Arknights' Lock of Heaven

"Mom," she said softly as she returned home and looked at her mother, who was still working hard, "maybe... I shouldn't go to school anymore."

Her mother was stunned when she heard this, then immediately put down what she was doing and went to the girl to question her: "Did someone say something to you? Don't be afraid, Nia, tell Mom!"

"You can't skip school, you have to learn..."

“No, nobody’s gossiping,” Nia interrupted her mother, turning her head to say, “At the street corner, someone announced that every household has to pay a sum of money based on the number of people in their household, one thousand per person…”

Hearing this, her mother was stunned.

"Two thousand yuan! Mom, how much stuff will you have to sell to earn that back?" She said, stepping forward and hugging her mother with her thin frame. "Mom, I'm not going to school anymore. At least... I can scrape together the tuition..."

"no!"

Before she could finish speaking, her mother forcefully interrupted her.

You must go to school!

"But we're out of money!" The girl's voice trembled as she heard this. "Mom, don't I know how much you earn in a day? Two thousand yuan? With your current jobs, that's just a drop in the bucket!"

"Mom, I don't want you to work so hard. I'm sixteen now, and I can earn money too!"

"We have money!" Her mother took a deep breath upon hearing this, broke free from her daughter's embrace, and went into the house.

A short while later, he came out carrying a metal box.

“We have money at home,” she said, her hands trembling slightly as she opened the tin box. “Nia, you don’t need to worry!”

A large wad of cash lay quietly inside the box.

"This..." Nia was stunned when she saw this. "Where did this come from..."

"Do you remember the young man who came to our house looking for your father in April?" Nia's mother asked, a little embarrassed. "His name was Igor."

“I remember that name,” Nia’s mind went blank from the sight of the huge sum of money before her, and she instinctively replied, “He was my father’s student.”

“When you were little, your father was still alive, and he often came to our house,” the mother recalled with a happy expression. “You especially loved to play with him back then, do you remember?”

“Of course I remember… wait, this isn’t the time to talk about this,” Nia realized, “this money… ah, could it be related to him…”

“Yes, these were all given to me by that boy Igor,” Nia said, pausing for a moment. “A total of... fifty-five thousand dollars.”

"So many..." Nia was stunned when she heard this. "But I remember that Igor's family didn't have..."

“Oh, that’s why I want you to keep reading,” the mother said, pulling Nia’s hand to sit down. “Yes, his family situation is very similar to ours now.”

“His father died in the factory when he was young, and his mother raised him alone. When he was in middle school, your father saw that his only student who studied hard was always hungry, so he often brought him to our house for meals.”

"And now, he's made something of himself. He finished university in St. John's Castle while working part-time, and after further studies using his own abilities, he chose to return to his hometown. Now he's the messenger of natural disasters in Cheprini!"

“Even so, we shouldn’t have this money…” Nia instinctively began, but hesitated at the end.

She looked at her mother's graying hair, the deep wrinkles on her hands, and her increasingly hunched body, and couldn't speak.

“You’re right. Even if your father helped him, we shouldn’t explain it so easily,” the mother nodded with relief. “Then let’s just say we’ll shamelessly borrow that child’s money.”

She reached out and stroked her daughter's hair. "Consider it a loan from Igor, a total of 55,000 yuan. We'll pay it back slowly when you're able to."

“My Nia, you are so smart, no less so than Igor was when he was a child. You can definitely do it.”

Nia could only nod blankly upon hearing this.

The mother smiled with relief.

Ah, speaking of that boy Igor... I wonder how he is doing now.

She dared not show the worry in her eyes when facing her daughter.

Igor found her in April.

After learning that Victor had disappeared after becoming infected, and seeing the poverty of the mother and daughter, Igor left her five thousand yuan.

She was initially unwilling to accept it, but Igor's words moved her.

Nia needs this money.

She is still studying, and the income she earns from doing odd jobs is barely enough to support herself and her mother. What will happen when Nia graduates and goes to university?

The only solution she could think of was to sell the last thing her husband had left for her and her daughter: the house.

This home.

So, after being persuaded by Igor, she finally accepted the five thousand dollars.

I didn't tell my daughter.

Later, Igor often came to visit her, and she knew that the boy had become successful; he was a messenger of natural disasters.

This is not a profession that just anyone can do.

But after July, Igor never visited again.

Until the night of four days ago.

The child, with his mother, knocked on their own door.

He said he wanted to escape the city with his mother, and what he couldn't let go of most now was the mother and daughter left behind by his former mentor.

Igor hurriedly left her 50,000 yuan and a message before taking his mother away.

She didn't know what to do with the money; the news was just too shocking. By the time she came to her senses, the child had already run away with his mother on his back.

Now, holding her daughter in her arms, she recalls that news.

Ah, Victor, you're still alive.

That's great.

The mother and daughter were still tightly embracing each other, but the street was already in chaos.

This amount of money is really too painful for everyone.

"Who on earth caused this?" someone said indignantly. "Ceprini is an important city of the Empire! If we don't give it to them, do you think those men of the Sixth Army can just forcibly seize it?"

"And how long can they stay here? With the situation so dire at the front, can the military really allow an army to idly stay thousands of kilometers away 'suppressing bandits'?"

Seeing them like this, Raymond sighed.

Sure enough, these streets were the most stubborn.

Most of the residents here are teachers and their families, various teaching staff, and most of them have some level of education.

They're not so easily fooled.

Fortunately, I don't have to take the blame myself.

“Who else could it be?” he said to the crowd. “Of course, it’s our dear deputy mayor!”

"What? We have a deputy mayor?"

"I've never heard of that before!"

"Of course, he was quite the sensation back then... his name was... Ah what was it again?"

"I remember this person was quite nice back then, how did he turn out like this?"

While they were discussing this, at the Ciprini City Hall, Alexei was delighted to learn that he not only had a desk, but also an entire office.

He spent the whole night imagining his future.

But when he arrived at the so-called office and saw the sign hanging on the door, he trembled all over.

[Military Service Expenses Collection Office]

Looking at this sign, his blood ran cold.

He had considered countless possibilities, but this was the one he had never thought of.

Generally speaking, even if a government department sets up an office like this, it wouldn't choose such a... well, a very common name.

There's something to hide.

But now this name is openly displayed on the office door.

This is a blatant insult.

This is a simple trap.

Once he stepped into this office, he would be Lermontov's dog from then on.

A vicious dog that everyone hates.

It was clear that Lermontov had never intended to give him even the slightest bit of face.

Fifty million, and the mayor contributed ten million, so that's a total of forty million.

Once he gets through this door, he'll have to extract forty million from every corner of the city of Ciprini.

is it hard?

It's actually not difficult.

They even make a lot of money.

Ciprini wasn't poor; only the lower-level workers were poor. Those who owned factories and companies were rolling in money.

As long as you become that dog.

Power, wealth, everything.