Chapter 50: Her Mother Is Just a Trouble Magnet
“Why not? You’re a notorious bandit who’s stolen so much from the Chancellor. Why not do a good deed and help that kid out? Can’t you see he’s all alone, with no one to rely on?”
Yu Luo was speechless. “Don’t you think you’re being a bit too saintly?”
Ye Jiamei shrugged. “It’s just a bit of money. Your mom doesn’t care. I can earn it back ten or a hundred times with just one surgery. I’ll pay you back, okay?”
Seeing her mother’s carefree attitude toward money, Yu Luo was helpless.
In her past life, her mother was the same. Whenever a beggar asked for money, she’d pull out hundred-yuan bills without hesitation. Who would’ve thought that even in their current state, her mom’s rich-lady habits hadn’t changed a bit?
And the way she bragged about earning it back with a single surgery—who in the wastelands would have money to pay for treatment?
Seeing Yu Luo’s hesitation, Ye Jiamei grabbed her arm and shook it a bit. “Come on, just think of it as doing a good deed. If I hadn’t done so many good deeds in my past life, how would we even have the chance to be here together? This has to be karma.”
“Fine, fine. Sooner or later, you’re going to regret being so soft-hearted. You ignored so many scam artists in the past, and as your daughter, what can I even do about it?”
Grumbling, Yu Luo led her mother toward the gang harassing the boy.
“Stop that!”
Ye Jiamei’s voice was bold and commanding as she glared at the group of thugs. The men turned, surprised, but their eyes quickly darkened with ill intent when they saw it was just two women.
Particularly when they looked at Yu Luo, the sleazy grins on their faces made Ye Jiamei pull her daughter protectively behind her.
“You grown men have no shame, bullying a child like this?”
The lead thug burst into laughter.
“Well, well! Aren’t you a brave little thing? Since you’re so kind, why don’t you and that girl keep us company for a while? Consider it paying off this brat’s debt!”
The filth spewing from the thug’s mouth made Ye Jiamei’s face darken instantly. She pulled out a small bottle and, without warning, splashed its contents at the man!
The liquid hit him directly, and he instinctively threw up his hands to block it. The moment it made contact, a sizzling sound filled the air, followed by an agonizing scream as the thug danced around in pain.
Yu Luo peeked out from behind her mother, startled by the sight. The lead thug’s hand was already red and blistering, the skin peeling back as if burned by acid!
The rest of the thugs, shocked by their leader’s howls, stared wide-eyed at Ye Jiamei. They had never seen anything like it.
“What’s that?! What did you splash him with, you crazy woman?”
Ye Jiamei’s eyes glinted with menace as she raised the bottle threateningly.
“Come closer if you dare! Do you know what this is?”
“You—you bitch! You don’t know who you’re messing with! You think you can get away with this?”
Ye Jiamei chuckled coldly. “Oh, I dare. This here is ‘corpse-dissolving water.’ Want to see what happens when I splash a bit more?”
“C-Corpse-dissolving water?! You’re insane!” The lead thug’s eyes were wild with terror as he stared at the skin melting off his hand. His legs wobbled with fear.
Yu Luo glanced at her mother’s bottle, then back at the thug’s sizzling flesh. That wasn’t corpse-dissolving water—wasn’t that just plain sulfuric acid?!
Her mother’s impulsiveness… what a headache.
She could’ve just paid a bit of money to avoid trouble, but her mother just had to escalate things by splashing sulfuric acid and pretending it was some sinister poison.
Maybe her mom was right. Maybe they really wouldn’t come back to this town, which was why she was acting so recklessly.
“Leave, if you don’t want to die!” Ye Jiamei snarled, holding the bottle out menacingly.
The thugs didn’t need to be told twice. Cursing and crying, they scrambled to their feet and ran off, throwing murderous glares back at Ye Jiamei and the boy as they fled.
“Are you alright?” Ye Jiamei asked, turning to the boy with genuine concern.
But before Yu Luo could tell her mother to stop meddling, the boy roughly shoved Ye Jiamei aside and darted past them—right through the gate of the stone house!
Mother and daughter exchanged bewildered glances, both stunned into silence.
“So that’s why I felt such a strong urge to save him,” Ye Jiamei murmured, eyes wide with realization. “It was meant to be.”
Yu Luo…
“System, if I pay someone to bury the body, does that still count as completing the mission?”
She didn’t even want to argue with her trouble-magnet mother anymore. Next time, she was definitely teaming up with her dad instead. Her mother was just a walking disaster.
She glanced at the surrounding houses, an idea forming.
She didn’t want to lose all those points—she was still pretty attached to them.
[That is acceptable.]
Hearing the system’s response, Yu Luo immediately turned and knocked on the gate of the house next door.
The door creaked open a crack, and a man peeked out cautiously, having clearly seen the earlier commotion.
“The person in that house… I heard he passed away. That kid looks pretty pitiful. I’ll pay you if you help bury the body. How about it?”
The man’s eyes widened, and he hesitated for only a second before throwing the door open.
“One tael of silver!”
Yu Luo…
She had been prepared to haggle, but he was only asking for one tael?
“Gather five men. Have three start digging a grave, and send the others to buy a coffin. If you can get it done within an hour, I’ll pay ten taels.”
The man’s eyes practically sparkled at the offer. Without wasting a second, he turned back and hollered for his brothers and neighbors, sending them off to dig graves, buy coffins, and gather burial supplies.
“Also, get some incense, candles, and paper money. Here’s the silver.”
Yu Luo handed over two silver coins without a second thought. The man snatched them up, hollering orders as if his life depended on it.
“Miss, for one more tael, we could get a burial shroud and a set of clothes for the deceased. It’s tradition around here; otherwise, even in the afterlife, he’ll still be nothing more than a beggar.”
