By common sense, a normal shop assistant should politely leave after a customer clearly refused their offer.
On the surface, Yu Xing was treating the shop assistant like a normal person.
So after replying, he stopped looking at him. Continuing the motion he'd started, he naturally turned back around, once again facing away from the shop assistant.
He raised the book in his hands slightly, as if preparing to continue reading the difficult passage.
Throughout the turn, his body language remained relaxed and natural, showing no sign of caution or hostility.
Yet just as he had fully turned away, his gaze left the shop assistant, and his back was completely exposed—with the book in his hands not even adjusted to the best reading angle—
In that fleeting instant, when human attention was most likely to falter,
He heard it.
It wasn't footsteps.
Or rather, not entirely.
It was a much softer, stickier sound of friction.
As if feet in soft-soled shoes were moving across the smooth wooden floor in a way that defied common sense, almost sliding.
The sound was so faint it nearly blended into the ticking of the clock and Qu Xuanqing's almost imperceptible breathing in the distance.
And it was getting closer.
The thing was approaching his back with a speed far greater than any normal walking pace, swift as a ghost!
Facing the shadows, Yu Xing's lips curved in an unruffled smile.
Just before the sticky scraping sound reached his back, Yu Xing spun around again!
The shop assistant who had been standing half a meter away, smiling, was now—right in front of him.
No, not merely right in front of him.
He was practically pressed against Yu Xing!
The pale face wore a standardized smile, less than ten centimeters from Yu Xing's. He could even