Chapter 8: Liver Cancer

"Uncle Zhao, I'm here for work."

After school, Li Cheng parked his folding bicycle in the alley and walked into the dessert shop.

The shop was empty; the glass cabinets, once filled with food, were now completely bare.

"Boss?"

He walked into the kitchen and saw Uncle Zhao sitting alone in the corner, his face gaunt, eyes dull, as if he had aged ten years overnight. "Uncle Zhao, what's wrong?"

Seeing him appear, Uncle Zhao mustered a faint bit of energy. "Little Li, this shop might not make it."

Li Cheng's expression turned stunned. "Huh? Why?"

"The old city renovation—the landlord wants to sell this space and is forcing me to move out." Uncle Zhao spoke dazedly. "Your aunt collapsed suddenly on the bus today. The hospital diagnosed her with liver cancer."

"."

Li Cheng fell silent. Uncle Zhao's family came from elsewhere; they had struggled for years in Yin City to buy this shop, and just as life began to improve, disaster struck.

He spoke slowly, voice hoarse. "Where's Nannan?"

Nannan was Uncle Zhao's daughter, just in elementary school, exceptionally cute. Li Cheng often taught her homework during his breaks.

"She's upstairs watching TV. I don't know how to tell her. I'm afraid to tell her. I'll have to take her to the hospital later to see her mom."

Uncle Zhao pressed his forehead, his face lost in shadow, voice nearly a sob. "Your severance pay is in the drawer behind the counter. Take care of yourself from now on."

"I don't need severance—I have other ways." Li Cheng shook his head firmly, then paused. "Which hospital is your wife in?"

"Deming Hospital. If you're not busy, you can come visit her. Don't worry too much about us—the landlord breached the contract, so he has to pay three months' rent as penalty. Combined with our savings, we can still manage."

Uncle Zhao forced a weak smile and called up the stairs. "Nannan! Xiao Sheng is leaving—go say goodbye!"

Footsteps clattered down from upstairs. Nannan, her pigtails bouncing, clutching a cob of corn, corn kernels still on her lips, ran down and hugged Li Cheng's leg. She looked up with big, watery eyes. "Xiao Sheng, you have to come visit me, okay?"

"Yeah, I will."

Li Cheng looked at the innocent, adorable Nannan, his heart heavy as he gently stroked her hair and bid farewell to Uncle Zhao's family.

Back in the dim alley, the boy pedaled his bicycle slowly, staring up at the tangled wires overhead, his emotions churning.

The world isn't fair—or rather, it has never been fair.

Gulu gulu—

His stomach growled. Li Cheng patted his belly and sighed. "Alright, let's find you something to eat."

He rode to a roadside supermarket and browsed the near-expiry section—food close to its expiration date was significantly cheaper.

"Imported chocolate: 2516 kilojoules per 100 grams, pork cracklings: 2810 kilojoules per 100 grams, potato chips: 916 kilojoules per 40-gram bag, Weilong Da Dao Rou: 1836 kilojoules per 100 grams."

Li Cheng flicked his fingers, rapidly calculating the energy-to-price ratio of each item, selecting only bulk, high-calorie, cheap snacks.

He bought two large bags before leaving the store and sat alone in a park corner eating.

His 【Gene Hunger】 state required him to consume large amounts of calories daily, and they had to be nutritionally balanced—not pure sugar or fat alone.

The cheapest solution would be the cafeteria—Zhuoyue Middle School made its money from high tuition and social donations, so it didn't skimp on student meals. The cafeteria was therefore affordable and the food delicious.

The problem was: the cafeteria had surveillance. He couldn't eat ten portions like one person.

Even near-expiry food at the store cost money. Now that he'd lost his job at the dessert shop, he couldn't just live off savings—he had to find another way to earn money.

Li Cheng thought for a moment, pulled out his phone, opened WeChat contacts, and found Cui Yi.

Cui Yi was a childhood friend who used to live in the same neighborhood, a few years older than him.

His family situation was even worse than Li Cheng's—Cui Yi's parents divorced long ago, and neither wanted to care for him, so he dropped out of high school and went out into the world to fend for himself.

He had handed out flyers, delivered takeout, worked on construction sites, repaired cars, done sales—he'd tried every kind of job before becoming a job intermediary, hanging around Yin City's local group chats.

A job intermediary, in essence, recruited short-term laborers.

For example, a newly opened bubble tea shop wanting to look busy would hire people to line up outside. Real estate sales offices did the same.

"Hey? Brother Cui, it's Li Cheng."

"Oh, little Cheng? What's up?" Cui Yi's end was noisy, clearly busy.

"Do you have any short-term jobs you can recommend to me?" Li Cheng asked, slightly embarrassed.

"Hah, you asked the right person."

Cui Yi grinned. "Your Brother Cui is now a full-time employee at MS Company—pretty cool, right?"

"MS Company?"

"Meeseeks. Chinese name: Mission Accomplished. You can search it online." Cui Yi said. "The company operates globally, serving only ultra-rich clients."

"For example, someone camping in the Alps suddenly craves a fancy meal—they call MS, and an hour later, a helicopter lands, sets up tables, chairs, and cutlery, and a Michelin chef prepares Alaskan snow crab, French Alsatian foie gras, and Japanese Hyogo beef, served with a bottle of red wine aged by a century-old shipwreck."

"I beat out hundreds of people to land this job."

Cui Yi's tone was overflowing with pride—a high school dropout ordinary youth defeating a crowd of elite university graduates was indeed something to be proud of.

"Let me check the schedule… Hmm, the day after tomorrow, there's a wealthy family's child's birthday party—need staff to set up the venue. You in? Daily wage: 1,800."

"That much?" Li Cheng was startled. That was daily pay.

"The client pays more, so we get more. You're coming, right? Then it's settled—I'll call you."

Cui Yi hung up, adjusted his blue MS cap, and helped his coworkers carry equipment into the mansion's garden.

Blüthner piano, Zelaton speakers, Baoli Feng wardrobe, Persian handwoven carpets.

The villa's main hall already had chalk lines drawn on the floor; MS employees placed furniture and appliances precisely within the chalked outlines.

A gloved employee carefully placed a white porcelain vase atop a large red sandalwood cabinet and whispered, "Brother Cui, this villa must be worth at least eighty to a hundred million?"

"Don't talk like that—forget the employee handbook? Never discuss clients privately."

Cui Yi cut him off, but internally he muttered: This location, this size—eighty to a hundred million? At least one hundred million!

Cui Yi, who had become independent early and endured the world's coldness, had long passed the age of resentment. No matter how rich others were, it had nothing to do with him.

He was just puzzled—the villa's owner had never shown up; everything was handled by the butler, who demanded all furniture be installed within a single day.

It felt like a temporary move—but which billionaire would be this casual?

At that very moment, in the third-floor bedroom of the villa, far from the noise of the living room, Shao Wangshu, dressed in a chick-patterned pajama set, was lying on the bed, tapping at her phone restlessly.

Unlock the screen, see no QQ messages, lock the screen, unlock the screen, see no QQ messages, lock the screen. On and on in this loop.

In the corner of the room, a young female housekeeper, her hair in a ponytail and posture ramrod straight, could not help but remind her softly: "Young Lady, it's time to do your homework."

"In a minute, in a minute." Shao Wangshu said absently, her fingers unconsciously pinching the cat-ear on her phone's silicone case.

"Your father said the condition for moving to Yin City to live on your own is that your grades cannot slip. Otherwise you'll have to go back to Jin City."

"Got it, I'll do it in a bit." Shao Wangshu rolled over, and suddenly her eyes lit up. She cheered: "Li Cheng accepted my friend request!"

"How wonderful." The housekeeper said insincerely, picking up the schoolbag from the floor and laying out the test papers on the desk. "Can you do your homework now?"

"Quick, quick, help me think about how I should say hello." Shao Wangshu waved her hand. "Should I send 【Good evening】, or 【Hello, desk-mate】? Or 【You really don't remember me anymore?】"

"Would that last one be too direct? It's been so long, it would be normal if he doesn't remember me."

Listening to the girl mutter to herself, the female housekeeper rolled her eyes and stood in the corner like a wooden post.

The Shao family, and the Xue family to which Li Cheng's uncle-by-marriage Xue Jingming belongs, are both among the eight great families that signed contracts with the Special Affairs Bureau to jointly explore Killing Grounds.

The difference is that Xue Jingming is only a branch of a branch of the Xue family, hardly counting as an important member. Whereas Shao Wangshu, along with her twin older brother and sister, is a core member of this generation of the Shao family.

In her veins flows the blood of a Divine Scourge.

(End of chapter)