Startled by Fang Senyan's words, the two men who hadn't reacted in time froze, but before they could, Fang Senyan's hands shot out like lightning, grabbing their hair and slamming their heads violently together! Fang Senyan didn't intend to take their lives and held back some strength, but these two thugs clearly had far less resistance to blows than Hua Shanfei's men. They both rolled their eyes, staggered a few times, and then collapsed limply on the spot like mud. It seemed clear they wouldn't be getting up anytime soon.

The tout, responsible for luring people into the trap, had his eyes nearly popping out. He never imagined that the 'sucker' in front of him would instantly transform and fight back! Ninth Brother and Da Lei always bragged during their drinking sessions about how they could cleave their way through seven or eight hundred men with a large watermelon knife, punching Zhao Zilong at Changban and kicking the Overlord of Chu in the late Qin era. Yet now, they went down with just one touch!

At this moment, Fang Senyan's eyes glanced over with ill intent. The slick man instantly became terrified and waved his hands repeatedly, backing away:

"Comrade... Comrade! Show mercy!"

Fang Senyan shrugged helplessly:

"Hand over the wallets."

The slick man was stunned, then dumbfounded, finally realizing he was being double-crossed! Seeing Fang Senyan raise his fist, he immediately performed the slickest move, pulling out his wallet with both hands and offering it over. Fang Senyan then pointed to the two unconscious guys on the floor:

"And theirs."

This fellow was clearly quick to understand and immediately went over to strip the two men clean, then presented his spoils with both hands. However, these three thugs had set up this scheme, and they were dirt poor; the pile of loose bills added up to less than thirty yuan. But Fang Senyan hadn't come for money anyway. After walking out the door, he searched the two retrieved wallets and found what he needed most right now—ID cards! With these official documents issued by the Public Security Bureau, Fang Senyan could finally soar high like a bird in the sky and swim free like a fish in the vast sea! As for verifying if the photo on the ID matched—unless it was during a crackdown, who would waste their time worrying about such trivialities?

5th Floor

Stepping out of the small courtyard, Fang Senyan's mind stirred, and the metal liquor flask was already clutched in his hand. Perhaps because he had returned to the real world, the metal flask now carried a slight warmth, mellow like human body temperature. Furthermore, it trembled faintly, reminiscent of a heartbeat. Simultaneously, Fang Senyan received a series of related messages:

"You have brought the Soul Equipment: Infinite Vodka into the real world."

"You have triggered the relevant conditions."

"Soul Mission: Lotus Root Soup is activated."

"The final wish of the contractor soul entrusted within Infinite Vodka is to drink Lotus Root and Pork Rib Soup, freshly stewed by his mother."

"Hint: If you accept this mission, you will receive fragmented memories of this contractor."

After choosing to accept the mission, a 'buzz' sounded in Fang Senyan's mind, and numerous scenes immediately flashed before his eyes...

His name was He Weiguo, a name bearing the distinct characteristics of an era. When the Sino-Vietnamese border conflict erupted, many simple folk regretted not being able to join the battlefield, so they found every possible way to show support for their homeland. Clearly, naming a child also fell into this category.

He Weiguo hailed from the Loess Plateau, where the land was barren and conditions backward. At the age of twenty, he married a local woman. But his wife died the following year due to complications in childbirth, leaving him with only his son to rely on. However, when the son was seven, he tragically contracted severe lupus erythematosus. He was often bullied by his peers, called 'mangy dog,' forcing him to secretly shed tears and swallow his pride, while He Weiguo was working far away and unaware of his suffering.

Finally, one day, He Weiguo heard about his son's ordeal. He was a man of explosive temper, and the viciousness in He Weiguo's heart was ignited. He drew the pig-slaughtering knife he carried and stabbed wildly, killing three people in succession, not even sparing the classmate who had always bullied his son!

After the killings, He Weiguo fled with his son. When he was at his wit's end, he entered the Nightmare Space. Gaining power from the space, he used illicit means to accumulate wealth. During this time, he committed many wrongdoings and countless sins. His sole belief while striving in the Nightmare Space was to cure his son's illness so he would no longer be called a 'mangy dog'!

However, He Weiguo's life trajectory came to an abrupt halt in the world of the Caribbean. He was deemed expendable by the team's decision-makers. Facing an overwhelming tide of pirates, He Weiguo was hacked to pieces, but as he died, he held no resentment, for he had already left a fortune for his family in the real world.

His one lingering thought before death was the warmth of his mother waiting for him to come home when he was a child. His mother would first roll up her trousers, fetch some autumn lotus roots from the old, frost-covered fish pond in front of the door, then trade ten pounds of corn to her butcher uncle next door for a pound of pork ribs, before stewing it all in an earthenware pot for three hours to make rib soup. That simple pot of soup, perhaps seasoned with his mother's deep and sincere love, was what allowed this fierce man to never forget that steaming maternal affection until his last breath.

Fang Senyan stood motionless for a long while, an indescribable complexity surging within him. Was He Weiguo a good man? Undeniably, no. He had taken more than eleven lives, ranging from an eleven-year-old boy to a seventy-year-old man. He was irritable, prone to gambling, and had committed nearly every bad deed imaginable. Yet, on the other side, he was willing to risk his life for his son, accepted death with equanimity, and his final legacy was a deep attachment to his mother. This contradictory and complex life experience churned within Fang Senyan for a long time before finally dissipating slowly, like wisps of cooking smoke.

Two days later, Fang Senyan arrived in Chongqing.

This was He Weiguo's temporary refuge after fleeing his hometown. He had rented two rather shabby rooms quite discreetly outside the Third Ring Road. His mother lived there with his son. No one would have guessed they were worth over a million yuan. Fang Senyan walked up to the house and, from a distance, heard crying coming from inside. His heart skipped a beat: if He Weiguo's mother were to pass away, how would he ever complete this mission? He saw a neighbor woman pushing her door open nearby and hastily inquired about the situation.

The neighbor sighed:

"This family is truly cursed. First, the man of the house died in an accident, falling from upstairs. Then, a few days ago, the child was abducted by human traffickers. The old woman cries all day long; who knows how long she can hold on."

Fang Senyan knew that anyone who died in the Nightmare Space would be assigned a reasonable death in the real world, so He Weiguo's demise was within his expectations. But regardless of his past sins, death meant complete dissipation! His son was completely innocent; why must he also suffer such a tragic fate? Perhaps it was a sense of shared sorrow for the dead, but the anger in Fang Senyan's chest suddenly flared, his face turning ashen. Taking a deep breath, he walked up and began knocking firmly on the He family's door.

Fang Senyan waited for a full five or six minutes before someone came to open the door—it was He Weiguo's mother. She looked to be only in her fifties, but her hair was completely white, her eyes were swollen red, and she was hunched over to a grotesque degree, her complexion ashen. With a tone of indifference and despair, she asked:

"Who are you looking for?"

Fang Senyan took a deep breath:

"Auntie, please sit down. I am a long-time good friend of Weiguo's. I heard about his misfortune a few days ago, so I rushed over especially from out of town."

Upon hearing her son's name, He Weiguo's mother immediately burst into uncontrollable tears, sobbing brokenly:

"I knew Weiguo would have trouble. How is money so easy to earn? It's because our family was born poor; otherwise, we wouldn't have pushed the child to that desperate edge. I, this useless old woman, deserve to die too. I couldn't even keep the only seedling Weiguo left behind! He was snatched away alive!"

Fang Senyan closed his eyes and said coldly:

"I heard about it the moment I arrived, Auntie. Tell me everything you know; I will get justice for your family."

He Weiguo's mother whimpered through the story. It was quite simple: five days ago, she took her grandson, Xiao Jun, out to buy vegetables. While passing the market, they were stopped by a young Xinjiang man pushing a cart selling Sachima (a type of pastry). The young man insisted she try his new variety. Elderly people are often swayed by bargains, and hearing 'free,' she took a bite. As a result, she was coerced into buying, which she naturally refused to be the sucker for; a dispute arose between them. When the old woman remembered her mischievous grandson, at least twenty minutes had passed!

What followed was frantic searching, weeping, and finally, despair. When the police were called, their attitude was chillingly indifferent—many murder cases weren't even solved; such a minor missing person case would naturally be treated perfunctorily. Moreover, the law stipulated that missing persons cases were not criminal cases unless there was proof of abduction or kidnapping; they might not even qualify for filing a report!