Chapter 1204: That Leather Jacket |
Li Wufang was delighted by Tao Yi's response.
All these years he had wanted to repay the man in the leather jacket, yet he had never heard a single piece of news about him. Now, encountering someone who might have known the man, his heart surged with excitement.
"Even at this very moment, as we're about to walk a path of defiance against fate, I can't help but praise [Fate] once more.
To think I found a lead among the Destined Ones — someone who's actually met him. If that isn't destiny, what is?
Do you know him? What's his name? Where is he from..."
Halfway through, Li Wufang suddenly realized that his excitement had made him overlook too many things. This was no longer the old world. With the Faith Game's arrival, whether the leather jacket man was even still alive in this game was itself a question.
At that thought, his expression stiffened. His voice faltered. A flash of worry crossed his eyes, followed by a surge of inexplicable hope. His voice dropped low, cautious: "Is he... still alive?"
That question was far too difficult for Tao Yi.
She believed the person the Investigator was talking about was already dead. But she couldn't give a definitive answer, because to this day she still couldn't be one hundred percent certain that the man in question was who she thought he was.
At that time, her best friend Hong Lin was enduring the darkest period of her life. Not only had her youth and body been locked inside a glass cage bristling with tubes, but her family's business had also collapsed. Even a life without dignity was becoming impossible to sustain.
Tao Yi went home and begged her parents for help. Her parents weren't cold-hearted people — they offered the greatest support they could as friends. But that sum was a drop in the bucket against the money-devouring life-support equipment.
Tao Yi was a sensible girl. She knew her own family was struggling too, so she began cutting her expenses and eliminating anything extra. She ate only one meal a day, just to scrape together enough money to buy her best friend a sliver of hope.
And that hope was... lottery tickets.
Nothing could save her friend's family like a stroke of divine fortune. But where in the world would you find that kind of luck?
Rather than gambling on good fortune for Hong Lin, she was really just unable to accept reality and numbing herself with that slimmest of hopes.
Over half a year of persistence, she won nothing. Hong Lin's condition deteriorated further. Mounting debts began to crush the family. No matter how generous that biology professor was, the pressure of funding eventually forced a halt to the life-support equipment.
Her best friend was going to die, and Tao Yi was powerless to stop it.
The endless pressure finally broke her on a rainy day. She collapsed outside the lottery station, sobbing silently, feeling as though the entire world had been draped in a grey shroud.
But just then — a turning point arrived.
A man in a leather jacket pulled her to her feet, grabbed her arm, and tossed her under an awning. He didn't comfort her. Instead, he mocked her:
"What good is crying?
If tears could solve problems, the world would've been destroyed a long time ago."
Strangely, though she had been ridiculed, Tao Yi felt no malice from him. She lifted her tear-blurred eyes and looked up. Behind those oversized sunglasses, she couldn't make out his face — all she remembered was that pitch-black leather jacket.
"I've been staying here for three days. Every time I go out for a walk, I see you show up at the exact same time to buy lottery tickets. Interesting. If you're so desperate to gamble, why not go to a casino?
You'd make money faster there, wouldn't you?"
Tao Yi said nothing. She was still adrift in the blank space left by the pressure that had shattered her, not even fully aware of what she was doing or who the man in front of her was.
Seeing her silence, the leather jacket man snorted a laugh: "It's about money, isn't it? Funny thing is, everything in this world is a problem for me — except money.
Go on, tell me. How much do you need to make your troubles go away?"
Hearing this, Tao Yi gradually came to her senses.
She clutched her collar nervously, hugged herself, and cautiously scooted back. She was well aware that her looks attracted trouble, but she hadn't expected trouble to arrive at such a delicate moment. In that instant, a thought crossed her mind — could this trouble, perhaps, solve Hong Lin's troubles?
But when the leather jacket man saw her reaction, he spat in disgust.
"You're barely more than a kid, and your head's full of garbage. Who'd want any of that.
Yes or no — give me an answer. I'm not so desperate that I need to grovel to throw money at you."
Tao Yi was genuinely stunned by the scolding. But she had absolutely no reason to reject what appeared to be a hopeful "scam." So, treating it like making a wish, she went all in and named a number.
"That's it?
That's not even enough for one hand at my table."
The leather jacket man scoffed, casually tossed down a chip, and beckoned with his hand, summoning a "female assistant" whose poise and beauty were both remarkable.
Tao Yi stared blankly at the chip on the ground, then looked up in a daze at the elegant woman. She watched, wide-eyed, as the two people before her resolved in a few brief sentences what had seemed to her an insurmountable financial crisis.
"Ah Ying, convert it into lottery winnings for her. Otherwise, how's a little girl going to explain where all that money came from?"
"...Caught your eye, did she?"
"Like hell. I've got too much money. Doing a good deed to rack up some karma."
"...Then how about racking up some karma with me?"
"You want some? Should've said so. I'll hand you next month's entire deposit. More karma, more good luck — maybe I'll even die a little slower."
With that, the leather jacket man turned and walked away.
Tao Yi finally snapped back to reality. She shot to her feet, gripping the chip tightly, and shouted at the retreating figure in the rain: "What's your name? How do I find you?"
The leather jacket man paused mid-step: "Find me? What, you're latching onto me now?"
"I want to repay you."
"Really want to repay me?"
Tao Yi flinched, then set her jaw and nodded firmly: "What's your name? How do I contact you?"
The leather jacket man stood still in the rain, turned his head, and gave her a sidelong glance:
"Tsk. You want to know who I am?
Too many people have their eyes on me. I can't even be sure today's good deed isn't someone else's trap set for me.
Little girl — can I trust you?"
Tao Yi froze, then nodded emphatically again: "You can."
The leather jacket man suddenly laughed. He scoffed:
"Trust you, my foot. Forget it. By the time you have the ability to pay back this money, I'll probably be dead already. What's the point of repaying?
Go repay my son instead."
The rain grew heavier and heavier. The silhouette in the leather jacket grew smaller and smaller. The woman called Ah Ying spoke briefly with the lottery shop owner, then opened her umbrella and elegantly chased after that fading figure.
Tao Yi passed through a muddled night. The next day, her friend was saved.
She had never told anyone about any of this — not even Hong Lin. She had never brought it up.
She had assumed that after the Faith Game descended, the debt of gratitude she spoke of would never be repaid.
Until...
In a trial of [Oblivion], she heard a certain young Priest — whose words and mannerisms bore a certain resemblance to him — utter that same line:
"Can I trust you?"
In that instant, she saw his shadow in the young Priest.
...
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