When he woke up, the sky was already bright.
The sun that had disappeared yesterday was hanging in the sky again today, showing off a brilliant smile.
This left the young men who had been eagerly anticipating the apocalypse feeling rather disappointed. They had already planned out their badass lives after the apocalypse, so how had the director suddenly called a halt to filming?
After a quick wash, Jiang Qiao left the hotel.
Along the way, he saw elderly men and women lugging large and small bags of things and lining up early outside the supermarkets.
They had all come to return their purchases.
If the world wasn't ending anymore, how were they supposed to finish eating all that stuff?
Especially the salt.
Several hundred kilograms would have been enough to turn the whole family into cured meat.
It had to be returned!
The bus-riding Lin Daiyus were no longer suffering from sore backs or aching legs. One by one, they could now curse out the supermarket owners for two hours straight without even getting winded.
Jiang Qiao shook his head, feeling thoroughly screwed.
He took a cab to Blue Harbor Villa.
Before long, the housekeeping company arrived. Thanks to Jiang Qiao's Money Power, everyone was brimming with energy and got straight to work.
A little while later, the moving company's vehicles pulled up at the entrance.
The furniture, appliances, bedding, exercise equipment, and other items were placed in suitable locations throughout the villa.
"About done, right?"
He made another round through the villa and felt that there shouldn't be any problems.
All that remained was to stock up on food and drinking water.
After leaving the villa, Jiang Qiao walked around the neighborhood and quickly found Villa Eight.
It was a very large detached villa.
At least three or four thousand square meters.
However, the doors inside were tightly shut, and weeds had overgrown the yard. It had probably been vacant for a long time.
Jiang Qiao walked around the villa once.
Before long, a group of cats in a standoff not far away caught his attention.
More precisely, it was a standoff between a large group of cats and a single cat.
The cat standing alone against the group was a tuxedo cat.
Its fur stood on end as it bared its teeth and let out ferocious cries.
Opposite it, the leader of the group was a half-grown Black Cat.
Its fur was sleek and shiny, its body plump, and its amber eyes filled with smug, haughty pride.
"What the hell?"
Jiang Qiao was rather surprised.
At first, he had assumed Black Cat was kept by the owner of Villa Eight.
After discovering that no one lived there, he figured Black Cat might be a stray.
It wasn't any particular breed, and it lived in a villa community. It probably got chased around like a street rat every day and led a miserable life.
He could save it from its misery and establish a father-and-son relationship with it.
The script was perfect, but Black Cat wasn't cooperating.
Not only was the guy not miserable, he seemed to be living quite comfortably. He had even become the big shot among a whole group of cats.
Not bad, little bro.
Who would've thought you were the local tyrant of this villa community?
"Here, kitty kitty?"
"Meow meow meow?"
"Squeak squeak squeak?"
Jiang Qiao made all sorts of sounds—ones for teasing dogs, cats, and mice—and successfully drew the group of cats' attention.
The cats immediately abandoned their assault on the lone warrior and turned to look at Jiang Qiao warily. Their eyes carried a dangerous glint, while hissing warnings came from their throats.
"White Tiger?"
Jiang Qiao took out some dried fish and put on a friendly smile.
Black Tiger definitely didn't understand that he was calling it "White Tiger" yet, but that didn't matter. It understood dried fish.
Sure enough, a gleam appeared in the Black Cat's amber eyes, and it came over with elegant feline steps.
First, it sniffed the treat with its nose. Then it extended its tongue and licked it. Finally, it bit down, hopped several steps backward, and watched Jiang Qiao warily as it swiftly swallowed the dried fish.
Seeing this, Jiang Qiao's heart leaped.
There was hope.
He immediately took out a large bag of dried fish.
"Want some?"
"Meow?"
"If you want some, acknowledge me as your boss."
"Meow meow?"
"Acknowledge me as your boss, and I'll pay you a salary every month. You'll get lots and lots of dried fish."
"Meow meow meow!"
And just like that, Jiang Qiao clicked to claim a cat.
It was nearing noon.
After completing three simulation rounds without gaining anything, Jiang Qiao swaggered into Aniou Hotpot Restaurant with Black Cat in his arms and a spicy snack dangling from his mouth.
When he had been shopping yesterday, Jiang Qiao had seen that this restaurant had a high rating on Chou Tuan. Everyone said the flavor was authentic.
Today, when he made plans to eat with "Happy," this was the first place he thought of.
What could he do? He loved hotpot.
The moment he entered the private room they had reserved, Jiang Qiao's eyes fell on the girl sitting by the window.
He raised an eyebrow slightly.
Huh, it was actually a girl—and a pretty one at that.
When Shen Yingning saw Jiang Qiao enter, she froze slightly, then stood and smiled.
"Greetings, Master."
She had heard Uncle Zhou say before that Master was very young, so she had been mentally prepared.
Still, after seeing him in person, she couldn't help feeling a little surprised.
After all, in the field of metaphysics, age could sometimes be an advantage. Someone too young often gave people the impression of being unreliable.
"I'm hardly worthy of being called Master. My name is Jiang Qiao." Jiang Qiao returned a friendly smile.
"My name is Shen Yingning. It's a pleasure to meet you." Shen Yingning pointed to the seat beside her with her fair hand, gesturing for him to sit.
"Please have a seat, Teacher Jiang."
"Miss Shen, you don't have to—uh..."
"Shen Yingning?"
Jiang Qiao was suddenly startled. The Coke bottle in his hand shook, and he almost spilled it.
It couldn't be such a coincidence, could it?
Looking at the tall girl before him, a strange expression appeared on Jiang Qiao's face.
A hundred and seventy-five centimeters, long legs, and the same name.
Yeah, it really was very similar.
If she really was that person, then this was truly absurd.
A mixture of excitement and awkwardness suddenly surged through Jiang Qiao's heart.
After all, in the Simulator, he and the other party had fought alongside one another with their faces pixelated. Communicating with her in person inevitably felt strange.
"Teacher Jiang, what's wrong? Do you know me?"
Shen Yingning was puzzled by Jiang Qiao's reaction.
"No, no. I just think your name sounds nice. It's like a goat farting a sheep's fart—both fashionable and trashy."
Jiang Qiao regretted his words the moment they left his mouth.
Damn it, it's all because I interacted with those idiotic netizens too much last night. I've completely forgotten how to talk.
Seeing that Shen Yingning's expression had turned somewhat odd, Jiang Qiao hurriedly changed the subject.
"Miss Shen asked me out to eat because you've encountered a ghost recently, right?"
When Jiang Qiao turned to business, Shen Yingning suppressed the trace of emotion in her heart. Her expression grew solemn, and she spoke gravely.
"Yes. I suspect I encountered something unclean."
Shen Yingning began describing the strange things she had encountered recently.
What frightened and unsettled her most were the scenes of people jumping from buildings.
Men and women, old and young, all wearing strange smiles.
Yet aside from her, no one else could see them.
Her drawing skills were quite good. She had once drawn portraits of those people who jumped, then tried to use her family's connections to investigate their identities.
But she had found nothing.
It seemed those people truly did not exist in this world.
They were merely figments of her imagination.
Yet the more that was the case, the more horrified she became.
If they truly didn't exist, how had she imagined so many unfamiliar faces out of thin air?
It wasn't one or two people, but dozens!
This left her deeply uneasy.
Because of this, she had even made a special trip to the Capital City a few days ago to visit several authoritative figures in the field of psychology.
Unfortunately, she hadn't gained much from it.
So after witnessing that shocking scene yesterday morning, she placed her hopes in Jiang Qiao.
"Teacher Jiang, these are portraits of those people."
Shen Yingning handed Jiang Qiao a stack of drawing paper.
Jiang Qiao took the drawings and looked through them one by one.
Shen Yingning's drawing skills were impressive. The figures were so lifelike they looked like photographs.
But as he continued looking, his brows furrowed.
Every person in the drawings wore an eerie smile, reminding him of the several Vicious Ghosts he had encountered the previous night.
They were almost identical.
"Please look at this one."
Shen Yingning picked up one of the drawings. It depicted an old woman.
"I saw her at North City Third Primary School. She jumped from the top floor of the school at the time."
"I checked the school's records and files, but there was no information about her."
"But she felt very familiar to me. I've seen her somewhere before."
"I attended North City Third Primary School."
After hearing Shen Yingning's account, Jiang Qiao fell into deep thought.
He suddenly remembered a strange tale he had once read.
Someone had encountered a curse.
His parents, wife, children, friends, and colleagues had all forgotten him.
Everything he had done in this world had acquired an alternative explanation.
No one knew that he had ever existed.
Every trace in the world that could prove he had been here had been erased.
But he truly had been here!
Jiang Qiao raised his head and looked out the window, then suddenly spoke.
"Miss Shen, let me ask you a question."
"Hmm? Teacher Jiang, go ahead."
"How do we prove that someone who doesn't exist once existed?"
Before you continue