Becoming The White Moonlight’s Human Weapon After My Death - Chapter 9
Chapter 9: Yan: After all, you also know about my family situation.jpg
Yan Chenli stopped pulling the banana, turning his head to look fixedly at him and not saying anything.
Shen Lu was stared at for a moment, and couldn’t help but feel uneasy.
“I don’t have other ideas. I just thought that it’s really too expensive. I know this would only be a drop in the bucket… but it would be good if I could share a bit of the costs.”
Yan Chenli held the banana and pushed it back into the washbasin, and laughed in spite of himself: “This is the first time in my life I’ve heard anyone being worried about my financial situation.”
Shen Lu thought to himself, how could I not worry.
An Executioner was a human-shaped weapon created with the most cutting-edge technology. And to match its superior performance, it also came with sky-high energy consumption expenses.
After leaving the hibernation cabin, an Executioner normally had just two hours to carry out their duties with the energy stored, then, when the time was up, they would have to return to the cabin to hibernate. If they exceeded the safe limit of two hours, an Executioner’s mental pressure would rise to dangerous levels, and it would cause irreparable damage on their ability to think. If left alone, they might even have to be scrapped.
If they had to carry out missions which exceeded the two hour limit, they would have to be injected with sedatives to preserve their rationality.
The biggest costs when operating Internet servers came from electricity, so some Internet tycoons didn’t hesitate to build their data centres in the Arctic Circle or the seafloor in order to solve these high energy consumption costs. And so, with regards to such precise weapons as the Executioners, aside from the body frame itself, the biggest costs came from the medicine synthesised to keep their mind stable and to provide energy to their bodies.
Since the day Executioner 101 was awakened for the first time by Yan Chenli and given the name [Shen Lu], he had not once returned to the hibernation cabin.
Police officer Shen Lu died on the mission on the 7th of September, 2025, and Executioner Shen Lu began active service in the early morning of the 8th of September, 2025.
As of today, Shen Lu’s current continuous waking time had already reached 9,240 hours.
Shen Lu was one of the most mentally stable Executioners in the entire Tribunal, he only needed a fixed dose of 15ml of sedative every day. But the costs required for this were no different from staying in a high-end ICU. He had been awake for a year, and the expenses had already surpassed 7 million yuan.
The costs of sedatives consumed for matters outside of work had to be shouldered by Yan Chenli alone.
Yan Chenli was just a policeman, his previous annual income had just been around 200,000 yuan, but due to the Tribunal’s budget cuts his current income had been halved, and just the costs of medicine for the year had already exceeded his total wages of 35 years.
This was already completely beyond the scope of Yan Chenli’s responsibility. If it weren’t for the fact that Shen Lu had heard that the Yan family was very wealthy, he would be wondering whether Yan Chenli was borrowing from loan sharks to scrape by.
“Or.” Shen Lu suggested again, “You can agree to put me back in the hibernation cabin when outside of combat.”
At this point, Yan Chenli had finished wringing out the banana, and the soft pillow had once again regained its clean and bright colour, it had just been a little bit wrinkled by the rubbing and was a bit shrivelled. Yan Chenli grabbed it again and pulled at it for a while, “I said it on the first day, I won’t let you go back into the hibernation cabin unless there’s no other option.”
The banana once again became fluffy and soft, and the now-satisfied Yan Chenli moved a chair for it in the loft and stacked it on top so that it was sitting upright, all while saying, “I thought the little demons under my command wouldn’t have stopped gossiping with you about my family situation for the five years you were in the Investigations Department.”
“I heard a few things. They said your family is very wealthy.” Shen Lu said.
But he had also heard Yan Chenli say on many occasions that his family was his family, and that they were not him.
When the granary is full, people observe etiquette; when people are well-fed and clothed, they know honour and shame1. Once a person has to worry about money, they become mean, greedy, and fearful.
Yan Chenli had always had a unique cleanliness not dragged down by the world. You could often see him wearing a watch worth millions and dragging his teammates to sit down next to him on the side of the road, nibbling on a Lawson’s 50 cent white radish oden2.
Sometimes the team would make fun of him for this, and Yan Chenli would smile and say, my brother gave it to me, I like it no matter how much it costs.
There was one time where he went to a school to promote knowledge of the law, and it was popular for the students to call the president of a certain corporation ‘dad’. Yan Chenli told them it was very easy to make quick money by relying on leverage and speculation, but this kind of behaviour would not bring about genuine products or value and would only produce a false bubble, which was not beneficial for the people, so they shouldn’t worship that kind of person.
Afterwards, sure enough, the corporation collapsed and the related stock market crashed, turning it into a costly disaster. Some students wrote letters to him saying that they thought what he said at the time made sense and that they couldn’t encourage that kind of arrogance, so they had persuaded their parents to clear out in advance and leave, and they had luckily avoided the calamity.
In Shen Lu’s eyes, Yan Chenli had always been free, proud, and skilled.
But a few days ago he actually heard Yan Chenli making a phone call to borrow money.
Shen Lu did not wish to see Yan Chenli bowing his head to others for his sake, no matter what.
Not even once, not even a little bit, not even to his own family. Absolutely not.
This was far worse than death itself, a thousand times more unbearable.
In an extremely rare sight, the value on Shen Lu’s collar jumped up to [13].
“I originally thought you should rest properly from having been so seriously injured today, but seeing how you’re being so nosy, it seems like you’re not planning on recovering in peace.” Yan Chenli shook his head, then grabbed Shen Lu and dragged him into the bathroom, pulling open the zipper on his jacket without explanation and taking his cap, “It just so happens that I was planning to go back home for a few things. I’ll help you wash up, you can come with me later.”
After helping Shen Lu wash the blood off of his body and change his clothes, Yan Chenli took out a new cap and put it on him, then they drove off together.
Shen Lu knew Yan Chenli lived in front of the Criminal Investigations Bureau, practically right across the street.
That area was full of old houses with dated designs and not much space. It was probably about the same size as Shen Lu’s single residence, but because it was in a good district, the price was several times higher.
He lived there so he could rush back to the office first thing in case something happened. Yan Chenli said that if it weren’t for the worried little demons treating him like a stress monster3, he would have just lived at the office.
But the Chevrolet didn’t drive towards the Bureau, it left Yinjiang’s urban centre and drove past a flat field, going down the highway and taking a desolate road before driving into a large estate.
The large estate had dozens of acres of land, its vast lawns seemed like prairies, large enough to tend to a herd of sheep and horses. From the entrance, gazing far into the distance, the huge, castle-like building complex looked like just a small dot.
The car drove for several minutes before finally reaching the front of the first house, and Shen Lu was a little dazed as he looked up at that museum-like entrance.
“I just realised what they meant when they said the Yan family is very wealthy.” Shen Lu said.
“No, you haven’t.” Yan Chenli parked the car at the entrance, “This is my own house, not the Yan family’s. The annual income for the Yan family’s industry is equivalent to that of the GDP of last year’s sixth largest economy in the world.”
Shen Lu: “?”
When Shen Lu got down from the car, he felt that this place had somewhat of a bleak and desolate feeling. Although the building was richly ornamented, he couldn’t make out any signs of anyone living there. The fountain in the small plaza in front of the entrance was dried up, without water or fish, and it was extremely quiet everywhere, and not a single human sound could be heard.
Yan Chenli could make out what he was thinking, and explained, “Yeah, no one lives here. I also haven’t lived here for some time. I just kept a few dozen aunties to take care of the lawn and a few security guards to help keep an eye on things.”
This estate felt like it should have positions such as “butlers” and “maids” to match, and after Yan Chenli added “security guards”, the museum-like feeling grew even stronger.
The building was in the style of neoclassical architecture, with a tall, domed roof that made it seem like a church. There was probably still some furniture inside. The reason for this “probably” was because everything was completely covered in white cloth, only making the outlines of irregular heights visible. The cloth was long, layer upon layer dragging down onto the floor, crawling along the grain of the wood. One could only see the way to go through the small gaps in the cloth, the place was clearly so empty, and yet it was also so full.
Yan Chenli went to the second floor, and Shen Lu stood in the hall, waiting for him.
White cloth shrouded everything, like a decaying gravestone, silently surrounding him. Shen Lu could feel time freezing, and he had no doubt that this was the exact same scene from a few years ago, a few dozen years ago, or even a few hundred years ago. And, in the same way, this place would still be like this a few years from now, or a few dozen years later.
Time had abandoned this old residence. Standing there, he could feel an unbearable desolation.
Fortunately, Yan Chenli walked down the stairs a few minutes later. He patted the dazed Shen Lu and said, “Let’s go, back home.”
The sudden trip to the estate ended just as abruptly, coming to a conclusion without revealing much.
Yan Chenli carried a long black bag, he put it down in the driver’s seat out of habit, then just stuffed it into Shen Lu’s arms.
“Is it your violin?” Shen Lu asked as held the bag.
“Yeah. I used to have it in that small house in front of the Bureau. But then I was sent outside, I didn’t know how long I’d be gone for and I was afraid to lose it at some point, so I stored it here.” Yan Chenli let go of his hand, he clicked the seatbelt over his chest, then pulled on the handbrake and smiled as he said, “My brother gave it to me, I really treasure it.”
Shen Lu held it even more carefully.
“How about it? Have your worries been dispelled a bit?” The car got on the highway, and Yan Chenli spoke again, “I rarely mentioned it to others before. It’s all something I inherited when I was born, it was just luck, that’s all, it’s nothing worth showing off.”
Shen Lu hesitated for a moment, then slowly opened his mouth: “I heard you calling to borrow money.”
“Haha, that’s because I’m too busy at the Tribunal and there’s no free time left. Selling things off takes a little time, borrowing brings in cash-flow and it can be paid back quickly, and it’s not like there’s no interest.” Yan Chenli’s tone was relaxed.
Hearing this, Shen Lu straightened up in his seat and stared at him nervously, “You can’t be thinking about selling your estate, right?”
“Not yet.” Yan Chenli put one hand on the steering wheel, then used his free hand to support his chin by resting it against the window, absent-mindedly looking at the rear-view mirror to check the road behind them, “I’m going to sell my island first. The Hawaiian one, or maybe the Tasmanian one.”
“………”
Shen Lu’s expression became increasingly complicated.
Not long after, the two people returned to Shen Lu’s dusty house. It was almost nightfall, and the room was lined with the distinctive warm colour of the setting sun.
“I really want to know what this place was like before with flowers everywhere.” Yan Chenli stood in front of the flower rack next to the window, he pulled open the thick beige curtains, and the bright red sunset glow immediately came pouring into the room like a tide, “You dug up weeds to grow over there in Augustus. The flowers originally in your house must have been even nicer-looking, right?”
Shen Lu nodded.
“In that big house of mine, everything from the building to the furniture was taken care of by renowned experts. Except for my violin, nothing in there was something I chose to put in.”
Yan Chenli turned his head to look at him, the corners of his eyes and the tips of his hair highlighted by the brilliant, golden glow of the setting sun. He looked at Shen Lu earnestly, just like he had over twenty years ago when he said he would wait until Shen Lu was willing to speak, and with a self-effacing insistence, he asked, “This house is precious, I really like it. Don’t sell it off, okay?”
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1 Proverb from the Guanzi, one of the longest early Chinese philosophical texts, traditionally attributed to Master Guan Zong. Top.
2 I thought oden (關東煮) was a soup but apparently the ones they sell at Lawson come fried on a stick.
Pic of the product.
Top.
3 A gaming term, someone who stresses their teammates out by constantly pointing out their mistakes, faults, etc. Idk if there’s an english equivalent, all I could think of was ‘backseating’ but that doesn’t really fit for multiplayer games. Top.
TN: Happy new year folks, here’s to a good one~
