Drawing Cards in the Middle Ages to Rise in Ranks-Chapter 655 - 427: True Self
The stars rotate, time flies.
Colorful billboards flicker between skyscrapers.
Li Hao, dressed in a cheap suit, washed his face in the sink, hastily tidied his attire in front of the mirror, and then put on a beaming smile as he headed out the door.
"Mr. Zhang, you see..."
The easiest job to find in this world is always in sales because the base salary is low, and pay relies entirely on commission. This is an industry with a high ceiling, but the floor is equally low.
Every day he leaves early and returns late, weary from rushing around.
With a smiling face to welcome every social engagement, every phone call must be made cautiously to avoid a scolding. If you only face cold looks, that would be a blessing.
"Luckily, I finally closed a deal today."
"But I'm still so tired."
"When will this life come to an end?"
After sending off Mr. Zhang, Li Hao squatted by the roadside greenbelt and sighed lightly. Is this life bitter? Not really, it's just about smiling along. If you want to earn money from someone else's pocket, a smile is essential.
It's better than being a civilian displaced by war, slaughtered like pigs and sheep by chaotic armies.
It's better than those unable to bear the lord's oppression, who, after hearing the Priest's sermon, pack their meager belongings and set out on a journey to the "Celestial Dynasty," only to be robbed by Berber pirates en route and sold into mines to labor to death.
"But why can't I feel any happiness?"
Li Hao exhaled a bit wearily. He also wanted to take it easy, but even that requires capital. His family already has ordinary conditions and is burdened with the enormous medical expenses from three years in the hospital. If he doesn't work hard, should he place all the pressure on his father's shoulders?
He quickly stuffed the loin sandwich bought from a roadside stall into his stomach and lit a cigarette.
Looking at the bustling urban nightscape, his expression was somewhat dazed.
By the time he regained his senses, a model composed of odd lines had appeared in the dirt of the greenbelt, seemingly chaotic yet orderly, as if echoing some universal truth.
"Did I just draw this?"
Li Hao glanced at the wooden stick in his hand.
Oh no, am I having mental issues?
Li Hao was a bit panicked. Recently, he has been dreaming, with fantastical and bizarre dreams. Sometimes he dreams of becoming a Demon Dragon, slaughtering villages and cities, devouring people alive; sometimes he dreams of becoming the Grand Lord of the Crusaders.
But he knows very well that these are just dreams.
Now, however, he realizes that the influence these dreams have on him is significant, and the Spell Model isn't something one can just imagine out of thin air.
"Sigh, I really can't afford to get sick right now."
The period he spent bedridden after the car accident already cost his family a lot, and he hasn't earned much money now. He absolutely can't go back to the hospital to treat some "delusions."
Li Hao frowned tightly, a hint of anxiety rising in his heart: "I must just be too tired recently."
He pinched the bridge of his nose. These days he dreams every night, mostly forgetting them upon waking, but they still affect his sleep quality. If it continues like this, he's worried his body will fall apart.
"Maybe I should take some time off?"
As a salesperson, the base salary only covers daily expenses. Without closing deals, he can't save much, at best only relieving his family's burden. But if he were to truly suffer mental illness, then spending money would be like water.
Perhaps he should just quit and join his dad in running a taxi?
At this moment.
A woman's scream suddenly came from the roadside: "Catch, catch him!"
Turning his head, he saw a man with ferocious anger, waving a dagger and shouting: "Get out of the way! If you don't want to die, move it!"
Li Hao instinctively wanted to stop him. In his eyes, the vicious thug didn't have much deterrent force at all. But just as he moved his steps, he stopped again: "Calm down, calm down, you're just an ordinary person."
"You're not the Grand Lord of the Crusaders, not the Champion Knight sweeping invincibly across the arena."
He took a deep breath and quickly hid by the roadside.
"Please, help me stop him!"
"They're human traffickers!"
Only then did Li Hao notice, behind the thug blazing the trail, was a woman holding a little girl.
"Damn!"
"I hate human traffickers the most."
Li Hao gritted his teeth, grabbed a mop from a roadside vendor's bucket, stepped on it to break off the mop head, and charged at the trafficker.
He lifted the wooden stick high above his head, posing with a perfect bullish starting stance, as if the thing in his hands wasn't a wooden stick, but the Two-Handed Greatsword favored by the German Swordsman.
"Get lost!"
The trafficker had a crazed look on his face, lunging with the dagger in hand.
Li Hao stepped forward quickly, thrusting the wooden stick directly at the trafficker's throat.
Luckily, he used the wooden stick's back end, not the broken wedge end. When the stick jabbed at him, his vision darkened unexpectedly, and he collapsed, the dagger in his hand easily knocked away by Li Hao's stick.
The watching bystanders nearly dropped their jaws.
A wooden stick, a long weapon, naturally could beat a dagger, but such a steady, precise thrust was just too strong, stabbing the vicious thug to the ground in one move.
The trafficker's accomplice, who was holding the little girl, froze in fear, threw the child toward Li Hao, and without a glance back tried to escape, pursued in a flash by Li Hao, who with a sweep of the wooden stick knocked him easily down.
By this time, the crowd gathered and restrained the fallen trafficker.
Li Hao returned the girl to her mother, spotted an opportunity, and hurriedly slipped away.
"A wise man doesn't stand under a dangerous wall," this thug was nothing, but his action seemed a bit harsh. He dared not check the situation; that trafficker might have been stabbed dead by his move. Better get away quick!
Back at the office building where he works. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖
Li Hao was still a bit out of breath.
"Did I really kill someone?"
He stood by the floor-to-ceiling window gazing outward, the Patrol Officers had arrived, but the trafficker was still surrounded by the crowd, not yet sent to the hospital. Instinctively, he felt this guy was likely beyond saving.
Yet, even in this situation, he wasn't afraid at all.
Instead, there was an old familiar sense of excitement within, as if killing people was just a routine minor thing.
"Better change my clothes quickly."
"I guess my actions could be seen as righteous bravery, those Patrol Officers...probably won't exert themselves too much to pursue my whereabouts for a trafficker—eh, wait, someone was recording earlier, did they catch me in the footage?"
Instead, an old familiar sense of excitement filled his heart, as if killing people was just a routine minor thing.
"Better change my clothes quickly."
"I guess my actions could be seen as righteous bravery, those Patrol Officers...probably won't exert themselves too much to pursue my whereabouts for a trafficker—eh, wait, someone was recording earlier, did they catch me in the footage?"
