Chapter 76: Zhuang Zhou Dreamed of Being a Butterfly

At five in the afternoon, Liu Hongzhi walked slowly out of the Sha County Snacks shop beneath his residential building. This time, he didn’t run a tab—he paid off every single past debt all at once. As he stepped out, he felt the shop owner’s gaze toward him had grown slightly gentler.

As he left, the shop owner caught up and lightly patted his shoulder.

“What’s up? Did I miss paying something?” Liu Hongzhi asked with a grin.

The shop owner chuckled: “Hah! You won money, huh? Your voice sounds different now.”

“Of course. Money is a man’s backbone. Now my balls are made of gold—I can’t help but stand tall.” Liu Hongzhi grinned. “So, what’s up?”

“Nothing much.” The shop owner wiped his hands on his apron, his expression turning slightly serious, like an elder offering earnest advice: “You’ve been owing me for ages. Today you suddenly come back and pay it all off—I figure you won something.”

“I won’t ask how much you won. Keep it all. But try to pay off your gambling debts, don’t go back to betting—find a real job… don’t make your parents worry.”

“Alright, alright, I know.” Liu Hongzhi waved him off and left the Sha County Snacks shop.

The owner watched his swaggering back disappear and sighed heavily. His wife stepped up beside him: “This guy’s always like this—wins a little cash and gets cocky, never learns. He’ll lose it all again soon, end up deeper in debt.”

“Poor old lady of his—eighty years old and still doing housework for others…”

The couple chatted at the door for a moment, then returned inside to work. Outside, Liu Hongzhi walked farther away, his confident smile fading, replaced by dread and hesitation.

The shop owners assumed he’d just gotten lucky and came to splurge. But only Liu Hongzhi knew he hadn’t won a single cent. The money to clear his debts came from yesterday… he sold his life.

With a chilling tremor of fear, Liu Hongzhi entered a high-end restaurant, ordered the most expensive dishes and finest wine without even looking.

The food arrived, the wine uncorked, the aroma rich and tempting—but he had no appetite at all. A dying man cannot find joy in the pleasures of the living.

The standing server noticed and approached politely: “Sir? Is everything unsatisfactory?”

“Hmm…” Liu Hongzhi shook his head. “I need to use the restroom.”

“Of course, the restroom is…”

Dressed in shabby clothes, Liu Hongzhi walked through the restaurant’s opulent corridors and entered the restroom—the cleanest, neatest restroom he’d ever seen in his life.

He didn’t use the toilet. He walked straight to the sink, turned on the cold water, and washed his face.

When he lifted his head, water droplets clung to his eyelashes, blurring his vision. The mirror reflected a gaunt, haggard man: sparse, unkempt beard, a stained canvas jacket, suspicious grease smudges. The server hadn’t called him a beggar—only because of his professional demeanor.

Staring at his blurred reflection, Liu Hongzhi’s lips quivered. He began to sob, silent, broken, unable to speak.

“Mom…”

He covered his face with both hands, muffling his sobs so they wouldn’t escape the restroom.

He still remembered what happened last night.

Last night, Liu Hongzhi had lost the five hundred yuan he stole from a stolen electric scooter at the gambling table. Caught cheating with cards hidden in his crotch, he was beaten black and blue and thrown out.

Cold, hungry, aching, he wandered dazedly down the riverside sidewalk to the bridge arch, hoping to beg something to eat from the guys sleeping there.

A light drizzle fell over the riverbank. Watching the churning white waves, Liu Hongzhi suddenly felt the urge to jump. He bit his lip and took a few steps toward the edge—when a voice came from behind:

“Don’t jump yet, buddy.”

Liu Hongzhi turned. A tall, thin man stood there, dressed in a tailored high-end trench coat, wearing a grotesque, terrifying demon mask.

The masked man stepped forward, clapped his shoulder, and spoke in a voice like it came from hell: “You’re not able to live… or you don’t want to?”

Liu Hongzhi was confused: “What’s the difference?”

“The difference is huge.” The masked man, unmoved by the filth, draped an arm around Liu Hongzhi’s shoulder and pointed toward the wide river: “Not wanting to live means you never wanted to. Like someone with depression—even with silk robes and jade meals, they find life meaningless. They just want to die.”

“Not being able to live means life is too hard—so hard, death feels better.”

“Hardship alone isn’t the worst. The worst is when you can’t see an end to it. You don’t know why you suffer, or when it’ll stop. When you have no hope for the future, it’s better to die now than suffer a lifetime of struggle.”

Which one are you?

Liu Hongzhi thought carefully: “I… I guess both.”

“You seem pretty life-weary.” The masked man smiled. “Forget jumping. Since you don’t care about this rotten life of yours—how about I make you an offer? Sell me your life.”

“Huh?” Liu Hongzhi froze. “You… who are you…?”

“Knowing too much isn’t good, brother.” The masked man shook his head. “Just answer: sell or not? Sell me your life, and I’ll wipe out all your gambling debts. Plus, I’ll give you a fortune to spend, live like a rich man. How’s that?”

“Decide quickly—or I’ll find someone else…”

The rain that day was light. Liu Hongzhi hadn’t drunk much. Yet the masked man’s outline remained blurred, hazy, like drifting smoke.

Against all reason, Liu Hongzhi nodded.

=9+book_bar

When he came to, he was lying cold and stiff in the bridge arch. There was no trench-coated masked man. No deal had been made. The whole thing felt like a dream. Tomorrow awaited him, as dull and empty as ever.

Until this afternoon, at the Sha County Snacks shop, when his WeChat payment again showed insufficient balance. With a half-joking thought, he tried his bank card.

He knew his bank account had zero yuan left.

But the payment succeeded.

Frantic, Liu Hongzhi used the shop’s Wi-Fi to redownload the bank app. He failed facial recognition several times because of his scruffy beard—until the impossible balance appeared on screen. A thunderclap ripped through his mind.

He really had sold his life.

“Will I die…?” His thoughts snapped back to now. Trembling hands wiped the water from his face. He stared at his wild-eyed reflection in the mirror, his lips twitching in a sick, unnatural grin.

He left the restroom and returned to his private room, devouring the lavish feast like a starving man.

Minutes after Liu Hongzhi left the restroom, a beautiful butterfly landed quietly on the sink.

“Good. Another life secured.” Ning Zhe stood where Liu Hongzhi had been. In the mirror, his own face was beginning to twist—distorted organ outlines emerging, a sign of unstable self-identity from absorbing too many memories too quickly.

“I am Ning Zhe.”

“I am also Ning Zhe.”

“We are all Ning Zhe…”

After reinforcing his mind with another mental imprint, Ning Zhe transformed into a butterfly and left the hotel.

He was about to do something dangerous. He needed to prepare to die there.

He chose Liu Hongzhi to buy his life for no noble reason—only because this worthless gambler had spent years rotting in society’s stinking gutter. No one would care if he vanished.

Maybe his old mother would care? Who knows.

(End of Chapter)