Cash on the Barrelhead

"Is there some shameful secret in there?"

Li Ran waved the ID card in his hand and eyed the panicked Yang Baobao suspiciously.

"No. Please give me back my ID. I've shown you my sincerity, so please keep your promise."

"Promise? When did I ever promise you anything?"

"You..."

Faced with a shameless man like Li Ran, Yang Baobao was so furious she could hardly breathe.

But he had her secret in his grasp, and another shameful secret was about to be exposed.

Her expression turned hideous. She was both terrified and burning with rage.

Li Ran shoved Yang Baobao aside and headed straight for the basement.

A locked green iron door stood at the entrance to the basement. A heavy chain and a brass padlock hung from it, and a faint chill seeped through the gap beneath the door. You could feel the cold from downstairs just by standing near it.

Yang Baobao rushed after him and blocked the door with her body. "If you insist on going in, I swear I'll kill you and then kill myself!"

Li Ran opened his mouth, surprised by how resolute Yang Baobao was.

What was inside the basement?

Other people might not know, but Li Ran did.

He still clearly remembered the look of terror on Deng Zhiwei's face.

"My master likes collecting faces, especially beautiful women's faces."

"She stores the faces in the basement as works of art."

A cold glint flashed in Li Ran's eyes as he stared at the iron door behind Yang Baobao. If he wasn't mistaken, this was also where Deng Zhiwei had disposed of the bodies.

"My master made me clean up... I was scared. I didn't know what to do... You know, when I was dealing with that corpse, she was still alive. Hahaha... In the end, I flushed them all down the sewer."

Deng Zhiwei's words were downright horrifying. If Yang Baobao hadn't forced him to do it, if he hadn't been made to dispose of the bodies, Deng Zhiwei wouldn't have contracted the virus in the middle of the night. The murderous urge inside him would never have been triggered, and he wouldn't have ended up becoming a monstrous executioner.

Thinking of this, Li Ran felt no sympathy whatsoever for the person in front of him, who was neither entirely male nor female.

If he were strong enough, he would even take revenge for Deng Zhiwei himself.

The killing intent in Li Ran's eyes slowly faded. He knew full well that if they fought, he wouldn't be a match for Yang Baobao.

"I don't have to go in," Li Ran said.

Yang Baobao breathed a sigh of relief, and the killing intent in her eyes faded too.

"I can give your ID back as well."

Yang Baobao's expression softened, but when she realized Li Ran's next sentence was going to start with "but," her face darkened again.

"But..."

Li Ran paused to study Yang Baobao's expression, then said gravely, "A lot of young women have gone missing lately. Every single one of them has been here. Mr. Yang Shuo, don't you think you should explain yourself?"

As he spoke, Li Ran glanced again at the green iron door to the basement.

Yang Baobao's expression changed drastically, and a terrifying killing intent surged out of him!

Li Ran quickly retreated to the top of the stairs and warily watched Yang Baobao, whose killing intent was raging.

"Don't do anything rash. I'll give you your ID back."

Li Ran tossed the ID card to Yang Baobao, finally calming the killing intent that had filled the air.

In truth, the ID card was no longer a bargaining chip. Li Ran had already made a backup. If he didn't leave the Beauty Salon safely, Yang Baobao's real identity and her secret of killing people and stealing their faces would be made public in ten minutes.

That was the real reason Li Ran had no fear.

"I've given your ID back, so you should at least give me a little something for bringing it all this way." Li Ran looked so earnest that anyone who didn't know better would've thought he was a good citizen returning something he'd found to its owner.

"Kid, my patience has its limits. Those two things just now were already the most I was willing to put up with!" Yang Baobao had completely lost patience.

Li Ran grinned cheekily. "Those two things were hush money for the basement, weren't they? You still haven't paid me for the ID."

"You... You're utterly shameless!"

Yang Baobao was so angry his chest hurt. Today, he'd finally learned what a truly shameless person was like.

"Big sis, you only have to give me a little something."

"If I don't leave here safely in ten minutes, everyone will learn about your past and your... preferences!"

At that moment, Yang Baobao thought Li Ran was nothing short of a vampire who sucked people dry and left them as mummies!

Yang Baobao was so furious her chest heaved. If looks could kill, Li Ran would already have been a mangled corpse.

"Big sis, I promise this is the last time," Li Ran said with a beaming smile.

That was also meant to put Yang Baobao's mind at ease.

As long as she could keep that kid quiet, her secret wouldn't be exposed.

At the thought, she gritted her teeth as though making a difficult decision, then slowly walked up to the second floor.

Li Ran heard her rummaging through things. Then Yang Baobao came back down carrying a white box.

"This is a treasure I've kept for years."

Yang Baobao's words nearly made Li Ran's eyes pop out of his head.

Equipment with a purple glow?

Rare-grade?

Rare-grade equipment was hard to come by, and its value went without saying.

At the Points Mall, a rare piece of equipment with no skills and lousy stats cost at least three thousand points. One with a skill cost five thousand. One with both a skill and top-tier stats cost at least seven or eight thousand, and if the skill was top-tier too, it cost ten thousand or more.

After spending points on the rare skill [Magic Shadow Bite] last time, Li Ran had only 150 points left.

He couldn't even dream of getting rare equipment right now.

For the first time, Li Ran's expression shifted. He couldn't contain his excitement.

He reached out to take the box, but Yang Baobao immediately pulled it back and eyed him suspiciously. "You've got your reward. What if you kept another copy?"

Yang Baobao was referring to Li Ran's backup.

Li Ran understood her concern. If he didn't hand over the backup, he could forget about getting that top-tier equipment, or even getting out of there.

Besides, he'd already gotten two top-tier elite pieces of equipment from her. It clearly wouldn't do to give up nothing in return.

At the thought, Li Ran whistled toward the door.

A gray cat slowly emerged from the alley across the street, a USB drive in its mouth.

"Put it in the middle of the road," Li Ran told the cat.

The gray cat nodded, placed the USB drive in the middle of the pedestrian street, then retreated into the alley.

"Cash on the barrelhead," Li Ran said.

Yang Baobao tossed the box to Li Ran. In the next instant, her body turned into a streak of blood-red light and shot forward, fast as lightning.

She quickly picked up the USB drive from the ground.

"Crack!"

Yang Baobao crushed the USB drive to pieces on the spot.

She whipped around and looked back toward the shop—but Li Ran was nowhere to be seen.

"Arghhh!!!"

Yang Baobao screamed in a frenzy.

After she finished venting, her eyes turned venomous.

"Bastard! Let me see you again, and I'll tear off your face and turn your body into fertilizer to feed my pets!"

"Argh!!"