Chapter 150

Chapter 150

"Welcome back, Ji Mian."

"Back? Who are you talking to?" Ji Mian looked at the system beside him, guessing the words were meant for it.

"My name is Zero Eight, a fragment of the main god's consciousness at the service point." This was clearly meant for Ji Mian.

Zero Eight... Ji Mian didn’t want to judge others’ names, but Zero Eight really seemed like a homophone for the number 08.

The main god’s naming style is pretty casual.

"I brought my host here to get a resurrection card," the system said.

"Also, there’s the issue with his memory. I’ve reported it to HQ multiple times but never got a reply."

Zero Eight maintained a gentle tone: "017’s memory is stored here and will be returned once the task is done."

Hearing this, Ji Mian and the system were both shocked.

Zero Eight gently bent down and cradled Ji Mian in her hands.

"Welcome back, 017."

……

……

The heat was unbearable.

The hastily plastered cement walls did nothing to keep out the summer heat. The room was entirely gray—floor, walls, ceiling—just a layer of cement, like a bare-bones space with a door and a few essential pieces of furniture.

The landlord showed a tall, skinny boy in, "This is the only room left, on the fourth floor."

The landlord, a heavyset woman, fanned herself with a plastic fan advertising hemorrhoid treatment from some hospital, unfazed by it.

Lou Sheng peered inside.

The room had just a hard wooden bed, a rickety table, and no stool.

The tiny bathroom had an old, yellowed water heater.

"Fine." At 150 a month, Lou Sheng wasn’t about to complain.

The landlord eyed him, "How old are you?"

He spoke like an adult, but his face looked young.

The boy was lean, his face gaunt. His arms were muscular from hard labor, standing out on his slender frame.

The rent was cheap, attracting young workers—some avoiding school, others with deeper issues. The landlord figured he was one of them.

"I’m sixteen."

Younger than she’d thought. At sixteen, he could sign, but she preferred adults.

"Oh, then we can’t sign. Your parents will have to come."

Lou Sheng stayed silent.

The landlord just shook her head. "We can't sign a contract."

Lou Sheng checked out a few more places for rent, all saying the same thing, so he hoisted his bag and kept looking.

The landlord watched his back for a while, noticing his plain buzz cut and a demeanor that seemed too mature for his age—serious, not someone to mess with. But he looked clean, without the shady vibe of some young troublemakers.

"Hey—" she called out to the person already at the stairwell.

Making that hundred or so bucks, a contract wasn’t really necessary. Even if the kid couldn’t pay the rent, the loss wouldn’t be a big deal.

Lou Sheng paused.

The landlord walked over, "You work around here?"

"I’m a student." Noticing the landlord’s hesitation, Lou Sheng added, "I can pay the rent."

"Which school?"

"Beiyang High School."

Beiyang High School, where less than forty percent of students get into college, wasn’t impressive in the provincial capital, but in this small city, it was the best one.

Hearing he was a good student, the landlord’s expression immediately softened, "Alright, then. If you really want to stay, pay this month’s rent first, plus a month’s deposit, so I feel more secure. You’ll get the deposit back when you leave—I won’t keep it."

After she finished, she saw Lou Sheng’s face stayed blank.

From the moment she met him, he had always had this cold demeanor. When told he couldn’t sign the contract, he didn’t even blink before turning to leave.

Sixteen years old—where does he get this from? The landlord fanned herself as sweat dripped down her forehead.

Lou Sheng put down his backpack and took something out from it.

The landlord pulled out her phone and opened the payment code.

But Lou Sheng handed over three red bills.

The landlord was stunned, "No phone?"

"I don’t have a smartphone."

The landlord took the money, "When will you move in?"

"Today."

...

Lou Sheng threw his backpack onto the shabby wooden table. Inside were some leftover toiletries and a set of bedsheets he had brought from his previous rental.

Other than that, nothing in the room belonged to him.

There had been half a box of first-year high school books and a quilt, but when he packed them and left them by the door, they were taken by an old scrap collector while he went downstairs to fetch a bottle of water. The old man, in his sixties, had pedaled away on his tricycle down several streets in just two minutes. Lou Sheng couldn’t find him no matter how hard he tried.

Damn, how much could a box of books and a quilt even fetch as scrap? Did that old scrap collector know how much he had spent on those things!

He pulled out two hundred-yuan bills, thinking of going downstairs to buy a quilt. But then he reconsidered—winter was still a while away, he could make do for now.

He tucked the money back in.

The old phone in his bag started ringing loudly, the sound startling.

Lou Sheng had always wanted to silence this crappy phone, but after searching through all the buttons, he couldn’t find the one to control the ringtone. Finally, he realized this piece of junk didn’t even have a ringtone setting.

What a useless phone.

The moment the call connected, Liu Xing’s booming voice came through: "Brother Sheng, did you get the rental?"

"Yeah."

"Did you manage to get your tutoring money back?"

Bringing up the tutoring fee just pissed Lou Sheng off. "No, couldn’t get it back."

If it weren’t for the guy who hired him for tutoring stiffing him on the payment, Lou Sheng would still be sleeping in his 300-yuan-a-month room.

It wasn’t much better than this dump, but at least the mattress was okay.

"You want me to round up some guys and..."

"Screw off."

"But school starts in two days—what about your tuition?"

"I’ve got just enough."

"Oh, alright. If you’re strapped for cash, I’ve got a little… sixty-seven… no, sixty-six yuan… I can spot you."

"Buzz off."

"Ah…" Liu Xing quickly backed off.

After hanging up, Lou Sheng unpacked the few things in his bag and put them away.

There wasn’t much to unpack, just a handful of stuff.

Lou Sheng was adopted.

When he was two, before he could even make sense of the world, a middle-aged couple with a simple appearance took him from the orphanage.

His adoptive mom had trouble getting pregnant, and the couple hadn’t been able to have a child for over a decade. Worried about having no heir, they decided to adopt.

Lou Sheng was kind of unlucky, while his adoptive parents got lucky. In the beginning of the year after adopting Lou Sheng, his nearly forty-year-old adoptive mother unexpectedly became pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy.

His adoptive dad was thrilled looking at the chubby baby in the crib, but that joy didn’t last long.

Raising two kids meant money was tight for everything. Their family was just an ordinary farming household, and baby formula was expensive and consumed quickly. At the same time, Lou Sheng was nearing school age… They couldn’t swing kindergarten, so they held off a few years and sent Lou Sheng straight to elementary school, skipping preschool.

Once you do something cold-hearted, it gets easier from there.

After that, Lou Sheng became an afterthought in the family. Especially when it came to school fees, he was like a ghost—barely noticed by the old couple.

When he first started elementary school, Lou Sheng’s grades weren’t great, but he improved quickly and within two years, he was consistently first in his class. This ranking lasted until he graduated from middle school.

A few top high schools in the provincial capital had reached out, all elite schools with over a 95% college acceptance rate. But Lou Sheng didn’t go, staying instead at Beiyang High School because the school leadership offered a benefit: his younger brother could attend Beiyang High School after the middle school entrance exam without considering his grades. This quid pro quo was an unspoken perk reserved for top students.

Beiyang High School, in the eyes of high-achieving students, wasn’t much. But to the old couple who had never been educated, the top school in Beiyang City was the best in the world.

Lou Sheng’s adoptive parents pleaded with him in tears to repay their kindness. It was the first time Lou Sheng had seen someone beg for gratitude, and it was quite an eye-opener.

He saw it as settling the debt for their years of care, and from then on, he moved out and never looked back.

For a year and three months, his adoptive parents hadn’t called him a single time. Lou Sheng hadn’t treated his younger brother poorly, yet his brother hadn’t reached out either.

He felt like a stray dog nobody cared about, forgotten wherever he went.

As just a living creature, Lou Sheng’s life wasn’t too bad—he had food, clothes, a healthy body, a functional mind, and a wooden bed to sleep on. He had less than a thousand dollars to his name, barely enough to pay for school in a few days.

But as a student, maybe it was a little rough.

The room felt stuffy, so Lou Sheng opened the large window.

The long-neglected window, rusted and worn, creaked sharply as it opened.

He frowned at the overly wide and drafty window.

What a mess. How’s anyone supposed to survive here in winter?

Lou Sheng looked away and went to shower.

He checked the water heater first. Despite its age, it still worked surprisingly well.

He turned off the water heater.

It was still late summer, so he didn’t need hot water.

After the warm breeze from the window half-dried his hair, Lou Sheng lay down on the bed.

The bed was covered with a thin sheet, and nothing else.

Luckily, he had tough shoulders, so the discomfort didn’t bother him.

Whether it’s a wooden bed or a spring mattress, in the end, anyone can get by without the other.