Huang Shi rubbed the paper against his hand again, but the blood still seeped out.
No time to worry about that now.
He had to push through, no matter what.
If he didn’t make a move today, Brother Xiong would never let him off the hook.
Two failed attempts with the bag…
If all else failed, he could switch to pickpocketing.
Maybe luck would be on his side, and he’d snag something.
Huang Shi trailed Lin Yu and Chen Qimeng again.
From behind, he studied Lin Yu’s large backpack and the pockets of his shorts.
Perfect—no sharp edges!
Plus, the big backpack provided cover, making it easier to go unnoticed.
Huang Shi glanced down and noticed something in Lin Yu’s pocket!
He flexed his fingers, crumpling the tissue in his own pocket.
This kind of delicate work couldn’t afford any distractions.
But just as Huang Shi was about to reach out—
Disaster struck again!
This time, it was worse than before.
Lin Yu suddenly turned around, locking eyes with Huang Shi face-to-face.
Huang Shi: “!!!”
He hadn’t even touched him yet!
Why the sudden turn?!
Huang Shi quickly retracted his hand, pretending to scratch his head furiously.
He avoided eye contact at all costs.
Shifting his steps, he prepared to sidestep Lin Yu and make his escape.
According to their usual protocol—
If they made eye contact and risked being spotted,
They had to abort the mission. No unnecessary risks.
But damn it, this was a golden opportunity!
A rare, fat target in Yipin Street—what a fucking waste!
And then, as if fate was mocking him—
Lin Yu actually caught up to Huang Shi as he tried to leave and spoke up:
“Hey, man, can I ask you something?”
Huang Shi had no choice but to stop, slouching and rubbing his nose lazily:
“Uh, what is it?”
His nervousness was obvious.
The hand rubbing his nose was the same one Lin Yu had cut earlier.
Now, smearing blood across his face…
Lin Yu almost felt like calling Batman right then and there.
Just to have this red-nosed thug hauled back to Gotham.
Lin Yu’s sudden stop and question surprised Chen Qimeng too.
They’d just been casually chatting about the shops in Yipin Street.
Why was he suddenly stopping to ask a stranger for directions?
“Hey, do you know where I can get some tanghulu around here?”
“I just saw someone holding one—there must be a stall nearby, right?”
“I don’t come here often, so I’m not really familiar with the area.”
“Mind pointing me in the right direction?”
Huang Shi: “…”
What the hell?!
All this, just because he wanted some damn candy?
Huang Shi had thought he’d been caught red-handed!
Irritated, he jerked his thumb forward and said:
“Staircase up ahead. How do you not know that?”
Chen Qimeng, sensing Huang Shi’s hostility, tugged lightly at Lin Yu’s sleeve.
A silent warning to cut the conversation short and leave.
But Lin Yu kept smiling, giving Huang Shi’s arm a friendly pat:
“Thanks, man!”
Huang Shi nodded dismissively, rubbing his nose again—
Making the bloodstain even more noticeable.
A moment later,
Black Bear, certain that Lin Yu and Chen Qimeng were gone, finally approached Huang Shi.
“What happened? Did they spot you?”
“Why the hell was that punk talking to you?”
From his distance, Black Bear hadn’t heard a word.
But based on experience,
This usually meant they’d been made.
Two fat, unsuspecting targets—gone, just like that?
Without waiting for an answer,
Black Bear’s hand instinctively flew up—
“Brother Xiong, no, no, wait—”
Huang Shi raised an arm to shield himself.
But Black Bear’s other hand came swinging in hard:
SMACK!
“The hell you mean ‘no’?!”
“I asked you—how’d you let two easy marks slip away?”
“If you can’t give me a damn good reason today, you’re coughing up five hundred bucks!”
Huang Shi winced in pain, instinctively reaching to touch his stinging cheek.
But his other arm…
Where was his other arm?
His eyes widened in horror as he looked to his left.
It was still there!
But why did it feel… gone?
No matter how hard he tried, his arm wouldn’t move.
Had Black Bear’s slap…
Somehow knocked out the nerves in his brain?
Huang Shi immediately blamed Black Bear’s heavy-handed strike.
It never crossed his mind that Lin Yu’s pats might be the cause!
A casual, friendly arm pat—that was just normal social interaction.
Why would he suspect a thing?
“Brother Xiong… my—my arm’s not working! I can’t lift it!”
“Shit, did you sever a nerve or something?!”
Huang Shi frantically shook his limp left arm with his right hand.
Black Bear thought he was faking it to dodge responsibility.
So he grabbed Huang Shi’s left arm with a crushing grip:
“Cut the bullshit!”
Huang Shi, who usually couldn’t stand pain, just stared blankly.
Black Bear’s eyes bulged in disbelief.
Neither could believe what was happening.
Black Bear even chopped at Huang Shi’s arm a couple of times, demanding a reaction.
Huang Shi shook his head—still nothing.
“Brother Xiong, I’ve always heard you shouldn’t hit people in the head—it’s all nerves up there!”
“You—you keep smacking me in the skull!”
“If you break me, who’s gonna suffer? You!”
“Fuck, what do I do now, man?!”
“Am I gonna be half-paralyzed for life?!”
Trembling and red-eyed, Huang Shi clutched at Black Bear with his one working arm.
His panicked babbling made it clear—he was terrified.
Black Bear’s expression turned almost… innocent.
He scrambled for an excuse:
“Shut up, this ain’t my fault! Maybe you caught some weird disease?”
“You were fine a second ago—how’d this happen?!”
“Oh!!”
“I got it—it was that little bastard!”
“I saw him pat your arm, didn’t I?”
Suddenly, Black Bear’s face lit up with excitement.
He was a goddamn genius!
Why bother pickpocketing now?
They could just extort the guy!
Way easier than risking a theft.
Huang Shi hesitated, muttering:
“Huh? That kid just…”
“He barely touched me—you think it’s him?”
Black Bear yanked Huang Shi by the collar, dragging him forward.
“I don’t give a damn—you want money for the hospital or not?”
“Whether it’s him or not…”
“It’s gonna be him!”
…
(First update today. Second and bonus updates coming later. If you’re enjoying the story, take a moment to watch a quick ad or send some love—support your humble author!)
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
iemie, male, Race: Moon. Hobby: Collecting anomalies. At first, he thought he possessed two systems: the Crimson Rainbow Moon and the Clear Cold Frost Moon. One day, he discovered that he himself could also become a system for others, holding the chessboard of fate. The Eighth Epoch, also known as the Eternal Moon Epoch. Humans, witches, elves, bloodline descendants, specters, demons, and spirits together compose a new history. Walking the path on behalf of the moon, before he knew it, Chen Miemie's footsteps were followed by all manner of strange and wondrous anomalies. As time passed, many titles circulated about him—The King in Yellow, Lord of Anomalies, Heart of the Eternal Moon, and more. "Me? I'm just a traveler who enjoys collecting interesting creatures," Chen Miemie said.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
