After walking out of the room, Lu Ren saw Xu Wenxing sitting on the sofa, completely absorbed in scrolling through his phone.
“Brother Ren, you’re up so early today.”
Hearing the sound of the door opening, Xu Wenxing put down his phone and actively greeted Lu Ren.
Lu Ren nodded and said.
“Yeah, I slept pretty well last night, so I woke up naturally today.”
This was a lie.
But Lu Ren’s expression remained unchanged and natural, so Xu Wenxing didn’t suspect he was telling a falsehood.
Xu Wenxing just said “Oh” and then continued looking down at his phone.
Seeing that the other party wasn’t suspicious, Lu Ren felt relieved and went about his daily washing up.
After finishing washing up, Lu Ren stretched his body a bit, asked Xu Wenxing what he wanted to eat this morning, and then went downstairs to buy breakfast.
After wandering around downstairs for a while, finishing his own portion of breakfast, and casually bringing a fried dough stick and soy milk upstairs, Lu Ren was surprised to find Jiang Yuening and Lin Yiyi standing in front of his apartment, discussing something.
From a distance, it seemed they were discussing work matters?
“Meteor, I’ll have to trouble you to teach Xu Wenxing for a bit later. I just received a sudden message and need to go out.”
“Huh? Didn’t that tentacled Shadow Beast die? The cleanup work shouldn’t require us, right?”
“Indeed, it doesn’t. But what I need to do is unrelated to the tentacled Shadow Beast.” Jiang Yuening nodded.
“Recently, there have been more missing persons in the city. The newly developed magic power detection device found traces of residual, faint magic power at the scenes of their disappearances. I need to go take a look.”
Missing persons?
Curious, Lu Ren walked over, only to see both of them turn their heads to look at him simultaneously.
Seeing his appearance, both Jiang Yuening and Lin Yiyi looked somewhat surprised.
Jiang Yuening raised an eyebrow, scrutinizing Lu Ren. Then, upon seeing the breakfast in his hand, the confusion on her face instantly disappeared.
Lin Yiyi, after hesitating for a moment, actively approached Lu Ren and spoke to him.
“Lu Ren! Good morning!”
“Ah… Good morning.”
Lu Ren was a bit unaccustomed to this sudden enthusiasm from her. He nodded slightly in reply.
Lin Yiyi, having received a reply, took a deep breath, then closed her eyes, as if steeling herself, and said solemnly.
“Lu Ren, thank you. You saved most of the students at the school, preventing them from being killed by the Shadow Beast.”
“Al, although I don’t have much to repay you with, if you’re willing! I could debut as an idol together with you!”
After saying this, Lin Yiyi closed her eyes, seemingly accepting the fate of having to dance and sing on stage in the future.
After hearing her words, Lu Ren couldn’t help but twitch the corner of his mouth, unsure where to even begin refuting her.
Jiang Yuening, standing to the side, seemed to have seen enough. She sighed silently, walked over to Lu Ren, and mercilessly teased Lin Yiyi.
“If you want to be an idol, go do it yourself. Don’t drag Blazing Flame down with you.”
“Also, watch fewer short videos. Those magic girls from the old era looked glamorous, but only a handful succeeded. The other magic girls who became idols barely earned any money before they retired. You don’t actually think you’re that one-in-ten-thousand lucky one, do you?”
Having her inner thoughts ruthlessly exposed by Jiang Yuening, Lin Yiyi pitifully raised her head, sniffled.
Then she hugged her head and shouted.
“Sapphire! Can’t you just let me fantasize a little?! I finally made a friend and now he’s gone, I just want to become a bit more noticeable!”
“You could go be a backup dancer at a bar, dancing in the club to the DJ’s beats. I guarantee people will watch you.” Jiang Yuening said coldly.
“Th-that’s too terrible! I want that kind of straightforward admiration! Like what Blazing Flame has now!”
Lin Yiyi’s face flushed red. She hurriedly retorted, saying she wasn’t that kind of person.
But Jiang Yuening silently shook her head, walked past her, came before Lu Ren, and said solemnly.
“Blazing Flame, you’ve worked hard this time. You’ve been a huge help to us. At least a hundred citizens who were nearly killed are alive because of your timely beheading.”
“Ahem, it’s what I should do.” Lu Ren cleared his throat, accepting the other’s praise.
“The higher authorities are also very satisfied with your ability to adapt to the situation. They’ve prepared a bank card for you. A sum of money for living expenses will be deposited into it every month.”
“Ah? I haven’t retired yet, why are they starting pension payments already?”
“Don’t be surprised, this is normal.” Jiang Yuening smiled. “You saved so many people, preventing the entire city from being destroyed. Compared to what you did, this money is just a drop in the bucket.”
“Um… alright. I’ve received so much praise recently, I’m starting to feel a bit disconnected from it all.”
Lu Ren stroked his chin, ultimately choosing to accept Sapphire’s explanation.
He hadn’t even realized he’d done so many things inadvertently. He always felt he was just killing those damned monsters.
This feeling was really strange.
“Well, you better get used to this feeling soon.” Jiang Yuening said with a slight smile. “By the way, that card is with Director Xu. Remember to find time to go to the base. Director Xu will probably give you some extra rewards as encouragement too.”
“Okay, I understand. What about you guys? You’ve been busy for so long, didn’t Director Xu and the higher authorities give you anything?”
“They did.” Jiang Yuening said casually. “If you’re interested in our rewards, you can ask Meteor. I have things to do here, so I won’t chat with you further.”
“Oh, okay. Have a safe trip, Sapphire.”
“Yeah, I’m off now.”
Waving to Lu Ren, Jiang Yuening turned and left, heading straight downstairs.
Once she reached the ground floor, she took out her phone, dialed a phone number, and said a few words to the person on the other end.
Then she stood in place, silently waiting.
About fifteen minutes later, a white sedan steadily drove up near Jiang Yuening and stopped.
After confirming the license plate number was correct, Jiang Yuening opened the rear door and got in.
“Where are you planning to go? First to investigate the missing persons scene, or to confirm the life circumstances of the missing persons with their families?”
“Let’s go to the missing persons scene first.”
The person in the driver’s seat wasn’t the driver who used to drive Jiang Yuening, nor was it Xu Panfeng. It was a middle-aged man wearing a formal suit and tie.
His expression was calm, but his half-drooped eyes revealed the weariness he felt from the bottom of his heart.
Jiang Yuening knew this man.
To be precise, she had saved his life.
Back then, she was riding in a car home when she discovered this man lying by the roadside, on the verge of death, bleeding.
So Jiang Yuening had the driver stop and call an ambulance, then followed to the hospital to help pay the hospitalization deposit, ensuring the man regained consciousness before leaving.
Afterwards, the man woke up, paid his own medical bills, returned the deposit money Jiang Yuening had advanced to her, and then told her the truth.
The man said his name was Ning Fan. He used to be an employee of the A City Monster Response Department.
Later, after saving up enough money and wanting to start his own business, he resigned and started a company.
Just as the company’s products were achieving great success and he was about to make a fortune from dividends, he was kidnapped, knocked unconscious, and dumped on the street, nearly dying like that.
Fortunately, Jiang Yuening passed by at that time and saved his life, preventing him from dying.
The only regrettable thing was that after he woke up in the hospital, his original shares and position had vanished.
His former business partners had kicked him out together, monopolizing the fruits of their joint efforts.
Ning Fan really wanted revenge, but reason told him to stay calm, forcing him to just watch helplessly as his former partners grew bigger and bigger, while he could only live the same mundane life, going between the same three points every day.
And then, until now.
The partner he started the company with was dead, died mysteriously, and it was connected to the A City Monster Response Department.
Ning Fan’s feelings were a bit complicated.
He didn’t know whether he should feel sad or happy.