Summer of 2018.
Inside a small, dimly lit rented room in the suburbs of Linjiang City,
A thin young man looked embarrassed as he faced his landlady who had come to collect rent.
"Aunt Chen, I will definitely pay you the rent by the end of this month..."
The landlady, who was overweight and heavily made up, frowned and said, "Yang Zheng, I say, you young man, how can you have no integrity at all at such a young age?"
"They've been behind on rent for almost three months now. They always say they'll pay at the end of the month, but I've already made several trips to pay."
"If it weren't for the fact that you've been living here with me for the past few years and are a fairly honest person, I would have made them move out long ago if it were anyone else..."
The landlady seemed very unhappy when I visited this time.
Knowing he was in the wrong, Yang Zheng could only keep saying nice things, "I'm so sorry to have made you run so many errands for nothing, but don't worry, I will personally deliver it to you when I get my salary at the end of this month."
"If you're still worried, just take my Aima electric scooter now. I just bought it last year, and even if it's depreciated and recycled, it'll still be worth at least a thousand or a few hundred yuan."
Having said all that, the landlady didn't press him further, only saying with a stern face, "Remember to pay the rent at the end of the month..."
After saying that, she left with a gloomy expression. Of course, she didn't take Yang Zheng's electric scooter.
Watching the landlady's retreating figure, Yang Zheng sighed inwardly, his heart filled with gratitude.
Aunt Chen is a pretty good person.
She didn't say anything too harsh even though she was three months behind on rent.
If it were a landlord who was difficult to talk to, let alone being three months late, even being three days late on rent would probably get you kicked out.
The landlord had only been gone a few minutes when his three-year-old, incredibly slow Android phone suddenly rang.
Yang Zheng picked it up and saw that it was a call from his mother, who lived far away in his hometown.
The call was connected.
Soon, my mother's tired, hoarse voice came from the other end of the phone.
"Xiao Zheng, your dad is behind on his bill again. The hospital was just urging us to pay. We'll probably need at least 10,000 yuan more."
Yang Zheng was silent for a moment, then slowly said, "Okay, I understand, Mom. Don't worry, I'll figure something out. I'll transfer the money to you by tomorrow morning at the latest..."
After hanging up the phone.
Yang Zheng lay on the bed with a worried expression, his heart heavy as he thought of his father's illness.
My father was diagnosed with bone metastasis of cancer three months ago. In the past few months, he has been transferred to different hospitals and hospitalized, and the cost has already exceeded 200,000 yuan.
In addition, the subsequent monthly radiotherapy, targeted therapy, and anti-cancer drugs will cost at least tens of thousands of yuan after deducting the reimbursement expenses.
This is an unbearable burden for an ordinary family.
If it weren't for his family members all keeping it from him and lying to him that it was early-stage cancer and easily curable, the old man would probably have given up on treatment long ago.
Although Yang Zheng was well aware of how serious his father's condition was, he never thought of giving up.
My father is only fifty-six years old this year, and he is a well-known hard-working man in our hometown.
He worked hard all his life, never enjoying a single day of happiness, and then he was diagnosed with this terminal illness.
Yang Zheng genuinely wanted to do everything in his power to help the old man live a few more days.
Even living an extra year or an extra month would be good.
Today is July 15th, and there are still more than ten days until payday at the end of the month.
He had perfect attendance at the company last month, and with bonuses and various subsidies, he estimated he would receive around six thousand yuan.
I owe the landlord three months' rent and utilities, which is about 400 yuan per month, totaling 1200 yuan.
After deducting these, I estimate I'll only have a little over five thousand left at the end of the month.
Even if he doesn't spend a single penny of the remaining money and gives it all to his family, it probably won't be enough to keep the family afloat.
However, this is not the most important thing.
The most urgent matter is my father's hospital expenses.
The hospital has started pressing for payment, and he must have the fees ready by tomorrow morning.
Yang Zheng currently has less than two hundred yuan on him, far short of the ten thousand yuan needed by the hospital.
Money, money, money...
Money is needed everywhere, and Yang Zheng felt immense pressure, completely at a loss as to what to do.
Only at this moment did he truly understand how difficult it had been for his father to be the pillar of the family all these years.
I took a few deep breaths and tried my best to cheer myself up.
He picked up his phone again and scrolled through his contacts for a long time, but he didn't know who to ask.
Their relatives have already helped them enough; they can't keep asking them for money. Besides, they need to make a living too, and they have their own difficulties.
Why bother making things difficult for others every now and then?
Besides, given Yang Zheng's family's situation, lending them money is like throwing good money after bad; whether they can repay it is still uncertain.
If someone borrows too much money and then needs it urgently, and they can't get their money back, it can easily lead to conflict or even hatred between the two parties.
Therefore, when friends and relatives lent money to Yang Zheng, they also had many concerns.
In short, they won't lend too much money, nor do they dare to.
When his father was transferred to another hospital for the second time, his mother's siblings, namely Yang Zheng's aunt and uncle, immediately raised 120,000 yuan for him.
It's worth noting that while all three families were relatively poor, they were the most loyal and affectionate.
As for his father's two brothers, who were Yang Zheng's two uncles, their families were the best off and the richest, yet they only lent him 10,000 yuan.
It should be noted that Yang Zheng's grandfather passed away early, and his two uncles were basically raised by his father, the eldest brother.
As a result, after they got married and started their own families, they began to despise and even look down on their poor older brother from the countryside.
What's even more infuriating is that the two aunts said things like, "People should be more rational. Since you have this disease, you should do what you can and not bother others with everything. They're not a bank..."
The fickle nature of human relationships has been vividly demonstrated in the past few months.
Yang Zheng scrolled through his phone for a long time before finally deciding to borrow money from his three childhood friends.
These three people have known each other since childhood and have always had a good relationship.
Yang Zheng had already borrowed from them several times before, and he would have been too embarrassed to ask anyone else for a second time.
Soon, after getting through to these three people, he borrowed a total of seven thousand yuan.
It's not that these guys are unwilling to lend more; the key issue is that they genuinely don't have any.
These guys, although they all have jobs, are all living paycheck to paycheck.
Basically, every month's salary is spent on gambling, chasing girls, and eating late-night snacks.
Chen Xiaobing, in particular, is Yang Zheng's best childhood friend. He just bought his girlfriend a new phone the day before yesterday and doesn't have much money at all.
In order to help Yang Zheng, he even withdrew his 500 yuan reserve fund from Taobao and transferred 3,000 yuan to him.
To be honest, Yang Zheng was quite touched.
However, despite this, he was still 3,000 yuan short of the 10,000 yuan needed for the hospital.
"I'm still short three thousand. Who can I borrow it from? Sigh..."
Yang Zheng was really in a bind over this 10,000 yuan.
This is just the beginning.
I expect we'll be short of money for the treatment every month thereafter.
Even if we manage to raise the money this month, what about next month? And the month after that?
This can't go on forever.
We must find a way to make money.
Otherwise, if the treatment is interrupted, his father probably won't last long.
His current job, although the salary is average, is stable.
He's short of money right now, so he doesn't dare to change jobs easily.
We must find some ways to make quick money outside of our regular job.
Lying in bed, Yang Zheng pondered for a long time, only to sadly realize that he couldn't think of a reliable way to make money other than working for others.
The more I think about it, the more annoyed and confused I become.
Later, he simply stopped thinking about it and closed his eyes to sleep.
He has been suffering from insomnia for the past few months due to his worry about his father's condition.
The person's overall mental state is not very good.
It's Sunday today, my day off, and I'm too lazy to go to the company cafeteria.
I'll get a good night's sleep tonight, and figure out how to get the remaining three thousand yuan.
I'm too lazy to go out during the day; going out costs money.
There was a rice cooker in the rented room. A few days ago, he went to the supermarket and bought some rice and a bottle of pickled vegetables.
When I get hungry, I cook some porridge and eat it with pickled vegetables. Every penny saved counts.
I checked my phone; it was already 10 a.m.
I put my phone on silent mode and drew the curtains, and the room suddenly became dark.
I need to get a good night's sleep and recharge.
“I’m not even in the worst situation, at least I have people to help me. But some people have elderly parents to care for and young children to raise. When their parents are seriously ill and their children need to go to school and buy formula, that’s what you call despair…”
Yang Zheng silently comforted himself and fell asleep without realizing it.
In a daze, he felt a dazzling light suddenly burst out from his rented room.
So bright and glaring...
He sat up in bed instantly.
In the very center of the room, a giant ball of light appeared out of thin air.
The ball of light emitted rings of milky white halos, dazzlingly bright.
Soon, the dazzling light gradually faded, and a strange "mirror" appeared before them.
This mirror is two meters high and about one meter wide.
The mirror surface rippled like water.
Such a bizarre scene left Yang Zheng dumbfounded.
"What happened?"
Why did a strange mirror suddenly appear in my rented room?
Looking at the "mirror" that was quietly floating in the room, Yang Zheng was surprised and full of doubts.
He took a few deep breaths and carefully walked towards the "mirror," wanting to examine it closely and see what it was.
Standing in front of the mirror, Yang Zheng tentatively reached out and gently touched the rippling surface.
Suddenly, a powerful suction force pulled his entire arm into the mirror.
Yang Zheng had a bad feeling and was about to pull his arm away when he realized it was too late.
Because his entire being had been pulled into the mirror by a mysterious force.
In a panic, he felt his vision go black and his mind go blank for a brief moment.
I opened my eyes again.
Yang Zheng found himself standing on a hillside, with the wind whistling in his ears.
The sun was high in the sky overhead, and low, rolling hills surrounded the area.
Turning around, I saw the mysterious mirror floating quietly above the ground, its surface rippling with wave after wave.
At this moment, Yang Zheng finally understood what was going on.
This eerie mirror must be a portal to another world; by passing through it, one can enter another dimension.
I just don't know what kind of place this world is.
Filled with questions, Yang Zheng curiously observed everything around him.
He quickly realized that something was wrong.
The trees surrounding the hillside were only half his height.
Especially the pine tree closest to him, which looked so small, with its top barely reaching his knees.
The wild grass, bushes, and colorful wildflowers on the ground were incredibly short and tiny.
On those wildflowers, no bigger than mung beans, swarms of bees and butterflies, barely visible to the naked eye, fluttered about.
There were gray hares, no bigger than a fingertip. They had long, erect ears and crouched in the grass, their eyes full of vigilance.
Several eagles, each about the size of a cicada, were circling high in the sky. They seemed to be eyeing the wild rabbits.
Down the hillside not far away, a group of wild boars, about the size of frogs, were fleeing in terror...
Looking around at the towering mountains less than 100 meters high, the towering trees more than half a person tall, and the "river" less than two meters wide at the foot of the mountain.
Yang Zheng's mouth dropped open in astonishment.
Clearly, this is a miniature world that has been shrunk down.
The world's wild resources are simply too abundant.
If this were a normal world, Yang Zheng would be rich.
There were countless wild rabbits, wild boars, and all kinds of pheasants and pheasants.
Wild game such as rabbits and pheasants are becoming increasingly rare and expensive on Earth today.
If everything here were normal-sized, he could make a lot of money by hunting.
Unfortunately, this is a miniature world, and the things inside are too small to be of much value.
Thinking of this, Yang Zheng was filled with regret.
"Hehehe..."
Suddenly, Yang Zheng heard a sharp, eerie laugh coming from below.
Looking down, his pupils involuntarily contracted instantly.
There stood a tiny figure in black robes, only a few centimeters tall, on the ground, waving his arms and legs excitedly, looking extremely frenzied.
"Giants! Giants of the Pangu Clan!"
"So what was recorded in the ancient books was true! As long as we open the gate to the mystical realm, we can summon the giants..."
…………
(P.S.: This book is set in a parallel fictional world; please do not apply it to the real world.)
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