Chapter 97 – Robbery

There were noticeably fewer pedestrians out at night than before. Su Lifeng could not tell whether it was due to the patrol officers and all the random inspections, or because ordinary people had already sensed, to some degree, that the situation was changing.

He observed the expressions of some of the people walking toward him and found that almost all of them looked worried and miserable. Some were filled with exhaustion. One man was on the phone, roaring, “How many times have I told you? The company’s performance is getting worse and worse. Every day it’s layoffs, layoffs! If I didn’t work overtime, I would’ve been fired ages ago! What? Overtime pay? Heh, where is there any overtime pay these days… Find another job? Have you seen how many people are unemployed? Being able to put food on the table is already good enough…”

After shouting, he let out a long sigh, and his voice dropped again. “I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t mean to yell at you. I went to the police station during my lunch break today to ask about Dad’s disappearance… Mm, there’s still no news… Don’t overthink it. No news means there’s still something to hope for, right…”

But just then, a figure suddenly paused as he brushed past him. The next instant, the tired-looking man felt a hand grab him.

Su Lifeng pulled the man aside, then gave the figure who had stopped a cold look.

The man stared at Su Lifeng in stunned confusion, then followed his gaze.

The figure was a young man in his early twenties with dyed yellow hair. He was holding a rolled-up newspaper, but from the man’s angle, he could clearly see the tip of a knife protruding from it.

“Hmph…” The young man showed not the slightest panic at being discovered. He shot Su Lifeng a vicious glare, then quickly darted into the crowd and disappeared.

Only then did the man come back to his senses. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and nodded gratefully at Su Lifeng. “Thank you. Thank you…”

“It’s nothing. Don’t talk on your phone while holding it out like that again. He was probably trying to snatch it just now,” Su Lifeng said, releasing him.

“All right, thank you…” The man thanked him several more times before hurrying away.

Su Lifeng watched his back as he walked off with the phone in hand. In a voice still tinged with lingering fear, the man said, “Something came up. I’ll hang up for now and tell you when I get home…”

It seemed few people around them had noticed what had happened. Or perhaps those who had noticed would have chosen to avoid it anyway…

There had been street attacks and plenty of robberies in the past too, but people like that young man-someone who came up intending to stab first, and did it with such brazen confidence-were still in the minority.

At a glance, he was clearly a repeat offender. Even with police patrols everywhere, he still dared to make a move…

And from beginning to end, the man who had nearly been stabbed never once mentioned calling the police.

He probably knew it would not be of much use, didn’t he?

With the police fully committed to investigating the Xenospecies, how could they possibly spare manpower to deal with the growing number of public security and criminal cases…

Su Lifeng gently lifted the bags in his hand, then turned into a small convenience store to buy some late-night snacks before slowly heading home.

“Stuff that used to cost just over a hundred has gone up to over two hundred this time. I wonder if the economy will collapse before peace does,” Su Lifeng thought as he turned into a narrow alley.

Perhaps to save electricity, the relatively secluded alley had only one streetlamp lit at the corner, making the whole place feel extremely dim. Most people passing through here at night would probably have to think twice.

Su Lifeng, however, seemed not to notice at all and walked straight in.

Before he had gone far, he suddenly stopped. Without looking back, he said, “Go ahead and make your move. How long were you planning to follow me?”

“Well, well. You’ve got guts after all.” After a brief silence behind him, a slightly hoarse voice rang out.

Su Lifeng turned around and looked at the yellow-haired young man with a trace of disgust. He had not come alone. Several others were with him, all around the same age, their eyes vicious, each holding either a knife or a steel pipe.

They slowly moved in, surrounding Su Lifeng.

“Guts? He’s just putting on an act! Look at that pretty-boy face. Skinny as a bamboo pole. Let’s see if he doesn’t start crying for his mommy once we beat him up,” one of them said with a laugh.

“Huh? What’d you buy? Isn’t that lover’s chocolate? What, you got a lover? A girlfriend?” Another young man with a buzz cut stared at the supermarket plastic bag in Su Lifeng’s hand, then suddenly suggested with a lewd grin, “How about we make this kid take us back to his place? Have him hand over his girlfriend so we can have some fun, just like that couple yesterday.”

Blondie, the leader, had long since filled his gaze with malice as he looked at Su Lifeng. He nodded and said, “Sounds good.”

“Then it’s settled. Kid, what’s in your other bag? Some kind of cement sack? Looks like you’re doing pretty well for yourself. Don’t tell me you hid your money in there on purpose. Open it up and let us see.” The buzz-cut youth grinned again. He had already made up his mind. First, he would make this kid obediently do as he was told. Then, just when the kid thought he would be spared as long as he listened, they would beat him half to death. After they played his girlfriend to death right in front of him, they could torture and kill them both together.

Su Lifeng did not even glance at him. He gently set the bags down, then took off his trench coat.

“Hey! Are you stupid? I told you to open the bag!” The buzz-cut youth abruptly raised the steel pipe in his hand.

But at that moment, a flash of red light passed, and the smile on the buzz-cut youth’s face froze. He stared blankly as the steel pipe fell to the ground and rolled to his feet. The severed hand still gripping the pipe… why did it look like his own?

Before he could realize what that meant, he felt another splash of hot blood spray across his face. A human head flew past in front of him. It looked oddly familiar…

The bag on the ground had opened slightly, and the buzz-cut youth finally saw inside.

But with just that one glance, a sudden chill shot through his entire body.

It was not the pleasure of hearing people scream and wail under his hands. It was fear.

In the blink of an eye, Su Lifeng withdrew his Bone Wings, put his trench coat back on, and picked up the bags again.

Only after Su Lifeng’s figure continued slowly forward and disappeared into the darkness did the buzz-cut youth finally realize what had happened.

It was his hand that had been cut off, and all his companions were dead.

He turned his head, wanting to look at Blondie, the one who had brought them here, wanting to curse him out. But the instant he turned, he suddenly felt a rush of heat pouring from his neck.

“Was my neck cut open too?”

As that overwhelming panic came crashing over him, the buzz-cut youth saw Blondie as well.

Astonishingly, Blondie was just like him. The instant he turned his head to look back, a crack appeared at his neck…

“How long does it take a person to bleed to death?” At that moment, the buzz-cut youth suddenly remembered a question he had once asked one of his victims.

He felt a little regretful. Back then, he had not actually wanted to hear the victim’s answer. He had only wanted to amuse himself.