Death Progress Bar

were decent.
Uncle Huang often needed to leave: to pick up his granddaughters/take care of the grandson/go home to feed his cats/let the dog out, and Shi Jin was left in charge at that time.
Each time he would be rewarded with several red banknotes, making his daily income rather satisfactory.

In order to save money, Shi Jin padded his stomach with a bowl of plain noodles first, then slaughtered the pheasant he had caught yesterday.
After seasoning it and preparing vegetables bought earlier, he put it into a pot and left to simmer, then fell into bed with a contented sigh.

While waiting for it to cook, he fell asleep imperceptibly.
He was in the middle of a dream when Xiao Shi woke him up.

Shi Jin came awake in an instant.
First, he hid the cucumber pillow with all his belongings and documents under the bed.
Then he turned off the lights and tiptoed to the front door, pulling out a newly purchased dagger and gripping it tightly.
He looked out the crack in the door.

What he saw was a single dark green eye, giving him a cold stare across the gap, similar to that of a savage beast.

Shi Jin was startled.
Before he could react in any way, he felt a breeze coming from behind, then his neck hurt and he stopped to be aware of anything.

Before he lost consciousness though, what had passed through his mind was: I’m so hungry; my pheasant stew!

Upon waking up, Shi Jin found himself being dragged toward the living room like a dead dog.

There were several people standing in the hall.
When they saw him, their leader asked in an indifferent tone, “Has he woken up yet?”

“He will soon, Four can control his strength well,” replied the man who held Shi Jin.

“Go on then.” The leader waved his hand.

“Yes.” The man who dragged Shi Jin moved toward the living room, unblocking Shi Jin’s line of sight and letting him see the people in the hallway clearly.

There were three tall men.
Their appearance was either plain and ordinary, simple and honest or refined and polite; none of them would stand out in the crowd.
They were wearing identical khaki coveralls, with a banana logo and words “Flowery Orchard” embroidered on the chest pocket.

Shi Jin felt he had a stroke of luck.
He cried out loudly: “I’m innocent! I didn’t steal your fruit! Believe me, I am a good person!”

Xiao Si, who was about to warn him that the situation was not good:

For a moment everyone froze.
The refined-and-polite looking man who was asking questions before felt his face twitch.
He stepped on Shi Jin’s ribs, pressing down hard, and demanded with expression warped by anger: “Tell me who sent you!”

Feeling the force bearing down on his chest, Shi Jin let out a pained grunt.
He looked up at the man, whose face was distorted by rage, and inexplicably thought that there was something familiar about him.
After a moment of scrutiny, Shi Jin’s expression changed to one of disbelief: “You… Aren’t you Uncle Huang?”

After his disguise was seen through, the look in the man’s eyes changed.
He reached out and grabbed Shi Jin’s jaw, roaring, “Stop pretending! You deliberately got close to me at the contact point and then approached the base—it proves that the identity you set up is completely fake! Now tell me, what’s your aim, who sent you!?”

What contact point? What base? Shi Jin was stupefied.
He quickly realized that there has obviously been a misunderstanding and tried to explain: “I’m just a teenager trying to make a living, I don’t understand what you mean.”

“Still going to keep lying? I see you want to do it the hard way.” The man sneered and stood up, pulling a gun out of his pocket and loading it.
He aimed it at Shi Jin’s head.
“I’ll give you one more chance to say something I want to hear.”

Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!

Shi Jin’s eyes widened in alarm—he was deeply aware of the damage the gunshot can cause to the human body.
Cold sweat damped his forehead and the cogs in his head were turning madly.
Apparently, he has been unknowingly living in some big force’s hidden base and they have mistaken him for an enemy spy.

Xiao Si, who had been silent for a long time, wailed:

Shi Jin also wanted to cry—after making countless calculations and plans, he actually hadn’t realized that playing mahjong also counted as a lethal factor!

“Not going to talk?” The man put a finger on the trigger and caressed it gently.
“I will give you three seconds.
One…”

Xiao Si shrieked.

Why did it rise so fast?

Shi Jin’s chest constricted painfully, making him unable to take a breath.

“Two…” The refined-looking man kept counting.

Xiao Si’s voice kept rising:

He was going to die!

The more dangerous the situation, the calmer Shi Jin became.
He continued to repeat the words “what I want to hear” in his mind.
When the man opened his mouth again, he had a flash of inspiration and shouted loudly: “I’m a younger brother of the new Chairman of the Ruixing Corporation! I have a high social status and my background is troublesome, you can’t kill me!”

The refined-looking man paused.
He moved the gun away and asked, looking doubtful: “Ruixing? You mean that company from overseas?”

Shi Jin nodded fervently.

The man moved his foot away, frowned, and looked toward his two companions.

Shi Jin let out a relieved sigh, rubbing his chest and coughing a few times.
He turned his sight in the same direction as the refined-looking man.
As a result, he couldn’t help but stare.

From behind two men, who had been standing still this whole time, emerged a thin man sitting in the wheelchair.
His complexion was pallid, his face enchantingly beautiful, and his phoenix eyes were calm and seemingly devoid of life.
He was wearing a black silk robe embroidered at the hem with tiny red petals of unknown flowers, resembling blood splattering at night.

He arrived beside astonished Shi Jin and asked in a soft tone, “Are you Shi Xingrui’s youngest son, Shi Jin?”

Shi Jin’s lips trembled, his eyes shifting from the man’s clothes to his face, finally stopping over the top of his head.

He looked at the second progress bar in his mind that was gradually becoming sharp and clear, face contorting from wanting both to cry and laugh… Shi Jin forgot himself for a moment and blurted out, “Darling!”

Why are you here? What’s more, why are you so close to death?

Translator’s Notes:
– untranslatable; Xiao Si simply started to mispronounce Chinese words.
I tried to make it somewhat suggestive.
Original: “哇哇哇，进进你真好！窝爱腻！窝要给你生猴几！”
“Darling!” – orig.
宝贝 [bǎobèi], meaning ‘baby’, ‘treasure’, ‘darling’.
I decided to use ‘darling’.
“Enchantingly beautiful” – the word used here is 妖艳 [yāoyàn], which could mean seductive, sexy, flirtatious, gorgeous, stunning etc.
It doesn’t really mean that our ML looks like a woman.
This chapter was awful – all those descriptions… And here comes our ML!