My Healing Games

Chapter 444 The Turning Point of Destiny
The system notification left Han Fei stunned for a long time; it was the first time he had ever seen a buff that could directly increase a player's attributes.

It's not fair to say he's naive; he used to treat curses as blessings, and this time he actually received a blessing, so he was somewhat surprised.

"The rate at which the mood value decreases has slowed down again, which is easy to understand, but what does it mean that the rate of alienation in that world has slowed down? Is this world becoming more dangerous and worse every day?"

The world in Han Fei's eyes hadn't changed much, but the system notification made him wary.

The woman on the hospital bed was too weak to raise her arm for long. After gently stroking Han Fei's cheek, she was reluctant to put her hand down.

"I've been a burden to you. As a mother, all I can give you is a blessing."

"This is the best gift I've ever received in my life." Han Fei felt that the woman seemed to remember something. He gently covered her with the blanket: "Everything will be alright, and those regrets will never happen again."

Without lingering any longer, Han Fei had more important things to do: he needed to figure out what the alienation of the world really meant and prepare in advance for what to do.

As Han Fei got up to leave, he glanced back through the glass window before closing the ward door.

Recalling the smile on the woman's face, he vaguely understood something.

"For the owner of the shrine, the last bit of attachment in this world must be his mother, which is why her blessing has such a great effect on me."

From this moment on, Han Fei had finally gained some kind of recognition.

"What's your decision?" The man surnamed Gu and his four bodyguards stood at the door of the ward. The man held a card in his hand, as if he would immediately pay off all of Han Fei's medical bills as long as Han Fei agreed.

"Thank you for your kindness, but I can't accept this favor right now." Han Fei broke down under the weight of his thin shoulders. He didn't want his mother to worry, so he forced himself to stay inside the ward before revealing his vulnerability.

With the masterful acting skills activated in his mind, Han Fei perfectly recreates everything about a confused and desperate boy.

He refused the man surnamed Gu's help. One-fifth of the shrine owner's regret had been made up, and this world of memories had been affected. The man surnamed Gu might do something even more insane.

In order to avoid arousing the suspicion of the man surnamed Gu and to lull him into a false sense of security, Han Fei could only try his best to recreate the owner of the shrine.

From every tiny expression to the pain in his eyes, the mall owner saw all of Han Fei's despair, but he was completely unaware that perhaps one day he too would experience the same despair.

Despite being rejected by Han Fei several times, the man surnamed Gu remained unperturbed, his expression unchanged throughout: "My promise is always valid. You can come to me anytime if you need help."

After saying that, the man surnamed Gu prepared to leave.

After taking a few steps, he seemed to suddenly remember something and said to Han Fei, "I heard from Zhu Wei that your family had raised some money, but your father stole all of it?"

The repeated mention of the unfortunate events made Han Fei feel as if he had been stripped naked and was standing in front of everyone.

"Yes."

"You can go to the western district downstream of the Shahe River and see if any of my employees have seen him there." The mall owner coughed several times, and blood seeped from the festering sores on his face.

Seeing him like this, the bodyguard next to him immediately came over and protected him.

"That's all I can do to help you. It's quite chaotic over there, so you'd better wait until you have time off and bring a friend with you."

The mall owner left accompanied by bodyguards. As he walked out of the hospital, the rising sun shone directly into the shrine owner's mother's hospital room.

The second night passed safely. As Han Fei watched the mall owner's departing figure, a question arose in his mind—would the mall owner really be so kind as to tell him his father's location?

Han Fei is now very wary of the mall owner. He suspects that everything the shrine owner experienced was orchestrated by the mall owner. In other words, the shrine owner is a man-made tragedy.

It wasn't fate that treated him like a toy, but the mall owner, that sickly man surnamed Gu.

"After I refused the boss, he kindly told me where my father was? What kind of conspiracy is hidden here?"

If the boss truly meant well, he should have told the shrine owner where his father was from long ago, instead of putting on this fake show first.

"I think I've overlooked something."

Leaning against the ward door, Han Fei pondered carefully. The old lady's son had also worked at a secondhand shop, but in the end, her son was eaten by the shrine, while the shop owner was still alive and well.

The shrine's owner is now stepping into the boss's trap, but this time the result is that the shrine's owner has completely taken over the shrine and become the most evil and unspeakable being.

In the deep world, any unspeakable being is incredibly cunning and terrifying. They are adept at manipulating all negative emotions, and pain and despair are merely fuel for igniting the black fire of hatred within them.

How could such an unspeakable being remain forever pure and kind?

Han Fei looked down at his hands, which were covered with tiny wounds and had invisible traces of blood.

If he hadn't made the change, the shrine's owner would already have a life on his hands.

"The owner of the shrine must have undergone some major changes later on. He went from being kind at the beginning to the other extreme, which directly backfired on the mall owner. This should also be his regret, but I don't know exactly where this turning point that affected his fate was."

Han Fei proceeded with extreme caution, avoiding countless dangers, and only managed to help the shrine's owner remedy one-fifth of his regret.

The thing that will truly cause the shrine's owner to regret for the rest of his life has probably not happened yet, or rather, it is about to happen.

"Hatred is the inevitable path to becoming unspeakable. Whose hatred does the shrine owner harbor? A loan shark? A mall security guard? An unfair fate? Or the father who stole the family's life-saving money?"

Slowly closing his eyes, Han Fei recalled some of the things he had seen after entering the world of memories.

While doing a toy-related quest, he came into contact with a murderer who brutally killed his wife and children, indirectly causing his death.

Next is one of the Ten Fingers members disguised as a caregiver. He keeps his wife locked up at home all year round, and now Han Fei doesn't even know whether his wife is dead or alive.

Finally, there's Huang Li. Han Fei secretly looked at Huang Li's phone chat history, which revealed that her husband had been abusing her and, even after their divorce, still threatened to kill her entire family.

Han Fei didn't connect all of these things at first, but now that he thinks about it carefully, this world is the world of the shrine's master's memories, and the world of memories contains subjective memory consciousness.

Whether they are murderers or orioles' husbands, their existence seems to be influenced by some painful memories of the shrine's owner.

This is the shrine owner's world of memories, a world where everyone's stories can be seen, but the shrine owner's own sealed inner world cannot be found.

However, from another perspective, isn't this alienating world a reflection of the shrine's owner's inner world?

All encounters and experiences are, in fact, the answers.

From the very first small incident, Han Fei had already embarked on the path to winning over the heart of the shrine's master.

"The mall owner wanted to entice me to do something. Perhaps this shouldn't have been brought up now, but he didn't expect me to refuse his offer." Han Fei was certain that the mall owner's plan had been disrupted.

"It seems I need to go to the western district of Shahe as soon as possible." Han Fei felt that he had to meet the father of the shrine owner no matter what, because he felt that the turning point in the shrine owner's fate should be with his father.

"What kind of experiences would a person who firmly believes in the light go through to completely give up hope and wholeheartedly embrace the darkness?"

After leaving the hospital in a hurry, Han Fei and two thugs arrived at the bus stop. The trio's combination intimidated passersby, who dared not approach them.

"The department store isn't far from here, we can just walk back. Are you planning to go straight home?" Li Long now had a completely new understanding of Han Fei. He knew Han Fei had a tough time, and his attitude softened considerably. But the debt still needed to be collected, otherwise he wouldn't be able to explain it to the others.

"Mr. Gu just said that my father was seen in the West District, and that the area is quite chaotic. Do you know anything about that place?" Han Fei asked Li Long and Li Hu.

"You've been working all night, aren't you going home to sleep?" Li Hu asked with a bitter face. Han Fei's lifestyle had worn out the debt collectors.

"Let's go take a look first. If we can find my father, I can pay you back immediately!" Han Fei said with certainty.

Upon hearing that the money could be returned, Li Long spoke up: "Xicheng District is the most backward and impoverished district. A few years ago, the old city renovation project was launched there, which attracted a large number of homeless people and temporary workers, and also bred a lot of 'pests'."

"Pests? Are people like you?"

"You can't say that, we still have principles," Li Hu muttered. "Even though our old hideout is there too."

"Take me there. Once I find the person, I'll pay you back the principal and interest."

At Han Fei's insistence, Li Long and Li Hu decided to take Han Fei to see the West District.

“Other people who owe money avoid us, but you’re different. You actively seek out the place where we have the most manpower. If I didn’t know you were genuinely short of money, I’d really suspect you were a cop.” Li Hu and Li Long, their tattoos showing, sat on either side of Han Fei as the three of them took the first bus to the West District.

As time went on, the bus became more and more crowded, but the last row where Han Fei and his friends were remained empty.

Halfway through the journey, Han Fei saw an elderly man with mobility issues board the bus. He stood up to offer the man his seat, but the man insisted on pushing him back into his original position.

Thirty minutes after the bus ride, Han Fei and his group finally arrived at their destination.

As soon as Han Fei got out of the car, he saw the dust blown up by the wind on the road. There were buildings under construction everywhere, and as far as the eye could see, there were construction sites and buildings covered with demolition signs.

"If you see my colleagues later, I hope you can give us some face." Li Long made a very practical request. If people knew that Han Fei had come on his own initiative, then the two brothers would really be out of a job in the underworld.

"No problem, I will fully cooperate with you and give you face. I also hope you can mobilize your manpower to help me find my father." Han Fei took out his phone and flipped through his photo album.

Han Fei originally only wanted to find a photo of the shrine owner's father to help Li Long find him, but as he searched, Han Fei made an unexpected discovery.

His phone's photo album contained pictures of his mother and father, but there were no photos of the shrine owner himself. All the group photos were also lost, and the videos he recorded did not show the shrine owner's figure or even his voice.

"That's something worth noting."

Han Fei first sent a photo of the shrine owner's father to Li Long and Li Hu. After the two confirmed that they had received the photo, Han Fei began to keep a low profile, not wanting to alert the enemy.

“Although there are many homeless people in the West District, we will keep an eye out for new faces.” Li Long walked ahead, leading Han Fei through a construction site and into the alley behind it.

They hadn't gone far when they heard screams and pleas for mercy. Li Long told Han Fei to stop: "There's an unlucky guy up ahead who's been caught. We'd better not go any further."

About half a minute later, the screams stopped, and several men carrying steel pipes emerged from the corner of the alley.

The leader among them was as tall as Li Long, but much stronger. He wrapped the steel pipe around his hand, and there was a lot of blood on the tip of the pipe.

Seeing that group of people coming, Li Long consciously moved aside. Li Hu was a little resentful, but he could only endure it for now.

"Don't provoke them?"

Even without Li Long's reminder, Han Fei wouldn't act rashly. He stood in the corner, leaning against the wall, thinking about finding the shrine's owner's father as soon as possible.

There was no reason for a conflict between the two sides, but the group suddenly stopped as they passed by Han Fei.

The leading man looked Han Fei up and down with a strange expression: "New here?"

Han Fei looked completely bewildered, extremely flustered and frightened, and looked to Li Long for help.

Knowing there was no way to avoid it, Li Long spoke up: "He owes Brother Snake money and was called here to pay it back."

"Don't be nervous, I'm not going to steal your goods." The leader raised his arm, pointing a blood-stained steel pipe at Li Long: "The scar on your face is really ugly. I'll help you make it symmetrical sometime."

After the man finished speaking, the young men behind him all laughed.

Li Hu wanted to speak, but Li Long stopped him.

"What a waste, no wonder he got beaten up like this." Seeing that Li Long didn't dare to fight back, they got bored and slowly left.

The man in the lead laughed unrestrainedly, unaware that Han Fei's gaze had instantly changed the moment he turned around.

"A head tattoo!" Han Fei stared intently at the back of the leading man's neck, where two lifelike faces were tattooed: "Is he also one of the ten fingers?"

Upon seeing the human head tattoo, Han Fei felt a surge of murderous intent.

Having only met him once, he had already decided where to bury him.

(End of this chapter)