Xia Zeyu pocketed the six-million-yuan check, while the manager adopted a flattering expression, asking if he could drop by frequently.
Although he didn’t care much for this manager, making money was what mattered most, so he nodded and agreed.
On his way back, he encountered three separate robbery attempts, all of which he swiftly dealt with. Having thrown so many punches throughout the night, he was beginning to feel a little tired.
[Host, please exercise control over your abilities and avoid drawing too much attention or causing suspicion among too many people.]
“I know, I have a sense of measure.”
After sleeping off the fatigue at a hotel, Xia Zeyu returned to Shen Congjin’s house. Much of the original owner’s belongings were still kept there, and he needed to retrieve them.
The moment he stepped inside, he heard movement coming from the kitchen.
Six in the morning quite the diligent worker.
Xia Zeyu walked over and leaned against the doorframe, watching Tang Tang busy at work.
Tang Tang was so deeply focused that he didn’t even notice Xia Zeyu’s presence until he turned around carrying a finished dish and found someone standing at the entrance. He jumped in fright, nearly losing his grip on the soup bowl.
With lightning-fast reflexes, Xia Zeyu caught the soup bowl and swiftly set it down onto the counter.
“Ah, you,” Tang Tang stammered, feeling somewhat at a loss. “Y-You didn’t get burned, did you?”
“Shouldn’t your first question be how I managed to come back?”
“Uh,” Tang Tang froze for a moment. “How did you come back?”
Xia Zeyu let out a sigh.
How should he put it? At his core, Tang Tang was still a kind-hearted person. In the beginning, it was indeed the original owner who had bullied him first. As a scholarship student from a small town who managed to test into a top-tier university, only to be deceived in love by a scumbag and bullied into dropping out of school by the original owner, he must have harbored a burning hatred for the original owner.
The fact that he had been frightened to the point of wetting himself yesterday wasn’t due to cowardice, but rather a deep-seated, subconscious dread of the original owner.
“I came back to grab a few things,” Xia Zeyu said. “Would you mind sitting down and talking for a bit?”
Tang Tang looked at him defensively, too terrified to respond.
“Standing up and talking is fine, too,” Xia Zeyu said, his attitude remarkably sincere. “Regarding what happened in the past… I’m sorry.”
Tang Tang blinked in slight surprise. Once it registered, a complicated mix of emotions crossed his expression it looked like resentment, yet carried a hint of sorrow.
“I know a casual apology of mine can’t erase the damage I caused you, and you have every right not to forgive me.”
“What kind of tricks are you trying to pull this time?” Tang Tang’s voice trembled.
“I’ve simply come to terms with a few things. You were innocent from the very beginning; my enemy shouldn’t be you, and I was focusing my energy in the wrong direction. I won’t target you anymore. However, since I did hurt you in the past, you’re welcome to keep treating me as your enemy and retaliate against me however you see fit I’ll accept all of it, as long as it brings you a fraction of peace of mind.”
Sigh, step one of starting fresh: cleaning up the original owner’s messes.
Xia Zeyu wasn’t an unreasonable person; the original owner had undeniably crossed the line in this regard.
Tang Tang fell silent for a moment before taking two steps back, snapping irritably, “I don’t believe you. Get away from me.”
“Do you still love Shen Congjin?” Xia Zeyu asked abruptly.
“What?”
“I think he’s kind of bad luck for you. Haven’t you noticed that ever since you met him, nothing has gone smoothly for you? Meanwhile, during the two years you spent away from him abroad, you made a massive name for yourself in your field. Yet the moment you return to his side, look at how many troubles you’ve run into again.”
Tang Tang lowered his head, beginning to mull over the question.
“You need to think this through carefully: over all these years, who was the one who genuinely gave you warmth and help? And as for your feelings toward Shen Congjin is it just an obsession or lingering affection? Are you coming back to snatch him away purely out of revenge, or because you truly love him?”
Xia Zeyu’s words sounded like the whispers of a demon. Even if Tang Tang hadn’t been listening too closely, they cunningly wormed their way into his mind, looping on repeat.
Reaching out to pat Tang Tang’s shoulder, Xia Zeyu continued his gentle persuasion right by his ear: “There are countless ways to exact revenge on me, aren’t there? It doesn’t necessarily have to be expressed by fighting over a man. You spent two arduous years studying abroad in specialization was it really just to come back and fight me for a man? Compared to those petty little tactics, I’d much rather witness your genuine capabilities.”
Step two of starting fresh: dismantling the original plot so Xia Zeyu could seize control of the new storyline’s trajectory. He had zero intention of blindly following the original route.
Besides, he wasn’t particularly skilled at handling romantic disputes; the author who created him hadn’t bestowed upon him a single emotional trait, dumping every single stat point exclusively into combat skills and intelligence.
Instead of bickering here with Tang Tang over a man, it was far more entertaining to drag Tang Tang onto the racetrack he excelled at, grooming him into a genuine opponent capable of matching blows with him. That was the only way this game would remain fun.
Most importantly, Tang Tang possessed the protagonist halo; a jewelry collection he designed would later rescue the Shen Group from financial ruin during the late-stage plot. Xia Zeyu wanted to ensure Shen Congjin was denied Tang Tang’s assistance at the most critical moment.
Laying the groundwork early in the early stages would make the later stages much easier.
The original owner had left a considerable amount of belongings in this house. After all, despite enduring two years of silent treatment from Shen Congjin, he had stubbornly stayed put, abandoning his original career and social circle just to spend every day and night waiting around for Shen Congjin to return home.
Xia Zeyu found it rather horrifying—an arrogant, domineering rich kid, reduced to a hollow shell upon losing Shen Congjin’s affection, willingly trapping himself in this cage.
It defied logic. This book and this world were thoroughly illogical, and Xia Zeyu was determined to bend them back into place. He had no desire to live to the age of one hundred in such a chaotic, nonsensical world.
He grabbed only his identification documents and a few sets of comfortable, practical clothes, leaving the rest to be tossed into an outdoor donation bin by hired movers. Hauntingly dragging a small suitcase behind him, he departed with effortless ease.
[Host, why did you move out? How are you supposed to carry out the missions now?]
He could actually detect a trace of anxious panic in the electronic voice.
“Are there strict time limits on the missions?” Xia Zeyu asked.
[You need to complete them before you turn thirty.]
“How old am I right now?”
[Twenty-four.]
“That still leaves six years, doesn’t it? What’s there to rush? I can slaughter thousands of monsters in a single day, can’t I deal with a single scumbag in six years?”
[That… does make sense.]
“Why is your system brain so rigid? Were AIs three thousand years ago really this backward?”
The moment those words left his mouth, a series of muffled thunderclaps suddenly rumbled across the clear, cloudless sky.
“My apologies, pretend I said nothing.” Xia Zeyu executed a prompt tactical surrender.
A true hero knows when to yield and when to stand tall.
In the blink of an eye, noon rolled around again. Lunchtime meant getting to eat meat once more what a joy.
Standing in front of a shopping mall billboard displaying a dazzling array of delicious delicacies, Xia Zeyu fell into deep contemplation.
[Host, stop thinking about food for a moment. In my opinion, your top priority right now is to swap out those slippers of yours. Walking around like this makes you look like a local street delinquent.]
Xia Zeyu looked down at his footwear. Having been subjected to the brutal abuse of a thirty-thousand-step march the previous night, they were already teetering on the verge of total structural collapse.
He stepped inside the mall, and upon taking in the spacious, comfortable environment and luxurious decor, his jaw dropped open in awe.
The shopping malls in his original world could hardly be called malls; they were more like underground black-market bazaars choked with thick, murky air, run by burly, rough-hewn tough guys and fierce matriarchs. If you dared haggle with them over prices, they’d pull out cleavers and come at you, nothing like the rows of lovely young saleswomen standing politely at the entrance welcoming patrons here.
He casually wandered into a shoe store. The sales clerk initially stepped forward with bright enthusiasm, but her expression slumped the moment she took in his disheveled attire.
“Um, sir, are you…”
“Hello, I’d like to buy a pair of shoes. Comfortable and durable will do.”
Noticing his polite demeanor, the sales clerk found it difficult to keep her expression frosty, reluctantly welcoming him inside.
“Sir, you might not be fully aware of this, but the price range in our store runs a bit high. May I ask what your budget is? We’ll do our best to recommend something suitable.”
“Anything is fine. Money isn’t an issue as long as they’re comfortable; I do physical labor.”
Hearing the words “physical labor,” the sales clerk’s expression grew even more strained.
If she escorted him out, she risked being accused of discriminating against manual workers; if she kept him, she feared wasting time pitching luxury items he couldn’t afford.
“That pair looks nice,” Xia Zeyu pointed at a pair of gray athletic shoes. “Could you pull them down for me?”
“That pair is priced just over twenty thousand yuan.”
“That’s pretty cheap, then. Bring them over.”
The sales clerk hesitated, but ultimately retrieved the shoes.
Before Xia Zeyu could examine them closely, a noisy crowd surging in from outside drew his attention away.
He turned his head to see a circle of ten bulky men in sharp black suits enclosing and protecting a tall, statuesque figure clad in a dark navy blue suit.
Visually estimated to be close to 190 centimeters tall, the man possessed a well-defined, muscular physique that remained subtly visible even beneath the tailored fabric of his suit. His athletic build wasn’t bulky, hitting the absolute peak of balanced proportions. His skin was remarkably fair not resembling the standard Asian skin tone and his head-to-body ratio was as striking as an elite Western runway model. Wearing dark sunglasses that obscured his eyes, his prominent bridge of the nose and razor-sharp jawline alone were enough to prove his striking looks, while the aura of authority radiating from his every movement naturally instilled a sense of underlying intimidation.
Naturally, the list of people easily intimidated did not include Xia Zeyu.
Xia Zeyu stared unblinking at the man. Sensing his gaze, the man paused in his tracks, turning his head to lock eyes with him through the glass storefront.
Bizarrely, despite the dark sunglasses, one could vividly feel the scorching intensity of the other’s gaze.
The next second, the man actually spun around and headed straight toward the shop.
The moment he stepped across the threshold, Xia Zeyu pulled his gaze away staring any longer would cross into rudeness.
The other sales assistants in the store rushed forward immediately, treating him as though a deity had descended, fluttering in a panic mixed with pure, starry-eyed worship.
“Fu…”
“Shh.” The man raised a finger to his lips, signaling them to remain silent.
Following that, he settled into a sofa diagonally opposite Xia Zeyu, crossing his arms over his chest and staring fixedly at Xia Zeyu.
Even though he wore sunglasses, Xia Zeyu could physically feel the man’s eyes glued to him.
Uncomfortable under the scrutiny and eager to make his exit, Xia Zeyu looked up at the sales clerk and said, “I’ll take this pair.”
“Certainly. What is your shoe size?”
“My…”
Xia Zeyu froze for a fraction of a second. Did this era use the same sizing system as three thousand years later? Furthermore, he had zero clue what the original owner’s body metrics were.
“Apologies, I’m not entirely familiar with it. Could you help me measure my feet?” Xia Zeyu asked.
“Very well.”
Once the proper size was brought over, Xia Zeyu took a single glance and instructed them to box it up quickly. He noticed that no matter where he moved, the man’s gaze clung to him like burrs, prompting him to swipe his card and make a swift exit.
Besides, he was ravenously hungry and desperately needed food.
No sooner had Xia Zeyu stepped out the door than the man lounging on the sofa let out a cold snort.
“President Fu, is something wrong?” his assistant asked, lowering his head.
“Has the Xia family fallen so miserably low these days? They actually have to send their son to fight in those kinds of underground matches just to afford a new pair of shoes?”
“They’re already teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, just waiting for a marriage alliance with the Shen family to bring them back from the dead.”
“With the Shen family? Not taking the opportunity to grind them into the dust counts as Shen Congjin showing mercy. Who doesn’t know how Shen Congjin turned the entire city upside down over that designer?”
The man stood up, took a few steps forward, and picked up the water glass Xia Zeyu had just used; the tea inside was completely drained to the last drop.
“President Fu, would you like a refill?” the sales clerk asked solicitously.
“No thank you,” the man offered her a gentle, warm smile. “Did I cause you a lot of trouble sitting here? Why don’t you have someone deliver a set of everything displayed on that clothing rack to my home in my size?”
“Huh?” She was floored by the privilege. “O-Of course!”
Xia Zeyu was already long gone, and the man didn’t bother sending anyone in pursuit, he knew he could easily track him down whenever he pleased.
Removing his sunglasses, the man revealed a sharply striking set of features, paired with deep, bottomless lake-green eyes.
Gazing in the direction Xia Zeyu had vanished, he asked his assistant, “Don’t you find it… somewhat strange? It’s as though he isn’t entirely accustomed to his own body.”