Chapter 150 Life, One Mountain After Another "He fucking took the knife himself..."

Li Yong lay dazed on the sofa, beer bottles scattered all over the floor, the house was a mess, it looked like he had been living there for quite some time.

Li Leshan stepped forward, grabbed Li Yong by the collar, pulled him up, and then threw him to the ground.

He looked around at the mess and felt a sharp pain in his temple. Li Yong's disappearance had made him somewhat forget that he might have been in Shengping all along; he should have expected a scene like this.

Li Leshan squatted down and pulled a bunch of things out of Li Yong's pocket: various cards with loan information or other random stuff on them, a stack of loose change, and...

A card.

Li Leshan squinted. He looked closely at the card number; it wasn't the same as the one he'd used to transfer money, but it felt strangely familiar, as if he'd seen it somewhere before. After racking his brain for a while, he finally remembered that the card belonged to his grandmother. He guessed that Li Yong had found the card while rummaging through drawers looking for money and then taken it.

"Is there any money left in the card?" Li Leshan pondered, somewhat uncertain. To prevent Li Yong from discovering it, he had long ago deposited all the money he had saved elsewhere.

Even if he has money, who knows where it comes from? For someone like Li Yong, finding a stable job is harder than climbing to heaven. Giving Li Yong a job is worse than letting him stay in jail; there's simply no chance.

Li Leshan put the card back in his pocket, memorized the card number, glanced at the man lying on the ground, then took out his phone, entered the card number and password to check how much money was left.

If the bank card password hasn't been changed, then it should still be your birthday.

After typing, Li Leshan quietly waited for the page to load. He hadn't had any contact with Li Yong for a whole year, and Li Yong hadn't even come looking for his money... There must be something fishy going on. He didn't believe Li Yong would suddenly change his mind or have a change of heart; no one was that kind of person, and Li Yong couldn't possibly be.

Did he win the lottery? Or what...?

Finally, the page slowly loaded, and to everyone's surprise, there were several thousand yuan in the card. Li Leshan checked the income and expenditure details and couldn't believe that someone had been sending money to Li Yong regularly, almost every month.

Li Leshan scoffed. He found it particularly amusing, wondering what kind of trick Li Yong had used to make someone so eager to give him money. No wonder he wasn't bothering him anymore; apparently, there were suckers offering themselves up.

He flipped through the records, trying to find out when this debt started. It was indeed difficult to look through, and with the signal problem, it was extremely laggy, as if deliberately preventing him from seeing it. Li Leshan briefly wanted to give up, not wanting to have anything more to do with Li Yong.

After a few minutes, the remittance record finally scrolled to the first transaction. The date was the end of June 2012.

Late June… Thinking about it, June really is a special month. So many things always seem to entangle this month, like it was destined. In June of 2012, Jiang Yueming went south; in June of 2013, the college entrance exam; in June of 2014, Xiaobai left… Aren't there just so many things happening? What will happen next? It's almost like…

?

wrong.

wrong.

Something's not right...

June?

June of 2012?

Li Leshan's heart skipped a beat, a bad premonition suddenly welling up inside him. A suffocating thought flashed through his mind, and cold sweat instantly broke out on his back. Looking at Li Yong, who was completely drunk beside him, Li Leshan suppressed his anger, grabbed a beer bottle, and poured it on Li Yong's face.

The sudden stimulation finally forced Li Yong to open his eyes. He lay on the ground coughing. At first, he didn't dare to resist, but when he finally realized that the person in front of him was Li Leshan, his resentment exploded instantly.

"You fucking bastard! You're insane!" Li Yong waved his hands wildly.

Li Leshan pressed down hard on Li Yong's shoulder, forcing Li Yong to look at him. Then, he took out the card and gestured with trembling fingers, saying each word clearly, "Where did the money in here come from?"

Li Yong was stunned for a moment, then realized what was happening and hurriedly rummaged through his pockets, only to find them completely empty. "Li Leshan! I advise you not to be ungrateful!"

Suppressing his anger, Li Leshan asked again, "Where did the money come from?!"

"Damn it!" Li Yong recalled the shadow of Jiang Yueming's knife strike. He didn't understand. Didn't Li Leshan know about all this? Wasn't it Li Leshan's own plan? Wasn't it Li Leshan's own instruction? What was he asking now?

"What about your lover or whatever?! What are you pretending not to know?!" Li Yong was incoherent; he still hadn't forgotten what happened that day.

Li Yong's words struck Li Leshan's heart like arrows. He finally understood the reason for the incident, and even breathing was painful.

Li Leshan's eyes were red as he questioned Li Yong, "Did I tell you not to mess with him?"

Li Yong looked at Li Leshan, and for some reason, a sense of fear welled up in his heart. Perhaps it was because the man in front of him was now free of any ties and had nothing to threaten him with; or perhaps it was because he saw Li Leshan's complete growth and felt fear; or perhaps it was because Li Leshan reminded him of that day.

"He fucking stabbed himself with a knife! He wants to send me to jail!" Li Yong shouted. Because of his years of alcoholism, his body had become emaciated, and now he lay on the ground like a withered tree, no longer the imposing figure he once was. "They're all crazy! He's a madman!"

The words had barely left his mouth when Li Leshan's vision went black. What had he just heard? What had Jiang Yueming done?

"Say it again!" Li Leshan suddenly grabbed him by the collar with surprising force.

Li Yong struggled to escape, shouting, "He stabbed himself with a knife! A knife!"

"You're lying to me!" Li Leshan exclaimed incredulously.

Li Yong finally managed to break free. He stood up in a flustered manner, not even having time to pick up the card on the ground, and hurriedly left this place of trouble.

Li Yong was arrogant in the first half of his life, and in the second half he vented all his resentment on his underage son and elderly mother. Today he is no longer human and lives by drinking every day. Perhaps this is retribution.

A violent, powerful impact knocked Li Leshan to the ground. He gripped the card tightly in his hand, his mind replaying the scene he had just witnessed, the remittance records stinging his eyes, and Li Yong's words echoing in his ears.

Two years!

Two whole years!

For over seven hundred days and nights, he even thought that Li Yong had finally become a decent human being and was finally willing to let him go... He never imagined that the little bit of peace he had finally managed to obtain was all because of Jiang Yueming... So, Li Yong's disappearance back then was because Jiang Yueming paid off that debt for him?

His hands trembled as he dialed Jiang Yueming's number repeatedly on his phone, his mind reeling. Now, Li Leshan finally understood some things. Looking back, he realized everything had a pattern. Why was he so busy? Why did he look so tired? Why… it was all traceable!

I really hurt you... Li Leshan's tears fell to the ground. He coughed violently, and a sharp pain shot through his stomach. He really hurt Jiang Yueming! Because of his existence, Jiang Yueming was forced to pay off a debt. He clearly did nothing wrong, he clearly didn't have to do anything, but in the end, he did everything.

Why… Li Leshan curled up, his head pressed against the cold floor. He kept asking himself, why? Why was God treating him this way? What had he done wrong? Why did he have to hurt everyone around him? What had he done wrong? Was it wrong to even be alive? But he had already given his all just to stay alive! Otherwise, what had he done wrong?

Every time he dialed the number, he heard a message saying, "Sorry, the number you dialed is currently unavailable..." Li Leshan didn't understand why he couldn't get through. What had happened to Jiang Yueming?

Please...

Please, answer the phone...

Tears blurred his vision as he kept recalling these years, these years of barely surviving, these years of living like a ghost.

His tranquility brought Jiang Yueming pain; his very existence brought her suffering. Perhaps the one who should have left from the beginning was him. He always wanted to protect his grandmother and Jiang Yueming, but in the end, he protected neither of them.

Life is like climbing one mountain after another.

Having finally climbed one mountain, he was met with even more and higher ones. Standing amidst the mountains, Li Leshan saw no end in sight. He dared not hope to cross them; simply surviving had exhausted all his strength.

Think about it carefully, didn't he get to where he is today by stepping on Jiang Yueming's back?