Yang Xiao squatted on the ground, picking up coins all the way until he finally stopped in front of Fu Xuechang’s foot. "Big Brother Fu, could you please lift your foot? You’re stepping on my money."
Yang Xiao emphasized the words ’my money’ with particular force, leaving no room for Fu Xuechang’s face-saving, but Fu Xuechang acted as if he hadn’t noticed, scratching his head and laughing awkwardly, "Sorry, sorry, I didn’t see them, haha, my apologies Chu."
When Fu Xuechang lifted his foot, everyone noticed that he had been standing right on top of a golden fifty-cent coin. Yang Xiao carefully picked up the coin, wiped it off, and then put it back in his hand.
The scattered coins added up to 24 yuan and 70 cents, which was undoubtedly a considerable sum at the ti, making everyone else green with envy.
After putting the money away, Yang Xiao turned his attention to the letter. The letter consisted of two pages, one written in a mature hand, presumably by an adult, and the other in a childlike script, with so characters replaced by pinyin because the child didn’t know how to write them—it was clearly from a child.
What shocked everyone even more was that both these pages were apology letters.
The writers were naturally the Chen Family Father and Son. In the letters, they expressed their earnest words, swearing to reform and beco decent people. The man of the Chen family promised to stop harassing their neighbors and to strive for harmony in all things, while the boy resolved to beco beneficial to society, to study hard in school, respect teachers, and care for his classmates.
The word for ’respect’ was misspelled multiple tis and finally replaced with pinyin. Despite that, one could still feel the full sincerity of the sender.
In the end, the father and son specially thanked Yang Xiao, saying that his education had been profound and transformative for them, akin to an enlightening revelation. They reiterated their determination to reform and emphasized that they no longer considered it necessary to trouble Yang Xiao with ho teaching since they were about to move away that very day.
Tong Han furrowed his brows and looked toward Yang Xiao, unable to hide the doubt in his eyes. After a mont, he voiced the question that was on everyone’s mind, "How... how did you educate them?"
Yang Xiao took a deep breath and said with an air of integrity, "I appealed to their reason and enlightened their emotions, the upright path in the human world is full of vicissitudes."
Li Qingxuan: "..."
Qu Yi, who was closer and observed more carefully, noticed that the two letters were wrinkled as if they had been soaked in water.
Yang Xiao of course knew what this was about, but he couldn’t say that he had been behind the Chen Family Father and Son with a baseball bat while they were writing, coercing them; and their tears had fallen onto the letters as they wept and held their heads in pain.
"Just... verbal education?" Fu Changxue, who had been disrupted by Yang Xiao and was feeling annoyed, looked at Yang Xiao with suspicion in his eyes.
Yang Xiao looked back at him with sincere eyes: "Not just verbal education; I also gave them both a good thrashing. I hung them up and beat them with a baseball bat, and when I got tired, I made the younger one massage my legs."
Upon hearing this, Fu Xuechang was stunned, and the atmosphere around them instantly froze. A few seconds later, Fu Xuechang waved his hand and laughed, "Stop joking, Chu, you really have a way with words."
Everyone burst into laughter at once, including Yang Xiao, and the frozen atmosphere thawed once again due to Yang Xiao’s words. Only Mo Daidai looked at Yang Xiao with a gaze filled with admiration.
Having dealt with the client’s matters, it was ti to turn to the two security guards who had been on patrol the night before, one of whom was Fu Xuechang and the other was Tong Han.
Fu Xuechang let out a wry smile and pulled a wrinkled jacket out of his backpack. Unfolding it revealed a blood handprint on the jacket.
The handprint was large, left on the left side of the jacket, fingers pointing downward—it was unmistakably the work of the Ball-slapping Ghost.
"I encountered the Ball-slapping Ghost while on patrol and couldn’t shake him off; he grabbed from behind," Fu Xuechang confessed honestly, then looked at Qu Yi, "Just like Qu Yi said, he searched , clearly looking for money."
"So your money was searched and taken." It seed like Qu Yi was recalling his own previous encounter, he slowly sighed and deeply sympathized with Fu Xuechang.
"No, I was worried that sothing like this might happen, so I hid the money in advance and didn’t carry it with ," Fu Xuechang said with a smile, which might have been the only consolation.
Qu Yi was stunned for a mont, but quickly understood. Fu Xuechang was quite cunning; knowing that once caught by the Ball-slapping Ghost, the ransom would be 10 yuan, which he did not have enough of. So, even if he had brought money, it would have been futile; he would not only have been left with a bloody handprint but also have had his money taken, losing both his wife and troops in the process.
Like Fu Changxue’s encounter, Tong Han also admitted to encountering the Ball-slapping Ghost, but she hadn’t been left with any bloody handprint.
Fu Xuechang’s eyes widened, "No, that’s not right. You only took part in the first night’s patrol task, with Wang Longhui, so you should have only had 5 yuan on you. Where did you get the money to pay the ransom?"
"I had borrowed an additional 5 yuan beforehand, just in case," Tong Han answered naturally.
"Borrowed money?" Fu Changxue was stunned, it was clear he hadn’t expected that soone would be willing to lend money in this kind of situation.
As Fu Changxue’s gaze swept over them, everyone shook their heads in turn, until finally, Mo Daidai spoke up with his head tilted, "It was ."
"Brother Mo, that’s quite bold of you," Fu Changxue remarked with admiration, without much resentnt and more of admiration.
"Big Brother Mo, please lend so as well, I’m begging you!" Cheng Ya pleaded, her mory partially altered by the surgical Ghost, it was evident to anyone that her ntal state was not quite normal.
Mo Daidai shook his head and refused, "No, I don’t lend money for nothing; I charge interest. You can ask Tong Han."
"Borrow 5 yuan, today I have to repay 7 yuan," Tong Han stated bluntly, not avoiding the topic.
"Okay, okay, that’s fine," Cheng Ya, acting crazed, nodded repeatedly, "Big Brother Mo, however much you have, I want to borrow it all."
Mo Daidai looked her up and down a few tis and then shook his head firmly, "I won’t lend to you, not a single cent, you don’t have what it takes to survive. Lending you would be like throwing money away."
Now, everyone looked at Mo Daidai with new respect; daring to charge high-interest rates in the context of this mission was not sothing ordinary people would do.
Mo Daidai turned his head to Tong Han, his voice low but extrely firm, "You promised , you must accept a commissioned task today and repay ."
"Of course, I keep my word," Tong Han responded.
Yang Xiao now genuinely hoped that Mo Daidai was not an Evil Cultivator; otherwise, if the two were to fight, the outco was truly unpredictable considering the young man’s sinister nature.
With Wang Longhui dead, now only 7 people remained, not enough to form two groups of 4 to alternate tasks. Fortunately, Tong Han had joined today.
Or more accurately, only 6 and a half people were left, as this number included Cheng Ya, who, after being dealt with by the surgical Ghost, had beco useless.
The new commissioned task had already refreshed, and Tong Han was the first to step forward, tearing off the task commissioned by Mr. Hou in room 2024.
Mr. Hou urgently needed a dance partner to accompany him at 11:19 p.m.
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