Bounty

Chen Feng remembered that he had muted the high school class group chat.

At the same time, he also recalled that his original self and the class monitor, Wang Hanwen, had added each other on WeiChat.

"Something came up, can't make it."

Expressionless, he quickly typed a reply.

Four years of university, little contact—the relationship had long since faded.

Besides, he wasn't the original self; going would only make things more awkward. Why bother seeking discomfort?

Buzz!

A reply came two minutes later, and his phone vibrated again.

[Wang Hanwen: Damn, that's not like you, Chen Feng.]

[I heard Han Yue's coming too, you sure you don't want to?]

"Not coming."

Chen Feng replied curtly.

Han Yue?

That was a name familiar to the original self, or more accurately, the original self's high school crush.

But.

He wasn't the original self.

Expressionless, seeing the other person send two more messages, Chen Feng decisively tapped settings and selected "Do not disturb" for this contact.

The world returned to silence. He quickly locked his phone and slipped it into his pocket.

Time slipped away again, and midnight arrived.

Clatter!

The rolling shutter door was pulled down and locked. Chen Feng waved goodbye to Aunt Zhang.

"See you, Aunt Zhang."

"Alright, Xiao Feng, take care."

Tap, tap!

Footsteps echoed on the quiet street.

The aroma of a barbecue stall wafted over. Chen Feng took an Energy Bar and crunched into it.

Rich protein was steadily absorbed by his body, and the meager fullness gave him a sense of satisfaction.

"Just mentally exhausted."

Swallowing the last bite of the Energy Bar, Chen Feng felt a drowsiness in his mind.

This was the aftereffect of waking up that morning—his right arm had been broken in a dream, draining too much mental energy.

Now, as the night grew late and a day's fatigue piled on, his mind grew heavier.

Quickening his pace, he just wanted to get home, sleep, and recover his energy.

Over ten minutes later, the familiar front door appeared before him. He pushed it open, quickly washed up, and lay down on the bed.

Within a minute.

Snoring rose, consciousness sank.

Chen Feng slept soundly.

Until the next day, when dawn arrived. His eyelids twitched, and he instinctively opened them.

The familiar ceiling came into view, a sliver of sunlight spilling through the gap in the curtains.

In an instant, his mind cleared, and Chen Feng noticed a peculiar change.

"I didn't enter a dream last night?"

A flicker of surprise crossed his eyes. He quickly grabbed his phone from under the pillow, unlocked it, and checked the time.

Eight o'clock sharp.

That was a full hour later than the usual 7:05 when he woke from his dreams.

Moreover, he clearly remembered that he seemed to have fallen asleep the moment he lay down, without a single dream the whole time.

He had slept so deeply it felt like no time had passed at all.

"No."

Sensing something off about himself, Chen Feng got up and snapped back to reality.

He strode into the bathroom and looked at the square mirror on the wall.

The young man inside was tall, a full 1.8 meters.

His build was robust, with prominent deltoids and trapezius muscles, and his triceps and biceps were also quite strong.

Looking further up.

At that strong, masculine face.

The pallor from yesterday was gone, replaced by a healthy, ruddy complexion—refreshed and clear.

"Just as I thought."

Raising an eyebrow, Chen Feng fell into thought.

Clearly, he had slept well last night, so his recovery was good.

His head was no longer foggy, and his eyes were bright and sharp.

"So, I couldn't enter the dream last night, probably because my spirit needed to recover?"

"Or rather, because my spirit was too depleted, I couldn't enter the dream."

With a rough guess in mind, Chen Feng felt this hypothesis still needed testing when he slept tonight.

His current mental state was back to normal. As long as he could enter the dream properly, he'd know the result.

With that, he didn't dwell on it further.

Chen Feng quickly washed up and tidied himself, then ate breakfast.

At the same time, he sent a message to Liu Fang, the supermarket manager.

Yesterday, he had already mentioned to her about taking a shift off today, so he could go to dinner with Chen Yun in the evening.

Buzz!

[Liu Fang: OK, no problem, Xiao Feng.]

"Alright, thanks, Sister Liu."

Chen Feng replied. Fortunately, there was nothing to do in the morning, so he stayed home to train his body and practice Judo.

He found his talent in Judo was close to that of Sanshou.

Practicing two hours a day would yield a bit of progress.

Little by little, he naturally wouldn't give up on daily training.

Then

[Progress +1]

[Judo: Proficient (9%)]

"Heh, not bad."

Around noon, Chen Feng stood shirtless in the living room, drenched in sweat, and nodded.

The muscle lines on his chest and abdomen were carved like sculptures, sharp and distinct.

His robust physique compared to just over ten days ago was almost like a different person.

Gulp!

Gulp!

Feeling thirsty, he picked up his water cup and downed two mouthfuls of plain water.

During his break, he opened his phone on a whim and searched for the gold shop robbery he had encountered yesterday.

[Security Bureau Report: This robbery is the same gang as the gold shop robbers from three days ago. Additional personnel have been dispatched for investigation.]

[The robbers wore masks, but based on assessment and inference, the following composite sketches have been produced. If any resident finds them, providing leads will yield a reward of two hundred thousand yuan.]

"Sure enough, it's the same group, and the reward has doubled."

After reading the news report, Chen Feng held his water cup and stared at the composite sketches for a while.

White paper, black pencil portraits.

They looked lifelike. There were five drawings in total, including both fat and thin, male and female.

One of them was the most memorable, because a man in it had a vertical scar on his left cheek, near the eye.

Seeing this, Chen Feng suddenly thought of Li Hongxia's daughter, Xu Yao.

She was pretty good at drawing, had some talent.

The painting she had given him that day was still stored in his drawer, carefully preserved.

"Too bad the cost of learning to draw is too high."

"Tuition, paper, paint. Sister Hongxia probably can't afford it."

Shaking his head silently, Chen Feng remembered that many of his former classmates had wanted to learn to draw, but were held back by their family's financial situation.

Thinking this, he put down his phone and water cup, shaking his head again.

He was barely getting by himself—what leisure did he have to dwell on others?

Then, hunger struck.

He took a bag of frozen beef from the fridge, hastily cooked two dishes, and made do with a meal.

After three or four bowls of rice, he also ate two bags of bread and an Energy Bar.

Chen Feng keenly noticed that his appetite had grown again.

"The higher your physical fitness, the bigger your appetite."

"At this rate, I'm afraid I really will have to find a way to make some more money."

A glint flashed in his eyes as a few ideas formed in Chen Feng's mind.

His current savings were still enough. The thousand Chen Yun had transferred to him later, he hadn't used to gift the coach—he kept it for himself instead.

On top of that, the supermarket had given him a two-thousand reward and a separate 30% shopping discount.

So, there was no need to rush for now.

"I'll wait a bit longer."