Why Live Happily

"I suffer..."

In the desolate backyard, Huai Shi sat on the garden steps, sighing at the sky and staring blankly at the ground.

At that moment, he deeply felt that he was a child doomed to hardship.

He had been tricked by an agency into interviewing at a host club, run into a corpse on his way home, been thrown into a police station over a box for no reason, and then, less than a day after being released, been shoved into another station full of cameras and guns.

Now, to stay alive, he had no choice but to accept Crow's help. But Crow's greatest talent was making him die over and over again.

Hadn't it all been for nothing in the end?

If he had to die, couldn't he just die once?

Did he really have to die dozens of times...

He had died so many times that he was nearly numb. This unheard-of skill, Death Sense, was practically taking shape!

Huai Shi felt that if he was lucky enough to hang on this time, he could probably die his way to Level 10 in this skill within his lifetime!

"Instead of complaining, why not go die one more time? This kind of meditation can at least train your Source Matter. Maybe you'll soon break through that ninety-nine percent progress bar and become an Ascender."

Beside him, Crow, who had somehow become striped like a zebra due to running out of ink, offered her suggestion.

"Like hell I'd believe you!"

Huai Shi had no intention of paying her any attention. Staring at the barren garden, he began to ponder: Who am I? Where am I? School starts in half a month, and I'm so broke I'm practically about to starve to death. Other than courting death, what the hell am I even doing?

Suddenly, his brows rose as an idea struck him.

"Say, do you have any way to make money?"

"Sure."

The zebra Crow casually preened her feathers and pointed toward the road beyond the gate. "Walk ten minutes, take a bus for one stop, turn left, and there's a bank. Rob it, and you'll have everything."

"...Who the hell doesn't know how to rob a bank?" Huai Shi rolled his eyes. "Don't you people have any magic that can turn stone into gold?"

"Ah, magic. That's a long story. I do know how to make gold, though..."

"Though what?"

Huai Shi leaned closer, his eyes lighting up.

"Though the cost is roughly three thousand East Xia dollars per gram."

She said calmly, "The Purified Gold made this way is usually used as a spiritual foundation material in all kinds of rituals and altars. If you want, I can make you a couple of pounds."

"If I had money, why the hell would I need gold?"

Huai Shi was speechless.

He could only sit on the steps and continue staring into space until a faint shattering sound startled him awake.

It sounded like a glass bottle being kicked apart.

It was so crisp in that scorching summer afternoon.

Huai Shi turned around in surprise and looked toward the front yard.

"Someone's here?"

Crow raised her head and glanced over, looking troubled. "Could they have found out that I've been stealing electricity through your house wiring?"

Huai Shi froze for a moment, then suddenly realized what she meant. His eyes widened in fury. "When the hell did you do that behind my back?"

"Actually, I also tapped into an internet cable. The Wi-Fi signal's pretty good." Crow pulled a smartphone of unknown origin from under her wing. "Want the password?"

Huai Shi glared at her, then rose to his feet and crept to the corner behind the house. He poked his head out, while Crow skillfully stepped onto his head and poked hers out as well.

In a corner of the dilapidated courtyard, someone furtively looked around before reaching out to help down another companion who had climbed over the wall.

The two of them landed on the ground, their clothes bulging around their chests, masks covering their faces.

"Oh my..."

Crow asked softly, "Do people collecting electricity bills climb walls these days?"

"Probably thieves." Huai Shi gritted his teeth and bent down to pick up half an iron rod from the corner. "This isn't the first or second time something like this has happened."

"Oh?"

She gave Huai Shi a thoughtful look, then smiled strangely. "Let's hope so."

Huai Shi had no time to pay attention to her. He lowered his voice and secretly watched the scene ahead. The two burly men put on gloves, looked around, whispered a few words, then carefully climbed through a broken window on the side of the house. Huai Shi cautiously opened the back door and heard the old floorboards creaking nonstop.

Heavy footsteps paced around the living room for a while before heading upstairs. Doors could be heard opening one after another.

Soon, he heard voices upstairs.

"He's not here!"

"Search first. See where he hid the thing!"

Then came a flurry of rummaging, with the sounds of things breaking mixed in. Huai Shi's teeth ached just listening. The house had long since been stripped bare. Anything even slightly valuable had been pawned off by his parents years ago, leaving only a few worthless pieces of shabby furniture.

Those old things had somehow lasted all this time, only to meet disaster today.

Fortunately, though the house was bare, it was at least large, with plenty of empty rooms. Even searching would probably take them a while.

Huai Shi took a deep breath, gripped the rod, and quietly followed them upstairs. Rough noises came from his bedroom.

Bang.

A drawer hit the floor.

Damn it, my desk.

Then came another sharp crash as things inside the cabinet spilled all over the floor.

Crash.

The desk lamp and everything on the desk came down too.

"Look at this!"

It sounded as though they had found something. Huai Shi heard a zipper being pulled—the instrument case had been opened—followed by the dull reverberation of someone knocking on the instrument itself.

"It's not in here?"

"Could there be a hidden compartment?" one of them guessed. "Should we smash it open and check?"

Go fuck yourself!

Huai Shi flew into a rage.

I didn't stop you from tearing through cabinets all the way here, but now you want to smash the thing I use to make a living? This was personal now!

Unable to hesitate any longer, he stuck his head out and saw the two men crouching on the floor with their backs to him. One had already picked up a hammer. Rage surged through Huai Shi's heart, and malice followed close behind. Raising his rod, he leaped forward and brought it down.

His plan was crystal clear—knock one of them out with a sneak attack, then hit the other before he could react. Job done!

Things went exceptionally smoothly.

Bang.

The man holding the hammer collapsed at once. But then Huai Shi saw the iron pipe, which had been sitting around for who knew how many years, snap cleanly in the middle and fly away.

He froze.

The other man froze too. Then a vicious glint flashed through his eyes, and he lunged at Huai Shi.

Huai Shi instinctively kicked out, knocking him staggering back, then grabbed a chair beside him and smashed it down hard.

And so, the battered chair that had been with him for so many years met a heroic end as well.

Yet the man seemed completely unaffected. He finally climbed back to his feet, clenched his fists until they cracked, and the face beneath his mask twisted into a snarl.

Huai Shi took a step back at first, then suddenly remembered that times had changed. He was no longer that weakling incapable of even trussing a chicken.

Fine. I'll make my debut with this peerless martial arts prowess of mine!

He gave a cold smile and charged in with a set of Military Boxing!

Then another set of Military Boxing, and finally one more set... The Military Boxing he had learned by getting beaten up was indeed especially easy to use. He went from the first set to the third without pause, fluid as flowing water and fierce as a tiger!

Other than the fact that the other guy had not lost a single hair, it was practically flawless.

Huai Shi was nearly exhausted, yet he had not landed a hit at all... If this had been under an overpass, he might have earned a hundred or so in tips. But here, it was utterly useless.

The burly man moved with terrifying agility. He might not know any Military Boxing, but every punch and kick he threw carried frightening force. One casual punch was enough to blacken Huai Shi's vision and swell half his face.

Damn it, this guy's tough. Time to run...

The thought had barely surfaced in Huai Shi's mind before he got angry again. This was his damn house. Even if someone had to run, it shouldn't be him!

Then he felt a chill at the back of his head and instinctively ducked.

A hammer swept past the back of his head. The wind from it howled, and the guy Huai Shi had knocked down with one blow had somehow already gotten back up.

So old steel pipes really were unreliable...

Before Huai Shi could reflect on that, the man in front of him lunged forward and wrapped him in a fierce embrace, slamming him to the ground. Then a huge hand clamped around his throat.

"Kill this little bastard!"

The eyes beneath the mask were full of viciousness. "Fuck, we almost capsized!"

The man holding the hammer caught his breath and stepped over as well, raising the hammer toward Huai Shi's forehead. Karma came really damn fast. A moment ago, Huai Shi had been ambushing others with a club. Now it was his turn to get his skull cracked open.

Seeing the hammer rise, he struggled desperately, but he could not pry away the hand around his neck. In the chaos, he could only rip off the man's mask, revealing a scarred face.

"Fuck, help..."

Huai Shi screamed.

"Think of something sad!" Crow shouted at the top of her lungs. "Think about how you died in those dreams... How many times you died, and how horribly!"

Huai Shi suddenly felt exhausted. He was about to die anyway, so what was the point of thinking about that? Oh, so he could prepare himself mentally and not be afraid, was that it?

Maybe he could die more peacefully. What a great idea!

Remembering all the horrible ways he had died in those dreams, Huai Shi was filled with grief and fury. Having personally experienced those illusory deaths countless times, the accumulated terror in those memories was almost enough to suffocate him.

The more he died, the more he feared death, because death really was that terrifying.

In that instant, he felt a warm current surge from his right hand. Then, it seemed as though something had appeared inside his clenched fist.

Fine and fragmented, like sand, filling his palm.

There was no time to think. Huai Shi instinctively scattered it. Black dust flew from between his fingers and, in an instant, struck the man's face.

The hand choking him loosened slightly under the sudden attack. Huai Shi's eyes snapped open, and he rolled away just as a roar exploded beside his ear.

The floor beneath the back of his head was smashed to pieces by the falling hammer.

The deafening crash scared a cold sweat out of him.

But before he could climb up, he saw the face of the man who had been choking him suddenly twist. His face turned red, his breathing grew ragged, and then he burst into loud sobs.

The man holding the hammer froze for a moment, then his eyes reddened too...

What the hell was this?

Chili powder?

In his shock, Huai Shi accidentally inhaled some of the black dust floating through the air and rapidly dispersing. A powerful sour ache instantly spread from the tip of his nose.

"Careful, that seems to be Tribulation Ash! You'll be in trouble if it gets on you!"

Crow's warnings were always one step too late.

And Huai Shi finally realized that the sour ache winding around his nose did not seem to come from external irritation, but from... pain and sorrow deep within his heart.

It was like being fired by a garbage supervisor and losing the job he depended on for survival; like having the Shiba Inu he had raised since it was a puppy stolen away; like leaving work early one day after endless 996 overtime and finding another man in his girlfriend's bed; like receiving sudden notices of death and cancer; like being a worthless author who had promised two updates a day but had been unable to write anything for days.

His lungs spasmed, his eyes burned, and his nose was filled with sourness. Uncontrollable sorrow spread through his chest as he remembered falling on the steps when he was three, having the one yuan and fifty cents he had saved at six stolen by a fat kid at the arcade, his unreliable parents running off after taking donation money and vanishing, interviewing at a host club, and somehow getting dragged into this mess just by trying to go home...

"Heavens, I suffer so much!"

Huai Shi threw back his head and howled. A mournful scream burst from his throat, and he began bawling, tears pouring down his face without end...

Ah, this scum-of-the-earth author watches his saved chapters dwindle away, then spends three or four days unable to write anything. He cannot even come up with a clickbait title for today...

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