Chapter 20: Chapter 20: Hoodwinking the Lame
"Bro, you didn't rat me out again, did you?"
As these words fell, the neighbor's face changed, and his joystick instantly straightened: "No... not at all!"
"That's good." Chen Yu tucked the bone-chopping knife into his waistband, patting his neighbor on the shoulder, "I couldn't sleep last night, just afraid of getting arrested again, I'd be locked up for at least another month or two."
"No... It won't happen again. From now on, whoever snitches is a dead man." The neighbor, sensing the threat in Chen Yu's words, hung his head and, steeling himself, moved his last box of "treasure" into Chen Yu's house.
"All done?" Leaning against the doorframe, Chen Yu peeked inside his neighbor's now empty house.
"All... all done."
"Anything else you need to throw away?" Chen Yu rubbed his hands together, "you can throw them my way."
The chubby neighbor looked back at his home, nearly in tears, "Only the load-bearing walls are left."
"Oh, I don't need the load-bearing walls." Stretching his arm around the neighbor, Chen Yu said, "Come on, let's go grab breakfast after all this hard work."
"No need!" The neighbor hurriedly declined, "I'll just have a bite by myself..."
"I wasn't asking." Interrupting the neighbor, Chen Yu wrapped his arm around him and forcefully walked him into the elevator, "You're eating no matter what."
"Then... then... then let me put on a hat."
Watching the chubby neighbor go back inside to cover his head, branded as the "worthless recluse", Chen Yu narrowed his eyes slightly, "Do you dislike your title that much?"
The chubby neighbor looked up and also glanced at Chen Yu's "worthless recluse" label, "Do you actually like those words 'worthless recluse'?"
"Me?" Chen Yu scratched his head, "I'm alright with it."
His previous labels were all "corpse," "murderer," and "terrorist" and the like.
Compared to those, the title "worthless recluse" was practically kind...
"Since you really dislike your title." Chen Yu smacked his lips, his eyes gleaming, "As a friend, I'll help you change it then."
"What?" The chubby neighbor was stunned.
...
"Help... help... help me!"
Qingcheng, Central Park.
On the snow-covered pedestrian path, two men were involved in a chase.
The former was a desperate, nearly shock-fatigued chubby neighbor.
The latter was Chen Yu, holding a bone-chopping knife, casually following behind.
"Pick up the pace, eh." Chen Yu waved the sharp tip of the knife, aiming at the neighbor's wobbling buttocks, "Or it'll stab your butt again."
"Big... big brother... ancestor... please spare me." The chubby neighbor panted like a dying dog, "I really... really can't run anymore."
"Just twelve laps around the park and you're already giving up?" Chen Yu mocked from behind, "True to the 'worthless recluse' name. Is that why your ex-girlfriend dumped you? Because you couldn't last long enough?"
"I can't go on... I really can't run any longer."
In the face of sheer exhaustion, even the most heart-wrenching goading was futile. When the chubby neighbor exhausted his last bit of energy, and by the twelfth and a half lap fell to the ground, groaning and refusing to get up, "Or... you might as well kill me... just kill me..."
Stopping his steps, Chen Yu saw his neighbor had indeed reached his limit, so he put away his bone-chopping knife, "Alright then. You have synovitis, so we'll call it quits with the early morning run for today."
"How... how do you know so much about me..." The chubby neighbor strained to turn his head back, his gaze at Chen Yu mixed with fear, "Even... even about my synovitis..."
"I've been keeping an eye on you for quite some time." Chen Yu smiled mysteriously.
The chubby neighbor: "..."
He was feeling increasingly uneasy.
And he was increasingly regretting his stupid act of "informing."
"Damn, I deserve to die!"
The chubby neighbor cried out to the sky.
"Eh?" Chen Yu was surprised, "You still have the energy to scream? Then let's run another lap."
Half an hour later.
Dawn gradually brightened.
The first rays of sunlight cast a reddish-brown hue on the white snow.
With his zigzagging neighbor in tow, Chen Yu walked into a street breakfast shop and waved a big hand, "Bring three baskets of buns, and a cup of soy milk."
"Three baskets... I can't eat that much." The chubby neighbor weakly waved his hand.
"Who said it's for you?" Chen Yu took the tray from the waiter and placed the lone cup of soy milk in front of his neighbor, "You just drink this."
The chubby neighbor: "..."
"Dieting, huh. Not only do you need exercise, but you also need to control your diet." Chen Yu grabbed a beef pie, stuffed it into his mouth, and mumbled while chewing, "Today... you can't eat... meat."
"Who said I wanted to lose weight!" The chubby neighbor paused briefly, slamming the table, "Who said I wanted to lose weight?!"
"Don't you dislike your 'worthless recluse' label?" Chen Yu swallowed his food and patted his neighbor's greasy shoulder with his oily hand, "I'm helping you change it, brother."
"I don't need to! I don't want to change..."
"Slam."
Before he could finish his sentence, Chen Yu slammed the cleaver down on the table and continued to eat his pork bun.
The overweight neighbor instantly shut up and silently started drinking soy milk.
After breakfast, the neighbor still couldn't escape and was "coerced" by Chen Yu into a gym.
Then they got two monthly memberships and went to the equipment area on the second floor of the gym.
"Can you lift a 500kg barbell?" Chen Yu asked.
The overweight neighbor: "..."
Chen Yu: "Then let's start with 50kg."
The overweight neighbor, with tears in his eyes: "Big brother, please, I beg you, let me go."
Upon hearing this familiar line, Chen Yu couldn't help but recall his fond memories in the "police station" and "Security Bureau"...
"Brother," he smacked his lips, his expression turned serious, and he earnestly said to his neighbor, "If I let you go, who else will let you off?"
"...Huh?"
"Listen to me, brother, I'm doing this for your own good." Leaning close to his neighbor's ear, Chen Yu spoke rapidly: "Think about it, who brought you this pain."
Neighbor: "You."
"What are you saying! What are you saying?" Chen Yu corrected: "This pain you're feeling now, it's all brought by yourself. Think about it, as a citizen, is there anything wrong with reporting a criminal?"
"I was wrong." The overweight neighbor lowered his head: "I won't dare to report again."
"Don't you have any ambition? Where did you go wrong?" Chen Yu raised his voice: "It is only natural to condemn crime! It makes perfect sense and shows moral courage to report a criminal in your midst! You did nothing wrong!"
"...I didn't do anything wrong." The overweight neighbor's face turned gloomy: "I really didn't."
"But the reality turned out so unfortunate for you," Chen Yu said indignantly: "Is that fair?"
"It's not fair!" The overweight neighbor looked resentfully at Chen Yu.
"Why is it not fair?" Chen Yu snapped his fingers. "It's because you are not strong enough. You're too useless. Useless to the point where even an ordinary criminal dares to take revenge on you. Think about it, if you were a muscle-bound bigshot, a pillar of the state, even a leader among the youth, would anyone dare to retaliate against you then?"
"They definitely wouldn't!" The overweight neighbor puffed out his chest.
"So, you see," Chen Yu nodded approvingly, "when evil sees a glimmer of light, it only thinks about quickly snuffing it out. But if it sees the sun, talk of revenge is pointless as it would be instantly incinerated by the light."
"You're right..." the neighbor nodded vigorously.
"Hence, all the injustices in the world come from you not being strong enough."
"You're right!"
"So do you understand why I was hassling you yesterday?" Chen Yu slowly persuaded, "It's because I really admire you."
"Admire? Me?" The neighbor was stunned.
"Yes." Chen Yu nodded, and with a sweeping gesture, continued: "It's been almost a year, and no one in the entire apartment building dared to report me. How sad is that? Seeing crime but not stopping it, seeing someone drowning but not rescuing, seeing an elderly person fall but not helping... Decadence, total decadence. The cold reality and moral decay have gradually made people lose their inherent standards. But..."
The sound paused slightly, and Chen Yu firmly grasped the overweight neighbor's shoulders: "But it was only you! Only you had the courage to report me regardless of the consequences."
The neighbor was dazed: "Only me..."
"Yes! Only you!" Chen Yu was moved: "Only you were not afraid of sacrifice, not afraid of retaliation, and reported me. It showed me that humanity still has hope! And you!"
"..." The overweight neighbor was dumbfounded.
"Therefore, to ensure this last spark of humanity can grow robustly, I choose to protect you, spur you, educate you, cultivate you!" Chen Yu spoke with such conviction he almost believed it himself: "So, I pretended to retaliate against you but didn't really follow through. It was to let you keep your innocence while recognizing reality! All the injustice in the world stems from you not being strong enough!"
"I won't allow such a human spark to be defeated by the dark reality!"
"You! Stop being a 'loser shut-in'!"
"You! Need to become stronger!"
"Only by becoming stronger can you continue to embody the ideals you hold in your heart!"
"Only by being stronger can you avoid retaliation after combating evil! Fulfilling the responsibilities a king should undertake!"
"Don't be just a flickering flame that could be extinguished in an instant."
"You..."
Chen Yu, enunciating each word clearly and forcefully, "must become that sun!"
"..."
The overweight neighbor stared blankly at Chen Yu, his mind completely blank.
After a long time, as if finally understanding everything, he enlightened and suddenly grasped Chen Yu's hands: "Brother! I misunderstood you!"
Chen Yu: "Being misunderstood is just the fate of the expresser, isn't it?"
...
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone