Chapter 113 Happy New Year
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The deity had passed away!
People watching the live television broadcast quickly accepted this fact.
It felt as if New Year had come early. Everyone was excited, as if celebrating a new day of birth.
The streets were decorated with lights and colorful decorations. Fireworks exploded in the dark sky. People hurriedly moved around, celebrating the end of the apocalypse.
The atmosphere was livelier than during New Year.
Amidst the crackling sound of firecrackers, Lin Zhaohe held Zhuang Lao tightly. The brutal scenes on TV had left a strong impression on him, and he felt that Zhuang Lao looked particularly fragile. Sometimes, he asked Zhuang Lao if he felt uncomfortable, and he wondered if Zhuang Lao would sense anything when the puppet was injured.
Zhuang Lao knew exactly what Lin Zhaohe was thinking. At that time, when Lin Zhaohe looked like that, his emotions were even more painful than Lin Zhaohe’s. So, when faced with Lin Zhaohe’s concern now, he didn’t think it was unnecessary. Instead, he reached out and hugged his little dog, rubbing its chin against Lin Zhaohe’s head, comforting him, “It’s okay, it’s all over.”
“Has it really all passed?” Lin Zhaohe asked.
“It has all passed,” Zhuang Lao replied warmly.
Indeed, it had all passed. The deity fulfilled the wish, and from that day onward, the fusion zones never appeared again.
The killer who murdered the deity was never found, and everyone seemed to collectively forget what had happened that night, enjoying the hard-earned peace.
After a night of revelry, people returned to their normal lives. They could finally try their hand at creating texts and images once again. Countless works poured out like a burst of creativity. People called it the artistic revival after the disaster. Numerous fiction works inundated the internet and human life.
Lin Zhaohe thought they would completely forget about the deceased deity, as if he had never existed.
However, he didn’t anticipate that the demand from the public to find the culprit would grow stronger.
When the deity died, the once fanatical haters suddenly became devout believers.
“No matter what, we owe our current life to him. Now that he’s gone, we should at least find the culprit and give him some kind of explanation,” voices like this began to emerge. At first, there were only a few scattered comments, but later on, more and more people supported the idea.
When people looked back at the deity’s actions after appearing, he hadn’t actually done anything harmful to humanity. At most, he occupied some land and built a house. Besides that, he hadn’t harmed anyone’s life.
It was just a matter of being slightly unattractive and having lower qualities, but even so, was that enough reason for a death sentence?
Suddenly, people started to love him.
“Find the culprit, find the one who killed the deity—”
“Don’t they still have that Godslayer Association? They should reveal the entire list of their members!”
“Come on, take a look at your own post. You wanted to join back then, but now you’ve changed your tune?”
“Don’t act all morally superior. You’re the ones talking about killing, and you’re the ones looking for the culprit. It’s truly disgusting.”
“Creating gods, killing gods, you’ve done both good and bad deeds.”
“Disgusting!”
Lin Zhaohe hadn’t been going to work recently. He planned to pick up his original job again—writing novels. Before writing, he casually surfed the internet and was surprised by the intensity of the arguments. His emotions became extremely complicated.
He clearly remembered all those criticisms of the deity. Unexpectedly, in just a few short days, a complete reversal occurred.
The God Slayer, hailed as a hero, had now become a fugitive. Meanwhile, the deity underwent a transformation and became a pitiable victim, simply because he looked slightly unattractive, causing humans to reject and despise him.
Lin Zhaohe thought to himself, “You can like him so much just because he’s dead. If he were to flaunt his beer belly in front of you again, how long would your love last?”
The place where the deity was killed was now filled with flowers and various offerings. Lin Zhaohe even miraculously spotted an inflatable doll there, feeling speechless. It seemed that people had some biased impressions of the deity…
It was impossible to find the culprit. Lin Zhaohe had met the people from the Godslayer Association, and each one of them was formidable. The higher-ups intentionally turned a blind eye, hoping for the deity to die from various accidents. This murder was the result of maneuvering among various forces. They didn’t even bother finding a scapegoat, simply claiming that there were currently no leads on the culprit and encouraging citizens to report any information.
The voices of condemnation grew louder.
Zhuang Lao, on the other hand, was very satisfied with this. He didn’t want to invite any strange troubles for having killed the deity with his own hands.
“Do you think there’s something seriously wrong with these people?” Lin Zhaohe couldn’t understand. “They used to call for his death every day, and now that it’s done, they’re unhappy.”
Zhuang Lao: “Not surprising. Back then, you were so well-behaved, and there were still people who wanted to kill you.”
Lin Zhaohe: “What? Even when I was like that, there were people who wanted to slaughter me?”
“Exactly,” Zhuang Lao confirmed.
When Lin Zhaohe, as a deity created by a human with no social experience, gave his all—body and soul—he expected a good outcome. However, what good came from it? When he was reduced to a wish-granting machine by humans, there were people who wanted to destroy him and blamed him as the root of disaster.
Yeah, as long as the deity was killed, he wouldn’t be able to grant people’s wishes.
Regardless of where they were, humans always revealed astonishing malice. Zhuang Lao wouldn’t indulge these people. He used the excuse of electricity payment to have the AI living in Lin Zhaohe’s house gather a bunch of contradictory and flip-flopping comments from the internet. He titled the post “Humans, Your Name is Fickle” and publicly exposed and ridiculed those who initially clamored to kill the deity but later demanded the capture of the culprit. There was no censorship. They received the same criticism they hurled at others.
Meanwhile, he fanned the flames online, gleefully stirring the pot. Lin Zhaohe couldn’t understand Zhuang Lao’s hobby. Didn’t he get angry seeing those comments? Despite his own good temper, sometimes they infuriated him.
Zhuang Lao didn’t care at all. He said, “Xiao He, don’t get upset. Where are you planning to publish your novel? How about posting it on my website? I promise to give you the best rankings every time.”
Lin Zhaohe was dumbfounded. “What website of yours?”
“Well, when you see the insurance company going out of business, you have to find another source,” Zhuang Lao replied. As a capitalist, he had a keen business sense for making money. Lin Zhaohe hadn’t even started his novel, but Zhuang Lao’s company was already up and running. Lin Zhaohe clicked on the website and saw a striking novel title: “The Years I Dated the Deity.”
The title was too explicit. Lin Zhaohe couldn’t help but turn to Zhuang Lao and ask, “Can this author really go to such extremes?”
Zhuang Lao couldn’t help but smirk.
The best deity was a dead deity. People suddenly added hundreds of meters of filters to their perception of him. Their crude behavior became their true nature, and even their appearance inexplicably transformed into an attractive one. Lin Zhaohe thought to himself, “Oh humans, you truly judge by appearances. If Zhuang Lao really showed up with his excessively beautiful face in front of everyone, even if he committed murder or arson, he would have fans whitewashing him.”
These strange changes left Lin Zhaohe speechless. He asked Zhuang Lao if the world would have become better if they had killed him back then.
Zhuang Lao sighed and said that Lin Zhaohe was a bit naive. The reality he remembered was much more complex than what Lin Zhaohe imagined. Every wish of Lin Zhaohe would come true, but there was an order to granting wishes. For example, if person A wished to be the richest person in the country and person B also wished for the same, the wish of the person who made the wish later would be fulfilled later. With so many people and wishes, there was a sequence to fulfilling them. This led to a completely distorted world. Today, A could be the most powerful superhero on the planet, and tomorrow, B could surpass A. If you wished for world peace, it would only last for less than three days before encountering a warmonger.
Therefore, the most terrifying thing back then was the fear of encountering an extremist who wished for the destruction of the world and wiping out everyone.
If Lin Zhaohe died, time wouldn’t rewind. Zhuang Lao seized the last opportunity at that time and forcefully turned the tables.
Now, the years passed peacefully, and nobody knew about the terrible future that humanity had experienced.
In a few days, it would be New Year. Lin Zhaohe took Little Red Square to the supermarket and bought a bunch of festive food. Little Red Square carried the load and became a small cart for transporting goods. When they arrived home, they saw A’Yao sticking couplets on the front door. The female ghost who had moved in with him changed into a cheerful red dress…
Wait, a female ghost in a red dress? It didn’t quite feel festive, right? But A’Yao seemed oblivious and enthusiastically invited Lin Zhaohe to have the New Year’s Eve dinner together.
With no family around, it would be nice for friends to gather together. Lin Zhaohe called Lin Yan and invited them to join the New Year’s Eve dinner. Lin Yan seemed busy on the other end of the phone. Lin Zhaohe even heard Mr. Li and Luo Shanyu’s voices. He thought he might have misheard and asked what Lin Yan was doing.
Lin Yan gave a vague explanation, “Buying stuff…”
Lin Zhaohe asked, “What are you buying?”
“Buying a damn coffin!” Lin Yan, who never used foul language before, seemed to have gotten used to swearing. There were a few banging sounds from the other end, as if someone was being punched. The noisy environment finally quieted down reluctantly. “For the New Year’s Eve dinner, right? I’m coming—”
Lin Zhaohe wondered if they were undergoing demolition on their side and said, “Just make sure to come on time.” After a pause, he asked, “Are you bringing Mr. Li or Luo Shanyu?”
As soon as those words were spoken, Lin Yan fell silent for three seconds. Then, someone snatched the phone and warmly exclaimed, “Lin Zhaohe, right? I’ll come with Lin Yan!”
“You’re talking bullshit! Who are you? I’ve known Xiao Yan for over ten years. Where did you come from?”
“Well, Xiao Yan hasn’t shown any interest in you for over ten years. Seems like you’re the one who’s lacking abilities?”
“Today, I’ll f*cking kill you and see who he can choose then.”
Beep beep beep, the call was hung up. Lin Zhaohe stared at the phone for a while, unable to snap out of it. He thought there would be emotional entanglements with A’Yao, but now it seemed that Lin Yan had become deeply involved.
Luo Shanyu and Mr. Li weren’t easy to handle. The process of choosing between the two didn’t seem particularly pleasant.
Lin Zhaohe became curious about who Lin Yan would bring that day.
It was a cold winter this year, but everyone’s hearts were warm. Without the threat of fusion zones, the streets were adorned with colorful lights, and the atmosphere of the New Year became even stronger.
Early in the morning, Gu Xuyu and the others arrived, bringing some unique ingredients. Lin Zhaohe wasn’t very skilled at cooking, so Gu Xuyu pointed at Gu Jueyu and said that he could handle everything.
Upon hearing this, Gu Jueyu looked helpless and said that a true gentleman shouldn’t be bothered with kitchen chores. As a man, how could he do such things?
Gu Xuyu didn’t say anything, but gave him a casual glance. Gu Jueyu immediately wilted and went to the kitchen, crying and complaining. It turned out that no matter how much he trained, he couldn’t change his inherent nature. No matter how authoritative he appeared in front of his disciple, he became a pitiful little wife in front of the real master.
Lin Zhaohe called Zhuang Lao and asked when he would be back. Zhuang Lao replied, “Soon, I’ll be back as soon as I pick up something.” Lin Zhaohe asked what Zhuang Lao went to get.
Zhuang Lao laughed. “I went to get your New Year’s gift.”
Lin Zhaohe: “What kind of New Year’s gift?”
Zhuang Lao: “It’s a secret.”
Lin Zhaohe wondered what it could be that would make Zhuang Lao so secretive.
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