Book 3, Chapter 36 - Suspicious People

We invited them to have cake with us.

The fat guy and the old man ended up eating the cake while crying and sniveling. Even though their tears and snot dripped on their cake, they continued to eat it without turning a hair. Somehow I didn’t feel like eating anymore.

“I’d be content to end my life now,” the old man said as he wiped away his tears.

He Lei frowned and patted his shoulders. “Grandpa Ba, it’s not that serious.”

“Yeah, it’s not that serious. Hehe,” we said awkwardly.

Grandpa Ba wiped his tears and looked at us. “Thank you for letting me have such delicious food in this life. Go ahead and play. I’ll look after the stall for you.”

Harry and Raffles exchanged a glance. He Lei could tell that they were worried. He looked at them and said, “Please, trust us.”

Harry looked at Arsenal. Arsenal lowered her head and thought for a while, before she lifted her head and told He Lei, “We trust Luo Bing.”

He Lei measured Arsenal up and down. He seemed to understand that Arsenal was our leader.

In the end, Grandpa Ba looked after the stall for us.

Harry turned to the door, about to leave. I stopped him at once. “Where are you going?” Everyone covered their faces again, since we were about to step out into the crowded streets again.

He turned to look at us. It seemed that he’d been about to head out alone.

“There are so many of us. Just the fat guy and his chief won’t be enough to bring us around.” I pointed at He Lei and the fat guy.

Harry smirked and pointed at his heart. “I want to get a tattoo. I can’t bring everyone.”

“Tattoo?! I want to go too!” Sis Cannon’s interest was caught by his words, so she followed Harry.

Harry glanced at her with a smile. “Alright, you can come with me. Bro, the others shall follow you!” Harry patted He Lei’s arm.

He Lei nodded.

Harry brought Sis Cannon with him and left. He crossed his arms behind his head, seemingly at ease. It was as if he’d finally fobbed the rest of us off on He Lei and the fat guy so now he could fool around leisurely on his own.

Oh yeah, there was still one more guy, Raffles.

We separated into two groups, led by He Lei and the fat guy. The fat guy brought Xiao Ying, Ming You and Xue Gie around.

He Lei took me, Arsenal and Raffles.

The day before, we’d barely gotten to know Blue Shield City, and I hadn’t managed to walk around much. On top of that, Harry had been bringing so many of us around, so it’d been hard for him to take care of everyone. Hence, we had merely gotten a cursory look around the city.

Now, everyone could see what they wanted to.

Although there were many stalls in Blue Shield City, there wasn’t much when it came to choices of products. It was shabbier even than the flea market back from where I was from. But this was the end of the world after all. You couldn’t expect it to be like a mini-market.

Even so, Arsenal and Raffles had a lot of fun.

They went through one stall after another. Arsenal had her eye on a fan made of feathers. It was delicate and beautiful. I wonder which historical site they’d found it from. It even had a beautiful bead chain attached to it.

A fan like that must have been very expensive during the prosperous times, since the beads on it looked like tourmalines. But at the end of the world, it only cost half a bag of rice or other food.

Still, Arsenal kept quiet and threw the fan aside. Then, she started looking at other things.

On the other side, Raffles was holding a strange tube. He rubbed it as though it was really rare. I’d been watching him confusedly when He Lei leaned down and spoke into my ear, “He knows what’s what. That/s a caustic tube. What does he do?” He Lei was curious about Raffles. He watched as Raffles focused on checking the tube.

I turned and told him softly, “He’s a scientist.”

He Lei was stunned. “Which city do you live in? Outside of Silver Moon City, there aren’t many scientists in other cities.”

I smiled proudly. “Come to my place and see, if you have a chance to. You’d be surprised.” If you see the fighter jets that Raffles had made.

He Lei’s eyes glistened with passion. “Definitely! I really want to see your city!” Then, he glanced at Raffles again as if he was even more curious about Raffles’ superpower.

“How much?” Raffles asked the person at the stall.

The person at the stall had his face covered with a mask. His gaze was sharp. “What do you have to offer?”

“He can tell that Raffles really wants it,” He Lei said softly. “This friend of yours is not good with business. Let me give him a hand.”

“Thanks.”

He Lei walked up next to Raffles and negotiated on his behalf.

Just then, two men ran towards us hastily. Their faces weren’t masked, or more likely they hadn’t had the time to put up their masks. They were panicking and obviously in a hurry.

One of them had a brawny build, with his black hair tied up messily behind his head.

The other one covered his mouth as if he was about to throw up anytime. His cheeks looked strange, like a hamster that had stuffed its cheeks full.

When they ran past me, I could smell the scent of female perfume.

I looked at them suspiciously. They dressed like the people around us: shabbily dressed and with messy and dirty hair. Why would such people carry perfume?

Many of my dad’s comrades had entered the security field. I’d picked up some people observation skills from them.

It had also been one of the subjects that my dad had used to train me in.

My dad had always said that you have to first learn to judge the moment you see someone suspicious. It’d be too late by the time he drew the knife.

Hence the two people had naturally caught my attention. To put it in another way, I’d almost instinctively picked them out from the crowd. Especially the perfume scent that was totally out of place given their dressing.

From their expressions, I could tell that they were thieves and they should have stolen something really expensive.

At once, I shouted, “Stop right there!”

At my shout, the two people instantly stopped. As expected, they were guilty.

I hadn’t called out anyone’s name. How had they known that I’d been intending to stop them? Their reaction alone was enough to prove that they had done something bad.

The surrounding passers-by began to look in their direction. They moved aside and gave us a large berth, as if they didn’t want to get involved in any trouble.

Arsenal looked at me confusedly.

Raffles was still immersed in examining the tube. Once he concentrated, he would not notice even if the sky had shattered and the earth broken apart.

He Lei immediately looked at me, his eyes grew serene.

The two people in front of me slowly turned around. At the same time, He Lei walked next to me and muttered softly, “Don’t be a busybody."

I glanced at him out of the corner of my eyes and furrowed my eyebrows slightly. Maybe I should listen to him. In this world, it was safer to stay out of others’ affairs. Harry had exhorted me to do the same.

The two people before me stared at me. “You, what’s the matter?”

Hearing their words, I glared at the man with puffy cheeks and asked, “What’s there in your mouth?!” Sh*t! I couldn’t hold myself back. This was just like the instinctive reaction of a policeman encountering a thief. The moment I’d asked, I knew I couldn’t stay out of it.

I had been training for far too long with the uncles who’d used to work as policemen and in the special forces. I knew how much potential a person’s body had. There was almost nowhere that you couldn’t use to hide something. Those who hid things in their mouths were the weakest.

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