Coming to Ground

Since he had decided to move, Li Bai went all out. He spent the entire afternoon clearing out the old, run-down apartment. Aside from the outlet covers on the walls and the ceiling lights, he moved everything out—not even sparing the window air conditioner. In the kitchen, all that remained was a lonely gas pipe, while the water pipes had been stripped down to their angle valves.

You could say Li Bai had launched a full-scale purge.

The banging and clattering inevitably caught the attention of the landlord across the hall. Just as Li Bai shut the door for the last time and prepared to move to his new home for good, Yang Fa poked his head out again.

The unscrupulous landlord clearly had no idea what had happened in the rental unit across the hall. Looking thoroughly annoyed, he demanded, "Xiao Li, what the hell are you banging around in there for? You're making a racket! And when are you paying next year's rent? If you don't want to pay, move out right now! I'll throw all your stuff out, and you can forget about getting your deposit back."

He'd started by demanding rent, already forgetting that he'd agreed that morning to give Li Bai three more days.

Yang Fa was only thinking about getting his hands on the money when the prospective buyer came to sign the contract tomorrow. He couldn't care less about what happened to the tenants or the buyers.

"Brother Yang, how can you say it's noisy over here? If anyone's making noise, it's you!"

Li Bai looked completely innocent.

"What? I'm making noise? How have I been noisy?"

He hadn't expected Li Bai to turn the accusation back on him. Yang Fa immediately turned red in the face and neck, looking frighteningly furious.

"You made such a racket at your place last night. It went on until almost dawn. I don't even have a girlfriend yet, you know?"

Li Bai's final words were the perfect finishing touch.

"What racket last night? I was home alone, I—"

Yang Fa was about to start cursing when he suddenly sensed something was wrong. At that moment, his ear was yanked tight, then nearly torn off. He grimaced in pain.

Yang Fa's wife had appeared behind him at some point. She grabbed the man by the ear and twisted it hard.

"I wasn't home last night, so what kind of racket were you making? Even Xiao Li heard you! Explain yourself! You actually brought some fox spirit into our home? You've got some nerve..."

Bam!

The door slammed shut. A sharp crack came from inside, followed by Yang Fa's wail.

"Wife, honey, just let me explain..."

"I don't want to hear your explanations! Who was it? That slut Xiao Li upstairs, or some wild woman from who knows where? You'd better come clean, or we're not done here..."

The couple had clearly forgotten all about Li Bai, the instigator, and were busy dealing with their own mess.

Oh, man!

Li Bai awkwardly gazed at the closed door across the hall as clattering sounds came from inside.

He definitely hadn't done it on purpose. Who could have guessed things would line up so perfectly?

A three-foot-thick layer of ice didn't freeze in a single day. Yang Fa had always been up to something with that steady rental income in his pocket. He'd secretly flirted and acted cozy with his female tenants, though he'd hidden it well. His wife had probably suspected something, but without proof, she'd kept it to herself.

Li Bai's accidental remark had shattered the fragile balance between them.

Yang Fa was in a bind: no matter what the truth was, he couldn't deny it. And the truth didn't matter much to his wife anyway. What mattered was that she now had a perfectly good excuse to let loose.

"Stop hitting me! If you lay a hand on me again, I won't hold back! Ow, that hurts!"

"Come on! Come on, you shameless bastard! So now you're fooling around with a mistress! I'll fight you to the death!"

"Get off me! Let go, let go!"

"Ah!"

Behind the closed door, Yang Fa got a thorough beating. His anguished howls echoed through every floor of the entire building.

This time, there was certainly no shortage of noise.

After listening for a moment to the live soundtrack of the couple beating each other up, Li Bai swaggered downstairs.

Getting a little revenge had cleared his mind.

He revved up the Santana and headed for his new home without looking back.

As for the deposit, he'd leave it to that miserly skinflint to cover his medical bills...

Once he'd hauled over the last of his belongings, the windows and floors of his new home, 1901, were spotless. The light was excellent, and it put him in a good mood. It had two bedrooms and a living room, one bedroom for sleeping and the other to use as a study.

There was still plenty of open space, so Li Bai planned to buy some more furniture, such as bookshelves, a coat rack, a shoe rack, and some plant stands.

They had barely settled in when Qingyao Demoness eagerly flipped open the laptop, ready to log into the "17th Floor" forum and find some unlucky opponent to ruthlessly slaughter. There were plenty of targets on the forum—scammers, scumbags, mama's boys, and the recent Qingliang Temple accounts, both large and small. There was more than enough to bring out the Azure Flood Dragon's demonic nature.

The free Wi-Fi Yongling Martial Arts Fitness Center provided for its employees covered the whole floor. The newly rented 1901 had full signal too, so unless the power went out, Li Bai would have a hard time cutting off the demoness's internet again.

Good thing they'd already agreed on the conditions. Otherwise, this internet addiction would have been a tough one to cure.

Leaving the demoness in the study to swish her little tail and hammer away at the laptop, Li Bai pulled out his phone and dialed a number.

"Xiao Wang, I've signed the rental contract with Mr. Xiao. The place is great, and I moved in this afternoon. Let's have dinner together tonight. My treat. We can invite Old Zhang and the others too."

They'd helped him find such a nice rental, so treating them to dinner was only right. It was just normal give and take between friends.

"Old Xiao already told me. I'm glad you're happy with it. The place I found is definitely better value than anything an agent could offer. You pick the time and place, or I can find somewhere. I'll have to ask Old Zhang and the others, though. They might not be free. Something big is really about to go down this time. I can't say more now—let's talk tonight."

Li Bai was very pleased with his childhood friend's place, and he'd signed the contract on the spot. Officer Xiao Wang was happy too, feeling rather proud of himself for doing his friend a good turn.

"Six thirty, Grandma's Home on Tengfei Road. I'll book a table."

Li Bai quickly chose a place for the dinner.

"Sounds good. That place is great value!"

Xiao Wang had been to the restaurant called Grandma's Home and knew it was a good spot for a group dinner.

Old Zhang and the others were working on a major case, so they usually had to be careful about these things. But Li Bai was organizing the dinner at a popular place like Grandma's Home, so there wasn't much to worry about. After all, the one treating them was the key contributor who had helped crack the case.

After asking Officer Xiao Wang to gather the people from the Public Security Bureau, Li Bai soon reached the first floor. He went around the side entrance of the mixed-use building and came out onto the street in front of Yongling Martial Arts Fitness Center.

Since the dinner was a chance to get to know friends, Li Bai had also invited Xiao Jiangnan and Xiao Wei, the siblings who'd given him a special rate on the rent.

But the moment he stepped into Yongling Martial Arts Fitness Center, he saw a crowd of people packed together, making a racket. They were not only blocking the front desk but also the path to the stairs.

"Excuse me, coming through! Sorry, coming through—please let me pass!"

Calling out as he tried to squeeze through the crowd, Li Bai had only made it a few steps when a short, stocky, dark-skinned young man abruptly turned around and barked at him, his face cold. "What are you doing? Move aside!"

He twisted his body and tried to slam Li Bai back.

The two collided without a sound. The crowd suddenly erupted into chaos. Caught off guard, several people were knocked off balance by those around them, and four or five of them tumbled to the ground.

The short, stocky young man didn't fare much better. It felt as if he'd crashed into a wall. As much force as he'd put into the collision rebounded against him. If the people beside him hadn't absorbed some of the impact, he would have fallen too.

Standing perfectly still, Li Bai said as if nothing had happened, "Please let me through."

"Doctor Li!"

As the crowd staggered in all directions, Xiao Wei's voice reached Li Bai.

"Huh? You're here too? Perfect. I've arranged a dinner tonight—come along!"

Li Bai had originally planned to go up to the third floor to find the Xiao siblings, but he hadn't expected them to be on the first floor.

"Hey, who are you?"

The short, stocky young man had failed to get the better of Li Bai and had nearly embarrassed himself. Ignoring Li Bai's conversation with the Xiao siblings, he raised a fist as big as a washbasin and swung it at him with a vicious whoosh.