My ‘Healing’ Game -
Chapter 469: It’s Han Fei, Not a Ruthless Bandit (Vote for Monthly Tickets, 5200)
Chapter 469: Chapter 469: It’s Han Fei, Not a Ruthless Bandit (Vote for Monthly Tickets, 5200)
The old lady who was originally planning to enter the store hesitated for a moment, and now she had already been carried out of the department store by Han Fei.
She clutched the package in her hands, somewhat at a loss.
"Granny, don’t be nervous, you saved my life once, and of course, I won’t hurt you." After Han Fei was certain that the monster in the shrine wouldn’t come out for the time being, he set the old lady down.
With her feet on the ground, the old lady turned and walked away. She was trembling and unsteady, yet she moved quite fast.
"A drop of water in need shall be returned with a spring in deed." Han Fei gently placed his hand on the elder’s shoulder, "I have something to show you, something I risked my life to retrieve for you."
The elder kept shaking her hands, showing no intention of turning back, until Han Fei took out a black-and-white memorial photograph.
A glance at the photograph, and the old woman’s dim eyes couldn’t move away after they saw the man in the picture.
The world of the old lady seemed to become utterly silent, she couldn’t hear anything, her cloudy eyes constantly gazing at the face in the photograph.
"My son, this is my son..."
"The owner of the department store killed him, trapped him in the shrine you worship every day, and turned him into a well cover that seals grudge energy," Han Fei didn’t want to hide the truth, and told the old lady, "The claim that doing a thousand good deeds will bring your child back is just a lie from Boss Gu, he used your good deeds to accumulate virtue for himself."
"This is my son, he’s grown up so much..." The old lady raised her arm, her trembling hand gently touching the face in the photograph, "It’s so cold, yet he’s wearing so little. I knitted so many sweaters for him, did I knit them too small, can he no longer wear them?"
The old lady was of an advanced age and usually had great difficulty communicating with others. Now, her emotions were extremely agitated, and she was simply not listening to what Han Fei was saying.
"Granny, your child can’t gain true freedom even after death. To set him free, the shrine must be destroyed."
"If I destroy the shrine, can my son come back?" The old lady asked, lifting her head toward Han Fei, her hands full of calluses supporting the bottom of the photograph.
With his mouth slightly open, Han Fei struggled to say the words that reached his lips; he didn’t want to deceive a kind old woman.
Destroying the shrine, in that tomorrow no one has ever reached, can the old lady’s child truly come back?
Seeing that Han Fei wasn’t speaking, the old lady, holding her son’s memorial photograph, walked towards the road: "I have to go home, take my son home with me."
Han Fei chased after her with an umbrella in hand; he thoughtfully moved the umbrella over to the old lady’s side.
The rain grew heavier, but it seemed as if the old lady couldn’t hear it at all as she walked on, hugging the photograph.
The night in the Memory World was incredibly dangerous, and after leaving the department store, Han Fei dared not wander around and could only follow the old lady.
In the city shrouded by a curtain of rain, the sound of the downpour drowned everything, and even the mutated monsters rarely appeared.
The old lady was in poor health, advanced in age, and she needed to rest for a while after walking a distance.
So, walking and stopping, when they passed a crossroad, the old lady suddenly looked up and asked Han Fei, "Do you hear anything?"
"The rain is too heavy." Han Fei, whose senses were far above those of ordinary people, didn’t hear anything unusual even then.
"Someone is calling me..." Suddenly, the old lady became somewhat anxious, holding the memorial photograph and looking around constantly.
Han Fei also found it strange, everything around was normal, with no mutated monsters in sight.
"Could you have heard wrong?" Han Fei looked at the old lady, and his eyes inadvertently scanned the memorial photograph; the man in the picture was gone.
"Mom!"
A voice sounded from across the street; the old lady and Han Fei both looked over to see the man from the photograph standing by a street light, breathing heavily and continuously waving to the old lady, "The rain is too heavy, you should hurry home! Don’t run around! I will come back tomorrow!"
The man’s voice echoed through the rain, and the old lady stood still, looking at the other side of the road, motionless.
"I’m not cold at all! Don’t worry about me, I’ll be back soon!" The man wore a smile on his face, and after waving his hand, he turned and left from beneath the street lamp, stepping into the darkness.
Han Fei hadn’t expected this scene to occur, and after the man disappeared, he took another look at the memorial portrait.
In the portrait, the man’s figure appeared once again, only this time the expression on his face was no longer gloomy, and there were additional water droplets on the surface of the photo.
"Granny, your son will be back home soon, don’t worry about him anymore," Han Fei spoke softly, but the elder lady still looked across the road, her gaze seemingly fixed on the street lamp: "What’s wrong?"
The old woman rubbed her eyes, wiped the rain off her face, and pointed blankly at the street lamp through the curtain of rain.
"Is that the moon?"
Han Fei was unclear why the old woman would suddenly ask such a question. Perhaps she knew very well that her child was no longer in this world, and she was merely deceiving herself over and over. When her loved one truly appeared, she even doubted if it was just an illusion due to her intense longing.
"Granny, before my older brother comes back, let me keep you company," Han Fei said as he lifted the elder lady onto his back: "Once the shrine is destroyed, he will definitely come back."
Now, everyone’s fate had already changed, and no one knew what would happen tomorrow. Han Fei felt that at least within this memory world, he should help the old woman fill the void in her heart, as a way to repay her for once saving his life.
An old woman and a young man moved forward together in the heavy rain, sharing one umbrella.
Strangely, the city’s descent into chaos intensified, but none of the ghosts and monsters troubled the old woman.
Carrying the elderly woman, Han Fei felt much lighter, and his mood did not deteriorate much.
They walked along the main road, turned into an alley, and as they were about to reach the old woman’s house, Han Fei’s phone suddenly vibrated.
He answered the call, and a man’s voice came through from the other end.
"Li Long and Li Hu have both vanished! It looks like they were abducted by someone. You’d better come to West City District as soon as possible so we can discuss this in person."
The voice sounded familiar to Han Fei, and he quickly remembered that the caller was named Brother Snake, the leader of a gang of ruffians in West City District.
"Li Long was marked by Seven Fingers. I was planning to find him tomorrow, but it looks like I’m one step too late."
"Are you very familiar with Seven Fingers and his group?" Brother Snake was cunning and spoke rapidly: "Ever since Seven Fingers and Eight Fingers disappeared, strange incidents have been happening non-stop in West City District. Several shop owners vanished overnight—no sign of life or death. I sent my men to search for clues, but none of the brothers that went have returned."
"Don’t act recklessly, you’re no match for the Ten Fingers."
"Ten Fingers? So they really are a tightly organized group of sadistic murderers." Brother Snake gritted his teeth in hatred, his words tinged with urgency and unease.
As a master of Acting, Han Fei had already grasped Brother Snake’s psychological state and probed: "If only Li Long and Li Hu had disappeared, you probably wouldn’t have called me to specifically invite me to West City District. Has anyone else close to you vanished?"
Upon hearing Han Fei’s words, Brother Snake fell silent for a moment before responding: "Yes, my only daughter has also disappeared, and those murderers are now targeting me with their Slaughter Saber..."
Before Brother Snake could finish, a scream followed by what sounded like the smashing of a teacup came through the phone.
"Damn it, no more than three people knew the address of this safe room. How did they find it?" Brother Snake’s voice grew even more tense as if planning his last words, hastening to tell Han Fei: "Out of all the people I know, you’re the only one who can deal with those madmen. Take care of them for me, and I’ll give you anything you want!"
"Alright, I’m on my way to West City District right now."
"I have men waiting for you at the tea house. I’ve lived long enough, but please, you must save my daughter!" The sound of approaching footsteps was imminent, and Brother Snake quickly hung up the phone.
"The Ten Fingers move quickly," Han Fei thought upon hearing Boss’s words as he had anticipated trouble for Brother Snake. After all, the name of this ruffian also contained an animal, and according to Boss, Brother Snake was also one of the offerings on the altar.
"Li Long, Li Hu, Brother Snake, Pei Yang... Is the Ten Fingers competing with Boss Gu for sacrificial offerings?" Han Fei thought of another person and tried to call Huang Li. After a long wait, the phone surprisingly connected: "Sister Huang Li? Are you awake?"
Han Fei spoke with astonishment, but after a moment Boss Gu’s voice, cold and indifferent, came through the phone: "Huang Li hasn’t fully woken up yet. The doctor and I are discussing how to treat her."
"You’ve worked hard, Boss."
"I can hear the heavy rain over there. Are you not in the store right now?" Boss Gu’s tone showed a slight change.
"The billboard outside the department store was knocked down by the heavy rain, and I’m trying to set it up again."
"Don’t worry about that stuff, get back to the store immediately. See if anything is wrong there?"
"Don’t worry, boss, everything’s normal! No problems at all!" Han Fei promised earnestly.
"I still don’t feel at ease. Don’t leave the store tonight. By the way, you haven’t gone into the underground storeroom, have you?" Boss Gu asked him another question, feeling inexplicably uneasy.
"No, but..."
"But what?"
"Tonight, there were two strange customers in the department store. They had tattoos of human heads on their bodies and were loitering at the entrance the whole time. They don’t seem like good people," Han Fei reported to the boss while recalling the incident.
"Human head tattoos again?!" Boss Gu’s mood became visibly agitated, "Don’t open for business tonight, close the store immediately, and just stay inside."
"Those two people don’t seem to have left yet. Should I go and drive them out of the department store?"
"You’re no match for them, just close the store," Boss Gu said with certainty.
"Okay." After hanging up, Han Fei, carrying the old lady, prepared to head to West City District, without any intention of returning to the department store.
The old lady patted Han Fei’s shoulder, her eyes filled with a hint of confusion.
"Granny, reporting good news but not bad news is also a career skill. I’ve already destroyed several industries with the experience I’ve gathered..."
Braving the rain, they walked a long way before encountering a taxi.
To prevent the driver from being a ghost in disguise, Han Fei placed the Wish Jar and the obituary photo on the passenger seat, constantly keeping an eye on the driver.
As a result, the driver sped through the journey, and, with potential unleashed, it only took about ten minutes to reach West City District.
"It really is because I’m with this old person. None of these ghosts and monsters mutated."
After getting out of the car, Han Fei, carrying the old person, entered the desolate West City District. He passed through one construction site after another and finally arrived at a teahouse.
Pushing open the door, the lights turned on instantly. Several men dressed in black walked out from a private room. The leader was someone Han Fei had seen before, a waiter who had always followed Brother Snake.
"Don’t panic, Brother Snake is the one who called me here," Han Fei raised his hands, signaling he meant no harm.
"We’re not worked up, it’s just that..." The man truly hadn’t expected Han Fei to show up late at night carrying an old lady to a gang stronghold, "It’s fine, Brother Snake has already told us to cooperate with you unconditionally."
"How many brothers do we still have now?"
"Right now, over thirty can come immediately. By dawn, I’ll alert the other strongholds and we should be able to muster around a hundred or two hundred people. There are also some former members who have washed their hands of this life; they’re scattered around Shahe and act just like the disappeared Li Long and Li Hu, always serving as lookouts. When it’s critical, they will all come back," the male waiter took out his cell phone.
"That’s quite a number, then I can rest assured." Han Fei set the old lady down next to the heater and fetched a blanket for her.
"We’ve already lost contact with Brother Snake, he might have encountered those people." The male waiter and the other brothers in the teahouse were anxious; they were extremely loyal to Brother Snake.
"Getting worked up is useless. I can tell you very clearly, Brother Snake has been captured by that group of madmen, and they’ve found out about the secret room’s location," Han Fei started looking for paper and a pen on the table.
"Damn it! What are we waiting for then? Let’s rush over there!"
"Let’s take them on! My life was given by Brother Snake, and in this line of work, we have to show loyalty!"
A few burly men began shouting noisily, but Han Fei simply shook his head, "You won’t save Brother Snake like this, and you might even get him killed."
Standing up, Han Fei walked over to the male waiter, "Since Brother Snake has instructed you all to follow my orders, it’s because he knows only I can truly save him. I know those madmen very well, and their real target isn’t Brother Snake, but Boss Gu of the department store."
"Boss Gu?" The few people inside the teahouse looked at Han Fei with confusion, "What does this have to do with Boss Gu?"
"I can explain it to you in a simpler way, all the misfortune happening in Shahe is because of Boss Gu; those crazies are his underlings, but due to uneven distribution of spoils, they’ve turned on each other."
"A case of infighting?"
"But you must remember one thing, whether it’s Boss Gu or that group of lunatics, they all will kill Brother Snake at an opportune time, so we need to be ready to deal with both parties at once," Han Fei paced around the room, looking for paper and pen.
"Let the crazies clash with the department store boss, we’ll just let them wear each other down, while we secretly look for their weaknesses."
"The perverted murderer is easy to deal with, because everyone knows they are fierce and mad; the real trouble is Boss Gu, as Shahe’s most renowned philanthropist and entrepreneur, he is revered and respected by everyone, and they believe every word he says. If he convinces them that we are the killers, even if we have killed no one, we will be misunderstood by the public and completely put on the defensive."
"So what should we do?" The male waiter hadn’t anticipated the situation to be so complicated.
"Have some of your brothers keep an eye on the Ten Fingers, remember not to get too close; the rest spread rumors about Boss Gu’s fake philanthropy, driving his wife to death, gobbling up his friend’s wealth, and murdering his own younger brother," Han Fei once played the novelist character Spider, and to perform that role well, he had learned some storytelling skills.
"All the things that the public likes to hear and see are here, just do as I’ve written," Han Fei found a piece of paper and pen and wrote down Boss Gu’s numerous villainies.
"Is this enough?" The male waiter, who had been ready to fight to the death, now put down the blade and picked up the script.
Bare talk gets us nowhere; we need to get our hands on the evidence now," Han Fei’s goal was to destroy the Shrine, and to do that, he needed to destroy its biggest beneficiary, Boss Gu.
When he was known as a philanthropist and businessman, many believed what he said, but if he were recognized as a murderer and monster, then anything he did would be despised by the people.
"Before the sacrificial offerings are gathered, Brother Snake won’t be made a living sacrifice, he is still safe for now, let’s use this time to seek out the truth."
"Are you sure you can find evidence of Boss Gu doing those things? He is known far and wide as a good man," The male waiter felt a chill reading the script Han Fei had written, it seemed impossible for such a cruel and psychotic person to exist in the world.
"Don’t worry about that, truth itself has a mouth," Han Fei took off his soaked clothes, and under the stimulation of the grudge-infused well water, the ghost patterns all emerged on his body.
That moment also frightened the hooligans present, they had never seen such terrifying tattoos!
Would an ordinary clerk have such tattoos?
Putting on the black coat that belonged to Brother Snake in his youth, Han Fei looked at his arms entwined with ghost patterns, and a cold smile appeared on his face, "Drive, we are going to Shahe Origin tonight."
When calling Huang Li, Han Fei unexpectedly learned the boss was in the hospital, he must be worried about the last "Sacrificial Offering" being snatched by the Ten Fingers, but this gave Han Fei an opportunity.
"Shahe Origin? That’s where the wealthiest bunch in Shahe lives," The waiter initially worried Han Fei wasn’t fitting their style, now he was beginning to worry Han Fei was too crazy, capable of doing something utterly deranged.
"Don’t ask so much, you just need to do as I say," Han Fei concealed the Rebirth Saber in his clothes, and he stood by the window, outside there was a fierce storm and the oppressive darkness of the night that made breathing difficult.
"Okay, okay," the waiter bowed his head; even in his youth, Brother Snake didn’t have the kind of aura Han Fei had, an aura so ruthless and mad it was almost frightening to look at, "What are you standing around for? Go get the car ready!"
After all the underlings rushed out of the room, the waiter felt a tinge of regret, standing beside Han Fei by himself, he realized his forehead was covered in cold sweat.
"Are you hot?"
"No, not hot," the waiter wiped his brow and carefully asked, "Last time you left in a hurry, I still don’t know what to call you."
"My name is Han Fei."
"Good name, very fitting," after praising the name, the waiter cautiously asked again, "What did you actually do before? You don’t seem like an ordinary clerk."
"You ask so many questions," Han Fei turned around, lightning streaked past the window just then, and he stared at the waiter’s neck, revealing a rather uncommon profession.
"Butcher, the Midnight Butcher."
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