Surprise

On the way back, Huai Shi sat in the car, watching the dazzling neon lights gradually recede as they entered more familiar, dimly lit streets.

Beneath streetlights that had long since been smashed to pieces, homeless people sheltering in cardboard boxes poked their heads out from the alleys to look around. Shouts of anger and abuse drifted over from afar, along with the cries of children.

Amid the scrape of metal, the convenience store that had finished business pulled down its shutter.

Soon, aside from the hurried footsteps of passersby, the street was left only with the sounds of drunks vomiting...

It could hardly be called happy or beautiful, yet for some reason, Huai Shi finally relaxed. It was as though he had returned from a drifting illusion to reality and felt familiar gravity again.

He closed his eyes and sighed silently.

"Boss seems to be in a bad mood," Ueno, who was driving, suddenly said.

"Hm?" Huai Shi asked. "Why do you say that? Is my expression really that obvious?"

Ueno thought for a long time, then smacked his forehead and shook his head. "I don't know. It just feels like it..."

Huai Shi was speechless. Was this the sharp intuition of a single-celled organism? It truly inspired admiration.

After thinking for a long time, he ultimately could not help asking, "Ueno, if one day you didn't have to be Gokudō anymore, what would you want to do?"

"Huh?" Ueno did not understand at all.

"I mean... what would you do if you weren't Gokudō anymore?"

Ueno stared at him in disbelief. "Wouldn't that mean I couldn't survive?"

"...Not necessarily, right?"

"Boss, I'm a little embarrassed to say this, but I can't even use a calculator," Ueno said seriously. "With tattoos like these, even convenience stores probably wouldn't hire