Settling Accounts

Early the next morning.

Yu Xuan slipped into her younger brother's bedroom wearing a silk dress.

Her shoulders and neck were elegant, her chest full, and her porcelain-white skin was as smooth and delicate as a girl who had just bathed. The beautiful figure hidden beneath the hem of her dress only made her look more graceful and charming.

Yu Xuan quietly bypassed the foot of her brother's bed, inadvertently tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear, revealing a side profile that would make anyone's heart skip a beat and a nearly perfect jawline.

She gazed tenderly at her sleeping brother.

The alarm clock at this moment pointed to 7:59.

The next second, the ripples in the elder sister's eyes stirred, and a cunning smile sprouted from within.

She reached out and pinched the corner of her brother's quilt: "Wake..."

Before the words had even fallen, Jiang Qian suddenly opened his eyes.

At the very moment Yu Xuan prepared to pull the quilt, Jiang Qian grabbed her wrist, yanked her toward the inside of the bed, and flipped himself up! He pinned his sister onto the bed...

The thin quilt that Yu Xuan had been gripping was now wrapped around her because of Jiang Qian's roll... Yu Xuan blinked, surprised by the sudden change in the situation.

The alarm clock buzzed beside their ears!

This... Jiang Qian realized what had happened and, looking slightly embarrassed, released his sister's jade-like wrist.

At the same time, he quickly withdrew the palm that had been about to choke his sister's throat! He braced one hand beside her ear and used the other to turn off the alarm.

The room fell quiet once more.

The morning light outside the window was dappled, and Yu Xuan's cheeks seemed to be stained with a rosy flush.

"Uh, misunderstanding. I was saying that in my dream, I was being attacked by a hundred wild bulls..."

Jiang Qian raised his hands, but before he could finish his explanation, he swallowed involuntarily... From this angle, Yu Xuan looked exceptionally alluring.

"Gulp... do you believe me?"

"...You little pervert, you're crushing my hair!!"

Smack—

Sitting in the cafe across from the Experimental Middle School staff residential building, Jiang Qian could not for the life of him understand.

Why, after his sister had taken the initiative to come to his room to stir up trouble and been caught red-handed by him, did she turn her shame into anger and resort to violence?

Where was her face??

If there was anything that made him swallow this insult, it was probably the mental damages fee currently lying in his account.

Regardless, she paid too much.

Rich women are truly terrifying! Throwing money around like dirt, beating me into a daze, yet all I want to say is thank you, boss... Jiang Qian thought, not without a sense of humiliation.

His gaze passed through the second-floor window, carefully observing the residents entering and exiting the side gate of the staff residential area.

Before coming up, he had already asked the elderly people at the gate; the newly moved-in Teacher Li lived in Building 2, Unit 3, Room 302. The path she had to take could be observed from the second-floor cafe across the street, which was exactly the position Jiang Qian now occupied.

Teacher Li went home to cook every noon and rushed back to school after lunch.

Although today was the weekend, the class Teacher Li taught was in their third year of high school, so they still had normal classes. Conversely, the little girl didn't need to go to school today.

It was the perfect opportunity.

"Old Jiang, tell me, did you see the messages in the class group?"

"The Wanzhong Group internship recruitment? I don't have time." Jiang Qian didn't even lift his head, continuing to watch out the window.

A cup of milk tea sat in front of each of them.

"Oh, that's not it! Why would Wanzhong Group even look at our major..."

The thin young man sitting across from Jiang Qian muttered.

He then began to recount with great excitement: "It's that centipede-loving content creator! He posted an update two days ago saying he accidentally discovered a massive spider in the forest park! The kind that's like an evolved version of a Maximals warrior! Then he dragged his team there yesterday to film... and guess what happened?"

"..."

"I found this!"

Seeing Jiang Qian's indifferent attitude, the thin young man's desire to share only increased!

He lowered his head and tapped away at his phone for a long time, pulled up a short video, and held it right in front of Jiang Qian's eyes.

"Look! Live footage of a giant spider attacking people!! Keep it quiet, I just finished screen-recording it, and when I clicked on the video again, it was already 404..."

At this moment, the small television on the second floor of the cafe was broadcasting a message: "The city's special public security hotline reminds you that for unconventional case reports, you may call the number below: XXXX-XXX..."

Only then did Jiang Qian slowly turn his head.

He had already seen Teacher Li leave the building carrying a trash bag and head downstairs through the skylight in the stairwell.

"Look, hurry up and look!"

The young man currently holding his phone with such devotion, presenting it to his friend like a tribute, was named Xue Yang. He was Jiang Qian's college roommate and a centipede enthusiast from the South Island.

He was dressed fashionably, with a tie clip, cufflinks, rings, and ear studs all in place, and even his hair was dyed the most popular flaxen color of the moment.

He looked just like a walking cluster of wheat.

Every time he watched the "wheat" swagger toward him, a BGM would inappropriately play in Jiang Qian's mind...

"Let me see."

Jiang Qian took the phone.

He tapped the play button on the video while simultaneously using Spirit Vision to keep an eye on the movements of the little girl and her mother.

This kind of "monitoring" only focused on large life forms, and the consumption was far less than his careful search of every corner of his own rooms yesterday. He only needed to confirm that Teacher Li had completely left and that the little girl was still at home.

The video screen shook.

It was a top-down perspective; it was unclear whether it was filmed by a passerby or a pre-set camera angle. In any case, from the lens, a group of six or seven people with filming equipment were cautiously approaching the underside of a bridge arch.

The scene was very quiet at first. The first time the cameraman screamed was because a guy carrying equipment below suddenly fell, and after falling, he dropped the equipment and struggled as he was dragged into the darkness by an invisible force!

Jiang Qian stared intently.

Before the others in the video could react, another long-haired girl was dragged into the darkness!

The group near the bridge arch panicked, throwing away their gear and fleeing in all directions. The video began to shake frequently, and the focus kept shifting.

At this moment, a murky, strange shadow flashed out of the darkness!

It moved incredibly fast!

It attacked the person who ran the slowest and retreated into the darkness with them...

The video ended shakily there, filled with the cameraman's screams, drawing glances from guests at neighboring tables.

Jiang Qian dragged the progress bar, froze it when the black shadow appeared, and zoomed in... Although it wasn't clear enough, it had the basic shape—eight slender, long legs connected to a round spider abdomen. More features could not be clearly seen in the shaky footage.

Jiang Qian exited the video, opened social media, and entered the content creator's public comment section.

What met his eyes was a massive amount of comments!

As far as the eye could see, everyone was asking if the blogger was still alive...

"How is it, how is it?" Xue Yang asked, his eyes full of enthusiasm, eager to hear his friend's commentary.

Jiang Qian pushed the phone back to Xue Yang and said bluntly: "Delete it, it's fake."

"Huh?"

Seeing the disappointment on Xue Yang's face, Jiang Qian looked away and continued to watch out the window.

If it were in the past, he probably would have started from the image quality and the bloopers, analyzing it thoroughly through the perspectives of production cost, difficulty, and return on investment, eventually reaching a conclusion that would leave his friend in awe.

But this time, he wasn't in the mood.

Jiang Qian suddenly felt a strong curiosity: besides the "divine beasts" fictionalized in literature, did the categories of identity cards include species that existed in the current world?

What exactly were super-species groups?

"Hey, hey, don't leave your words half-finished... I just think it was filmed quite realistically!" Xue Yang leaned closer to Jiang Qian and whispered, "And don't think about it, if it were fake, why would it be censored? This content doesn't involve anything taboo..."

"Otherwise, you can join the Wen'an fan group and see if the content creator can come back alive."

"Pfft~ If I knew them, I would have followed them to watch the fun long ago!"

Xue Yang's innocent appearance made Jiang Qian feel incredibly envious.

"Alright, I should go. Do you remember what I told you?" Jiang Qian suddenly said seriously.

Xue Yang froze for a moment, a suspicious flush appearing on his face, and he immediately focused: "No problem! I'll give you a call in 15 minutes. Once it connects, listen for the code. If you hear 'I'll call you back,' I'll call you every 5 minutes to confirm you're okay. If you hear 'You dialed the wrong number,' I'll call the police!"

"Very good, don't get distracted by your phone and forget the time."

"How could I! Am I that kind of unreliable buddy? Hehe, and don't forget what we agreed on—after you get the goods, you have to let me raise it for a few days~"

"Fine, if I get it, you raise it. I don't like taking care of pets." Jiang Qian stood up and walked straight down the stairs.

He had tricked Xue Yang by saying he was going to meet a smuggler of Peruvian giant centipedes and was worried the other party would try to fool a student, which was why he was being so cautious.

"Got it!" Xue Yang was so excited he was scratching his scalp.

He already had a picture in his mind... on the bed in the dormitory, the giant centipede wrapped around his chest, its abdomen pressed against his chest hair, its cute, crystalline little feet gently resting on his belly. Everything was so harmonious and beautiful!

The friendship between man and nature, between the primate order and the centipede order, was shining brightly.

After Jiang Qian went downstairs, Teacher Li had already pushed her bicycle out of the residential complex gate.

The two almost brushed past each other.

Jiang Qian followed the instructions directly, entering from Building 2, Unit 3, and activated Spirit Vision along the way to prepare for any contingencies.

Little girl, big brother is here... Jiang Qian possessed seven substitute life-saving talismans and the "Snake Shadow Stealth" escape technique; this was his reliance for choosing to come here directly.

Before long, Jiang Qian was standing at the little girl's door.

A rusty, old-fashioned security door blocked his path.

Jiang Qian rang the doorbell.

"Coming."

With a playful sound of slippers shuffling, the little girl opened the door without a second thought...

When she saw that the person was Jiang Qian, the young girl was slightly stunned at first. Her jade-like arms instinctively curled against her chest, covering the glimpses of her light pajamas, and complex emotions flashed across her expression!

In the moment she hesitated, Jiang Qian's hand had already gripped the door panel, and he leaned inside:

"What, you seem very surprised to see me alive?"

Today I received the first non-welfare monthly ticket in the history of this book! Thanks to the book friend, White-Robed King!!

Thanks to: White-Robed King, Distant Nebula Honey, and Book Friend 20180525234038802 for the recommendation tickets~