Come to Hell with Me

At night, in Eighteen Streets, Le Yu stood in front of the clinic sign that read "Teeth, Hemorrhoids, and Blunt-Force Injuries." He had just reached for the door when he noticed a sign hanging from the handle: "Currently Treating a Patient. If you have enough energy to read this, don't come in."

Beside the entrance was a cushioned bench that looked fairly clean, so Le Yu sat down to wait.

He had gone out that evening wearing a hooded jacket, so he wasn't worried about anyone recognizing him. It was the same model Yin Yinyin wore—in fact, Le Yu thought Yin Yinyin looked quite handsome in it. When he had passed a ready-made clothing shop and discovered that it was one of this year's bestselling men's styles, he had promptly bought one.

With nothing else to do, and the streetlamp beside the clinic shining brightly, Le Yu took out a black-covered book and began reading with relish.

Although Le Yu had encountered plenty of trouble after crossing into this world, his life hadn't been nothing but suffering. Aside from being able to pilot Qian Yuliu from the moment he arrived and experience the wonders of Mental Power and the battle-art system firsthand, the world's fresh entertainment also kept him enthralled, eager for more, and unable to tear himself away, leaving his blood racing...

Ahem. Actually, Le Yu hadn't read many erotic novels in his previous life, while erotic content was an entirely natural element of many popular novels in Radiance. Naturally, he found them absolutely riveting.

Of course, the erotic content was only one aspect. More importantly, Radiance had accumulated countless classic poems, novels, and other works over the past two thousand years. Even if Le Yu wanted to read the sort of brainless, cathartic power fantasy where the protagonist steamrolled everyone, bookstores had everything from The Inferior Student of the Royal Academy to The Young Lady's Personal Expert, covering adventure-seeking, King of Soldiers, reincarnation, and many other genres. Le Yu had been so absorbed that he wanted to pack up the entire bookstore and take it home.

The popularity of fiction in Radiance was so advanced not only because papermaking had developed rapidly and the early Industrial Revolution had begun, but more importantly because the illiteracy rate was extremely low. Every prefecture and county had lecture squares where teachers provided basic education. Most battle arts were public knowledge, and if you couldn't read, you couldn't even train in battle arts to strengthen your body and refresh your mind.

Don't assume that poor people wouldn't take the initiative to learn to read or practice battle arts. On the contrary, the poorer someone was in Radiance, the more urgently they needed literacy and battle-art training, because the existence of the Mental Power system had not only improved humanity's immunity but had also resulted in a scarce and malformed medical system.

On Earth, sore throats, appendicitis, mouth ulcers, enlarged thyroids, enlarged prostates, and countless other illnesses had existed for ages. Whether their methods were effective or not, humans had accumulated plenty of experience in treating disease. But in Radiance—none of that experience existed!

Illness?

A cold?

What was that?

The weather got cold and people sneezed?

What was a sneeze?

After the Mental Power system had spread throughout the population, the vast majority of Radiant People went their entire lives without suffering from ordinary illnesses. Aside from a handful of ailments such as external injuries, toothaches, and hemorrhoids, Radiant People were practically immune to every disease. Naturally, they had no experience treating them either.

Radiant People's constitutions weren't actually immune to illness. Rather, once they fell sick, their Mental Power automatically began killing germs and reducing inflammation!

It had frightened Le Yu so badly that he had wondered whether Mental Power could kill sperm, too.

Of course, this wasn't without a cost. Le Yu had discovered that the average lifespan of Radiant People was sixty years. They didn't die of disease; most people simply grew old and died around the age of sixty. That was when he understood what was happening: Mental Power fought disease by accelerating metabolism—in other words, it reduced the HP cap to remove the disease status.

It treated the symptoms rather than the root cause, but in a society with a level of productivity that amounted to "this is as good as it gets," one couldn't demand more.

Therefore, if someone couldn't read and was unable to practice battle arts, they would sooner or later contract some strange illness without the "Mental Power Defense" buff. No one around them would have any experience treating it, and their poverty would make the Medical Officer Department's fees unaffordable. What awaited them would be the extinction of their family's hereditary chromosomes—in other words, the saying that poverty couldn't last beyond three generations.

In his previous life, literacy was a means of improving one's life. Here, literacy was an essential requirement for survival.

Once literacy rates rose, an explosion of popular literature naturally followed. Although it lacked the aggregating effect of the internet, Radiance had already had universal education for several hundred years. Authors wrote slowly, the market gradually weeded out inferior works, and the classics accumulated over time were more than enough to keep Le Yu reading until the end of time.

At first, Le Yu couldn't get into the books of this world, just as people who read power fantasies often struggled to accept the syntax of light novels... But he had ultimately been someone accustomed to walking around while playing on his phone. Whenever he had free time, he wanted something to do, and with no one to play cards with, he could only choose to read.

After he finished his first Radiance novel, it was as if a door to a new world had opened before him. The literary works accumulated over two thousand years in Radiance unfolded before him in their entirety. Now, wherever Le Yu went, he carried a book with him and read whenever he had a spare moment to pass the time.

As Le Yu immersed himself in the fantastical world of Records of the Six Dynasties, he suddenly heard a snicker.

He raised his head and saw a man and a woman walking past. The woman was dressed flamboyantly, covering her mouth as she laughed, her eyes narrowing into crescents. The man had a fierce-looking face, but the way he looked at Le Yu was rather... How should he put it...? It was a very special gaze, filled with sympathy.

Le Yu didn't understand at first. But when three more groups passed by and all of them couldn't help laughing, he suddenly realized something:

This clinic treated toothaches, hemorrhoids, and blunt-force injuries.

He wasn't injured or bleeding, so he obviously hadn't suffered a blunt-force injury.

A toothache wasn't technically an illness, but it could make a person wish for death. Since he could sit there as steady as a mountain while reading, it clearly wasn't a toothache either.

Then, in other people's eyes, the only reason he could possibly be sitting outside the clinic was naturally...

With a creak, the clinic door opened, and a fat man slowly strolled out. He said gratefully, "Goodbye, Doctor! I'll bring some fruit when I come back for my follow-up tomorrow!"

The man turned his head and saw Le Yu sitting on the cushioned bench. His expression immediately cleared up. He patted Le Yu on the shoulder. "I haven't seen you before. You heard about Doctor Yin's reputation and came here, right? Don't worry, Doctor Yin's skills are excellent. He's especially good in this field—he's the best in all of Star Engraving Prefecture. Even the doctors from the Medical Officer Department can't compare. You'll be free of your suffering from now on!"

What do you mean, this field? We're not suffering from the same thing!

Le Yu twitched the corner of his mouth and quickly entered the clinic. Yin Yinyin was sitting behind the desk. He wasn't surprised to see Le Yu enter. "Good evening. You're here for a hemorrhoid-treatment appointment, correct? Please follow me to the operating room."

"You..." Le Yu wanted to say something, but Yin Yinyin warned him with a cold look—the same icy coldness as the pistol he was pointing at Le Yu. Le Yu could only shut his mouth and follow Yin Yinyin down to the basement.

Only after Yin Yinyin closed the door did Le Yu complain, "Why were you playing along with that role just now? I didn't come here to get treated."

"Then why did you come looking for me?"

"That's because you—"

"And then someone hears that you came all the way to Eighteen Streets to see a quack doctor for no reason at all?" Yin Yinyin's tone contained an unmistakable disdain for the intellectually challenged. "What's the difference between that and shouting through a megaphone, 'I'm suspicious, and so is this quack doctor'?"

Le Yu faltered. "But I did enter the clinic..."

"Unless you can confirm that you're in a state of absolute safety, never reveal confidential information. Do you think the clinic is safe just because you're inside? Someone outside only needs to press an ear against the window to hear everything in here." Yin Yinyin sighed. "You're missing far too much common sense. I think I'll have to start charging you."

Le Yu could only change the subject. "Then can you use a different excuse next time? I don't have hemorrhoids!"

"You don't have them now, but that doesn't mean you won't in the future. As a fellow White Night Walker, I can give you a friendship discount—one percent off." Yin Yinyin wore an expression that said aren't I being generous?

He paused, then grew serious. "I chose hemorrhoids as the treatment category specifically to make meetings like ours convenient. Did you know that quite a few high-ranking officials and nobles come here for treatment? They certainly aren't here for blunt-force injuries or toothaches."

Le Yu was astonished. "Really? Why don't they go to the Medical Officer Department?"

"There are too many people and too many loose lips in the Medical Officer Department. Besides, most of the upper-class nobles have good relationships with the medical officers. The moment you enter the Medical Officer Department, the entire upper society will know what illness you have by the time you leave." Yin Yinyin sneered disdainfully. "To protect their pitiful dignity, those nobles are even unwilling to let their families know. The blood flowing from their asses supports every private clinic in Star Engraving Prefecture."

Yin Yinyin glanced at Le Yu's hood. "From now on, whether you conceal your identity or come openly, it won't matter. No one will suspect a connection between us. Even the Statistics Department has patients whose bodies I've cut open."

The hemorrhoid problem among Radiant People is actually this serious? I'll have to be careful from now on, too. If I can stand, I shouldn't sit; if I can sit, I shouldn't lie down... Yin Yinyin's explanation was so thorough and convincing that Le Yu couldn't even complain. He asked, "Is Lin Xue'en a traitor?"

"We haven't found any evidence. The fact that you came under fire while fighting Lin Xue'en can't serve as evidence."

"So did I kill an innocent good person, or did I anticipate the enemy?"

"Right now, you're in a state of Accumulated Mistakes."

"Accumulated Mistakes?"

"Under the White Night system, human rights come first. Executing a prospective member before reporting it is already a violation of discipline. If we kill a suspect and then fail to find conclusive evidence, that means we may have made a mistake—or we may not have—but White Night counts it all as wrongdoing."

Le Yu scratched his head. "What happens because of Accumulated Mistakes? Do they cut our benefits?"

"Nothing in particular. White Night simply records them truthfully." Yin Yinyin thought for a moment before continuing. "If... if one day White Night truly becomes the governing power of this land, overturns everything in the old world, and establishes a new order, then all the mistakes we've accumulated will be made public."

"Those who killed good people by mistake will face public trials."

"Those who falsely accused loyal and righteous people will be prosecuted according to the law."

"Those whose crimes fill the heavens will be executed in broad daylight."

"You may have heard a philosophical question: In pursuit of a just outcome, can one use unjust methods? If one uses unjust methods, can the resulting outcome still be considered just...? Accumulated Mistakes are White Night's answer."

"No one is a sage. In pursuit of a just outcome, we may make mistakes along the way and use unjust methods. But precisely because no one is a sage, people can correct their mistakes. The errors of the past will be repaid in the future."

"If you're wrong, admit it. Correct it. Accept the punishment."

Yin Yinyin suddenly sneered. "So, do you understand now? Even if you live to see the day White Night shines upon this land, all that awaits you is endless reckoning. Your achievements as Meteor won't be forgotten, but neither will the sins you committed as Qian Yuliu. They must be judged as well."

"Of course, it's even more likely that you won't live to see that day."

He paused. "Neither will I."

Le Yu scratched his head and laughed. "At the rate I'm committing evil now, won't my Accumulated Mistakes file with White Night end up looking almost like a diary?"

Yin Yinyin thought about it and realized that Le Yu was right. As a Statistics Department agent, Qian Yuliu helped tyrants commit atrocities and persecuted the innocent every day. What difference was there between White Night recording Qian Yuliu's mistakes and writing a biography of Qian Yuliu?

"Let's get to the point." Le Yu found a chair and sat down. "Since you haven't confirmed that Lin Xue'en is a traitor, you obviously didn't summon me to give me an award... Why did you call me here?"

"Simply put, to kill someone."

"Who?"

"The Director of the Judicial Department, Dong Heng."

"Why?"

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If we assassinate Dong Heng, Ding Yi will assume it's revenge from Lu Zhong's assassin and won't suspect White Night. Once Dong Heng is dead, we can accelerate White Night's plans."

"Has Dong Heng done anything evil? What kind of person is he?"

"I've never heard of any misdeeds. He seems to be a rather upright person."

Le Yu blinked. "Then wouldn't assassinating him hurt an innocent person and kill an honorable official?"

"Isn't that perfect? I can only live for three more years, and you look as if you might die before I do. The dirtiest work should be handled by the most despicable people who will die the soonest. It'll make White Night's reckoning easier in the future. That's the most cost-effective choice."

"As an aside, this isn't common sense. It's the consensus among us White Night Walkers."

"So." Yin Yinyin stood up. "Meteor, come with me to hell."

P.S.: This is a big chapter!

But I've run out of stockpiled chapters...

There'll still be an update today!

But today is April Fools' Day...

So which sentence above is true? And which one is false?