Chapter 60
Chapter 60
Zhao Xiuming knew everything and had the power to stop it. But he did nothing.
Ah Hao threw away his cigarette, grabbed his own hair, and kicked Shuai Zai in the backside. “Come on. Keep taking the kids back.”
Shuai Zai took the edible food from the fish-ball stall. With a fish ball between his teeth, he told the children to sit properly, then stood and pedaled the tricycle with all his strength.
Ah Hao followed behind, swinging his stick at the possessed, crazed people who charged at them with ill intent.
Protecting the children, they searched for a way to survive amid the chaos. Perhaps it would stop tomorrow.
Perhaps the day after, or the day after that.
They didn’t know what lay ahead, but the trembling children in the tricycle were real. The warm fish balls in their mouths were real too.
Caught off guard, Ah Hao took a jab to the backside. Shuai Zai laughed without a care. “Keep it up, Ah Hao!”
A bolder child in the tricycle called in a piping voice, “Keep it up, Brother Ah Hao!”
Ah Hao swore a few times and kicked away his attacker.
He didn’t beg Zhao Xiuming for help. He felt neither resentment nor injustice. He simply followed his instincts and did what he wanted to do.
The two moved farther and farther from Zhao Xiuming. He watched indifferently, the masked man standing immovable behind him.
Zhao Xiuming, who hadn’t called upon the System in some time, suddenly asked, [System, do you think they count as heroes?]
Pleasure tinged the System’s clear, youthful voice. [Who cares?]
Zhao Xiuming lowered his eyes. A smile appeared on his face without reaching his heart.
The masked man rested a hand on Zhao Xiuming’s shoulder, rubbing it and indicating that he should look to the left.
A stooped figure was approaching slowly from that direction.
As it drew near, the System made an inscrutable sound. [Hmm.]
Then he laughed. [Gege, it’s someone we know.]
The stooped figure stopped a short distance away, revealing her face.
Zhao Xiuming kept his gentle smile. “My landlady?”
“Or should I call you…”
“Granny Snake of the Spirit Medium Hall?”
She didn’t answer his questions about her identity. Instead, an aged voice sounded. “Don’t you feel ashamed?”
Granny Snake emerged into the rain. She was the elderly landlady who had rented Zhao Xiuming his room.
Unlike her quiet, taciturn manner then, Granny Snake’s eyes were now sharp. A strong smell of incense ash clung to her, pungent enough that even the rain couldn’t mask it.
Granny Snake leaned on a walking stick, her body bent, a dark, luxurious shawl wrapped around her shoulders.
She looked so unsteady that it made one nervous, yet her voice brimmed with displeasure. “I said, don’t you feel ashamed at all?”
“You’re not even as good as those two lowlife thugs. At least they know to do something decent and save children. And you? You just stand by and watch?”
“If you wanted to, you could stop this riot completely.”
“So many people are dying because you won’t do anything. Don’t you feel any guilt?”
Granny Snake had thought that after hearing all this, he would be ashamed, or make some excuse to shirk responsibility.
Something like claiming he wasn’t powerful enough to save them.
She had even worked out how to counter that, how to teach this heartless creature a lesson.
Instead, Zhao Xiuming asked with interest, “Anything else?”
Granny Snake immediately began banging her walking stick against the ground in anger. If the masked man hadn’t been beside him, it would probably have landed on Zhao Xiuming instead.
Granny Snake pleaded earnestly, “How can you be so shameless, child?”
“You could save everyone. Why won’t you?”
“Even if you’re afraid and don’t want to face a terrifying malevolent anomaly, you could be like Ah Hao and Shuai Zai and save as many people as you can.”
Zhao Xiuming remained silent. Granny Snake tried to reach out and push him.
The masked man turned to look at her. Her outstretched hand froze in midair.
Zhao Xiuming couldn’t hold back a snort of laughter. He laughed so hard he couldn’t straighten his back.
Granny Snake withdrew her hand, shame turning to anger. “What are you laughing at? You two bastards! Even an old woman like me is fair game for bullying?”
Zhao Xiuming wiped away the tears of laughter at the corners of his eyes, leaning against the masked man’s side to support himself.
His stare made Granny Snake’s skin crawl. “What’s the use of staring at me, child?”
Zhao Xiuming shook his head. He didn’t particularly want to waste words. “I find it very interesting.”
“This might be a little impolite, but I still want to ask.”
“What are you?”
Granny Snake’s breathing quickened. She wasn’t sure whether that was an insult.
“You’re not human.”
Zhao Xiuming reached his conclusion, his tone peculiar. “A thing that isn’t human.”
“Ha ha ha.”
He laughed again. There wasn’t a trace of warmth left in his eyes, only indifference and thoughtfulness.
“You there, whatever I ought to call you.” The smile at Zhao Xiuming’s lips was bright and cheerful. “You’re clearly not human. Why are you using human ethics and morality to accuse me?”
Granny Snake was speechless. She thought Zhao Xiuming was trying to excuse his refusal to save anyone.
But his next words were, “If you think you’re human, then so be it.”
“I’m not human.”
“Not wholly, completely human. Why do you think a thing like me would follow human ethics and morality?”
Zhao Xiuming made a show of considering it. His eyes were clear and perfectly calm as he smiled. “Still, I am indeed a kind, egalitarian, and tolerant being.”
Granny Snake immediately seized on that. “You… you say you’re kind and tolerant? You haven’t saved anyone!”
Zhao Xiuming nodded and asked, “Then will you raise my rent?”
The change of subject left Granny Snake unable to follow. “What did you say?”
Zhao Xiuming asked again, “Will you refuse to rent to me and throw me out?”
Granny Snake couldn’t follow his train of thought and had no idea why he was asking. Nevertheless, she answered, “No.”
Zhao Xiuming let out a relieved breath. “I’m moving out anyway.”
“I’m only renting a room, Granny.”
Granny Snake finally understood something. She said incredulously, “You think everything happening here has nothing whatsoever to do with you.”
“So you can be coldhearted and stand by watching?”
“How arrogant you are, acting as though you’re above it all.”
Zhao Xiuming spoke slowly. “That’s not it.”
“I think casually meddling in someone else’s world is arrogance.”
“Acting on your own self-righteous idea of kindness is what it means to put yourself above others.”
“All beings are equal, Granny. That includes me. I don’t care about any of us, equally.”
“If you can tell me where this world and I intersect, perhaps I’ll change my mind.”