Chapter 11: Adding Injury to Insult

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In the center of Fuling City, a modern medical building bore the sign: "Heavenly Court Organization Logistics Support and Compensation Department, Fuling City Unit Hospital."

On the third floor, in the trauma and comprehensive treatment room, Lu Xingzhou, deputy head of the Combat Law Enforcement Division of the Heavenly Court Organization’s Fuling City Unit, was taking notes alongside his subordinate, law enforcement officer Lin Shaowei, as they recorded the statements of two men lying on the hospital beds.

These two were the officers recently attacked on a fishing boat near Shuisheng. After being rescued onto the beach, the fishermen reported the incident to the police. An ambulance arrived, provided emergency treatment, and brought them to this hospital. The two supplemented each other’s accounts, carefully recounting what happened on the fishing boat that day.

“So, you’re saying that after falling into the sea, you both drowned and lost consciousness, and know nothing about what happened afterward?” Lu Xingzhou asked.

“Yes. When we woke up again, we were already on the ambulance and then brought here,” one female officer replied. They had no idea who saved them from the water, nor did they know anything about the events that followed or the sinking of the fishing boat.

“Shaowei, three tasks for you. First, mobilize the local police and law enforcement search and rescue boats and speedboats to search the area they mentioned,” Lu Xingzhou instructed Lin Shaowei. “Second, have the unit’s sketch artist come here to draw the basic likenesses of the three assailants based on their descriptions, and try to identify them. Third, go to Wang’ao fishing village, check the identity of the young man who was steering the fishing boat and investigate the condition of the boat. See if he was also harmed, and if not, ask about subsequent events.”

“Yes, Deputy Head,” Lin Shaowei said, taking notes before starting to coordinate by phone.

“Rest well and recover,” Lu Xingzhou turned to the two on the beds. “Daring to attack the Heavenly Court Organization’s officers—these people truly have the courage of bears and leopards. The unit will definitely find them and impose severe punishment to avenge you!”

...

“Shuisheng! Come play ball!”

From a distance, several boys waved at the alley entrance.

“I’m not going. I have things to do!” The boy with a small tuft tied at the back shook his hand off. He glanced at the gloomy sky and took a deep breath, feeling the chill in the air.

The boys ran off with their ball.

“Crazy! It’s so cold, the ground’s full of puddles, and you still want to play ball!” Shuisheng grumbled. Indeed, the recent typhoon had left many puddles in the village’s open spaces. Their usual playing field was rutted and uneven.

Though he said this, watching the boys run away, a flicker of envy passed through his eyes. He wasn’t completely unwilling to join them—he just had other matters to attend to.

He had two things on his mind: dealing with the “corpse” lying on his bed and examining the two gifts brought back from the Yan family to understand their meaning.

That “corpse” had been lying in his bed like a squatter for several days without any sign of moving. Out of desperation, he had built a small shelter in the yard to sleep in because he dared not share a room with such a ghostly “corpse.” Who knew if it might get up in the middle of the night and suck him dry like it had with those three people?

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He had tried vaguely mentioning the matter to the village chief, Old Zhou, and his good friend Zhou Yudong without directly saying it was at his house. Both disbelieved him. He even brought Zhou Yudong to look at the bed, but the chubby boy swore there was nothing there.

It was as if he had truly seen a ghost—but it really was!

Shuisheng didn’t want to live under the same roof as a ghostly being, yet he had nowhere else to go and couldn’t abandon his home. These past days, even sleeping in the yard, he couldn’t rest well.

The two items from the Yan family included a “True Water Technique,” an otherworldly cultivation manual that aligned with water elemental power. Curious, he tried to practice it, but the techniques were complex and obscure, progress slow. In several days, he barely understood the first stage described. Yet his control over his water elemental immortal power seemed to have subtly improved. He wasn’t sure whether this was due to the manual or the lingering effects of previously practiced “Essentials of Immortal Power.”

The other item was a hollow crystal ball containing a single suspended droplet of water. The droplet was ordinary—transparent, pure—no different from any natural water drop. He didn’t understand what the elderly Yan patriarch, whom he had never met in reality, intended by this gift, so he placed it on his small table.

He was pondering this in the yard.

“Shuisheng!” A middle-aged man wearing thick brown-rimmed glasses and carrying a briefcase entered—Accountant Wang from the village. He handed over an envelope. “This is the hardship allowance for this month.”

“Uncle Accountant, I’ve said before, I’m already an awakened one. I don’t need the village’s hardship allowance,” Shuisheng refused without taking it.

“Awakened or not, you’re still a kid. Even awakened ones need to eat,” Wang said. “Look at you, and look at your family situation. Awakened or not, don’t be stubborn—just take it!”

“No, really don’t want it!” Shuisheng repeated his firm refusal, as he had every time over the past year.

“Fine, suit yourself. But I’m telling you, starting next month, I won’t come to deliver the allowance anymore,” Wang said sternly.

“I understand,” Shuisheng smiled and pulled him toward the shelter’s entrance, pointing to the bed. “Uncle Accountant, take a good look. What’s on my bed?”

Wang glanced over. “That’s just your bedding and pillow.”

“Look closely again. Is there a person on the bed?” Shuisheng became agitated.

Wang laughed. “Kid, you’re teasing your Uncle Wang again. Alright, I have things to do, can’t hang around with you.” With that, he swayed as he left.

After he left, Shuisheng sat gloomily at the shelter’s entrance, staring at his bed and the “corpse” on it.

He wondered—if it really was a corpse, how had it not decomposed or emitted any odor after all these days?

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That figure looked around forty or fifty years old, with over a dozen braids, waxy yellow skin, a thin face, and a long nose. Who on earth was this person?

Whether human or ghost, alive or dead, it was unfair to occupy his bed like this! At least if the figure was comfortable sleeping there, Shuisheng hadn’t had a good night’s sleep for many days!

The fishing boat was gone, but life had to go on. Shuisheng had no choice but to buy two new fishing rods and walk to the cliffside area to fish, sometimes diving into the sea to catch seafood. Without a boat, the fish he caught were smaller, and the amount of seafood he gathered was less. Aside from personal consumption, selling the catch only brought in enough for basic daily expenses.

“Shuisheng, where’s your boat?” Zhou Yudong asked curiously. Some villagers hadn’t seen his boat docked before, but in these times, no one really cared.

“It sank,” Shuisheng replied gruffly.

“Sank?” Zhou Yudong was shocked. “How did it sink?”

“A couple of days ago, I went out to explore a new spot and hit a reef,” Shuisheng lied. To completely separate himself from the incident with those three men, he had crafted an almost flawless excuse.

“That’s a big loss,” Zhou Yudong sympathized. He knew Shuisheng hadn’t had it easy these years. After becoming an awakened one a year ago, his catches increased and he had finally saved enough to buy that secondhand old fishing boat.

“No worries, you can help on my boat to save up some money first,” Zhou Yudong offered.

“No need. I want to find my own way to earn money,” Shuisheng said. He liked independence and disliked relying on others. Otherwise, he would have long been living in Old Zhou’s house. After Old Zhou took him in, treating him like a son, Shuisheng moved out after finishing third grade in elementary school.

He said he preferred a life free from control, living as he pleased.

“Suit yourself,” Zhou Yudong didn’t insist. Suddenly, he remembered something. “Oh, Shuisheng, I came to tell you some news. The stock we bought in Wanyang Aquatic Products dropped 35% this week. We lost money.”

Shuisheng: ...