Global Film Emperor

Chapter 92 If I die, will you miss me?

"If I die, will you miss me?"

"dad!!"

He sat up on the kang (a heated brick bed), put on his shoes, and wandered around the room, but he still couldn't see that familiar figure. In fact, Lu Ze knew that his father would never come back, never again.
The windowpanes were cracked, and the plastic sheeting nailed to the outside was tattered and torn, easily blown up by the wind, making a rattling sound.

The indoor temperature was very low; even a light breath was just a puff of air.

Back in the room, I crawled back into bed. The blankets were filthy, and the original pink sheets, left by Lu Nan, were now unrecognizable.

Using the last bit of warmth left in the blanket, he curled up into a ball, burying his head inside the blanket—a blanket that most people would find dirty even to breathe in—and drifted off to sleep again.

Lu Ze woke up not long after falling asleep. The clock at home had been broken for a long time and had never been repaired. He didn't need anything to tell him what time it was because he wished time could stand still.

This time, he was wide awake. He rubbed and twisted his hair, which was so oily it could fry a dish, then got up, put on the military overcoat his father had left him, put on his dog-skin hat, and went out. He didn't even lock the door, because any rat that entered his house would have to come out crying.

"The Great Demon is coming! Run!"

On the street, the village children were all afraid of Lu Ze because he was indeed mentally unstable. Most of the villagers had seen him talking to himself, and he didn't seem like a normal person at all.
Lu Ze's mother had taken him to the hospital for a check-up before. The doctor told her that he had paranoid schizophrenia caused by witnessing his father's death. It was a severe mental illness that also caused Lu Ze to have auditory and visual hallucinations. He would often see his father, covered in blood, coming home.

The people who remained in the village weren't highly educated and didn't understand concepts like schizophrenia or paranoia; they couldn't even pronounce them properly. So everyone simply called Lu Ze...
Fool.

Every month on the 7th, there is a market day where a group of vendors sell their goods at the bridgehead. Lu Ze wanted to buy a pair of socks, but his socks already had four holes in them, two on the left and two on the right, and they always felt a bit tight on his toes.

Yes, he lived on just one pair of socks.

"Here you are at the market, Daze? Do you have any money in your pocket?"

"Yes, of course I do! I need to buy socks. Daqiang, let me through, don't touch me!"

The village thugs who never went out to work teased Lu Ze a couple of times. They said that these kinds of people were just scoundrels who were always stealing chickens and dogs, chasing after crazy people and teasing idiots. They did all sorts of bad things.

But today was better; going to the market gave them something else to do, so they stopped teasing Lu Ze and just kicked him in the butt before leaving with a grin.

After buying two pairs of socks for a total of five yuan, Lu Ze put the socks in his pocket and then suddenly saw Lu Nan walking towards him, which made him very nervous.

He glanced around, ran to a stall selling loose candy, threw down a dollar, grabbed a few pieces of candy, and left. The stall owner recognized Lu Ze and didn't stop him when he saw Lu Ze grab a handful of the most expensive candy. He figured it was okay to lose some money.

"Xiao Nan."

Today was high school holiday, and it happened to be market day. Lu Nan invited two classmates to come and have a look around. When she saw Lu Ze, her eyes were a little conflicted. Everyone knows that her brother is crazy, but she still can't face him.

她怎么也想不通，原本那个三天两头揍她一顿，但也疼她到骨子里的哥哥怎么就突然疯了呢？

"Hmm, is there anything you're missing? I'll buy it for you."

Lu Nan knew that Lu Ze had no income and wandered around the village all day, sometimes even going crazy. Now that she had some pocket money, she decided to buy him whatever he needed.

"I don't want any candy from you, you can share it with your classmate."

"No need, I don't want it. You can keep it."

"Here you go! Take it! I'm off!"

Lu Ze pretended to be nonchalant, with a smile on his face, grabbed Lu Nan's arm, put the candy in her palm, and ran away.

Does he look crazy? He's afraid that his appearance will embarrass Lu Nan in front of their classmates. How can he be crazy?

Lu Nan felt sad. She hadn't visited her brother in a long time. After their father died, Li Yumei remarried, but the new husband refused to accept having to support a mentally ill person. So Lu Ze suggested that he stay at home and not go anywhere else.

When she was little, Lu Nan couldn't stand her older sister who suddenly appeared and treated her badly, so she would always run back to Lu Ze's house to cry. But after her sister remarried, she got used to her new family and only went to Lu Ze to bring him food during holidays. She began to avoid the fact that she had a mentally ill brother. She couldn't stand the way others looked at her, but when she suddenly saw Lu Ze, and he still remembered to buy her some candy when he went to the market, she still felt terrible.

Do you eat candy?

He handed it to two classmates, but they shook their heads and refused. Lu Nan already knew this would be the result, so he tore one open and ate it himself. The taste hadn't changed; it was still as sweet as before.

When he got home, he would take a bundle of firewood from the woodpile and heat up the kang (a heated brick bed). He could watch the fire burn until it went out, which became an essential part of his life, and he would do this every winter.

The family still has a few acres of land left. When his mother remarried, she took a few acres with her, and the land was registered under Lu Nan's name. Lu Ze also has two acres of land left, and he usually makes a living by farming.

He ate a simple meal of cabbage and vermicelli for the winter, and before he knew it, the sun was already setting in the west. He picked up his hoe and left home again. He had planted sweet potatoes, and he should harvest them today, or Daqiang and his gang would steal them all.

He didn't have gloves, so he dug directly from the ground with his bare hands, regardless of size. As long as it was edible, he put it into the basket to prevent others from damaging his land.

By the time he finished harvesting, it was already dark. After collecting the sweet potatoes, he took out a bag, picked it up, and headed towards Li Yumei's current home. He wanted to give some sweet potatoes to Li Yumei and Lu Nan.

"Get your hand off me! Did you give that lunatic the money again?! I'm asking you a question! You spendthrift woman, you're taking my money to support that deadbeat's child, aren't you?!"

"Please don't hit my mom, I beg you, Uncle, please don't hit my mom, I beg you!"

Even from a distance, Lu Ze could hear the sounds of fighting and cursing coming from inside the house, as well as Lu Nan's crying. This made Lu Ze panic, and he rushed into the house.

Li Yumei fell to the ground, as did Lu Nan. Li Yumei's eyes were vacant, while Lu Nan's face was covered in tears.

"Don't touch my mom! Get out! Or I'll kill you! I'm mentally ill, it's not illegal for me to kill someone!"

Lu Ze got angry. There was a small shovel in the room, which Lu Ze picked up and shouted at the man in front of him.

The man was clearly drunk, showing no fear whatsoever. He pointed to his face, grabbed the shovel, and raised his voice considerably.

"Come on! Hit me here! Come on! You think I'm afraid of you? You little brat! Try hitting me! You think you're so great just because you're spending my money? Go ahead and hit me!"

"I didn't spend your money! I didn't spend a single penny!"

Since Lu Ze got sick, he has become much more timid. The man saw through Lu Ze's outward strength but inner weakness at a glance and slapped him across the face.

"Don't hit him! Don't you know who took your money? You know your daughter is a gambler and takes money from you. You don't like it, so you drink and take it out on me, fine, but why are you hitting him? Has he ever spent a single penny of your money?"

Li Yumei told the truth, which enraged the man. He kicked Li Yumei, who was protecting Lu Ze, to the ground, and then slapped Lu Ze hard across the face.

The blow was quite severe, and Lu Ze fell to the ground with blood streaming from his nose. The man was startled; he had thought Lu Ze could dodge it, but he hadn't expected him to be so strong.

He also understood that even a cornered dog would jump over a wall, let alone a mentally ill person. If he really killed him, Lu Ze wouldn't be breaking the law.

Lu Ze wiped the blood from his nose and was about to stand up and kill the man, otherwise Li Yumei would be beaten by him again, when suddenly a bloody hand grabbed his palm.

Lu Weiguo lay on the ground, covered in blood, his left eye was a hole, and his right eye was staring intently at Lu Ze.

"If I die, will you miss me?"

Lu Ze was terrified. He tried to push off the ground to get away from Lu Weiguo, but Lu Weiguo held onto Lu Ze's hand tightly and stared at him without blinking.

"what!!!!"

Lu Ze got up, ran out of the house like a madman, and disappeared into the night with a chilling scream.

(End of this chapter)