88: Chapter 88 Qingcheng Welfare Home

The call cut off, and the system prompt echoed in his mind.

[Dating Reality Show arc completed, performing comprehensive evaluation...]

[Evaluation Grade: S+.]

[Rewards issued: Mastery of all band instruments, Professional Emergency Responder certification.]

Is that it?

Li Li leaned against the headboard, speechless.

An Emergency Responder certificate.

He glanced at his left hand, wrapped in gauze, and didn't dare rotate his wrist for fear of the pain.

He had just free-climbed a sixth-floor balcony yesterday, braving temperatures of several hundred degrees to pull someone out, nearly falling to his death, and now they issue a certificate? This crappy system was definitely playing the hindsight game.

As for the mastery of all band instruments.

Li Li tapped the nightstand; if he couldn't make it later, he could pull a "one-man band" act like Ed Sheeran and busk in the subway station.

[Host detected completing hidden achievement: Rescuing an orphan from a fire.]

[Extra reward: One box of magical scar removal ointment. Note: Repairs any type of old scar within thirty days, restoring skin to its original state.]

A small black round box appeared out of thin air on the nightstand.

Li Li picked it up and twisted off the lid.

The scent of mint wafted out. The ointment was transparent and seemed nothing special.

Memories surfaced.

The Arabian Desert, an air-raid shelter. Jiang Rumu had her back to him, the beam of a flashlight shining on her shoulder blades. There was a coin-sized burn scar there, caused by shrapnel. A female celebrity made her living on her face and figure; having a scar was simply unacceptable.

He twisted the lid back on.

Li Li stuffed the round box into the inner pocket of his backpack. He would save it for her.

He had slept like the dead.

When he opened his eyes again, the light filtering through the gap in the curtains was blindingly white.

Li Li sat up, his joints popping like firecrackers. His entire body felt achy and sore, especially his left wrist, where a throbbing, swollen sensation shot straight to his brain.

He walked to the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and splashed cold water on his face.

He looked up; the person in the mirror had hair like a bird's nest and a layer of blue stubble on his chin. There was a tiny scratch on his right cheek from the shattered glass yesterday.

He dried his face, walked back to the bedroom, and grabbed his phone.

It was a quarter past twelve.

A row of red dots hung on the screen.

Over ninety-nine unread WeChat messages.

He tapped it open.

Jiang Rumu had sent three messages.

"Where are you?"

"Are you dead?"

"If you aren't completely dead, say something."

Director Pei Zhao had sent a sixty-second voice message. Transcribing it to text revealed nothing but empty promises about a new variety show—talk of a hundred-million-yuan investment, a five-million-yuan paycheck, and earning money just by living his daily life.

Shen Jue sent two exclamation marks, plus a message: "Brother Li, you're trending! Was that really you climbing the balcony like a monkey?"

Li Li didn't reply to the WeChat messages.

His gaze locked onto the call logs.

Missed calls: thirteen. All from the same number.

Caller ID: Qingcheng Orphanage.

Li Li's thumb hovered over the screen for two seconds. An orphanage? In the memories of his predecessor, this place hadn't appeared for a long, long time.

He called back.

It rang twice, then connected.

"Hello? Brother Li Li?"

A little girl's voice, heavy with nasal congestion; she had just been crying.

"Who is this?"

"It's Jiajia! Brother Li Li, don't you remember me?"

A sharp pain pierced his brain, and Li Li pressed a hand to his right temple.

A memory that didn't originally belong to him forced its way into his mind.

Chengdu's Qingcheng Orphanage: a little girl with pigtails chasing after his sixteen-year-old self for candy; an old slide, a peeling iron gate, and a middle-aged woman in a gray cloth jacket chasing him with a broom, scolding him for not doing his homework.

"Jiajia." Li Li rubbed his temple, suppressing the sharp pain. "What's wrong? Why so many calls?"

"Mother Zhang is sick..." Jiajia sobbed on the other end, her voice intermittent. "She's very sick, but she wouldn't let the teachers at the orphanage tell the older brothers and sisters. She said you all are working hard out there and she didn't want to cause trouble."

"And then?"

"I overheard the doctor talking to the teachers this morning, saying it would take a lot of money for surgery. I only remembered your phone number... Brother Li Li, can you come back to see Mother Zhang?"

Li Li fell silent.

More memory fragments crashed down.

Zhang Guifang, the director of Qingcheng Orphanage. His predecessor had been raised by her since childhood; she had provided food, clothing, and schooling.

During the first two years after graduating from university, his predecessor had sent two thousand yuan to the orphanage every month without fail after getting his paycheck, and would haul a pile of New Year's goods back for the holidays.

And later?

Later, he met Su Wantang.

Designer bags, cosmetics, trips abroad—Su Wantang's appetite grew larger and larger. His predecessor worked crazily overtime and took part-time delivery jobs, pouring every cent he earned into that bottomless pit.

The money for the orphanage stopped.

He hadn't sent a single cent in two years, rarely even called, and made excuses about working overtime during the holidays to avoid showing his face.

Li Li pressed his tongue against his back molars.

That absolute sucker of a predecessor had been bled dry to the marrow, even casting aside the grace of his upbringing, cutting off contact with people who truly cared about him for the sake of a green tea bitch.

"Jiajia, don't cry." Li Li spoke, his throat a bit dry. "Which hospital is Mother Zhang in now?"

"At the City Hospital. Brother, are you coming back?"

"I'm coming. I'll be back today. Keep your mouth shut, though; don't tell anyone I called."

"Okay!"

He hung up.

Li Li rolled out of bed, ripped off his bathrobe, and changed into a clean white T-shirt and black trousers.

Since he had taken over this body, he would have to take on the predecessor's debts, gratitude, and grudges all at once.

That was the rule for transmigrators.

He opened a ticket booking app.

Current location: Beijing.

Destination: Chengdu.

He selected the earliest flight, 3:30 PM, paid, and issued the ticket.

He packed his things.

There really wasn't much to pack, just a beat-up backpack. The photo from the orphanage was stuffed at the very bottom.

Li Li pulled open the inner pocket and took out the small black round box.

He walked to the hotel front desk and asked for a small cardboard box and a roll of tape.

He put the round box inside and sealed it shut.

He opened WeChat and found the local delivery mini-program.

He filled in the address: Bulgari Apartments.

Recipient: Senior Jiang Rumu.

Note: Special medicine I bought for you, for scar removal. Not diapers.

He placed the order, marked as urgent.

Ten minutes later, a delivery guy in a yellow vest pushed open the hotel doors, dripping with sweat.

Li Li handed over the box and scanned the QR code.

"Buddy, this item is quite valuable. Make sure to hand it to the front desk personally and have her pass it on."

The delivery guy patted his chest and tucked the box into his thermal bag.

"Don't worry, bro. If it gets lost, I'll pay you ten times the value."

Li Li grabbed his backpack, checked out, and walked out of the Xinghui Apartment Hotel.

The early autumn sun beat down on his head, carrying a hint of dry heat.

He hailed a taxi on the side of the road.

He opened the car door, tossed his backpack into the backseat, and climbed in.

"Driver, to the airport."

The driver was a bald man with a thick gold chain around his neck. He stepped on the gas, and the car shot out of the service lane.

"Young man, which airport are you going to? Capital or Daxing?"

Li Li pulled out his phone and opened the flight app.

His eyes scanned the electronic boarding pass.

Departure: Daxing International Airport.

Arrival: Tianfu International Airport.

Li Li froze.

He brought his phone closer to confirm he wasn't going blind.

Daxing.

Tianfu.

The furthest airport from Beijing, flying to the furthest airport from Chengdu.

Daxing Airport was on the edge of Hebei, and Tianfu Airport was in Jianyang. The distance between these two airports combined could be longer than the flight itself.

"Damn it."

Li Li leaned back in the seat and face-planted his phone onto his lap.

The driver glanced at him through the rearview mirror and chuckled.

"What's wrong, brother? Bought the wrong ticket?"

"It's nothing. Go to Daxing."

"Oh boy, that's way out there. Even without traffic, it takes over an hour. Where are you flying to?"

"Chengdu Tianfu."

The driver slapped his thigh and laughed out loud.

"Unbelievable! Flying from Daxing to Tianfu—you're getting screwed on both ends! I heard it takes over an hour just to take the subway into the city from Tianfu. Brother, your itinerary is three hours in the air and four hours on the ground. Impressive."

Li Li turned his head to look at the receding streetscape outside the window, not wanting to talk.

The driver didn't know that Qingcheng Orphanage was at the foot of Mount Qingcheng, and getting there from Tianfu Airport took an absurdly long time.

His phone buzzed.

A WeChat message from Jiang Rumu.

It was just a picture.

The Bulgari butler was holding the small cardboard box with both hands, with her two-hundred-square-meter living room in the background. The box had already been opened, and the small black round box was sitting on the coffee table.

A second message popped up right after.

Jiang Rumu: You're sensible, I'll give you that. Where are you going?

Li Li typed with one hand.

Li Li: Going back to my hometown to handle some business.

Jiang Rumu: Need money?

Li Li stared at these three words for a second.

Jiang Rumu's concern was always this simple and blunt.

Li Li: No need, I have enough.

After sending this, he shoved his phone back into his pocket.

The taxi drove onto the Fourth Ring Road overpass, merging into the congested traffic. The brake lights ahead stretched out like a long red dragon.

Li Li leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes.

Chengdu. Qingcheng Orphanage. Zhang Guifang.

The mess left behind by his predecessor was finally about to be cleaned up.