Chapter 49: I’m Not Taking This Job
Leaving the inn, Ye Jiamei tossed another silver coin to the innkeeper. “We’ll need that room for one more night tomorrow. Here’s the payment.”
The innkeeper quickly pocketed the silver, nodding repeatedly.
Yu Luo’s mouth fell slightly open. She was learning fast.
“Mom, you’re really cunning.”
“Cunning? This is called being smart. You should learn from me. Don’t always be too honest for your own good.”
Seeing her mother’s smug look, Yu Luo couldn’t help but nod along.
She had always thought her mother was a simple woman. In her previous life, Ye Jiamei had been respected at the hospital because of her outstanding skills. With Yu Haojie’s protection, her mother had lived a worry-free life, as innocent as a little white rabbit.
Who would have thought that beneath that harmless exterior, her mother was actually as sly as a fox!
[Ding! New system mission: Follow this street to the end. There is an abandoned stone house. Find the corpse inside and bury it properly. Reward: 500 system points.]
Hearing the system’s prompt, Yu Luo was about to complain, but when she heard the reward, the curse words stuck in her throat.
“Mom, I just got a system mission with a high reward—500 points! If I complete it, I’ll have over a thousand points in total. I bet there will be a surprise waiting for me!”
“Why is the reward so high this time? Is this mission particularly difficult?”
Yu Luo…
No wonder her mom had been so successful. While Yu Luo was busy getting excited about the points, her mother had already figured out that something was off.
After a moment of stunned silence, Yu Luo’s smile faltered. “The system wants me to bury a dead body…”
“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”
Yu Luo…
Her mom really was a surgeon at heart. That courage was not something an ordinary woman could muster.
When the mother and daughter found the abandoned stone house at the end of the street, Ye Jiamei suddenly stopped, turning back to look at Yu Luo.
Yu Luo was confused. “Mom, why did you stop? The door isn’t even locked. Are you scared?”
“Scared? I’m a doctor. I started dealing with corpses when I was young. After all the people I’ve had to kill recently, why would I be scared of a corpse?”
“Then why did you stop?”
Ye Jiamei frowned, glancing at the slightly ajar door with concern. “It’s just… why would the system give 500 points for such a simple mission? Something feels off.”
Yu Luo’s mouth twitched. She thought about what might be inside and suddenly didn’t care much about those 500 points anymore.
[Ding! By the way, if you fail the mission, all your system points will be deducted.]
“You damn system! That’s blackmail!” Yu Luo cursed under her breath.
“What happened?” Ye Jiamei frowned, noting the urgency in her daughter’s voice. Time was running out.
“The damn system said if I fail, it’ll take all my points. This is blatant blackmail! I bet the corpse inside is in a horrible state.”
“Uh… but it’s 500 points. We can’t just give up. Don’t worry, with your mom here, I’ll go in first and check it out. If it’s really as bad as we think, we’ll figure it out then. After all, we’ve killed people for points before. What’s burying a body compared to that?”
“This is different! We only killed people who deserved it. I just don’t like being led around by the nose by that system.”
“Don’t think of it that way. If it weren’t for your system, we wouldn’t even be here. The missions it gives must have a purpose. Even if being led around is frustrating, it’s a fair trade for all the benefits we get. It’s only reasonable to do what it asks.”
After her mother’s words, Yu Luo felt a bit better. She pushed open the half-closed gate.
Inside, the courtyard was covered in snow, pressing down the dead branches and leaves. Under the eaves, a dog lay dead, starved and rotting, its body crawling with maggots…
One glance was all it took for Yu Luo to turn around and vomit against the gate.
If even the dog had died so miserably, what about the body inside?
Even Ye Jiamei, who had thought she was mentally prepared, couldn’t help but gag at the sight. The lavish lunch they’d had at the inn was promptly and thoroughly returned to the earth.
With faces pale and stomachs empty, Yu Luo grabbed her mother’s arm and stumbled out of the courtyard.
“Nope… I’m not doing this!”
If the body was freshly dead, it wouldn’t have been so bad, but in this state, it was beyond what she could handle.
“Where do you think you’re going? Your master’s dead, so when are you paying back the money you owe us, huh? We finally caught you, you little rat, and you think you can run?”
As the cold wind blew, a commotion broke out not far from the courtyard. A group of men was tugging at a child, accusing and cursing him.
Ye Jiamei frowned. “Why are so many adults ganging up on a child?”
Yu Luo followed her mother’s gaze. People peeked out from behind courtyard gates, watching the scene unfold with morbid curiosity, yet not one person stepped forward to help.
The boy purses his lips tightly, enduring the shoves and tugs in silence. His worn-out coat was torn, cotton spilling out, but he said nothing, only clenched his fists tighter.
Underneath the bruises and dirt, his eyes glistened with unshed tears, a mixture of humiliation and rage.
“Mom, are you seriously thinking of helping him?!”
Seeing her mother’s indignant expression, Yu Luo’s voice dropped to a worried whisper.
Her mom was too kind for her own good. Even with their status as criminals, her mother never hesitated to step in when someone was in trouble. But with so many people watching and their current circumstances, was it really wise to cause more trouble?
Not that she could deny it—the boy really did look pitiful.
