56: Chapter 56 "Would you hold Uncle Lin's hand?"

Outside Villa No. 12 at Cloud Top Palace.

Acid rain drummed against the bulletproof glass.

Two pure black steel behemoths lay silently in wait.

Su Xiaonuan wore a sharp black trench coat, the keys to the Ford Raptor hooked in her hand.

Her gaze swept quickly over the group, and she walked straight to the driver's seat of the Raptor: "Sister Ya, Sister Yumo, sit in my car."

The professional instincts of a head housekeeper allowed her to precisely divide the battlefield.

Lin Yuan walked over to the george patton and pulled open the passenger door with one hand.

He looked at Su Muxue, who was standing on the steps.

Su Muxue had changed into a light gray cashmere coat today, worn over a turtleneck sweater.

Without hesitation, she stepped down the stairs and got into the passenger seat.

Lin Motong pulled open the back door with extreme naturalness and slid inside.

The doors closed.

The two vehicles drove out of Cloud Top Palace, one after the other.

Inside the george patton, the heater was on full blast, insulating them from the damp cold outside.

"Auntie Su," Lin Motong, in the back seat, suddenly spoke up, "If a person's pain receptors are completely necrotic, is there any medical possibility of repairing them?"

Su Muxue looked out the window, her voice cold and professional:

"It's irreversible. Pain is the human body's self-protection mechanism. Losing the ability to feel pain means the neurons have already suffered organic lesions, usually accompanied by brainstem damage."

Lin Yuan held the steering wheel with one hand, while his right hand retrieved an unopened bottle of mineral water from the storage compartment.

He unscrewed the cap and handed it to Su Muxue.

Their fingertips brushed briefly, separated only by the sleeve of her cashmere coat.

Su Muxue took the water, her palm still able to feel the residual warmth of Lin Yuan's fingertips.

She couldn't help but recall the stifled sounds that had drifted through the crack in the master bedroom door that night.

"Auntie Su," Lin Motong leaned over the center console, staring at Su Muxue's profile.

"If you were in a quagmire, and everyone was watching you sink," Lin Motong's voice was level, devoid of any emotional fluctuation, "would you hold Uncle Lin's hand?"

The car fell into a deathly silence.

Su Muxue turned her head.

Outside the car window were billboards mottled and ravaged by the acid rain.

She closed her eyes, her mind filled with the cold, piercing bluestone bricks of the Su Family ancestral hall, and the image of Lin Yuan pulling her out of hell with one hand.

She opened her eyes, her gaze landing on Lin Yuan's stern profile.

[Ding! Target Su Muxue, Favorability +1%, Current Favorability: 13%.]

Behind them, inside the Ford Raptor.

Qin Yumo sat in the passenger seat, staring through the windshield at the taillights of the george patton ahead.

She crossed her arms over her chest, zipping her sports jacket all the way to the top.

"Why does she get to ride in the lead car?" Qin Yumo pouted.

In the back seat, Wang Ya was smoothing out her skirt. Hearing this, she chuckled:

"Dr. Su just went through a shock; it's only right that Mr. Lin takes extra care of her."

In the driver's seat, Su Xiaonuan gripped the steering wheel with both hands, her eyes sweeping over Qin Yumo through the rearview mirror.

Is Sister Yumo jealous of Mr. Lin?

As for Su Xiaonuan herself.

That didn't exist.

She only cared about who was useful to Lin Yuan.

The motorcade drove into the bustling downtown area of Jiangcheng.

The scene on the streets was suffocating.

Large crowds of citizens, wearing simple plastic raincoats, formed long lines in front of large supermarkets.

Some people got into arguments over cutting in line, which then escalated into brawls.

A middle-aged man was pushed to the ground, his forehead striking the steps; blood mixed with the acid rain on the ground and flowed into the sewer.

There were no police, no ambulances.

The collapse of order was accelerating.

Lin Yuan remained expressionless. He stepped on the gas, and the george patton crushed through the stagnant water, accelerating away.

Su Muxue watched the scenes of bloodshed and chaos outside the window, her fingertips turning white.

Half an hour later, the motorcade pulled into the largest underground commercial center in Jiangcheng.

This place had an independent climate control system.

Neon signs flickered, and the aroma from snack stalls mingled with the roar of the crowd, completely isolating them from the apocalyptic scene outside.

Lin Yuan pushed open the car door.

From the underground garage to the mall entrance, there was an open-air corridor; the roof was damaged, leaking dense acid rain.

Lin Yuan opened a large black umbrella.

He naturally tilted the handle of the umbrella toward Su Muxue.

The two walked side-by-side through the corridor.

Qin Yumo, following behind, felt her eyelids twitch.

She turned to look at Su Xiaonuan and Wang Ya.

Both of them looked as usual.

"Has this man put a spell on them or something?" Qin Yumo muttered to herself.

She shoved her hands into her jacket pockets and quickened her pace to catch up.

They entered the mall.

Lin Yuan walked at the very front. His stride was not fast, but the noisy crowd around them spontaneously parted to both sides.

A young man holding a giant fried squid walked toward them. The moment his gaze collided with the string of women behind Lin Yuan, he stumbled, nearly stepping into a drainage ditch nearby.

Lin Yuan's gaze swept over the snack stalls.

All the price tags had brand-new white paper pasted over them.

A bowl of ordinary hot and sour glass noodles had risen from fifteen yuan to thirty.

Prices were already beginning to spiral out of control.

"What do you want to eat?"

Lin Yuan asked.

Lin Motong pointed at the sizzling takoyaki on the iron plate.

Lin Yuan scanned the code to pay and bought two servings.

He handed one to Lin Motong and stuffed the other directly into Su Muxue's hand.

Su Muxue was stunned.

Since she was a child, the diet charts the Su Family had created for her never included this kind of "junk food" from street stalls.

She looked down at the steaming takoyaki in the paper box, covered in bonito flakes and mayonnaise.

After hesitating for two seconds, she picked up a bamboo skewer, speared one, and put it in her mouth.

It was very hot.

It was so hot her eyes turned slightly red, but she didn't spit it out.

"Is it good?" Lin Yuan watched her.

"The calorie content is on the high side." Su Muxue swallowed it, paused for a beat, and added, "The taste is alright."

The group continued walking forward.

When passing a shooting stall, Lin Motong's footsteps came to a halt.

She stared at the black violent bear doll hanging on the wall that was as tall as a person.

"Fifty yuan for ten bullets. Hit all the bullseyes, and take the grand prize home!" The stall owner was a fat, bald man, shouting energetically.

Qin Yumo's eyes lit up.

She stepped forward and picked up the modified plastic air gun with one hand.

Her left hand supported the base, her right hand gripped the handle, and the muzzle pointed toward the ground at a forty-five-degree angle.

"The sight is off to the left," she evaluated.

The bald boss sneered: "Beauty, this gun has been calibrated..."

Before he could finish his sentence.

Qin Yumo raised the gun.

Bang bang bang bang!

Three seconds.

Ten plastic bullets poured out.

All ten bullseyes on the target paper were precisely pierced, connecting into a single, regular circular hole.

The bald boss's mouth hung open, unable to close; the half-unlit cigarette fell from the corner of his mouth onto the counter.

Qin Yumo put down the gun and pointed at the violent bear on the wall: "Take it down."

Lin Motong hugged the violent bear that was taller than she was, and rarely said to Qin Yumo: "Thank you."

Just as the group was preparing to continue walking inside, a sharp argument suddenly erupted ahead.

Accompanied by the dull thud of a heavy object hitting the ground.

"Ah! Are you blind?!"

Lin Yuan frowned slightly and led the group closer.

The comic convention center.

Tang Qiqi was wearing that expensive limited-edition pink Lolita dress, standing in the center of the crowd.

Behind her stood two black-clad strongmen nearly two meters tall.

Opposite Tang Qiqi stood a girl also dressed in a cosplay outfit, with a face full of hyaluronic acid fillers.

Her nickname was "Princess," and she was currently pointing at the nose of a young man on the ground, cursing wildly.

The young man was wearing a faded blue hoodie.

He was sitting on the ground, still clutching a plastic fork in his hand.

Beside him was a spilled cup of instant noodles.

"Do you know how much this dress of mine costs?!"

Princess shrieked, then turned to look at the bodyguards behind Tang Qiqi: "What are you still standing there for? Beat him up for me!"

The two black-clad bodyguards didn't budge.

Fat Dragon's order was to protect Tang Qiqi.

Princess felt she had lost face; furious, she whipped out her phone and started snapping pictures of the young man on the ground.

"Fine! You just wait! I'll post you online and let the whole of Jiangcheng see what a pervert like you looks like!"

The young man didn't avoid the camera.

He slowly stood up.

"You bumped into me," Chu Feng said in a hoarse voice. "Apologize. Then pay for my noodles."

"Are you sick in the head?" Princess held her phone higher, shoving the lens into his face, "Are you here just to sponge off the air conditioning? You saw how pretty I am and reached out with your grubby hands!"

She turned back and shouted to the onlookers: "Everyone, look! This pervert bumped into me and is now trying to extort me!"

A few people in the crowd laughed.

Chu Feng stood where he was, his expression unchanging.

"I don't touch ugly people."

Princess completely exploded.

She shoved aside Tang Qiqi, who was trying to mediate, and raised her foot to kick Chu Feng.

Tang Qiqi stumbled and nearly fell.

Qin Yumo's expression darkened, her muscles instantly tensing up.

A hand pressed down on her shoulder.

"Wait," Lin Yuan said in a very low voice.

Jiangcheng is truly small.

Chu Feng.

The "Sun God," one of the three great S-rank Espers of Jiangcheng, who in his past life was as famous as the Ice Empress and the Valkyrie.

An image suddenly crashed into Lin Yuan's mind—

A red moon hung high, and Chu Feng was suspended a hundred meters in the air, his entire body burning with solar fire capable of melting steel.

And Lin Motong, along with several charred corpses, falling from the top of the ruins.

Their Superpower attributes were natural counters.

In his past life, half of the reason for Lin Motong's death was this Jiangcheng hero.

But now, he was just a down-and-out college student who had to haggle over a cup of instant noodles.

His fingers paused at the seam of his pants for two seconds.

Lin Motong held the violent bear and followed Lin Yuan's gaze.

She didn't know the person wearing the blue hoodie.

But she noticed Lin Yuan's action of rubbing his pant seam—the last time she had seen this action was before Li Hongda was dragged into the basement.

Lin Motong quietly leaned half a step closer to Lin Yuan.