Chapter 506: Childhood Sweethearts

Li Li Xuewu carried his daughter back to the backyard and ran into Qin Qin Huairu and her daughter-in-law hauling out furniture.

"What are you doing?"

Seeing the two straining to move a cabinet, Li Li Xuewu couldn't help but smile and ask.

Qin Qin Huairu didn't dare reply until she'd finished moving what was in her hands...

I am a failure, hardly noticing whether the sun shines brightly or not, because I have no time.

My parents couldn't support me, my education was low, and I wandered alone in the city searching for a future.

I applied for many jobs but was never hired—perhaps no one liked someone who couldn't speak well, avoided communication, and showed no sufficient ability.

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I went three full days eating only two loaves of bread; hunger kept me awake at night. Luckily, I'd paid a month's rent in advance, so I could still live in that dark basement, avoiding the bitterly cold winter winds outside.

Finally, I got a job: night watch at the hospital, guarding the morgue.

The hospital nights were colder than I imagined; the corridor wall lamps were unlit, everything dim, and I could only see my feet by the faint light leaking from the rooms.

The smell there was foul; corpses in body bags were occasionally brought in, and we helped carry them into the morgue.

It wasn't a good job, but at least it let me buy bread, and my free nights could be used for studying—after all, few wanted to come to the morgue unless a corpse needed bringing in or taking away for cremation. Still, I couldn't afford books, and I saw no hope of saving money.

I owe thanks to my former colleague; if he hadn't quit suddenly, I might never have gotten even this job.

I dreamed of switching to day shifts—I always slept when the sun rose and woke when night fell, leaving my body weak and my head occasionally throbbing.

One day, laborers delivered a new corpse.

Others told me it was my former colleague who had quit suddenly.

I was curious about him. After everyone left, I pulled out the drawer and quietly opened the body bag.

He was an old man, his face bluish-white, covered in wrinkles, terrifying under the dim light.

He had little hair, most of it white; all his clothes had been stripped off, not even a scrap of fabric left on him.

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I saw a strange mark on his chest—dark bluish-black—I couldn't describe its exact shape; the lighting was far too dim.

I reached out and touched the mark; it felt nothing special.

Looking at my former colleague, I wondered: if I kept going like this, when I grew old, would I end up like him…

I told him: tomorrow I'll accompany you to the crematorium and personally take your ashes to the nearest free cemetery, so those in charge won't get annoyed and just dump them by some river or wasteland.

It'll cost me one morning's sleep, but luckily, Sunday's coming—I can make it up.

After saying that, I sealed the body bag and shoved it back into the drawer.

The room's light seemed even darker…

Ever since that day, every time I slept, I dreamed of thick fog.

I sensed something was about to happen, sensed that sooner or later, something I couldn't even call human would come for me—but no one believed me; they thought working in such an environment had made me mentally unstable, that I needed a doctor…

A male customer sitting at the bar looked at the storyteller who had suddenly fallen silent:

"And then?"

The man was in his thirties, wearing a brown tweed jacket and light yellow trousers, his hair flattened, a simple dark round hat beside him.

He looked ordinary, like most in the tavern: black hair, pale blue eyes, neither ugly nor handsome, lacking any distinct features.

But to his eyes, the storyteller was a young man of eighteen or nineteen, tall and slender-limbed, also with short black hair and pale blue eyes, yet with sharp features that struck the eye.

The young man stared at his empty glass and sighed:

"And then?"

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"Then I quit and returned to the countryside, came here to brag to you."

As he spoke, a mischievous smile spread across his face.

The male customer blinked in surprise:

"You were just making all that up?"

Laughter erupted around the bar.

As the laughter subsided, a thin middle-aged man looked at the embarrassed guest and said:

"Foreigner, you actually believed Lu Lu Mian's story? He tells a different one every day—yesterday he was a poor fool whose fiancée broke off their engagement; today he's a corpse watcher!"

"Yeah, blabbering nonsense about thirty years east of the Sailunzuohe, thirty years right of the Sailunzuohe—just rambling!" added another regular.

They were all farmers from the large village of Kerdou, wearing short jackets in black, gray, or brown.

The black-haired young man called Lu Lu Mian pushed himself up from the bar with both hands, smiling:

"You know, these aren't my stories—they're written by my sister. She loves writing, and she's even a columnist for the 'Novel Weekly.'"

After speaking, he turned to the side, gestured toward the visitor, and smiled brightly:

"Looks like she writes well."

"Sorry for misleading you."

The man in the brown tweed jacket, ordinary in appearance, didn't get angry—he stood up and smiled back:

"An interesting story."

"What's your name?"

"Isn't it common sense to introduce yourself before asking someone else's?" Lu Lu Mian laughed.

The foreign guest nodded:

"I'm Ryan Cos."

"These two are my companions, Valentine and Di Liya."

The last sentence referred to the man and woman sitting nearby.

The man was twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, with a dusting of powder on his yellow hair; his not-large eyes held a color slightly deeper than lake blue. He wore a white vest, a blue fine-wool coat, and black trousers, having clearly taken great care with his appearance before leaving home.

His expression was rather cold; he hardly looked at the surrounding farmers and herdsmen.

The woman appeared younger than the two men, her long light-gray hair tied into an intricate bun, covered by a white veil serving as a hat.

Her eyes matched her hair in color; the gaze she directed at Lu Lu Mian carried unmasked amusement, as if she found the events that had just occurred merely entertaining.

Under the glow of the tavern's gas wall lamp, this woman named Di Liya revealed a quite pretty nose and lips of beautiful curvature; in a rural place like Cordu Village, she was absolutely a beauty.

She wore a white, pleatless cashmere tight dress, paired with a cream-colored small coat and a pair of Mischir boots; two small silver bells were tied to her veil and boots respectively. When she had just entered the tavern, they had jingled all the way, drawing great attention and leaving many men staring with wide eyes.

In their eyes, this had to be the kind of fashionable attire found only in big cities like the provincial capital Bigor or the capital Trier.

Lu Lu Mian nodded to the three outsiders:

"My name is Lu Lu Mian Li; you may simply call me Lu Lu Mian."

"Li?" Di Liya blurted out.

"What's wrong? Is there a problem with my surname?" Lu Lu Mian asked curiously.

Ryan Kos explained for Di Liya:

"That surname of yours is terrifying; I almost couldn't control my voice just now."

Seeing the farmers and herdsmen around them look puzzled, he explained further:

"Anyone who has come into contact with sailors and sea merchants knows there is a saying circulating above the Five Seas:

"Better to encounter those pirate generals or even kings than to run into a man named Frank Li.

"That person's surname is also Li."

"Is he very terrible?" Lu Lu Mian asked.

Ryan shook his head:

"I don't know, but since such a legend exists, he certainly cannot be ordinary."

He ended this topic and said to Lu Lu Mian:

"Thank you for your story; it deserves a drink. What do you want?"

"A 'Green Fairy'." Lu Lu Mian was not at all polite and sat down again.

Ryan Kos frowned slightly and said:

"'Green Fairy'... absinthe?

"I think I need to remind you that absinthe is harmful to the human body; this liquor can cause mental derangement and make you experience hallucinations."

"I didn't expect the fashion trends of Trier to have spread here." Di Liya, sitting beside him, added with a smile.

Lu Lu Mian made an "Oh" sound:

"So people in Trier also like drinking 'Green Fairy'...

"For us, life is already hard enough; there's no need to care about a little more harm. This liquor can grant our spirits greater relaxation."

"Alright." Ryan sat back in his seat, looked toward the bartender, and said, "One 'Green Fairy', and add another 'Spicy Heart' for me."

"Spicy Heart" was a famous fruit brandy.

"Why not give me a 'Green Fairy' too? I was the one who told you the truth just now; I can also recount this boy's situation from beginning to end!" the first thin middle-aged man who had exposed Lu Lu Mian's daily storytelling shouted in dissatisfaction, "Outsiders, I can see you still have doubts about whether that story is true or false!"

"Pierre, for a free drink, you really will do anything!" Lu Lu Mian responded loudly.

Before Ryan could make a decision, Lu Lu Mian added:

"Why can't I tell it myself? That way, I can drink another 'Green Fairy'."

"Because they don't know whether to believe the situation you describe," the middle-aged man named Pierre said with a triumphant smile. "The story your sister loves most to tell children is 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf'; a person who always lies inevitably loses credibility."

"Alright." Lu Lu Mian shrugged his shoulders, watching the bartender push a glass of pale green liquor toward him.

Ryan looked at him and asked for confirmation:

"Is that okay?"

"No problem, as long as your wallet is sufficient to pay for these drinks." Lu Lu Mian was completely unconcerned.

"Then another 'Green Fairy'." Ryan nodded.

Pierre immediately beamed with a full face of smiles:

"Generous outsiders, this boy is the one in the village who loves pranks the most; you must stay far away from him.

"Five years ago, his sister Aurore brought him back to the village, and he has never left since. Think about it: before that, he was only thirteen years old; how could he possibly work as a corpse-keeper at a hospital? Hmm, the nearest hospital to us is in Daliye at the foot of the mountain; it takes a whole afternoon to walk there."

"Brought back to the village?" Di Liya asked sharply.

She tilted her head slightly, producing a jingling sound.

Pierre nodded:

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"After that, he took the surname 'Li' from Aurore, and even the name 'Lu Lu Mian' was chosen by Aurore."

"I've forgotten what he was originally called," Lu Lu Mian said with a grin after taking a sip of absinthe.

It appeared he felt neither inferiority nor shame about his past being exposed in this manner.