Me! Cleaner!.

Chapter 3 Coming again
He got up in a hurry in the middle of the night and ran to the hospital with his sister, whose face was faintly purple. After tossing and turning for more than ten hours, Leon, with bloodshot eyes, sat beside a dirty bed with his back to the setting sun outside the window. He looked at his sister who had finally stopped coughing and asked in a low voice with a complicated expression:
"Anna, tell me, when did you stop taking your medicine?"

Hearing Leon calling her name, which was rare, the thin girl with a pale face on the bed couldn't help but tremble slightly. She knew that although her brother looked calm, he was probably about to go crazy with anger. She could only lower her head and confess honestly:
"About... two months ago?"

two months ago…

After hearing this, Leon recalled a moment, then he couldn't help but clench his fists tightly, his nails with a little mud almost wedged into the flesh of his palms.

Two months ago, I turned sixteen and became an adult.

That day, the comfort officer of the kingdom's military department came to visit on time, announced that he had become an adult, and in accordance with the so-called new policy, forcibly stopped the pensions for the families of fallen soldiers that were supposed to be paid to the age of 22.

That rare clear, warm and sunny afternoon without exhaust gas and dust clouds was colder than the ice field in the severe winter in the hearts of their family of four.

When the military chose to embezzle the pension to fill the gap of military expenses in order to balance the overspending accounts, the decision to forcibly stop paying the pension pushed this small family that was originally able to maintain itself to the edge of the cliff...

After recalling what happened that day, Leon gritted his teeth silently, his palms clenched so tightly that the joints turned pale.

Yes, although the pension was reduced by a quarter, the family expenses have not been reduced much in the past two months, and the food can even be barely maintained... Damn it! Why did I realize it now!
"elder brother."

Looking at Leon who was keeping silent with his head down beside her, the girl who was becoming thinner and thinner on the bed was silent for a while, then she turned her head slightly and said in a voice that seemed to be light and would fade away at any time:
"How about you just leave me alone?"

Upon hearing this, Leon's whole body was shaken, and then he suddenly raised his head, staring with bloodshot eyes and angrily scolded:
"You hu..."

"elder brother!"

She tried to raise her voice, but it caused a violent cough. The thin girl quickly grabbed Leon's right hand, which was throbbing with veins. While trying to steady her bellows-like breathing, she tried to persuade him in a calm and gentle voice:
"I have calculated carefully in the past two months. Even if I die and I lose one more pension, as long as you don't have to buy my medicine, the remaining two pensions, plus some odd jobs that pay by the day, will be enough to bring them up to adulthood.

Also, my registered age is one year younger than my actual age, so when I get sick... when I leave, you just need to avoid the patrols and secretly throw me into the sewage river outside the royal capital at night, and then hang my old clothes on the hangers at home and pretend that I'm still here, and we can receive two more years of military pensions.

Brother, listen to me, I have already asked the people in Veteran Lane in advance, and they are all willing to help us cover it up, as long as they cooperate with you to deceive the military comfort officer... Brother? Brother! Where are you going?"

Go kill someone! I'm going to kill someone!
After hearing Anna's proposal, the trembling Leon was horrified to find that he had subconsciously agreed with her method for a moment. After three years in this world, he actually began to get used to it all!
It was as if there was another numb and cold self behind him, chasing after him and trying to completely devour this barely alive self. Lyon began to run unconsciously, and the hot blood almost instantly filled his head.

On his way out, he violently knocked over a medical cart, leaned over to touch a bloody scalpel, then staggered out of the hospital and rushed towards the Ministry of Highways three blocks away!

If it weren't for those bastards in the road administration department who approved the construction of the alchemy near residential areas, Anna wouldn't have gotten sick because of the alchemy exhaust gas leak!

If they had not been in collusion with the factory and issued a certificate stating that the leak had not caused any pollution, she would have had the money to treat her illness!
If it weren't for the shameless encroachment of the Kingdom's military, the double pension left by my parents, who are mechanics, would have been more than enough for me to raise my three younger siblings to adulthood!
And! If this damn world hadn't been so rotten, I wouldn't have to struggle like I am now, and I could at least live like a human being!

……

With blood boiling, Leon clutched a scalpel and crossed three streets. Under the blood-red sunset, he rushed to the Highway Administration Department and came to the square where people lined up in long queues yesterday and were picked like animals.

Although there was still an hour before the Kingdom's stipulated time to get off work, the employees of the Road Administration Department had already filed out of the brightly lit building, chatting and laughing as they passed by the ragged Leon.

"Next week, Master Wilde's troupe will come to the capital to perform his famous opera at the Central Cross Theater. Will you go?"

"I'm not as elegant as you. I'm interested in circus and the like, but forget about opera. So why did you ask me to watch the opera? Where's your wife?"

"She? She likes the opera, sure, but she likes nice purses and shoes more, and department stores that have sales that day."

"No wonder, haha, then I can only wish you good luck with your wallet."

Opera, circus, handbags, department stores... If I hadn't heard them talk about these, I would have forgotten that this is not a barren and poor world, and not everyone is so miserable.

Listening to the conversation and laughter of the brightly dressed Road Administration staff, Leon couldn't help but slowly raise his head, his two bloodshot eyes fixed on the brightly lit building in front of him.

Anna was right. Rather than letting her illness drag down the whole family, the best thing to do was to give up treatment and watch her die, then secretly dump her body into the sewage river full of feces and rotten water, and find a way to "cheat" the military for another two years of pensions to raise the remaining brothers and sisters, but... I'm sorry, I really can't hold on any longer...

Leon worked hard for three years, going out early and coming back late, but found that his life not only did not get better, but instead began to slide into the abyss. He first pursed his cracked lips hard, and then, with a mouth full of the fishy and salty taste of rust, he quickly walked towards the building of the Ministry of Highways.

It's now the time after get off work for the Highway Administration Department, and it's also the easiest time to sneak in. Next, I have to go up to the second floor and find the bastard who approved the construction of the alchemy factory and cut open his fat belly with a knife.

Then, I'll take advantage of the chaos and run up to the fourth floor, find the bastard who gave false testimony to the pharmaceutical factory, causing the family to not get compensation and have no money to treat Anna's illness, and then die with him! Let these damn...

"Bulging!"

"Are you blind? Don't you look where you're going?"

Glancing at the skinny young man who was knocked to the ground, the fat man who came out from the corner frowned, patted the dust on the front of his coat with disgust, then took a bite of the cheese-covered burger in his hand, walked away around the fallen Leon.

After getting up in a daze, Lyon couldn't help but be startled when he saw the familiar figure from behind.

It’s the fat guy who “picked the livestock” yesterday!
Staring at the back of the savage man, looking at that greasy and hateful fat face that was biting a double-decker burger, Leon felt his head buzzing.

As if controlled by something inexplicable, the rage that was about to explode in his mind found the most appropriate outlet, dyeing his already bloodshot eyes scarlet, and driving him to clench the cold and hard scalpel as he staggered after him.

If he could have let himself pass yesterday, maybe he wouldn't be so desperate now! If he could have let himself pass yesterday, maybe he could have saved Anna's life! If he could have let himself pass yesterday...

"Dad~"

Just as Leon had already caught up with the man and was about to do something, a clear child's voice suddenly came from his ear.

Along with the clear call like a wind chime, the face in front of him, full of arrogance and indifference, suddenly warmed up, and the tiredness on the tall and fat man's face disappeared in an instant.

He first sucked in his swollen belly, then squatted down with some difficulty, and opened his arms towards the little girl who was running towards him with a smile.

"..."

Looking at the little girl who ran past him with a smile and threw herself into the man's arms like a young swallow, Leon couldn't help but slow down his pace. Then he turned back in a daze and found that not far behind him, a middle-aged woman with a plump figure was looking at him with a gentle smile.

Even though she lived in such a garbage and fucked-up world, the woman's eyes when she looked at the father and daughter were still filled with enviable happiness... It was exactly the same smile that Anna had given her when she looked at her at dinner yesterday.

"..."

"Oh shit!"

After mumbling something incomprehensible, Leon cursed something and loosened his right hand slightly. The bloody scalpel fell to the ground with a clang, which immediately attracted the obese official's suspicious gaze.

Ignoring this disgustingly happy family of three, and spitting once again at the shiny bluestone floor tiles beneath his feet, Leon calmed down, turned around silently, and walked towards the Cleanup Bureau located in the shadows with his signature heavy steps.

Killing your enemy and then dying is certainly a very satisfying experience, but there are times when, no matter how much you want to die, you have to live well... or at least die in a more meaningful way.

Standing in front of the dark, heavy door of the Cleanup Bureau, Leon was silent for a moment, raised his hand, grabbed the shiny brass handle, and pushed hard inside.

I remember that at this time yesterday, the red-haired interviewer said that the Cleanup Bureau was a non-staff department of the Ministry of Police. According to the rules of this field department, if one died in the line of duty, one should be able to leave behind a large sum of compensation.

So if one of the four people in my family is destined to die first, and the remaining three can only live on crying...then let me do it!

(End of this chapter)