Is Self-Redemption Really That Hard? [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 14

When the landlord spoke in a tone full of complaint, Lu Wuqi’s expression remained calm and composed. She listened quietly until the man had finished venting his frustration before she opened her mouth.

“I understand. Please do me a favor and ask him to leave. He really can’t reach my mother because I’ve already blocked his number,” Lu Wuqi said evenly. “We still plan to keep renting the apartment, but I’d like to ask a small favor from you.”

Back when they boarded the plane, Lu Wuqi had already blocked her father’s number—so her mother could focus on preparing for surgery without being disturbed.

From the landlord’s words, it was clear that her decision back then had been absolutely right. Her mother would have been hit with distressing news just the day before otherwise.

The landlord, having aired his complaints, took a deep breath and calmed down. “What kind of help do you need? If you’re having trouble paying rent for now, I can give you until the New Year at most.”

“I’d like you to change the door lock,” Lu Wuqi replied. “When my mother or I return home, please give us the new key. As for the rent, don’t worry—I’ll add you on WeChat and transfer the payment directly.”

“Wait, Xiao Lu, what do you mean by that?” the landlord asked, blinking. “You’re asking me to evict your father?”

“You can just say the rent hasn’t been paid and ask him to move out today,” Lu Wuqi said. Then she added after a pause, “My father’s a gambler. He used the money my mother left for rent as his betting stake. I just want him to face a little consequence for that.”

The landlord, who didn’t visit the property often, hadn’t known that Lu’s father was a gambler.

At first, he hesitated—evicting a disabled man felt a little heartless—but once he heard the rent money had been lost to gambling, his sympathy evaporated quickly.

People tainted by vice—gambling, drugs, or worse—were never worth pity. Their misery was almost always self-inflicted.

“Please save my number. You can contact me directly if anything comes up,” Lu Wuqi said once they had settled things. “And if there’s any situation regarding Lu Fu, you can call the number I just gave you.”

After saving the landlord’s number, she deleted her mother’s recent call history and added another entry to her blacklist. Once she confirmed both her father and the landlord were on it, she finally put her phone away.

“Everything taken care of?” Lan Xu asked softly.

Lu Wuqi sat down beside her, giving the explanation she had prepared in advance. “The landlord called to verify the rent payment. I used a different account this time.”

Lan Xu didn’t suspect a thing. Her focus was still fixed on the operating room, praying that Aunt Zhou’s surgery would go smoothly before she had to leave.

But miracles rarely come so easily. The removal of a malignant tumor was no minor procedure. If the affected tissue wasn’t completely excised, the risk of recurrence was high. Surgeries like this typically lasted two to four hours.

Lan Xu had class a little after one. Considering the distance between the hospital, the school gate, and her lecture hall, she left around noon after lunch.

When only Lu Wuqi remained in the waiting area outside the operating room, she began to understand what companionship really meant.

Whether Lan Xu was there or not wouldn’t change the outcome of the surgery—but having someone by her side had eased her anxiety, made her feel less alone, as if she had something invisible to lean on.

After nearly another hour, the light above the operating room finally dimmed.

A nurse, still in her scrubs, walked out holding a clipboard. “Family of Zhou Fei?” she called.

“I’m here.” Lu Wuqi immediately stood and hurried over. “I’m Zhou Fei’s daughter. How did the surgery go?”

“The operation was a success,” the nurse said with a smile. “The anesthesia will wear off in about an hour. Depending on how she feels, she can decide whether to take a painkiller.” She handed the clipboard to Lu Wuqi.

“The removed tumor will be sent for further analysis. You can come back in two days with this slip to get the pathology report.” The nurse carefully went over the post-operative care instructions, ensuring Lu Wuqi remembered everything before she left.

“If the surgery was successful, that means my mother will be fine, right?” Lu Wuqi asked quietly, glancing at her still-unconscious mother.

【Host, both the world’s operating logic and the structure of human cells are remarkably complex.】

【Your presence has already changed many people’s fates. No one can predict the ending until the very last moment. Similarly, even the same surgery performed by different doctors, at different times, may yield different results.】

Lu Wuqi pursed her lips. “That’s just a long way of saying you don’t know.”

【Ahem. Based on my calculations, Ms. Zhou’s recurrence rate is approximately five percent. The earlier the tumor is removed, the lower the risk.】

Lu Wuqi frowned slightly. Five percent seemed low—but then again, developing a malignant tumor in the first place was already a matter of low probability.

“Xiao Lu?” Zhou Fei’s weak voice stirred her thoughts. She opened her eyes groggily. “Is the surgery over?”

“Mm, it’s done. Everything went smoothly. Now you just need to rest well for a week,” Lu Wuqi said, taking her mother’s hand gently.

“Good.” Zhou Fei nodded faintly. “And the cost? How much will it all be?”

“Not much—just over three thousand,” Lu Wuqi said, casually trimming off a zero.

In truth, the surgery, performed by a top specialist with the best equipment and a private double room, had cost nearly three hundred thousand.

But when Zhou Fei heard only three thousand, her expression relaxed further. After murmuring a few more words to her daughter, she drifted back to sleep.

Lu Wuqi checked the monitors beside the bed—heart rate, oxygen, blood pressure—all steady—before quietly stepping out of the ward.

She was just about to call Lan Xu to update her when her phone lit up with a new call—from the landlord she had just saved.

“Hello, this is Lu Wuqi,” she answered.

But the voice that came through wasn’t the landlord’s—it was her father’s.

“Daughter! The landlord’s trying to kick us out! He says he’s taking the place back! Call your mother! Our home is gone!”

Lu Wuqi pulled the phone slightly away from her ear, waiting for his panicked shouting to subside before she spoke again. “Put the landlord on the line.”

“Why can’t I reach your mother? You’ve started school already, right? When’s your mother coming back?” Lu Fu rambled on.

“Put the landlord on,” she said again, colder this time. The edge in her tone startled him into silence.

“I’m so sorry,” the landlord said awkwardly, his voice full of guilt. “Your father insisted I call. He grabbed my leg in public, and people started staring. He’s disabled, you know—if I didn’t make the call, I’d never hear the end of it. Someone might even post it online.”

Leaning against the corridor wall, Lu Wuqi looked out through the window toward the hospital plaza. “Tell Lu Fu that my mother’s kidneys have failed. He shouldn’t smoke or drink for now—he might need to donate one of his kidneys soon.”

She added calmly, “Also, the surgery costs fifteen thousand. We’ll need to raise the money within a month. The hospital has the reports on file—if he doesn’t believe you, he can ask Dr. Liu in Nephrology.”

If normal methods couldn’t drive him away, then she would use another.

Once he believed that story, he would do the rest himself—flee as far as he could.

Fifteen thousand yuan and a healthy kidney—both were things Lu Fu could neither afford nor part with.

And once he left that house, he would never come back. Not in this lifetime.