Chapter 116: The Fat Man

“Deal!” The woman took the money and agreed cheerfully.

Afterward, a man and a woman wandered aimlessly through the streets.

“You have something weighing on your mind, don’t you?” The woman walking beside Liu Chang took the initiative and spoke. She seemed to feel that she had accepted his money without doing anything in return. “Since you want someone to keep you company, talk to me about it.”

“All right.” Liu Chang nodded and studied her face. She was in her thirties and fairly attractive. Despite the severe hunger, her breasts and hips had not yet withered away. “Do you have any children?”

“I had one two years ago, but the child fell ill and died.” Her expression darkened at the mention of her child, but she soon recovered and asked, “Why? Do you have a child?”

“No. I have a younger sister. She used to be very obedient, but now that she’s grown up, she’s become impossible. Every day she goes against me, and she even deliberately finds some awful boyfriend just to anger me.” Liu Chang smiled bitterly. “Every day she looks for ways to provoke me. If I let her out, she’ll cause endless trouble just to make my life miserable. But I can’t keep her locked up all the time, and I don’t dare let her go out on her own. You know how things are these days. A girl would never fare well out there alone.”

“You seem to be doing quite well.” The woman glanced at the firearms and weapons on Liu Chang. After living through the apocalypse, even women like her could distinguish good weapons from bad ones at a glance. The weapons Liu Chang carried were obviously high-grade.

“Not bad. I don’t have much pressure to survive—or at least, not for now. When it comes to survival, no one knows whether a horde of super-creatures might appear tomorrow and wipe us all out. But honestly, among humans, I’m doing fairly well.”

“Without the pressure of survival, people find plenty of other pressures in life. Humans are wretched creatures—we’re always looking for trouble.” The woman smiled at his words. “Don’t worry so much. Once you’re under pressure to survive again, your sister will become as obedient as she used to be.”

“Heh. Just for that one sentence, my hundred yuan was well spent,” Liu Chang said expressionlessly.

“A hundred yuan for one sentence—that’s how rich people think. To me, the only thing worth a hundred yuan is a bowl of food.” The woman gave a desolate laugh. “After all, an old woman like me has no survival skills. I can’t go into the wilderness like those reckless men and gather specimens to sell to the research institutes. Even the criminal gangs can’t be bothered to abduct women like me. And now Liangbean seeds aren’t being distributed for free anymore. Everything has to be bought. I have no money, no ability, nothing at all. Even getting a meal is a problem.”

“That is pretty miserable,” Liu Chang said with a nod.

“Then could you give me a little more?” The woman smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Yes, I suppose I should.” Liu Chang took out another hundred yuan and handed it to her. “But only this once. Asking again would make it vulgar.”

“Don’t worry. I know where to draw the line.” After pocketing the money, the woman continued, “Let’s keep talking about your sister. After all, when someone takes your money, they should help resolve your troubles.”

“All right. I’m wondering how I can get her to behave normally again—to give her some attention.”

“The reason she keeps acting out is that she wants to attract your attention. If you really can’t handle it, give her something else to focus on.” The woman thought for a moment. “For example, find her a companion of the same age. If she can spend time playing with someone her age, her attention will be redirected…”

“Hmm…”

And so, walking through the darkened streets, a man in his twenties and a woman in her thirties—meeting for the first time—talked about all manner of things. They walked across half the city before finally ending their conversation.

“That’s enough for now. I still have some difficult matters to deal with, so you should go.” When they reached a building, Liu Chang dismissed her. “Thank you for talking with me tonight.”

“Thank you for giving me a pleasant evening—and enough money to fill my stomach. I hope we meet again.” The woman smiled, then turned and disappeared into the mist at the end of the street.

After seeing her off, Liu Chang turned toward the high-rise building. According to his sense of smell, Xiao Jing’s boyfriend was inside. Judging from the pungent odor drifting down from above, the man had just had sex, and another woman carrying the same scent was with him.

“Li Qingshui once said that you shouldn’t bottle up your anger, or it can lead to mental illness.”

The moment he caught the man’s scent, Liu Chang’s anger flared. With a sudden spring, he leapt onto the wall like a gecko. His palms adhered to the surface, and using his legs against the edge, he climbed several stories in only a few movements and slipped into the building.

He tore apart the security grille, smashed the window, seized the sleeping man—who had been jolted awake by the noise—and leapt back outside with him.

Carrying the naked man, Liu Chang ran all the way to an abandoned district and threw him into a corner.

“Spare me!” the man screamed as soon as he hit the ground. His attacker was fully armed, while he himself was naked. And after seeing the man carry him down from a height of more than ten meters without suffering so much as a scratch, he knew that this was someone he could never afford to provoke.

“Enough nonsense. We’ve met before. You remember, don’t you?” Liu Chang stared at him.

“Met before?” The man examined Liu Chang carefully for a long while, but still could not remember who he was.

“Damn it, am I really that ordinary-looking?” Seeing the man’s expression, Liu Chang planted a foot on his face.

“No, no, no! My memory is terrible, I…” The kick broke the man’s nose, and he begged for mercy through a face covered in blood. “Please, sir, be magnanimous! I really do have a terrible memory!”

“Whether your memory is bad is none of my concern. I came here to tell you one thing. You’ve recently met a young girl, haven’t you?”

“I have. I meet new people every day. Is she a relative of yours?” The man studied Liu Chang’s expression and tried desperately to make out his features, but the darkness and the mist—combined with the fact that he wore no special glasses—made Liu Chang’s face impossible to see clearly.

“Yes, she is a relative of mine. How many girls have you been seeing lately, you bastard?” Liu Chang’s anger intensified at the reply. He kicked the man in the face again, knocking out a row of teeth.

“Not many! Not many!” the man cried, his words whistling through the gaps in his teeth.

“Do you know a girl named Ji Jing?”

“Yes.”

“Stay away from her from now on. If you contact her again, I’ll strip you naked and throw you into the jungle.” Liu Chang turned and walked away without waiting for a reply.

But he had not gone far before the man finally let out a breath of relief. Liu Chang, still uneasy, turned back.

“No. Just to be safe…”

As he spoke, he brought his foot down on the man’s groin. A wet, crushing sensation traveled up through the sole of his shoe, followed by the man’s earth-shattering scream.

“That makes me feel much better.”

After crushing the man’s testicles, Liu Chang suddenly felt far more cheerful. The unpleasantness of his quarrel with Xiao Jing vanished from his mind, and he returned home feeling completely refreshed.

He opened the door of the tavern and went to his bedroom. After taking an extravagant hot shower, he returned to find He Zhizhi sleeping in his bed.

“She has a bed of her own, but she won’t sleep in it. Women really do become ravenous in their thirties,” he muttered.

Then Liu Chang lay down beside her and soon fell asleep.

Around midnight, Mo Sanpang fled from the bar. Liu Chang smelled his escape but ignored it and continued sleeping. After waking the next morning, he followed the man’s scent to another district and dragged him back.

“One hundred thousand!”

The bar was closed during the day, so Liu Chang tossed the recaptured Mo Sanpang directly inside.

“Brother, a hundred thousand? Even if I sold my life, I couldn’t come up with that much.” Hearing the sum Liu Chang named, the fat man lay on the floor with tears in his eyes. “The rest of us brothers risk our lives in the jungle every day. Even if we get incredibly lucky and discover a new species, then manage to capture it and bring it back, how much money could we possibly make?”

“Ten or twenty thousand at most—and that has to be divided among all the brothers! Sometimes capturing one creature costs us our lives. You know how dangerous the jungle is: insects, trees, monsters… Hell, I’ve heard that some monkeys have even learned how to set traps for people. How are we supposed to survive? A hundred thousand yuan—you might as well be asking for my life!”

“And honestly, if you hadn’t been drunk that day, none of us would have ordered such expensive liquor. Damn it, how were we supposed to know it was ordinary grain alcohol? We’d never seen anything like it and thought it was Liangbean liquor. We figured that if we made a fortune that day, we’d splurge for once and drink something good. We never imagined…”

As he spoke, the fat man began crying again, half sincerely and half theatrically. Liu Chang found it immensely amusing.

“Wah, wah, a hundred thousand yuan! Those bastards don’t have that kind of money. Even if they did, they’d never trade it for my miserable life…”

“Hahaha, stop crying. Don’t make me laugh. People already say that only my voice smiles while my face doesn’t—it makes me look like a lunatic.” Liu Chang opened his mouth and laughed expressionlessly. “If you don’t have the money, forget it. Work for me for three months instead. Your job is to keep an eye on my sister and stop her from dating. I’ll give you the best firearm I have. Don’t let anyone take advantage of her.”

As he spoke, Liu Chang took a military pistol from beneath the bar and tossed it to the fat man.

“And don’t get any ideas about my sister yourself. If I find out you’ve done anything, things won’t end simply.”

After Mo Sanpang caught the gun, Liu Chang pulled him to his feet and led him to Xiao Jing’s bedroom.

“Jing, your brother found you a good friend.”

He opened the door and pulled Mo Sanpang in front of him.

“Look. Doesn’t he look a little like a dumpling?” Liu Chang pointed at Mo Sanpang. The latter cooperatively offered a gentle smile.

“Hello, Xiao Jing!”

Sitting amid the chaotic ruins of her room, Xiao Jing gazed at Mo Sanpang’s round, pale face. Perhaps she had suddenly remembered something from four years earlier. She showed no sign of rejecting the stranger. Instead, she waved at him politely.

“Hello.”

To be continued.