"Something wrong with her head?"
Mad Rat narrowed his eyes and lightly tapped his wire-wrapped club against the ground.
"Kid, this doesn't look like fooling around to me. That kick shattered my brother's breastbone. You call that fooling around? Your family must have some pretty hardcore parenting methods."
Although Xia Lin's sudden intervention had thrown the thugs off for a moment, their encirclement hadn't dispersed. If anything, their companion's injury had made them close in tighter.
Sky took a deep breath, about to retort, "I did it for justice," but the hand gripping her wrist suddenly tightened, hard enough to feel as though it would crush her bones.
"I'll cover his medical bills! Double!" Xia Lin shouted before she could speak. His other hand slipped naturally into his clothes, pulled out a pouch of coins, and tossed it into Mad Rat's arms. "But we should be reasonable about this, right? Boss, you're a businessman. In this line of work, a reputation is worth more than a life."
Mad Rat caught the pouch and gave Xia Lin a faint, ambiguous smile. "What are you getting at?"
"What I'm saying is, this girl may hit hard, but she does have a good eye."
Xia Lin glanced around. The earlier confrontation had already scared off the outsiders nearby.
Sky opened her mouth to say something, but Xia Lin had already taken something out of his Space Bag.
It was an exquisite half mask made from some kind of white ceramic, its surface painted with an exaggerated theatrical expression-one half smiling, the other weeping.
[Wondrous item: The Actor's Mask]
Xia Lin quietly activated its ability, aimed it at Sky, and recited inwardly:
Role concept: "Silent listener"!
Sky suddenly froze just as she was about to speak.
Her expression turned somewhat blank, as