Strange Arrival 5

...What the hell?!

Yes, that silhouette had appeared out of nowhere and vanished into thin air. Even if Ye Zhao wanted to chase after it, she had no idea where to go.

A sheet of paper appeared out of nowhere, with two words written on it: Thank you~ [Heart]

Ye Zhao: ???

That was right. Someone had witnessed her battle with the Child Ghost. She had never expected there to be a third person at the scene—and that person had stolen her spoils!

She looked around, trying to find anyone suspicious. There was no one. Absolutely no one!

Ye Zhao was so furious she nearly keeled over. She had risked her life coming out today, failed to Scan the Bronze Mirror, and even lost the rose she had worked so hard to obtain!

She had not even gotten to touch it once.

Though she was furious, she had no choice but to accept reality. Her rose had been stolen!

Ye Zhao did not return to the previous shopping district. The commotion just now had been considerable, and she was afraid it would draw the attention of other little ghosts. She did not dare hail a taxi either. Instead, she took the nearest subway and followed several office workers whose feet cast shadows to wait for the train.

Just then, a remarkably handsome young man walked over. Wearing a white T-shirt and jeans, he smiled shyly and said, "Miss, please have mercy. My wallet was stolen, and I'm still short of some money to get home. Could you spare me ten yuan and help me get home?"

The man was truly gorgeous—even prettier than the male celebrities Ye Zhao had seen on television. Dressed simply yet stylishly, with a tiny diamond stud in one ear, he was clearly beautiful but also looked like a naive, harmless college student.

The two young women beside Ye Zhao readily gave him all the loose change in their bags. The man blinked at them with a smile. "Thank you, two kind ladies. I'll remember this for the rest of my life."

He walked up to Ye Zhao and looked at her with the same pitiful eyes. Ye Zhao looked at the man before taking out a hundred-yuan bill from her pocket and handing it to him.

The man said, "Miss, you're so kind. Good people live peaceful lives."

For some reason, Ye Zhao was a little suspicious of this handsome guy. He looked somewhat like the figure who had stolen her rose earlier.

Though they wore different clothes, one in black and one in white, their builds looked somewhat alike. Not just somewhat—they looked very, very alike.

After her Constitution had improved, Ye Zhao's memory had improved considerably as well. She would not be mistaken.

But she had not Scanned a rose on the handsome guy, nor had she Scanned the Bronze Mirror. There were not even any game items such as an Exorcism Talisman.

Not a Player?

Still, it was possible that, like her, he had drawn a spatial item or a Teleportation card. After all, he could appear out of nowhere and disappear again.

Ye Zhao stepped closer. "Let's talk over there?"

Tu'an froze for a moment. The two girls beside him also looked at Ye Zhao with surprise and displeasure. They thought that if she wanted to give him money, she could just do so—why did she have to ask this handsome young man out alone?

There was confusion and embarrassment in Tu'an's naive, harmless eyes. "Miss, I..."

Ye Zhao had already moved closer. Her hand in her pocket had gripped a small knife, which she pressed against the man's abdomen. Tu'an shuddered all over and did not dare say another word. Following Ye Zhao's directions, he walked with her to a corner.

"Hand it over."

Tu'an raised both hands, holding out the hundred-yuan bill. "Miss, don't be like this. I'll return your money, okay?"

Ye Zhao said, "You know I'm not talking about that. Hand it over."

After hesitating for a while, Tu'an pulled out several more stacks of bills, each made up of tens and twenties. "...I just didn't want to work, so I scammed a little money. I haven't done anything truly awful!"

Ye Zhao stared at him, wanting to see signs of lying on his face. Unfortunately, this guy was genuinely good at it—she could not see anything at all.

The knife tip moved closer. Tu'an's face went pale with pain, and he grew even more terrified. "Miss, please calm down! I'll never scam money again!"

Ye Zhao thought, Was it really not him?

She put away the knife and took two steps back. Tu'an hurriedly lifted his shirt, exposing his eight-pack abs and the red dot left by the knife tip on his stomach.

Any harder, and it would have broken the skin.

"Miss, you were really ruthless. I thought I was going to die!"

Ye Zhao coughed awkwardly and tossed him a stack of money. "Sorry, I mistook you for someone else."

She turned and left. The other two young women had called over subway staff, claiming that she had threatened someone and so on. The two girls in particular rushed to Tu'an's side and asked whether he had been hurt.

Ye Zhao said nothing. Tu'an immediately explained, "No, no, she didn't threaten me! We just had a small misunderstanding, and we've cleared it up now!"

After a round of explanations, Ye Zhao was finally cleared of suspicion and boarded the high-speed train back.

The handsome guy bore no grudge and watched Ye Zhao and the others board and leave, even thoughtfully waving goodbye.

Ye Zhao truly did not want to admit that she had misjudged him, but she really had no evidence proving that the handsome guy was the thief who had stolen her rose.

Besides, there were so many people around that she could not make a move. She had no desire to face the supernatural in a police station. Just thinking about it made her shiver. The supernatural was truly terrifying!

After watching Ye Zhao leave, Tu'an used the same method to fleece another batch of suckers at the subway station. Only before nightfall did he leave the station. He put on sunglasses and a hat, then headed toward a nearby hotel.

Good. He had another day's lodging money.

But after only a few steps, several thugs surrounded him. "Brother, we heard you made quite a bit today. How about treating us brothers to a drink?"

Tu'an cowered and did not dare resist as the men herded him into a shadowy corner...

A few minutes later, Tu'an emerged looking harmless and innocent. The people in this world were so nice, fighting to give him money.

As if he had thought of something amusing, he even grinned.

Ye Zhao returned to the hotel. As usual, Brother Qiao escorted her back to Room 909. When she had decided to take the subway back to the hotel, she had sent Brother Qiao a message telling him to inform the driver to return to the hotel and not wait for her.

Her mood was far from pleasant. Child Ghost probably hated her to death, and to make matters worse, someone had snatched the rose away. She had drawn all that aggro for nothing and suffered a huge loss.

Why had she risked her life to go out in the first place?

Once she found that man, she would chop him into a thousand pieces!

After dinner, she lay on the sofa as usual and scrolled through the news for a while. Today's trending story was about a patch of ground on XX Street that had suddenly been scorched black, with even the paving tiles split apart. Experts had determined it was caused by lightning, yet no one had seen any lightning—and it had struck such a wide area at once. It was truly bizarre, and speculation ran rampant.

[Could some powerful expert be undergoing a tribulation?]

[I don't know whether anyone's undergoing a tribulation, but I suspect my memories were erased. I was walking along just fine one second, and the ground was blasted apart the next. Can someone tell me what happened?]

[Does this mean immortals really exist in this world? Bodhisattva, bless me so I can win five million!]

[That's so outrageous! I'm going there tomorrow to soak up some immortal aura!]

[...]

Ye Zhao browsed the news for a while. Although she was the one who had caused the incident, she didn't leave a reply and instead planned to wash up and go to sleep.

Mm, taking a shower was another technical challenge. She was afraid that blood water would start pouring out while she was washing...

At the same time, a male Player saw the news. As active online as ever, he picked a comment that read, [Could an immortal really be undergoing a tribulation?] and replied, [Not necessarily an immortal, you know~]

If it wasn't an immortal, there were still ghosts.

Who knew that the moment he sent it, a chill ran through his entire body and the surrounding temperature plummeted. He looked up in terror and saw a long-haired woman in white crawling out of his phone. He was so frightened that he threw the phone away!

Internet Cable Ghost giggled. "You responded to me~~"