Hole-in-the-Wall Eatery 10

As his words faded, a smile graced his face before he transformed into a flicker of light and vanished inside the car.

“He’s gone,” Sun Li said, turning to Su Man.

Su Man gave a faint hum, a slight headache brewing—he hadn’t even driven them to their destination yet.

“Do you know how to drive?” she asked Sun Li, since she herself had no clue how to handle a car.

Sun Li nodded earnestly. “It should be simple enough.”

Excited, he swung over the seat and settled into the driver’s position, imitating the actions Zhang Fushun had taken earlier to start the car.

And to their surprise, the car roared to life!

At that moment, the car horn blared Zhang Fushun’s voice: “Fushun wishes you safety and smooth travels.”

Startled, Sun Li quickly realized it was just the horn playing and scratched his head with an embarrassed smile. “This driver’s actually pretty good.”

He bent down to fiddle with the navigation system, then grinned foolishly at Su Man. “Su Man, you’re really smart. How did you know those people who got hit were all sent to the hospital? I checked the news reports too, but there was nothing written about it.”

Su Man, still worried about Sun Li’s driving skills, replied casually, “I was just making it up.”

“Huh?” Sun Li looked at her in surprise. “How could that be? But Zhang Fushun really believed you.”

“Yeah, I was just making it up. If that’s not true, then we really have to go back and ask Xiaoshan and the others for help.” Su Man didn’t want to waste time on this, but Sun Li was eager to hear more.

“Come on, tell me, Su Man. If you don’t tell me, I won’t be able to focus on driving. Everyone says I’m dumb—if I can’t figure something out, I just can’t think about anything else.”

It wasn’t a secret, so to save time, Su Man gave him a brief explanation.

“What he really wanted was just a clean slate. It didn’t matter who gave it to him.”

“Those illusions in the dream, even those that appeared in the newspaper here, were probably manifestations of his subconscious. He just couldn’t forgive himself. He needed someone to help him do that, nothing more.”

In other words, what Zhang Fushun truly needed wasn’t the truth, but forgiveness.

Perhaps long ago he did need the truth, but he had been dead for so long that the truth no longer mattered.

She added softly, “That’s just my guess. The actual truth doesn’t really matter. As long as the outcome is good, that’s enough.”

“If a lie can bring everyone peace, then that is the truth.”

After she finished, there was silence. Su Man looked at Sun Li and saw his eyes shining brightly, filled with admiration.

“Su Man, even though I didn’t understand a word you said, I still think you’re amazing.”

“…Alright. Can we start driving now?”

The navigation finally worked smoothly. Sun Li slammed the accelerator, and the car surged forward. Su Man silently gripped the safety handle by the door, her lips pressed tightly together.

She knew nothing about cars and believed Sun Li didn’t either before, but now he was like a racing god on the mountain roads—drifting, tail-sliding, accelerating wildly. Despite the surrounding gray mist, she felt as if it took shape under such speed.

Watching the excited Sun Li behind the wheel, she closed her eyes and silently prayed. Luckily, she had a resurrection card. As for Sun Li… he’d have to take responsibility for his own driving.

Though Sun Li drove recklessly, they didn’t encounter any accidents. Suddenly, he slammed on the brakes and turned to Su Man, thrilled.

“Su Man, we’re here! Driving is awesome—I want to be a driver from now on!”

Usually, Su Man might have offered some perfunctory encouragement, but the car’s jolts had made her queasy. She steadied herself on the door and said coolly, “Don’t. It’s better for everyone if you don’t. There are plenty of drivers—let someone else have the job.”

Sun Li seemed oblivious to her meaning and remained excited. “It’s okay, I’m not taking their jobs. I want to be your driver—I like driving you anywhere you want to go!”

“…Thanks, Driver Knight.”

Perhaps because the car was her property, she could store it in her backpack slot, which was very convenient.

The two stood at the factory gate. No more than two seconds passed before the door opened and someone stepped out.

Seeing the figure, Su Man immediately understood that Xiaoshan’s “pig head” wasn’t an insult—it was literal. The man truly had a pig’s head on a human body.

The pig-headed man looked at her arrogantly, eyes slanting with disdain.

“Who are you? Don’t you know we have VIPs visiting the factory? We don’t entertain outsiders now.”

Su Man said nothing, only glanced at Sun Li.

Sun Li, as if catching her meaning, set his jaw and charged at the pig-headed man with two heavy fists, striking him fiercely. Soon the air was filled with a scream like a pig being slaughtered.

“What VIP? What VIP is more important than Su Man?” Sun Li ignored everything else. In his heart, no VIP or important person was more impressive than Su Man. Anyone who saw her should worship her just as he did.

“You! Do you even know who I am?” The pig-headed man was stunned. No one dared to fight him openly at their factory, but facing the fierce duo of Su Man and Sun Li, his arrogance crumbled. Holding his aching head, he stammered, “You… you can’t do this.”

Su Man gave a brief hum and pulled out some loose coins from her backpack—about ten tokens—and tossed them into the pig-headed man’s arms.

“Now can we talk properly? I’m curious about this VIP you mentioned. Care to tell me about it?”

The pig-headed man glanced around before swiftly gathering the coins into his pocket. His attitude shifted completely, the corners of his eyes crinkling in a smile.

“Of course, of course! But this isn’t the place to talk. Come inside the factory—my office is where we can sit and talk.”

Su Man’s carrot-and-stick approach completely won him over. He looked at them like long-lost brothers and rambled on, eager to share his ten years of toil at the factory.

Su Man had no interest in fraternizing, so Sun Li bore it all. He endured the pig-headed man’s endless chatter, patting his shoulder or back now and then, fists already clenched.

When the pig-headed man went to open the office door, Sun Li hurried to Su Man and complained, “Can I hit him? Why are we giving him tokens? Su Man, let’s just go inside, beat him up, take his money, and leave. I don’t want to be with him anymore—he keeps touching me.”