As soon as the others left, Xu Chi suddenly felt a strange gaze land directly on his face. He turned to look, and across from their building stood another very tall structure. It was directly opposite them, also on the forty-ninth floor, with the top reaching the sixty-second floor.
But there was no one there. Nothing at all.
The gaze felt like an illusion.
Xu Chi touched his neck; it felt a little cold.
With nothing else to do, he slumped onto the sofa. He now had two things to handle: buy a new phone, and wait for Yu Sui’an to contact him.
According to the original novel, it would not be long before the people above arranged for him to leave Salt City. Yu Sui’an should contact him as soon as possible. Before that, he only had to make sure You Chumu’s existence was not discovered.
That was not difficult. As long as You Chumu did not go out, it would be fine. Even if he did go out, as long as he did not enter the high-level district, nothing would happen. After all, Xu Chi was the last person to know where You Chumu was.
He stayed at the company until six in the evening. Quite a few company members tried talking to him, and after discovering that he was easy to get along with, they relaxed a lot. The atmosphere was no longer as tense as it had been at the start.
Everyone was about to get off work on the dot, but Cheng Zhangwen deliberately made trouble and showed up right on time to drag people into overtime.
Everyone was annoyed but dared not disobey, so they had to sit back down and work overtime.
Xu Chi’s expression was blank. He went out for a moment, and when he came back a few seconds later, the entire floor lost power.
Xu Chi was surprised. “Huh? The power’s out?”
Everyone also stood up in surprise. “The power’s out? How did the power go out? Doesn’t that mean we can’t work overtime?”
“Yeah, no overtime,” Xu Chi said regretfully.
A colleague boldly said, “Then… we can only get off work?”
Xu Chi smiled. “Looks like it is fate. We can only get off work.”
Everyone secretly rejoiced and immediately started packing their bags.
As for Cheng Zhangwen, he was the first one to slip away and get off work; he had already left the company.
With the power out, getting off work did not require a fingerprint check-in, so everyone left with perfect justification.
Someone made the suggestion, and a few people headed to the night market one street away from the company to eat at a food stall.
They usually wore suits and ties, and even team-building events were held at high-end hotels. They were long tired of that and wanted night-market food, barbecue, and food stalls.
When they arrived, Xu Chi first told them to sit down, then went to the nearest mall’s phone store to buy a phone and a SIM card.
Payment did not require a bank card; he only had to enter an account and password.
After buying the phone, he posted his new phone number and Twitter account in the company group chat.
Very quickly, a bunch of people added him.
He also specifically contacted the company’s HR department, and they quickly entered his new number into the company personnel records.
Just after he arrived back at the place where everyone was with the new phone, it rang.
He stepped aside to answer it. It was a call from HR.
“Xu Chi?”
“Yes.”
“Your little brother just called the company and asked when you’d be back. Luckily you sent your new number, or else we wouldn’t have been able to reach you.”
“…”
Xu Chi was silent for a long time before asking, “Did he ask for me by name? Did he call the wrong person?”
“No, he said he was looking for his brother, Xu Chi. His voice sounded like he was only in his teens.” The woman on the other end even laughed teasingly. “Seriously, don’t you even know whether you have a little brother?”
“…Did he say anything else?”
“No.”
Hearing that, Xu Chi put on a relaxed front and forced a laugh. “Okay, got it. It’s my neighbor’s little brother. He insisted on finding me for his birthday. Fine, I’m already on my way back. Thanks.”
After hanging up, Xu Chi stood there in a daze for a few seconds before practically exploding once he understood. What had You Chumu done?! What kind of nerve did he have to call the company? This company belonged to Yu Sui’an, and Yu Sui’an wanted to kill him. Yet he still dared to call.
Wasn’t he afraid of leaving a record and getting people sent after him?!
Crazy!
Forget it. What did You Chumu know? You Chumu knew nothing. How could he know that the boss of the company Xu Chi worked for was the person who wanted to kill him?
If he knew, he would not be living with the assassin sent to kill him.
The moment Xu Chi thought of You Chumu, all of his relaxed mood vanished.
Xu Chi called the number at home.
It was answered in less than a second, as if the person had been waiting by the phone.
“Brother!” It was You Chumu.
His tone sounded a little excited.
Xu Chi paused. “What’s wrong?”
You Chumu’s voice turned dejected, sounding so innocent. “Brother, I accidentally blew up the kitchen. I didn’t mean to. I was just hungry and wanted to heat up some food.”
“…”
Xu Chi swallowed the curse that almost slipped out and asked, “And you? Are you all right?”
As soon as he said that, the other side went silent. After a long pause, You Chumu said, “Me? What do you mean by all right, brother?”
Xu Chi fell silent as well. You Chumu’s questions always made it impossible for him to answer. He glanced at the colleague chatting beside him, quickened his pace, and used his usual reassuring tone to say,
“Wait for me at home. I’ll be back right away.”
With that, he hung up, walked back to his colleagues, told everyone that something had come up at home and he had to leave, and then went.
In the rented apartment, You Chumu held the phone, staring blankly. He kept it by his ear for a long time before tossing it onto the table.
He glanced at the pitch-black kitchen, then at his own arm, which had been burned and was bleeding.
But thanks to his astonishing healing ability, the wound had already crusted over in a large patch. At this rate, in less than two hours, it would recover without even a trace of a scar.
He lay down on the sofa, and his striking gray-blue eyes looked nothing like the innocent expression he had shown Xu Chi. Instead, they were cold, devoid of any warmth.
Then he smiled. Black flame spread from the wounded area. The skin that had clearly been knitting back together instantly stopped healing, and even showed signs of expanding.
As if it were a game.
Blood dripped down drop by drop.
Xu Chi rushed home, only to find the kitchen in a miserable state, while You Chumu was pitifully wiping the living room with a cloth.
That cloth had already been dyed red with blood.
His heart nearly jumped out of his chest. He quickly went over and pulled You Chumu up. When he saw the wound on his hand, he was so frightened that he could not even speak.
In that condition, You Chumu was still wiping the floor as if he could not feel a thing?
“Why didn’t you deal with the wound first? Doesn’t it hurt?”
Even having his face slapped hurt, yet his hand had a huge burn and he seemed to feel nothing.
“Hurt?”
You Chumu asked again.
He stared at Xu Chi, watching Xu Chi lead him to the sofa to sit down, then take a medicine kit from the cabinet and apply medicine to him. His gaze was blank, but gradually a madness that was almost impossible to hide surfaced, only to be fiercely suppressed. The corners of his mouth twitched because of how hard he was forcing himself to smile.
Xu Chi noticed none of it. The moment Xu Chi looked up, You Chumu had already turned back into a pitiful expression, and in a very small voice he said,
“It hurts, brother.”