Becoming an Evil God and Stealing His Wife - Chapter 2
When setting out to find a job, Li Jiu didn’t head toward the city’s outskirts, which the original owner had frequented and was more familiar with. Instead, he made his way toward the urban district.
The outskirts offered few job opportunities, yet job hunters were numerous. The working hours there were long, the labor grueling, and the compensation abysmally low. Things would be significantly better in the city. Moreover, an official governmental branch called the Quality Inspection Department was located near the city center.
The disappearance and subsequent deaths of Li Jiu’s parents seemed to be connected to monsters. At that time, it was the personnel from the Quality Inspection Department who had notified them of their parents’ deaths. Furthermore, after escaping the basement with his life, he had also run into people from the Quality Inspection Department and had been taken in for relevant questioning.
Standard civil cases were handled by separate, dedicated official branches. Therefore, Li Jiu surmised that this particular department might be the specialized agency in this world tasked with handling matters concerning monsters.
If he wanted to uncover the secrets of the handbook, he couldn’t distance himself from monsters; he had to find a way to increase his understanding of them. Currently, he knew of only three groups that undoubtedly possessed knowledge about these entities.
The first was the Quality Inspection Department, whose location he knew and which seemed relatively normal. The second was the criminal syndicate that had lured the original owner into the basement, though they had already been apprehended. The final one was the mysterious individual he had met only once, whose whereabouts were completely unknown.
Li Jiu could only attempt to make his approach through the Quality Inspection Department.
“Let’s start here.”
Over an hour later, Li Jiu halted his pace and wiped the sweat from his brow.
He stood on a major thoroughfare running north to south that led directly to the city center. It was exceptionally long, and the Quality Inspection Department sat right at the very end of this avenue. The street spanned roughly five meters in width, flanked on both sides by numerous buildings topped with pointed roofs. Though their architectural styles varied wildly, they all shared a distinct, weathered sense of antiquity.
Li Jiu prepared to begin his job hunt here. This location wasn’t too far from the Quality Inspection Department, yet not too close either, making it convenient for him to gather information without easily drawing their attention.
Li Jiu looked toward a shop on his right-hand side; it appeared to be a clothing store. He strode toward the establishment, completely failing to notice the ambiguous, probing glances from the passersby on the street.
Upon entering the shop, Li Jiu froze.
It was indeed a clothing store. The interior decoration could be described as nothing short of luxurious, packed with a dazzling array of garments for both men and women in various styles. The sole issue was that most of these clothes used an astonishingly sparse amount of fabric. Even the select few styles that offered more coverage carried a heavy, suggestive undertone.
As it turned out, this was an adult lingerie boutique.
The store clerks both male and female were immaculately dressed, finely scented, and remarkably attractive. Seeing Li Jiu step through the door, they all offered him welcoming smiles.
Accompanied by the crisp chime of a bell, a handsome young man wearing a black collar adorned with a silver bell walked briskly over. Showing no disdain whatsoever for Li Jiu’s ragged attire or the patched cloth bag slung across his shoulder, he greeted him enthusiastically:
“Welcome, customer! Are you looking to buy some intimate apparel? Is it for yourself, or for a lover?”
The young man discreetly observed Li Jiu for a moment, swiftly deducing his preferences, and smiled knowingly: “Your lover must be a gentleman. If you’re buying it for him, do you still remember his… dimensions clearly?”
Seeing that Li Jiu remained silent, the handsome clerk praised him further: “You truly are good-looking. If you’re buying for yourself, do you have a preferred style? Do you lean toward cute or sexy? Lace or strappy designs?”
“We carry all sorts of styles here. If you don’t have anything specific in mind and can’t quite decide, I can make a few recommendations for you~”
Li Jiu’s features were of the same mold as Li Mengmeng’s delicate, clean, and endearing. He also possessed a pair of clear, beautiful, downturned puppy eyes, making him genuinely deserving of the word handsome.
Yet, at this moment, his eyes were entirely vacant. “Neither. I came to look for a job, but it seems…” He had come to the wrong place.
Had it been an ordinary clothing store, he would have liked to give it a try. But when it came to an adult lingerie shop, he simply couldn’t handle it.
Feigning composure, Li Jiu beat a hasty retreat. Before he could cross the threshold, the quick-witted clerk managed to slip a small paper gift bag into his hand.
“This is a perfect match for you. Consider it a gift~ Please come again~”
Once he was well clear of the shop’s vicinity, Li Jiu opened the bag to look inside. Nestled within was a gift that perfectly aligned with the boutique’s theme: a pair of light pink, sheer lace briefs crafted from an eye-poppingly miniscule amount of fabric.
He snapped the paper bag shut, spending a few moments contemplating how to dispose of the item. Ultimately, he couldn’t bring himself to throw it away. Though the fabric was sparse, the craftsmanship was exquisite; it was clearly not cheap.
The poverty-stricken Li Jiu couldn’t bring himself to toss it out, and he even wondered if he could find someone to sell it to for cash.
Forget it, finding a job takes priority.
He quickly pushed the prior embarrassment to the back of his mind, immediately immersing himself back into the process of searching for his next prospect. After all, what hadn’t a seasoned laborer experienced? These were minor incidents; money was what mattered most.
Li Jiu entered a second shop. Then a third…
The morning slipped away in a flash, and Li Jiu had yet to secure employment. He wasn’t discouraged. Even back in his original world, jobs weren’t particularly easy to come by, and finding a suitable one often took a considerable amount of time let alone in this unfamiliar world.
However, as the morning concluded, he found himself exhausted, starved, and parched.
Li Jiu located a nearby patch of shade to sit down. He pulled the water cup from his cloth bag to take a sip, only to discover it was empty. The bottom of his bag felt damp, and even the paper gift bag had been somewhat soaked through. Turning the cup over to inspect it, he found a hairline fracture running along the base.
Left with no choice, Li Jiu tilted his head back to drain the final few drops of water left inside. He then packed the cup away and retrieved the grey taro wrapped in clean leaves to appease his hunger. Because the grey taro was quite dry and he was already parched, it choked his throat terribly as he ate. He had to continuously rub his chest to ease it down. The fishy aftertaste of the taro coated his entire mouth, leaving him deeply uncomfortable.
“Young man, come over and have some water.”
A gentle voice rang out.
Li Jiu looked up. Across the street and slightly diagonal from him, standing at the entrance of a shop named “Xiangxiang Noodle House,” a soft-featured woman who appeared to be in her forties beckoned to him.
Li Jiu rose from the ground. “Are you speaking to me?”
The woman nodded. “I’m the proprietress of this shop. You can come inside to have a glass of water and rest for a bit.”
Li Jiu hesitated. “Is… is that alright?”
The proprietress wiped her hands on her apron and said, “There’s no need to feel embarrassed; everyone falls on hard times now and then. I still have some business to attend to in the back kitchen and must head back shortly. Come along, the water is set right by the entrance.”
Li Jiu replied, “Thank you.”
The proprietress waved her hand dismissively and returned inside.
Li Jiu walked across the street. The Xiangxiang Noodle House wasn’t large, but the interior was pristine and orderly. At present, there were no customers inside. Near the entrance, a small stand had been set up, bearing water and glasses, with two stools placed right beside it. It looked as though it had been arranged specifically for people in his exact situation.
Li Jiu entered the shop, poured a glass of water from the stand, and finally managed to wash down the grey taro that had been stuck in his throat.
Just as he was about to use the water to finish off the rest of his meal, a heavy thud echoed from the back, sounding like a weighty object striking the floor. Immediately following the thud, a sharp shriek pierced through the rear kitchen.
“Ah!”
It sounded like the proprietress.
Li Jiu immediately set down his things and rushed over, lifting the fabric curtain to the kitchen. “What happened?”
The proprietress’s face was devoid of color as she stared at the figure on the floor, her voice trembling: “I don’t know why, but Xiao Zhang suddenly collapsed.”
Lying on the kitchen floor was a young man wearing an apron. His complexion was ashen, his lips pale, and his eyes tightly shut; he had completely lost consciousness.
Li Jiu immediately urged, “Quickly call the hospital and get an ambulance.”
Steading her nerves, the proprietress hurriedly turned off all the burners on the stove. “Young man, please keep an eye on the shop for me. I’ll head over to the grocery store nearby to call the hospital and have them dispatch an ambulance.”
Li Jiu remained in the kitchen to wait. He was merely an ordinary person, and faced with such a scenario, panic naturally set in. However, his prior terrifying encounter in the basement, coupled with the experience of transmigration, had heightened his tolerance for shock, allowing him to calm down swiftly.
Li Jiu carefully observed Xiao Zhang’s condition, noting that it didn’t align with the standard emergency situations he knew of. The sparse first-aid trivia he had never actually practiced was entirely useless here. Nevertheless, he knew that when the underlying cause was uncertain, one shouldn’t recklessly move a patient to prevent their condition from worsening.
Li Jiu kept glancing toward the entrance, checking if the proprietress had returned. But as he watched, he began to sense that something was amiss within the kitchen.
Xiao Zhang’s eyes had suddenly snapped open.
Li Jiu asked, “You’re awake? How are you feeling?”
Xiao Zhang remained utterly silent, staring directly at him with a vacant, unblinking glare. Goosebumps slowly crept across Li Jiu’s skin. The way Xiao Zhang looked at him was deeply unsettling it resembled a dead man staring at another dead man.
The atmosphere in the kitchen shifted entirely, growing silent, frigid, and dark. Li Jiu began to take slow steps backward.
Suddenly, a warm hand rested on his shoulder, and the worried voice of the proprietress reached his ears: “Young man, what’s wrong?”
His surroundings instantly reverted to normal. Li Jiu immediately backed out of the kitchen. “Xiao Zhang, he…”
As the grey fabric curtain of the kitchen slowly fell back into place, Li Jiu clearly saw that Xiao Zhang was still lying on the floor with his eyes tightly shut, exactly as before. The sudden opening of his eyes and the uncanny atmosphere from moments ago felt more like a hallucination.
Li Jiu stood frozen.
“What’s wrong with Xiao Zhang?” The proprietress immediately rushed back into the kitchen to inspect the young man. “This is bad, his condition seems to have deteriorated.”
“What should we do?”
Everything inside the kitchen appeared completely normal, and the proprietress who had gone back in suffered no harm.
Suppressing his questions for the time being, Li Jiu asked, “Auntie, did the call go through?”
The proprietress’s brow was knit with worry. “It went through, but there are no ambulances available. The hospital said every single ambulance has already been dispatched.”
“We have to find a way to get Xiao Zhang to the hospital ourselves.”
The proprietress attempted to haul Xiao Zhang up, but when a person completely loses consciousness, their body lacks any point of support, becoming exceptionally heavy and difficult to maneuver. She simply couldn’t budge him.
By this point, it was no longer a question of whether or not they should move the patient. If they left Xiao Zhang here unattended, he would surely die.
Looking at the sweat-drenched proprietress, Li Jiu stepped into the kitchen once more, helping her hoist the man up between them. “Let me help you.”
He wanted to observe Xiao Zhang further. Even if something was wrong with the young man, as long as he avoided being left alone with him, he should be able to guarantee his safety to some extent.
A hired horse-drawn carriage pulled to a stop before the gates of Xinfeng Hospital. Li Jiu and the proprietress supported Xiao Zhang as they climbed down from the carriage.
Ambulances were rushing to and fro at the hospital entrance, with a steady stream of patients being wheeled out and rushed inside. The emptied ambulances would then quickly depart once more.
“Make way, make way!”
A gurney happened to pass right by Li Jiu. The person lying upon it was missing half an arm and half a leg, a bloody mess writhing in agony and crying out continuously. The sight was absolutely wretched. The proprietress caught sight of this as well, her face turning pale.
A nurse noticed their arrival and hurried over. Looking at the critical Xiao Zhang, she asked, “What happened to him?”
The proprietress briefly recounted the events. The nurse wore a cotton mask, obscuring her face, but Li Jiu noticed her brows furrow as she scanned their surroundings.
Not far away, a patient with his right foot in a plaster cast was sitting in a wheelchair, enthusiastically spectating the bustling scene at the hospital entrance. The nurse strode briskly over to this patient, lifted his hand to check his wristband, and commanded, “Stand up.”
The patient blinked. “For what?”
“Stand up.”
The patient instinctively stood, only to be forced into a golden-rooster stance on one leg due to the cast on his right foot.
The nurse swiped the wheelchair and brought it over, instructing Li Jiu and the proprietress, “Place him in here.”
The proprietress looked on in sheer shock. Li Jiu was equally stunned, yet he immediately hoisted Xiao Zhang onto the seat. The man was incredibly heavy.
The nurse gave Li Jiu an appreciative look. “Push the patient and follow me.”
Li Jiu nodded, pushing the wheelchair close behind the nurse as she dashed into the hospital, with the proprietress keeping pace beside them. They left the original owner of the wheelchair stranded behind them in an instant.
The patient stared after them in utter bewilderment. Seeing them leave, he even hopped a couple of steps on one foot to give chase, but given his current state, catching up was an impossibility.
“What are you doing?!”
“That’s my wheelchair!”
“Are you just going to leave me stranded here?!”
A passerby who happened to witness the entire exchange remarked, “That man looks like he’s on the brink of death, while you’ve only broken a leg. What’s wrong with letting him use it?”
The patient: “…”
Inside the hospital, the nurse led Li Jiu and the proprietress at a flying pace.
Li Jiu inquired, “What happened? Why are there so many patients being brought in by the ambulances?”
The nurse replied rapidly, “An accidental explosion occurred at the boundary between the West and South Districts, impacting a large number of people. We’re here.”
Room 311 on the third floor.
With the nurse’s assistance, Li Jiu and the proprietress settled Xiao Zhang onto the innermost bed in the ward.
“Alright, the doctor will be over shortly. Wait here for a moment. I still have other duties to attend to, so I’ll be taking my leave.” With that, the nurse swiftly departed.
Li Jiu and the proprietress did not have to wait long before a doctor and several other nurses hurried into the room, beginning their examination of Xiao Zhang.
The doctor asked, “How is the patient’s health normally? Does he have any underlying medical conditions?”
The proprietress shook her head. “He usually seems quite healthy. I’ve never heard him mention any illnesses.”
The doctor continued, “What was he doing before he fainted? Do you know what he has eaten recently?”
The doctor maintained a steady stream of questions, and the proprietress answered to the best of her knowledge. Once the questioning concluded, a nurse requested, “Please step outside and wait.”
Li Jiu and the proprietress moved to the corridor to await the results. From the proprietress’s responses, Xiao Zhang seemed entirely normal prior to this, yet he had collapsed out of nowhere, and his condition appeared severe. Then there was that bizarre scene he had witnessed in the back kitchen…
The proprietress spoke up, “By the way, I haven’t had a chance to ask young man, what is your name? My surname is Hu, and my name is Hu Xiangxiang. If you don’t mind, you can call me Auntie Hu.”
Li Jiu replied, “Auntie Hu, my name is Li Jiu.”
Hu Xiangxiang expressed her gratitude, “Xiao Li, thank you truly for your help today.”
“Don’t mention it, Auntie Hu. I ought to thank you for the water as well.”
The ward door suddenly swung open, and a nurse rushed out in a hurry. Hu Xiangxiang immediately stepped forward. “Nurse, how is Xiao Zhang doing?”
The nurse answered, “We are still treating him, please wait patiently.”
After speaking, she hurried to the doctors’ office. Soon after, several older, more senior physicians rushed back into the ward with her. However, it wasn’t long before that same nurse emerged once more, heading straight toward the director’s office adjacent to the main doctors’ quarters.
Ultimately, a small crowd of physicians had gathered. Yet, shortly after entering, the assembly of doctors filed back out.
The elderly, silver-haired Dr. Qin, who had led the group inside, instructed, “The rest of you may head back first. I will keep watch here.” The other doctors clearly placed immense trust in her, as they immediately dispersed.
Dr. Qin turned to Li Jiu and Hu Xiangxiang. “Wait a bit longer.” After delivering these words, she walked over to the nurse’s station to place a phone call.
Before long, a man descended from the upper floor.
He wore a long black trench coat, possessing a handsome countenance and a wild, untamed aura. He walked with a stride that seemed to carry the wind, and because of his striking appearance, he drew the gaze of many onlookers.
The man scanned his surroundings, approached Dr. Qin, and lowered his head to exchange a few quiet words with her. Then, the two of them walked together toward Room 311.
As they reached the entrance of the ward, the man halted his steps, his gaze landing upon Li Jiu and Hu Xiangxiang.
Li Jiu was immensely surprised because he recognized this individual. This was someone from the Quality Inspection Department Li Jiu had heard others refer to him as “Captain.”
He was equally astonished by Hu Xiangxiang’s reaction. Upon seeing the man, a look of profound joy surfaced on her face, indicating that she knew him.
The man’s gaze swept across Li Jiu’s face before settling on Hu Xiangxiang. He nodded politely. “Sister-in-law, I’ll head inside to take a look first.”
Hu Xiangxiang hurriedly replied, “Go attend to your business, don’t worry about me.”
Dr. Qin and the man entered the ward together.
As it turned out, Hu Xiangxiang was actually the sister-in-law of the Quality Inspection Department’s Captain. He hadn’t expected such a coincidence.
Li Jiu rubbed his face, staring thoughtfully at the closed door of the ward. From the string of unusual events leading up to this point, combined with the arrival of the Quality Inspection Department personnel, he could now be entirely certain that Xiao Zhang’s collapse was linked to monsters.
Now that he had come into direct contact with Xiao Zhang, he wondered if any changes would manifest within his handbook.
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