Chapter 249: Instigate

Breeze Dance Hall, second-floor cafe.

Lu Mi, who had just finished lunch, saw Franca, who was wearing a white shirt, light-colored riding breeches, and red boots, again.

This time, Franca's expression was very solemn, making black-gang thugs like Louis and Sacota feel a bit uneasy, afraid that she had come to find trouble.

Lu Mi stood up and used his gaze to ask what had happened.

Franca exhaled slowly and said:

"Yu Jianna's mother has passed away."

Lu Mi was stunned for a moment, as if he saw the madman Flamant hanging on the window frame and Mr. Ruel who died of whole-body ulceration again.

His eyes narrowed slightly, his hands clenched into fists unconsciously, and it was only after a few seconds that he asked:

"Death caused by deterioration of the illness?"

"No." Franca shook her head, "It was suicide."

Seeing the confused and uncomprehending expression on Lu Mi's face, she explained with a sigh:

"When I went to find Yu Jianna last night, I was worried that she would be stubborn and unwilling to tell us some difficulties and seek our help, so I specially got to know the attending doctor and the nurses responsible for that floor, treated them to coffee and desserts, and let them help keep an eye on Yu Jianna's mother's situation. If there was anything wrong, they were to immediately hire someone to find me, and I would be responsible for the corresponding expenses."

"They said that after Yu Jianna's mother knew about the treatment for several months and the approximate cost, she took advantage of Yu Jianna going to the restaurant and Julian finding the doctor, and jumped down from the sixth floor..."

"Her body was already very poor, and she died on the spot."

Lu Mi was silent, suddenly pressing his left chest and laughing with a mocking tone:

"Is this the destined fate?"

Franca couldn't answer.

One o'clock in the afternoon, Lu Mi and Franca rushed to the Saint-Palais Hospital and were led by the nurse whom the latter had deliberately befriended to the end-of-life consolation room located on the ground floor of the annex.

It was called end-of-life consolation, but the deceased waiting for purification would also be sent here.

Yu Jianna's brother, Julian, was squatting at the door, holding his head, looking at the wall painted with sky-blue oil paint opposite with a painful expression.

Franca approached and asked in a low voice:

"Are Auntie and Yu Jianna inside?"

Julian nodded slowly and said painfully to himself:

"I shouldn't have left her alone in the ward...

"I shouldn't have left her alone in the ward..."

Franca didn't know how to comfort him, so she could only sigh secretly and walk into the end-of-life consolation room located to the side of Julian.

Elodie's corpse was placed on a bed covered with a white sheet, covered with a plain white cloth.

The blood on her body had been cleaned up. Her complexion was pale, and her eyes were tightly closed.

Yu Jianna sat on the round stool opposite, staring blankly at her mother's corpse, her gaze hollow, not speaking, as if she had lost her soul.

Franca shouted her name with both heartache and concern, but Yu Jianna didn't hear or respond, as if she had sealed herself in another world.

Lu Mi pulled over a chair, sat down beside Yu Jianna, and also looked at Elodie, who had already passed away.

A few seconds later, he said in a low voice:

"I can understand your feelings, because not long ago, I also lost the relative who was most important to me."

Yu Jianna didn't respond, just like she had turned into a statue.

Lu Mi and she looked at the same place and continued to say:

"But you need to know who caused this tragedy."

"Is it your fault, is it your mother's fault, is it your brother's fault?"

"No, you don't have any fault! You faced the accident, faced the debt, chose to bear it strongly, chose to exchange your own labor and pain for a new life, used several years of time, and finally walked out bit by bit. Was it wrong? No!"

"This time, you didn't abandon your relative, tried hard to seek a solution. Was it wrong? No!"

"You didn't hide it from your mother, told her the treatment cycle, cost, and source frankly. Was it wrong? No! This is a matter that couldn't be hidden!"

"Your mother loved you, wanted to let you no longer repeat the painful life of the previous few years, wanted to see you walk in the light, not in the darkness. Was it wrong? No!"

"Who is wrong?"

"It's that factory owner who kept appealing, delaying the accident compensation, letting you live a painful and repressed life for several years!"

"It's the law that protects this kind of behavior!"

"It's Bono Goodwill who ignored safety regulations and didn't replace the broken machines!"

"It's the treatment costs that make the poor despair!"

"It's the Parliament and government that caused all of this and indulged all of this!"

Yu Jianna's expression finally had a certain change, and painful emotions were revealed a little from her hollow eyes and wooden face.

Lu Mi glanced at the door and said in a deep voice:

"I can also tell you one more thing: the Goodwill Chemical Plant explosion that caused your mother's tragedy might not be an accident."

Yu Jianna instinctively turned around and looked at Lu Mi and Franca.

Lu Mi cast his gaze toward Elodie's corpse:

"That was perhaps a murder, a sacrifice offered to an evil god."

"Our respected MP Hugues Artois is evaluated by powerful evil god believers as an open-minded person. Around him surround one evil god believer after another, and this includes Tibert Jacques, the assistant secretary who manufactured diseases to kill innocent people."

"Yesterday morning, Bono Goodwill visited the MP's office, and by evening, his chemical plant exploded."

"When I disguised myself as Bono Goodwill to see Tibert Jacques, he said a passage about the inevitable problems that appear after an organization decays, which made me believe even more that the chemical plant explosion was what they were looking forward to, or even directly caused, for some purpose we don't yet know."

"Are you angry? Do you hate? Are you reconciled?"

"Do you want to sit here and watch those murderers who killed your mother and killed your happiness drink champagne, hold dance parties, and bring about the fragmentation of more families?"

Yu Jianna's expression was vaguely twisted, and her heart seemed to have an intense struggle.

Finally, she raised both hands, covered her face, and cried loudly:

"But my mother, but my mother can no longer come back to life..."

Franca squatted in front of her, hugged her, and while letting her cry, conducted some enlightenment:

"What your mother most wants to see is that you and your brother are no longer troubled by debt, possess a brand-new life, wants to see you become an outstanding drama actor, see you get rid of the limitations of an ordinary worker and master a certain technique, wants to see you live well. Can you bear to let her down?"

Yu Jianna asked while crying:

"Isn't it said that the night will surely pass and the light will surely arrive? Why, why is it always so dark, why, why can't I see a bit of light..."

"It will come, it will come." Franca kept patting Yu Jianna's back, "What you need to do most now is to properly bury your mother, then consider doing something for her."

"Um." Yu Jianna promised while crying.

Crying until she was exhausted, her emotions finally stabilized a bit.

At this time, the priest from the Church of the "Eternal Blazing Sun" who came to provide end-of-life consolation arrived.

He was wearing a white robe inlaid with gold silk and entered the room with Julian, standing beside Elodie's corpse.

He held the holy book in one hand and recited the prayer, while holding a holy water bottle in the other, placing it vaguely in mid-air.

By the end, a bit of sunlight accompanied by the sprinkled holy water was produced out of thin air, falling onto Elodie's body.

"Praise the Sun, may this sister rest in peace and enter the kingdom of God." The priest opened his arms.

"Praise the Sun!" Yu Jianna and Julian followed in prayer.

Lu Mi, who was watching the ceremony, lowered his head and sneered silently.

Franca, who was a believer of the "God of Steam and Machinery," also didn't "Praise the Sun."

The priest completed the purification and left the end-of-life consolation room. The management personnel responsible for the Saint-Palais Hospital morgue walked in and asked Julian and Yu Jianna:

"Is this sister to be buried directly, or cremated? Is she to be sent to the underground cemetery, or places like the Innocent Cemetery, Priest Cemetery?"

Julian and Yu Jianna looked at each other and said:

"Cremated, we will send her to the underground cemetery ourselves."

Their father was also buried there.

The morgue manager made a record and said:

"Too many people died last night. The crematorium has to wait until next week to have space. Is this sister to stay in the morgue first?"

"Okay." Yu Jianna's voice was a bit low and hoarse.

Then, the four of them watched Elodie's face being covered by the white cloth pulled up, and she was pushed out of the end-of-life consolation room.

They followed the hospital bed with metal wheels, took the steam-powered cabin elevator, arrived underground, and reached the outside of the morgue.

The pair of large doors of the morgue were silver-gray. Inside, it was dark and cold, manufacturing white mist at the intersection.

Yu Jianna watched blankly as Elodie's corpse was pushed through the large doors, pushed into the cold room full of metal cabinets lit by gas wall lamps, watching the silver-gray pair of large doors slowly close.

She chased forward a few steps subconsciously, then stopped at the door.

Silently, that large door closed.

She could no longer see her mother.

Returning to the Paxi Bridge in the Honest Market District.

Yu Jianna gazed at her brother Julian, who was walking alone in front, and felt another burst of sadness in her heart.

The afternoon sun was bright, but it made her feel dazzling.

Franca withdrew her gaze from Julian's back and, based on the idea of finding something for Yu Jianna to do, said:

"Your brother's emotions have been a bit wrong. He seems very self-blaming. You do more counseling for him these few days, telling him that it wasn't his fault, normal people would have gone to find a doctor immediately at that time."

Yu Jianna broke free from the sad emotions and gave an "um," saying:

"I will counsel him."

"But what if, it doesn't work?"

She looked helplessly at Lu Mi and Franca.

Franca nodded in a comforting manner:

"When the time comes, I can help him find a real 'psychologist,' the kind that possesses Beyonder abilities."

Yu Jianna breathed a sigh of relief, sniffed, and said:

"Thank you, thank you both."

"You also have to pay attention to your own psychological situation." Lu Mi reminded her with quite a bit of experience.

Yu Jianna pursed her lips and nodded, looking forward, her gaze gradually becoming firm.

She said to Franca and Lu Mi in a low, hoarse voice:

"I want to 'visit' Bono Goodwill tonight."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 250 =====