Building 14, sixth floor.
Lu Yushan hovered in the air above the residential complex.
After searching his memory for the exact spot, he flew straight toward it.
He didn’t bother with the main door; he slipped in through the stairwell window instead.
Dong—dong—dong—
After releasing his transformation, Lu Yushan stood before the chipped security door and knocked three times.
He drew a deep breath, ready to rehearse his opening line, when the door cracked open.
A small head poked out.
It was Xiao Yao, Aunt Wang’s daughter, who had just started second grade this year.
“Brother Shan? Big Brother Shan is here!”
Xiao Yao’s eyes sparkled with excitement. She yanked the door wide and dragged him inside.
Lu Yushan hadn’t expected the child to answer. He had even steeled himself to be turned away at the threshold.
He stepped into the living room and saw Uncle Zhao sprawled on the sofa, one leg jiggling as he watched TV.
The air reeked of cheap rolled cigarettes.
“Sit.”
Uncle Zhao—Aunt Wang’s husband—spoke flatly. He didn’t get up, eyes glued to the screen.
“Oh, okay.”
Lu Yushan’s tone was unusually mild.
For the family that had once helped him, he offered full respect.
Still, he was so stiff it came across as timid.
Even knowing that, he didn’t care.
“The money thing?”
Uncle Zhao blew out a smoke ring and asked in a low voice.
“Mm.”
The exchange was so short it felt suffocating.
Only the canned laughter from the variety show on TV broke the silence, grating on the ears.
“Coming, coming, Brother Shan! These are my super-secret stash I’ve been saving for so~~ long!”
Xiao Yao burst out of the bedroom carrying an enormous bag of snacks and dumped them across the coffee table in a noisy clatter.
“You little brat, what about your dad?”
Uncle Zhao suddenly chuckled, reaching for the pack of tree-bark cigarettes on the table.
“No no no, these are for Brother Shan!”
Xiao Yao stuck her tongue out at him, guarding the snacks, then tugged Lu Yushan’s sleeve.
“Brother Shan, when are we gonna play a super intense, heart-pounding match in League of Legends!”
“Play play play, that’s all you ever do. Finished your homework yet?”
Classic parent line. Watching the scene, a flicker of envy Lu Yushan couldn’t quite hide crossed his eyes.
Lu Yushan pulled out his phone, unlocked it, and handed it over.
“I need to talk with Uncle Zhao for a bit. Go play with this first.”
“Yay! Brother Shan is the best!”
Xiao Yao hugged the phone and scampered happily back to the bedroom.
The living room fell quiet again.
Uncle Zhao stubbed out his cigarette and sighed.
“First, let me apologize. When your aunt messaged you, everything I said was just me blowing off steam.”
Lu Yushan gave a small nod. He vaguely remembered something like that.
“You know our family isn’t exactly rolling in money. Plus Xiao Yao’s tuition is due soon. I can barely afford these smokes anymore—I’ve only just started rolling my own…”
Uncle Zhao muttered on, fishing out a phone with a shattered screen and opening the transfer app.
“How much do you need? I’ve still got a few thousand here…”
“I’m not here to borrow.”
Lu Yushan cut him off. His voice wasn’t loud, but it made Uncle Zhao freeze.
He took out the briefcase, pulled two thick bundles of crisp red banknotes, and set them on the worn coffee table.
On the way over he had counted them. One bundle held exactly one hundred bills—ten thousand. Two bundles meant twenty thousand.
“You lent me more than ten thousand back then. Principal plus interest. The extra is for Xiao Yao to buy some good snacks.”
Lu Yushan’s gaze flicked to the cheap cigarette between Uncle Zhao’s fingers and paused.
“Uncle, switch to better cigarettes. Aunt should get herself a new outfit too…”
“Yushan!”
Before he could finish, Uncle Zhao slammed the table. He took a savage drag from the cigarette and crushed it into the ashtray so hard sparks flew.
His face flushed red, voice urgent.
“Where did this money come from!”
Lu Yushan hadn’t expected the reaction and froze, unsure what to say.
“You’re just a student. Where did you get this much cash? Did you do something stupid?”
Uncle Zhao pointed at the bundles, tone rising but without malice—mostly raw worry.
He knew Lu Yushan was a good kid at heart and wouldn’t hurt others.
But what if he was hurting himself?
“It came through legitimate channels.”
After a long pause, those were the only four words Lu Yushan could manage.
“Really?”
“Really. I did some work for someone. It’s legal.”
Uncle Zhao stared hard, trying to read the slightly flustered yet earnest face.
He had watched this boy grow up.
He knew Lu Yushan was quiet but stubborn, and he didn’t lie.
If the kid really wanted to hide something, pressing him would only make it worse.
After a moment of silence, Uncle Zhao picked up the money and began counting, fingertips trembling.
The bills were brand new; the ink still gleamed like they had just come from the bank. It was impossible not to imagine the worst.
“One, two, three…”
In the end he tucked part of it into a drawer and slid the rest back.
“I’ll take the principal. Keep the rest.”
“But…”
“Take it!”
Lu Yushan tried to push it away, but met Uncle Zhao’s unyielding stare.
Yet the man’s voice softened.
“Don’t touch those shady things again. And don’t shortchange yourself.”
“If you hit a wall you can’t climb, you tell Uncle Zhao. I’m still here.”
The rest of the conversation blurred—small talk about family, Uncle Zhao, Xiao Yao, and Lu Yushan’s grandfather.
But as the sky darkened, Uncle Zhao tried to keep him for dinner.
Only after much back-and-forth did he finally let him leave.
Lu Yushan then visited several more relatives and friends in quick succession, clearing up the scattered debts until almost everything was paid.
No debts, a light heart.
The rare feeling of relief made him ravenous.
He found a noodle shop, called out Snowball, and devoured an extra-large bowl of hand-pulled noodles.
But the ease lasted only a moment.
The second he rounded the corner, he saw a group of people standing in front of a rundown bookstore.
Several shady men in black suits clustered at the entrance, holding sealing tape and official documents.
A sharp spike of dread shot through him. That rundown bookstore was his home.
Lu Yushan sprinted over.
“What are you doing!”
The woman in charge looked down at him arrogantly, then slapped a document against his chest.
“Lu Yushan, right? The mortgage contract on this house expires today. You’ve got no money to repay. Sign it. The company is taking the house for auction to settle the debt.”
What?!
Lu Yushan’s mind buzzed. He stood there stunned, the paper nearly slipping from his fingers.
“I’ll pay it back right now! Just give me a few more days!”
“A few days?”
The woman scoffed.
“I’ve heard that line so many times my ears have calluses. The higher-ups are breathing down our necks. We’re sealing it tonight.”
She took in his devastated expression—clearly she had seen this scene too many times—and her tone eased slightly, but the hint was unmistakable.
“Still… even though the rain stopped today, the road’s still pretty rough.”
“If the car happens to break down, this whole trip would be a waste. We’d have to come back tomorrow…”
Lu Yushan understood instantly.
He fumbled the briefcase open. Only a few red bills remained inside.
The woman glanced at them but didn’t reach out.
“This pocket change isn’t even enough to fix the car.”
Cold sweat poured down Lu Yushan’s face.
His fingers shook as he searched his pockets, twisting the briefcase out of shape in his panic.
Suddenly his hand closed around something hard.
The monster core he hadn’t had time to exchange yet.
“This! Will this work!”
His voice cracked with desperation.
“What’s that?”
The lackey beside her looked utterly lost.
But the lead woman recognized it at once.
Her eyes brightened.
She snatched the core and stuffed it into her pocket, then waved her hand.
“Aiyo, flat tire! What rotten luck! Pack it up, we’ll come back tomorrow!”
Before leaving, she patted Lu Yushan’s shoulder.
“Kid, I can buy you one day. But tomorrow at this time, if I don’t see a hundred thousand, not even the gods can save your house.”
They left.
The bookstore was safe—for now.
But a crushing wave of helplessness swallowed Lu Yushan whole.
One hundred thousand.
In one day.
His legs gave out. He sank onto the steps in front of the bookstore, fingertips icy as he unlocked his phone and dialed Gu Lingyue with trembling hands.
—No answer.
He opened the familiar loan apps.
—Your credit limit has been reached. Please repay first.
Despair crashed over him like a tide.
In a moment of wild absurdity he even considered running back to borrow the money he had just repaid.
I want to kill someone…
The sudden thought startled him.
Then he remembered something. He dug through the briefcase and pulled out a flyer.
The content was utterly humiliating, but right now it was his only lifeline.
He hesitated for two seconds.
Gritting his teeth, Lu Yushan dialed the number on the flyer.
The sickeningly sweet recorded voice answered instantly.
“Master~ Welcome to the call…”