You're Strong But Now You're Mine-Chapter 42: Accompany Me to Hell

At night, in Eighteenth Street, Le Yu stood in front of the clinic sign that read, "Teeth, Hemorrhoids, Orthopedics." He was just about to push the door open, when he noticed a sign hanging from the doorknob, "Treatment in progress. If you still have the strength to read this sign, don’t come in."

Next to the entrance, there was a cushioned bench that looked pretty clean, so Le Yu sat down to wait.

That evening, he went out wearing a hooded jacket, not worried about being recognized. It was the same style as Yin Yinyin’s—honestly, Le Yu thought Yin Yinyin looked really cool in it, and when he passed by the clothing shop and found out it was the year’s hottest menswear, he bought one right away.

With nothing else to do and the streetlight by the clinic being rather bright, Le Yu took out a book with a black leather cover and started reading with great interest.

"Although he ran into all kinds of trouble after crossing over to this world, it wasn’t just suffering here for Le Yu—there were joys as well. Beyond being able to pilot Qian Yuliu from the get-go and deeply experience the strange Spiritual Power and Combat Technique systems, all the brand-new cultural works here also left Le Yu enchanted, addicted, thrilled, and utterly captivated...."

Ahem, the truth was, Le Yu had barely read a handful of Liu Bei novels in his previous life, but in Radiance, it was totally normal for popular fiction to have spicy content. Naturally, it made Le Yu’s fingers itch for more.

Of course, getting to see racy parts was just one aspect. More importantly, with two thousand years of classics, poetry, and novels piling up, even if Le Yu wanted some of those fast-paced, overpowered main character genres, the bookstores had everything—from "The Royal Academy’s Inferior Student" to "The Young Miss’s Close-Combat Specialist," covering genres like adventure, Soldier King, and rebirth. Le Yu just wanted to buy up the whole store every time he went in.

Popular literature in Radiance was so advanced, not just because paper-making had developed quickly and spurred a proto-industrial revolution, but mostly because hardly anyone was illiterate. Every county had teaching plazas with scholars giving basic education, and most Combat Technique knowledge was public—if you couldn’t read, you couldn’t even train to improve your health and spirit.

"Don’t assume poor people see no point in learning to read or practicing Combat Technique. Quite the opposite—in Radiance, the poorer you are, the more you need to read and hone your skills, because the Spiritual Power system not only boosts human immunity, but also leaves the medical system rare and warped."

On Earth, things like sore throats, appendicitis, mouth ulcers, thyroid swelling, enlarged prostates, and so on, had been around forever, whether effective or not, with people building up all kinds of treatment experience. But in Radiance? No such experience!

Disease?

Colds?

What’s that?

Get the sniffles when it’s cold?

What’s a sniffle?

"With universal access to the Spiritual Power system, almost nobody in Radiance ever got ordinary illnesses in their lifetime. Aside from injuries, toothaches, hemorrhoids, and a few scattered ailments, Radiance folks were basically impervious to disease, and thus had zero experience treating them."

It wasn’t that Radiance people were immune to disease—the second they got sick, their Spiritual Power automatically started killing bacteria and fighting inflammation!

"It almost freaked Le Yu into thinking Spiritual Power could, um, kill sperm."

Of course, it all came at a price. Le Yu discovered the average lifespan here was sixty years, and it wasn’t disease that killed people. Most dropped dead the minute they hit sixty, and that told Le Yu what was really up: Spiritual Power fought off diseases by accelerating metabolism, basically reducing your HP max to clear status effects.

It was just a stopgap, not a cure. But in a society with production levels as primitive as this, you couldn’t really ask for more.

Therefore, if someone couldn’t read and failed to train their Combat Technique, lacking that "Spiritual Power Defense" buff, sooner or later they’d catch some strange illness, and with nobody around having any medical know-how, plus poverty making it impossible to pay the Medical Bureau, what awaited them was genetic extinction—the so-called "poverty doesn’t last three generations."

Back in the previous world, literacy was about getting ahead; here, it was the bare minimum for survival.

"Once everyone could read, popular literature exploded, as expected. Even without the internet’s network effects, Radiance had universal education for centuries, so authors wrote slowly, the market gradually weeded things out, and there were enough classics piled up for Le Yu to read until the end of time."

Le Yu didn’t get into the books here at first, just like how readers of overpowered fiction couldn’t bring themselves to accept the syntax of light novels... But in the end, he was someone who couldn’t go anywhere without fiddling with his phone, so when he had downtime and nobody to play cards with, he picked up books out of boredom.

Once he finished his first Radiance novel, it was like a whole new world cracked open. Two millennia of literary works unfurled before him. Now, wherever he went, Le Yu always carried a book to pass the time at any opportunity.

As Le Yu lost himself in the fantastical world of "Chronicles of the Six Dynasties," he suddenly heard a burst of giggling.

He looked up and saw a pair passing by—a man and a woman. The woman was dolled up, covering her mouth while laughing, her eyes crinkling with mirth. The man had a menacing face, but when he looked at Le Yu, his gaze was... well, it was special. It was sympathetic, somehow.

Le Yu didn’t get it at first, but after three groups of people walked by and couldn’t hold back their laughter, he suddenly realized something:

This clinic treated toothaches, hemorrhoids, and orthopedics.

He wasn’t visibly injured or bleeding, so obviously not here for orthopedics,

Toothaches might not be deadly, but he could sit there reading as steadily as a mountain—so clearly he wasn’t here for that either,

Which meant, in everyone else’s eyes, there was only one reason left for him to be sitting outside the clinic...

With a creak, the clinic door swung open and a large man slowly strolled out, full of gratitude, saying, "Goodbye, Doctor! I’ll bring you some fruit tomorrow for my follow-up!"

The man turned and saw Le Yu sitting on the cushioned bench, immediately understanding. He patted Le Yu on the shoulder, "Haven’t seen you around before—came here for Doctor Yin’s reputation, right? Don’t worry, Doctor Yin’s skills are top-notch, especially in this area, best in all of Star Engraving. Not even Medical Bureau officers compare! You’ll finally be free from suffering!"

What do you mean, "in this area"? I’m not on the same side as you!

Le Yu tugged at his lips in a strained smile and quickly stepped into the clinic. Yin Yinyin sat behind the desk, not surprised to see him, "Good evening, here to treat hemorrhoids, correct? Please follow me to the operating room."

"You..." Le Yu wanted to protest, but Yin Yinyin shot him a chilling look—about as cold as the small gun she used to point at him. Le Yu could only shut his mouth and follow Yin Yinyin down into the basement.

Once Yin Yinyin closed the door, Le Yu finally complained, "Why were you playing a role just now? I’m not even here to see you for a check-up."

"Then why did you come to see me?"

"It’s because you—"

"So other people hear you, healthy as can be, showing up to see a back-alley medical officer in Eighteenth Street out of the blue?" Yin Yinyin’s tone dripped with disdain for the mentally challenged: "How is that any different from shouting with a loudspeaker, ’I’m super suspicious and this underground doctor is, too’?"

Le Yu paused, "Didn’t I already enter the clinic..."

"Unless you’re certain you’re absolutely safe, never reveal your private info. Think you’re safe in the clinic? People outside can hear everything inside if they just press their ear to the window." Yin Yinyin sighed, "Your lack of basic common sense is truly impressive. At this point, I should start charging you."

Le Yu could only change the subject, "Then next time, can we switch up the story? I don’t even have hemorrhoids!"

"You don’t have it now, doesn’t mean you never will. As a fellow White Night Walker, I can give you a one-percent discount, just as friends." Yin Yinyin had that "aren’t you lucky" look all over her face.

She paused, her expression turning serious, "I picked hemorrhoids as our meeting excuse precisely so we could connect without suspicion. You know, plenty of bigwigs come here for treatment, and it’s not for toothaches or sprains, obviously."

Le Yu was surprised, "Really? Why don’t they just go to the Medical Bureau?"

"Too many prying eyes and big mouths in the Medical Bureau, plus most of the upper nobility are good friends with the medical officers. If you step into the Medical Bureau, high society will know what ails you within minutes." Yin Yinyin sneered, "To protect their fragile dignity, these nobles don’t even want their families to find out. The blood flowing from their asses keeps every street clinic in Star Engraving fed."

Yin Yinyin glanced at Le Yu’s hood, "So, whether you show up in disguise or walk in openly, no one’s ever going to suspect our relationship. Even within the Statistical Department, there are patients who’ve been under my knife."

"Are hemorrhoids really this rampant in Radiance? I better start staying on my feet, and if possible, not lying down either..." The reasons Yin Yinyin gave were just too solid—Le Yu couldn’t even find anything to complain about. So, he asked, "Is Lin Xue’en an informant?"

"No evidence at all. The fact that you got shot during your fight with him doesn’t count as proof."

"So does that mean I killed the wrong guy, or was I just extremely cautious?"

"You’re now on the error tally."

"Error tally?"

"In the White Night system, human rights come before everything. We already broke the rules by executing a provisional member before getting official approval. When there’s no conclusive evidence after killing a suspect, it means we might have been wrong—or maybe not—but White Night marks it all down as mistakes anyway." fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

Le Yu scratched his head, "So what does a tally of errors mean? Do we get our perks docked?"

"Nothing like that—White Night just keeps an honest record," Yin Yinyin mused, "If... If the day ever comes when White Night actually takes power over this land and topples the old world entirely, all the mistakes we’ve accumulated will be revealed in full."

"Those who kill innocents, public trial."

"Those who falsely accuse the loyal, legal consequences."

"Those guilty of heinous crimes, executed by law."

"You’ve probably heard this debate: is it okay to use unjust means to achieve just results; and if you do, are the results still really just? The error tally is White Night’s answer."

"People aren’t saints. To reach justice’s end, we might make mistakes and resort to unjust tactics. But because we’re not saints, we can right our wrongs. Mistakes made in the past are left for the future to repay."

"If you’re wrong, you admit it, fix it, and take your punishment."

Yin Yinyin suddenly let out a cold laugh, "So do you get it now? Even if you live to see the day White Night rises, all that’s waiting for you is endless reckoning. Your achievements as Meteor won’t be forgotten, but your sins as Qian Yuliu will all stand trial."

"Of course, odds are, you won’t live long enough for that day."

She paused, "Me neither."

Le Yu scratched his head and laughed, "At the rate I’m racking up crimes, White Night’s ledger on me probably looks like a diary, huh?"

Yin Yinyin actually thought that was true. Qian Yuliu, as a Statistical Department agent, spent every day setting up loyal folk. For White Night to keep track of all Qian Yuliu’s errors, it’s basically writing his biography.

"All right, let’s get to business," Le Yu said, grabbing a chair and sitting down, "Since you haven’t confirmed Lin Xue’en is a mole, you’re clearly not calling me here for an award... so what’s up?"

"Simple. Kill someone."

"Who?"

"The head of the Imprisonment Department, Dong Heng."

"Why?"

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. If we assassinate Dong Heng, Ding Yi will think it’s Lv Zhong’s assassins taking revenge, and nobody will suspect White Night. Once Dong Heng is dead, our White Night plans can progress much faster."

"Has Dong Heng done anything bad? What’s his character like?"

"No bad rumors. He actually seems to be a pretty upright guy."

Le Yu blinked, "So if we assassinate him, aren’t we just sending an innocent man to his doom, harming the good and loyal?"

"Isn’t that perfect? I’ve only got three years left anyway, and you don’t look like you’ll outlast me. Give all the dirty work to the vilest, soon-to-die folks, so White Night’s reckoning will be easier down the line. That’s the most cost-efficient solution."

"Just so you know, that’s not common sense—it’s just what all us White Night Walkers agree on."

"So," Yin Yinyin stood up, "Meteor, come join me in hell."