, and his smile grew wider.

"Looks like I guessed right. Your son really was on it... Heh, how interesting. In that case, does this count as you personally sending your son to—"

"Ha Luo!!! Cough, cough, cough..."

"Heh. It won't matter how loudly you scream in here." Ha Luo said indifferently, "I think you should feel fortunate. At least your son will never know what kind of thing you truly were."

Those words directly drained Lai Er's last bit of strength. He slumped on the ground and did not make another sound even after Ha Luo left.

The warehouse immediately fell into deathly silence. The children who had not dared speak all this time still did not dare approach Lai Er in the pool of blood, as though he were no longer a person, but a corpse waiting to rot.

No one knew how long passed before he finally made a muffled sound.

"Why... did it turn out like this?"

The children exchanged glances, unable to tell whether Lai Er was talking to himself or speaking to them.

Only Bai Wei knew that he was speaking to him.

So Bai Wei slowly replied, "Which part are you referring to?"

"All of it..." Lai Er said hoarsely. "I don't understand... What did I do wrong... I only wanted a better life. I wanted to prove to my family that I was right... That was all. But this world... it wasn't fair to me. It really wasn't fair."

"What was unfair about it?"

"Everything." Lai Er lowered his voice. "People outside... were born with vast skies, fresh air, a past and a future. But we had none of that. We couldn't even imagine it."

"That is what you call unfair?"

"Isn't... it?"

"Then by your reasoning, what about these children you called goods?" Bai Wei said. "They did have vast skies, fresh air, and the past and future you spoke of... At least, they should have had them. Was it fair for them?"

Lai Er's eyelids twitched. "That has nothing to do with me. Even without me, this would have happened to them."

"Then who did your unfairness have to do with?"

Lai Er froze.

"You cannot complain about so-called unfairness only when disaster falls upon your own head." Bai Wei said. "That would be the greatest unfairness of all."

Lai Er opened his mouth, instinctively wanting to refute him, but he did not know how to begin.

No one knew how long passed before he finally spoke as if he had found an answer. "If that's the case... then I was even less in the wrong..."

"Is that so?"

"The world is like this. Everyone is like this." He seemed to be persuading Bai Wei, yet also himself. "Then why should the blame fall on me? This was... the world's fault, not mine! What could one person possibly do?!"

Lai Er nearly screamed the last sentence hysterically. But because his mouth was full of blood, his words were unclear. To outsiders, he sounded only like a dying man's delirious ravings.

Only Bai Wei could clearly hear what Lai Er had said. He calmly waited for Lai Er to finish venting before slowly speaking. "Yes. For one person to change the world is nearly impossible. Even if you truly became a good person, you might not have escaped your current fate, because this world is simply like this. It is rotten to the core."

When Lai Er realized that Bai Wei actually agreed with him, he was momentarily stunned.

He had expected Bai Wei to mock him, curse him, perhaps even "teach" him, like the gods in legends guiding their believers.

But Bai Wei had agreed with him.

The legendary Visas, an existence standing alongside the Gods, had also agreed that "this world is rotten to the core."

Lai Er had thought he would be happy, that he would feel freed. Yet he did not. All he felt was an indescribable grief and despair spreading through his heart.

Then, at that moment, a rustling sound reached Lai Er's ears. He raised his head and saw two children carrying a basin of water as they cautiously approached him.

Lai Er heard their deliberately hushed voices.

"Do we really have to help him? He's with those people."

"But he's about to die. At least give him some water."

"...Alright."

That brief exchange made Lai Er's body suddenly stiffen.

The two children tried to feed water into his mouth, but Lai Er clenched his lips shut and refused to accept it.

One child anxiously said, "Why aren't you drinking? You'll die if you don't!"

The other child replied, "He'll die even if he drinks."

"But what if?"

...What if?

"Why do you insist on leaving with him? He's lying to you!"

"What if it's true?!"

Lai Er opened his lips, and the water slid down his throat, cold enough to pierce his bones.

"That should do it, right?"

"Mmm... It should."

After feeding him the water, the two children quickly left again. They did not say anything more to Lai Er. Saving his life, at least in their eyes, was enough.

Lai Er simply stared blankly after them.

"Do you remember what the world you knew was like five years ago?" After a brief silence, Bai Wei spoke again. "You couldn't see the sky, couldn't smell fresh air. The average person could only live to forty. There was no past and no future. Those were your own words just now. But did you know what the outside world was like back then? Why did you dare walk out of that yellow sand that would never disperse just because that black merchant said a few words? Weren't you afraid he was lying, that there was no better world outside, only somewhere worse? That after leaving your homeland, all that awaited you was eternal damnation? Had you never considered that?"

Lai Er opened his mouth.

"Of course you had considered it, yet you still did it." Bai Wei said. "Because you were gambling that he was telling the truth, gambling on that 'what if.' In your eyes, that 'what if' was worth giving everything for. So why didn't you resign yourself to fate five years ago, but chose to do so today?"

Lai Er's breathing gradually grew heavier.

"I am not blaming you for anything. Not everyone can walk such a path. But how could someone capable of walking such a path not deserve admiration?" Bai Wei said. "Just as your son would surely be proud of the you from five years ago, the one who bravely walked out of the yellow sands. Wouldn't he?"

Lai Er fell silent.

Though his breathing remained heavy, like a damaged instrument, compared to the disorder and violence from before, he was now exceptionally "quiet."

He stayed quiet for a very long time. So long that the two children began wondering whether he had died and hesitated over whether to come check on him. Then Lai Er finally spoke.

"My son..." he asked softly, "where is he?"

"Lyra," Bai Wei said. "A place that has been abandoned, but still has some hope."

"Ah, Lyra... I know. I know."

Lai Er gently closed his eyes. He did not ask Bai Wei how he had saved his son, nor did he make any requests. He only kept repeating, "I know," like a broken record.

After a long while, he slowly opened his eyes and asked, "Are you Visas, or the tongue they spoke of?"

"Is that question important to you?"

"Very important." Lai Er said. "If you are Visas-sama, then I can make a wish to you."

"A wish to see your son?"

"No." Lai Er said. "Something else. You once promised me that you would lend me your power."

"Even if it is power that costs you your life?"

Lai Er did not speak, but his silence was clearly an admission.

"Once you use it, you will never see your son again." Bai Wei said. "Even so, does it not matter?"

"I no longer have the face to see him." Lai Er said quietly. "I failed my wife, failed my parents, and failed my son... So I want to do something."

"So you want to save all the children here?"

"No." Lai Er shook his head, then looked toward the black merchants outside the warehouse and said, word by word, "I only want to take all the people like me... with me."

Bai Wei was silent for a moment, then smiled.

"Alright."

A confession: this chapter was not well written, and I know it. But after polishing it for two days, this was all I could manage. It still felt like the buildup was not enough. There were too many plotlines to write in this volume, so Lai Er did not get the same amount of story as the leads of the previous volumes, yet he had to follow a similar path. That made things difficult, so he could only end up as a rather flat tool character. Looking at it now, this kind of character transformation needs at least close to two hundred thousand words like Ulu in the first volume, with the focus entirely on one person. Once the focus shifts, it no longer works. Fortunately, Lai Er was originally designed as a tool character anyway, so it does not affect this volume's plot.