The Great Worm Lich

“Maddie, these two kids must be your classmates, right? Hello, I’m Claurice, Maddie’s mother. Thank you for your concern, Maddie’s father is doing fine and so are we. Y-You don’t have t-to…” When she saw her daughter in a daze, Maddie’s mother smiled at Zhang Lisheng and George before greeting them in a soft voice. However, she barely finished two sentences before breaking out into tears.

“Mum! Don’t be like this! This is the hospital! If father sees you crying when he comes out of Dr. Cassandra’s office later, he’d definitely be sadder afterward!” Under Maddie’s persuasion, her mother wiped her tears off hastily and once again, a smile crept upon her face. Right now, the girl had already shifted her attention towards Zhang Lisheng, “L-Lisheng, thanks for coming. This is the hospital so let’s go outside and talk if there’s anything.”

The young man nodded and smiled politely at Maddie’s mother before walking out from this small private hospital with the girl.

“The atmosphere in this hospital is very strange. It’s obviously depressing but everyone is smiling! Why is this so?” Zhang Lisheng asked abruptly after they walked out of the door.

“Dr. Cassandra advocates a positive attitude in treating tumors. He often says a burst of hearty laughter that lasts one whole day can have the same effect of one chemotherapy…”

“Many doctors think so. As long as one maintains an optimistic and positive personality, the human body’s immune system would be able to cope with any disease. I’ve heard many times before that patient with serious illness are naturally cured like this…”

“George, if laughter can heal disease, Chaplin would not have died in the first place. Maddie, haven’t I told you to ask the doctor if there is any other better scientific way the hospital has to treat your father’s illness?”

“I’ve asked the nurse on duty and she said that there’s a medical center in Belgium that has developed a brand-new treatment for mid-stage stomach cancer. According to the data, the treatment is very effective as well…”

“So why haven’t you called me back?”

“I-It needs 500,000 dollars! The nurse said that the estimated cost of the entire treatment would be at least 500,000 dollars…” Maddie felt weak and leaned against the wall as she muttered.

To some people, 500,000 dollars might only be just a few chips in the casino but to most people, it was a really huge sum.

To an average middle-class American family who did not inherit anything from their ancestors, possessing a cash saving of 500,000 dollars could even be said as a dream to them.

“500,000 dollars? 500,000. That’s a huge sum of money! However, since you’re my ‘servant’, according to the custom,” Zhang Lisheng casually muttered before writing a cheque and stuffing it into Maddie’s hand. “Send your father to Belgium. It’s not reliable to treat a tumor with laughter.”

Not being able to understand the sense of worth of a wizard, Maddie stared at the cheque in her hand that was written with one ‘5’ and five consecutive ‘0’s in a daze. After being dumbstruck for a moment, she muttered and asked, “W-Why do you want to treat me like this? If you like me, when you gave me that 50,000 dollars last time, you could have already… A-And what’s more, haven’t you already taken me as a servant or something now?”

“That’s right! It’s exactly because you’re my servant that I should help if I know that your family member is severely ill. Alright, I’ve already done what I can do so I hope your father can fully recover. George and I will…”

Zhang Lisheng’s words were suddenly cut off by the deep kiss Maddie threw at him.

“T-Thank you.” Putting all her gratitude and affection into this kiss, Maddie let go of the young man with a flushed face after a long while. She took a good look at Zhang Lisheng with complicated emotions in her eyes before pushing the door and running into the hospital.

When the girl ran off, Zhang Lisheng was still dumbstruck and had not returned to his senses yet. George, who was by his side, scoffed mockingly, “500,000 dollars in exchange for a passionate kiss. How does this kiss of 500,000 dollars taste like?”

“What the fuck! W-Why would Maddie do that? I merely did something that fits our China’s sense of worth a-and…”

“Oh well, that’s enough mate! Why are you explaining it to me? I’m not your hot girlfriend nor Maddie’s parents. Besides, you two have already started playing this little ‘servant and master’ game so it ain’t too much for a kiss anyway. However, to put it bluntly, the speed of building up your fortune is really fast! You were still working part-time with me a few months ago but now, you could already give out a cheque worth 500,000 dollars without even blinking your eyes! When do you plan to save me as well, huh? If you give me a cheque of 100,000 dollars to me, I’d give you my body freely and let you do whatever you want to me.”

Then, George posed a sexy seductive pose right away.

“That’s enough, George! You’re disgusting! That’s all the money I have in my account. If I want to have more money, I’d have to officially start the slaughterhouse business once the expansion is done.”

“I keep hearing you mention that you’ve opened a slaughterhouse, slaughterhouse, but I’ve never been there before. Now that I saw how you use your money, I began to become curious about the scale of your slaughterhouse…”

“You can go anytime in the future when you want to but not today! I don’t plan to leave New York City during the resting period the doctor put me on,” Zhang Lisheng said cautiously.

“Because you can’t use too much of your brain. Okay, Lisheng! Of course you should listen to the doctor. But, there’s one funny thing. As the rebel in Lowbige Junior High, it’s rumored in the school that you’ve become paralyzed and can only lie on the bed with your saliva dripping out of your mouth…”

“Wait a minute, George! Since when have I become the rebel of Lowbige Junior High?”

“Right now, every student in Lowbige already knew that you’ve participated in the Fordham Sisters’ cruise party and that you have undergone a shipwreck. Because of this, you’ve become the rebel of Lowbige Junior High! But fret not, your label of being a rebel has already become ridiculously expensive. In fact, there’s a saying stating that ‘only a man who is no longer a virgin is a good man’…”

George remarked loudly in an envious tone.

After that, for the next half a day until he returned home at night, Zhang Lisheng kept listening to George’s endless analysis of what kind of subtle position Zhang Lisheng had in the minds of girls in Lowbige Junior High.

In the next few days, the young man continued to do nothing at home. It was only until the holiday that the doctor prescribed to him had ended that he finally resumed his normal life.

After his classes resumed, it was a tense yet short revision and afterward, the year-exams of the school. This lasted till early July and finally, Zhang Lisheng, who resumed his study for barely two weeks, welcomed his first summer holiday in America.

On the last day of class, the entire Lowbige Junior High was immersed in a joyful atmosphere.

“Lisheng, we’re free! Free for a whole three months…” Carrying his books over his head to block the sun in this intolerably hot campus, George cheered loudly while walking.

“George, your credits for the tenth-grade is not even enough yet! If I were you, I’d be thinking where should I go earn my tuition during the summer holiday instead of cheering ‘we’re free’!”

“You’re such a killjoy, buddy! You’re going to Hawaii for your holiday but you actually asked your best friend to earn for his tuition! That’s right, when is your flight? Can’t you wait for me to work for one month to save enough money first before going together with you?”

As the two of them were talking, they had already come to the street outside of the campus. Zhang Lisheng opened the front door to his car as he chuckled, “Just go to Hawaii together with Hannah! I don’t want to interrupt the two of you. The weather is too hot, let me send you to the butcher shop then.”

“Forget about it, buddy. I won’t get a sunburn by riding my bicycle under the shade. You still need to go to Kaiserland Town to have your negotiations with those cunning old farm operators right? Don’t waste your time anymore. Just go!”

“Alright, I’ll leave first then.” Upon hearing George’s words, Zhang Lisheng did not dawdle any further and waved his hand. After he started his car, he drove out of New York City.

40 minutes later, the Explorer turned into a spacious road in the suburbs of New York. Shortly afterwards, the countless huge cranes standing in the distance soon entered the young man’s sight. It was the construction site for the new New York Harbor and not far away from it was a white factory. That was the first completed phase of the LS Slaughterhouse.

After driving for a while more, Zhang Lisheng turned his car into a highway branch before going straight for more than ten minutes. Then, a clean and tidy town appeared before him.

An Explorer with a familiar license plate driving into the Kaiserland Town would of course attract the attention of the townspeople. However, when Zhang Lisheng got down from his car, nobody greeted him at all.

The townspeople’s straightforward attitude did not rouse any dissatisfaction from Zhang Lisheng. He parked his car outside the Blueberry Tavern and nodded everyone he came across with a smile. With big strides, he came to Mayor Howard’s hut that was situated in the middle of the town.

After he knocked and pushed the door open to enter the house, to Zhang Lisheng’s expectations, the wooden house was already filled with middle-aged men and old men who were wearing denim overalls. When they saw the young man enter, they casted their angry gaze on him right away.

Only Howard stood up as usual and extended his hand to welcome Lisheng. “Lisheng, you’ve come! I hope that you haven’t eaten your lunch yet for I’ve specially prepared the rib of the Japanese Matsusaka beef that had been successfully reared in the farm. It’s extremely delicious!”

“Is that so? Mayor Howard! That’s amazing! And here I was thinking that you wanted to have a fallout with me for you’d rather lose money and shut the LS Slaughterhouse down a few weeks ago. I didn’t expect you to be so generous this time. Not only did you invite me as your guest, you’ve even prepared Matsusaka beef steak for me.”

“That’s enough young man. I know some of the things I did in the past might have raised your dissatisfaction but I grew up in a farming and pastoral town outside of New York City. The first thing I learnt since primary school is that small towns like us outside of New York City would need to be united in order to survive…”

“Mayor Howard, the fact that you and all of the farmers outside of New York City came together to demand a lower price from an originally fair price is not for the sake of Kaiserland Town’s survival. On top of that, the people whom you’re dealing with is one of the directors for the Kaiserland Town’s National Farmers Union. I think all of you might still continue to unite had there not been the slaughter orders from the Californian farmers. Even if both of our sides would end up suffering from major losses, you’d still want to put things right once and for all and force the price that I offered to a stage where it’s ridiculously low, wouldn’t you?”