adminLi Cu put Liang Wan’s number on the blacklist and decided not to answer her calls anymore. He glanced at the 100,000 yuan in the black plastic bag, tightened the bag’s opening, placed it in his backpack, and headed to the town. He took a taxi to Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport overnight. He needed to go back and take a look; if he needed to find an ally, he knew he could only turn to Su Wan and his group because he was aware that they were completely innocent, just like him.
Moreover, Su Wan could think about problems in the same way he did. With 100,000 yuan, he believed Su Wan could also come up with that amount. However, this was truly his own 100,000 yuan. Along with the previous amount, he now had 320,000 yuan, which was a considerable sum, more than enough for fleeing or any other activities. He was not entirely destitute.
He had never seen so much cash in his life. When he boarded the plane with that money, he suddenly felt a sense of groundedness. It turned out that having a sense of security was not that difficult, especially for someone like him.
With his more than 300,000 yuan, when Li Cu landed again, his entire aura had completely changed. He reflected on everything during the flight—fear, worry, unrealistic thoughts—and after the dream-like feeling passed, what surged in his heart was an intense thrill.
“Yes, I am no longer an ordinary high school student. I have become a chosen one, burdened with a strange fate like those in novels and movies, with an initial capital of 320,000.”
Being someone chosen by fate felt incredibly wonderful to Li Cu, who had no idea of his own worth. He felt as if he was walking with the wind.
Yes! When he walked back into the school and saw his classmates approaching, he felt that his figure was immensely tall. “You who still live in the cradle of your parents and don’t understand the hardships of society, how could you possibly comprehend my suffering?” Li Cu thought to himself.
Li Cu ran to the school and calmly asked the teacher for leave. In the past, he would have been very nervous and anxious in such situations. This time, he stood before the beautiful homeroom teacher with remarkable calmness and told her plainly that he needed to take leave to complete something very important, and he would not be able to attend classes for a long time.
The teacher wanted to call his father to verify. Li Cu simply nodded silently: “Ah, even if you are the homeroom teacher, in the face of my strong aspirations, you are just an ordinary person.”
He slung his backpack over his shoulder, leaving behind what he considered a tragic silhouette, and left the school, heading straight to Su Wan’s house.
He had actually looked for Su Wan in class, but he hadn’t come. He knew in his heart that under these circumstances, Su Wan definitely could not come to school alone. He felt a bit guilty when it came to this friend.
“I’m sorry, Su Wan, this is my fate, and it has caused you suffering.”
When Li Cu arrived at Su Wan’s house, he saw a truck parked at the entrance, unloading goods, and an ominous premonition surged in his heart. He peeked inside and saw Su Wan sitting in his flower bed, holding his head. The yard was already piled high with large cardboard boxes that had been sent earlier. At first glance, there were at least thirty of them.
Li Cu sighed, walked in, and called out. Su Wan looked up and immediately knelt down in front of Li Cu, saying, “Brother, you have to think of a way! I can’t hold on much longer.”
Li Cu asked, “How many have come in total?”
Su Wan replied, “Let me tell you, I’ve asked someone to check all the delivery tracking numbers sent to my house, and with this truck, there are still four more vehicles. If you don’t find a solution soon, my dad won’t even be able to get in the door when he comes home.”
Li Cu thought for a moment and said to the people unloading, “You guys stop moving for now.”
The delivery person asked, “What do you mean?”
Li Cu said, “How about this, I’ll give you some money, and we go find a warehouse in the suburbs. We’ll move the stuff to the warehouse first. Given the current situation, it’s impossible to stack everything here.”
The delivery person replied, “We have other deliveries to make. Your stuff is affecting our work.”
Li Cu responded, “Let’s negotiate the price. You can leave the goods here; we really have no other choice. It’s only natural.”
As he spoke, he patted the delivery person on the shoulder and slipped a roll of cash into his hand. After doing so, the delivery person looked at him and nodded, “Then you guys better hurry and find a warehouse.”
Li Cu made an “OK” gesture and exchanged a glance with Su Wan, saying, “Here’s the plan: we’ll split up. You stay here and keep watch, and I’ll follow this truck to find a warehouse in the suburbs. Once I find one, I’ll send you the address. How does that sound?”
Su Wan looked at Li Cu and said, “You’re not planning to just run off, are you?”
Li Cu replied, “Am I that ungrateful?”
Before he could finish speaking, the delivery person shouted and jumped down from the truck. They turned around to see that after the boxes in the truck were moved, there was an exceptionally large cardboard box inside that had been crushed during transport. A pale human hand was sticking out from that box.
Li Cu and Su Wan exchanged a glance, and the delivery person yelled, “What the hell are you transporting?”
Li Cu and Su Wan forced a bitter smile and waved their hands to calm the delivery person down. They slowly leaned in to take a look and discovered that the hand sticking out wasn’t that of a dried corpse, but a fresh one.
Li Cu took a deep breath and thought, “Wow, the dried ones are all sent off, and now they’re sending the fresh ones. Truly, there’s a variety of everything.” He patted the 100,000 yuan in his pocket and thought, “Damn it, just when I got this money, it’s about to be thrown away to seal this up.” So he pulled out a stack from that 100,000 yuan and handed it to Su Wan, telling him to take care of the people, while he cautiously approached and squatted down.
This was a hand that already showed signs of livor mortis; the body was completely stiff but not yet decomposed. Compared to the grotesqueness of a dried corpse, Li Cu was not very familiar with fresh corpses, and a wave of fear suddenly rose in his heart.
He carefully touched the hand and found it to be icy cold. He pushed aside the gap in the plastic board and peered inside, seeing that it was filled with ice blocks.
He glanced back and saw Su Wan negotiating with the courier, trying to settle things with money. Taking advantage of their distraction, Li Zu used a piece of broken cardboard nearby to shove the outstretched hand back inside, then stood up and walked over to retrieve the cardboard box that the courier was about to take away, bracing it firmly against the broken box.
After doing all this, he jumped out of the car and approached the courier, saying, “Hey, buddy, this is a misunderstanding; these are our props.”
The courier looked at him with confusion, “Props? What kind of props?”
Li Zu sniffed, “You see, this is a villa, right? We’re throwing a spooky party tonight. This is my little boss, a young entrepreneur, who hired a lot of workers to have a good time, so we brought a lot of props to decorate. We didn’t mean to scare you, sorry about that.”
The courier asked skeptically, “Is this for real? These don’t look fake to me.”
Li Zu replied, “They are definitely fake. If you don’t believe me, come take a look, come on.”
Looking around, Li Zu lowered his voice and said, “Buddy, I know it’s bad luck to transport this kind of stuff in your vehicle. Look, I have no choice here, right? I’ll give you some money. You know throwing this party is a bit inappropriate, and my little boss’s dad doesn’t know about it. If he finds out, he’ll kill us. So please, make an exception. We’re not planning to keep any of this stuff at home, and you don’t need to move it. Just be a good person and let us move it to the car and take it to the warehouse. You don’t have to lift a finger; we’ll handle it. Take the money, and if you want to tell your boss, go ahead. If you want to keep it to yourself, we absolutely won’t say a word, okay? We’ll have plenty of opportunities in the future.”
The courier looked at Su Wan, who was sweating nervously, while Li Zu was doing all the talking. After thinking for a moment, the courier said, “Fine, you guys move it yourselves. I won’t touch that box; I can pretend this never happened.”
“Thank you, thank you! You see, we’re just two kids; we can’t be doing anything too extreme, right?”
In no time, Li Zu managed to smooth things over and quickly gave Su Wan a look. He couldn’t move all those boxes by himself; Su Wan had to go with him, and they needed to find more people. Su Wan had no choice but to call a few of his friends for help, explaining the situation. Then, the two of them got in the car and headed straight for the suburbs.
On the way, Li Zu was sweating profusely. If the body was fresh, the situation would be entirely different. Once the ice melted, wouldn’t the body start to smell?
Others’ destinies were filled with all sorts of magical artifacts, swords, and elixirs that could boost one’s power for twenty years, or even beautiful women throwing themselves at them. Yet, since he got involved, it had been either strange broken weapons or bizarre encounters with dead bodies. What kind of fate was this, anyway?
