Qing Chen sent a message, "Ask him, doesn't he fear being unable to sleep for doing evil? Doesn't he fear going to Hell?"
The other party responded, "Aren't we already in Hell?"
Before Qing Chen could reply, another message came, "My brother is about to wake up, let's chat next time, hehe."
Qing Chen breathed a sigh of relief, it was finally over.
Dealing with such people, even simple conversations can be exhausting.
Now that a Time Traveler like him has appeared, it was hard for Qing Chen to feel safe; the other party was like an evil ghost lurking in the dark, ready to suck his blood and marrow at any moment.
However, in this game of wits between them, Qing Chen did have a slight advantage: at least he didn't have to cut his own fingers to draw blood...
At Liu Dezhu's place, the smell of burning paper drew his parents over.
Ever since Liu Dezhu became a Time Traveler, his parents had been following public opinion, so they knew their son was one of the most formidable Time Travelers.
Although it was still difficult for them to comprehend the strange happenings of the Inner World, as long as their son was the strongest, they tried to understand and be supportive.
And they tried to establish common topics of conversation with Liu Dezhu.
At this moment, Liu Dezhu's father cautiously pushed open the bedroom door, looked at the smoky room, glanced at Liu Dezhu's cut finger, and then at the stainless steel plate with burnt ashes.
Liu Dezhu's father hesitated before asking, "Um... are you performing a ritual?"
His father quickly added, "Once you're done with the ritual, come have breakfast right away..."
Jiang Xue had already prepared breakfast; she wore a brown apron, casually rolling up her sleeves to her forearms.
As she brought the plates to the table, she hummed a tune.
Unlike the stressful days of the past, she was now free from pressure and fear, completely relaxed in body and mind.
Her entire demeanor had changed, like a dusty pearl that had suddenly been cleaned.
Seeing Qing Chen walk out of his room, Jiang Xue smiled and said, "Xiao Chen, there wasn't any danger in the Inner World this time, was there?"
"No," Qing Chen smiled, "Aunt Jiang Xue, you seem particularly happy today."
"Yes," said Jiang Xue beamingly, "I managed to buy two small bottles of a special ointment on the black market, the kind that heals external wounds. From now on, when you train, feel free to use it. I'll bring some for you every time I go back and forth to the Inner World."
Li Tongyun, the young girl, looked up, "My mom came back from the Inner World last night with her cheeks all puffed up like a hamster."
Jiang Xue laughed and patted Li Tongyun's head, "Eat your food."
Then, Jiang Xue spoke to Qing Chen again, "When I went to buy groceries this morning, I noticed that the house next door seems to be occupied now. There's a motorcycle parked at the door, probably belongs to the new tenant; I thought it would take a while for someone to move in, at least they could have done some renovations first."
Qing Chen thought for a moment, "Moving in in such a rush, could it be another Time Traveler? Aunt Jiang Xue, did you see what the new homeowner looks like?"
His room had already been rundown before it was sold, with peeling wall paint, moldy corners, and a broken light bulb that Qing Chen couldn't be bothered to fix.
The fact that the other party moved in without any renovations was strange.
Moreover, none of them had heard any noises of moving; could it be that the person decided to just sleep on Qing Chen's bed?
As he left the house, Qing Chen silently scrutinized the motorcycle at the door, but it didn't seem to have anything unusual about it.
Arriving at school, he was startled to find many luxury cars parked at the entrance; any one of them was worth over a million, taking up all the parking spaces reserved for the teachers.
Qing Chen was puzzled, what happened at the school?
Many students passing by him were discussing, "Our school has a lot of new transfer students, and we guessed that some would come, but never expected so many at once!"
Someone said, "My uncle's on the school's Youth League Committee; he mentioned that suddenly a lot of students had transferred here, and their families are high-ranking officials and even magnates. Those luxury cars at the gate, they all belong to those transfer students, and most of them drive to school."
"I heard, too, the executive suites at the Aden Peninsula Hotel are entirely booked up, and for a whole year!"
"Right, my uncle said all of them transferred to the fourth class of the second year..."
In this third-tier small city of Los Angeles, having a family company worth tens of millions was enough to be a top-tier second-generation rich kid.
But such rich second-generation kids still didn't look much different from regular students when going to school; they just wore nicer clothes, pricier sneakers, and smoked more expensive cigarettes; beyond that, not much else.
When had they ever seen such a lineup of luxury cars?
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A student wondered, "Why are all the transfer students such tycoons, it's too exaggerated."
However, Qing Chen felt it wasn't an exaggeration, but rather survivorship bias: it's like how some people joke that parachute companies have zero negative reviews, since those who would give negative feedback are dead and can't give any.
Thus, looking at parachute sales reviews, there are only positive ones.
The same principle applies to the current situation.
Only the wealthy can afford to transfer schools so casually, while students from ordinary families, even if they become Time Travelers, can't necessarily transfer at will to be with the "big shots."