Liu Jinting’s life might not have been considered extremely wealthy, but it could still be called well-off.
Here Ye Qingning was, sitting indoors, enjoying ice cream and all kinds of fruit while a fan blew cool air over her.
“At the rate you eat, sooner or later you’ll bankrupt me.”
Although Liu Jinting said this, there was a smile in his eyes. Ye Qingning suddenly had a guess. “You didn’t end up looking so miserable because you were worried about me, did you?”
Liu Jinting didn’t answer. He tapped her lightly with the folding fan in his hand. “Just eat.”
Ye Qingning felt she had guessed correctly. She hadn’t expected herself to be so likable.
Sunlight streamed in through the window. A little girl in a floral dress sat on a bamboo chair, swinging her legs as she ate grapes.
On the lounge chair beside her, a long-haired man lay back with a folding fan in hand, eyes closed as he rested. The chair gently rocked with his occasional small movements.
The scene was tranquil, making one reluctant to disturb it.
At some point, the chair stopped rocking. The man lying on it had fallen into a deep sleep.
When he woke up, Ye Qingning was already gone. Only a note remained, with crooked handwriting: I’ll come again another day to cool off.
“Heh, such an independent little one.”
As for Ye Qingning, she had already followed the marks from earlier in the day and found the military police.
“Tsk, what a life of indulgence.”
Instead of sleeping at night, they frequented the entertainment district, indulging in wine and pleasure.
Unfortunately, she was too short, and the guards wouldn’t let her in. Otherwise, she would have liked to go inside, listen to some tunes, and have a drink.
She decided to wait at the military police barracks instead.
There were quite a few people in the dormitory. She would start with a warm-up.
“Ah—@￥#—ah—!”
With Ye Qingning’s dagger flashing, silence returned. “One.”
She hated it when people spoke gibberish in front of her.
As one military policeman after another fell, more and more came rushing over.
Looking at the dozen or so soldiers pointing pistols at her, Ye Qingning’s lips curled upward. She would have to use her ability.
She had originally wanted to warm up a bit longer.
Spatial confinement.
The dozen soldiers pulled their triggers, but the bullets dropped to the ground midair. Panic spread instantly, yet they stubbornly kept firing at Ye Qingning.
By the time they ran out of bullets, two of them had even wet themselves.
“Seriously, no manners at all. But a second-level ability works much better than the first.”
Seeing Ye Qingning smiling at them while moving her lips, the soldiers felt an unprecedented terror.
They thought they had encountered a vengeful ghost.
“Someone, hurry! Help! Help!”
They shouted for a long time, but no one came.
Ye Qingning couldn’t understand what they were saying and didn’t want to. She was wondering whether tossing the corpses into her space could be used as fertilizer—she had accidentally stepped on one just now, which annoyed her.
She threw the corpse at her feet into the grassy area of her space. One second, two seconds… hmm? It disappeared. Had it been treated as trash?
“She eats people…”
“Swallows them in one bite…”
“I don’t want to die!”
“Someone, come quickly!”
“Captain Nojima, save us!”
“What are you doing? Why are you flailing around like that?”
“Haha, you two actually wet yourselves?”
“Can we go out now? Bang—”
“Why still not?!”
“What’s going on?”
If Ye Qingning had understood them, she would have told them she had simply expanded the range.
By isolating the air, in less than ten minutes, the entire group disappeared into the space.
She noticed that a branch on the large tree beside the thatched hut had sprouted a bud. It seemed the bodies could indeed be used as fertilizer.
Not bad, not bad.
And after more than ten minutes, the consumption of her ability wasn’t that great. At first level, she would have already been exhausted.
Ye Qingning walked into the room at the far end and began collecting spoils.
Gold bars, smaller gold bars, gold and silver jewelry, silver dollars… there was everything. Each of them was quite wealthy.
Since obtaining her space, she hadn’t slowly handled physical items like this before. It felt rather nice.
By the time she finished looting the entire barracks, the soldiers who had been out enjoying themselves returned.
Unfortunately for them, she was sitting in their dormitory, leisurely gnawing on a bright red apple.
As soon as Noda returned, he saw blood everywhere but no comrades. His drunkenness instantly vanished. Even the summer breeze made him feel a chill. He gripped his pistol tightly, on guard.
The two who returned with him did the same.
They quickly spotted Ye Qingning—a bright and pretty little girl leisurely eating an apple. Only the core remained, so she had clearly been there for quite some time.
Years of being soldiers told him she was extremely dangerous.
“Kill her!”
Before the other two could react, Noda immediately fired at Ye Qingning.
But her movements were too fast. He couldn’t even see how she moved as she easily dodged the bullet.
“Bakayarou—”
Ye Qingning tossed the apple into her space and drove her blade into the forehead of the soldier who shouted.
It was about time for her to rest anyway.
She swiftly dealt with the returning soldiers, leaving behind a barracks drenched in blood, and then departed leisurely.
“Have you heard? Last night, the Japanese military police were all…”
“Dead?”
“Gone.”
“What do you mean?”
“The entire dormitory area was just covered in blood. Not a single living person—or even a corpse—was left.”
“How big of a commotion would that be? We didn’t hear anything last night.”
“Exactly. Who do you think did it?”
“Could a person really be that elusive?”
“Maybe a large animal? But that doesn’t make sense either.”
“Anyway, it’s great news. That Sergeant Nojima robbed my family not long ago. Serves him right to die!”
“There hasn’t been much good news lately.”
“Didn’t we hear before that the Eighth Route Army disrupted the enemy’s transport lines in North China?”
“I’m talking about the Nationalist forces.”
“Sigh…”
“At least we can still see a bit of hope.”
Ye Qingning picked up a piece of beef with her chopsticks, listening to the idle chatter in the restaurant.
She had ordered a full table of dishes for herself—stir-fried rice noodles with beef, sweet-and-sour pan-fried ribbonfish, scallops with scrambled eggs, and tofu soup.
At this hour, only wealthy people would be dining in a restaurant.
And she, Ye Qingning, was now a wealthy person too.
As for people saying they didn’t know who killed the Japanese military police—should she leave behind a resounding name?
She definitely couldn’t use her real name. Otherwise, before she even found the Ye family, the Japanese might wipe them out.
How about Lemon?
That sounded pretty good.
Sour enough to torment those who hated her but couldn’t harm her.
But just “Lemon” sounded like a single person. Better call it the Lemon Society! After all, there were countless “societies” these days.
She really was a genius!
And just like that, Ye Qingning threw Shanghai City’s Japanese into panic. At the mere mention of Lemon, they trembled.
The name of the Lemon Society spread far and wide.
Even the troops that had originally planned to sweep villages quieted down.
During the day, when she had nothing to do, Ye Qingning still liked going to Liu Jinting’s shop to cool off. There was a good-looking person, good tea and water served, and it was quiet—who wouldn’t like that?
On this day, the sun rose early again, and the heat waves were scorching. Before Ye Qingning had gone far, most of her clothes were already damp with sweat.
Not far ahead, she saw a dense crowd, lively and bustling. Curious, Ye Qingning squeezed into the flow of people.
Suddenly, she felt someone lift her up.