Episode 46

Su Jin led the way and decided to settle this very simply by just knocking out every person they walked past. He was now invisible to everyone else, so he wasn’t worried about being seen. Instead, those who noticed their friends who had fallen, would run over to take a look, and they would also be knocked out promptly by Su Jin.

Nothing unusual happened along the way. Su Jin was someone who could knock them out easily in the first place, regardless of whether he was visible to the rest or not.

The two girls were even more certain that Su Jin was the God of the Soil that he claimed to be as they watched the men fall to the floor unconscious time and again. It only took Su Jin a few minutes to lead them out of the warehouse.

“Both of you, find a good place to hide for the time being and someone will come to pick you up,” said Su Jin to the two girls.

“God of the Soil, are you going to teach those bad guys a lesson?” asked Yang Mengmeng.

“That’s right. Evildoers must pay the price for committing evil deeds. All right now, quickly run and hide now!” Su Jin then turned and walked back towards the warehouse.

At the same time, Su Qing pulled her phone out to call Su Jin. Since the two of them had already been rescued, there was no need for her older brother to risk his life to save them.

But to her surprise, a familiar ringtone filled the air once she made that call and she blinked several times in surprise.

Su Jin’s heart skipped a beat as he cursed himself for not thinking about this. His own phone had given him away. He ran as quickly as he could away from the two girls, then picked up the phone when he felt that he was far away enough for them not to hear him.

“Su Qing? Are you girls all right?”

“Wait, Elder Brother, are you…are you the God of the Soil?”

“What on earth are you talking about? Are you talking gibberish because you were too traumatized by what happened earlier?” Su Jin’s heart started pounding anxiously. He didn’t want to involve his younger sister in the mysterious and dangerous world of the Handbook.

Su Qing started doubting her ears and said, “Never mind that. Come and pick us up now!”

“Okay! Find a safe place to wait first, I’ll come over as quickly as I can.” Su Jin hurriedly hung up after that because he was afraid that Su Qing might notice something amiss.

But Su Qing was even more puzzled after hanging up. It was strange that her brother didn’t seem curious about how they got out at all, and the fact that she did hear his phone ringing earlier made her even more perplexed.

By the time Su Jin entered the warehouse again, the entire place was in chaos. More than a dozen men had suddenly collapsed for no reason after all. Anybody would have gone into a panic.

“Is this some sort of infectious disease?!” someone yelled frantically.

“It’s hard to say. Stupid Number 7 caught some stray dog and stewed it – could he have gotten some sort of rabies or virus?!” Several other men started discussing among themselves.

Just then, a man in his forties surrounded by his subordinates walked over. His expression was aloof and he was definitely the ruthless sort. He kicked a few of the men who were unconscious on the floor, then squatted down to take a closer look.

“It’s not some virus. Someone hit them from behind so hard that they fainted.” The man frowned, got up and scoured the men around him. “Since someone could knock out more than a dozen men without raising the alarm, it must have been an inside job! Which one of you was bold enough to do such a thing? Own up now!”

Everyone looked at each other but none of them owned up to doing this. The man scoffed disdainfully and said, “What’s going on now? You had the guts to attack your own bros but you don’t have the guts to own up to it?”

Su Jin watched them in amusement for a while, then suddenly called out, “Don’t bother searching for the culprit among your men. It’s not one of your men who did it.”

“Who’s that?” A glint flashed in the man’s eyes as his sharp eyes looked around but couldn’t find where that voice came from. Everyone else froze as well and looked around to see who had spoken.

Su Jin didn’t bother saying more. He walked to one of the men and knocked him out on the spot. This caught everyone by surprise but before they could react, Su Jin knocked everybody out swiftly.

The only one he didn’t knock out was the middle aged man. Su Jin recognized his voice as the man on the phone earlier who told him to come over. He was clearly the leader of the gang.

There was a good reason why he was the leader after all. Despite being faced with such an eerie situation, he still remained calm. Perspiration covered his forehead and he narrowed his eyes as he stuffed a hand into the pocket of his jacket. He probably had a weapon inside that pocket.

Su Jin walked to the man, grabbed him by the neck and lifted him off the floor as he said in a frosty voice, “It’s been a little hard for me to control my emotions lately, and given the things you’ve done in the past, I think killing you would be a suitable judgment for your deeds!”

“D-don’t kill me, please! Who…what are you?! Are you…are you a ghost?!” The man couldn’t keep it together anymore and started to tremble involuntarily. The possibility of death made him feel a deep sense of terror for the first time in his life.

“I am…the God of the Soil!” Su Jin decided to just continue using this narrative. It wasn’t going to impress this gangster boss as much as it impressed the two girls just now, but it was better than a more realistic narrative.

The man obviously didn’t believe in the existence of gods, otherwise he wouldn’t be living a life of crime right now. But he didn’t really have a choice right now. Su Jin was holding his throat so tightly that he was about to suffocate, so he wheezed, “Let me off and I’ll turn over a new leaf! I promise!”

“I’m sorry but I don’t trust you! However, I’ll still give you a chance!” said Su Jin slowly.

The man breathed a small sigh of relief, then tried to struggle to get out of Su Jin’s grip. He was seriously going to suffocate soon.

Su Jin let go of him, then knocked the man out without waiting for the man to catch his breath. But Su Jin didn’t leave just yet. He started to set up the place.

After looking around the warehouse for a bit, he found several pills that looked like illegal drugs and a few guns. He was surprised that the gang in a small place like this would have so many contraband items, but then again, that worked in his favor.

Su Jin proceeded to make it look like everyone had gathered here to take drugs, placed all the guns in obvious spots, then used the leader’s phone to call the police.

“Hello? Is this the police? I want to report a group of men taking drugs in a warehouse in the southern part of town. They’ve got guns here too. I think these guys might be part of a syndicate. Yes, yes, that abandoned warehouse in the south. Yes, there are quite a number of them! Me? Oh, you can just consider me part of the Chaoyang masses.”¹(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaoyang_masses)] Then Su Jin hung up the phone and flung it aside.

He left the warehouse and waited for a while. It didn’t take long for the police to arrive, enter the warehouse and carry everybody out.

“That’s so strange. It’s one thing for a huge party to take drugs together, but how much drugs does it take to knock all of them out like that?” One of the police officers was stumped. This was the first time he had come across something like that.

“You’re not the only one completely floored by this case. Even our team leader was shocked. He said he’s been a policeman for a few decades now and he’s never seen an easier drug case than this. Apparently these people are famous locally for getting into a lot of trouble with the law and the local police have been waiting for a chance to arrest them but never found enough evidence to do so. I can’t believe these people ended up doing themselves in this time,” commented another police officer.

The team leader they were talking about earlier walked out of the warehouse, removed his cap and scratched his head. “This is really insane. Guess who called the police on these guys.”

“Who?”

“It’s the leader of this gang! I simply can’t believe it. But never mind that now. We’re going to get so much credit for rounding up these guys! Make sure we get them all!” said the team leader with a big smile as he patted the shoulders of his younger subordinates.

Su Jin finally left when he saw that everything was going as planned. But he had one more problem. It was going to take another 20 minutes before the potion’s effects wore off, so he ended up calling his younger sister again.

“Su Qing? Which hospital is Mengmeng’s mother warded in? I was thinking of visiting her.”

“Wha-? It’s almost 11pm now! Why don’t we go together tomorrow instead?” Su Qing was stunned by her brother’s question. It didn’t seem appropriate to visit anyone in the hospital at this hour.

But Su Jin said, “I need to go back to S City first thing tomorrow morning, so let’s go tonight. Send me the address, I’ll meet you girls there.”

“Er, okay…” Su Qing was still puzzled by her brother’s insistence but sent him the hospital’s address and ward number anyway.

The effects of the potion wore off just as Su Jin arrived at the hospital. He bought a basket of fruit just in time to see Su Qing and Yang Mengmeng arrive in a cab and quickly greeted them with a big smile.

“Elder Brother, I still don’t think it’s appropriate to visit the sick at this hour.” Su Qing rolled her eyes at Su Jin.

“It’s…it’s really alright. My mom has trouble sleeping every night anyway.” Yang Mengmeng fiddled with her shirt hem as tears welled up in her eyes.

Su Qing immediately put an arm around her bestie’s shoulder to comfort her and the three of them walked into the hospital.

Just like what Yang Mengmeng had expected, her mother was unable to sleep because of the discomfort her illness gave her. Seeing her daughter drop by to visit her actually made her feel a lot better.

“Mom, how are you feeling today?” asked Yang Mengmeng worriedly as she held her mother’s hand.

Her mother squeezed a smile out, then smiled at Su Qing, since this wasn’t Su Qing’s first time visiting her. But she looked a little puzzledly at Su Jin.

“Auntie, this is my older brother Su Jin. He came back to visit me and heard that you were ill, so he wanted to visit you too,” Su Qing quickly introduced Su Jin.

Yang Mengmeng’s mother tried to sit up and Su Jin hurriedly stopped her from doing so. “Auntie, it’s really alright. You need a lot of rest right now, so it’s better to lie down. I don’t know what fruits you prefer, so I just bought a whole basket.”

“Thank you, thank you so much. Su Qing already takes such good care of Mengmeng and now you’ve spent money on fruits like that. I really don’t know how to thank you both,” said Yang Mengmeng’s mother in a hoarse voice. Her illness had clearly taken its toll on her body.

“Mom, I’ll get you some warm water.” Tears immediately spilled from Yang Mengmeng’s eyes when she heard her mother’s voice. She grabbed the hot water flask and ran out of the room to refill it. Su Qing ran out to accompany her as well.

Su Jin sighed and asked quietly, “Auntie, what…what illness are you suffering from?”

“It seems I might have late stage stomach cancer…I really wish I could just die now! The longer I live, the more of a burden I am on Mengmeng.” Yang Mengmeng’s mother had clearly given up any hope of surviving her illness. The look of despair coupled with the worry for her daughter in her eyes was enough to make anyone cry.

“Have you confirmed the diagnosis?” Su Jin asked.

“Not yet. This hospital is too small. I’ll have to go to a larger hospital to get it confirmed. But there’s no point in doing that. Since I’m going to die anyway, I’d rather die here. At least I’d be able to be with Mengmeng during this time,” she said with a sad smile.

Just then, a nurse walked in with the medicine that Yang Mengmeng’s mother needed. There were more than 20 pills in total.

Yang Mengmeng and Su Qing came back with the warm water and Su Jin helped to pour her a glass. He quietly flipped his palm and an inconspicuous looking pill quietly fell into the large pile of pills that Yang Mengmeng’s mother had to take.

“Since it’s not confirmed, don’t give up hope. Sometimes…having hope can make miracles happen,” said Su Jin with a faint smile.