Gu Qingze blinked, narrowing his eyes slightly before saying coldly, “You are fired.”
It was concise and to the point. Without waiting for any response from the other end, Gu Qingze hung up the phone and immediately dialed someone else.
“I give you five minutes to find out the exact location of the person with blue hair and purple eyes.”
Gu Qingze stood up, threw on a coat, grabbed a set of keys from the key rack, and walked outside.
The moment he started the car, his phone buzzed with a location pin: Central Times Square.
A-Xing watched a long-haired beauty walk past him, his gaze naturally lingering on her chest for a few seconds. The moment he looked, however, a sharp pain shot up his foot.
“Having a good face is completely wasted on a creep like you! Doing nothing but low-class, perverted things!” With that, the long-haired beauty snapped her waist, tossed her hair, and strutted away.
A-Xing pressed his lips together and lowered his head. He had only… found her appearance rather peculiar.
In his understanding, he felt there shouldn’t be any bug citizens with such long hair.
Yet, there were so many long-haired bug citizens right here…
Most bugs didn’t look like him at all. Standing here, he felt entirely out of place.
A-Xing walked aimlessly, the bustling noises of the world completely shutting him out. His heart remained calm. He had no idea when the bugs from the Bug Protection Association would show up to sentence him to death.
Even now, A-Xing still hadn’t suspected that this world was no longer his original one. All he knew was that his Lord no longer wanted him, and that meant he was going to die.
Suddenly, A-Xing caught an indescribable, mouth-watering aroma. He looked up and saw glowing characters embedded on a red sign: Central Night Market.
The crowds coming and going inside were even denser than outside, bustling with life. Various neon lights illuminated the street, flanked by busy stalls where vendors kept working continuously, churning out that enticing scent.
A-Xing blinked. After a moment of hesitation, he finally lifted his foot and stepped inside.
He had never smelled a fragrance so alluring to bugs before. It smelled delicious, and he wanted to taste it—to taste it just once before he died.
A-Xing walked up to a barbecue stall, his eyes fixed intently on the skewers sizzling and dripping with oil in the proprietress’s hands, and swallowed hard.
That looks really good.
“Hey, handsome! What can I get for you?”
A-Xing blinked and pointed at a skewer of meat in the proprietress’s hand.
“This one? Three yuan a skewer. How many do you want, handsome? Do you want it spicy?”
A-Xing’s pale violet eyes lit up just a bit. “One, please. No spice.”
His voice was clear and melodious, like the rippling water of a mountain stream that soothes the human soul.
The proprietress blinked, looking at A-Xing with a smile that grew even brighter as she picked out the skewer with the most meat and bagged it.
“Handsome, scan the QR code right here to pay! If you like how it tastes, come back often!”
A-Xing took the bag, but when he saw the QR code pasted onto the food cart, he hit a snag. He tried summoning his mental interface, but his terminal didn’t appear.
He tried again, but still got no response.
Why… won’t it come out?
A look of confusion flickered in A-Xing’s eyes.
He swept his gaze around the surroundings and noticed that everyone here was holding a thin rectangular block and using it to make payments.
A-Xing frowned slightly. When did terminals become physical objects?
Seeing that the young man was strikingly handsome, the proprietress couldn’t help glancing over at him while grilling the meat. But noticing that he stood by the stall for quite a while without pulling out a phone to pay, her smile faltered into a slight frown.
Maintaining a warm and friendly tone, she asked, “Handsome, did you forget your phone? Cash is fine, too.”
Another new vocabulary word. A-Xing blinked. Things really seemed different. Had the entire world turned upside down ever since he fainted and lost his memory?
Still, A-Xing didn’t jump to the conclusion that he had somehow crossed into another dimension.
Looking apologetically at the proprietress, he said, “I am sorry, I forgot to bring my star coins. I do not want this skewer anymore. I am very sorry for the trouble.”
The proprietress didn’t quite catch what A-Xing was saying, but she figured that a handsome young man who spoke so politely must have run into some genuine difficulty; otherwise, he wouldn’t be unable to afford even a single skewer.
So she generously waved a hand and said, “It is fine! It is just a skewer, consider it my treat. But if you have money in the future, come back to sister’s stall and buy some more! It is ridiculously delicious!”
Hearing this, A-Xing wanted to say something else, but two customers suddenly wedged their way in front of the stall. Busy attending to the new buyers, the proprietress paid him no more mind.
The words stuck in A-Xing’s throat. After thinking for a moment, he gave the proprietress a slight bow, stepped back out of the crowd, and scanned his surroundings with bright eyes.
The air was filled with aromas that tempted a bug’s appetite. A-Xing pulled the skewer out of the bag and took a small bite.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t eat with bold, hearty movements; it was simply that the skewers tasted too exquisite. To swallow them whole would completely waste the experience.
Even so, A-Xing’s appearance was simply too eye-catching amidst such a bustling crowd.
Before long, A-Xing sensed several malicious gazes sizing him up.
His eyes instantly turned cold and sharp. Without a trace, his gaze swept over those individuals. The moment they realized he was looking back, their stares became even more undisguised, and one of them even let out a whistle.
A-Xing frowned. These bugs are so disgusting.
Given their looks, they were likely female bugs—yet they dared to look at him with such filthy expressions.
Female bugs…
A-Xing withdrew his gaze and stepped forward, continuing down the street.
A moment later, A-Xing’s ears twitched slightly. They are following me.
There were plenty of bugs on this street, but A-Xing could easily distinguish the differences in their footsteps.
He walked toward an alleyway that looked quite dark and dim. Without a second thought, he turned and stepped right inside.
The three potbellied, bald-headed men trailing behind him exchanged glances and grinned.
He has isolated himself…
That guy looked even prettier than a woman. The look he gave them earlier was like a hook to the soul, so tasting him must be an absolute thrill.
Rubbing their hands together like flies, the three men chuckled lewdly and sauntered into the alley.
The moment they stepped in, they spotted A-Xing, and their eyes lit up instantly.
“Hehehe, pretty smart of you, little blue-hair. Knew right where to wait for us brothers, huh?”
A-Xing stood with his back against the wall in a shadowed alcove, his body completely enveloped in the dark while only the faint distant light traced the outline of his silhouette.
Hearing their words, A-Xing cast a cold, emotionless glance at the bugs standing not far away.
He opened his lips: “Come here.”
His voice was clear and pleasant, yet as it reached the ears of the three men, it sent a tingling jolt of electricity racing through their entire bodies.
Damn it, this is too thrilling!
Visible to the naked eye, their expressions grew wildly excited.
The three men huffed and puffed as they rushed forward. As they ran, the fat on their bodies seemed to jiggle along, and their faces flushed with an unnatural, eager red.
However, just as they reached A-Xing and before the hands they reached out could do a thing—
Crack, crack! Two sudden, crisp sounds of bone fracture echoed sharply through the space.
Followed immediately by a heavy thud against the ground.
With an indifferent gaze, A-Xing looked down at the bug rolling around on the floor in agony, completely unable to utter a single sound his jaw had been dislocated.
The other two realized something was wrong and tried to run, but before they could even take a single step before half a syllable could get stuck in their throats, they felt a sharp, excruciating pain slam into their bodies. In the next instant, the world flipped upside down as they crashed hard onto the ground. Their internal organs thundered with pain and their minds spun in a daze, yet they couldn’t squeeze out so much as a whimper.