I don’t know how much time had passed.
Her head throbbed, aching so sharply it felt like her skull was splitting open; her brain matter felt as if it had been stirred in a mixer.
She was nauseous, wanting to vomit.
A bitterness mixed with the metallic tang of heavy metals filled her mouth—the taste of acid rain. In her ears, chaotic whispers swirled; that damn eyeball was trying to delude her again.
A blinding white light dominated her entire world, so piercing she couldn’t open her eyes. Beneath her, she felt a cold texture.
It seemed she was lying on an operating table.
A moment later, Xu Xiaoyou gasped for air and sat up abruptly.
The feeling of a splitting headache made her face twitch, and she clutched her head tightly. Beneath a cyan haze, the entire world seemed to be spinning incessantly.
After taking a long while to adapt, she finally saw her surroundings clearly.
A black ceiling, cluttered old equipment, water pipes exposed on the walls, and an old-fashioned incandescent lamp flickering non-stop. She noticed a woman sitting in the corner.
"Awake?" The woman flipped through the book in her hand at a leisurely pace, the lenses of her glasses reflecting a faint light.
"Where am I now?" Xu Xiaoyou’s voice was somewhat raspy.
"You're in my shop." The woman closed the book and walked to Xu Xiaoyou’s side, supporting her body to let her lean back against the operating table.
Xu Xiaoyou did not resist. She felt no hostility from the woman, nor did she feel particularly wary of this strange environment. If the other party truly wanted to harm her, they wouldn't have waited for her to wake up, especially considering she was worth a fortune.
"You should be glad you woke up now; otherwise, I would have had to attempt a craniotomy." The woman held a bowl of hot water to Xu Xiaoyou’s lips, feeding it to her sip by sip.
The warm sensation moisturized her mouth, significantly alleviating the nausea.
"Wait." Xu Xiaoyou thought of something, and her emotions became agitated. "How long was I unconscious?"
"Almost six days, I think."
"Six days... six days." Xu Xiaoyou clutched her head, murmuring to herself.
She had been unconscious for such a long time.
In other words, tomorrow would be the distribution date for that ticket.
"Why did you save me?"
"I can't even imagine what you did to make the entire city's underworld and authorities go crazy chasing you."
The woman didn't answer her question directly, instead launching into a series of complaints.
"Saving you is like inviting trouble. If I had just turned you in for the bounty, I wouldn't have to stay in this cramped, dark, miserable little shop for the rest of my life."
"Really, I don't know what kind of wire got crossed in my brain..."
Xu Xiaoyou looked outside. There was a sign at the door, flickering under the cold-toned lights.
—Yunyun’s Beauty Shop.
At the moment, the shop door was locked with a metal chain; it seemed they weren't open for business.
"Wait, you're a beautician?" Xu Xiaoyou asked.
In her impression, beauticians in the city often held high status and were favored by most gangs; they wouldn't open a shop in such a crude place. Furthermore, looking at her sanitized and stitched wounds, the other party seemed quite professional in this regard.
"Mm-hm."
"Don't give me that strange look. A qualified beautician must, of course, understand basic medical knowledge and obtain a medical license—otherwise, what would happen if an accident occurred during surgery? Although, I didn't actually take the exams for either."
Xu Xiaoyou: "?"
"You're practicing medicine without a license?"
"What of it? I also do beauty treatments without a license," the woman said expressionlessly.
"Just a tip—I have never received a single negative review~"
Xu Xiaoyou: "..."
After a moment of silence, the woman spoke first.
"I'm Chen Yun."
"Remember it well—I saved you. If I ever run into trouble in the future, don't you dare leave me to die."
As if remembering something, Chen Yun walked toward the inner room. She returned a moment later and tossed a jade bracelet toward Xu Xiaoyou. Xu Xiaoyou caught it and looked down to see it was the peace bracelet.
"A woman from the slums gave this to you, didn't she?" Chen Yun said. Xu Xiaoyou noticed a fleeting glint deep in the woman's eyes, faint and small in this pitch-black room.
"What was her name?"
"I'm not sure, I don't know her name either..." Xu Xiaoyou said.
"This bracelet saved your life."
"By the way, is that little girl your child?"
"Anya?" Xu Xiaoyou rasped. "Where is she now?"
"She was keeping watch outside not long ago. She hadn't closed her eyes for days and just went to sleep." Chen Yun paused before continuing, "Originally, I wasn't planning on helping you—it would be too much trouble. But that little girl kept holding onto my arm, crying and begging me. Combined with seeing this bracelet, I decided to save you."
With that, Chen Yun pulled back the room's curtain. The morning dawn plated her body in a layer of gold.
"The mistress of this bracelet also saved me once. When I was being hunted by the underworld, she took me in in the slums and gave me food and water. I remember it very clearly."
"It was a piece of white steamed bun—a very precious food in the slums."
"I was starving at the time, so I choked while eating. She handed me some tea, and that was when I saw that bracelet on her hand."
"So, I remembered it."
Chen Yun’s smile bloomed under the morning sun, brilliant and radiant.
"Quite the coincidence, isn't it?"
"Since you're awake—medical fees, accommodation fees, oh right, and meal fees. I've been giving you glucose for several days. That's a total of two hundred credit points. Don't forget to pay before you leave."
The woman left those words behind and walked away.
Xu Xiaoyou laughed silently.
The other party could have clearly turned her in for five hundred thousand credit points and enjoyed wealth and glory for the rest of her life, yet she was haggling over a seemingly insignificant two hundred credit points.
Once her body had recovered some strength and she was barely able to move normally, Xu Xiaoyou stepped off the operating table and walked into the house.
Before long, she saw Anya lying on the sofa. The girl was curled up, huddled inside a tattered cotton quilt, with traces of undried tears still at the corners of her eyes.
The television was playing "Super Baby," Anya’s favorite family drama.
Not wanting to disturb the girl’s peaceful sleep, Xu Xiaoyou sat at the other end of the sofa and picked up the remote to change the channel.
She wanted to see what the situation in the city was like now.
After the screen flickered briefly with static, the image appeared.
Beneath a gray sky, the surroundings were filled with countless figures marching and protesting in the streets.
The pure white investigator uniform was utterly dim. Bai Youyou looked like a peacock whose feathers had been plucked; her head, which used to be held high, was now hanging heavily. Her former brilliance and pride had vanished. As she walked down the street, the sounds of people's insults and accusations rang constantly in her ears.
"Get out of our Hive City!"
"Investigator who disrupts public order, get out!"
"To catch one criminal, you used the power of gangs and made the whole city restless. I think you're the real criminal! You're condoning crime!"
"Criminal investigator! Criminal investigator! Criminal investigator!"
"We demand the Association punish this investigator severely!"
They threw things at the black-haired girl on the street. Seeing a once high-and-mighty figure so battered and dejected, it was only at times like this that they could vent the malice deep within their hearts without restraint. They poured all their long-accumulated resentment onto the girl, not needing to worry about facing the consequences.
Bai Youyou lifted her head numbly, her hollow gaze also falling upon the news on the screen.
'The criminal's life or death is currently unknown.'
'City-wide forces have searched for five days with no results.'
"Yuzu..."
She was stung painfully by the phrase 'life or death is unknown.'
The things people threw hit her body, but she felt nothing. Various ugly labels, like 'criminal,' failed to elicit any change on her numb face.
She was like a doll that couldn't get angry, couldn't be sad, and couldn't feel pain. It wasn't until her tightly wound spring was about to run out that she reached the end of the street.
A brilliant golden float-ship appeared. As many figures dressed in luxurious clothes with extraordinary temperaments descended, the shouting residents fell silent, stopping their movements one after another.
They were the supreme law enforcers from the Oasis—the Order Court.
With just a look, they forced back the people who had been impassioned moments ago. Their powerful majesty pressed down so hard that not a single ugly syllable could escape the citizens' mouths.
Cordon strips resembling golden incantations manifested out of thin air, containing the power of laws. All outside sounds and rules were suppressed!
"Mom..." Bai Youyou’s voice was very soft.
She clung tightly to the figure radiating maternal care and a halo of light, weeping uncontrollably like a child. "Let's go home. I don't want to stay here anymore."
"I don't want to stay here anymore..."
"Let's go home..."
Rate on N.U.
