Sin Becomes a God

Chapter 1: The Kind Are Taken Advantage Of

Graduating only to face unemployment—what a cruel reality. Young people from small towns have shed untold amounts of sweat and endured countless scornful glances in their quest to gain a foothold in the Divine Capital. In the Divine Capital—a city where competition for jobs is so fierce that you need connections even to clean restrooms—unemployment is the most ordinary of occurrences. “Knock, knock, knock…” The frantic knocking echoed through the cramped, ten-square-meter room. The young man sleeping on a straw mat opened his eyes groggily. Just as he was about to get up to answer the door, he heard a howl like that of a starving wolf coming from the other side. “Lu Renjia!!! Don’t think I don’t know you’re in there!! If you don’t pay the rent by next week, pack up all your stuff and get out!!” The young man, known as Lu Renjia, silently withdrew his hand, sighed, and glanced back at his so-called “belongings”—nothing more than a straw mat and a towel blanket. It was already autumn, and the weather had turned cool. As for the cotton quilt he’d brought with him after graduating from college, he’d sold it to a junk dealer the day before yesterday for ten yuan. His father had died young, and his mother had remarried, taking him with her. But who could have imagined that just a few years later, his mother would pass away as well, and his stepfather would start a new family? The only thing left—the old family home—was now occupied by his stepfather’s family. Haunted by these painful memories, Lu Renjia resolutely decided to stay in Shendu after graduating from college, determined to make something of himself. Little did he know that while his ideals were lofty, reality was brutally harsh. Sometimes Lu Renjia even resented his irresponsible father for giving him such an unlucky name—wasn’t “Lu Renjia” just “Extra A”? Although, according to the family genealogy, he belonged to the “Ren” generation—representing benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and integrity—and his father had chosen the character “Jia” in the hope that he would rank among the top three in both his studies and other endeavors, things didn’t turn out as planned. Whether in his studies or at work, Lu Renjia could only be described as unremarkable. “Sigh… If I can’t find a job, I’ll probably end up sleeping under a pedestrian overpass… I wonder if there’s even any space left under there…” Lu Renjia mused self-deprecatingly. As a graduate of a third-rate vocational college, Lu Renjia was probably not even as good as a migrant worker in Shendu, the capital of Huaxia. A few days earlier, when he went to a construction site to apply for a job, he discovered that even the bricklayers had degrees from third-tier universities. Peering through the crack in the door, he saw that the fiercely intimidating landlady had already walked away. Lu Renjia then picked out a relatively clean white shirt and a pair of dress pants—long since washed to the point of fading—from his suitcase and put them on. As for the leather shoes that were about to split open, he could only pray they wouldn’t crack while he was walking. He poured some water from a mineral water bottle to wash up, combed his hair, and flashed a confident smile at the half-mirror. “I’m definitely going to find a job today!!!” The job fair, teeming with people, was like a bloody battlefield—countless young souls fell here, only to be replaced by an endless stream of newcomers. As autumn set in, many job seekers had already donned suit jackets, but Lu Renjia shivered and pulled his collar up against the howling autumn wind. To save money, he’d skipped breakfast and now set off toward the teeming job fair. Clutching more than fifty resumes, Lu Renjia silently encouraged himself: “Success!!! I love Shendu… Shendu loves me… Come on, come on, come on…” Inside the job fair, where people were packed shoulder to shoulder, it was like the Great Wall during the May Day or National Day Golden Weeks. He handed out resume after resume, but they seemed to vanish into thin air like mud oxen thrown into the sea. Some recruiters even tossed his carefully prepared resume aside right in front of him. Having long since grown accustomed to such treatment, Lu Renjia could only offer a polite smile, bend down to pick up the handwritten resume, smooth it out, and move on to the next booth. “An associate’s degree? Are you blind? Can’t you read Chinese characters? We require a bachelor’s degree!! Get out, get out… Next!” Before Lu Renjia could even speak, the recruiter actually crumpled the resume he’d placed on the table into a ball and tossed it aside like scrap paper. “Hang in there… Keep going… Keep going… Lu Renjia! Don’t give up, don’t give in… Even Xu San, a country boy, could become a top-tier agent; I, Lu Renjia, at least come from a third-tier city with urban household registration… Don’t give up!!!” Lu Renjia silently encouraged himself, suppressing the urge to confront the recruiter, and walked toward his resume, now crumpled into a ball of scrap paper. When he reached the corner of the room, Lu Renjia spotted his crumpled resume. Just as he was about to bend down to pick it up, his eyes lit up. “A ray of hope? Is the God of Wealth knocking on my door?” A pink wallet lay quietly beside the crumpled resume, with a few 100-yuan Red Bull bills faintly visible peeking out. For the first time in his life, he’d stumbled upon such a windfall right within his grasp. Lu Renjia immediately felt his heart racing: “Thump, thump, thump…”His heart was pounding so hard it sent a rush of adrenaline through his body. After glancing around to make sure no one else had noticed, Lu Renjia began to wrestle with his conscience, and a familiar song his elementary school music teacher had taught him suddenly echoed in his mind. “I found a penny on the side of the road… I handed it to the police officer… The officer took the money and nodded at me… I happily said, ‘Goodbye, officer…’” He shook his head to dispel the song’s haunting melody. “Damn it! I don’t have money for rent… I’m going to end up sleeping on the street. If I don’t take advantage of a freebie… I’d be a total idiot!” Just as Lu Renjia picked up his resume and casually slipped the pink wallet into his hand, a high-pitched, whiny shriek rang out. “Oh my… Godfather, my wallet’s gone…” He looked in the direction of the voice and saw a young girl dressed in a fresh, ethereal style, pouting her lips in a pitifully coy manner. Standing beside her was a potbellied man with his hair slicked back, wearing a gold chain around his neck as thick as a little finger—as if he were afraid people wouldn’t know he was rich. “Ah, it’s no big deal. There are lots of people here, and plenty of pickpockets. It’s okay, it’s okay… Once we recruit a few capable people, we’ll go back, and I’ll buy you a Coolqi or an LV, how about that?” the potbellied man said generously. “Oh my… No, that’s not it! My ID… my bank card… my gym membership card—and the membership card you gave me—they’re all in there… It’ll be such a hassle to replace them…” The exquisitely beautiful woman said reproachfully, tugging at her godfather’s arm. But the moment she turned her head, she spotted Lu Renjia standing in the corner, holding her wallet. “Godfather… that’s my wallet…” The potbellied middle-aged man looked down in the direction his goddaughter was pointing and saw a gaunt young man holding a pink wallet. Rage welled up inside him, and he bellowed, “Catch the thief! Grab him… Whoever catches him, I’ll pay them five thousand a month!!!” “Damn it!!! This isn’t the God of Wealth knocking on the door—it’s the Plague God delivering an invitation…” Lu Renjia cursed under his breath, tossed the pink wallet aside, and bolted toward the door. Under the pressure of unemployment, the prospect of 5,000 Red Bulls a month was enough to inspire those jobless youths to display the noble spirit of heroism. After taking who knows how many kicks, Lu Renjia, looking a complete mess, managed to dodge the swarm of “upstanding young men” rushing toward him. Only after evading the three burly security guards stationed at the entrance did he finally escape. After running a kilometer, Lu Renjia stopped, panting heavily. “Damn… human potential really is limitless… Damn it, if I’d known I was this fast, I should’ve just applied for the athletic scholarship back then…” A stinging pain in his left foot, accompanied by a sticky sensation, made Lu Renjia instinctively look down. The sight instantly filled him with rage—not only had he lost one of his dress shoes, but wasn’t that yellowish-white mess on the ground none other than someone’s dog’s droppings? “Damn it… what a load of dog shit I’ve stepped in…” Lu Renjia cursed under his breath, then scraped his foot against the curb to quickly wipe away the yellowish-white mess. He could smell the aroma of roasted sweet potatoes wafting through the air. “Gurgle… gurgle…” The rumbling in his stomach made Lu Renjia swallow hard. He rummaged through his pockets, looked at the 78 yuan—his entire fortune—and pulled out two green one-yuan bills before heading toward the sweet potato stand across the street. “I’ll have a sweet potato… uh… this one… I’ll take the big roasted one…” The young man selling sweet potatoes glanced at Lu Renjia and, noticing the black footprints all over his pale white shirt, couldn’t help but tease, “Oh? It’s Ip Man… Want me to give you ten of them…?” As he spoke, he handed Lu Renjia a plastic bag full of sweet potatoes. Ignoring the man’s teasing, Lu Renjia sat down beside the flower bed, cradling the steaming sweet potatoes. Just as he was about to eat both his breakfast and lunch at once, a deep voice came from beside the flower bed. “Young man… please, could you spare me a bite to eat…” Lu Renjia turned to look. Behind the flower bed, a disheveled beggar was staring at the steaming sweet potatoes in his hands. “Ah… who knows, maybe in a few days I’ll end up in the same line of work as him. I might as well make a friend—you never know, he might even give me some advice down the road…” Lu Renjia muttered self-deprecatingly, then broke off half the sweet potato and handed it to the man. The disheveled beggar took the sweet potato Lu Renjia offered and, with his head bowed, began to gnaw at it voraciously. Watching the man eat with such relish, Lu Renjia adopted the air of a novice and asked humbly, “Sir… are there any unwritten rules in your line of work? Do kind-hearted people often give you alms? Do you even have to stake out your own territory?” The beggar, still munching on the sweet potato, slowly raised his head and looked Lu Renjia up and down, taking in his bedraggled appearance. “Pfft! In this day and age, kindness is synonymous with poverty… Only the most wicked and depraved rise to the top… I’ve always gone after those decked out in gold and silver when begging—but since you sat down right here, I just called out to you out of a sense of professional duty… I never expected you’d give me not money, but half a sweet potato… If it weren’t for the fact that you’ve never eaten one before, do you really think I’d eat it?” This god-like retort left Lu Renjia completely speechless. Just as he was about to snatch the sweet potato back from the beggar’s hand, the old man suddenly grabbed his wrist. “Young man… in this day and age, if you want to live the high life… you’ve got to turn bad. Haven’t you heard the girls say, ‘Men aren’t bad, women don’t love’? If you’re broke and ugly, you’re stuck being a lifelong single guy. Since you gave me half a sweet potato, I’ll give you this watch I bought last year…” With that, ignoring Lu Renjia’s stunned expression, he actually fastened a pitch-black digital watch onto Lu Renjia’s wrist. Struggling to pull his wrist free, Lu Renjia rubbed away five jet-black fingerprints from his wrist and cursed angrily, “You’re the one who’s a loner… Your whole family are loners!” Watching Lu Renjia storm off cursing, the disheveled beggar’s face broke into an inexplicable smile. “A ‘Good Man of a Hundred Lifetimes’? Great goodness is great evil… If a ‘Good Man of a Hundred Lifetimes’ commits evil… he will surely become the chief of all evildoers… Hehe… I hope you don’t let me down. After all, the worst that can happen is I’ll just find another one…” “Buzz… buzz…” A ripple invisible to the naked eye rippled out across the horizon. The disheveled beggar’s eyes flashed with intensity as he barked in a deep voice, “Hmph… Those scumbags from the Immortal Realm sure got here fast. Looks like the lot from the Buddhist Realm and the Demon Realm are probably on their way too. I won’t bother with you lot for now—this one’s outta here!” No sooner had the words left his mouth than the disheveled old beggar’s form gradually faded, vanishing by the flower bed.