Chapter 12: The First Great Food Fight

Nightfall.

At this time, Area F was not peaceful, and as the underground manager of this region, he was well aware of this fact, which made him hurry his steps.

It was not that he feared danger here, but rather he didn't want to expose his identity or trace.

One of the thirteen Disciple chiefs of the largest gang in Thirteen District, meeting secretly with a member of the Deception Group from Seventh District at midnight—if Black Shark, the leader of the Mechanical Disciples, found out without a plausible explanation, he would certainly be killed.

Before entering the dim alley, he looked around for a while. Seeing no one was noticing, he confidently walked in.

Inside the alley, a man in a hoodie listlessly played with his fingers. Sensing his arrival, the man in the hoodie lifted his head, his fox mask shining brightly.

"You've finally arrived," the fox extended a hand, "my Black Silver."

"Can you really help me perfectly break away from the Mechanical Disciples?" He didn't hand over the promised reward but warily watched the fox, which should have been in the police's possession.

Logically speaking, as a Disciple chief who was notorious in the underworld of Thirteen District and whose hands were stained with blood, he shouldn't be led around by a newly emerged entertainment group. However, from the start, the fox before him had tightly grasped his mind.

His intentions had been exposed too early; otherwise, he could have paid less Black Silver, he thought annoyedly.

About a month ago, he had unexpectedly obtained four kilograms of Black Silver, a fortune. Not being a fanatical mechanical maniac, he thought about breaking away from the organization and fleeing far away. However, he knew if he couldn't perfectly fake his death to trick Black Shark, he would die no matter where he escaped.

At that moment, the Deception Group set their sights on him—or rather, on the Black Silver in his possession.

"Of course we can. In fact, you believed we could do it when you saw our plan a month ago, didn't you?" the fox smiled, "Moreover, you've already taken action."

"Let's hope so," he looked deeply at the fox, then extended his hand, opened a storage slot in his chest, and took out a Black Box, "One kilogram of Black Silver, this is the down payment. I'll give you the rest after the job is done."

"That's fine." The fox took the Black Box. He didn't rush to check the contents; indeed, there was no need because he always held the upper hand.

Or rather, the life and death of this Disciple chief were always in his hands.

—

When the phrases "face recognition failed" and "password input error" appeared repeatedly on the security door, Jiang Shu finally realized the severity of the situation.

There was no doubt that Sister Ruo had changed the password, but it was only the villa's security door, not the large iron gate outside, so he could still get home tonight, albeit with some technical maneuvers.

"Sister Ruo, Sister Ruo! Open the door!" Jiang Shu shouted for a while, but received no response; however, the second floor's light was indeed on, clearly indicating with her actions the words "I don't want to deal with you."

Having no choice, Jiang Shu resorted to his backup plan. He went to the side of the villa, where a water pipe led directly up to the second-floor balcony. The pipe could be climbed to reach the balcony.

However, to be honest, even though there were notches on the water pipe to step on, it wasn't easy to ascend. But after some effort, he successfully stood on the balcony.

"This woman... went too far." Jiang Shu looked at the iron railing gate in front of him, momentarily lost for words. If he wasn't mistaken, this railing was made of special steel, and judging by the faintly glowing warning signs, it was probably electrified.

He shifted his body to look through the railings at the room, but the curtains were half-drawn, making it difficult to see inside. Only the light from the room shone through the semi-transparent curtains and then through the iron railings, casting light on his face.

"So, this isn't illegal entry, right?" Jiang Shu crouched down, muttered to himself, and quickly drew a small knife, swiftly cutting through the shadow of the iron railing on the ground.

"Clang clang—" As the shadow was cut, the railings fell to the ground, creating a crisp sound; a square entrance appeared before him.

Jiang Shu lifted the curtain, first sticking his head in to scout the room, and upon seeing no one inside, he confidently entered Sister Ruo's room.

The moment he stepped into the room, two robots charging in the corner, Little Eight and Little Five, instantly turned red and took flight, but upon realizing it was him, they leisurely returned to their charging docks.

"One can only say, this is just like Sister Ruo," Jiang Shu looked at the room, which resembled a battlefield from not being cleaned for two days, sighed, and found himself already folding clothes.

After tidying up a bit, he looked at the considerably neater room, approached Little Eight and Little Five with two bags of trash, and asked, "Where's your master?"

A number "1" appeared on the forehead of Red Little Eight, while Blue Little Five emitted a sound of flowing water.

"In the shower downstairs?" Jiang Shu understood their meaning.

Xiao Ba and Xiao Wu nodded simultaneously.

"Has she had dinner yet?" he asked again.

Xiao Ba and Xiao Wu shook their heads together.

"Alright." After gathering the information, Jiang Shu went downstairs and glanced at the brightly lit bathroom, from which sounds of running water echoed.

Actually, there was a bathroom in Sister Ruo's room upstairs as well, just without a bathtub, so she preferred the downstairs one.

However, to shower, soak in the bath, perform skin care, and blow-dry her hair, it seemed Sister Ruo was planning to leave him hanging for an hour or two.

Judging by the sound, there was still time before Sister Ruo finished bathing, so Jiang Shu headed to the kitchen and randomly picked up a few items and some pre-made noodle dough from the fridge.

He cooked some porridge, fried a dish, and then made forty to fifty dumplings, which he steamed and let sit a while before frying; after all the hustle, about an hour had already passed and Jiang Shu sat idly browsing the internet in the living room.

By this hour, all the evening performances at Black Currant Theater had ended, and a video titled "A Passerby Female Becomes Li Yuntang With the Help of a Magician, and She Unexpectedly Says to the Magician..." quickly topped the trending search on the Lonely City video platform.

"One has to say, no matter the world, clickbait is everywhere." Jiang Shu opened the video and set it to play at double speed.

It was just a simple recording with subtitles, but it was clear and occasionally zoomed in on stage details where needed; the recording quality was comparable to that of a television station.

Unexpectedly, at the end of the video, the uploader actively guided the mood:

"All in all, the magic performance was incredibly fascinating, a never-before-seen form of art. But more surprising than the secrets of the magic was Mr. Jiang Shu's commanding presence. Whether it was his performance experience, script handling, or audience interaction, his performance didn't seem like that of someone just in his early twenties."

"Mr. Jiang Shu tells us to believe in science, but I still can't imagine how he achieved such effects with a Mysterious Coefficient less than one; it probably involved information disparity and some psychological tactics. Lastly, I hope we can accept such performances with a calm attitude without necessarily needing to uncover their mysteries."

"I think retaining curiosity and respect for magic is what we as the audience should do."

After watching the video, Jiang Shu checked out the uploader's home page; the profile indicated they were a junior editor and reporter for a cultural magazine in the Seventh District, with most previous videos comprising theater recordings.

In Lonely City, professional reporters authorized to film inside theaters are allowed to do so, provided they do not disturb other viewers.

"This guy, chooses a sensational title but does not stir up trouble, really slacking." Jiang Shu stroked his chin, and truth be told, the person's final remarks had moved him slightly.

In his previous life, the atmosphere around magic had been terrible, filled with malice and arrogance, with almost all live performance videos containing words like "stooges" and "edits," as if without these methods, a magician was nothing.

This was merely because the effects of magic surpassed some viewers' understanding, aptly fitting the phrase—"Laymen watch the fun, experts observe the techniques, fools loudly claim they know."

Back then, Jiang Shu had encountered such pretentious know-it-alls during performances. After watching a few magic reveal videos, they adopted an attitude of feigned knowledge, but he had easily confused them with simple tricks.

However, even though the uploader had tried to keep peace, the comment section soon filled with nasty remarks like "stooge," "just acting," and "Li Yuntang just wants to promote someone."

Moments later, a fresh troop of supporters entered the battle of the comment section. Fans supporting Li Yuntang began an all-out assault both in terms of quality and quantity, effectively wiping out the skeptics.

"Deservedly so." Watching the overwhelmingly one-sided comment section, Jiang Shu smiled contentedly, "Getting Li Yuntang on board was truly a stroke of genius, hitting three birds with one stone."

"Smiling at what?"

Just then, the bathroom door banged open, and a mist of warm, damp air billowed out. Liu Tingruo, dressed in pajamas and managing her wet hair, stepped out and immediately saw Jiang Shu grinning foolishly at the Simulated Light Screen.

"Nothing much," Jiang Shu glanced at her, who appeared as stunning as usual just out of the bath, so he composed himself and answered formally.

Liu Tingruo walked over and stood beside him, her gaze sweeping over his screen for a while before she merely uttered an "Oh."

Unfortunately, right at that moment, a message arrived with a "ding" sound, crisp and clear in the living room.

As is well known, Jiang Shu had no social connections, except for Liu Tingruo, so it was nearly impossible for someone else to be reaching out to him.

With such curiosity, both turned their eyes towards the tiny screen—

"I'm Li Yuntang, your magic is very interesting. I look forward to our next meeting. Please do not share my personal account with others."

Jiang Shu felt a twitch in his nose as a fragrant, cold voice drifted past his face, "So that's how it is."