When Su Su tried to turn around to look at him, the gun pressed against her waist moved slightly.
Xie Anzhou’s distinctive voice sounded again.
“This isn’t a place you should be.”
“I…”
Su Su was about to say something, but after uttering just one word, she stopped.
After thinking for a few moments, she finally said,
“I… got lost…”
Xie Anzhou let out a cold scoff and said nothing more.
Just when Su Su thought he would not speak again, a faint, chilling voice reached her ears.
“…Who are you trying to fool?”
Xie Anzhou put away his gun.
Only then did Su Su turn around to look at him and meet his displeased expression, as if he were thinking, Do I look that easy to fool?
If anyone else saw that gloomy and chilling expression, they would probably be scared to death.
But Su Su would not.
Su Su took two strawberry gummies from her pocket and handed them to Xie Anzhou.
They were the same flavor as the pink candy Xie Anzhou had taken that day.
Xie Anzhou wore a military cap. Beneath the brim, his silver-gray eyes stared straight at Su Su.
After a moment, he pointed at the insignia on his shoulder, which represented his rank as a general.
“Bribing military personnel will get you arrested.”
Looking at those cold silver-gray eyes, Su Su pinched the hem of her clothes and asked,
“Then are you going to arrest me?”
Their eyes met.
Xie Anzhou turned around.
“Come this way.”
“…Where?”
“Out.”
Xie Anzhou had very long legs. Because of their difference in height, every step he took required Su Su to take two steps just to keep up with him.
There was none of the astonishing speed he displayed in battle, when he moved so quickly that only afterimages could be seen.
Su Su followed closely behind Xie Anzhou, taking one step after another.
It was only when she accidentally bumped into his back that she realized he had already led her far away from the base prison.
“…General… General Xie…”
A military officer approached from a distance.
His uniform was much simpler than Xie Anzhou’s, without the elaborate patterns, decorations, and ribbons.
He ran up to Xie Anzhou and whispered a few words to him.
Xie Anzhou nodded, then glanced at Su Su and gestured for the man to wait.
The military boots made faint sounds against the ground as Xie Anzhou walked over to Su Su.
Su Su looked at Xie Anzhou. Her moist eyes seemed to be filled with stars, carrying emotions he could not understand.
“You’re not going to arrest me anymore?”
Xie Anzhou squeezed the strawberry gummy in his palm. His usually expressionless face remained impossible to read.
“Don’t bribe military personnel again.”
“I wasn’t bribing you. I just wanted to give you something to eat.”
Xie Anzhou said nothing.
His silver-gray eyes continued to look at Su Su for a moment before he turned around and left with the man who had been waiting nearby.
Su Su touched her nose.
The sun had already risen. Its light fell across her face, warm but not glaring.
On the way back, there were many more people than when she had come. Vendors had also begun setting up along the streets.
Smelling the delicious aroma of food in the air, Su Su suddenly felt tempted to eat.
It was craving rather than hunger. Even if she went without food for a long time, it would not cause her any problems.
She touched her pocket.
It was completely empty.
Just as she was about to give up and return home, a commotion suddenly broke out at a stall beside her.
“What rotten luck! I’m going to smash your stall!
“Damn it! I wanted a portrait to commemorate myself, not a black-and-white memorial portrait!”
“I wrote ‘memorial portrait’ in huge letters on my sign! ‘Memorial portrait!’ You couldn’t see it? If you wanted something for free, just say so.
“What, are you using those tiny eyes as light bulbs? Can they see clearly at night? You’re blind!”
“F***! If I don’t beat you up today, then you can have my surname!”
“Please don’t! Please don’t! My parents died long ago. I certainly don’t need a cheap son like you!”
Before the two could actually start fighting, the patrol team quickly arrived.
After learning what had happened, the person who had smashed the stall was taken away for questioning.
There was no other reason. Drawing memorial portraits did not violate the base’s regulations, but damaging someone else’s property was not allowed.
Su Su stood among the crowd and watched the commotion.
The portrait stall had been smashed into a terrible state, and quite a few portraits had already been damaged.
“Just my luck. If I’d known this would happen, I wouldn’t have set up my stall today.”
The stall owner, a portrait artist, gathered up all the damaged portraits.
Those that could be repaired were kept, while those beyond saving were thrown away.
After he finished cleaning up, the surrounding crowd gradually dispersed.
The portrait artist sat back down in front of his drawing board and continued drawing while waiting for customers to come.
However, perhaps because having a living person draw a memorial portrait was considered too ominous, almost no one approached him.
Some people even deliberately walked around from a distance.
In the middle of the bustling streets, the portrait stall looked rather “unique.”
“Why aren’t you leaving? Want me to draw your memorial portrait?”
Su Su did not want one and shook her head.
“I don’t have any ‘money’ to pay you.”
She looked at the portrait the artist was currently working on.
The young man in his twenties depicted in the drawing looked about eighty percent similar to the artist himself.
Su Su became a little curious and hesitantly asked,
“Are you drawing yourself?”
“Yeah! Is that strange?”
The portrait artist did not even look up and continued drawing.
“These days, what if I die one day? Shouldn’t I prepare one for myself in advance?”
As he spoke, the brush in his hand moved smoothly across the paper.
After adding the final stroke, the portrait artist put down his brush and stared at his drawing for a while.
Then he took the portrait off the drawing board and tore it apart.
Su Su asked, “Why did you tear it up?”
Looking at the portrait artist who had drawn his own memorial portrait, Su Su became slightly curious about him.
The portrait artist threw the torn drawing into the wastepaper basket nearby.
“I’m not satisfied! One of my wishes while I’m still alive, Lin Xingxing, is to draw a memorial portrait for myself that I’m satisfied with. This one won’t do.”
As he spoke, he finally had time to turn his attention to Su Su.
“You just arrived at the base? Why are you so poor? My portraits aren’t expensive. If you really can’t afford it, I can give you a discount. Let me make my first sale?”
“I used everything I had to pay the rent. I don’t have money for a portrait.”
If she had money, she would not want a memorial portrait either, but Su Su did not say the second half aloud.
“Paying rent? Don’t tell me you ran into a ‘black broker’ named He Bantian.”
Su Su nodded.
“How do you know his name?”
“Huh? It really was him?!”
Lin Xingxing looked utterly incredulous.
When he looked at Su Su again, his eyes were filled with sympathy.
“That guy has already become notorious for being a ‘black broker.’ Almost everyone living in the concentrated residential area knows about him.
“He only manages to fool newcomers like you. How much did you give him?”
“The crystal stone, fangs, claws, and other things from a Mutant Brown Bear.”
“Whoa!! He really took quite a lot from you. With that many things, you could have easily rented one of the best houses in the concentrated residential area. It would have been more than enough.”
Lin Xingxing looked at Su Su with an expression that seemed to say, You really got unlucky.
“That guy was lucky enough to have once helped a military officer. Through all those connections, he managed to get himself the easy job of arranging and renting out housing. He takes a commission from it.
“But everyone in the base who wants to rent a place stays far away from him. You just happened to look easy to fool.”
Upon hearing this, Su Su lowered her head.
This time, she was truly certain.
She had been cheated…