I Will Never Submit to Miss Grim Reaper - Chapter 63
At 9:40, with a somewhat impatient mood, I entered 1800 words into the word processing software and couldn’t continue writing.
I turned around, and the empty living room remained completely still.
Had she remembered the wrong date?
Approaching the living room, I took off my slippers and stepped onto the cushion. I sat in silence in front of the table laden with food for a few seconds, then slowly knelt down and tried the temperature of each dish.
Except for the winter melon and pork bone soup, which was still warm, the other dishes had started to approach room temperature.
In the lamplight, my reflection appeared on the surface of the rich pork bone soup – soft, flowing hair, big, bright eyes, a clean, white face, and an expression on my face that was a little aggrieved, a little puzzled, and a little… worried.
The sour cabbage, which had been cut into flower patterns and drenched in delicious fish broth, had begun to wilt.
Two mackerel were lying side by side in the broth.
Next to the delicious dishes were two ceramic bowls filled with glistening rice, and two pairs of chopsticks lay quietly on the table.
Turning my head, I saw that the strawberries, which had still had some droplets of water on them earlier, had now completely lost their moisture, and the liquid in the two cups soaking chrysanthemum tea had begun to turn slightly green.
“Gurgle, gurgle…”
My stomach protested strongly, and the food in front of me at this moment was very tempting.
Should I… eat first?
I hesitated.
According to the etiquette of receiving guests, it’s very impolite for the host to eat before the guest arrives. It implies that the host is not taking the guest seriously.
But in this situation… if the Grim Reaper doesn’t come, or if she genuinely got the time wrong, am I supposed to go without food for the whole night?
Speaking of it, since she’s a Grim Reaper, she’s unlikely to forget the time, right? Can a Grim reaper be that careless?
In my mind, I couldn’t help but recall the young man taken away by a grim reaper not long ago in the city’s village and the occupant of Apartment 502 upstairs.
If the Grim Reaper got the time wrong, wouldn’t that mean… some people could live a few extra days while others die prematurely?
If that’s true, wouldn’t this world be in chaos?
With a sense of confusion, I put on my slippers and walked to the front door next to the living room. I opened it and stepped outside into the corridor of the rented house.
Through the window in the corridor, I could see that at this hour, Shenzhen city was under a starry sky.
Excessive urban light pollution had obscured most of the stars, leaving only faint flickering specks in the dark fabric overhead.
It reminded me of the stories about “stars” that the orphanage’s director used to tell us when I was a child.
“Every star in the sky is someone’s soul. If one day you see a star fall, it means someone has left this world. Don’t be sad, don’t be afraid, because that is the destiny of all of us…”
I don’t know why, but at this moment, even though I was the one being stood up, my “worry” about the Grim Reaper seemed to outweigh my “anger.”
Logically, an entity with powers beyond science like her shouldn’t make such a mistake. Even if she couldn’t make it due to an unforeseen event, couldn’t she just tear open a spatial rift and effortlessly travel between different parts of the world? She could take a few seconds to come over and let me know, right?
Maybe something really did happen to her.
However, it seemed like there was nothing I could do.
At the staircase landing, I stretched out my hands, as if trying something.
The little girl’s small hands were snowy white and tender, and her ten fingers gleamed with a healthy redness under the corridor’s fluorescent light.
So far, apart from being able to see grim reapers, it seemed I had no abilities that exceeded science.
Even if that Grim reaper had indeed encountered some danger, I… I couldn’t do anything.
So, apart from quietly waiting for her to return here, there wasn’t much else I could do, right?
After gazing at the night sky outside the corridor for a while, I turned and went back into the house, closing the room door with a “thud.”
No, Yin Nuo’er, you need to toughen up.
That Grim Reaper is the culprit for the recent chaos in your life. If someone stood you up, why should you be concerned about their safety?
Maybe that person is hiding in some crevice right now, secretly watching you worry and laughing!
“I don’t care anymore. In the last hour, if this is just a prank, let’s call it quits. It’s 9:30 now. I’ll go play a game for a while. If you don’t show up by 10:30, I’m going to eat without you. Hmph.”
I said this to the empty living room and took one last look at the table on the desktop before returning to the computer.
?Marisa’s Iron Butt: I’m back, boys! Haha, this trip to Shenzhen was amazing. I even got to attend the Mugen Manga Expo.?
Just at this moment, Jiang Wei, Pipi, and the others seemed to have finished their daily tasks and opened the voice chat. The group message still had their chat conversation before starting the voice chat:
?Divine Pet Pipi: I really never thought that the ‘uncle’ who has been playing with us for so many years was actually a girl, and she still looks so young.?
?Marisa’s Iron Butt: Haha, the ‘uncle’ is famous now. I’ve seen lots of reader groups sharing his photos. I guess when quantity turns into quality, his novels will attract a lot of readers.?
?Divine Pet Pipi: Where’s the uncle? Not coming today??
?Marisa’s Iron Butt: I don’t know about her. You join the voice chat, let’s duo queue. I’m only 80 points away from Diamond.?
?Divine Pet Pipi: Wait a moment, I’m fixing something for my daughter, give me ten minutes.?
I briefly glanced at the messages in our usual QQ group for gaming, suppressing the growling of my stomach. I clicked to enter the QQ voice chat.
“Marvin! Marvin! Hit Marvin!”
“Why are you crazy? Why hit Marvin?”
“That Marvin is a bot! It just punched me. Hit it… Damn, you can’t even kill it?”
*Ding dong!*
As soon as I entered the QQ group, I heard Jiang Wei and Pipi’s loud yelling inside.
Then, there was a few seconds of silence, very synchronized.
“Let me guess… did some cute little girl just come in?”
“Uncle? Uncle, are you here? Oh, wait, it’s Nuo’er, cough cough.”
“Hehe, since I know you’re a little girl… it feels a bit weird.”
I pulled the microphone to my mouth in front of the computer. “Are you guys playing ranked?”
Jiang Wei seemed somewhat awkward, “Uncle, where’s your voice changer?”
I casually replied, “I haven’t turned it on.”
“Don’t do that. Turn on the voice changer, please… your, um, soft loli voice makes my aim shake.”
“What aim?”
“A bolt-action rifle!”
“Oh, a bolt-action rifle. Have you fully charged it now?”
“Why does it sound even more weird when you say it?”
“Haha, a bolt-action rifle…”
Pipi also chimed in, “Even though it’s a loli voice, Uncle still has the same style as before.”
“Let me ask you something.”
I looked at the QQ group interface in front of me. “Do you guys think… it’s possible for a person to have a ‘next life’ or something like that?”
“What?”
Jiang Wei’s voice suddenly rose by eight degrees. “Uncle, are you serious? Are you getting confused from writing novels? You actually believe something so outrageous?”
“Do you believe it or not?”
“Me? I don’t believe it, but I’m willing to believe it, as long as I see even a tiny sign.”
Jiang Wei chuckled, “Look at the world we’re in right now. It’s so despairing. A person lives for over a hundred years, but most people live to be around 80. If you subtract the first ten years when they’re ignorant and the last ten years when they’re bedridden, we have only about fifty years of usable life in the middle. And with the current state of science and technology, there’s no hope of extending life or rejuvenation. If there were something like time travel, reincarnation, or a ‘next life’ as in novels… I’d be willing to believe it.”
“I’m the same.”
Pipi let out a soft sigh, “This little rascal is tormenting me every day. I’d be willing to believe that I owe her something from my past life. For example, I was a hero who sacrificed my comrades to kill the Demon King, and then one of those comrades reincarnated as my daughter to seek revenge on me.”
I hesitated for a moment. “You’re both willing to believe?”
“Willing to believe and… the actual existence of something are two different things.”
Jiang Wei said, “At least for now… I don’t see any hope. I think my life will be like this. I write novels every day, sell computers, save enough money for retirement, use anime and the second dimension as motivation to keep going, and then grow old. Compared to a life where you can see the end from the beginning, I’d rather believe in the possibility of a next life or reincarnation, at least there’s something to look forward to.”
“So, how do you guys view the concept of the Grim Reaper?”
“Grim Reaper? Why are we suddenly talking about the Grim Reaper again?”
“Oh, I mean… What do you think about the existence of entities like the Grim Reaper? I might need to write about this profession in my novel.”
“Are you writing a Western novel or an Eastern one? In the West, it’s the Grim Reaper, and in the East… aren’t we the ‘Heibai Wuchang‘? There’s also Yama and the Underworld. Why are you writing about the Grim Reaper if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Is it possible for a similar profession to exist in a fantasy world like the Grim Reaper?”
“I didn’t quite catch your meaning. Are you asking about professions that use scythes or professions that control death? There are many professions that use scythes, but it’s an impractical weapon, difficult to use. If it’s about controlling death… these abilities are often overpowered, hard to balance, and usually lead to tragic outcomes.”
“If… I mean, if.”
I cautiously asked, “If the Grim Reaper existed in our real world, how do you think it should be portrayed realistically?”
“In our real world?”
“Yes, in the real world.”
“Would only the Grim Reaper have superpowers, and everyone else would be ordinary people?”
“That’s right.”
“If I were to create it… I’d typically start with a rather tragic background from a different world. For example, in a different world, a pair of lovers, one of them being the male hero, dies while trying to save the world or defeat the demon king. The hero is then reincarnated in our real world, and the hero’s lover, filled with the hero’s courage and determination, seeks revenge. To find the reincarnated hero in various parallel worlds, she’s willing to defy the rules, much like what you mentioned about the Grim Reaper, right?”
Pipi said methodically, “Have you seen ‘Puella Magi Madoka Magica‘? In it, Madoka Kaname wishes to become a ‘concept’ between magical girls and witches so that magical girls wouldn’t fall into despair. In this case, you could arrange the Grim Reaper similarly, with the Grim Reaper making a deal to ensure the reincarnated hero doesn’t die, and the hero’s lover sacrificing everything to become a ‘rule’ of death on Earth. Then, one of these entities meets the reincarnated hero in the real world…”
“There you go, it’s like a plot from a Japanese light novel.”