Ch78 - Hurry and Save Them!

cw: suicide, gore

Lu Xu had just carried Ba Mei back into the dorm when Xu Haoming uncontrollably rushed towards him. “Xu ge, did you long already know that Manman jie is coming to be an outside mentor?”

“I really didn’t know this, I didn’t hear them talk about this before.” Just like his fellow trainees, Lu Xu had also only learned that Yu Manman was participating in their show tonight.

Before he could say much, a call from Bai Ze came. Lu Xu set Ba Mei down, pointed to his phone in front of his roommates, then went to the hallway to pick up the call.

“You’ve heard of Manman coming to be an outside instructor by now right.”

“Mn, the program staff just told us. So is shijie coming here for me this time?”

As the only manager for Yao Guai Entertainment, Bai Ze managed the schedules of all of the artists in the company. Yu Manman already had a lot of activities, and suddenly changed her schedule to make sure she could cheer for Lu Xu.

Bai Ze immediately denied, “No, Manman raised this up herself.”

Although the Lu Xu of today was already an extremely popular contestant in ‘Birth of an Idol’, everyone else in the company always thought of him as a “little shidi” who needed more protection.

“Don’t feel burdened by it, your show is very popular, so Manman coming over is also a bonus for herself. By the way, how is the progress of your mission?”

At this point, Lu Xu had interacted with the program staff for a while and it seemed that he would be able to debut soon, but he had not heard anything related to Lu Xu’s mission.

Ji Xiunian’s face unconsciously surfaced in Lu Xu’s mind, and for some reason, his mood became somewhat complicated. “I don’t think I can put an end to it for the time being…”

“Then I’ll start preparing for all our future work plans. Right, the fee for the ‘Eternal Allure of Death’ ad you represented DR in has been transferred over to your company account. I saw that you haven’t touched your personal account yet, so give me your personal account details in a bit and I’ll transfer the money to you.

Bai Ze said an amount that sounded pretty good.

Lu Xu didn’t even think about it and immediately said, “Don’t give it to me, let’s donate it all to a reliable organisation.

“Hm?” Bai Ze didn’t think he would let go of the money so readily, and couldn’t help but confirm, “Donate all of it?”

“Mhm, donate it all.” The nature of Lu Xu’s work made him not very materialistic, and he didn’t really need money for anything. It was just that before he even finished speaking, he suddenly thought of Xie An, and then changed his mind. “Wait a moment, Director Bai, I’ll send you my account in a bit. Send a bit of money over to me, then donate the rest.”

Xie An had worn the same suit for work for many  years. Even though the style was completely out of date, he couldn’t bear changing it.

He rented out a little janitor’s room. Although it was convenient for working next to the hospital, thinking of a big man curled up inside, made him rather frustrated.

No matter what, he should first save him some money and wait until he was released to see what his plans were.

As Lu Xu pondered this, the Grim Reaper app suddenly pushed out a notification—

[The third floor of the People’s Main Hospital has a client who is about to ascend to heaven. Would you like to accept this order?]

Before, in order for Lu Xu to carry out his mission with ease, Xie An had taken up all of the clients in the district by himself. Now that Xie An had been taken away for investigation, they naturally all fell upon Lu Xu.

Lu Xu clicked into the main interface with extreme familiarity and accepted the request without any hesitation. Afterwards, he bade Bai Ze goodbye and immediately pushed the door open to head out.

“Xu ge…” Xu Haoming originally wanted to chat with Lu Xu, but he only saw the other wave his hand and rush into the bathroom like the wind was chasing him.

Xu Haoming was immediately stunned. “What does Xu ge mean by this?”

Han Tianyu laughed at him from the side. “What meaning can it have, he’s in such a hurry, I bet he’s having stomach issues.”

“Oh oh.” Xu Haoming rubbed his head, a little bashful at himself. “I’m just being dumb hahaha.”

9:30 P.M. It was well past visiting hours at the hospital.

In order to ensure patients’ rest, all rooms were in a semi-closed state by 8 P.M. The main entrance hall was deserted.

Many of the wards had already turned off all their lights in preparation for rest. The entire area was dimly lit.

The atmosphere in the big hospital district was hot and dry, the surroundings so quiet that the buzzing of summer cicadas could be heard.

Suddenly, a shrill scream broke through the quiet. “Help, someone jumped off the building!”

Accompanying this scream as it transmitted to Lu Xu’s ears, was the sound of a heavy object thudding to the ground.

That person had jumped off from the 24th floor but had been caught in the middle by a crossbar, so she did not immediately die when she landed on the ground.

Lu Xu watched the new client writhing in pain on the ground and confirmed the data once again—

[Xie Guihua, Dongcheng resident, female, 53 years old. Died of severe chest bleeding, intracerebral hemorrhage, and fractures throughout her entire body…]

It didn’t take long for Lu Xu to confirm the cause of death, but by the time he lifted his head again, Xie Guihua’s soul was already out of her body. She stared blankly at her own corpse.

Lu Xu walked up and called her name before introducing himself. “Hello Ms. Xie, I am your grim reaper guide, here to send you onto the road.”

When Xie Guihua heard him speak, she couldn’t help turning back. She only spoke to confirm with Lu Xu after a long while. “I really died?”

“Yes.” Lu Xu glanced down at the corpse on the ground, his reply simple. “I don’t know how your first experience of death felt?”

Thinking back of the moment she landed, Xie Guihua’s entire body spasmed. She originally thought that being sick was already painful enough, and didn’t think that jumping off a building would hurt this much. “I didn’t think jumping off a building would hurt so much…”

A life that lasted 53 years wasn’t long nor short. Under Xie Guihua’s perception, she had spent the first 42 years studying, working, getting married and having children. She had had an ordinary and happy life. But who had thought that ever since she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 42, her entire life would have turned into a nightmare.

When she first became sick, she hadn’t thought much of it. Whether it was morning stiffness or limb pain, they were all within the realm of her tolerance.

But as the disease progressed, the length of her morning stiffness became longer and longer, and the pain in her limbs increased to the point where she felt like she was enduring the pain of being cut by a knife every day.

Seeing her four limbs and the joints in her entire body changing day by day, Xie Guihua had fell increasingly more and more into despair, slowly becoming depressed.

Finally on this summer day, she had had enough of this torture, and chose to commit suicide by jumping off the building.

She had originally thought that jumping off the building would be a relief, but she hadn’t thought that the pain of her entire body breaking into bits was tens of millions times more painful than her illness.

Gravity had been like a steel knife, completely crushing her entire body into bits. The moment she landed on the ground, Xie Guihua’s entire body felt the pain of tearing apart, every organ seemed like it had been sliced by a shredder.

Although she had already left that ruined corpse, the pain had seeped so deeply into her soul that it could not be erased.

“I thought death would be the final releft…” Xie Guihua muttered, unable to resist covering her face and crying. It was unclear if she was grieving over her past life, or regretting her death.

“It’s okay, you’re dead already. It’s better to prepare yourself for a new world.” Lu Xu glanced at the time, getting ready to open up the passageway to send her to the underworld.

Xie Guihua was in a state of complete confusion. She only asked Lu Xu after returning to her senses, “So Master Grim Reaper, am I going to heaven or hell?”

“Our country doesn’t have a heaven, only an underworld. But the scenery is better than the foreign heavens.” Lu Xu smiled warmly and explained to her calmly, “But Ms. Xie, the first thing you are going to do is stand at trial in front of the underworld’s justice department.”

“Trial?” Xie Guihua was stunned and said incredulously, “I’ve never done anything bad in my life, and I’ve never done something bad to others. What sins have I committed that I need to be judged?”

“Murder.” Lu Xu spoke slowly and steadily, only pointing at her. “You just murdered yourself.”

“I murdered myself?” Xie Guihua was thrown into confusion again and looked back at her own self lying on the ground—

It seemed like, she really did kill herself…

Before she went on the road, she kept turning back. “In order to kill myself, I took a bath and changed into a new set of clothes. I wanted to leave with dignity, but I didn’t think it would be this disastrous…”

Because the building was too high, Xie Guihua’s body could not be looked at. Lu Xu glanced at the scene of brains and blood mixing together, then smiled at her. “It’s okay, you haven’t experienced death before. If you still remember this in your next life, don’t do it again.”

Xie Guihua didn’t think these kinds of words would come out of a grim reaper’s mouth. She looked at Lu Xu in shock, then felt that he looked somewhat familiar. “Aren’t you that…”

“All right, Ms. Xie, congratulations for ending your life and coming onto the ghost path. I hope you have a joyful experience in death.” Lu Xu revealed a very professional smile, looking mysterious and eerie in the dark.

Footsteps sounded quickly around them, and a still-faint voice asked, “Where’s the person, have you found her yet?”

“No, I think it’s around the third building…”

“Hurry over, bring the paramedics…”

All the lights in the hospital ward turned on, and it became very chaotic all around.

“Who jumped off the building?”

“Should we call the police and ask for an ambulance?”

“Call for what ambulance, this is the hospital…”

Lu Xu left quietly after turning in his job, his lips not quite in a smile.

Death might seem lonely to an individual, but it was actually quite lively.

Many patients looked down from their hospital rooms, including a dark shadow that kept shivering, until Lu Xu left the scene.

But Lu Xu left in a hurry, and didn’t notice the movements on that side at all…

Not long after he left the hospital, he received two other orders.

One was an elderly person who passed away at the age of 93.

Leaving in the midst of dreams was very peaceful. The family members were in the room next door, and they probably would only discover that their grandfather had left them in the next morning.

The elder was very tranquil when hearing the news of his death, and even happily said he could go find his partner in the afterlife.

“We were a couple since our youth, but her health was not good, and she passed away forty years before me. I have just lived like this by myself for so many years. But I’m still very excited thinking about it. I’m already so old my teeth have fallen out, I don’t know if my wife will be able to still recognise me…”

Lu Xu smiled as he sent him on his way, and didn’t say anything to break his fantasy—

Forty years had already passed. She had probably already reincarnated and begun her new life.

Many times, when people passed away, the person they couldn’t let go of was not themselves, but those who were still living.

The other order was a car accident. A 25 year old man had been looking at his phone while crossing the road and didn’t want for the green light to go before crossing the road. Coincidentally, a cargo truck wanted to rush the light and with a foot sent this person on the road to the underworld.

Lu Xu didn’t pay too much attention to his regrets. After all, death was a naturally occurring phenomenon, and human life had no second chances…

In the dorm, as Xu Haoming scrolled through news about Yu Manman on his phone, he became very excited at the prospect of meeting his goddess the next day.

“Your Manman is coming here after much difficulty, should I prepare a little gift for her?” Before Han Tianyu and Song Zhe could speak, Xu Haoming went to the entrance of the bathroom by himself to ask the Lu Xu inside, “Xu ge Xu ge, can you help me decide, what does Manman like?”

After waiting for a while with no response, Xu Haoming added, “If it’s not okay then that’s fine, but of course if it’s okay then that’ll be even better…”

As Xu Haoming spoke, he could only feel that the restroom was unusually quiet. He couldn’t resist holding his hands against the door, pressing his ear against the door to listen for movement.

“Wei, you’re so poisonous.” Han Tianyu was playing games and happened to catch Xu Haoming pressing against the bathroom. He laughed out loud uncontrollably. “Our Xu ge is going to the bathroom and you’re following him to listen to his movements, if others didn’t know they’d assume you’re a pervert!”

“No no, I think it’s too quiet inside, like there’s no one inside.” Xu Haoming pointed at the bathroom, feeling like something was rather strange.

At this, Song Zhe couldn’t resist rolling his eyes at him. “What do you mean there’s no one in there, didn’t we see ourselves that Lu Xu went in? He didn’t come out, does he know how to teleport?”

“There’s really no sound!” Xu Haoming was a little frantic, wanting them to come over to also listen.

After studying vocals for so many years, he was very sensitive to sounds, and Xu Haoming was self-aware of his own skills in listening.

“No thanks, I don’t want to listen to sounds while pressed against the bathroom.” Han Tianyu pursed his lips and flipped himself out of bed. He walked over to the bathroom and knocked on the door. “Xu ge, say something, so Haoming this brat can wake up.”

But after three seconds, the person inside didn’t say anything.

Han Tianyu knocked on the door again. “Xu ge?”

Xu Haoming spread his hand, but there were still no signs of movement inside.

“He can’t have fainted inside, right?” Not saying something for so long truly was strange, did Lu Xu perhaps faint inside?

After thinking of this possibility, the three of them began feeling somewhat worried.

“What should we do, do you think something happened to Xu ge?”

“Pei pei pei, don’t speak nonsense!”

“What should we do now?”

“What should we do, hurry and break the door to save him!”