Apocalypse Forecast

Chapter 945 - 750: Surprise

On the way back, Huai Shi sat in the car, watching as those dazzling neon lights gradually faded away, entering a more familiar dim neighborhood.

Under the street lamps that had already been shattered, the homeless nestled in cardboard boxes poked their heads out from the alleyways, distant sounds of angry curses and reprimands mixed with children’s cries.

In the sound of metal scraping, the shutter of the grocery store closing marked the end of business.

Soon, apart from the hurried footsteps of pedestrians, only the sound of drunken puking remained on the street...

It wouldn’t be called happiness or beauty, yet somehow, it finally made Huai Shi relax, as if returning from a fleeting bubble back to reality, feeling the familiar gravity.

He closed his eyes, letting out a silent long sigh.

"Boss seems to be in a bad mood." Suddenly, Ueno, who was driving, asked.

"Hmm?" Huai Shi asked, "Why do you say that? Is my expression really that obvious?"

Ueno thought for a long time, slapped his head, and shook it: "Don’t know, just a feeling..."

Huai Shi found himself speechless. Was this the keen intuition of a single-celled organism? Truly admirable.

After thinking for a long time, he couldn’t help but ask, "Ueno, if someday you could stop being part of the Extreme Path, is there anything else you want to do?"

"Huh?" Ueno completely didn’t understand.

"I mean...if you didn’t have to be part of the Extreme Path, what would you do then?"

Ueno widened his eyes in disbelief: "Then I wouldn’t be able to live, right?"

"... Not necessarily, right?"

"Boss, although it’s kind of embarrassing to say this, I can’t even use a calculator." Ueno said seriously, "With tattoos, convenience stores wouldn’t hire me anyway. And with such a bad temper, what if I hurt a customer?"

Huai Shi couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

"... Fine, let’s not discuss reality constraints, I just want to know: if you were given the chance to choose anything, is there something you’d like to do? Like a dream or something."

"Never thought about it; that kind of stuff is too complicated, right?" Ueno thought for a long time, suddenly turned around, eyes wide with curiosity: "Boss, what about you?"

Huai Shi hadn’t expected himself to be counter-questioned.

After thinking a bit, he couldn’t help but shrug.

"Honestly, I used to want to be an artist, yeah, the kind that plays music, but later I thought being a teacher wasn’t bad either. Watching students grow made me feel like the old me grew too..."

Before Huai Shi finished, seeing Ueno looking enlightened, about to speak, he frowned: "If you dare say ’Same with me,’ I’ll throw you out right here."

"Same with me... cough cough cough."

Ueno’s words got stuck halfway, he thought for a long time, tentatively asked: "Then I can at least be a PE teacher, right?"

"Teach what?" Huai Shi sighed: "Teach kids to grab land and hack people with cleavers?"

"... Can’t I?" Ueno widened his eyes in disbelief.

Huai Shi couldn’t help but cover his face.

What kind of misunderstanding do you have about schools? What normal school in the world would teach students such things...

"Ah, it all feels so complicated."

Ueno laughed awkwardly: "If not being part of the Extreme Path means living happily, then that’s a good thing, right? But, I feel, there’s no need to think that far... After all, a rice ball only costs thirty bucks, worst case I can work hard to make a living.

As long as one is alive, there’s always a way."

He thought for a moment, confidently said: "My mom taught me: Finish today’s business today, think about tomorrow’s business tomorrow! What’s the use of pondering useless stuff?"

"..."

In the silence, Huai Shi suddenly raised his head to look at him, as if meeting him for the first time, dumbfounded. After a while, he couldn’t help but burst into laughter, bending back and forth, thoroughly amused.

Ueno looked back through the rear-view mirror, utterly puzzled:

"Did I say something wrong, boss?"

"No, your mother is truly a wise woman, Ueno."

Huai Shi patted his shoulder, laughing heartily: "This is honestly the most sensible thing I’ve heard tonight!"

"Eh? Really?"

"Of course, tonight let’s go for a drink, want to join?"

"Sure, sure."

.

.

"Ah, I really want to drink, want to eat sushi and sashimi, curry rice, fried pork cutlet, want to eat peony pot, want to eat ramen, and tempura... Want to soak in hot springs, get a massage, and have a bubble bath..."

Under the desolate moonlight, Tony held a bowl of instant noodles, sighing longingly at the moon.

The floppy horse mask flapped in the wind, making the abstract face beneath it appear even more sorrowful.

"Why is it like this? Even though it’s rare to go on a business trip to Yingzhou..."

In the bleak wind, he sighed forlornly: "Is life only like this when working overtime, or is it always like this?"

No one responded.

Only the horse-faced man shook his head, picked up the bowl of instant noodles, and then, with one hand on the floppy horse mask, poured the soup and noodles into the big mouth.

After an empty sound like a watering can, came the sound of chewing.

Finally, he burped.

Dinner ended just like that, perhaps along with the late-night snack and tomorrow’s breakfast.

The Sorrowful Astronomical Corporate Slave stuck a lighter into the horse’s mouth, pressed it twice, then exhaled two wisps of blue smoke from his nostrils, looking down from the rooftop.

In the silent night, the dusty warehouse was engulfed in darkness, silent.