Unexpected Event

# Chapter 8: Sudden Incident

After checking all the doors and windows out of habit, Shen Xing returned to his carving workbench and sat down, motionless, his gaze fixed on the half-length wooden carving of Hong Bin. As he watched, the Mental Antibody level beneath the eyes began to rise again.

By late night, the antibody level had already broken through to Level 3.

As Shen Xing saw it, this antibody level was certainly related to his own mental strength, and the more the progress bar filled, the better.

Because he had been staring at the wooden carving the whole time, after persisting for a while, drowsiness soon came over him again.

He slept straight through till dawn. After getting up, Shen Xing felt full of energy, his cold symptoms had completely disappeared, and his overall vitality was noticeably more abundant than usual.

He guessed this was a change brought about by gazing at that half-length wooden carving.

Grabbing his phone and keys, he headed out.

Having not opened his shop for a day or two, his small business couldn't sustain itself for long.

The name of the wood carving shop was "Tingwu Shop," a name Ye Ting had come up with back then, incorporating her own name into it. Paired with the various wooden carvings in the store, the shop name actually had a bit of a feel to it.

The shop's address was on Chunyu Street in the old city district of Yungu City, about a twenty-minute walk from the Ivy Apartments where Shen Xing lived.

Chunyu Street was the closest street to the new city district. When she first opened the shop, Ye Ting had considered that this location would be the most suitable if they wanted to fully accommodate customers from both the old and new city districts.

Most importantly, the shop rent wasn't too expensive. Opening the shop now could still sustain a normal living, but making big money was out of the question.

Arriving at the shop entrance, he unlocked the U-shaped lock, pulled the doors open to both sides, stepped inside, turned on the lights, wiped down the glass display cases and wooden tables with a damp cloth, then swept the floor.

The quantity of finished wooden carvings in the shop wasn't very large, but Shen Xing accepted custom orders from customers. These specially commissioned carvings charged a higher fee and were also one of his main sources of living expenses.

When he first arrived in this world, Shen Xing discovered that while it had anime, there was no Naruto, no One Piece, and no Marvel or DC. The original body's wood carvings mostly featured Buddha statues, flowers, birds, plants, or natural scenery, with occasional human figures, but those weren't his main works.

So after arriving in this world, Shen Xing began trying to gradually change his work style. But style—once it's set—is often very difficult to change.

Even though Shen Xing had some drawing foundation from his previous life and could imitate the comic characters in his mind fairly well, after carving them, he always felt something was missing.

In the end, it came down to the issue of resembling the form but not the spirit—a matter related to technique, experience, understanding of the original work, and other factors.

Still, because these comic character carvings attracted the curiosity of some children, they did manage to net him a small fanbase of younger followers.

A few middle school students even came by every now and then to see if Shen Xing had any new works out.

Considering the richness of the works, Shen Xing added an exquisite folded card to each character, with information about that character's background, storyline, and so on, planning to gradually roll out a series.

Regardless, even in the wood carving business, one had to innovate—otherwise, he might have shut down long ago.

That day, he sold three carvings: one Kakashi Hatake, one Iron Man, and one snowy mountain landscape.

For small carvings like Kakashi Hatake, as long as the craftsmanship was fine, those kids who couldn't afford expensive figurines would always give in and buy these substitutes. Besides, this world's figurines didn't include characters from Naruto or Marvel.

As for carvings like the snowy mountain landscape, used as home decor, they were generally bought only by people who were already settled down. Many customers who came into the shop were mainly browsing out of appreciation or curiosity; very few actually pulled out their wallets to buy.

Yesterday, after absorbing the characteristics of Fake Hong Bin, the test of the changes in his palm had been interrupted by Feifei and hadn't been carried out yet.

After cleaning up the shop, Shen Xing picked up a piece of discarded wood material piled under the workbench.

This was a leftover piece of Ironwood that had been scrapped during a previous project. Ironwood came from a type of tree with extremely hard wood, and because of its tough texture, it was often used for military, construction, and other parts.

This piece of scrap wood felt very heavy in his hand, far heavier than other types of wood.

Shen Xing applied a bit of force and could feel that strange power rising in his hands. He gripped one end of the Ironwood and suddenly exerted himself.

His five fingers immediately sank into the hard, solid scrap wood.

"Holy shit!"

He released his clenched fingers and stared at the five deep finger indentations that had appeared on the surface of the Ironwood.

"Am I... practicing Eagle Claw, or Iron Palm?! Or did I turn into Popeye?!"

He looked down at his hands in shock, able to sense that, after absorbing Fake Hong Bin's characteristics, this strange power was only concentrated in his hands. Apart from that, no other part of his body had this feeling of fullness from the power.

Of course, exerting force didn't come without a cost. His ten fingers felt slightly sore, numb, and weak—probably because he hadn't properly controlled the force just now.

It was like a weightlifter suddenly bursting during a competition, lifting a weight he had never successfully challenged before, then suddenly fainting or having blood come from his mouth and nose afterward.

He put the Ironwood with the five finger marks into his bag to take home. Shen Xing felt he could use it later to test his strength, and besides, this thing shouldn't be exposed in front of customers right now.

At sunset, the day's business came to an end.

After closing the shop, Shen Xing also packed up an unfinished half-palm-sized Buddha statue carving from the shop, planning to polish it further when he got home.

Carrying his small backpack, he walked back toward the Ivy Apartments as usual.

When he reached the entrance of the complex, his expression froze. He saw two cars parked at the gate, their police lights flashing.

People were standing across the street, whispering to each other, occasionally pointing toward the complex.

Shen Xing frowned, walked through the entrance, and then headed up the stairs from the left side.

This old complex had no security guards, let alone any property management, so the chances of burglars breaking in were high. Maybe one of the residents had gone to work during the day and their place got robbed.

Thinking about the possibility of the police cars outside, Shen Xing climbed the stairs.

Just as he was about to reach the third floor, his gaze suddenly froze, and he remained motionless in his climbing posture.

In his line of sight, a red eye stared directly at the stairwell where he stood.

This eye was unfocused, lifeless, exuding a sense of death, yet the upper and lower eyelids seemed to be held open by an invisible force.

It was a woman who had been dead for some time. Her body was lying prone inside the doorway of the room directly facing the stairwell. The door was open. Her right cheek was pressed against the ground, one eye pinned beneath and unclear, while the other eye faced the direction of the third-floor stairwell, as if scrutinizing everyone who came up from the stairs.

This scene sent a chill of horror through Shen Xing, who had just reached this spot.

He recognized her. The dead woman lying on the ground was Feifei's mother—Lin Wanru!

In the past two days since uploading the new book, I've been seeing so many familiar faces from old readers—it feels like coming home! O(∩_∩)O Starting next week, stable updates, two chapters daily, around noon and 9 PM. Please collect, please recommend, let's go!