Chapter 815: The Debt Collector Is Here
Chapter 815: The Debt Collector Is Here
Translator: Azza
The bandaged man listened intently. He asked in a hoarse voice, "What happened after that?"
Kaowei wiped away her tears. "The big brother in his group was arrested. At that time, it seemed that the world was peaceful. He made meritorious services and the police only detained him for half a month before releasing him. He came to me and was very happy. He said that he would be met with luck if he survived such a catastrophe. Two months later, a TV set was sent to our residence. We didn’t know who sent it. The box only said that it was from being a lucky draw winner. He plugged in the power plug happily. I was washing grapes in the kitchen when I suddenly heard an explosion. The house was shaking. It turned out that the TV had exploded. After thinking about it, I realize that this was someone in the underworld taking their revenge on him. His entire body was covered in blood from the explosion. After arriving at the hospital, he was diagnosed with severe burns. I stayed with him all night. He desperately said, ‘Let's break up. Let's break up.’ I just cried. I knew that he just didn’t want to drag me into this. I thought he would be safe in the hospital, but he disappeared a few days later. He has never appeared again since. Maybe he’s dead and wrapped in a bucket in cement then thrown into the river by people from the underworld. I hope he’s dead so that he won’t suffer any more. But at the same time, I hope he’s still alive. I’m really conflicted!"
Kaowei covered her face and started crying.
The bandaged man stretched out a hand and wanted to pat her shoulder. He paused in midair for a while and then retracted it. He asked, "What is his name?"
"Wang Xi."
"Wang Xi…"
"Do you know him?" Kaowei asked with a glimmer of hope.
"No, I don't. I'm just an ordinary person." The bandaged man picked up the bottle. "Take this back!"
"You drink it. It's opened anyway."
"It will only make you more painful…" The light in the bandaged man's eyes dimmed. He thought of that cruel night again.
"I need to rest. You should go to bed earlier as well."
Kaowei went downstairs. As she headed downstairs, she saw the bandaged man sitting in the darkness pick up the wine bottle and put it to his mouth again. Tears slid from the corner of his eyes.
Hearing that there was no movement downstairs, the bandaged man jumped out from the window. The houses here were attached to each other. He could get down into the alley by pressing against both walls.
Under the cover of night, he got to the road and moved slowly through the sleeping city like a ghost. He looked down at his phone from time to time. There was a small program similar to GPS on the phone, which marked all the security cameras along the way as well as the directions they faced.
This mobile phone was also registered using an ID card bought on the black market. He had several ID cards on his body. He never thought he’d use the skills he had seen criminals use.
He stole a bicycle on the road, and he could only breathe a sigh of relief when he got to the countryside. His legs were almost broken from exhaustion.
A mountain appeared in front with a snow-white tombstone. The bandaged man threw the bicycle in the shrubs, went up the mountain, slipped into the cemetery, searched among the rows of tombstones, and finally found Han Luoxi's name.
There was a photo of her on it, and her happy, smiling face on the tombstone only made the mourners sadder.
The bandaged man stroked the dent of each word on the tombstone with his fingers, then put his head on it and cried. After crying enough, he took out the wine and poured it on the tombstone as he said to the person in the photo, "Luoxi, I don’t know how to live anymore."
The answer he got was still a happy smile.
Then he went to visit another old friend. Li Mu’s tombstone was next to Han Luoxi’s. The bandaged man took out three cigarettes, lit them up, and placed them in front of the tombstone. He said to the person in the photo, "Master, you don’t have to worry about lung cancer now, but don’t think you can be at peace. I’ll use cigarettes to choke you every year… as long as I'm still alive!"
After mourning the deceased, the bandaged man used the same route he had used to get here to leave. On the way back, he saw a police car. He threw the bicycle away and jumped into the grass beside the road. The police saw a suspicious guy around so they got out of the car and searched for a while before getting back into the car.
He walked back to the city and met a group of hooligans in an alleyway. They were bullying an uncle dressed as an office worker. The uncle knelt on the ground holding his head, trembling, and a little hooligan with blue-dyed hair slapped at his face. The uncle's face was already swollen, and the hooligan’s companions laughed cheerfully.
The bandaged man clenched his fists. He wanted to go up to teach this gang of hooligans a lesson and vent his accumulated anger. However, when he saw the security camera above, he hesitated before leaving silently after popping his collar up.
Back in the attic of Kaowei's house, he lay down to sleep. He hadn’t said anything the whole night.
Goupi Alley’s tranquil morning was broken by a smashing sound. A group of debt collectors found the old tailor and threw the things in his house outside one by one. The old tailor begged cowardly, "Master, master, please don't throw away what I need for dinner!"
The man who led the debt collectors had ugly facial features like an impressionist oil painting. He grabbed at the tailor’s hair with his hand ruthlessly and grilled, "When will you pay the money back?!"
"Please give me another two days of grace…" the old tailor said without any backbone.
The "Impressionist" twisted his body with great speed, jumped up and down, posing like a crab and grit his teeth.
His subordinates explained, "Our Brother Mo has a problem. As long as he hears the phrase "two days of grace", he’ll kill people. Why don’t you try it again."
The old tailor looked like death. "I really don’t have the money right now."
"Old bastard, who are you lying to? What do you eat, drink, or wear if you don't have money?!" The "Impressionist" pointed his finger at him and his eyes gradually grew cold. "I’ll give you another chance."
"Really… really don't have the money. Not even a cent…"
"Hahahahaha!" The "Impressionist" held his face and laughed. The old tailor developed goosebumps from fright.
The residents in the alley were alerted and they had already gathered to watch. Many people had schadenfreude smiles on their faces. Ms. Zhang was holding a handful of melon seeds in her hand, watching and nibbling with relish.
The bandaged man was also watching this scene from the attic window.
The "Impressionist" made a gesture and his subordinates immediately jumped up, kicked and beat at the old tailor. The "Impressionist" was suddenly furious as he kicked a subordinate away. "I didn’t make this gesture to make you hit him. I'm asking you to get what I had put in the trunk!"
The subordinates looked innocent. "Generally speaking, this gesture means to hit people. I don’t think I understood it incorrectly."
"Then am I the one who’s wrong then?" The "Impressionist" kicked him down again and made the gesture again.
The subordinates hurried to fetch the item. The "Impressionist" grabbed at the old tailor’s hair fiercely and said with an empty smile, "Let's play a game."
"Please give me another two days of grace. I really have no money." The old tailor lay on the ground and begged.
The "Impressionist" got truly angry this time. He kicked the old tailor so fiercely that he tumble-rolled backwards. "Are you a robot? You only know how to say this. If you want us to pity you, who will pity us? If we don’t get the money, the boss will scold us. You’re so poor, so why did you borrow high-interest loans?! Huh?"
"Take him to sell his organs. I heard that a testicle is worth 400,000 yuan and the shaft is worth 600,000 yuan. It’d be good to castrate this old pervert!" Ms. Zhang suggested.
After a while, the subordinates got the tools. There was an iron chain with the thickness of a little finger. The crowd became excited.
When the "Impressionist" ordered the subordinates to start stripping the old tailor's clothes, everyone was overwhelmed with excitement, and happy smiles filled their faces…