From Igniting Talent to Becoming a Demon God Section 20

Just then, his wristwatch vibrated.

He lowered his head and looked at his left wrist. Several new text messages had appeared on his smartwatch.

[800 yuan has been deducted from the bank card ending in XX92 today. Deduction successful! Current balance: 1,613.57 yuan.]

[Administration Bureau: You have paid this month's rent. Credit rating: C+! Friendly reminder: Your Welfare Loan repayment of 1,000 yuan is due on the eleventh of next month. Please keep sufficient funds in your account.]

[Jianxin Loan Company: You are already a high-credit premium customer with our company. After applying for an organ mortgage, you may withdraw a loan amount of 150,000 yuan, with an annualized interest rate of 10%-15%...]

Lu Chao opened them one by one and read through everything.

The rent for the low-rent apartment was collected by the Administration Bureau. At a fixed time each month, half was deducted from his account and half from Zhao Yuanqing's.

Up to now, supported by his two jobs, he had paid off all his debts for another month, balancing life and martial arts training as he shuffled money around.

"Too bad the Cleaning Squad cut wages. That's five hundred yuan less every month..."

"Otherwise I'd have a little more money again."

Lu Chao shook his head inwardly and closed the messages.

As for some of the unfamiliar loan company messages among them, at some point, he had started receiving loan texts one after another, and had even gotten loan calls.

It was as if they had all guessed he was practicing martial arts and was extremely short on money.

"The interest is this high, and they still need my organs as collateral."

"I wonder where my information leaked from."

After blocking another text message number, Lu Chao had no intention of mortgaging his organs and taking that risk.

His contact number was registered in quite a few places: the Patrol Bureau, the Administration Bureau, the boxing gym, Dreamfire Bar... It was hard to find out which side had the problem.

Shaking his head inwardly, he rode the tram until it finally stopped at the station and arrived at Factory Street.

The bar job did not include dinner, so he cooked for himself at home every day. That saved him some money too.

Tap, tap!

His footsteps landed on the ground as he walked off the platform.

A pitted concrete road ran straight ahead, with more than ten short concrete buildings lined up on both sides.

Flies still swarmed around the trash cans at the street entrance, giving off a faint stench. Rust-streaked pipes stretched along the gray walls toward the corner, and some old men and women had gathered outside the shops downstairs, chatting.

"Hmm?"

Feeling as if someone was sizing him up, Lu Chao turned his head and looked over.

Two figures stood at the street entrance. One was tall and thin, the other short and fat.

One wore a sleeveless hoodie, the other a loose black long-sleeved crewneck. Both wore black masks and had their hands tucked in their pockets.

Their eyes met, and the tall, thin one seemed to look him up and down a few times.

A strange pressure rose, making Lu Chao frown slightly, feeling vaguely uncomfortable.

That gaze made him feel as if he were being looked at like prey.

Confusion. Wariness.

Before those emotions could linger for long, a sharp sound came from the distance, cutting off everyone's attention.

Even the man who had been sizing him up turned to look.

Lu Chao tilted his head slightly and followed the sound.

A blue-and-white patrol car drove in from the road, red and blue lights flashing continuously on its roof.

Before long, it drove into Factory Street and stopped below Building No. 2.

Two patrol officers in blue uniforms got out one after another. In the blink of an eye, the onlookers started talking over one another and crowded around them.

"Old Li's daughter sure is unlucky. Haven't seen her for three days now, right?"

"Yeah. Who would've thought a perfectly fine living person could just go missing?"

"Sigh, this world..."

The bits of discussion drifting over from afar made Lu Chao feel something was off.

Then he turned back to look toward the intersection. The two people who had made him uncomfortable earlier had already disappeared.

"Could they have been coming for me?"

A doubt rose, and Lu Chao felt a trace of pressure.

But thinking back, he had not offended anyone.

He thought it over and over without finding an answer, while the commotion from the crowd below Building No. 2 in the distance grew louder and louder.

In the end, he walked to the foot of an old building near the street entrance.

There was a small supermarket here, with a sign reading [Fuman Supermarket].

The shop owner, Auntie Zhang, was a middle-aged woman. She stood in the doorway looking around, fanning herself with a palm-leaf fan, her face full of worry.

"Auntie Zhang, what happened?"

Lu Chao asked. He often bought things at this supermarket, so he was fairly familiar with her.

"Ah, what a sin."

With a sigh, Auntie Zhang unconsciously stopped fanning herself.

"Old Li's daughter went missing."

"They say three days ago, after she got off the night shift at the factory, she disappeared. I heard Old Li even hired someone to check her route, and the last place she showed up was right near this street corner..."

Auntie Zhang shook her head again and again, sighing softly.

The girl from Old Li's family was a good person, and she often came here to buy daily necessities.

And now... ah.

"Are there any leads?" Lu Chao was silent for a moment, then asked.

"No. What leads could the Patrol Bureau possibly have?"

Auntie Zhang shook her head and sighed, unable to stop herself from complaining. "This area of ours only has these lousy conditions. There aren't even many surveillance cameras. And the Administration Bureau, honestly, they're so stingy. If they'd been willing to install a few more cameras, things wouldn't have ended up like this."

"And I'm telling you, lately a lot of people have been guessing it was probably done by some gang. I heard someone went missing recently on Xiaoshi Street next door too..."

Her voice gradually lowered, filled with worry.

During that time, other passersby also walked up to the supermarket entrance, sighing and shaking their heads as well.

Hearing this, Lu Chao glanced at the street outside the supermarket.

The two men wearing masks from earlier had long since left, and he was not sure whether they had anything to do with this matter.

Looking around again, he saw quite a few advertising slips pasted on the concrete utility poles, including a missing-person notice for Old Li's daughter.

The heads poking out from open windows upstairs were no different from the crowd watching below. Every face was full of anxiety, worried they might become the next victim.

"Things are getting more and more chaotic..."

Lu Chao's heart tightened. He felt that public order on Factory Street had been taking a sharp turn for the worse lately.

He silently clenched his fists.

In the end, he left, quietly withdrawing from the other people's gloomy discussions.

Several days passed.

At eight in the morning, Lu Chao, dressed in a gray short-sleeved shirt, left the bus stop and walked toward the boxing gym with a black shoulder bag on his back.

There were quite a few people on the nearby streets, and the mixed aromas from several breakfast shops drifted over.

Office workers brushed past him one after another, some carrying briefcases, others biting on simple sandwiches, all of them looking hurried.

Lu Chao swept his gaze left and right, his eyes alert, but he did not notice anything unusual.

"Maybe it was just a coincidence?"

Because of the two people he had seen on Factory Street last time, as well as that slightly uncomfortable assessing gaze.

He had been especially vigilant these past few days.

However, several days had passed, and everything had remained calm, with no accidents happening at all.

Lu Chao shook his head inwardly, then suppressed his stray thoughts.

Tap, tap!

His footsteps moved forward. He passed through the iron-bar gate and greeted the old gatekeeper.

After crossing the concrete sports ground, Lu Chao walked into the Training Building under the envious gazes of many ordinary students.

Although it was only eight in the morning.