I Can See Experience Points

Chapter 7: Chapter 6: [My Cousin is a Glutton (Part 1)]

His cousin and mother stared at He Xiaotian, who was furiously devouring a pork knuckle, utterly speechless.

According to the delivery guy, when he arrived at Room 301 of Huayuan District, no one answered his calls, and no one came to the door even after he’d been ringing the bell for ages.

On his way downstairs, he ran into a man and a woman waiting for a car and decided to ask them on the off-chance they knew something.

To his complete surprise, they actually knew about the eccentric who had ordered twenty giant pork knuckles.

Apparently, he had been dragged to the hospital by his cousin due to ”excessive indulgence.”

And so, the delivery guy, pork knuckles in hand, rushed over to Z County People’s Hospital.

Because that was the closest medical facility to Huayuan District.

Then, after asking a nurse, the delivery guy made his way over.

As for what he’d asked the nurse... emmmmmm.

The delivery guy had simply offered a mysterious smile, leaving He Xiaotian’s imagination to run wild.

”Cousin, how did they know we came from Room 301?” the youth asked, his mouth glistening with grease as he gnawed on a pork knuckle.

”...”

”Don’t tell me you were interested in that woman and accidentally blurted out our address?”

”...”

”Silence means you’re admitting it.”

”Shut up and eat your pork knuckle!”

His cousin had reached his limit. It wasn’t that he was being silent.

It was just that watching He Xiaotian eat... was making him hungry.

”From beginning to end, I only said three things to them on the road. ’Hello, my name is Liu Junming.’ ’Please, get in the car.’ And, ’Sorry, but I have a good-for-nothing cousin at home and need to get him some crayfish for lunch.’”

”???”

’Cousin, did you really have to say that last part?’

’Besides, I’m not a good-for-nothing. It’s a Zen-like approach to life.’

’If you didn’t say it, could they have looked up your file before coming here?’

’That’s... actually not impossible!’

’How else could the special investigation team know my cousin’s address, right down to Room 301?’

’They were waiting downstairs the whole time and never went up.’

His mother watched the two cousins bicker, lost in deep thought.

She just couldn’t figure out how on earth her son had become malnourished.

’Even while meeting with the special investigation team from the provincial capital, Junming didn’t forget to bring lunch for Xiaotian.’

’He was being taken care of so meticulously, yet he somehow ended up malnourished?’

’How could he face his cousin after he’d gone to the trouble of buying him crayfish?’

”By the way, where’s Dad? Don’t tell me his paper mill is that busy. Uncle is the co-owner, right? He can’t be making my dad do all the busy work, can he?” He Xiaotian asked, picking up his twelfth pork knuckle and taking a bite, completely oblivious to his mother and cousin’s stunned expressions.

”Xiaotian, are you really okay eating like this?”

”Not only am I fine, I’m actually feeling better and better. I have to say, this pork knuckle is amazing.”

His mother rolled her eyes and said helplessly, ”That’s the glucose IV drip doing its job. It has nothing to do with the pork knuckle!”

He Xiaotian put on a surprised expression and replied, ”I was saying the pork knuckle *tastes* amazing.”

’If he weren’t her own son, she would’ve strangled him by now!’

”Anyway, you still haven’t told me what Dad is busy with. His son is suffering from excessive... malnutrition.”

”Sigh! There was an incident at the paper mill yesterday.”

At the mention of her husband, his mother seemed to recall her recent worries, her brow furrowing as she spoke.

”An incident?” He Xiaotian said with a serious expression, momentarily forgetting even his beloved pork knuckle. ”The mill has been operating safely for over ten years. How could something happen? Our cash flow has always been solid, right?”

It was just that the layer of grease on his face completely undermined any sense of seriousness.

”It’s not a cash flow problem. Workers at the paper mill have gone missing.” His mother’s face was etched with worry, not because the factory would be in trouble, but for the four missing people. ”The department manager called your dad first thing in the morning to report that four workers were gone.”

’If something happened to them, how could they possibly face their families?’

”Missing?” For some reason, He Xiaotian’s mind instantly flashed to the alleyway diagonally across from the crayfish stand on the food street.

”Yes. The surveillance cameras in the hallway of the paper mill’s dormitory building only showed them entering the restroom, and then they never came out. When the police investigated this morning, they found the restroom only has one entrance and exit, and a single window.

”But it’s on the third floor. If they had tried to leave through it, they would have left traces on the outside of the building. Besides, all four of them have worked at the factory for ten years without a single black mark on their records. The factory doesn’t even restrict people from going out at night, so why would they leave through a restroom window?”

His mother listed her many questions, making the disappearance case all the more baffling.

What could possibly compel four honest, hardworking men to go to the restroom together in the middle of the night?

It was a question so terrifying to contemplate it could make a man’s sphincter clench.

And on top of that, they had all bizarrely vanished at the exact same time.

The police couldn’t find a single trace.

It was as if they had simply evaporated from inside the restroom.

”Why does this sound so much like a ghost story to me?” He Xiaotian muttered to himself, subconsciously taking another bite of the pork knuckle.

’This world might be starting to get weird, but it can’t be starting on Hell difficulty, can it?’

’Ghosts and monsters have always been the most unsettling things.’

”What ghost story? We have to be scientific about this,” his cousin retorted. As a police officer, he couldn’t let his cousin spout such superstitious nonsense. ”There must be clues in the disappearance case that haven’t been discovered yet.”

’If ghosts were real, what would be the point of police officers like us?’

’We might as well just go find some Daoists!’

’They can catch ghosts *and* talk to them.’

’Every murder case from now on would be solved, guaranteed.’

”Xiaotian, since you’re clearly fine, I’m going to head back.” His mother watched her son chew on the pork knuckle and felt like his earlier half-dead demeanor must have been an act.

’Who’s ever seen a malnourished patient capable of devouring twelve giant pork knuckles in a row?’

’Look, the kid’s actually starting on his thirteenth!’

”Auntie, you go on back. I’ll ask my chief for the day off to take care of Xiaotian.” His cousin felt that, no matter what, he had to take responsibility for He Xiaotian.

After all, the kid was staying at his place and ended up in the hospital diagnosed with malnutrition.

There was no way to explain his way out of that one.

”Okay, I’ll leave him to you, Junming.”

With that, his mother turned and left the room, and his cousin quickly stood to see her out.

A short while later, Liu Junming returned to the room. He watched He Xiaotian, now working on his fourteenth pork knuckle, and his eyelid began to twitch.

He was starting to have serious doubts. ’Had I really been ’mistreating’ my cousin all this time?’

’Otherwise, even a starving ghost wouldn’t have an appetite this huge, would it?’

Ads by PubFuture ”Cousin, these pork knuckles are too rich. Go out and buy some fruit.”

”...”

’Why didn’t you say so earlier?’ Liu Junming thought.

’Couldn’t you have mentioned it while I was walking Auntie out?!’

Then, he silently turned and went downstairs to buy some fruit.

’Nothing to be done about it. Who asked this guy to be my cousin?’

Sigh!

’What terrible sin did I commit in my past life?’

’To be stuck with such a useless layabout of a cousin.’

After his cousin left, He Xiaotian immediately checked his Experience Points system.

[Experience Points: 450

Function: Scan

Martial Arts: ”Fire-refined Golden Body”- 0/100+ (Initiate)]

He had smelled a hint of danger from the conversation with his mother.

The memory of his right arm nearly being frozen solid like a popsicle by a thumb-sized crystal that morning was still vivid in his mind.

If he hadn’t spent fifty Experience Points to upgrade his ”Fire-refined Golden Body” to the Initiate level, which generated a sliver of Inner Strength, he probably would have had to rush to the hospital for real.

The system in the upper-left corner of his vision was clearly not a product of science.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the crystal he had absorbed for Experience Points was just as unscientific.

And the fact that it had appeared at the scene of that bizarre disappearance in the food street alley was, to say the least, a very bad sign.

Coupled with the equally baffling incident at his family’s paper mill, some very ominous theories began to form in his mind.

And He Xiaotian felt a sense of crisis.

The only thing he could rely on now was the Experience Points system.

Whatever its origin, he had to follow this path without looking back.

First things first, he had to ensure his own survival. Then he could worry about the future.

’Just a single upgrade to the Initiate level cost me twenty pork knuckles and a few raw eggs. It really is true that martial arts are a rich man’s game. If I didn’t have my own little stash of cash, I’d be stressing about where my next meal was coming from.’

He Xiaotian called a nurse over, borrowed her phone, and opened an app.

Under her stunned gaze, he ordered fifty steaks in one go.

’The pork knuckles were too greasy. He was already sick of them after just ten.’

’If his body wasn’t constantly screaming, ’More! More! I want more!’, he would’ve tossed the rest out ages ago!’