Nine Thirty, Outside Sophia Church

Purple Clad was taken away by Xu Qiuyan. I asked Xu Qiuyan to keep an eye on Purple Clad; I really didn't want to open my eyes in the middle of the night and find her standing by my bed. It would be terrifying.

I lay on the bed alone and lit a cigarette.

Purple Clad's words still echoed in my ears. She said I had the ability to deal with those ninjas, but I just didn't know how to use it.

I knew what ability she was talking about. It should be Chu Ge's combat power.

But I wasn't Chu Ge.

This made me feel helpless and a little troubled.

I felt like I didn't even have the ability to protect myself, let alone Xu Qiuyan.

I couldn't help but think of Abe Ichinan again. What did she want to do? If she simply wanted to take the jade pendant from me, she had plenty of opportunities when we were in that alternate dimension. That space was created by her. If she had taken the jade pendant and fled immediately, Fatty wouldn't have had time to react because there was a time lag when Fatty appeared in that space.

"Beep beep!" My phone chimed with a text message notification.

A message came from an unfamiliar phone number.

Not many people use SMS nowadays, but the convenience of SMS is that it doesn't require verification like WeChat before sending a message.

"Nine-thirty PM, Sophia Church plaza, come alone."

The message was only a short sentence, but I had no idea who sent it.

Could it be Abe Ichinan? Is she still not giving up?

However, my intuition told me it wasn't her.

I checked the time; it was almost time for dinner. I had agreed with Fatty, Xu Qiuyan, and the others to meet in the hotel lobby at 6:30.

I don't particularly like the food at the hotel restaurant; it doesn't suit my taste. Luckily, there's a Guizhou cuisine restaurant not far from the hotel. We had agreed to eat there tonight.

Actually, our lifestyles as Southerners and Northerners are quite different. In the North, they rarely eat rice, mainly consuming noodles. We are the opposite, with rice being our staple food.

Especially in the southwestern provinces, people love spicy food; they can't live without it.

So, finding an authentic Guizhou restaurant made us all excited.

"You seem preoccupied," Xu Qiuyan asked softly, leaning close to me as she ate.

I shook my head and smiled at her. "No."

Fatty also glanced at me. "Any plans for tonight?"

"No plans. We've had a busy day and are tired. Let's all rest well in our rooms."

Yin Wuyu was his usual self, playing games while eating, ignoring my advice.

Purple Clad, however, hadn't said a word. When Xu Qiuyan asked me, a smile flickered across her face, and her eyes seemed to see through people's thoughts.

I didn't tell them about the text message, hesitating whether I should.

I would definitely go, as I was very curious about who sent me the message.

I knew it might be dangerous to go alone, but I had an idea, perhaps a crazy one. I wondered if facing danger alone would be the only way to unleash my potential, if that was when I could truly demonstrate the abilities that Old Shu and Purple Clad mentioned I possessed, like the skill to fight ninjas.

This thought might sound ridiculous, but I wanted to try.

So, tonight, I decided to act alone.

Xu Qiuyan finished eating and wiped her mouth with a napkin. "He Li has already booked our plane tickets back to Lin City for tomorrow morning. She said she'd deliver them tonight and asked me to have her send them directly to my room."

I nodded.

Fatty rubbed his round belly. "I've arranged to meet a friend later. Since there's nothing else tonight, I'll go have some tea and chat with my friend. Call me if anything comes up."

I nodded again.

Yin Wuyu only said, "I'm not going anywhere. I'll be playing games in my room."

Purple Clad, however, said, "I'm going out tonight too."

Xu Qiuyan and I both asked at the same time, "Where are you going?"

She had no relatives or friends in this world, so where could she go?

Purple Clad smiled and said, "Just taking a walk around nearby."

Xu Qiuyan glared at her. "Don't cause any trouble."

Purple Clad pouted. "How could I cause trouble?"

She was truly a world apart from the Nightmare we saw in Wu Lun's dream; one was like heaven, the other like earth.

I said, "Alright, come back early after your walk."

After speaking, I took out a few hundred yuan from my pocket and handed it to her. It's always necessary to have some money when going out, and besides, I didn't want her to turn a few tissue papers into banknotes again and shock everyone.

She took the money and smiled at me. "Thank you, Jiang Xiaobai."

I returned to the hotel before 8 PM.

Fatty and Purple Clad didn't come back with me. I had initially thought Xu Qiuyan would come to my room for a chat, but she went straight back to her own room.

There was no need to mention Yin Wuyu; he was already lost in the world of games.

I stayed in my room for a while. Around 8:20, I quietly left the hotel.

As I walked from my room to the elevator, I felt a bit nervous, worried that Xu Qiuyan might suddenly open the door and ask where I was going.

Fortunately, that didn't happen.

I hailed a taxi outside the hotel. It would take about twenty-five minutes to drive from here to Sophia Church, assuming no traffic.

I arrived at Sophia Church Square at precisely nine o'clock, a full half-hour earlier than the agreed-upon time.

I sat down on a bench, feeling a bit bored.

There were still some tourists in the church square at this hour. Not far from me, a young couple was feeding pigeons with a little girl who looked about three years old.

I wondered if the pigeons in the square were lucky or unlucky. Lucky because they didn't have to forage for food and had an endless supply, but unlucky because eating like this from morning till night might cause them to lose their natural instincts.

"Sir, would you like to buy a flower?" a girl asked me timidly. A flower basket hung from her left arm, neatly arranged with roses, both single stems and small bouquets. She offered me a single stem.

The girl was dressed very plainly and looked very young, probably not even ten years old.

Her complexion was a bit sallow, as if she had been suffering from malnutrition for a long time.

"How much is it?" I asked, taking the fresh flower and smiling.

"Five yuan," she said softly, then glanced at me furtively, as if worried I might return the flower after hearing the price.

I took out five yuan and handed it to her. She thanked me and happily walked away.

I don't really like flowers. The only reason I bought it just now was out of pity for her. I figured she had to sell flowers at such a young age out of necessity.

"What a beautiful rose." A voice sounded behind me. My heart leaped, because even without turning around, I knew who it was.

"Why are you here? Were you following me?" I asked, frowning and looking at Purple Clad in front of me, a little annoyed.

She raised both her hands in a gesture of surrender. "I wasn't following you. I just happened to be strolling around and saw you, so I wanted to come over and say hello."

She was clearly lying. This place wasn't close to the hotel, and she couldn't have "strolled" here less than ten minutes after I arrived. It just didn't add up.

"Are you waiting for someone?" she asked, looking around curiously.

My heart felt a pang of bitterness. They had asked me to come alone, but I had brought a tagalong. Even though Purple Clad came on her own, the other party would see it as me breaking my word.

Would they even show up now?

There were still twenty minutes left until the appointed time.

"You should leave quickly!"

"You're actually sneaking out to meet another woman behind Sister Xu's back!" she huffed, hands on her hips.

I was speechless. How could I not have anticipated that she might follow me?

"I am indeed waiting for someone, a very important person. Can you please leave first? We can talk about anything when we get back."

Her eyes darted around quickly.

Seeing her like this, my heart started to race again. She definitely wasn't thinking of anything good.

"I'm not leaving. I want to see who you're meeting," she said shamelessly. But the problem was, I couldn't hit her, I couldn't scold her, and most importantly, I couldn't beat her.

"Oh, for goodness sake, I have important business. Can you just be obedient?" I urged, starting to panic.

Only then did she smile again. "Alright, I won't tease you anymore. How about this? I'll stay far away from you and just watch, okay? Don't worry, I'll keep it a secret for you. I absolutely won't let Sister Xu know."

What else could I say at this point? I could only reluctantly agree.

Seeing that I had agreed to her terms, she truly vanished from my sight in an instant. I had no idea where she had hidden herself.