Repayment

"Damn it, an empire!"

"Are you from the Shimada family?!"

When Huai Shi opened his eyes, he felt like he had a whole belly full of complaints. Shouldn't he have his health fully restored and gained two skill points after defeating a powerful enemy at this point?

He looked at the dust on the ceiling with a sense of existential dread.

Where am I?

Who am I?

Where am I going?

"Do you want to continue?"

Crow seemed to be chuckling.

He sighed, recalling the killing intent he had experienced, as if he could feel that gaze secretly watching him.

How much bad luck had he accumulated over lifetimes?

"Continue!"

He gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and sank back into the darkness.

Crow seemed to shake his head with pity, pulled out his phone, and added another line of text below the emoji: "Two meals are fine too."

And so, the brutal beating continued.

The brutal beating lasted until the afternoon of the next day. When Huai Shi finally managed to clear it without taking any damage, he felt like he was about to cry.

This Red Glove fellow, it really wasn't easy!

After refusing Crow's suggestion to continue, he did something rare and used the remaining electricity money Old Yang had left to take a hot shower. He changed into the black suit he only wore for formal performances and prepared to go out.

"It's rare to see you dressed so sharply," Crow teased. "Where are you planning to take a young lady?"

"...The funeral home."

Huai Shi sighed.

There was no young lady.

Today was the day Old Yang was to be cremated. No matter what, he had to go.

The couple had always treated him well, though it was mainly his sister-in-law who treated him well. In this day and age, how many people would give you a chance to support yourself when you were at your lowest and most desperate?

Even though that scoundrel had caused him a lot of trouble, he had ultimately pulled him through.

In a way, he could still live with dignity today, not having to resort to manual labor, scavenging, or working illegal jobs, all thanks to Old Yang.

Besides, while Old Yang was sometimes unreliable, Huai Shi wasn't exactly a high-caliber talent. Over the years, they had tricked each other so much that they had almost gotten used to it.

Isn't that what friends are like?

Now that Old Yang was gone, he had to see him off.

Despite rushing all the way, by the time he arrived at the funeral home, the farewell ceremony was almost over.

Old Yang had been a broker his whole life, with a wide network of contacts and many friends. There were also quite a few relatives in the area. Now, a vast crowd had come to bid him farewell.

Huai Shi silently followed at the back of the line. When it was his turn, he didn't dare to look much. After placing the flower in his hand, he avoided his sister-in-law's gaze, lowered his head, and retreated to the back.

Although Old Yang had died in Old Tang's church, the publicly announced cause of death was a car accident. After being restored by the funeral home, his unrecognizable face had regained some of its former spirit. He looked as if he were sleeping peacefully, carefree, which was unsettling.

That bastard had worked himself to death for money his whole life, and in the end, he had sold himself for a good price and achieved his wish, dying without any regrets.

Huai Shi overheard a few people saying that when his assets were being inventoried, the guy had truly left a large sum of money for his wife, enough for her ongoing treatment.

After listening for a bit, Huai Shi moved a little further away, not wanting to hear any more.

After the wake, the body was sent for cremation... To Huai Shi's surprise, although her eyes were a little red, his sister-in-law hadn't cried at all throughout the process. Instead, she had managed Old Yang's final farewell meticulously, ensuring he had a dignified send-off.

That bastard, how did he manage to marry such a good wife?

Huai Shi's feelings became increasingly complex.

Soon, the funeral ended. As the guests dispersed, Huai Shi received a message from his sister-in-law, asking him to go to the back.

In the family waiting room of the funeral home, after the woman had ushered out all other unrelated people, she closed the door and took out a thick envelope from her bag, handing it to him.

"...What is this?"

Huai Shi was stunned. Looking at the envelope on the table, if it contained money, it would be at least ten to twenty thousand.

"Take it. This is what Old Yang owed you."

She smiled as if ashamed. "In the past, all the things he did were for me. In the end, it's my fault for wronging you.

Xiao Shi, you're a good kid. You never complained even when you were always being cheated out of money, but this debt shouldn't be left unpaid. Now that he's gone, I wanted to ensure he left with a clear conscience.

If you really want to make me feel a little better, please don't refuse."

Huai Shi fell silent, looking at the envelope on the table. After a long moment, he slowly shook his head.

"What debt is there to speak of?"

He said softly, "Back then, when I was young and foolish, I always felt that the kindness others showed me was deserved, because I would repay them a hundred or a thousand times over in the future."

After I grew up and started to understand things, I gradually realized that sometimes, when people helped me, they weren't expecting any repayment in the future.

Even Old Yang would laugh at me if he heard this, right?

For me, when I was at my most difficult, Old Yang pulled me through, and that was enough. Nothing else mattered, and there was no "you owe me, I owe you."

He slowly pushed the envelope on the table back and said seriously, "So, even if there's a tiny portion of my share in here, please accept it as the meager repayment someone who was helped can offer."

Sister-in-law was silent for a long time, and didn't say anything to refuse.

She just lowered her head, wiped her nose, and forced a smile, "If Old Yang were still alive, hearing you say that, he would definitely be ashamed."

No, that guy would definitely be smug, wouldn't he?

She quickly put the money away, stuffed it into her wife's bag, and then excitedly told him, "See, you didn't want it, and now you regret it. Tonight, I'm taking my wife out for a good meal."

How did such a scoundrel manage to marry such a good wife?

Huai Shi sighed.

Huai Shi didn't follow along for the rest of the funeral. Attending one farewell was sad enough; there was no need to be sad twice for that guy, Old Yang.

Besides, he really didn't want to see Sister-in-law cry.

After saying goodbye, he prepared to head home.

Unlike the trip there when he was in a hurry and took a taxi, on the way back, he chose to take the bus to save some money. He had to switch lines twice, crossing the entire city, to get to his home on the other side of Xinhai.

They say it'll be more convenient after the subway opens, but Xinhai's subway has supposedly been under construction since Huai Shi was born. They've been digging for so long, but there's no sign of it.

Moreover, Xinhai is a medium-sized city with a relatively small population moving in and out. While rush hour can be a bit congested, it's unlikely the city would be unable to function without a subway.

Over time, everyone stopped holding out hope.

During the long wait, he, for the first time in what felt like a decade, opened his WeChat, which he hadn't touched in ages, to see if anything had happened.

Thanks to the constant pressure of poverty, his social circle was meager. He only had one or two acquaintances, and they all knew his situation, so no random people bothered him throughout the summer.

Except for the class WeChat group, which had turned into a mobile game group, there was almost no other news.

Huai Shi scrolled up and found that besides daily messages about teaming up for mobile games and invitations to eat out, there was only a notice about the allocation of practice room times for the upcoming semester, and a bunch of silly memes.

What was truly saddening was that Huai Shi discovered a photo of himself standing in front of a male escort club had been turned into a sticker...

"Can you guys just be decent people!"

Huai Shi was furious. He then found the photos of the guys who had been sharing his sticker in the group, added a panda head to each one, and posted them one by one.

Amidst the chaotic meme battle among these silly netizens, his actions suddenly paused. He felt a malicious gaze falling on him from the back row of the bus.

Whether it was due to the growth in his senses during his developmental period, as Crow had mentioned, or because he was accustomed to the feeling of Death Sense activating, Huai Shi had become increasingly sensitive to others' malice.

While he couldn't quite read minds, being stared at for the entire journey made his neck feel like it was crawling with caterpillars, making him incredibly tense.

Through the bus window, he could vaguely see the man in the back row, wearing a baseball cap and seemingly dozing, clearly the source of that malicious gaze.

Seeing the man take out his phone as if to send a message, Huai Shi suddenly stood up and quickly got off the bus when it reached his stop.

Just as he had anticipated, the man paused for a moment, then subtly followed him.

In the bustling city center, on the liveliest pedestrian street, Huai Shi strolled leisurely, as if taking a walk. He even stopped to buy a pack of cigarettes, but throughout it all, the man kept close behind him, never letting him out of his sight.

Looking at the man's strange expression, his lewd gaze, and the two bulging pectoral muscles on his chest, Huai Shi suddenly shivered, his backside tightening. A terrible thought flashed through his mind:

Oh crap, could he be a perverted gay guy?

After wandering for ten minutes, Huai Shi was certain that the guy behind him was definitely stalking him.

Otherwise, even if it were a coincidence, it wouldn't be such a coincidence that they'd end up going into the same public restroom.

Acting as if nothing was happening, Huai Shi quickened his pace on the crowded pedestrian street. He passed through two shopping malls, turned down several streets, and entered the citizen's plaza in the old part of town.

The person following him turned left and right, never letting him out of his sight. But after turning a corner, he found that Huai Shi had disappeared from the street.

As he looked around in bewilderment, he saw, through a glass door, the teenager pulling five yuan from his pocket. After haggling with the counter lady for a long time, he stubbornly exchanged it for a hand token.

Then, he walked through the door behind the lobby.

The stalker froze, looked up in surprise, and then saw the shop's sign.

Spring Bathhouse.

My flight is today, so I'll take tomorrow to rest. The day after tomorrow, I'll start working hard to resume double updates, with a minimum of 5,000 characters per day. Thank you all for your patience.