Chapter 144 122: A Life for a Life! A Debt Must Be Paid

October 5th.

The group quickened the pace of their travels, visiting mountaintops, the ocean, skyscrapers, and everything in between. Every day was filled with beautiful sights and delicious food.

Xu Huo announced that Master Xu would be footing the bill for everyone, and he urged them to temporarily kick the habit of eating staple foods.

After a moment's thought, the group decided to stuff all the staple foods into Wang Chao's bottomless pit of a stomach.

Li Jianye praised Wang Chao as the "Number One Bucket of Hanhai Province," and Qian Hua presented him with an award.

...

October 6th.

While they were at an amusement park.

Sun Yang started to cough. She coughed up blood, the bright red liquid soaking into her pure-white cotton candy and staining it crimson.

The people around her fell silent.

Chu Xi didn't know how to express herself, and tears streamed down her face.

For the past two nights, she had been sleeping in the same room as Sun Yang, and they had become as close as sisters.

Wang Chao choked up a little, and while Li Jianye had expected this, his mood still sank.

Sun Yang was speechless.

"Guys, I'm the one who's dying. Why are you all the ones crying?"

Sun Yang sighed, clicked her tongue, and said,

"I'm not even sad. What are you all crying for?"

"Don't go, sis. I was hoping to hide out with you during the New Year," Wang Chao said, his voice thick with emotion.

"This life-saving talisman blessed by a grandmaster isn't working at all. I got scammed out of a hundred yuan! That crooked monk!"

"I'm not scared, so what are you all afraid of?"

Sun Yang felt even more exasperated.

She looked at the people around her and gave a weary, incredulous smile.

"I just wanted to come out and have some fun while I still had time. I've never really gotten the chance before."

"If I die, I die. Besides, this isn't my body anyway. I'm just an alter."

"According to the doctor, my personality has a major flaw. I only have positive, sunny, and optimistic emotions. No negative ones."

Sun Yang explained her condition, a hint of exasperation in her voice.

Alters are all flawed to some extent. Because their memories are selectively formed, their personalities are naturally incomplete.

Sun Yang said she was the polar opposite of the fourth personality, who was suicidal and full of negative energy.

She, on the other hand, was completely positive and optimistic, remaining cheerful even after being disabled.

"Get it now?"

Sun Yang looked wearily at Wang Chao, the man four years her senior who had also made her happier than anyone else these past two days.

"I don't have negative emotions."

...

...

October 8th.

Sun Yang was dead.

It was the twelfth day of her pulmonary fibrosis.

She died two days earlier than expected.

In the local police station of the city they were visiting, Xu Huo and the others stared at Sun Yang's body in silence.

After a long moment, someone finally spoke...

"She lied."

Qian Hua said.

He stared at Sun Yang's face, his own expressionless.

"She lied to all of us," Li Jianye breathed out, his words followed by a profound silence.

Xu Huo said nothing.

He looked at Sun Yang's face—scarred and disfigured by burns, but you could still faintly see how beautiful it must have once been.

On that face...

...were the dried tracks of tears at the corners of her eyes.

She did have feelings. After absorbing the fourth personality, she was just a normal person with a few minor flaws.

She could feel sadness, and she could cry.

Xu Huo remained silent. The fourth personality, the primary, and the second had been too ruthless. There was no medical cure for paraquat poisoning.

If the primary personality had resisted even a little, not a single drop of paraquat would have entered her mouth.

When the active personality was in a hazy state, the primary had significant authority and could have taken over at any moment. But the problem was...

...she had wanted to die for a long time.

"Haa... This world..."

Xu Huo walked out of the police station and sat down on the curb, surrounded by Li Jianye and the others.

They all looked up at the sky. For a long while, no one knew what to say.

"Where did it all go wrong...?"

"What went wrong?" a young Police Officer asked quietly.

No one around him answered.

After a long silence, Xu Huo's voice broke it.

"The mistake was that we showed up too late."

Li Jianye raised his hand and clenched his fist, but he couldn't grasp anything.

"Five months."

"We were five months too late."

"Liu Wen wouldn't have had to die, his mother could have lived, Liu Bo could have gotten out, and Sun Yang could have reconciled with her extreme personality..."

Hearing this, Xu Huo shook his head.

"It's been two years."

"We were two years too late."

At these words, everyone fell completely silent.

A few rookie Police Officers fell silent.

Something was churning in their chests. After a long moment, the thought of a cigarette—something they usually disdained—popped into their minds.

They watched the endless stream of traffic outside.

They watched the twilight sunset.

They watched a mother and child on the roadside, big hand holding little hand, on their way home from school.

They also watched a small yellow dog on the roadside playfully scaring a child.

Finally, Xu Huo stood up.

"We're going back."

"Get Cheng Yang to the station!"

As he spoke, a smile appeared on his face.

The smile slowly twisted into a somewhat savage grin, a strange glint appeared in his eyes, and an idea took shape in his mind.

"Oh, and don't just raid him."

"Summon him in advance. Set it for tomorrow. Be gentle, not forceful. Give him plenty of time to prepare. And then wait for me..."

"to pay him a visit!"

A life for a life...

A debt paid in full!

Xu Huo wasn't a STEM guy, but he did like math. He wanted to ask Cheng Yang...

...what 1+1...

...really equals.

A cold glint appeared in Li Jianye's eyes.

"Alright!"