Chapter 26: Almost Became a Little Tyrant

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Chapter 26: Chapter 24. Almost a Little Tyrant

Ake clung to Hongyun’s arm and stared in surprise at the bandages around her abdomen. “Big Sister, you’re hurt?”

“It’s nothing,” Hongyun said softly.

“Don’t lie. With an injury like that, you shouldn’t be moving around for at least two months.”

Zhou Jinru clapped his hands as he walked over from behind them, contradicting her without the slightest courtesy.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a carton of milk. He crouched down, but before he could say anything, Ake blinked up at him and called out loudly, “Hello, Uncle!”

The words caught in Zhou Jinru’s throat. He turned toward Amiya in disbelief, his expression so vivid that it seemed to ask how on earth he had ended up being called Uncle.

Amiya asked, “Doctor, where did you get that?”

“I borrowed it from Ansel. If you want snacks, go find him.”

With an annoyed look, Zhou Jinru handed the milk to Ake. The little girl’s slender tail swayed back and forth as she happily tore open the package, put one candy into her mouth, and stuffed the rest into Hongyun’s pocket.

“Big Sister Hongyun, eat it. Your wound won’t hurt after you do.”

Hongyun put the milk back into Ake’s hands. As she walked forward, she said, “Too much will give you cavities. Remember to brush your teeth.”

Ake ran ahead of them. Before long, she rounded a corner and arrived in front of an old shack.

Two men of the Fengti clan sat at the entrance, heads bowed as they played cards. The moment one of them looked up and saw Hongyun, he started to rise, but his companion immediately grabbed his arm and shook his head, warning him not to act rashly.

The older debt collector was exceedingly polite. “Miss Hongyun, your settlement date passed yesterday.”

Hongyun gritted her teeth. “The agreement says I can repay in installments. Why are you demanding that I return the entire debt at once?”

The debt collector shrugged. “I’m sorry, but that’s what our superior ordered. You must pay the full amount, plus the late-payment penalty. The total comes to 21,765 credits. You may pay in Lungmen currency, or with Originium Primes. If the entire amount has not been settled by four this afternoon, then according to the agreement, we will notify the community and use this house to settle the debt.”

Even all of Hongyun’s savings combined would not be enough to fill that hole. She lowered her head, her frail shoulders trembling as she asked in a low voice, “You haven’t harmed my friend, have you?”

“Miss Hongyun, we are law-abiding citizens. We would never harm you or your companions, much less restrict that lady’s freedom. She simply hasn’t left the house at all. Occasionally, she exchanges a few words with Ake.”

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The debt collector pointed at Ake. “She can testify that we’re telling the truth.”

“Let me see the loan agreement.”

Zhou Jinru interrupted him abruptly. With both hands in his pockets and his hood drawn up, he walked a few steps forward and stopped beside Hongyun.

The debt collector remained composed. “Do you represent her?”

“She’s my patient, and she was injured on my behalf. Whether I can represent her, I don’t know. That’s for her to decide.”

The debt collector glanced uneasily at Zhou Jinru, then at Amiya and the others behind him. He took the loan agreement from his coat pocket. “This is the original.”

Zhou Jinru read through it several times. Just as Hongyun had said, the actual loan amounted to 8,000 Lungmen credits, though she had received only 6,500. He did not examine the interest and other charges closely. Instead, he nodded. “It is as you said. However, the interest is unreasonable. I will file a complaint with the Lungmen judicial authorities in my own name.”

“What do you think you—”

“Smack!”

The younger Fengti man blurted out the words, but before he could finish, his companion slapped him hard across the face. Clutching his cheek, he stared at the other man in shock, speechless.

“He’s young and doesn’t know any better. Please don’t take offense. Everything is open to discussion. How about this? I’ll report to my superior right now and get back to you shortly.”

The two Fengti men hurried away, leaving the doorway to the shack clear.

Hongyun lowered her voice to a whisper. “What exactly do you want? Let me make this clear beforehand: I don’t like you, so you can forget about any inappropriate ideas.”

“Excellent. The pride of Mr. Dillenmatt.”

“What are you talking about? Who is that?”

“You have no memory of that name?”

“Not at all. What are you trying to say?”

Zhou Jinru’s expression froze for an instant. He repeated himself, and Hongyun once again said she had never heard the name.

A terrible truth emerged.

Hongyun really had been rescued in the wilderness by a Lateran engineer. But afterward, she had never met the Executor, and therefore had never learned the engineer’s real name.

Everything had gone wrong.

The Executor had never carried out Dillenmatt’s final request. That was why Hongyun had remained in the Infected community instead of going to Rhodes Island. From the very beginning, Zhou Jinru’s assumption that finding Hongyun would lead him to the Executor had been wrong.

Then whom had Hongyun gone into usurious debt to save?

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“You said his name was Dillenmatt? That’s impossible. That wasn’t his name. You remembered it wrong. And I don’t know any Executor—what kind of ridiculous name is that? I’ve always lived with Minnie. She was a child who fled from Chernobog. When I first met her, she was gravely wounded and on the verge of death. It took her more than a year to recover.”

Hongyun refuted Zhou Jinru’s questions one by one, sending everything back to the starting point.

Zhou Jinru ground his teeth. The sort of advantage protagonists in time-travel novels gained by relying on “foreknowledge” had completely evaporated in his case. Hongyun simply did not believe a word he said.

Amiya asked curiously, “Doctor, are all those things you said true?”

“No. I was lying to her.”

Zhou Jinru spoke in irritation. He stepped forward and pushed at the door. It opened, having been left slightly ajar.

“Don’t go in!”

Hongyun shouted, but it was already too late. One of Zhou Jinru’s feet had crossed the threshold. A sharp twang rang beside his ear. He had no time to turn around; out of the corner of his eye, he saw an arrow flying toward his face from the side.

I’m finished. I’m going to become a little tyrant today.

Clang!

A staff as heavy as an iron hammer swept past Zhou Jinru’s cheek and knocked the arrow away at the last possible moment. Only then did he react. He stumbled backward several steps, cold sweat pouring from his body.

That had been close. He had nearly died right there.

Amiya was terrified out of her wits and hurried over to check whether Zhou Jinru had been injured. Gavial picked up the staff lying by the entrance and said coldly, “You set a trap at your own doorstep. Are you trying to kill yourself, or someone else?”

She was referring to the two Fengti debt collectors. If they had recklessly entered the house, there would already have been another corpse at the door.

Hongyun flushed crimson. “I never expected him to suddenly push the door open! My trap was only supposed to scare people. Why would I set a lethal trap? I live here too. What if I accidentally shot myself?”

Standing at the entrance, she shouted inside, “Minnie, are you home? Minnie?!”

No one answered.

End of Chapter.