Chapter 56: I Have Parents Too
1372 Words
Eternal night has no sun. The daylight is a void of black, and the night is even darker.
Many people experience disruptions to their biological clocks because of this, but the Zhou family is managing well. With heating and lighting, and with Wu Xue as the "family health doctor," she insists everyone follows a normal routine, which is better for their health.
It’s past midnight, and while the others are asleep, Zhou Lin is on the sofa scrolling through his phone. The "End of the World Human Alliance" forum has been growing, with more members joining, and the various sections are becoming more active. Recently, a regional section for Asharan was launched. Today alone, there are over five hundred new posts, most of them about finding people or exchanging goods. Some bored individuals are posting long-winded analyses as well.
Zhou Lin isn't interested in the posts about people, but several exchange posts catch his attention. What were once precious antiques, jewels, and luxury goods now pale in comparison to food and medicine.
A diamond ring worth tens of thousands of credits might now be exchanged for ten kilograms of rice. High-value calligraphy or paintings worth hundreds of thousands are traded for a hundred kilograms of staple grains, and expensive handbags are swapped for a few loaves of bread.
“Too bad transportation is inconvenient,” Zhou Lin muses. “Otherwise, I could trade some stuff... but I’ll wait for the Eternal Night to end. There’s no rush.”
Just as he’s lost in thought, the alarm on the surveillance monitor suddenly blares.
Someone’s outside the explosion-proof door!
“At this hour... little thief,” Zhou Lin mutters. He turns off the alarm to avoid waking the others and pulls up the camera feed. He’s surprised to see it’s none other than Sun Chenghao, sneaking around at the door, tapping softly, without a flashlight. It’s lucky the cameras are there; otherwise, no one would hear him.
Zhou Lin checks the camera again and confirms there’s only Sun Chenghao. He goes to open the door.
“What are you doing here?”
“Big Brother, I’ve got major intelligence! Important intel!” Sun Chenghao looks around nervously in the dark hallway. “Can I come in and talk?”
“Major intel?” Zhou Lin frowns but motions for him to enter the hallway. “Spit it out.”
The little coffee table is still there, and the hallway is almost becoming the Zhou family’s living room, meant for receiving "guests."
“Big Brother, the property manager, Manager Shao, and Yang Qiqi are colluding. They’re planning to rob you!”
“Rob me?”
“It could be in the next couple of days,” Sun Chenghao says.
Zhou Lin laughs. “Aren’t you working with them? Why the sudden tip-off?”
“Because after some reflection, I realized you’re more like the main character in a novel.”
“The main character?” Zhou Lin is amused and asks Sun Chenghao to explain.
“Mainly because of Ai Bing and Yang Qiqi—those two are typical ‘green tea types,’ you know? Usually, anyone who blindly follows them is the villain, and those who are targeted by them are usually the main characters in the story. Don’t you think that’s the case, Big Brother?”
“Just because of that?”
“Hey,” Sun Chenghao rubs his hands, pointing to the explosion-proof door behind him. “Isn’t it obvious?”
Indeed, no one alive in this world is simple, and Sun Chenghao seems to have developed a suspicion about the Zhou family’s preparations. This suspicion doesn’t mean he’s plotting anything sinister—it’s more about trying to grab a chance to get close to a stronger ally.
“Wait here.”
Zhou Lin goes inside to grab some food to give Sun Chenghao, thinking of sending him on his way. But to his surprise, Sun Chenghao refuses, looking at him pitifully.
“I’ve spent my whole life doing nothing of value for society, but my parents are still alive. If I have the chance, I want to go back, even if I can’t help them much. I just want to be with them again... at least we’ll leave together.”
“Leave together, huh?” Zhou Lin asks with a pointed look, and Sun Chenghao freezes for a moment, the tears threatening to fall, unsure whether to cry or hold back.
“Would you like a hand-cranked flashlight? One that won’t run out of power as long as your hands are still working?”
“They’re divorced,” Sun Chenghao says, wiping his face with an awkward laugh.
“I could tell.”
“Really? You can tell that?”
Zhou Lin nods seriously. “I’m not lacking in food, and I have plenty of other things. But I’m not kind, I don’t care about morality, and I don’t feel any sympathy or pity. So…”
“I get it!” Sun Chenghao grabs the food Zhou Lin placed on the coffee table. “From now on, you’re my Big Brother, and I’ll be your undercover agent!”
“It’s not that dramatic... I’m saying Yang Qiqi and them aren’t worth being my enemies. They’re just a bunch of minor pests.”
“Got it! Big Brother, from now on, I’ll be your ‘cockroach killer,’ the kind that wipes out the whole nest with one pill!”
Sun Chenghao leaves.
Zhou Lin is left thinking—can he really exterminate a whole nest of cockroaches? It’s hard to say. Sun Chenghao seems to be a genuine troublemaker, probably the result of an unfortunate childhood and lack of abilities. His greatest contribution to society is merely adding to the population. But didn’t Zhou Lin also end up as one of those people in his past life?
In the end, it doesn’t matter.
Even without awakening any abilities or undergoing evolution after his rebirth, Zhou Lin still intends to survive. Sometimes, living isn’t just for yourself. A newborn baby has no survival skills, but when they grow up and realize this fact, they’re already in debt.
Maybe Zhou Lin’s rebirth is to pay off that debt—after all, he didn’t take care of his parents in his previous life, and he didn’t even know if they were alive or dead. So in that sense, it’s only fair that he seeks compensation from people like Ai Bing and Tang Yili.
What he owes in his past life, he’ll pay back—principal and interest!
As for Shao Hang, Zhou Lin can only blame him for thinking of doing something he shouldn’t have.
Maybe Shao Hang doesn’t think he’s done anything wrong.
But as Sun Chenghao said, everyone wants to survive, and Shao Hang is no exception. However, he’s more ambitious than Sun Chenghao—not just content with surviving, he wants to live comfortably, even arrogantly, which led him to cooperate with Yang Qiqi.
The locksmith arrives, and Huang Xuefeng uses a bag of bread as payment to bring the locksmith from the neighboring district.
The locksmith looks like an honest man—after all if he looked like a thief, the police wouldn’t have issued him a locksmith certificate.
But no matter how honest someone is, in the face of hunger and death, anyone could be tempted to take risks.
And opening a door is far from a crime.
“This door won’t open,” the locksmith says when he sees the explosion-proof door.
“You haven’t even tried it, how do you know it won’t open?” Huang Xuefeng slaps the back of the locksmith’s head with a loud smack.
“Big Brother, are you asking me to open a security door? This is a security door?” The locksmith points at the explosion-proof door.
“What’s the difference?”
“This is an anti-violence door! It’s designed to resist violent force, not explosions! If I use the tools properly, all the locks and latches will be sealed tight. You can’t even blow it open with explosives, it’s like the vault door at a bank!”
“D*mn!”
Huang Xuefeng turns to Shao Hang. “What now, Boss?”
- Writer
