Chapter 280: Chapter 241: Dentures
In front of the signpost, two familiar figures were standing, one was Mo Daidai, and the other was Tong Han, who were both looking towards them at the moment.
"We didn’t follow you this time; we came to check out this signboard." Mo Daidai still had that dull expression, appearing harmless to both humans and animals.
Yang Xiao’s gaze swept past him and looked towards Tong Han, "Miss Tong, what have you all noticed?"
"There’s something wrong with this signboard. You can understand it as there being two different worlds separated by this signboard. Right after we stepped past it last time, the weather changed immediately," Tong Han explained.
The signboard itself looked quite ordinary, Yang Xiao observed it for a moment and then suddenly turned to ask, "Who stepped over it last time?"
Mo Daidai didn’t speak, the situation was already quite clear.
"It was me," Tong Han spoke up.
Yang Xiao suddenly laughed, his gaze playfully turning towards Mo Daidai, "If I’m not mistaken, it was Brother Mo who paid Miss Tong for the job, wasn’t it?"
Upon hearing this, Tong Han visibly tensed, while Mo Daidai returned Yang Xiao’s playful gaze, "That’s right, and the price was very reasonable."
After that, Mo Daidai and Tong Han left. Once the two of them had gone, Li Qingxuan, looking at their retreating figures in the distance, asked in confusion, "Why did you say that?"
Li Qingxuan could feel that Yang Xiao’s comment had offended both Mo Daidai and Tong Han, and there seemed to be no need for it.
Yang Xiao appeared to be unconcerned, "That’s the effect I wanted. The two of them are getting too close. Judging by Tong Han’s reaction, she probably doesn’t know much."
There were some things Yang Xiao couldn’t say too plainly to Li Qingxuan, but just because Li Qingxuan didn’t understand them, didn’t mean Tong Han wouldn’t. His remark, "It was Brother Mo who paid Miss Tong for the job, wasn’t it?" hit right where it hurt for Tong Han.
Tong Han thought she was the only one cooperating with Mo Daidai, but that wasn’t the case. Yang Xiao wanted to make that clear to her.
During the day, Tong Han was always by Mo Daidai’s side. There was never an opportunity for Yang Xiao and Mo Daidai to be alone, nor did they ever go on patrol together. Based on these facts, considering Tong Han’s personality, she would make up a lot of things in her head.
Mo Daidai had some tricks up his sleeve, and Tong Han was no simple character either. If those two joined forces, it would be dangerous for Yang Xiao, no matter which one of them was the Evil Cultivator.
As for offending Mo Daidai, Yang Xiao wasn’t worried. The good thing about businessmen is that they can distinguish between pros and cons.
Li Qingxuan by his side was clearly quite sensible. Yang Xiao could sense that he knew he was hiding something from him, but he didn’t ask if Yang Xiao didn’t tell him.
"Brother Qingxuan, there are some things I don’t tell you for your own good. You don’t need to get involved in my conflicts with those people," Yang Xiao said sincerely, "Those people are very dangerous, and you can’t afford to offend them."
"Teacher Yang, I trust you." There was no reason for Li Qingxuan to doubt Yang Xiao would harm him, especially at a time when Li Qingxuan was willing to share his life-saving money.
Staring at the street behind the signboard, where people were still coming and going, it seemed no different from their side, with pedestrians even passing through from both sides.
There were fashionably dressed white-collar women with leather bags on their way to work, hurried business professionals in full suits, young parents pushing strollers, students with small backpacks rushing to school, and elderly couples supporting each other, strolling slowly along the street.
People of all shapes and colors dispersed across the street, injecting vitality into the city, yet Yang Xiao, the longer he watched, felt increasingly unfamiliar with the scene, as if these people were cold corpses, or just strings of cold data in some unknown program.
Before Yang Xiao could continue his contemplation, a loud thunderclap suddenly exploded in the sky, interrupting his thoughts. He looked up, and a mass of dark clouds was approaching from the distance.
The sky, previously clear, changed in an instant, and an unanticipated rain began to fall.
More importantly, Yang Xiao noticed that this thunderclap was different from the last one; it came from a different direction.
The two of them immediately ran back, but after a few steps, Yang Xiao suddenly looked back and his steps involuntarily halted. Not far behind them, a vast mist followed, and those who had been hurrying along stopped in their tracks, staring silently at them until the advancing fog swallowed them up.
Hurrying back to the apartment, just like the previous night, the tin house quietly appeared again behind the dilapidated fence.
When Yang Xiao and his companion rushed into the house, they realized that two people were missing; Fu Changxue and Cheng Ya were not there. Looking out the window, they saw the two desperately running back, followed by the dark clouds, and Yang Xiao could roughly guess what had happened.
Fu Changxue was not the type to care for a useless cripple, so he probably took Cheng Ya with him as a test.
Indeed, after Fu Changxue burst into the house, he explained to everyone that they had encountered another signpost in a different direction, which also bore the words "Dongzhou Street." As soon as they stepped past the signpost, thunder roared and a mass of dark clouds followed.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I believe there’s a signpost set up in each direction surrounding this apartment. These signposts define the perimeter within which we can safely move during the day. If we cross them, thunder and torrential rain will follow immediately," said Fu Changxue, emphasizing the obvious.
Moments later, the fog that had settled outside the apartment boundary began to churn and roll in a strange manner, with shadowy figures appearing and disappearing within it.
Soon, one by one, very lifelike tenants walked out of the fog, each looking so real as they made their way toward the apartment door.
Having learned from previous experience, everyone knew that there was no danger to the tenants inside the apartment during this time; on the contrary, it could bring considerable profit.
This money must be the reward for completing the night’s tasks, but it was easier to obtain.
Without any need for discussion, everyone quickly found their targets and chased after them, and the tenants, as if they had seen a ghost, dashed towards the apartment.
This time Tong Han found her chance. She was chasing an old lady who was staggering behind her. The old lady, being chased, slipped and fell in the mud.
However, after falling, the old woman didn’t get up again; instead, she started crawling on the ground with her hands and feet at a surprisingly fast pace, like a lizard, a sight that even stunned the others, causing them all to stop in their tracks, afraid to continue the pursuit.
Tong Han looked down at her hand with a strange expression, holding in her palm the dentures the old woman had lost on the ground.
Looking at the sharp points of the false teeth, Tong Han suddenly had a bad premonition.
At that moment, Fu Changxue seemed to have discovered something and ran quickly toward the apartment door. Yang Xiao followed the gaze of the crowd and saw a man dressed in business attire already at the steps outside the apartment door.
Yang Xiao recognized him – it was the same man from whom Fu Changxue had snatched the briefcase the day before.
