Chapter 507: Chapter 23 Abruptly Stops_2
“I just heard someone talking about respect. Shouldn’t I get some too?” Chi Zijing said cheerfully, “The Mutual Assistance Association has activities today, and they will continue into the night. Let’s not fight here, everyone~”
Budman glared at him for a while, then turned his head first. Budman spat fiercely and led his men to follow.
The president sheathed his long knife, waved his hand, and strolled away like a retired official, saying only in a relaxed tone,
“It’s best not to fight~”
“Thank you,” Qin Qianbai said.
“Next time, treat me to a meal when you’re free,” Gongsun Ce replied, yawning.
After the scuffle, it was already afternoon. Yizhong, which had become a battlefield, was still undergoing repairs. It would be a few hours before it could reopen. For now, the three were wandering around Erzhong, a few streets away, where Qin Qianbai was picking out practical furniture with Kardesia.
“How about this one?” Kardesia pointed to a table carved from a solid block of marble, “It’s durable and sturdy, just a bit heavy. It’s handcrafted by a Superpower User with marble abilities.”
Qin Qianbai came over to look at the price and shook her head regretfully.
“It’s even more expensive than our lunch.”
“Don’t tell me you’re thinking of buying one of those small wooden tables for a few dozen bucks. You’ll find it uncomfortable after a few days, suffer for a few more weeks, and then finally decide to buy a better one. In the end, you’ll have just wasted more time and money.”
“I…” The lady hesitated, “I don’t know if my powers might go out of control; maybe I should buy the cheaper one.”
“That’s also true. I’ll help you look for something,”
Kardesia quickly changed her mind and ran off to another corner to look for cheaper furniture.
The weather was still hot today. Many stalls had umbrellas set up, and young people were coming and going, their laughter mixed with the occasional sound of cicadas. Gongsun Ce bought three cold drinks, found a stool to sit on, and handed a cup to his neighbor.
“Here, iced coffee for you.”
“Thank you.”
Qin Qianbai sat down beside him, quietly sipping her drink.
“Not very interested, huh?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Scared?”
“No…”
The girl looked at a nearby stall where Kardesia was picking through cheap items and haggling over the price of small accessories. She had completely forgotten that she initially came to pick out a table.
“It’s just, I find it strange,” the girl struggled to articulate her thoughts, “Why is the event still going on normally? It’s as if…”
“Nothing has happened?”
The lady nodded.
“Because it’s not a big deal,” Gongsun Ce said calmly, “Look, it began with a Superpower brawl, which is pretty common. Then there was a murder, and only four people died. In a city where the number of Superpower Users has just surpassed four million, the disturbance in those two hours is just a minor incident—it won’t make the evening news, not many people will know about it, and even fewer will deliberately inquire about it.
Once an incident occurs and doesn’t affect one personally, then it might as well not exist. You need to get used to it; this is the city of the sky, one of the scrappiest places in the world.”
Qin Qianbai felt something was terribly wrong. After carefully thinking it over, she finally pinpointed the source of her discomfort.
“But, four people died. Why aren’t you and Kardesia more shocked?
Gongsun Ce countered, “You saw so many corpses last night; weren’t you scared?”
Qin Qianbai was momentarily speechless, “I come from a family background where I practiced martial arts from a young age. I’ve been exposed to corpses and organs…”
“You’re special, so you’re not scared,” Gongsun Ce sipped his coffee, “So am I, so is Kardesia, and so were Budman, the Wing of Death you just saw, and everyone else we passed on the street. Now you know the answer to your question: when the extraordinary becomes ordinary, nothing remains remarkable.”
The market was bustling with business, and groups of teenagers walked past her occasionally. As Qin Qianbai watched these seemingly ordinary Superpower Users and thought over Gongsun Ce’s words, she felt an inexplicable chill. It was as if everything was just a façade, and the lively venue could turn into a bloody, brutal battlefield at any moment, with these cheerful students pulling out weapons from nowhere, transforming into monsters, and launching a new round of slaughter, just like the battlefield she had witnessed not long ago.
She reached out and grabbed Gongsun Ce’s wrist, gripping it tightly like a seasick passenger holding onto a railing. The physical sensation of holding onto something real helped her recover from the sudden illusion.
Qin Qianbai realized she was on the verge of losing control again and then felt embarrassed by her abrupt behavior.
“You’re more passionate than I thought; now you’re the one hitting on me?” Gongsun Ce pushed his glasses up, “Alright, don’t squeeze so hard. I know you’re feeling a bit unstable—it’s probably just a minor hallucination or sudden paranoia—it’s common. Just take a deep breath.”
Qin Qianbai pinched him twice more dissatisfiedly and then let go. Kardesia came over, grabbed her drink, looked at the two with curious eyes, blinked, said nothing, and ran off to the other end again.
“Why did you guess that someone would come in the end?”
“Did I ever tell you I’m a prophet?”
Qin Qianbai stared at him speechlessly.
“Because I’m too familiar with how these people operate, Budman can’t come up with any clever schemes. When a big news comes out, the best solution is to cover it up with another sensational piece of news. If the bodies were discovered elsewhere, plain conjecture would seem pointless.”
Another reason is that my brother sent me materials that included the movements of the Wing of Death members nearby, otherwise I wouldn’t have made such a definitive statement.