Chapter 11

Chapter 11

I quit my job immediately and transitioned into becoming an outdoor horror exploration streamer.

Every day at midnight, I would livestream myself checking in at various haunted locations. If I found a place where ghosts were known to appear, I would go back for two or three days in a row, making sure to “brush shoulders” with them every single night.

I even gained over a hundred thousand followers on Douyin.

[Guys, this streamer is super brave! Definitely worth a follow!]

[Subscribed! I’ve seen so many outdoor exploration streamers, but this is the only one who goes alone without a team!]

[In other streams, the ghosts get excited when they see people. In this stream, I feel like the person gets excited when she sees ghosts! It’s so intense!]

I asked my viewers to recommend places to me-the more sinister, the better. The more sinister a place’s magnetic field is, the more abnormal it becomes, making it easier to be tainted by bad luck.

During the day, I would sleep like the dead. One evening, after waking up from another all-night stream, I heard a massive commotion upstairs.

The neighborhood homeowners’ group chat had completely exploded. I hadn’t been keen on joining when Xue Lele added me, but I didn’t expect to have a front-row seat to all this drama.

[I heard that the son of that Old Woman who goes around life‑borrowing got scammed in his business!]

[He was scammed out of several million! Tsk tsk. If you ask me, if you’re not cut out for business, don’t do it. He couldn’t even tell a person from a ghost. Apparently, he was scammed by a new friend. The guy didn’t deliver the goods he promised, but the son had already taken orders from buyers. Now people are showing up at his door demanding compensation!]

[Heh, I told you so! Karma’s a bitch! Trying to suck away other people’s fortune… tsk tsk. I just took a peek; that Old Woman thought they wouldn’t dare touch her and tried her usual tricks again. She ended up getting beaten up pretty badly!]

[That family lacks moral virtue. They deserve it!]

Someone even risked their life to snap a photo. I clicked on the image; the whole family was huddled in the living room like frightened quails. Not a single one of them dared to make a sound. There were several clear handprints on the Old Woman’s face from being slapped.

[The Old Woman tried to play dead, but those people weren’t intimidated at all. They gave her a few good kicks, and that kid was scared out of his wits!]

The other residents on our floor heard the news too. Everyone felt like justice had finally been served. It felt as though even the heavens couldn’t stand them anymore.

After checking in with each other, the four families on our floor hired a lion dance troupe the very next day to celebrate the good news right downstairs.

When I sent the video to Xue Lele, she almost died of laughter.

Later, that family truly couldn’t pay back their debts and wanted to sell their apartment. Whenever potential buyers came to look at the place, we would “accidentally” mention that it was being used as an Ashes Room. That scared off every single interested buyer.

There were a few who weren’t afraid and still wanted to buy, but they came with “dragon-slaying blades,” lowballing the price to the extreme. But the family had no choice; they had to grit their teeth and sell it for a pittance.

The Little Brat’s mother couldn’t handle the fall from grace and ran off with a boss she used to know. On the day she fled, the Old Woman realized what was happening and tried to hold onto her with all her might, wanting her daughter-in-law to stay and work to help her son pay the debts. Instead, she got a beating from the boss’s henchmen.

Without a mother, the Little Brat cried all day and was bullied at school. He always had snot hanging from his nose, and his father was in no mood to look after him. The Old Woman doted on her grandson, but with a mountain of debt and her advanced age, she had to go out and find manual labor. How could she possibly take proper care of him?

The Little Brat’s father had lost everything. His wife was gone, and he grew to hate his mother more and more for her rotten ideas. From time to time, he would beat the Old Woman to vent his frustrations.

The family has now moved to a cramped, crowded Urban Village, living like rats.

Life‑borrowing, luck‑borrowing… I gave it to you, but you didn’t have the fortune to enjoy it!

Later, Xue Lele and I became good friends. Once she found out I was an outdoor exploration streamer, she became my number one fangirl. She asked me why I didn’t go and taunt the Old Woman or tell her the truth.

I felt like it didn’t matter anymore. She was already miserable enough. When dealing with someone who has nothing left to lose, if you provoke them, they might actually try to take you down with them. Rather than getting myself dirty just for a moment of satisfaction, it was better to just let it be.

Sometimes, when I’m not streaming, I go out with Xue Lele. We visit famous food spots during the day and check out dismemberment crime scenes at night. Life is certainly thrilling.

So, sometimes, don’t go around borrowing life. You might find you can’t handle the life you’ve borrowed.

(The End)