Lin Zhuo quietly waited for the system’s reply, with only a burst of electric current flowing through his mind.
A minute later, the cold electronic voice sounded: [The permission level is too high, the system cannot answer.]
Lin Zhuo felt that this system was a half-baked amateur, knowing nothing when asked.
Aside from being able to bicker with him, he couldn’t think of any other use for this system.
Remembering the scene of Fu Baizhou killing him, Lin Zhuo ultimately decided not to proactively court disaster.
In case it ended up just like last time, wouldn’t he have to die all over again?
He was completely unfamiliar with this world, thinking that places with more people should be safer, so he headed toward the shopping mall.
Although it was drizzling, there were quite a few people inside the mall.
Lin Zhuo sat on a bench, looking at the passersby. They seemed to look identical to the people in the real world.
Perhaps due to his nerves being strained for a long time, drowsiness surprisingly crept up on him in the warmly heated indoor space.
Just as he was about to lie down, a little girl of around four or five years old stood in front of him, her dark, round eyes blinking unblinkingly as she looked at him.
The two of them looked at each other, neither speaking first.
Suddenly, the little girl broke into a smile and pulled out a strawberry-flavored lollipop, handing it to him.
“For the pretty older brother.”
Lin Zhuo was stunned for a few seconds; before he could even utter a single “thank you,” the little girl had already walked far away.
The lollipop in his hand felt quite heavy, and Lin Zhuo’s heart suddenly grew heavy.
After sitting for a while, he stood up and walked toward the mall entrance.
The alley remained dark, cold, and damp. Lin Zhuo kept his head down all the way, tightly clutching the lollipop the little girl had given him.
To him, this world wasn’t real, but would the people living in this world feel that way?
The rain was falling heavily, and his clothes quickly soaked through, clinging to his skin as the chill seeped into his bones.
With the fear of being killed still vivid in his mind, he walked extremely slowly this time.
[Host, you really can’t be willful anymore!]
Seeing Lin Zhuo walk toward the alley, the system thought he was going to make a move again, and cried as it pleaded with him.
It had never handled such a difficult host before.
Of course, this was its first time on the job.
If it were a gold-medal system encountering such an impervious host who only talked about fighting and killing, it would have long since erased him and found another one.
“Shut up.” Lin Zhuo’s mood was very complicated, and with the system making a racket, his head ached.
Turning the corner into the dead-end alley, Lin Zhuo saw the familiar person in the familiar spot.
Fortunately, there was no corpse-jumping this time.
He only saw the red blood flowing from the man’s abdomen being washed away by the rain, gushing straight into the sewer.
Lin Zhuo took two steps toward Fu Baizhou and stopped at a distance of three meters away.
Fu Baizhou lay on the ground on the verge of death, rain covering his cheeks.
Lin Zhuo squatted down, seeing his faintly rising and falling chest.
Likely due to difficulty breathing, his mouth was slightly open, and the weak breathing sound was almost inaudible in the rain.
Lin Zhuo’s gaze fell on Fu Baizhou’s abdomen.
“Do you have a needle and thread?”
He was currently penniless and had no money to buy the materials needed to suture the wound.
If the system refused to provide them, then Fu Baizhou dying from excessive blood loss would have nothing to do with him at all.
[Host, what are you going to do?] The system immediately raised a question.
You can’t blame it for being paranoid; it was because Lin Zhuo didn’t play by the rules.
Lin Zhuo took it for granted, “Sew up his wound, of course. You want to just leave him like this? Even a blood bank couldn’t sustain that.”
[Host, according to your profile data, you have never studied any first-aid measures.]
Lin Zhuo chuckled and said, “It’s fine, if he dies we can just start over next time.”
Besides, Fu Baizhou’s vitality was much more tenacious than they imagined. He was just afraid that it would be too bloody when suturing, and his hands might shake.
So instead of finishing him off with one strike, you chose to torture him, huh?
A first-aid box appeared out of thin air, and Lin Zhuo opened it to take a look, and everything that should be there was present.
Staring at the man’s pale lips, Lin Zhuo took out the lollipop from his pocket, tore open the packaging, and placed it in his mouth.
“Give me a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, and block the rain for us too. I’m going to clean his wound.” He needed to smoke to calm his nerves.
The system obediently followed instructions.
The raindrops falling on him vanished, and Lin Zhuo nodded quite satisfied, saying, “Your system is still somewhat useful.”
He took out a cigarette, lit it, took a puff, and just as he was about to start operating, the system hurriedly said: [Host, this is the operational process for treating a wound. Take a look and follow along.]
After three failures, Lin Zhuo basically believed what the system said.
He hummed in acknowledgement and proceeded with the treatment according to the video.
Half an hour later.
Lin Zhuo wiped the sweat from his forehead, cut off the excess thread, and sat aside panting.
So tiring.
Lin Zhuo looked at the man lying beside him like a dead pig, feeling very strange inside.
With movements this rough, the man hadn’t even frowned once.
“Damn it, he’s not dead, is he?” He had worked hard for half an hour only for it to be rendered void in the end; there was truly zero sense of achievement.
[No, the host doesn’t need to worry.]
“What do we do now then? We don’t even have a place to stay. And you’re so inconsiderate, you didn’t even give me the identity of a rich second-generation heir.” If the system had arranged a decent identity for him, he wouldn’t have had to be so extreme, and at the end of the day, it was the system’s fault.
[The system just contacted someone, and they will come pick you two up in about twenty minutes.]
Lin Zhuo frowned and vigilantly asked, “Is it reliable? I don’t want to die not knowing what hit me.”
The system chuckled: [It’s okay, if you die you can just start over from scratch.]
Lin Zhuo tilted his head, “When did you become so punchable?”
[Learned it from the host.]
Twenty minutes later, the sudden sound of footsteps made Lin Zhuo perk up.
Soon, several people entered his field of vision.
Leading them was a woman, followed by three tall men in black suits.
The woman wore a white shirt paired with a black suit jacket.
A head of seaweed-like hair cascaded down her back, with a high nose and large eyes, wearing red lipstick, presenting a simple and capable outfit.
One of the men held an umbrella for her, and she took the umbrella handle, walked straight up to Lin Zhuo, and tilted the umbrella toward him.
Her gaze fell on Lin Zhuo’s blood-stained hands and clothes, yet her expression remained calm.
Lin Zhuo knew he looked very disheveled at the moment, though just how disheveled, he had no way of knowing.
The woman’s red lips parted slightly, “Hello, Lin Zhuo. My name is An Wan; you can call me Auntie.”
She spoke very gently, like a loving elder.
An Wan looked to be only about thirty, or perhaps she was well-maintained, as the traces of time were basically invisible on her.
Lin Zhuo locked eyes with An Wan, seeing not the slightest trace of deception in her eyes.
Years of life habits made him very cautious of the unknown, and based solely on the woman’s unilateral words, he couldn’t feel at ease.
“System, give me an introduction.”
Soon, the information of several people was clearly laid out before Lin Zhuo.
An Wan, thirty-two years old, listed group CEO, worth over a hundred million, decisive and ruthless in her methods, and extremely protective of her own.
Upon asking, Lin Zhuo found out that the system had controlled brainwaves to modify An Wan’s memory, making her mistakenly believe that Lin Zhuo was her long-lost nephew.
Confirming there was no danger, Lin Zhuo then addressed An Wan: “Auntie.”
An Wan acknowledged it, then immediately had the bodyguards place Fu Baizhou onto a stretcher.