Chapter 23 Chapter 23 He fell to his death after drinking; wandering the streets...
No. 003 was also a middle-aged man who died from falling while drunk.
After explaining the cause of death, No. 003 rubbed his hands again and said, "My obsession is... I really want to know who took all the private money that disappeared last year!"
When the audience heard this obsession, the atmosphere was very cheerful——
"Hahahaha, what a unique and simple obsession."
"It's private money, hidden at home. Either my wife found it and took it away, or my children found out and used it secretly. It shouldn't be my parents. My parents usually don't take it without telling anyone."
"Not necessarily. It depends on his family situation."
"Maybe someone stumbled upon the hidden money when a relative came over and took it away secretly... I've had my favorite toy stolen by a relative before."
Inside the extradition office, No. 003 continued, "I'm different from No. 002. While I have my flaws, my wife and I have a truly wonderful relationship. I've never done anything to wrong her, nor have I hidden anything significant from her...except perhaps my hidden money."
"We're a traditional family, with the husband working outside and the wife homemaking. I give my salary card directly to my wife, who takes care of the household and gives me an allowance every month. Besides drinking, I don't have any other hobbies, and I only drink regular beer, which doesn't cost much. The allowance my wife gives me is more than enough."
"But... I don't manage money, so I can't help but hide some of it. For example, when my parents give me red envelopes to give to my children, I secretly take one or two and hide them for myself... I don't dare hide the red envelopes my parents-in-law give me. I'm afraid my wife will reveal it to me when she chats with them."
"I didn't really do anything with the hidden money, I just enjoyed looking at it. I started by hiding it in books, then when I had more, I wrapped it up and hid it in a flower pot. After hiding it for a while, I was afraid the money would get damaged in the soil, so I took it out and hid it in the water tank I use for fishing. My wife doesn't like to touch my fishing gear, and hiding it in the water tank means I can take it out and count it every time I go fishing. It's quite beautiful."
"Last year, I went to the river to count my money, and I found that my bag of hidden cash was gone! Not even the plastic bag I put the money in was left."
The ghosts watching the live broadcast in front of the big screen couldn't help laughing when they heard this: "It's pretty miserable, hahahaha."
No. 003 continued, "I was thinking, could it have accidentally fallen out while I was walking? I quickly went back the way I came to look for it, but I couldn't find anything. Then I thought about it again. My water tank is sealed when it's not in use, so it shouldn't have fallen out on the road. My private money must have disappeared while I was at home."
"My first reaction was that my wife usually cleans the house, and maybe this time she was helping me sort out my fishing gear and found the hidden money, so she quietly took it from me, waiting for me to find out and turn myself in... But when I told my wife about it, she was also confused and said she had never touched my water tank at all!"
"My wife didn't have to lie. She took all my secret money, so it's only natural. This is the division of labor in our family. My wife manages the money and never spends it recklessly. It's all for our family. And after being married for so many years, how could I not see that she didn't tell the truth?"
"Luckily, the secret money is gone. My wife was so busy looking for it with me that she didn't have time to worry about me hiding it for so many years!"
"Besides my wife and I, there were only our daughter and son left at home. We wondered if the kids had stumbled upon the money in the water tank and secretly used it to buy something they wanted. My wife and I discussed this with both of them, and we felt that kids their age wouldn't have the desire to save money. If they had taken the money, it would probably have been for something they wanted to buy, and they probably wouldn't have been able to save it anyway."
"So we didn't make any moves at first, hoping to see if the kids had anything they couldn't afford with their daily allowance. But we didn't find anything. So after the end of the semester, my wife and I asked the kids directly, and they both said they hadn't touched my fishing tank and had no idea there was any money in it."
"It's impossible to report this to the police, and it's not good to make a big fuss about it. What if other families think our child stole the money? That would be so embarrassing. So when we couldn't find it, my wife told me to just forget about it and consider the money as a ward off evil."
"But I'm miserable. I've saved all this money for so many years, and I just can't figure it out!"
After complaining, No. 003 urgently asked You Yunyi, "Extrader, can you tell me who took my private money?"
You Yunyi glanced at the peephole, then looked at the Zhiyin Wall.
No. 003 and the audience also looked at the picture on the Zhiyin Wall, on which a scene of a small storage room slowly emerged.
No. 003 said, "Hey! This is the room in my house where I keep my fishing gear! My water tank...someone came in. Oh, it's Brother Tao, a fishing buddy I met over drinks. He lives in the same building as me. Sometimes he comes to my house to borrow my fishing rod. He thinks my rod is very useful, but he can't bear to buy himself a new one... Wait, why is he opening my water tank - my secret money! Damn it! He took my secret money?! How did he know I hid my secret money in there!"
You Yunyi pinched the screen and said, "You drank too much and told him that when you were drunk."
No. 003 was speechless, like a goose being strangled by the neck: "...Huh?"
You Yunyi said, "You two were drinking one time, and he complained to you about being short of money. As you were talking, you told him about your hidden stash of money. You were already drunk at the time, but he wasn't too drunk yet. He asked you where you hid the stash, and after you sobered up and made sure you didn't remember mentioning the stash, almost a month later, he pretended to go to your house to borrow a fishing rod, just like before, and took your stash of money."
"He also chose a time when you were not around so your wife would let him get the fishing rod he wanted on his own, since he had gotten it on his own before anyway."
After speaking to No. 003, You Yunyi looked back at the live camera and gave a businesslike reminder: "Those of you who are still alive in the world of the living, drink less."
Regarding this topic, No. 003, who was still immersed in the grief of "my good brother stole my money", also nodded and agreed hurriedly: "That's right, drink less, it's better not to drink at all. If you really want to drink, drink less at home. Don't be like me. I fell to my death while walking while drunk. What will I do after I lose my wife and children..."
"Luckily, our mortgage was paid off two years ago. My wife is a good housekeeper, we have a decent amount of savings, and both of our children are about to graduate from high school. Although we still need money, it's better than losing our father even earlier. Alas, I feel so sorry for my wife and children. It's hard to tell anyone that someone died from drinking too much..."
No. 003 left the extradition office full of sadness.
While the audience was still immersed in the emotions of the previous ghost, You Yunyi had already begun calling the next ghost: "Number 004, come in."
No. 004 is an old lady. To You Yunyi, she is a familiar face. She has been dead for twenty years. During this period, he only draws a ticket from the Extradition Office to come in for a meeting once a year.
This was not his first time coming back, and No. 004 did not start his speech like the other ghosts. As soon as he sat down, he got straight to the point with You Yunyi: "Sir, I'd better check on my son's situation in prison."
You Yunyi now upholds a responsible attitude towards the live broadcast room and explained to the live camera: "This person, No. 004, died of freezing to death while wandering the streets 20 years ago. She had a son and a daughter. Her husband died young, and the couple gave all their resources to their son who was later convicted of multiple crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment. As a result, after paying her son's fine, she didn't even have a place to live. Her daughter said that as long as she stopped mentioning her son, she would provide for her in her old age, but she chose to wander the streets selling scrap to wait for her son to be released from prison. However, she froze to death before her son was released."
"Her obsession during her lifetime was to wait for her son to be released from prison. Over the years, she came to the extradition office many times, just to see her son in prison for ten minutes, and then wait for the next visit."
No. 004 listened to You Yunyi's words and sighed bitterly, "Sir, you don't understand. Children are a debt. How can I not miss my son? Although my daughter is not filial, she lives a better life than my son. She doesn't need me, an old woman, to worry about her..."
You Yunyi nodded indifferently, then projected the prison scene that No. 004 wanted to see onto the Zhiyin wall.
No. 004 looked at him with satisfaction and said, "Oh, he looks thinner than last year, getting thinner every year. Life is hard in there, my son has suffered... His clothes are all worn out, why doesn't anyone buy him new clothes..."
You Yunyi didn't care about these things as he had long lost the ability to see the freshness of the human world. However, after thinking about it, he felt that for the sake of the live broadcast effect - mainly to raise the level of vigilance of the dying people in the world of the living - he poked the mirror again, creating a "picture-in-picture" on the Zhiyin Wall, and at the same time projected the scene of old woman No. 004 wandering around in her later years.
Of course, the days of wandering are not easy, especially when No. 004 started wandering and her hair was already gray. But seeing her tell people that she would rather wander and wait for her son to be released from prison and reunite with him, rather than accept charity from her daughter who threatened her to forget her son before she would give her old-age care, and that she is still obsessed with him even after twenty years of his death... the audience felt complicated.
One viewer wondered, "She's so patriarchal, she must be a big believer in the idea of 'raising sons to provide for old age.' She treasures her son and thinks her daughter is someone else's and needs her son to support her in her old age...but doesn't she realize her son can't provide for her in her old age? Instead, her daughter let bygones be bygones and just asks her to stop mentioning her son..."
"But people think this is an unfilial daughter threatening her."
"Fortunately, she didn't agree, otherwise my daughter would be in trouble. Instead of getting a good life, she would have to take care of her in her old age alone."
"I really can't understand it. They've been completely brainwashed to the point where they can't even tell the difference between good and evil."
"I was still wondering how someone could freeze to death on the streets these days, and then I realized it was twenty years ago... After so many years, how strong must their obsessions be in their lifetime?"
No. 004 looked at the deportation wall and saw that her ten minutes were up, then she left the deportation office as if she was familiar with the route.
You Yunyi continued to call out numbers calmly: "Number 005 can come in."
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