Who knew that after sobering up, life would still be that ghostly mess.
Ma Mingzhe had already left early in the morning, while Dong Yong and Pan Zhigang were still snoring away. Su He was hunched over in the bathroom, throwing up violently. After going downstairs and drinking a bowl of thin porridge, his stomach felt much better.
In the blink of an eye, it was almost eleven o'clock. Su He opened the food delivery app and went online to start accepting orders.
He glanced at the leaderboard and was surprised to see that Ma Mingzhe had already delivered thirteen orders.
"Ding, you have a new food delivery order, please handle it promptly."
Delivering food is an upbeat and positive occupation. No one is behind you urging you on. To earn more money, you take on more orders, using up your youth and burying your dreams in a society where living is easy, but life is not easy at all. You grit your teeth and persevere.
Through the constant back-and-forth shuttling, Su He had become completely familiar with the area he was responsible for. Accepting orders, picking up food, delivering—the system planned out the shortest route and optimal delivery plan for him, but could not predict the restaurants' food preparation times.
"Boss, is that Meituan order 39 ready yet?"
"Wait a moment, we had a chef call in sick today, it'll be another ten minutes..."
"Boss, I have other orders to deliver, and if I wait ten more minutes, it'll be late..."
"Even if it's late, there's nothing I can do... Why don't you go cook it yourself!"
"Damn it!" Su He went to the kitchen himself, with two dishes—one stir-fried squid, one spicy small lobster.
He lit the stove, poured in oil, and his movements were lightning-fast as he worked on both woks simultaneously. Five minutes later, he grabbed the food and dashed out.
Despite sprinting the entire way, Su He still couldn't deliver all the orders on time—two were late. Fortunately, the customers didn't complain.
The two late orders cost him a 10 yuan penalty.
At two in the afternoon, Su He was too exhausted to keep going, so he stopped accepting orders and found a shady spot under a large tree to rest on a stone bench.
Nearby, an elderly man was picking up trash. He approached Su He and said, "Young man, can you give me your plastic water bottle?"
Su He drank the last mouthful, handed the bottle over, and said, "Old Sir, it's so hot out—you should come back out later!"
The old man took the bottle, skillfully crushed it underfoot, and tossed it into the plastic bag he was carrying. He sighed, "When I was young, I didn't suffer much hardship. Now that I'm old, I can't even afford food..."
"That's right, young people should endure more hardship. Otherwise, how could you get used to it when you're old?" Su He responded.
"The path is one you choose yourself, and there's no turning back..."
After the elderly man's words of contemplation, he lifted his bag and continued searching through trash cans for valuable scraps.
Su He got up with a wry smile. This was life.
He rode his bike to the hospital, where Shen Yuanzhong was working outside while Xiang Wanrong took care of Shen Yue.
These days, although the elderly couple was exhausted, they were much more optimistic seeing their daughter lying in a major hospital in the capital, receiving treatment.
With the care of doctors and nurses, Shen Yue had regained some weight in her face. Su He gently smoothed her hair and whispered in her ear:
"Yue, you said you like Li Yifeng, right? Yesterday, I recorded a show with him, no lie. We even sang together—he's so cool when he dances. Next time, I'll get him to sign a photo for you..."
"In a couple of days, I'm going to Kunyang Province to film a movie. I'm an actor now, and I'll be a big star soon... As for you, you'll be the big star's girlfriend..."
...
After leaving the hospital, Su He started accepting orders again.
"Hello, this is Meituan delivery, your food has arrived!"
When the door opened, an obese young man answered, his upper body bare and his belly stained with blood. His gaze was vacant as he took the food from Su He and turned to go back inside, leaving the door open.
At the entrance, Su He hesitated. As the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat—who knew if there was a chicken being killed inside, or a person.
At that moment, the young man came back over and said, "Help me call the police, I killed someone..."
Hey, don't you know how to call the police yourself?
Seeing that Su He stayed silent, the young man went back into the apartment and came out with a human leg, tossing it at Su He's feet. "Thanks, bro."
Well, that was a bit insulting, didn't I? I never said I didn't believe you.
Su He looked at the leg on the floor, the toenails painted with red nail polish—clearly a woman's.
While dialing the police on his phone, he walked further into the apartment.
Inside, the young man was sitting on the sofa with his back to Su He, wolfing down food. He had ordered a steak set meal.
On the floor, wet bloodstains trailed all the way into the bathroom.
The young man glanced back at Su He and said, "I'd advise you not to go in there if you don't want nightmares tonight."
Then he continued eating his steak.
Su He had seen it all before. He immediately pushed open the bathroom door and looked inside.
"Oh, man... How can you still eat after seeing that!"
Just a single glance was enough for Su He to retreat. The scene inside was more horrific than any horror movie.
"I was hungry... Can't eat raw meat, can I?" The young man said as he wolfed down the rest of his steak. He turned and asked, "Did you call the police?"
Ignoring Su He, the young man went over to the computer in the corner and started playing games.
Instead of calling 110 directly, Su He called Officer Zhou Bing. "Officer Zhou, at Fulin Family Residence, Building 5, Unit 2, 15th floor... There's someone who surrendered himself, he killed someone... Yeah, the killer is really calm... Just finished eating steak, now he's playing games..."
Eight minutes later, Officer Zhou Bing arrived with five other police officers.
As soon as the elevator doors opened, a faint metallic smell of blood hit them, immediately putting them on high alert.
Seeing the door ajar, Officer Zhou gestured for everyone to approach slowly and silently. They made their way to the entrance without a sound.
A leg!
The bloody scene began right at the doorway. Officer Zhou heard sounds from inside and, with his gun drawn, charged in.
"Police..."
In the living room, Officer Zhou pointed his gun at the killer, but the killer didn't even turn around. Next to the killer, Su He was sitting on a stool, reminding him, "Hey man, the police are here..."
"Wait, I'm at the top..."
"Penta Kill..."
Su He looked at Officer Zhou helplessly. "Officer Zhou, almost done, he's really good at playing Yasuo."
The other officers checked the other rooms.
"Captain Zhou, you should see this..."
Officer Zhou had seen countless brutal, bloody crime scenes before, but when he opened the bathroom door, he froze.
On the floor was a cutting board with a knife, its blade curled up. Scattered around were chunks of flesh and drying pools of blood. In the corner, a ball of indistinguishable flesh and gore caught his eye.
A partially formed fetus!
"Victory!"
The young man slapped the table excitedly and stood up, looking at Su He. "How was that? I played pretty well, didn't I?"
"Ahem, hey man, the police are waiting for you!"