Saying Goodbye to This World

"Tick, tick, tick..."

The ticking of clock hands rang clearly in his mind.

[First-order star gate-Qingliang Town, countdown to opening: 6:00:00.]

An ethereal voice sounded, then Ren Ye's mind fell quiet again.

Inside the office, thick with acrid smoke, Huang Wei sat in his chair with a guilty expression. "Believe me, we've activated this brush before. All we did was copy the writing while reciting that sentence. Anyone who held it could use it. So I really didn't know it would bind itself to you... This might have something to do with that voice calling you."

Ren Ye looked down at his palm, his gaze blank.

Just after the Startrace Gate appeared, the ancient-looking writing brush had abruptly vanished from his hand. Immediately afterward, Ren Ye had heard clock hands ticking in his head, followed by that ethereal notification.

And... who exactly had been calling him from that abyss-like star gate? The mere thought of that voice made his scalp prickle.

This was too fucking weird. Even my brilliant brain couldn't come up with an explanation!

After a brief silence, Ren Ye felt he needed to settle his nerves. He looked up and beckoned. "Give me a cigarette."

Huang Wei watched him with concern as he took out a cigarette and asked softly, "Do... do you feel any different?"

Ren Ye took the cigarette. His right hand shook so badly that he needed two tries with the lighter to get it lit. Then he took a deep drag. "A voice appeared in my head. More precisely, a six-hour countdown."

Their eyes met. Huang Wei's lips shifted slightly. "Then it's fully bound to you."

"So I have to go in?" The smoke scratched Ren Ye's throat, and he frowned, coughing twice. "I don't get a choice?"

"No."

"And I only have six hours to prepare?"

"Right. In six hours, you'll go in whether you want to or not. In other words, the Startrace Gate has already chosen you." Huang Wei nodded.

At those words, Ren Ye's gaze gradually steadied. "Did you take care of what you promised me yesterday?"

"It's all taken care of."

"Heh. I've got six hours left before I leave this world. How about... you take a walk with me?" Ren Ye asked with a bitter smile.

"Sure."

Huang Wei stood up.

Holding the cigarette in his right hand, Ren Ye feigned composure. "Your cigarettes are fake. They burn my throat."

Huang Wei gave him an odd look and pointed. "Haven't you noticed that the cigarette you're smoking... doesn't have a filter?"

"Huh?"

Ren Ye looked down at the cigarette and froze.

"You're smoking it backward. You lit the filter."

"...!" Ren Ye maintained his composed facade. "Filters are good. Stronger kick."

Huang Wei could tell he was extremely nervous and still hadn't recovered from the shock of that bizarre phenomenon, yet the kid insisted on keeping up a calm front while talking to him.

Heh. Interesting.

With that, the two left the office together.

When they reached the main staircase, Huang Wei instinctively glanced behind him and winked at the camera.

In the surveillance room, more than twenty people of wildly differing appearances stared fixedly at Ren Ye's figure on the monitor.

At the front of the group, a young man in dark blue cloth robes stood with his back to everyone and spoke in a cold voice. "Notify Huang Wei. Ren Ye is Shanghai designation 001. Effective immediately, anyone found to have privately disclosed any information about 001 will be dealt with as a traitor."

"Understood." The middle-aged man beside him nodded.

Whoosh!

A cool gust suddenly rippled through the room. The young man in dark blue robes dissolved into smoke and vanished. Where he had stood, only a talisman remained, burning slowly before falling to the floor as ash.

Once the young man had "left," everyone unconsciously breathed a sigh of relief, and the room erupted.

"A star gate called out to an ordinary person? That's never fucking happened before."

"He's hit the jackpot! Huang's really hit the jackpot this time! That fucking Red-Eyed Berserker is way too lucky."

"Damn it, why wasn't Ren Ye serving time in our district?!"

"If I got to guide him, what would be wrong with actually finding him a few girls to drain him dry?" a beautiful young married woman said.

"The four before him are all gone. How far can a newcomer get? Sigh. The rarer it is, the harder it gets."

Those words silenced the room.

Their excited discussion died away, replaced by worried expressions.

That afternoon, beside an ordinary kindergarten, Ren Ye sat beneath an outdoor sun umbrella in a baseball cap, drinking hot coffee with Huang Wei.

He stared ahead with somewhat vacant eyes, his mind racing.

According to Huang Wei, four players before him had gone through two consecutive missions, and all of them had died...

A corpse that had been dead for three days had walked out carrying that "brush."

Then the brush had been activated, and the final star gate had opened, only for an ethereal voice to keep calling his name...

Thinking about all of this, Ren Ye felt the terror of someone personally singled out by the King of Hell.

Still dressed in his greasy, slovenly clothes, Huang Wei looked at Ren Ye's profile and asked softly, "Are you sure you don't want to find an excuse to see your family? I have the authority to arrange it."

"If I mess up, I'll die." Ren Ye came back to himself. "Honestly, I'm a little scared. Seeing them... would only make me more scared."

"Mm."

Huang Wei said no more. He simply took a bulging envelope from inside his clothes and slid it across the table toward Ren Ye. "Here's the hundred thousand yuan you asked for yesterday."

"Good." Ren Ye nodded without thanking him.

Huang Wei took a hard drag on his cigarette. "Also, based on your former workplace's death-benefit standards, I applied for a special payment of over 1.3 million yuan for you... You can use it right now."

"If I survive, I'll collect it myself. If I don't... give it to my dad." At that moment, Ren Ye forcibly shut out the tangle of emotions in his head. He needed to stay calm so he could make reasonable demands in the coming negotiation and safeguard his interests.

Huang Wei nodded slowly. "Actually, while that's a fairly large sum, and there's no precedent for approving it in advance, I still felt you should get it, whether..."

As he spoke, Huang Wei genuinely felt the amount was substantial, especially as an advance payment. He believed he'd acted generously and given full consideration to Ren Ye's situation, so his tone carried the showy pride of a boss suddenly giving an employee a raise, along with a slight desire to comfort him. All of it was well meant.

Ren Ye picked up on his feelings, turned his head, and interrupted. "Other than the money, is that it?"

"Huh?" Huang Wei paused. "...What else is there?"

Ren Ye adopted a strictly businesslike expression. "Let me make a few requests."

"Sure. Go ahead." Huang Wei instinctively pulled out a little notebook. "I'll write them down."

For a job this dangerous, it's only natural for him to have a few requests, Huang Wei thought.

"You should know my situation. My parents divorced early on. My old man raised my sister and me by writing webnovels, and it wasn't easy. So there are plenty of things I need to plan ahead for him." Ren Ye looked at Huang Wei. "Could you find a way to put his future healthcare under your department? Plainly speaking, cover him through old age, illness, and death, and maintain a certain standard."

Huang Wei blinked at Ren Ye and sucked in a breath. "All right. I'll discuss it with the relevant colleagues later. But this..."

"Also, our place is a little small. Could you get them a new home according to your organization's housing allocation standards? One with seventy-year property rights that can be bought and sold. If I agree to work for you, that makes me part of the organization, right? That's not unreasonable." Before Huang Wei could respond, Ren Ye made his second request.

"...!" Huang Wei's pen hand trembled, and his look suddenly turned surprised.

"Also, my sister's in college. As for her grades... uh, let's leave those aside." Ren Ye rubbed his palms together. "But she's always wanted to better herself. I was wondering if you could pull some strings and get her recommended for postgraduate admission without the entrance exam."

Huang Wei stared, dumbfounded.

"Oh, and sort out her job after graduation. Our organization must need clerical staff with such a strong desire to get ahead." Ren Ye immediately added, "My sister's good-looking. She'll definitely meet the appearance requirements, and you could say she comes from a literary family..."

"I checked the records. Your dad writes webnovels, and the only thing he knows how to write is smut. Legally speaking, he's at risk of going to prison. You know that?" Huang Wei interrupted. "Isn't calling it a literary family a bit of a stretch?"

"Anyway, about my sister..."

"I understand what you're saying, Ren." Huang Wei put down his notebook, sat up straight, and offered a solemn analysis. "How about this? We'll handle your dad's healthcare according to West Lake Sanatorium standards, then give him a state funeral when he dies. Sound good?"

Ren Ye nodded at once. "Sure."

"And your sister can forget about a clerical department. I'll go back and oust the higher-ups so she can order me around. How's that?"

"Actually, her rank doesn't need to be that high..."

"Oh, and your dad's been divorced for years, right? I'll find a way to get you a stepmother too. That'll take care of his love life in old age." Huang Wei added this earnestly.

"Then let's do it your way." Ren Ye looked him straight in the eye.

"Fuck!"

Huang Wei couldn't hold back the curse. "You really dare to dream, don't you?!"

"I'm giving you my life. What wouldn't I dare ask for?" Ren Ye remained unruffled, enunciating each word. "And don't try to dress this up with lofty talk about the nation or the masses. More than three years in prison taught me something. The individual and the nation have to meet each other halfway. Both deserve love."

Their eyes met. Ren Ye refused to give an inch, his expression as cool as a wolf of Wall Street.

In the end, Huang Wei, a man who wore his heart on his sleeve, thought it over briefly before replying, "I can't decide anything beyond your personal benefits, but I'll do my best. As for the housing and your dad's healthcare, I'll find a way to get them approved within a year at most."

"You're a pretty decent guy." Ren Ye gave him a thumbs-up.

"...When I submit these conditions, the reviewers will probably think we're blood relatives." Looking somewhat defeated, Huang Wei tipped his head back and drank some coffee.

They sat in silence for a while. Then Ren Ye narrowed his eyes toward the kindergarten, and a smile spread across his face.

Across the street, a young kindergarten teacher approached with a little girl around three years old, accompanied by three staff members.

Ren Ye stood to meet them. Everyone else stepped aside to give them space, leaving only the little girl, around three, looking timidly at him.

"Duoduo." Ren Ye stopped beside the road and crouched down. "You've grown so much."

Ren Ye had only seen this little girl once, on the day of his trial.

"Who are you?" the girl asked, shrinking back.

Ren Ye was silent for a long time before stroking her little head in the sunlight. "I'm your daddy's friend. His best friend."

"They said... I don't have a daddy." The girl blinked her big eyes, her little face tense the whole time. "How... how can you be his friend?"

At those words, Ren Ye remained speechless for a long while. As he studied the girl's features, he couldn't help remembering his friend's face.

He had loved to smile, the team's cheerful soul and the mainstay of its arts performances.

"You do have a daddy, and... you must never forget him." Ren Ye took out the envelope of money Huang Wei had given him and tucked it into the girl's schoolbag. "Take this home to your mommy. Remind her to read the letter inside."

"Mommy says I can't take things from other people."

"It's okay to take it. He's your mommy's friend too," the kindergarten teacher gently urged from beside them.

Only then did the girl slowly nod. "Thank you, mister."

"Mm." Ren Ye stood and waved. "Sorry for the trouble, teacher. Please take her back."

"Say goodbye to him."

"Goodbye, mister."

The meeting was short, just two or three minutes. Then the staff and teacher led the little girl back to the kindergarten.

Ren Ye stood there, watching her the whole way.

"You've done a lot for their family." Huang Wei rose and walked over, offering quiet comfort. "The dead are gone. You can't keep living in the past."

Ren Ye turned toward him. "Do you know why I fired seven shots to kill those two suspects?"

Huang Wei shook his head.

"If it hadn't been for my colleague, I'd have been the one who died." Ren Ye's voice was hoarse. "I hate those suspects, and I hate myself too."

Huang Wei stood quietly beside him without responding.

"Ah..."

Ren Ye let out a long sigh and slipped his hands into his pockets. "The death benefit is twenty times the previous year's average disposable income, plus forty months' salary. Work it out, and it's over a million. Sounds like a lot, doesn't it? But that million has to support four elderly parents and a child... In this society, is that really a lot?!"

Those words instantly set Huang Wei's mind racing. He recalled the details of his negotiation with Ren Ye and even pictured the hardship of a single mother raising a three-year-old girl.

"This kindergarten has the lowest fees in the area. But that child's father died in the line of duty." Ren Ye patted Huang Wei's shoulder, then walked toward the minivan by the road.

Huang Wei stood silently for quite a while before turning to follow. He took out his phone and dialed a number. "Hello? Old He, there's something... Could you help me get a place at No. 2 Primary School? It's not a relative's kid... A friend's. A little girl, around three."

"That's really difficult, brother. Last month, my cousin practically got on his knees begging me..." His friend immediately started explaining the difficulties.

"What's so difficult? Just get it done for me. It's one extra meal with someone." Huang Wei understood why Ren Ye had brought him here, and he showed his response through action.

Over the afternoon, Huang Wei accompanied Ren Ye to several places: his former workplace, schools he had attended, and even snack shops he had frequented... They also met a few people Ren Ye considered important, but not his father or sister.

It wasn't that he didn't want to see them. He didn't dare. He feared that once he saw them, the courage he had just gathered would vanish.

Of course, from a family's perspective, this was undoubtedly somewhat irresponsible. Yet, for reasons he couldn't explain, Ren Ye harbored a faint sense of wonder and longing toward the "strangeness" he had only just encountered...

He was a little afraid, but he wanted to go.

Perhaps those three-plus years had only made Ren Ye seem calmer, even somewhat withdrawn. Deep in his bones, he wasn't willing to grow old in mediocrity with the label of murderer hanging over him.

That afternoon felt more like Ren Ye's sudden farewell to this world. After all, just yesterday, he'd still been happily working a sewing machine in prison...

Evening came. The sun sank, and dusk blanketed the earth.

Ren Ye sat in a guest room, holding a notebook Huang Wei had given him.

Across from him, Huang Wei leaned against the TV cabinet without a word.

"Tick, tick, tick..."

The ticking of clock hands sounded in his ears once more, followed by a voice.

[First-order star gate-Qingliang Town, countdown to opening: 10:00.]