Sorry

???

After a flood of question marks popped up in the stalker's head, he took out his phone and sent a WeChat message. Then, pretending to be just wandering around, he went inside, paid fifteen yuan for a locker tag, and pushed open the locker room door.

A wave of hot, humid steam rushed into his face.

Naked men moved between several rows of lockers, changing clothes, but Huai Shi was nowhere to be seen. He only had time to notice the rubber curtain leading to the bathing area sway before someone had already gone through it.

Suppressing his confusion and anxiety, he calmly opened a locker, stripped naked, and headed toward the baths.

When he lifted the rubber curtain, he saw the expressionless boy through the oncoming steam, still completely dressed from head to toe.

He froze where he stood.

What the hell?

"Why are you following me?" Huai Shi asked directly.

"...What are you talking about?"

The muscular man's expression twitched. Very quickly, his face turned puzzled, as though he genuinely could not understand. Somewhat impatiently, he waved his hand. "Could you move?"

"Sorry, I can't."

Huai Shi sighed and stepped forward.

Bang!

The stalker's vision went black. Only then did he hear the heavy sound of a fist smashing into his face. His feet slipped, and he fell backward onto the ground.

"I asked you—"

Huai Shi crouched beside him, looking down at his face as he repeated the question from before. "Why are you following me?"

"Fuck..."

The burly man flew into a rage and raised his arm to slap him, but the moment his arm came up, his vision went black again.

Huai Shi threw a full-force punch.

Bang!

Under the stunned gazes of the people changing clothes, Huai Shi reached out, grabbed his hair, hauled his head up, and dragged him into the locker room before violently smashing his head against a locker.

Once, twice, three times!

Only when a huge dent appeared in the thin metal locker did the man struggle desperately, yet he still could not break free from Huai Shi's grip.

For the last time, Huai Shi asked:

"—Why are you following me?!"

"Go fuck yourself!"

In blinding pain, the stalker cursed and kicked fiercely at Huai Shi. He did not even care that his hair was being ripped out. The instant Huai Shi loosened his grip, he scrambled up from the ground.

Rather than fighting back, he bolted straight for the locker room exit.

With a bang, the cheap plywood door was smashed apart. The long spring attached to the doorknob lashed across him, leaving a bloody gash.

He nearly crashed into the counter.

Amid the shocked shriek of the woman at the counter, he grabbed several bathing baskets from atop it and hurled them at the boy pursuing him. Then, without even wrapping himself in a towel, he charged straight out of the bathhouse and ran for his life...

Huai Shi sprinted after him.

The tables had turned.

Now, the barefoot stalker was running naked down the street while Huai Shi pursued him relentlessly from behind.

Ignoring the strange sensation and pain of his bare feet striking the ground, he charged through the screams of passing women like a wild dog off its leash.

Whether he had sacrificed his dignity for strength or liberated himself beneath the filming of dozens of phone cameras, the man actually sped up again. For a while, Huai Shi could barely keep up.

Only when he finally ran out of strength did Huai Shi corner him in an alley. Panting heavily, he shuffled backward, only to discover there was nowhere left to retreat.

"Why are you following me?"

Huai Shi stood at the entrance to the alley and looked at him calmly. "Are you going to make this easy, or do I have to find the answer myself?"

"I don't know..."

The naked stalker leaned against the wall, gasping desperately. "I don't know what you're talking about..."

"Looks like you picked the second option."

Huai Shi fell silent for a moment, then looked up at him. "Honestly, I didn't want to do this."

In that instant, a sharp crackling sound of knuckles grinding together rang out in the alley.

Then the stalker saw a black shadow rapidly swell before his eyes. Beneath the stomp of those old leather shoes, the stone paving of the alley suddenly sank, squeezing foul-smelling sewage up from below.

And Huai Shi was already right in front of him.

Bang!

The stalker suddenly doubled over, feeling as though his lungs and organs were about to be squeezed out through his mouth. His bare feet nearly left the ground, while the arms he raised to block were flung aside by the violent impact.

Before he could regain his footing, the descending fist had already opened into a palm, shoving his face backward, backward, farther backward, until... Bang!

His head smashed into the wall.

He instinctively tried to bend over and curl up, but then felt a chill between his legs. Something kicked him there through the howling wind.

He let out a strange cry.

His eyeballs nearly popped out of his face.

"Die!"

His face twisted in agony. While dodging, he picked up a liquor bottle from the ground, smashed it, and stabbed it toward Huai Shi's neck.

But then pain shot through his wrist. His arm bent at a bizarre angle, the broken bottle stabbed into his own thigh, and blood gushed out like a fountain.

Only then did the sharp agony of his broken arm and slashed thigh erupt.

He screamed in terror, then discovered a hand clamped around his neck, lifting him up and smashing him against the wall. Huai Shi looked at his twisted face and roared:

"—Why are you following me?!"

Silence arrived without warning.

The man suddenly stopped struggling. Looking at Huai Shi's furious expression, he seemed to have seen a joke and began to laugh.

A smile squeezed onto his twitching face. It was impossible to tell whether it was mocking or ingratiating.

His lips trembled and opened with difficulty, as though he were confessing.

"I wanted... some money..."

Huai Shi fell silent. Looking at his old suit with fraying cuffs and his old leather shoes with split seams, he tried his best to believe him, but in the end, he could not help lowering his eyes.

He slowly released his hand, allowing the man to collapse to the ground, gasping desperately, coughing and convulsing through waves of pain.

"Fine."

Huai Shi suddenly said, "I'll give you money."

The instant the man looked up in astonishment, Huai Shi reached out and covered his mouth and nose—then poured the costly Tribulation Ash into his mouth.

In that instant, as Huai Shi's fingers clamped shut, a shrill cry came from the sealed mouth. The man suddenly convulsed, struggling desperately on the ground despite his injuries.

Indescribable terror and sorrow flooded into his body, ravaging his soul. Blurred sounds kept rising from his throat, but Huai Shi held him tightly shut, leaving him unable to vent them.

Only when Huai Shi heard the sudden screech of brakes from the alley entrance behind him did he look back. As the van doors opened, several masked men jumped out and blocked the alley entrance.

Their hands were tucked into their bulging coats. None of them spoke. They merely stared maliciously at the boy in the alley.

In the silence, Huai Shi finally released the stalker and slowly turned around. Looking at those ill-intentioned newcomers, he finally understood why that man had lured him into a place like this.

"That's him!"

As the stalker convulsing on the ground raised a hand and pointed at Huai Shi, the man in front reached into his coat and drew out a machete wrapped with a dark green cord. Then other prohibited blades came into view as well.

Huai Shi raised his brows in astonishment, unable to believe it.

"Doesn't anyone want to explain?" he asked doubtfully. "Like how it's perfectly reasonable for auto repair shop employees to carry prohibited weapons around?"

A strange, snickering laugh came from behind him.

"Someone... paid... paid for your life..."

Coughing violently, the man lying on the ground struggled to prop himself up with one hand. A cold smile squeezed onto his twisted face. "If you know what's good for you, don't struggle... too ugly..."

Huai Shi fell silent, raised his foot, and stomped hard on his head.

Bang!

The man collapsed completely and did not move again.

Huai Shi turned back to look at the men closing in and could not help sighing. "So there's no way to settle this peacefully, right?"

No one answered him.

In the deathly silence, Huai Shi raised his hand, unbuttoned his coat, then took off the suit jacket he had worn for years. He folded it, carefully found a clean spot on the naked man's body, and placed it there.

At last, he stood up, bent forward, and bowed.

His manner was sincere and humble.

"I'm sorry," he said. "My friend died. I'm very sad."

"..."

In their momentary astonishment, the men froze, unable to stop themselves from wanting to laugh.

But then they saw the boy slowly raise his head and look at them expressionlessly. "So if I do anything wrong later, let me apologize in advance—"

As he spoke, he slowly raised both hands and assumed a stance before his chest.

He offered the last shred of compassion in his heart to his enemies.

—Roman Dagger Combat Technique LV6!

"It's still so deserted here."

The girl in the wheelchair sat before the desk and looked around. "It seems to have gotten bigger again."

This was the municipal library.

More precisely, this was the municipal library's underground storage warehouse—under the monotonous glow of cold fluorescent lights, enormous rows of bookshelves stretched all the way to the end of sight, disappearing into unseen darkness.

Over the past sixty years, every periodical, newspaper, government notice, and administrative regulation that had appeared in all of Xin Hai City... in short, everything printed on paper and available to the public was stored here in duplicate.

Even the electronic versions were kept in the server room next door, ready to be retrieved at any time.

Although this was one of the municipal library's responsibilities, the reason it had been taken to such an exaggerated extent was the man behind the desk: the current librarian of Xin Hai City, an Ascender known as the Professor.

He really could be called a professor. This man had accumulated so many degrees that even he could no longer count them all—after all, his greatest hobby was staying in this massive underground warehouse and reading.

He refused to leave.