Chapter 63: Epilogue: The Dust Settles, Virtue and Vice Find Their Just Rewards

Under the influence of the truth serum, the confessions made by Mrs. Jia were recorded word for word. Her testimony was damningly detailed, ranging from petty squabbles spanning decades to recent burglaries, an endless list of unpardonable crimes. When she regained her sobriety and realized what she had confessed to, she rolled her eyes back and suffered a stroke on the spot, her mouth twisted, eyes slanted, and body paralyzed on one side.

However, the law does not spare the guilty simply because they fall ill.

In the end, based on conclusive evidence and her own confession, the court sentenced her for the crimes of "inciting a minor to commit a crime" and "attempted burglary." Combining her offenses, she was sentenced to five years in prison. Considering she was bedridden and unable to care for herself, the court granted her a sentence suspension to be served outside prison, with her daughter-in-law, Qin Huairou, appointed as her legal custodian.

As for棒梗 (Stick), being a minor and his crime having been attempted rather than completed, he was sent to a juvenile reformatory for a three-year term of labor reform.

This news struck the Rolling Mill and the quadrangle courtyard like a blockbuster bomb.

When police officers from the station used an old, dilapidated tricycle to deliver the paralyzed Mrs. Jia—drooling from the corner of her mouth—back to the courtyard, the entire neighborhood came out to watch.

She was carried into her dilapidated home like a breathing corpse and dumped onto the cold, earthen kang bed.

Qin Huairou received the notice and rushed back from the boiler room. Looking at the crooked-mouthed, incoherent old hag on the bed, she wore not a shred of expression.

Once, this old woman was a towering mountain pressing down upon her, the root of all her misery. Now, that mountain had collapsed, turning into a morass of muck that she alone had to clean up—a mess that could never truly be cleaned.

From this day forward, by day she would shovel slag and clean toilets in the dirtiest, foulest boiler room in the whole factory; by night, she would return home to tend to this bedridden old wretch who required assistance with every basic human function.

This was to be her remaining life.

An agony far more lingering than death.

The residents in the courtyard looked on at this scene, sighing with emotion.

"Retribution! This is truly supreme retribution!"

"Who's to say otherwise? How majestic she used to be back then, and now—hmph, serves her right!"

"The pitiful always have something hateful about them. The old saying is right on the mark."

Yi 中海 (Yi 中海) stood behind the crowd, staring at the tightly shut door of the Jia family, and let out a long sigh. He knew that an old era in this courtyard had finally come to an end. As for himself, once the First Grand Uncle, he had thoroughly become a thing of the past. There would only be one future pillar of strength for this courtyard, and that was Chen Mo.

He walked up to the door of Chen Mo's home, hesitated for a long time, and finally knocked.

Chen Mo opened the door and looked at him.

"Doctor Chen..." Yi Zhonghai's waist bent involuntarily, "In the past, I was muddle-headed. I'm sorry."

This was his belated, yet heartfelt apology.

Chen Mo looked at him for a long while before saying flatly, "Come in and sit."

On this day, everyone in the quadrangle who had ever crossed Chen Mo or offended him seemed to have coordinated in advance, lining up at his doorstep to apologize.

The stingy Yan Fugui brought a basket of eggs.

The power-hungry Liu Haichong brought two bottles of fine wine.

Even Xu Damao, his former mortal enemy, had someone deliver an old hen while not daring to show his own face.

Chen Mo neither turned them away at the door nor deliberately made things difficult for them. He did not accept their gifts, but he accepted their attitude. He was no saint and could not wipe away past grievances with a smile, but he understood the principle that crystal-clear water breeds no fish. Once the Jia family, the greatest malignant tumor, had been excised, the remaining folks were merely opportunistic weather vanes doing no real harm. As long as they stopped making trouble, Chen Mo couldn't be bothered to quibble with them.

After undergoing a thorough reshuffling, this large compound—once rife with scheming, infighting, and jealousy—ushered in an unprecedented, uncanny harmony.

***

Three days after the incident at the Jia family,傻柱 (Sha Zhu) made a decision.

He sold his small room.

Then, he rented a small storefront on a short street not far from the factory district and opened a small restaurant.

Without any fanfare or grand publicity, he simply named it "Sha Zhu's Private Kitchen."

On opening day, Chen Mo and Lin Wanqing sent a flower basket.

Wearing an apron, Sha Zhu greeted them with a glowing, radiant face, utterly devoid of his former decadence and gloom. Looking at Chen Mo, he grinned, revealing a row of white teeth.

"Doctor Chen, whenever you want to eat, come to my place! It's on the house!"

"That won't do; even close brothers must settle accounts clearly," Chen Mo said with a smile. "With culinary skills like yours, I can't eat for free."

Fatty and other cafeteria colleagues also came to show their support. Everyone sat together and enjoyed a lively, bustling meal. Sha Zhu's culinary skills were unquestionable. Soon, his little restaurant carved out a reputation in the neighborhood for its authentic flavors and generous ingredients.

Later on, Fatty mentioned that Sha Zhu had been introduced to a down-to-earth, sensible young woman who also worked in the catering industry. The two hit it off famously, and before long, they were married.

The man who had wasted half his life chasing an unworthy woman and living like a joke had finally found his own solid, grounded slice of mortal warmth.

***

Time flew by in the blink of an eye.

Two years later.

In the highest-ranking cadre hospital in the capital, an unprecedented surgery was underway.

A veteran hero who had made outstanding contributions to the country was in critical condition due to a sudden cerebral hemorrhage. All the Western medicine experts in the capital were at their wits' end, declaring with absolute certainty that there was zero chance of survival.

Just as everyone was about to give up, one man stepped forward.

That man was Chen Mo.

By this time, Chen Mo was long past being a mere clinic doctor at the rolling mill. His god-tier medical skills had already spread far and wide through one astonishing, miraculous treatment after another. He was now a specially appointed national health expert, specifically responsible for providing medical care to the highest echelons of leadership.

For this surgery, he adopted an unfathomable approach.

The integration of Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine.

First, he used a miraculous set of acupuncture techniques to stabilize the old hero's vital signs. Then, amidst the horrified gazes of all the Western medicine specialists, he personally picked up the scalpel, performing a craniotomy with a degree of precision and stability that transcended modern medical theory, clearing the intracranial hematoma.

As the surgery concluded and the faint, weak line on the electrocardiogram monitor surged back to vibrant strength, the entire operating room erupted into thunderous applause.

Everyone looked with god-like reverence at the young man who had removed his surgical mask, bearing a hint of fatigue on his face yet remaining utterly calm and composed.

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for completing the ultimate mission: Becoming a supreme sage of traditional medicine, achieving both fame and fortune!]

[The ultimate reward, "Resurrecting the Dead and Regrowing Flesh," has been issued! The host's medical skills have reached the pinnacle of this world, capable of reversing life and death and reshaping physical forms!]

[The Divine Physician Retribution System is about to enter hibernation mode. Thank you for using the system, Host. May you never forget your original aspiration, heal the world through medicine, and draw a clear line between good and evil.]

In his mind, the system's mechanical voice rang out one last time before fading into absolute silence.

Chen Mo looked up and glanced out the operating room window at the expanse of azure sky.

He knew that the legend belonging to him had only just begun.

***

Another five years later.

The quadrangle courtyard filled with so many stories was about to face demolition.

Chen Mo and Lin Wanqing returned to the place they once called home, accompanied by their young son who could now run around freely.

Inside the courtyard, things had long since changed, and the people were no longer the same.

Liu Haichong had gotten into a heavy-drinking bet out of stubborn pride a couple of years prior, ruining his health. Now frail and sickly, he could no longer put on airs of authority.

Yan Fugui remained the same old abacus-wizard, haggling with the neighborhood committee representatives over whether the demolition compensation would yield one square meter more or less.

Xu Damao had been reported for misconduct and expelled from the factory long ago; his wife had divorced him, and his current whereabouts were unknown.

Walking through the middle courtyard, they saw that the Jia family's door remained tightly shut.

Word had it that three years after being paralyzed, Mrs. Jia had died quietly on a winter night. As for Qin Huairou, after paying off all her debts and fines to the factory, she left with her two daughters, abandoning the place that had ruined her reputation, never to return.

Some said that in a small southern town, a haggard, withered middle-aged woman could be seen washing sand at a construction site. Whether or not it was her remained unknown.

Good and evil will ultimately meet their retribution; the mortal world's true path is one of vicissitudes.

"Daddy, Mommy, did you used to live here? It's so run-down," asked the little boy with his hair tied in upright tufts, speaking in a cute, milky voice.

Lin Wanqing crouched down, stroked her son's head, and smiled. "That's right. As run-down as this place is, a lot of stories happened here, you know."

Chen Mo took her hand and looked into the distance at the rows of new-style apartment buildings rising against the setting sun, a gentle smile blooming on his face.

All those sordid, filthy pasts filled with scheming and strife would be leveled and buried along with this old courtyard, ultimately vanishing into the dust of history.

As for him and his family, they would stride toward a brand-new era, heading into a future that was brighter and far more blissful.