Chapter 101: Chapter 93: 4-24: Fallen Soul Sword
A restaurant adjacent to the wealthy district.
"Ah Zhu, you got a huge promotion! This meal is definitely on you," Li Kang said with a wide smile.
"What money? I’m broke," Chu Bamboo rolled his eyes.
He couldn’t live extravagantly because of his official position. He never used his access to intelligence to deliberately enrich himself, so he was notoriously poor.
Not to mention, he had recently fronted Zhang Hai eighty Qian Yuan—that was his food budget for an entire month!
He hadn’t been intentionally teasing Zhang Hai before; he really couldn’t bear to part with those eighty Qian Yuan. Even the ten-yuan noodles he’d eaten last time in the wealthy district... if he hadn’t already resolved to reset everything back then, he definitely wouldn’t have bought them.
He sighed. "Once I get things settled and my official stipend actually starts coming in, I’ll definitely treat you all... But as for now!"
"Well, if you’re really going to make me pay, it’s not entirely out of the question," Chu Bamboo mused, extending a hand toward Li Kang. "Let me borrow your phone!"
"?" Li Kang was instantly on guard. "What do you think you’re doing?"
"I’ll get Lu Muxue to come pay the bill!" Chu Bamboo’s tone was perfectly righteous and self-assured. Li Kang was so taken aback that he didn’t register anything wrong at first. He was already halfway through handing over his phone when realization belatedly struck. He sucked in a sharp breath. "Wait, it’s dinnertime! Isn’t Miss Lu having dinner with her parents right now?"
"Generally, families this powerful and wealthy rarely have time to just sit down and have a peaceful meal together. They usually have to schedule a specific time to gather everyone, since they’re all so busy." Chu Bamboo glanced at Li Kang, who was starting to relax, and added with a sigh, "But Lu Muxue’s family is an exception!"
Lu Muxue’s family was a rare case. Despite being a family of great power and wealth, her parents had her attend public school normally, without pulling any strings. And under normal circumstances, the three of them ate all three meals together most days.
In fact, the esteemed Madam Xue cooked the meals herself, rather than leaving it to a housekeeper.
This was the key reason Chu Bamboo said they didn’t know how to raise their child. This method of child-rearing was certainly heartwarming, very much like a normal family. But that’s just not how normal wealthy and powerful families did things.
"I’ll pay." Li Kang broke out in a cold sweat. He had a strong suspicion Chu Bamboo was threatening him. Otherwise, what if he made the call, Miss Lu actually showed up to pay the bill, and Governor Lu—who would be at the same dinner table—unhappily asked why? Then Chu Bamboo could just casually mention... that it was all Li Kang’s idea...
Wouldn’t that just be ruining a nice family dinner for Governor Lu?
"Oh, I couldn’t possibly!" Chu Bamboo put on a bashful smile. He grabbed the phone Li Kang was holding out and gave it a firm tug, but it wouldn’t budge. Clearly, Li Kang hadn’t let go on his end.
"Spit it out!" Li Kang said, his face a mask of stone. "What will it take for you to drop this?"
"At least," Chu Bamboo released the phone and began ticking off on his fingers, "you’ll have to treat me another eight or ten times!"
"...You take me for a fool!" Li Kang scoffed. Another eight or ten meals like this, in a place next to the wealthy district, all in one month... He could give up smoking for three months and it still wouldn’t be enough! And the rest of his money... that had to go to his wife!
He was adamant. "No. Absolutely not!"
"Hold on. Does this mean that, regardless of any future meals... this one’s on you for sure, Captain?" Guan Fei shouted, the realization dawning on him. "Waiter! Bring another five orders of what I got before!!"
Guan Fei was still starving. The only reason he hadn’t ordered to his heart’s content earlier was because Chu Bamboo was supposed to be paying, right?
But the Captain paying? That was a different story. ’Let the Captain suffer a little; I’ll fill my belly!’
"You..." A thousand curses caught in Li Kang’s throat, and he didn’t know which one to unleash first.
Suddenly, a piercing alarm sounded.
"What?" Li Kang’s pupils contracted as he subconsciously pulled out a tablet.
The sound was so jarring that many of the well-dressed patrons—white-collar workers and minor managers, clearly not manual laborers—shot displeased glances their way. But when they saw the Patrol Uniforms on Li Kang, Ning Linglong, and the others, their expressions shifted, and they quickly looked away.
The patrol officers of the Dream World were nothing like the police in the Real World. Piss one of them off, and you’d find out that ’three swings a second isn’t my limit; I’m just afraid the baton might snap!’
"What’s gone wrong now?" Wall Announcements said, his expression serious. But his eyes quickly went wide. "Something’s not right. Why is the alarm going on for so long...?"
Normally, the alarm only sounded ten times. It was supposed to stop once Li Kang took out his tablet and unlocked it, displaying the marked location.
But now, there was no sign of it stopping at all!
"This is a major incident." Ning Linglong shot bolt upright, her body tense and her breathing quickening. She stood up abruptly. "Proprietor, the bill! Now! We don’t have time!"
Since she was aiming to be the next captain, she’d naturally put in a lot of effort behind the scenes. She had, at the very least, memorized the entire Captain’s Office alert manual.
"Captain, twenty-five Qian Yuan! Remember to transfer it to me." Ning Linglong swiftly grabbed Chu Bamboo’s forearm, pulling him toward their electric car. She whispered urgently, "An alarm you can’t even swipe away... that’s at least a Level 3 alert! An alert of this level means a large-scale malignant event has occurred—over a hundred ordinary people witnessing a malevolent Extraordinary Ability at the same time!"
