Chapter 46: The Reason to Deceive Oneself

As the setting sun cast its lingering glow, cleanup and rescue operations continued, and heavy machinery had already been brought onto the site.

In a cleared open space, twenty-eight corpses were laid out neatly, all of them clad in the orange uniforms of the Demon Sealing Bureau...

Their icy temperatures represented the loss of life. Some of the bodies were even incomplete, pieced back together in such a way that it was impossible to tell who they once were...

They could only be barely identified by the nameplates and team emblems on their clothing...

Numerous Demon Sealing Officers and citizens had gathered here in silence. The air was thick with an oppressive, heavy atmosphere...

In the distance, Ren Jie walked over from the ruins, bare-chested and covered in black soot, carrying the upper half of a corpse on his back.

He gently laid the body down in the open space. The corpse remained frozen in an embracing posture. Ren Jie tried to press its arms down, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not force them flat, as if his life had been permanently frozen at that very moment...

Ren Jie said in a hoarse voice:

"This is the last one. It's Qing Wa from the Sixth Team. When I found him, he was pinned under the rubble, his lower body crushed, but he was shielding a little girl in his arms..."

"That girl... is still alive..."

Ren Jie's eyes held a touch of melancholy. Just this morning, they had all been taking the assessment together, childishly competing over who was stronger...

Yet by the afternoon, he had become a cold corpse, unable to speak and unable to move.

He was the Captain's son, from a well-to-do family, having just awakened as a genetic martial artist with a bright future ahead of him...

Yet his life and his future had come to an abrupt halt today!

Ren Jie said nothing more. Instead, he stood to the side and silently raised his hand in a salute.

At that moment, the Demon Sealing Officers could no longer hold it in. These were iron-willed men who had never winced or uttered a sound through bloodshed, sweat, broken arms, and shattered limbs, yet now, giant tears streamed down their faces.

Red-eyed and sobbing, they squatted on the ground, burying their faces in their hands and weeping bitterly.

The Captain anxiously pushed his way through the crowd. Upon seeing the half-body of Qing Wa lying on the ground, his face instantly turned pale, and his body froze in place...

He did not step forward, nor did he gently stroke the cold corpse. Instead, he silently turned around and walked away.

However, his legs turned to jelly, and he nearly stumbled, only to be caught by someone nearby.

"Captain? Are... are you alright?"

The Captain abruptly shoved the man's hand away and snapped angrily:

"Get lost! Is the rescue work finished? Do you have the leisure to worry about me?"

Pushing through the crowd, he climbed silently into a troop transport truck. Someone wanted to chase after him, but was held back by another person who shook their head.

In the driver's seat, the Captain grabbed his hair in agony, tears and snot streaming down his face as he fiercely pounded the steering wheel!

"Why? Why must there be demonic calamities in this world? Why Qing Wa? Why did I bring him into the Demon Sealing Bureau..."

"Ahhhhh!"

The agonizing pain in his heart nearly tore him apart and broke him entirely.

In that instant, he seemed to have aged decades. Before others, he was the Captain, the spiritual pillar of the Seventh Squad; he could not fall. But behind closed doors, he was merely a father who had lost his child...

The most painful thing in the world is for an older person to bury someone younger.

Ren Jie silently withdrew his gaze. In the depths of his mind, the whisper of a demon echoed:

"Price! Paid..."

Ren Jie smiled bitterly. Sometimes, when he thought about it, this price was indeed terribly cruel.

He did want to make others cry, but not in this kind of way...

Under the setting sun, Ren Jie quietly left the crowd, walked over to a nearby pile of ruins, and sat down. He watched as people placed fresh flowers and lit candles for the fallen Demon Sealing Officers, his gaze profound and distant.

No one knew what Ren Jie was thinking at this moment...

Perhaps some did not know that at the back collar of a Demon Sealing Officer's uniform, there was a hidden drag strap inside, used to drag them out of the scene after they lost consciousness and mobility.

And that was the very first lesson Ren Jie learned after entering the Demon Sealing Bureau.

Wei Pingsheng leaned against a nearby wall. One of his arms was wrapped in bandages, set in a plaster cast, and supported by a sling around his neck.

He watched the scene in silence, uttering not a word, because he had seen far too many such sights.

Seeing Ren Jie approach, Wei Pingsheng sat down right beside him. The old man and the young man sat like that amidst the ruins under the setting sun, casting long, drawn-out shadows...

Wei Pingsheng pulled out a cigarette and placed it between his lips. Just as he was about to strike a lighter, operating it with one hand proved a bit inconvenient, and by accident, the lighter slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground.

As he reached down to pick it up, Ren Jie extended his middle finger right in front of Wei Pingsheng, a flame flickering at the very tip...

(#◔_◔ิ)凸 "Smoke a little less. How many times do I have to tell you, and you never listen..."

Wei Pingsheng paused, then smiled as he leaned in to light his cigarette:

"It's about the only hobby I have left..."

With a puff, a cloud of fragrant smoke curled into the air. Ren Jie looked curious:

"What's carved on your lighter? Are there words on it?"

Wei Pingsheng was using one of those kerosene lighters. He quickly shoved it back into his pocket:

"Heh~ nothing much. My first love gave it to me. Ancient history. She's probably married by now, right?"

"Tsk tsk tsk~ time really flies..."

"By the way, when you light my cigarette next time, can you not use your middle finger?"

Ren Jie rolled his eyes:

(꒪ͦ～꒪ͦ#) "Still picky? There won't be a next time, light it yourself~"

Wei Pingsheng shook his head with a smile, a look of reminiscence in his eyes:

"This is what the job of a Demon Sealing Officer is. By the end, very few get a peaceful retirement. The veterans still staying in the squad all have their own reasons."

"After this time, I want to retire too. I'm getting old and useless~"

Ren Jie frowned: "Nonsense. What do you mean by getting old and useless? Is there any possibility that... useless people just get old?"

Wei Pingsheng choked on a mouthful of smoke, breaking into a fit of coughing as he scolded with a laugh:

"You brat, can you speak like a human being?"

As he cursed, he reached out and ruffled Ren Jie's hair!

Ren Jie grinned broadly and raised an eyebrow at him.

Wei Pingsheng's expression then turned serious:

"Xiao Jie, seriously, leave the Demon Sealing Bureau. Go study at the Demon Hunter Academy. You'll get better development, stand on a bigger stage, and stop wasting your talent..."

"This world... is not just about tiny Jin City."

Ren Jie smiled and shook his head: "Uncle Wei, I know what I'm doing. Don't try to persuade me..."

"I... still want to stay in the Demon Sealing Bureau for a while longer."

Wei Pingsheng frowned: "Why? Is it because of Tao Ran? Because of that lingering guilt in your heart? That hurdle you can never seem to get past?"

Ren Jie's expression stiffened, and he flatly denied it: "It's not that..."

Wei Pingsheng took a drag of his cigarette and sighed: "Don't put on an act. You might fool others, but you can't fool me."

"Ten years ago, Tao Ran gave his life to save you, leaving behind An Ning and Tao Yaoyao. That guilt has always existed in your heart—guilt toward Tao Ran, guilt toward An Ning and Tao Yaoyao..."

"You feel that if it weren't for saving you, they would have lived very happily. You don't know how to repay them, how to make up for this guilt..."

"And you've carried this guilt for a full ten years. You've tried your absolute best to be good to An Ning and Tao Yaoyao, but the guilt still won't fade away..."

"That's why you are so obsessed with the Demon Sealing Bureau, so obsessed with saving people and continuing Tao Ran's mission, wanting to rescue more people and save more families. Because only by doing this can you find peace of mind, can you suppress that guilt, right?"

The expression on Ren Jie's face grew complex. He argued:

"That's not it at all. You're overthinking it. I joined the Demon Sealing Bureau for money, to get the benefits to pay for Yaoyao's medical treatment. Saving people is the same—it's to get the bonus, it's..."

Wei Pingsheng shook his head: "Is it really like that? Although your Uncle Wei doesn't have much talent, I'm pretty good at reading people."

"Saving that child was for money? You instinctively threw the child to me while you got crushed underneath! You saved so many people today—was that for money too? Risking your life, jumping down from a matchstick-thin pole to grab a steel cable just to buy time?"

"I can guarantee that even without a bonus, you still would have saved them, you still would have done the exact same thing!"

"You know? People~ when they are doing something they themselves think is foolish, they will instinctively try to find reasons to justify it to themselves."

"You're using that excuse to convince yourself, to deceive yourself. Two hundred bucks simply isn't worth risking your life for!"

Ren Jie grew anxious: "I didn't! Don't think that just because you're older than me, you understand me better. I..."