Fang Yuan, who seemed to be just an ordinary Candidate with no connection whatsoever to the God of Destiny, finished all the skewers on her plate and downed three bottles of cola in five minutes.
Lin Xu, still chewing, stared silently as Fang Yuan ordered another dozen skewers from the stand owner.
Lin Xu: "..."
She took a sip of winter melon tea, reached out, and transferred the remaining skewers from her plate onto Fang Yuan's.
Fang Yuan's eyes lit up, and she gave Lin Xu a thumbs-up as she ate.
Already full and genuinely unable to eat another bite, Lin Xu accepted her gratitude placidly. She tapped her own shoulder with her thumb and went back to sipping her winter melon tea.
“The 【God Selection】 begins tomorrow morning. You...”
Before she could finish, a figure stepped into their field of view without warning. A young man with cherry-blossom pink hair held a plate of barbecue and a cola, asking cheerfully, “Excuse me, do you mind if I share your table? Business is way too good here; there aren't any open seats left.”
Despite his polite words, he sat down between them with familiar ease, arranging his plate and cola.
“Boss, I'm sitting right here! Don't forget my skewers later!”
The busy owner shouted a quick response to him before going right back to calling out, “This portion is yours, that portion is yours, don't rush, I can split them all up just fine!”
Lin Xu glanced at two other nearby tables that clearly had empty seats, shifted her eyes away from the butterfly stud on the young man's ear helix, and lowered her gaze, quietly sipping from her already empty cup of winter melon tea.
“Hey, little sister, the bottle in your hand is empty. If you don't mind, you can have Brother Liang's. It's brand new, unopened.”
As he spoke, he placed a bottle of winter melon tea right beside Lin Xu's hand and reached over to take away her squished, empty container.
Lin Xu bit down on her straw, staring silently at the winter melon tea he had set by her hand.
Drawing from her years of experience as an inspector, she knew that someone talking to himself like this and inexplicably calling himself "Brother" had to be a Candidate for a god too.
Because normal people didn't talk like that.
Fang Yuan kept her head down, eating heartily, only raising her eyes slightly when she heard the commotion beside her.
Her expression didn't change much, her brows drawing together slightly, appearing to have no objection to his presence.
Just as Lin Xu was about to say something, Fang Yuan grabbed a bundle of bamboo skewers and lunged without hesitation right at the young man's eyes.
Lin Xu: “????”
What the hell! Why so sudden?! Don't start a fight while she's here!!
She can't just turn a blind eye in this situation! There are onlookers all around!!
The strike was sudden, swift, and ruthless. Before Lin Xu could even draw her gun, the skewer about to pierce the young man's eye veered off course, narrowly grazing past his cheek.
It was because Fang Yuan had stepped on a banana peel.
Her body tilted.
The skewers veered.
It missed by the absolute skin of his teeth.
Fang Yuan, who had been dead sure the hit would land before striking: “?”
She had pretended not to notice Liang Du's arrival and intentionally waited until he was slightly relaxed before springing her attack. There was no way he could have dodged it.
There hadn't been a banana peel under her foot when she prepared her move; it had appeared out of nowhere right at the exact moment she was about to strike.
Fang Yuan instantly stabilized her balance and flicked her wrist, aiming straight for Liang Du's ear this time.
Her other hand grabbed another handful of skewers, thrusting fiercely at his hand resting on the table, ignoring Lin Xu's attempts to stop her.
Someone sitting at the table behind them suddenly stood up, accidentally bumping into Fang Yuan.
Having anticipated the collision, Fang Yuan used the momentum to shift her angle, lunging toward his neck with both hands.
Snap—
Fang Yuan's center of gravity shifted once more, and both handfuls of bamboo skewers violently grazed past the edge of his neck as the stool she was sitting on—rock-solid until now—suddenly broke.
Fang Yuan stood up in silence, took a new stool amidst the owner's repeated apologies, and tossed the bamboo skewers onto the table with a thud.
She put her head down and went back to eating her skewers.
Lin Xu had figured out the trick by now too.
Both of Fang Yuan's strikes were fast and brutal, yet both times, external accidents had intervened to cause her to miss.
It was like a pair of coincidences.
However, one coincidence right after another was undeniably suspicious.
Lin Xu came up with a guess: “A Candidate for the God of Luck?”
Liang Du took the fried skewers handed over by the owner, divided half onto Fang Yuan's plate, and gave Lin Xu a friendly, polite smile:
“That's right. Little Sister Fang Yuan is formidable. My dodging those attacks just now was purely borrowing some light from the God of Luck.”
Taking advantage of the moment he was speaking to Lin Xu, Fang Yuan grabbed a bundle of skewers once more and stabbed violently toward the back of his hand!
Liang Du just happened to reach out for his drink, thrillingly evading Fang Yuan's bamboo skewers by a hair.
“Sorry, sorry, Little Sister Fang Yuan. Brother Liang won't move this time; feel free to stab all you want.”
As he spoke, his gaze was sincere, and with an air of going through fire and water for a friend, he laid his hand flat on the table without hesitation.
Fang Yuan didn't stab him. She tossed the bamboo skewers aside, and they landed with pinpoint precision into the trash can.
Lin Xu slowly released her hand from the pistol at her hip, casually observing the two of them.
The two of them clearly knew each other. Liang Du's attitude toward Fang Yuan was unusually familiar, making them look like friends.
Yet Fang Yuan treated him like an enemy, every move oozing vicious intent to take his life.
As Lin Xu sipped her winter melon tea, Liang Du happened to stand up, leaning forward and reaching out his arm to grab the napkin box on the other side of the table.
It was this exact movement that caused the shirt collar previously fitted snugly against his neck to loosen slightly.
A thin silver chain slipped out from inside the open collar and dangled in midair, swaying gently with his movements.
At the end of the chain hung a silver gyroscope.
Lin Xu's gaze paused. The material of this silver gyroscope felt oddly familiar, especially the ruby embedded in it.
It wasn't until her eyes drifted to the silver ring on Fang Yuan's thumb that she found her answer.
The materials of the two were strikingly similar.
From her angle, she could see that the palm side of Fang Yuan's ring was also embedded with a ruby.
Fang Yuan lifted her eyelids, her gaze sweeping coldly over the silver gyroscope hanging from his neck.
Her mastery of hypnosis had come from Liang Du, yet she had surpassed Liang Du.
She felt she should still greet this dead turtle-donkey who had taught her hypnosis.
“Dead turtle-donkey, how are you still alive? It was my fault for failing to kill you last time; I'll take the blame and punish myself with another skewer.”
At the sight of that stomach-turning face, Fang Yuan found that even the skewers in her mouth lost their taste.
Such bad luck!
Gag—!!!
Liang Du narrowed his peach-blossom eyes, a smile spreading across his fair, impeccably smooth face.
Lin Xu felt that if this Liang Du were dressed as a woman, absolutely no one would be able to tell he was a man.
“How can you talk like that, little sister? That axe strike you landed on your Brother Liang's back last time hurt like crazy. Your Brother Liang almost died.”
“But your Brother Liang is a good man blessed with good fortune. Just as I was about to die, I received the favor of the God of Luck, and that's how I managed to come back to life.”
He smiled and grabbed a fresh bottle of cola for Fang Yuan.
“During the 【God Selection】, your Brother Liang will still have to borrow a bit of your light, little sister. After all, you're a big celebrity now, aren't you?”
Rate on N.U.
