Chapter 991: Chapter 23 Masks, Knives, Flesh!

Jason opened the door.

Sunlight shone from one side onto the iron ladder, where a middle-aged man stood anxiously at the doorway, his otherwise high-end suit already smeared with mud, especially the shoes, which were caked with filth.

Seeing Jason, the man rushed over as if seeing a savior, attempting to grab Jason’s hand.

Jason subtly stepped back, avoiding the man’s palm.

“What’s the matter?”

Jason asked indifferently.

He always behaved this way with strangers.

No matter what their intentions were.

“Save me!”

“My name is Modo, I’m a businessman.”

“Yesterday, business was quite good…”

Realizing that Jason hadn’t invited him into the office, the middle-aged man who called himself Modo stood at the entrance and recounted the terrifying experience he had encountered.

Modo was an electronics merchant.

Like the owner of ‘Rocky Electronics,’ he primarily dealt in second-hand goods.

But, unlike the wealthy ‘Rocky’ owner, Modo didn’t have a store; instead, he primarily worked as a broker.

He would roam the streets and alleys, looking for clients who wanted to sell their used electronics, then buy them at a low price and resell them to shops similar to ‘Rocky Electronics.’

Of course, there had to be some trickery involved.

Jason didn’t believe for a second that a second-hand electronics dealer could afford a hand-tailored suit and shoes made of calfskin.

However, Jason did not interrupt him, letting the man continue his story.

“It was rare, but yesterday, business was really good.”

“To treat myself, I found a small tavern.”

“And then, drank until late into the night…”

Last night, the Silver District was deeper than ever before.

But for Modo, who had been drinking, it didn’t matter.

Humming a country tune, he staggered along on his way home.

The straight line distance from the tavern to his home was just 700 to 800 meters, very close, but it required crossing a wooden bridge, which didn’t take much time.

Creak, creak.

Walking on the wooden bridge, his feet transmitted a soft, familiar wooden sound, making the inebriated him even more unstable.

He had no choice but to lean on the bridge’s rail and rest there.

Feeling dizzy, he waited maybe 10 seconds or half a minute, and he felt much better, then prepared to continue home.

But at that moment, he suddenly noticed a girl appearing on the outside of the bridge.

The girl had climbed over the railing and was standing at the edge of the bridge, half of her foot suspended in the air, with reddened, swollen eyes and tear streaks on her cheeks.

Clearly, she was about to commit suicide.

“Miss, wait!”

“Please just wait a moment!”

“Did something happen to you?”

“You can talk to me!”

Modo instinctively tried to talk her down but didn’t dare make any rash movements. He was afraid to startle the girl, who was already determined to die, so he remained stationary, speaking in the gentlest voice possible.

The girl heard Modo’s words but didn’t respond; instead, she started sobbing softly, covering her face with her hand.

“She must have been hurt by love, I guess?”

Modo speculated.

The girl was neatly dressed, and her outfit was very familiar to him–he had seen it in a magazine before.

Although he couldn’t appreciate what was so good about this clothing, he knew the price was extremely high; just seeing the string of zeros on the tag suffocated him.

Anybody wearing such clothes must have been well-off.

Certainly not worried about money.

Considering the girl’s age, too, that left only heartache.

Indeed, that was the case.

“Why doesn’t he love me?”

“Why doesn’t he love me?”

“Why doesn’t he love me?”

The girl muttered under her breath.

“Love is hard to explain; without fate, it’s really difficult to be together.”

Modo thought for a moment, then spoke his understanding, trying to persuade her.

But as a bachelor, his attempts at persuasion were clearly weak.

The girl’s sobbing grew more intense.

Her voice came from beneath her hands.

“But he clearly said he loved me, didn’t he?”

Faced with this question, bachelor Modo found he had no reply.

Although he was fluent in his conversations with the ladies while drinking, he couldn’t very well say that a man’s words are just lies, right?

He couldn’t say, “Rather than believe in a man’s words, it’s better to believe that a sow will climb a tree,” could he?

He simply couldn’t say such things.

After all, he was a man.

Modo went silent.

But the girl continued speaking.

“It was all good at the start.”

“But why is it that after we confirmed our relationship, I just get ‘Eaten yet? Sleep early, I had meetings all day, wear more clothes, drink hot water, that girl is my sister, this thing is a bit expensive, I’m really tired from working all day, I really like you, stop being silly, really it’s nothing, whatever you say, drunk talk, we’re just good friends.'”

Hearing these words, Modo was even less sure what to say.

Because he often said the same things to the ladies.

An indescribable embarrassment felt like a fishbone stuck in his throat.

Finally, all he could say was,

“Maybe you’re really overthinking it; he’s truly very tired.”

“Then why did he take other girls out?”

“After I caught him, he still justifiably told me, ‘I just want to give every girl a home?'”

“Why? How can he be so indifferent?”

Faced with the girl’s questioning, Modo was dumbstruck.