A homeless man's friends are like the foam in your urine when you're overheated-they can vanish at any moment

Blood spurted from Lin Yu 'Lin Yu throat and splashed onto his arm. Then, with a mocking expression, his pupils dilated and glazed over, he collapsed straight to the ground.

Next...

Nothing happened.

"Tengshe" stared at the woman's corpse on the ground, momentarily shocked.

Although he had become accustomed to life and death since joining the "Death game," and had even experienced many life-or-death struggles himself, at this moment...

Tengshe seemed to have rediscovered that... sense of unreality he felt when he first saw a dead body at a murder case.

He wasn't sure if the environment had caused his mind and will to revert to the state they were in before entering the "Death game," or if the "Beast Master's " act of slitting his throat was simply too unexpected...

Or perhaps, the woman's death itself represents some kind of ominous "sign".

Shortly after Zhu Ming fell, the piercing sound of Police Siren rang out in the distance.

The sharp Police Siren drew closer from afar. Tengshe raised his head and watched the dazzling red and blue lights on the riverbank road moving toward him. He immediately snapped out of his reverie.

Although I know that everything in front of me is a hallucination based on my past experiences, being caught by the Police here is definitely not a good thing.

After all...

This isn't the China where Uncle Hat has strict Discipline.

The moment Tengshe awoke under the bridge, he wasn't quite sure which day, month, or even year it was during his wandering life.

However, Tengshe still knows the general scope of this experience—it was during his internship as an international student, a period when he was forced to wander due to a series of unforeseen events.

Therefore, Tengshe's current geographical location is not in China, but... abroad.

Furthermore, it was located in a state with relatively lax gun control in a country across the ocean where gun ownership is legal, and it was also a large, prosperous city with a large immigrant population and gang culture that led to extreme chaos.

The police here don't deal with neighborhood disputes or investigate stolen cell phones and batteries every day; they actually face all sorts of violent crimes, such as street brawls, home invasions, and murders.

Therefore, these Police are not exactly "good guys" either—after all, kind and gentle officers will soon be "survival of the fittest" in neighborhoods that are, in a sense, very close to a primitive jungle.

In this case...

It goes without saying what kind of "preferential treatment" a homeless person who has slit a woman's throat will receive!

In particular, Tengshe was well aware that although his forced wandering was due to a combination of reasons such as bankruptcy, it also included some worse things.

His current identity is... a "wanted criminal".

So...

Tengshe threw the knife into the River beside him and turned to run towards the other side of the bridge arch.

It's also an instinctive reaction—it would be strange if a fugitive, a homeless man, and someone who has just committed murder, didn't run away as soon as he heard Police Siren.

As Tengshe continued to flee, its physical weakness became increasingly apparent.

He felt his heart pounding, a rough, stinging pain in his numb limbs, especially the soles and ankles, and a slight burning sensation in his lungs with every breath, while his head was also very dizzy.

His health was in such a terrible state—malnutrition, lack of sleep, inflammation—these accumulated ailments made even escaping feel like an insurmountable ordeal.

Fortunately...

The Police Car did not stop on the riverbank, seemingly unaware that the "Beast Master's" body had been found.

It roared past and sped towards the bustling city streets.

Standing on the path beside the riverbank below the gentle slope of the river embankment, Tengshe panted as he looked at the Police Car with its Police Siren blaring. After thinking for a moment, he slowly returned to the side of "Zhu Ming's" corpse.

Although it wasn't discovered this time...

But Tengshe doesn't think he'll always be this lucky.

He dragged the "corpse" of the woman in the white coat back under the bridge.

Because it had rained and the area was near the riverbank, the ground was damp and dirty. As the Tengshe dragged the corpse, it became covered in grime.

But that's perfect.

Tengshe removed the white coat from the corpse and placed it under the cardboard box. Then he placed Zhu Ming's body on his "bed" or "nest".

He ruffled Zhu Ming's already filthy hair, making it even more disheveled. He then picked up some weeds and mud from the nearby greenery, sprinkled more dust on her body, and then covered the wound on her neck with mud, turning her body so that it faced inwards.

After doing all this, Tengshe used the sole of his shoe to wipe away the bloodstains he had dragged along the way.

This made the body look like a sleeping homeless person—there was no better way to dispose of a body at the moment.

I can't dig that deep; I'm too weak right now and I don't have the tools.

If it's thrown into the water and washed away, it will be discovered very quickly.

But... if this guy were disguised as a homeless person sleeping under a bridge, then probably no one would care at all.

After all, I've always slept here—very few people come here.

Even if you're unlucky, you can at least gain most of the day.

If you're lucky... you might get a few days' notice.

Tengshe felt that this time might be enough for him, who was trapped in the cycle.

After all, although he didn't know how much time he needed, or even what he needed to do... if he wanted to leave this place instead of being trapped in this illusion forever, he could only buy himself some time and slowly explore the city.

This scene is a recreation of a day in my past life... At least, I need to know which day it is.

Thinking of this, Tengshe couldn't help but feel a headache and self-reproach.

"Damn it, this period of wandering has been so chaotic, I can't remember anything that happened or what day it is."

But no matter what... I should just stick to my normal life routine from that period onwards.

He slowly climbed up the riverbank, then looked at the somewhat dirty and narrow Street, and headed in a direction based on his Memory —the direction of the rescue station.

Although this neighborhood isn't a wealthy area, it also doesn't have many immigrants or gangs; it's mostly inhabited by ordinary working-class people, which is why there are church-run shelters there.

Although the bloodstains had been cleaned up, the filthy Tengshe still caused the local residents to frown and avoid it when it walked down the street.

However, Tengshe had gotten used to it.

Wearing a pair of tattered sneakers that let in the wind, he quickly arrived at the neighborhood near the shelter—where there were many other poor people who looked ragged—not necessarily homeless, but they all seemed to be in poor condition.

Some of them looked somewhat more presentable than Tengshe, but most of them were in worse condition than Tengshe —although Tengshe was malnourished and weak, at least he still appeared to be a living person capable of action.

Some of the people queuing for relief meals were dazed, with bald hair and sunken faces, looking like they were about to die, or even as if they had been dead for a long time.

Tengshe knew that most of these guys had various serious health and disease problems... both physical and mental.

Most of them also have some kind of addiction problem—alcohol, painkillers, or something else worse.

These things were already somewhat commonplace for Tengshe.

He queued up and received a "nutritional meal" that was neither delicious nor very nutritious: canned beans, white bread, a little bit of cheap butter, and brewed Coffee —heaven knows why there was Coffee in a meal for the homeless, but Tengshe wasn't picky.

After finishing the canned beans and butter, and taking a couple of sips of Coffee before throwing it away, Tengshe continued to wander aimlessly through the streets with his bread in his pocket—in a sense, the life of a vagrant is actually very free, with almost no restrictions.

He can go wherever he wants.

After filling his stomach a little and regaining his strength, Tengshe continued walking along the street, passing through places whose Memory were somewhat hazy but which still felt somewhat familiar upon seeing them again.

A damaged trash can on one side, a lamppost with peeling paint, the "homes" that other homeless men have built in the Alley with wooden planks, a fast food restaurant that refreshes its food waste after 10 p. m...

For some reason, although he experienced the numbness, embarrassment and hardship he had felt before, after a brief period of adjustment, Tengshe felt... as if he had returned to his "comfort zone".

Perhaps this is why, even though he is now in China, even though he has gained considerable strength through the "Death game" and made many reliable "friends," and can escape his homeless life at any time, he still chooses to "wander."

Perhaps it was because of his inner pride that he didn't want the "Night Watcher" or other friends he made in the "Death game" to help him.

But more importantly, it's because Tengshe clearly realized...

"I seem to have always been a very 'socialized' person. It turns out that being a wanderer is a more suitable... lifestyle for me."

As Tengshe walked, he came to an underground passage. He used to have a very good friend here—not exactly a vagrant, but a Hippie who called himself a "musician," who would play and sing his original songs on his guitar.

One day, this guy suddenly disappeared, but Tengshe didn't pay much attention... After all, friends of a homeless person are more likely to disappear inexplicably than "Player" in a "Death game".

Just like the foam that floats when you pee into the toilet and feel hot, you might think it will last a long time, but that's only relative to the word "foam"—these things are essentially still foam, and they will disappear as soon as you close and reopen the toilet lid.