After school.
Jiang Huai had thought that Lu Wanyin would return home with him.
But at the station, Lu Wanyin told Jiang Huai that she had something to do.
"Um... Anyway, I'll be coming back by myself in the evening, don't worry about me. You don't have to wait for me for dinner," she said, waving her hand at him.
Reluctantly, Jiang Huai had no choice but to head home alone.
On the way, he stopped by the fresh market to buy some vegetables.
His parents would be returning to the county tomorrow, so Jiang Huai had made a plan to cook for them himself.
Of course, Lu Wanyin had to be there too.
If you're going to act, you might as well do it properly.
He bought a few pounds of pork ribs and some vegetables, planning to buy two fresh fish in the morning.
Fish dishes were Jiang Huai's specialty, which might have something to do with him liking to catch fish and roast them since he was a child.
To treat Lu Wanyin in advance, Jiang Huai also bought some desserts.
Just as he was walking out of the fresh market, his peripheral vision caught a shadow passing by him.
It was a girl with black long hair, wearing black sportswear and a baseball cap, half of her face covered by a mask.
Only her pair of narrow, deep-set eyes radiated a cold, chilling aura.
At that moment, she had one hand in her pocket, holding a phone with the other, fully absorbed in it.
"..."
As the girl passed by Jiang Huai, she slightly shifted her gaze to look at him, but it was just a glance.
"Such a coincidence..."
Before Jiang Huai could finish his sentence, the girl had already walked past him, her gaze returning to the phone.
Jiang Huai's hand, which had been raised to greet her, froze in mid-air, and he sighed helplessly, turning to leave.
Just then, Jiang Huai suddenly felt a dangerous aura.
He followed this feeling through the crowd and saw a man with a deathly pale face and deep-set eyes.
He looked like he hadn't slept in days, his movements sluggish and unsteady.
He bumped into several passersby, but no matter how much they cursed at him, he didn't lift his head.
Jiang Huai's gaze felt almost like X-rays as he saw that the man's heart had a black crystal the size of a thumb growing in it.
Infected.
And it looked like he was in the process of turning.
Jiang Huai wasn't slacking off during his training with Yue Qinshan.
While learning to control his own powers, Yue Qinshan also taught him much about beasts and infected people.
Generally speaking, infected individuals were monsters created by beasts deliberately turning them.
Some followed the beasts that turned them, while others retained self-awareness and hunted. The self-aware infected were particularly known for devouring the core of those who were in the process of turning, which was also a form of evolution for them.
Shen An'an was one of these self-aware infected, and she seemed to have mistaken herself for an unturned infected.
That's why she attacked him.
Jiang Huai refocused on the man.
The core inside him was still relatively small, so maybe there was hope.
With that thought, Jiang Huai took a step toward the man. The moment he did, the man suddenly jerked his head up and stared at Jiang Huai.
"Don't come near me!!"
The man screamed like a madman, but the other pedestrians only thought he was crazy.
After screaming, the man turned and fled at a terrifying speed, his movements completely different from the sluggishness just moments before.
Jiang Huai realized that the transformation was speeding up.
He quickly dropped his shopping bag and chased after the man.
The pedestrian street wasn't very long, and the man soon rushed out of the exit, knocking over several pedestrians.
Jiang Huai could have pushed these people aside easily, but he was concerned about the force with which he ran.
If he wasn't careful, ordinary people could get seriously injured or even killed.
Even so, Jiang Huai still tried to speed up.
He almost caught up to the man just as they both exited the pedestrian street, but the man didn't stop and headed straight for the busy main road.
At that exact moment, a speeding black sports car was heading directly toward the man.
In a split second, Jiang Huai grabbed the man's shoulder and threw him aside, but his own back collided with the car door.
There was a screeching sound.
The bystanders gasped.
Jiang Huai's jacket was torn, but his skin remained unscathed.
At the point of contact, bones quietly covered his waist.
Jiang Huai frowned and quickly suppressed the power, allowing the bones to gradually fade away.
He looked at the man he had knocked down, realizing that the force he had used was too much. The man's leg seemed to be broken, and he was now lying on the ground, howling in pain.
Jiang Huai walked over and grabbed the man's collar.
"I can help you. Be honest, and come with me."
Although he hadn't tried it before, when he sensed the man's core, he felt that it was still in its developmental stage.
If he could use his dominator power to separate the core from the man's heart, perhaps the transformation could be reversed.
The man trembled, seemingly frightened.
He let Jiang Huai drag him along, like a chicken being carried by the neck, toward the sidewalk.
But then, there was a screeching sound of brakes behind him.
It was the same sports car, now turning around and driving back toward Jiang Huai.
"Are you looking for death?!"
A well-dressed, handsome man opened the car door and yelled at Jiang Huai. The first thing he did wasn't to check if Jiang Huai was hurt but to rush to the passenger seat and look.
Seeing this, his anger flared even more.
"Damn it!"
The red-painted door was slightly dented where it had collided with Jiang Huai's body.
Not only that, a long and deep scratch on the door indicated that it might be ruined.
"Stop right there!"
The man pointed at Jiang Huai, who had already walked back onto the sidewalk.
Jiang Huai frowned.
He didn't have time for this right now.
But he took a deep breath and turned to face the man who was approaching.
"I'm fine. I didn't get hurt. No need for compensation."
With that, he turned to walk away.
The man's eyes bulged with rage.
"You think I want compensation? I'll tell you, you worthless piece of shit, dying a hundred times won't be enough to pay for my car!"
Just then, the passenger window of the car slowly rolled down.
"Brother Zhou Qin... I'm scared, that guy suddenly rushed out and almost scared me to death."
A woman's sweet voice came from the passenger seat.
Then, she saw Jiang Huai.
"Jiang Huai? Is that you?"
The furious Zhou Qin immediately recognized him, and his anger turned into disdain.
"It's really you, you useless bastard. If you want to die, just grab a knife and slit your throat! Don't come running into the road to get yourself killed!"
Jiang Huai stared at the furious young master with a wry smile.
But, to be fair, he wasn't wrong—although the man was speeding, Jiang Huai had also run straight into the road.
"I didn't think, I was saving someone," Jiang Huai said, dragging the man in front of Zhou Qin.
"How much will it cost to repair your car and touch up the paint? I'll compensate you."
"How much? I'm afraid you'll have a stroke when I tell you the number!"
"Jiang Huai! What's your attitude? Where are you getting the money from?"
Chen Ning, dressed in expensive clothing, with a refined makeup and expensive high heels, clearly showed off her status.
Whether this status was temporary, however, was hard to say.
"Brother Zhou Qin, can't you just let it go? He can't afford to pay for your car," Chen Ning said, trying to smooth things over.
Zhou Qin arrogantly wrapped his arm around Chen Ning's waist and jabbed at Jiang Huai's chest with his finger.
"Little bastard, let me tell you, I've already been more than generous to you. I gave you fifty thousand last time, and you should have gone away quietly. But now, not only are you in my way, you've even damaged my beloved car. You really dare to!"
"Jiang Huai! You better apologize to Brother Zhou Qin right now, and I'll help you out!"
Jiang Huai could feel the man's condition worsening. If he didn't act soon, the transformation might be complete, and he would have no choice but to intervene.
Though Yue Qinshan had said there would be follow-up personnel to handle it, the association's cleaners charged exorbitantly. Doing it this way would only add unnecessary costs to the Night Demon Patrol.
"How about this, kid? You kneel down and give me three kowtows. I'll let it go," Zhou Qin sneered.
Jiang Huai didn't respond to Zhou Qin. Instead, he focused on using his dominator power to slow the man's core's expansion.
"Brother Zhou Qin... isn't this a bit too much?"
"How? Are you feeling sorry for him? This kind of commoner kneeling to me isn't disgraceful!"
More and more people began to gather, and Zhou Qin was clearly enjoying seeing Jiang Huai kneel in front of him.
"Quick, kneel and kowtow, then clean my shoes. I'll let it go."
But of course, he wouldn't actually let it go.
Jiang Huai was just a punching bag for him.
That was the reality—who told him he was useless?
After he knelt and embarrassed himself in front of his ex-girlfriend, Zhou Qin planned to make him pay for it, leaving him broke.
Let this kid learn what happens when you go against the Zhou family.
Chen Ning couldn't watch any longer, but her actions only added fuel to the fire.
"Jiang Huai, I know you care about face, but even if you work your whole life, you'll never be able to afford Zhou Qin's car. Just kneel and apologize."
She genuinely thought kneeling to Zhou Qin wasn't a big deal.
At this moment, Zhou Qin held Chen Ning even tighter, as if showing off to Jiang Huai.
"Your goddess is mine now, and now you must kneel before me."
"You, a commoner, will never be on my level."
Jiang Huai could barely hold back his rising anger. In fact, where his clothes had been torn, some bones had started to cover the area, but the patch was small enough that no one noticed.
He took a deep breath, about to say something when...
A "slap" sound rang out from behind him.
Everyone turned around.
And Zhou Qin froze.
A girl in black sportswear, a baseball cap, and a mask was stabbing the tires of his car one by one with a dagger.
In his fury, he didn't even question how this delicate girl had the strength to puncture the tires of his high-end sports car.