At noon that same day, Lin Yun was dealing with a troublesome guest in the director's office of the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau.
A woman in a filthy Daoist robe sat in front of his desk, holding a boxed meal and wolfing down the food.
"Wonderful, wonderful."
Chewing the food in her mouth, she said indistinctly, "It's been so many days since I last got to eat this heartily. It feels amazing!"
"I hope this is the last time."
Behind the desk, Lin Yun rubbed his forehead with a headache. "The Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau is neither a restaurant nor a relief center. Please leave immediately after you finish eating."
"Mmm... yeah! I didn't want this either!"
Her throat bobbed as she swallowed the food in her mouth. Yuan tapped the lunchbox with her chopsticks. "These past few days, I've seen all the ups and downs of life, all the warmth and coldness of human relationships. I've fallen into such poverty that I can't even afford a full meal."
"Fallen into poverty..."
Lin Yun's eyelid twitched twice. Though puzzled, he kept his expression blank. "What exactly happened?"
"Nothing much happened. Put simply, a penny can stump a hero."
Yuan held her chopsticks between her thumb and spread her hands. "I don't have any money on me."
"I know you don't have money, or you wouldn't have been arrested for dining and dashing earlier."
Lin Yun nodded. "I just don't understand why you've fallen into such a state."
Judging from Yuan's appearance alone, she looked even worse than she had a few days ago. If her Daoist robe had merely been worn and tattered before, it was now downright filthy and disheveled, as though she had rolled around in a garbage dump.
The sight of her proudly declaring that she would "have some