I Will Never Submit to Miss Grim Reaper - Chapter 51

Convention Center, second floor, a quiet staff lounge.

I placed my rabbit backpack in a nearby cabinet, tiptoed onto a swiveling small chair, and unconsciously twisted my waist a bit, spinning in place with a ‘whoosh.’

“What would you like to drink?”

Uncle Lu Xinjian opened the door of a small refrigerator nearby and took two disposable paper cups from the top of the fridge.

“Anything is fine, I’m not picky.”

I tried to reach out and touched the tabletop in front of me, not sure if it was made of marble or some other type of stone.

It felt cool.

The pattern on it was quite beautiful.

“Then let’s go with orange juice.”

He took out a large bottle of orange juice from the fridge, filled two disposable paper cups, and returned to the stone table next to me, sitting in a chair.

I took the juice and took a symbolic sip: “Thank you.”

“I should be the one thanking you.”

The uncle in front of me smiled somewhat awkwardly and said, “That day… I made you witness a joke.”

Well, it wasn’t really a joke, was it?

I took another sip of juice and scrutinized the man in front of me, Lu Xinjian.

Hasn’t the world always been like this?

Time, like an unrelenting tractor, drags everyone forward with great force. Some people let go of the reins to see the roadside scenery and end up getting hurt. Some can’t bear the cutting wind on the road and jump off voluntarily. Some stand on the tractor’s front, rejoicing, while others cower in the dark and safe corners, mechanically repeating day after day.

During the years I lived in the tiny apartment, I went to the nearby cheap market to buy groceries almost every day. The market was surrounded by the city’s poorest urban villages. Many people, like me, lived at the bottom of the city’s hierarchy. They could haggle with the market vendors for a penny and call a newly acquainted hoodlum their brother for a pack of cigarettes.

Over these years, I can say I’ve become indifferent to the vicissitudes of life. People like Lu Xinjian, whether they are company leaders, elders in their families, or daughters’ fathers, are actually quite numerous.

Here, a beggar in tattered clothes begs along the street. There, a man in a suit and polished shoes shakes a dice cup, shouting, “I’m all in for 300,000! Let’s go all the way!” Here, a wealthy lady from a rich family gets out of her car, holding a large dog, buying a few hundred yuan worth of steak and insisting it be cleaned thoroughly so her dog won’t have an upset stomach. There, an ordinary office worker stands in front of a shredded chicken stall, looking at the 15-20 yuan hand-shredded chicken, hesitating for a while before silently returning home.

How did that song go again?

“How many people face the mirror, shedding tears while smiling? How many people laugh as they run wildly in the pouring rain?”

“How many people put on the icy handcuffs for fame and fortune? How many people betray their initial ideals just to survive?”

“But those who stick to their ideals still can’t make it to the parking lot…”

“Below, a man is dying of illness, the family next door is playing a phonograph. Opposite, someone is taking care of children”.

“Upstairs, two people are laughing hysterically, there’s the sound of playing cards too. On the river, a woman on a boat is crying for her deceased mother. Human sorrows and joys don’t resonate with each other, I only feel that they are noisy.”

The man in front of me didn’t look much different from the disheveled uncle I remembered sitting at the entrance of the market, but his demeanor had changed, and his face now held vitality and hope.

His appearance was quite ordinary: a square face, slightly tanned skin, not the best complexion. It was evident he wasn’t the type to spend time on fitness or skincare. However, his eyes were clean and lacked the greasy feel of a “creepy uncle.”

“That day, my business was failing, and something happened at home… that’s why I acted like that.”

Perhaps recollecting the events from a few days ago, the middle-aged man in front of me lowered his head and sighed lightly. “I didn’t control my emotions.”

“It’s okay,” I nodded, showing understanding. “Have you overcome the difficulties now?”

“I’ve managed to get through it,” the man said, lifting his head to meet my gaze. “It’s quite miraculous, actually. The day I finished the cotton candy you gave me, the hospital called and said that Xinmeng, my daughter, was saved. Oh, Xinmeng is my daughter, she’s 15 this year. Lu Xinmeng… Can you tell me your name?”

“Yin Nuo’er.”

I calmly responded, knowing that the other person would ask this: “Nuo… as in ‘promise’.”

“Your last name is Yin?!”

However, just as I finished my self-introduction, the man in front of me, for some unknown reason, suddenly stood up with a gasp, extremely excited. “Is it the… so-called ‘Yi’ from the poem where the beauty is by the water, without the ‘Yin’ from the last name?”

“Yes,” I replied, a bit puzzled. “What’s with the last name?”

“Oh…”

Perhaps realizing he had become overly excited, the man sat back down. He fell silent for a few seconds and then asked hesitantly, “Have you… have you recently had any family members who signed an organ donation pledge?”

An organ donation pledge?

I vaguely remembered signing something like that when I was still a ‘Yin,’ but wasn’t my body already…

“Family members?”

I considered the situation and decided to get more details. “Could you please explain what happened?”

“It’s… that day… you’re the author of Yae-Do, are you? You should also know that Yae-Do went bankrupt before, partly due to my poor management, and partly because of my daughter’s illness.”

Recalling past events, the uncle appeared pained as he continued, “My daughter’s heart has never been strong. It’s congenital, and her condition is very unique. The surgery to implant an artificial heart is extremely difficult, and many hospitals dare not attempt it. If we can’t get a heart transplant… she won’t live past her youth.”

“In recent years, Xinmeng has been in the hospital continuously because of this illness. The expenses are in the millions every month, and with the company’s revenue decreasing every year, if I use the money to treat my daughter, it’s challenging to turn the company around. I truly had no choice… she’s my only daughter.”

“That day, the hospital issued another critical condition notice, and I was still outside dealing with company matters. My wife called and cried and scolded me over the phone, and I couldn’t bear it… I had a breakdown.”

At this point, Uncle Lu Xinjian glanced at the rabbit backpack I had placed nearby and said, “This… you must have found it in the company’s office when you were demanding your unpaid wages, right?”

“Oh…” I awkwardly chuckled. “A bald uncle told us to take anything from the office, and he gave me this and a nightgown.”

“Heh, I used to criticize deadbeat bosses online along with netizens. I never thought that I’d be forced into that situation one day. I… I’m truly sorry for what happened to you all. As for the royalties, I’ve already been in talks with the people from Honeydew. Once the acquisition process is complete, we will send it to you.”

“My royalties have already been paid,” I took another sip of orange juice. “So, let’s get back to what happened earlier. Uncle, what happened to your daughter afterward?”

“Later… well, I heard my wife crying over the phone. I had planned to buy an old hen from the market to make soup for her, but I couldn’t hold back and ended up crying on the street. That’s when I ran into you.”

The uncle scratched his head and said, “It’s really strange. At that time, you looked like an angel. I ate that string of cotton candy in the corner, and the hospital called, saying they had found a matching heart for my daughter and were preparing for the surgery. They asked me to come back and sign the paperwork.”

“The surgery was very successful, and my daughter woke up that same evening. Due to confidentiality agreements, we weren’t allowed to know the full name of the heart donor for my daughter, but I used my connections to inquire with the hospital director, and he showed me some backend documents.”

The uncle looked at me with a somewhat expectant expression. “The backend documents didn’t display the full name of the donor, it only showed ‘Yin ***ren.’ I don’t know his full first name. I asked a friend at the police station to investigate. There are a total of 531 people with the last name Yin in the entire Shenzhen city, but there’s only one ‘Yin ***ren.’ He couldn’t tell me who ‘***ren’ specifically is, but he mentioned that this person grew up in an orphanage and has a sister who is now an adult.”

My heart skipped a beat due to the uncle’s gaze and his words. The reason was simple—because the name of the body I inhabited before was “Yin Shiren.”