Chapter 27: Thorough Defeat [4K]
At 10:15 AM, the plane from Dawn City landed in Huacheng. Huaxie Yu arrived in Huacheng as planned, nearly two hours earlier than Luxianbei.
The Huacheng Airport is built on the top of a small hill not far from the city center. Stepping out of the airport terminal and looking ahead, one can see the lush green mountains and the city outline, seemingly a sand table model surrounded by the mountains.
Huaxie Yu, with her worn-out backpack, stood in the open area outside the terminal, basking in the bright sunshine tinged with a bit of sharpness, welcoming the gentle breeze carrying a faint floral fragrance, and stretched lazily.
“This place is not bad!”
Having just arrived, her impression of this unfamiliar city was quite good.
The air here is much better than in Dawn City, where the faint lingering smell of burnt things and the occasional scent of gunpowder could be detected, and among the crowd, there were no densely hidden spiritual abilities users or urban legends.
The entire city was permeated with a warm atmosphere, like a passionate yet harmless flame.
Completely different from Dawn City, which hides its sharp teeth and claws, only showing a glossy exterior. This wasn’t a psychological effect, but rather the result of the spirit energy fluctuations touching the surroundings. It was similar to the feeling one gets when entering a haunted house filled with terrifying urban legends, making one’s back feel cold.
Huaxie Yu had heard from a spirit ability user in Fragrant Lady Cave that this phenomenon was related to the geological energy of a city. However, she was unclear about how the geological energy was affected.
As a D+ level spiritual ability user, she couldn’t even touch the geological energy, and knowing it wouldn’t help her anyway.
“But at least here, I don’t have to worry about being held at gunpoint in broad daylight and dragged into an alley for robbery or worse, right?”
Huaxie Yu shrugged, pulled out the document bag given to her by a man, opened it again, and began reading the contents inside.
The documents could roughly be divided into three parts. The first part was the information of a nineteen-year-old girl.
Her surname is Yu, given name Jianqiu, nineteen years old, a second-year student majoring in Chinese language and literature at Huacheng University, and in addition to that, there were significant events that Yu Jianqiu experienced from the age of three to nineteen.
This was the new identity the man set up for Huaxie Yu. The second part contained information about Luxianbei.
However, the content merely consisted of hobbies and brief experiences; there was not a single word about his spirit energy fluctuation level, held powers, or various aliases.
The third part was about the customs and practices of Moon City.
This section was meant to help Huaxie Yu better play the role of a native of Moon City.
Moon City is adjacent to Huacheng, allowing for the fabrication of some “interactions” between “Yu Jianqiu” and Luxianbei over the past few years. It felt as if they had passed through each other’s worlds countless times without noticing, until they met today.
The entire document totaled thirty-two pages, with nearly ten thousand words, and included some photos.
Aside from the relevant information about Luxianbei, one could say that everything else was true, except for the person being fake; even if Luxianbei utilized the Siye Society’s filing system or the powers of the Urban Legends Chat Group to investigate, they would find no clues.
Considering that Huaxie Yu would need some time to officially connect with Luxianbei, the man originally gave her three days to familiarize herself with the documents.
However, the flight from Dawn City to Huacheng took two hours and fifteen minutes, and Huaxie Yu spent just over an hour memorizing the entire document, even managing to take a half-hour nap in between.
From the description of the documents, the difficulty of this task did not seem high.
Huaxie Yu felt that she had perhaps worried too much before.
In contrast, the damage caused to her skin from a sleepless night thinking about sending the kids away weighed on her more.
After spending about ten minutes reviewing the entire document at a nearby café, Huaxie Yu’s gaze lingered on the small red-highlighted phrase at the end of the document, and a smirk crept onto her lips.
“Prohibited from falling in love with the target during the mission? Ridiculous! What do they take your sister Hua for?”
“As long as the target changes quickly, with only desire and no love, how could I possibly get hung up on just one tree?” “But speaking of which, that man said not to worry about having my identity exposed because everything is true.” Did they k*ll a girl and let me take her place? Huaxie Yu wondered.
In fact, such things happen fairly often in Dawn City; she had seen it more than once before. “Forget it, that has nothing to do with me.”
Muttering to herself, she stuffed the documents back into the document bag, stood up, and left the café. As she passed the trash bin in front of the café, she casually tossed the document bag into it.
The document bag fell into the trash can, and the corner suddenly sparked with a jet-black flame, which quickly spread, incinerating all the documents in the blink of an eye, leaving not even a trace of ash.
Huaxie Yu stood in front of the trash can, leaning slightly forward, witnessing the entire process with wide eyes.
“Not bad! I was thinking whether this kind of thing has some kind of self-destruct limit after reading; I should have retrieved it to burn it myself.”
After mumbling that, Huaxie Yu pouted and took out the phone that accompanied the document bag from her pocket, pressing the power button.
As the startup screen flashed, the phone received a message.
Teacher Lin: “Everything is ready, room 305 at the airport hotel.”
“Teacher Lin? Oh, right, he’s Yu Jianqiu’s advisor—he’s the contact person, huh?” After reading the message, Huaxie Yu couldn’t help but roll her eyes.
“Seriously, this operation is unprofessional!”
Saying that, she deleted the message, tucked her phone away, and hurried toward the airport hotel.
An hour later.
After some disguise, Huaxie Yu, now transformed into “Yu Jianqiu,” arrived on time at the domestic flight arrivals exit, waiting for “Yu Jianqiu”‘s grandmother and the mission target to appear.
At that moment, her phone rang; it was a call from Teacher Lin.
“The mission target slipped away, the plan has changed, hurry to parking spot 235; there’s a taxi waiting for you, license plate Shu G1 T45564.”
“Understood.” As Huaxie Yu walked toward the parking lot, she asked, “But why did he slip away?” By chance, to meet someone of my caliber, a beautiful girl, and he just runs away?
That guy either has a problem with his head or his tastes! Huaxie Yu thought.
“Simply put, he wasn’t interested in you and got scared off.”
Huaxie Yu, “???”
Not interested and scared off? Haha, I’ll remember this grudge!
Forget it, I won’t hold things against someone who has a problem with their head!
After a two-second silence, before the other party could hang up, Huaxie Yu said, “Wait, don’t hang up! I want to say, you guys have a problem with this contact arrangement, you know?”
“What problem?” A confused voice came from the other end of the line.
“First of all, what kind of male teacher casually gives a female student the hotel room number? Secondly, no male teacher would casually call a female student.” Huaxie Yu said.
“While it’s not impossible, the persona you set up for Yu Jianqiu is not just a pretty village girl, right?”
“If this call and text were accidentally seen by someone, who knows what messy drama could be imagined! And if it gets to the mission target’s ears, the entire persona would be ruined, you know?”
Having a harmless, clean background identity is essential; depending on Luxianbei’s personality, if the temptation is through beauty, he might catch her and search her memories the next day.
There was a two-second silence from the other end of the line, and then an oddly sounding voice responded, “Okay, we’ll make adjustments right away; is there anything else?”
“Nothing, I see the taxi you mentioned, hanging up now.”
After Huaxie Yu finished speaking, she hung up, deleted the call record, approached, opened the car door, and got inside.
Fifteen minutes later.
The taxi Shu G1 T45564 carrying Yu Jianqiu and her grandmother sped along and crashed into a black SUV at the entrance of Huacheng Airport with a loud bang!
———
Zhang Shan’s car was moving forward, getting closer to the pair of grandmother and granddaughter standing on the street. “Uncle, are we friends?” Luxianbei asked expressionlessly.
“In most cases, yes.”
“Then for the sake of friends, can we not hit those two people?”
“This is an exceptional case outside of most situations,” Luxianbei replied.
Thus, completely disregarding Luxianbei’s feelings, Uncle Zhang Shan parked the car beside the crashed taxi. The taxi driver waved at Zhang Shan from a distance, shouting, “Brother Zhang, it’s great to see you here!” After that, he turned to say a few things to the pair of grandmother and granddaughter, and they came over.
“Young man, it’s you! I didn’t expect to encounter you again.”
Upon seeing Luxianbei, the elderly woman appeared very happy, her eyes narrowing into a slit with a smile, then waved at the girl packing luggage into the trunk.
“Qiuqiu, come here, come here, this is the young man who helped your grandmother on the plane.”
“Qiuqiu, let me tell you! Young people like this young man are really rare these days; if it were someone else, they could only stand my chatter for a short while before finding it annoying.”
Luxianbei, “…”
Old lady, you seem to have misunderstood something; I wasn’t chatting with you at all; it was all you talking, okay? If it weren’t for the money, I would have upgraded my ticket long ago!
While Luxianbei lamented in silence, the girl finished packing her luggage, stepped beside the old lady, and waved at Luxianbei through the window, “Hello, Classmate Lu.”
While speaking, the girl smiled, her lips red and teeth white, reminiscent of a metaphor used by a poet in the Elizabethan era to describe a woman’s smile—“a rose with snow.”
She seemed a bit prettier than in the photo, but still nowhere near Miaomiao Sauce! Luxianbei thought.
At this moment, the old lady naturally linked arms with the girl, reminding, “Oh right, Qiuqiu, this Classmate Luxianbei goes to the same school as you. You’ll have opportunities to interact more in the future!”
“Uh-huh!” The girl nodded, a faint blush appearing on her face. In response, Luxianbei merely nodded in acknowledgment with an expressionless face.
It was as if the delicate beauty in front of him was nothing more than a bag of trash that some b*stard had tossed at his doorstep.
Every cell in his body seemed to whisper, “Huh! Women? Totally uninterested!”
———
Luxianbei’s reaction surprised Huaxie Yu, even causing a bit of shame and anger, as she felt an impulse to punch his Sima face.
Just by looking at the photo you’re disinterested; how can you not react to a living, breathing beautiful girl right in front of you, bro! Wait a minute, the material says this guy is extremely obsessed with some magical girl.
Could it be that he’s the type who is only interested in two-dimensional girls and completely dislikes or even detests real ones? Huaxie Yu thought, cautiously helping the elderly woman into the passenger seat of the taxi according to the plan, then opened the door and sat in the back.
Once seated, she kept her legs together and hands on her knees, lowering her head, maintaining a distance from Luxianbei. This ensured that he could catch the faint scent that naturally emanated from her, while also appearing shy and reserved.
Soon, noticing Luxianbei’s peripheral gaze on her, her face flushed, and in a small voice, she explained, “Um, um, sorry, Classmate Lu, my grandma gets car sick, it’s better for her to sit in the front.”
Luxianbei didn’t respond until Uncle Zhang Shan started driving again; then he said lightly, “If you get car sick, sitting in the front indeed helps.”
“But if a serious car accident occurs, the d*ath rate for the front passenger seat is the highest, exceeding 46%.” Huaxie Yu and the old lady, “???”
What the hell? Does this guy not know how to chat?
After a pause, Luxianbei turned to the girl beside him and added, “By the way, I forgot to mention, I often take rides with this driver; honestly, he drives rather recklessly.”
“Do you know? Once, in the old district where the camera coverage isn’t great, his speed soared to 150, and suddenly he said to me, ‘Sometimes I feel that life is actually quite meaningless.’ It scared me to d*ath.”
Zhang Shan, “???”
What’s wrong with this guy today?
Although I did at one time speed at 170, it wasn’t because I was scared by you, right?
In fact, Uncle Zhang Shan had indeed panicked and fled the scene before; not to mention 150, he had gone above 180! Hence why he was called Huacheng’s second-best driver—still pretty skilled.
After Luxianbei’s words, the car fell into a momentary silence, only the sound of the song “Drifting” echoed from the speakers. “Here, the engine sound feels like a kind of instrument.
So, the wind whistling past stimulates.
So, I drift while turning,
Adding full power, drifting to the end, watch carefully.”
Soon, Uncle Zhang Shan noticed that the atmosphere was somewhat strange, subtly switched the song, and then forced a smile as he prepared to explain, but Luxianbei spoke again before he could.
“Driver, I won’t go to the place we mentioned earlier; please stop at the department store ahead; I want to buy something.” Yes, Luxianbei could have chosen to get off long ago, but he just won’t!
Upon hearing this, Uncle Zhang Shan stepped on the brake and pulled the car over to the roadside parking area.
Seeing that Luxianbei was about to get off, Huaxie Yu bit her lip, sighed softly and said, “Wait, wait a moment, Classmate Lu, what’s wrong?”
“Uh, thank you for taking care of my grandma on the plane. If it’s convenient, could you please leave a contact number? I’ll treat you to dinner another day.”
Luxianbei remained silent for a few seconds, then shook his head, “As for dinner, forget it. If you really want to thank me,”
With that, he took out his phone, pulled up the payment code, and held it out in front of Huaxie Yu, “Then just transfer some money directly, I can go eat by myself.”
Huaxie Yu, “???”
After waiting a few seconds and seeing Huaxie Yu’s lack of response, Luxianbei put the phone away and shrugged, “Forget it, I was just joking.” Just as he was closing the door to the car, he abruptly added, “Be careful later; if the driver speeds over 150 and suddenly starts talking about life with you, just ask him to wash his feet; it’ll definitely work!”
Through the windows, watching Luxianbei’s figure gradually fade away, Huaxie Yu’s lips twitched slightly.
Although she had seen such a degree of a j*rk before, in Dawn City, she had a hundred ways to make Luxianbei lie on the ground calling for his mother.
But here in Huacheng, under the identity of Yu Jianqiu, she had to restrain her behavior.
So, in their first encounter, she lost—thoroughly.
