256: Whatever, it doesn't matter.

Ai Yue curled her lips into a smile. "Oh? Set for us? Do you high-ranking cadres' children within the base not fall under this regulation?"

"Hmph, what do you think? You'd better stop now, otherwise..." the Gentleman said, his voice blustering while his heart quailed.

Ai Yue's voice drifted from the left one moment and the right the next, making it impossible to discern her true location.

"Otherwise what?"

The moment Ai Yue spoke, the Gentleman's eyes sharpened. His movements were swift as he quickly hurled clumps of earth at her, throwing over a dozen in rapid succession.

Ai Yue dodged them all with ease.

Seeing that Ai Yue had evaded every single one, the Gentleman glared in fury.

He said through gritted teeth, "Otherwise, I won't let you take a single step out of this town. Believe me, before you even get to hunt monsters, you'll fall into my hands first. Don't doubt me, I can make it happen!"

Ai Yue watched him flailing about like a headless fly and found it quite boring.

So, without wasting any more words, she flickered behind him and kicked him flat onto the ground.

"Ouch! You bitch! If you have the guts, fight me fair and square! What kind of skill is a sneak attack?" Helped up by the other man, the Gentleman stood up wailing in pain and exasperation.

"Call it whatever you want, I don't care. Today, I'm going to beat the arrogance right out of you."

Ai Yue swung her fists, which rained down upon the Gentleman's body.

The Gentleman protected his head but couldn't cover his waist; he protected his waist but couldn't cover his legs.

Using only ten percent of her strength, Ai Yue gave the Gentleman a brutal beating, leaving no part of him unbruised.

The onlookers couldn't see Ai Yue; they could only see the Gentleman clutching his head and scurrying about, covered in visible wounds.

Ai Yue didn't kill him, leaving him with a single breath of life.

After finishing with the Gentleman, Ai Yue's gaze fell upon the other man.

Seeing two of his companions taken down in an instant, the man was terrified. Although he couldn't see Ai Yue, seeing that the Gentleman was no longer being struck, he immediately realized things were bad.

He turned and ran.

How could Ai Yue let him escape so easily? With a flicker of movement, she raised her foot and kicked.

She didn't stop until she had knocked him unconscious as well.

Throughout this process, no one discovered Lady Ai Yue. Furthermore, the Gentleman's words had completely offended the crowd.

Not a single person went to report the incident. Seeing that the Gentleman and the other man were both unconscious and the excitement was over, the crowd dispersed.

Ai Yue told Ye Rui to wait for her up ahead while she cleaned up the scene.

Once the crowd had scattered and Ye Rui was out of sight, Ai Yue stacked the three men together and tossed them to the side of the road so they wouldn't be in the way.

Having finished, Ai Yue, still invisible, clapped her hands and walked forward cheerfully to catch up with Ye Rui.

Only when she was far from that spot did Ai Yue deactivate her invisibility.

She found Ye Rui, and the two of them continued happily toward the trading grounds.

Neither of them took the previous incident to heart; they had simply taught a lesson to a few people who didn't know their place.

Arriving at the trading grounds, they looked through the stalls. Most were selling trinkets of little value.

As they walked, Ye Rui's eyes suddenly lit up. She grabbed Ai Yue and started pulling her toward a secluded corner.

"Where are we going?" Ai Yue asked casually, seeing her hurried state.

"Sister, I saw a lot of beautiful stones! Come and look with me!" Ye Rui said, suppressing her excitement.

Ai Yue gave a helpless smile and let herself be dragged through the bustling crowd.

When they reached the stall, Ai Yue took a look—good heavens, they were actually selling various diamonds.

Purple, red, pink, blue... all sorts of colored diamonds were piled into a small mountain, shimmering with rainbow light under the sun. It was quite a sight.

Ye Rui picked up a pink diamond about half the size of a baby's fist, turning it over joyfully.

She wondered where the seller had dug these up. If this were before the Apocalypse, even just one of these would have made him wealthy.

But now it was the Apocalypse. People could barely afford to eat; who would think of trading money for such impractical things?

Seeing Ye Rui's delight, the stall owner quickly said, "Young lady, these diamonds are beautiful, aren't they?"

"Beautiful, very beautiful!" Ye Rui replied offhandedly without looking up.

A flash of joy appeared in the owner's eyes. He continued, "Do you like them?"

His tone was like a big bad wolf trying to lure a little white rabbit.

Hearing his question, Ye Rui said without thinking, "I like them! If I didn't, why would I have run over here?"

"Then how about buying some? One colored diamond for just two level-one zombie crystal cores!" the owner whispered coaxingly.

"Two level-one crystal cores?"

"That's right. Cheap, isn't it?"

Ye Rui's dazed gaze moved away from the pink diamond as she regained her clarity. She said crisply, "One for one!"

"Oh, my dear girl, you can't slash the price like that! I worked hard to dig these up one by one from deep underground. One crystal core is far too little. Two cores, no bargaining!" the owner said repeatedly, looking pained.

A glint passed through Ye Rui's eyes as she smiled. "Big brother, you're not being honest. You're treating these useless stones like treasures. This is the Apocalypse; who has spare crystal cores to buy stones? You'd better think carefully—if you miss out on me, you might not find anyone else to buy these diamonds!"

The owner looked conflicted. It had indeed taken a lot of effort to dig up these diamonds, and selling one for a single level-one crystal core was hard to stomach.

But as she said, if he missed her, he might truly never find another buyer.

These things were valuable before the Apocalypse, but after it, they were worthless.

He had been at this stall for three days, and except for Ye Rui, no one had even asked, let alone looked.

The owner's expression shifted several times before he finally said, "Little sister, one crystal core is really too few. How about this: three crystal cores for two diamonds?"

Ye Rui frowned and said unhappily, "Aren't you going to think about it some more?"

Having made up his mind, the owner became calm instead. "No. I see you're sincere, so I gave you a discount. If you want them, that's the price. If not, I can't afford to take a loss."

Ye Rui saw the owner suddenly change into someone who was unhurried, adopting a 'take it or leave it' attitude.

Ye Rui stood there hesitating for a long while, still wanting to haggle.

At this moment, Ai Yue, who had been acting as background scenery, spoke up: "Fine, we'll go with your price—two crystal cores for three diamonds. However, we get to pick two items from that pile of junk over there as a bonus."

Ai Yue pointed at a pile of things that looked like scrap metal in the corner of the stall.

The owner was taken aback. He glanced back at what Ai Yue was pointing at and said without hesitation, "Deal. But if you buy five diamonds, I'll let you pick any two items you want."