Negotiations in the Ruins

After Qin Siyang returned home, he took a cold shower and went to sleep.

Early the next morning, he ate some leftovers and hurried out.

"On Friday, I skipped school to look for someone at Safe Zone Exit No. 38324, so I didn't bring any food home from the cafeteria either. Figuring out what to eat this weekend is going to be another headache."

Still, he wasn't too worried about food.

After all, he had a few copper coins in his pocket.

He still had plenty of the copper coins he had taken from the three muggers in the alley.

Scraping together a meal or two wouldn't be a problem.

Of course, he couldn't spend recklessly either. A poor orphaned student eating at street stalls twice in one weekend would be a little out of character.

There were few people on the streets that Saturday morning.

Most jobs on the edge of the Safe Zone ran from Monday to Friday, with weekends off.

Since the people here were poor, they spent their weekends sleeping soundly to conserve energy, skipping a meal whenever they could.

Then they could save a copper coin or even half of one, enjoying the modest pleasure of watching their savings grow.

In an environment like this, everyone believed that only fools wasted their energy wandering the streets on weekends.

Clearly, Qin Siyang was just such a fool.

Every day, he went outside beneath much the same starry sky, walking down potholed streets past dim streetlights. He was already sick of this life.

If someone as interesting as Wen Shu hadn't appeared, everything on the edge of the Safe Zone would have been like sludge to him-disgusting to touch and foul to smell.

Even with Wen Shu around, he still couldn't accept living in this dump long-term.

Keep enduring and bide my time?

That was what he had done in his previous life, only to be laid off by his company and beaten to death by thugs his boss had hired.

In this life, he had already struck "long-term endurance" from his dictionary and tossed it into the trash.

He could accept putting up with things for a while, but enduring them indefinitely? Forget it.

He didn't have that much patience.

Today, he would get things settled with Qian Wendao.

Next week, he would return to school as a Sequence Ability User.

As for Olof?

He would deal with that later.

If all else failed, killing him seemed like a decent way to solve the problem too.

Braving the chilly morning wind, Qin Siyang walked for over an hour before reaching Safe Zone Exit No. 54320.

The seven-stop bus route would normally have taken him more than two hours on foot. But after advancing his Sequence, he moved swiftly, his walking speed noticeably faster.

He approached the department store beside the Safe Zone exit, more than half of which had already collapsed.

The building had snapped around the fourth or fifth floor, its upper half toppled to one side like a person with a broken neck.

"Seems like that was how Kun Chenglong looked when I killed him that day. His head was still attached to his shoulders, but his neck was already broken."

Qin Siyang smiled and stepped inside the department store.

Much of the plaster had fallen off the interior walls, and twisted rebar jutted out of them like tree roots.

The stair railings were rusty and their paint was peeling, leaving Qin Siyang unwilling to touch them.

Dust-covered rubble littered the floor, with no one to clean it up. Every step Qin Siyang took sent a little debris slipping down from overhead.

There weren't many cobwebs in the building, though.

"Maybe it's too cold beside the Safe Zone exit. Even spiders don't want to live here."

He carefully stepped over the plaster and rocks on the stairs, bounding up more than a dozen steps in two or three strides to reach the department store's second floor.

There, he discovered that someone was already waiting for him.

The man sat on a chair with one broken leg, watching Qin Siyang's arrival with a cold gaze.

When he saw Qin Siyang arrive, he rose from the chair. As he stood, the chair lost its balance and toppled to one side.

Qin Siyang sized him up. He was of average build, dressed in a gray wool coat and black trousers, with ordinary cloth shoes on his feet.

His features were hidden beneath a wide-brimmed hat. Even with Qin Siyang's extraordinarily sharp vision, he couldn't make them out.

That didn't matter. Qin Siyang's own face was hidden beneath his sweatshirt's hood, and he was sure the other man couldn't see him clearly either.

Still, the man's every gesture carried the bearing and arrogance of someone who had long held authority. That wasn't something he could fake.

"You're certainly early." Qin Siyang's tone was relaxed. "We agreed on noon, and it's only a little past eight."

"Aren't you early too?"

Both fell silent for a moment, letting the subject drop.

Then the man before him introduced himself. "Qian Wendao, chief of the Information Section at the Sequence Ability Management Bureau."

"I know."

"The polite response would be to introduce yourself."

"There's no need to rush. I need your help, so I'll definitely give you my personal information."

Qin Siyang was in no hurry to reveal his information. He wanted to make sure he kept control of this conversation at all times.

"All right. I help you fabricate an identity, you release my nephew, and I won't ask for the silver coins back. There's no problem with that deal, is there? Once it's done, we go our separate ways and have nothing more to do with each other."

"That was the arrangement before."

"What do you mean, before? Have you changed your mind?"

"I think you and I might be able to cooperate more closely, Section Chief Qian."

"No need. Once this deal is done, our relationship can end." Qian Wendao had no interest whatsoever in Qin Siyang's proposal.

All he wanted now was to send this walking disaster on his way as soon as possible and get his nephew back.

But the more he resisted, the more Qin Siyang felt that Qian Wendao would make a good partner.

Cautious, careful, and highly placed-he could certainly provide substantial help at a critical moment.

"Releasing your nephew is my bargaining chip for getting you to falsify my Sequence."

"But what about you yourself, Section Chief Qian?"

"Me?"

"I still have those emails scheduled to go out to your colleagues at the Sequence Ability Management Bureau."

Qian Wendao snorted. "Once this deal is done, would you really still report me? If I'm exposed, you'll go down with me!"

"Oh, in that case, allow me to introduce myself."

The corners of Qin Siyang's mouth lifted slightly. "Qin Siyang, a final-year student at [Ju'an School]."

When Qin Siyang said "student," Qian Wendao nodded slowly, seeming somewhat angry.

"Do you find it fun to toy with me like this?"

Qian Wendao immediately concluded that Qin Siyang wasn't telling the truth.

[Ju'an School] had never produced a single Sequence Ability User. Everyone knew that.

Besides, how could an eighteen- or nineteen-year-old high school senior possess such a calculating mind and such terrifying methods?

Qian Wendao scoffed inwardly. He didn't believe a word of it.

Qin Siyang simply pulled back his sweatshirt's hood, revealing his still somewhat youthful face.

"If you don't believe me, you can wait outside [Ju'an School] on Monday morning and see whether I really am a student."