“Not too bad, not exactly rich either.” Xu Wenxing’s fingers tapped on his phone screen. “Done. I’ll wait for my parents to reply.”
“Let me know when your parents reply, and I’ll see what seats to buy.” Lu Ren said.
“No problem.” Xu Wenxing nodded in response, then turned to continue eating.
Lu Ren returned to his seat and got busy with his own things.
After this little interruption ended, the atmosphere in the dorm quieted considerably, leaving only the crisp clicks of mouse buttons and the dull thuds of keyboard tapping.
It wasn’t until around five in the afternoon that the phone ringing from Xu Wenxing’s seat broke the silence.
Xu Wenxing paused the video, picked up his phone beside him, and upon seeing that it was his father calling, answered and held the phone to his ear.
“Hey, Dad?”
“I’m not a spendthrift, I still have money in my account! I haven’t used it all! Really, I haven’t!”
“There’s a concert on Saturday, and I’m planning to buy tickets in the middle section…”
“No, not some dancing idol! It’s Yunjin, the one whose albums play at home sometimes! I want to see her concert!”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s her… What? You’re going too?!”
“…Oh, okay. Got it.”
The call ended, and Xu Wenxing stared at his phone, briefly falling silent.
“What’s wrong? Your dad didn’t give you the money?” Lu Ren turned around, having heard the whole conversation, looking at Xu Wenxing.
“No, he said he’d give it later. But… sigh.” Xu Wenxing sighed.
“But?” Lu Ren asked, confused.
“But he told me to sit in the outer area. He and Mom want to buy inner area tickets and don’t want to see me there.”
Xu Wenxing shrugged, a look of helplessness on his face as he explained.
“Outer area’s fine. Good outer area seats aren’t worse than inner area.” Lu Ren said with a smile.
“But in the outer area, I can’t see Yunjin sing up close! This is the first time I can attend a concert offline like this, and I really want to get a little closer, to clearly hear how she sings.” Xu Wenxing said.
“Don’t worry, singers like her always have professional equipment. You won’t have trouble hearing her clearly.” Lu Ren comforted him.
“It’s not the same. The feeling you get from different distances is completely different.”
“Well, it is what it is. I’m buying outer area tickets anyway. Alright, I’m going back to what I was doing.”
Just as Lu Ren returned to his seat, intending to end the topic, he suddenly noticed several new notifications on the official phone he was given.
They were from that secret chat software.
Curious, Lu Ren opened the chat software, thinking it might be new info about the missing persons case.
But when he opened it, the messages had nothing to do with the case.
“Blazing Flame, Meteor. There’s a concert on Saturday. Do you want to go? The organizers sent us tickets for free.”
“I want to go! But whose concert is it? It can’t be some unknown singer, right?”
Seeing Meteor send a message for the first time, Lu Ren blinked, wondering if he’d misread.
Strange—why didn’t Meteor use her usual self-address as ‘Miss’ online?
Is she not playing the role online anymore?
Lu Ren didn’t think too much, chalking it up to Meteor’s personal habit.
“Director Xu said it’s Yunjin’s concert. I don’t know much about her. You can look her up online yourselves.”
“Yunjin?! She’s a top-tier star! Although I’m not a big fan of her songs, if it’s free, I’m more than happy to go.” Meteor replied.
“If you’re going, Meteor, remember to call Director Xu when you arrive on Saturday. They’ll get you in.”
“No problem!”
“What about Blazing Flame? Are you going to the concert?”
That was the last message. No reply after that.
Looking at the messages on his phone, Lu Ren thought for a moment and replied.
“I might go too, but I’ll buy my own ticket. What about Sapphire? Aren’t you going?”
After sending the message, Lu Ren waited two or three minutes before finally receiving a reply from Sapphire.
“I’ll pass. I’m afraid I’ll run into trouble there. You guys go on without me.”
“Alright then.”
Seeing Sapphire had her reasons, Lu Ren didn’t press further and went back to playing on his phone to pass the time.
……
Time flew by, and soon it was noon the next day.
After finishing his class at ten in the morning, and successfully snagging outer area tickets, Xu Wenxing’s mood soared, and with a wave of his hand, he declared he’d treat Lu Ren to hot pot.
Considering their next class was around four in the afternoon, Lu Ren didn’t refuse, following Xu Wenxing out of school to grab some hot pot.
“Hey, even though Dad forced me to get outer area tickets, the outer area isn’t bad at all! And we got tickets on the sides of the stage, so the view’s really good!” Xu Wenxing said excitedly to Lu Ren as he dropped ingredients into the tomato broth.
Compared to his gloomy expression yesterday, he seemed like a completely different person now.
“I told you good outer area seats aren’t worse than inner area, but you didn’t believe me.” Lu Ren ate a piece of watermelon while scooping cooked shrimp paste from the pot.
“That’s because Dad said some things to me then, but see? I figured it out later.” Xu Wenxing smiled and explained. “Oh, by the way, Ren-ge, do you think Sapphire and the others really won’t become idols? Somehow I feel like they might.”
“Don’t ask me. I honestly don’t know.” Lu Ren raised his eyebrows and replied.
“I know, but recently all the forum posts about Sapphire and the others becoming idols got deleted. Even the comments barely remain. It feels a bit strange…” Xu Wenxing frowned.
“There’s nothing strange about it. I haven’t received any notifications, and Sapphire and the others haven’t told me anything.” Lu Ren shrugged.
“That’s true. After all, Ren-ge, you have inside info, so your word carries more weight than those small accounts.”
Hearing Lu Ren’s words, Xu Wenxing nodded slightly, then dropped a plate of chicken feet into the pot and fished out a piece of shrimp paste to eat.
After finishing the shrimp paste, Xu Wenxing glanced at the pot, confirming that most of the food still needed a few more minutes to cook fully.
He then picked up his phone and opened the forum app.
Scrolling through various posts and interesting comments, Xu Wenxing suddenly noticed a strange image.
“Hm…?”
He tapped to open the image, and after reading the text, he froze for a moment.
He quickly raised his phone to Lu Ren and said,
“Ren-ge! Take a look at this!”
“What’s up?”
Lu Ren put down his phone unhurriedly and saw the shocking image.
On a utility pole somewhere in A City, a provocative notice was posted.
“Dear humans.”
“At 3:35 PM on X month XX day, we will detonate a time bomb at the Elephant House of Xiangsen Changlin Zoo in A City. You are all welcome to come and witness.”
“————The Night Demon’s Apostle.”