Seeing her return, the hardware store boss led her to the small warehouse in the back to unload the goods, then went back to the store to settle the bill.
Bai Bai pocketed the 60-yuan errand fee for this trip, politely thanked him, and left.
Wasn’t the bit of rent money she had repurposed earlier to buy rain gear just earned back like this?
Returning to the street, Bai Bai had no intention of wandering around anymore. She headed straight home; walking back would still take over an hour, so the earlier she went back, the earlier she could rest.
Walking all the way back, she felt both tired and thirsty, but Bai Bai persisted without drinking any water, deliberately maintaining a fatigued and water-deprived image.
Too many good things had happened today; if she didn’t disguise herself a little, she was afraid anyone could tell she was in a great mood today.
How could she let that happen?
Just as she was about to return to her neighborhood, Bai Bai was stopped once again by road administration workers who were paving the road.
Unlike yesterday, today’s group of road workers consisted of strength-type ability users paired with ordinary people.
The ordinary people shoveled dirt into the potholes, while the strength-type awakened users each held a tamper and pounded it into the holes.
Bai Bai immediately copied this ability, almost laughing out loud.
Today’s roadblock was quite large, taking up half the road surface. Coupled with the space needed for construction, the entire section of road was occupied, and pedestrians who lacked the patience to wait long simply detoured around the edge of the alien vegetation thicket.
Bai Bai moved along with the crowd.
Everyone dared to be so bold because the neighborhood was not far ahead, belonging to the outer edge of the safe zone with low danger. In the wilderness, no one would dare to mess around like this.
At noon, Bai Bai ate lunch inside the alien vegetation thicket precisely because she was relying on being close to the neighborhood.
Walking into the small street where her apartment building was located, Bai Bai discovered that a few idle ordinary members of the “All-Knowing” gang were actually squatting at the intersection.
Looking thoroughly depressed and down on their luck, Bai Bai had no desire to get involved with them. Taking advantage of the fact that they hadn’t noticed her, she quickly pressed close to the wall on the opposite side of the street and walked away fast.
The original owner had withdrawn early and had no enmity with ordinary members who were essentially exploited laborers.
Bai Bai could understand this, and she felt she had no enmity with them either.
That didn’t mean the other party thought the same way.
The “All-Knowing” gang was finished; who knew if some eccentric among these jobless ordinary members considered everything to be her fault?
Better hurry up and hide far away.
Walking into the neighborhood gate, she didn’t see that little brat playing nearby, so Bai Bai hurried home.
She really did return quite early; the normally bustling public water faucet area was completely deserted.
Bai Bai first went to use the public restroom, and while washing her hands upon coming out, she suddenly heard strange footsteps.
It sounded like someone was suppressing their footsteps and approaching quietly.
Maintaining her hand-washing posture, Bai Bai tried to project her spiritual power outward.
She didn’t understand the local awakened users’ ability rules; she only possessed a traveler’s sense of entitlement—what kind of spiritual power is it if it cannot be projected outward?
And this intangible spiritual power, under her deliberate control, really did spread out like a giant net.
Then, she caught a big fish in her net.
A male figure materialized in her mind, approaching stealthily, holding a shining, long strip-like object in his right hand.
Bai Bai didn’t dare to gamble on whether that was a knife or not. Calculating the distance between him and her, she stepped sideways just in time to avoid it.
“Ah!”
The moment she dodged, that man rushed over with his arm raised high.
Naturally, he lunged into empty space, crashing directly against the edge of the water sink and producing a harsh metallic scraping sound.
Bai Bai turned her head to look, and that man was indeed gripping a knife in his hand.
The scraping sound just now was precisely the sound of the blade rubbing against the sink.
Without wasting words, Bai Bai stepped forward in two strides. The strength ability she had just acquired was infused into her legs, and like kicking a ball powerfully, she swung her right leg back, kept it close to the lower edge of the sink, and kicked fiercely with her instep toward the other man’s stomach.
“Ah!”
That forceful kick sent the man flying into the air before crashing down onto the ground.
That knife also slipped from his hand.
Bai Bai quickly stepped on it, kicked it further away, and then picked it up to store in her spatial inventory.
Turning back to look at the man, his eyes were tightly closed, and he had already passed out.
Fearing he might be playing dead, Bai Bai felt uneasy and used her projected spiritual power to probe again. His spiritual energy was weak with no response; he was indeed knocked out.
She didn’t touch him again, nor did she even lift his clothes to check his injuries. Posing as a kind person, Bai Bai ran out of the building to call for help.
“Come quick! Someone has fainted here!”
Her shout actually managed to summon a few neighbors who were at home. Everyone bustled together to carry the man out to the roadside and left him lying directly under the sun.
“Whose guy is this? Is he from our building?”
“Never seen him. Did he just move in?”
“No way? I haven’t heard of anyone moving into our building.”
“Could he be a rabid dog?”
“Damn it! Run, run, run! Don’t touch him, don’t touch him!”
The crowd scattered in an instant, and Bai Bai took the opportunity to go upstairs and home.
The man lay unconscious on the roadside. Coming-and-going residents at most cast curious glances, but no one had the leisure to stop and show concern.
Gossip was fine, but a troublesome matter like this that was obviously trouble—no one wanted to touch it.
Even the neighborhood administrator, who was busy screening for rabid dogs, merely passed by treating him as a drunk who had consumed fake liquor, and didn’t spare him another look.
The man lay there until he woke up on his own. When he opened his eyes, he was still a bit unable to remember what had happened.
When he finally remembered and wanted to leap to his feet, he discovered he couldn’t get up at all.
Any movement caused a sharp pain in his right rib cage.
With great difficulty, he hooked his neck, lifted his shirt, and took a look: a terrifying swath of purplish-blue covered his right ribs.
“Save… save me… save me…”
Seeing this patch of injury, his memories came rushing back. Overwhelmed with shock and terror, he repeatedly cried for help, but his breath was short, unable to shout out loud. He was left with no tears left to cry.
The “All-Knowing” gang was ruined, and there had been no work all day today. The root cause of all this was that bitch Bai Bai! Why did she have to ruin their “All-Knowing” gang? It was all her fault!
Unable to swallow this anger, he had deliberately kept watch for half a day, just wanting to teach her a lesson at the first possible moment.
Never did he expect…
Clutching his painful right ribs, every breath he took was accompanied by a piercing pain so sharp it made him lose his voice.
He was going to die, he was truly going to die…
With these thoughts repeating, the man gradually lost consciousness.
When the busy administrator returned and saw this person still lying by the roadside, he walked over and patted him on the shoulder.
A single tap revealed that something was wrong.
The person was already cold.
Lifting his shirt, the injury on the right ribs made even the administrator, who was accustomed to brawls and fights, gasp in a breath of cold air.
The right rib area was a delicate spot; it was either a fractured rib puncturing an internal organ, or a ruptured liver.
Either could be the cause of death.
Internally, the administrator made a simple judgment and began going through the procedures.
Investigate what? There was no need. In fights and brawls, if a few people didn’t die any given day, it would hardly count as a rare day of peace.
He called a third party to collect the body and incidentally collected fingerprints to match against resident info in the computer. Discovering that it was a four-person shared rental, he filled out a lease notification form, went upstairs to knock on the door, and finding no response, pasted the slip right onto the door.
Putting aside how chaotic it would be when the three roommates returning to this apartment saw the notice slip, let’s talk about Bai Bai: at this moment, she had finally finished assembling the shelving at home.