Chapter 19

In the evening, the neighborhood underwent a thorough disinfection. Only then did the elderly and children feel safe enough to come out and resume playing chess or fooling around.

Bo Ting raised his hand, snapped a photo, and sent it to the netizen:

“Although the neighborhood property management isn’t very reliable, the residents here are still very friendly to each other.”

Especially during this time, Bo Ting noticed that ever since he was fired, everyone seemed more united. They used to argue in the group chat from time to time, but now even the prickly Sister Han had mellowed out a lot. Today, she had even actively cooperated with the neighborhood’s rat extermination efforts.

It could be said that, apart from being broke, life in the neighborhood was exactly the kind of life he dreamed of.

Of course, apart from being broke.

But that wasn’t the point. The point was that the night sky looked pretty nice tonight.

In the photo, the dim streetlights barely illuminated the garden path ahead.

Next to the fitness equipment, a few children scurried past cautiously, not daring to provoke Bo Ting at all.

After all, they had just written a thousand-word self-criticism yesterday and received a loving education on top of that.

No one with a normal IQ would come over to provoke him.

Bo Ting was very satisfied with this. He watched the bratty kids leave while wearing his mask, then lowered his head to continue chatting with the netizen.

Everything in the evening seemed perfectly normal—at least from Bo Ting’s perspective, their neighborhood was harmoniously perfect.

On the other end of the phone, Xu Qinglai glanced at the photo and raised an eyebrow slightly. It was the first time he had seen so many anomalies in one place.

If he wasn’t mistaken, those were porcelain dolls, right?

However, from the angle of the photo, all the anomalies on the screen seemed to deliberately keep a distance from the photographer.

As if they were afraid of him?

Xu Qinglai chuckled softly, feeling that this “netizen” on the other side was increasingly worth investigating.

But suddenly, he grew a bit curious about what this netizen looked like.

Bone Dog, Two-Headed Rat, porcelain dolls… yet this netizen had never appeared on camera himself.

He propped his hand under his chin, in a great mood.

“The neighborhood really is nice.”

Right? Right?

Bo Ting was delighted that the neighborhood received recognition. He felt the netizen had great taste.

Their neighborhood might not be the best, but the community spirit was top-notch.

Feeling deeply satisfied, Bo Ting blurted out:

“If you have time someday, you should come over as a guest.”

Bo Ting figured that once they got more familiar chatting, and the netizen’s acceptance grew, he could reveal that he was an air conditioner repairman and invite him over. It would happen naturally.

As he indulged in these thoughts, a genuine smile appeared on Bo Ting’s face. He even felt a bit expectant.

After all, this was the first friend he had made online.

He could sense that this guy was different from other netizens.

Not only did he not discriminate against Bo Ting’s weird questions, but he answered almost everything.

Mild-mannered and patient—he was the perfect friend in Bo Ting’s ideals.

Bo Ting nodded slightly and decided to test the waters with the netizen when he had the chance!

…

After chatting a few more sentences with Bo Ting, Xu Qinglai stood up. He had just put away his pen when he received a call from the Resurgence Management Office.

“Mr. Xu?”

“We have some data here that needs your identification. Do you have time?”

The voice of the Resurgence Management Office staff came through the phone.

Xu Qinglai was a bit surprised that data would come at this hour.

But he didn’t refuse.

After all, he had always maintained the persona of a friendly mysterious scholar.

“Of course.”

Xu Qinglai loosened his shirt collar.

“Please wait a moment. I’ll head over after washing up.”

Given Mr. Xu’s usual schedule, it was normal for him to be busy until now, so the contact at the Resurgence Management Office didn’t suspect anything.

An hour later, Xu Qinglai drove to the Resurgence Management Office.

As a scholar who had assisted the Resurgence Management Office multiple times, with exceptional poise and demeanor, Xu Qinglai was hard not to like.

“Mr. Xu.”

The staff member from earlier came out to greet him, sounding a bit apologetic.

“Something came up in the evening.”

“No trouble at all.”

Xu Qinglai shook his head. “You know I’m always interested in this stuff.”

“But is this related to the trouble you’ve run into?”

As they walked inside, the man in his impeccably tailored three-piece suit turned his head and asked.

The staff member sighed. There wasn’t much they couldn’t disclose, especially since even they hadn’t figured it out yet. “We don’t know for now.”

“This trouble is no small matter.”

In the brightly lit lobby, Ability User squads hurried to and fro.

It looked busier than before.

Xu Qinglai’s expression remained unchanged. But when they reached the secure room and he saw the anomaly he needed to identify, his expression paused slightly.

A Two-Headed Rat?

And… what a coincidence?

The handsome man with phoenix eyes lowered his gaze slightly, finding it extremely amusing.

…

Bo Ting had no idea that the Resurgence Management Office had picked up the “trash” that Doudou threw away.

He smoothly returned Doudou late at night.

Although Sister Han enthusiastically invited Bo Ting to dinner, when he saw the bright red tomatoes in her hand, he shook his head and declined.

Tsk.

For some reason, both Doudou and Sister Han had a pungent smell on them, like something rotting. He had planned to suggest that Sister Han give Doudou a bath, but when he smelled the same odor on her, Bo Ting felt too awkward to say anything.

After all, some people just had body odor, and it wasn’t their fault. Mentioning it might hurt Sister Han’s pride.

Sister Han had only recently mellowed out, after all.

Lost in thought, Bo Ting prepared to leave when Sister Han suddenly called out to him.

“Hey, wait, Little Bo.”

“Um, Sister Han has something to ask your help with.”

In the dark corridor, Bo Ting stopped, puzzled about what Sister Han could need from him.

But he still halted.

Sister Han felt a bit guilty for calling him so abruptly, but it concerned Doudou’s daily needs, so she had to ask Little Bo.

“Um, cough, Sister Han isn’t good at online shopping.”

“Didn’t you buy some locks the other day?”

“Could you pick up some dog food for Doudou while you’re at it? This guy’s appetite has grown a lot lately, and we’ve run out.”

It couldn’t just hunt outside either—most things out there were filthy, like that gray old rat. Who knew if they were edible.

They still needed to stock up on dog food.

Sister Han glanced at Doudou crouching in the corner.

“Little Bo, don’t worry. You just buy it, and Sister Han will transfer you the money right now.”

Her straightforward voice came through the security door. Bo Ting understood and realized what it was about. He thought it was something major.

“No problem.”

“Sister Han, don’t worry. I can buy it for Doudou right on my phone.”

The big black dog, returned to the floor, let out a “woof-wooo,” shaking its ferocious head.

Sister Han was satisfied and instantly transferred five thousand yuan to Bo Ting via her phone.

“Thanks for the trouble, Little Bo.”

“Don’t stand on ceremony with Sis.”

Bo Ting hesitated but ultimately accepted the dog food money. He decided to research dog food thoroughly when he got back and pick a reliable one for Sister Han.

Speaking of online shopping… the locks he bought from Aunt Qian’s link still hadn’t arrived?

Bo Ting frowned and checked when he got back. Sure enough.

The locks were still stuck on the pickup page, and the seller hadn’t bothered with it!

Luckily, their neighborhood hadn’t seen any suspicious groups lately.

If thieves had broken in, the whole place might have been cleaned out before the new locks arrived at this speed.

Bo Ting gave it a bad review with a dark face and canceled the order.

“Forget it. Consider it a lesson from waiting these past few days.”

But online reviews really couldn’t be trusted lightly!

For Doudou’s dog food, he needed to be more rigorous—maybe compare online and offline options.

He spent two days looking at dog food intros, getting dizzy and even filling a page of notes.

After all, there was Sister Han’s thousand-yuan service fee in there. How could he not take it seriously and betray that trust?

The online dog foods were all over the place, with many brands he’d never heard of. It was hard to tell them apart.

After some hard thinking, Bo Ting turned to local pet stores. He enabled location services online to compare their dog foods.

Ever since switching to the URL the netizen gave him last time, he still couldn’t search for insurance stuff, but many local pages now loaded.

It was just a bit tricky.

Bo Ting saw the three question marks on the location and manually added it himself before browsing.

Hm?

Little White Pet Shop?

Pretty high rating in the city?

And the Sensen Little Store below?

The young man in the hoodie sat on the sofa, hesitating.

Meanwhile, at the Resurgence Management Office at the same time:

The network connecting the entire Mengjia City area, even the suburbs, glitched for a moment.

Lu Jingshan was sleeping on the sofa in the duty room, waiting for the report on the identification from that Mr. Xu from a couple days ago, when he heard cursing.

“What the hell?”

“Who knows which network company installed this video surveillance.”

“It’s glitching again!”

The technician shoved back his chair, cursing as he stood to recalibrate.

Lu Jingshan glanced over. Seeing it wasn’t their Ability User squad’s business, he rolled over and went back to sleep.

A few minutes later, with the location showing up, a smile finally appeared on Bo Ting’s face.

And he discovered a treasure of a shop!

It wasn’t ranked as high as some others, but it had a 100% positive review rate!

No fake bot comments underneath—just a stream of genuine praise.

Like, “Our Dedi was on its last legs a few days ago, but after eating the ‘Rebirth Home’ pet cans, it’s bouncing around full of life again. So moving!”

“Me too.”

“I thought our old cat wouldn’t make it this year, but it powered through another one.”

“This pet shop is miraculous!”

The heartfelt praise warmed the heart. In this online era, it was rare for customers to write reviews like that.

Bo Ting grew more surprised the more he read.

Plus, all the customers seemed to be repeat buyers, indicating high repurchase rates.

He checked the shop photos, saw the cozy setup, nodded, and tapped the shop owner’s chat window.

“Hello, can you recommend some dog food?”

The reviews were touching, but the page lacked detailed dog food info?

Bo Ting was a bit puzzled.

The other side seemed to pause before seeing his message.

“Dear customer, this dog food is specially designed for pets, with no restrictions.”

“Sir, ordering now gets you a free trial bag.”

“Shipping covered by the shop.”

So generous?

Free trial?

Bo Ting was tempted. Thinking of Sister Han’s “selection fee,” he felt he should try it for Doudou.

“Can people eat it?”

The “Rebirth Home” shop owner was ready for all sorts of weird questions from pet owners. He could answer anything perfectly to hook them.

But the next second—”Can people eat it?”

The reply window stalled for two seconds. Amid Bo Ting’s eager anticipation, it responded as if catching up, in a strange tone.

“Our shop uses premium ingredients, so yes, people can eat it too.”

“Sir, are you planning to eat it yourself?”

He had sold so much “dog food,” but this was the first time someone bought it for themselves.

But wasn’t that even better?

Bo Ting felt a bit embarrassed. “I’ll try it for Gouzi.”

“Alright then.”

“Send me the address, and deliver it now.”

“If it’s good, I’ll place the order this afternoon!”

The shop owner’s tone shifted at the mention of ordering, instantly cheerful. “Of course.”

“Please send your contact info, customer.”

Bo Ting breathed a sigh of relief and sent the neighborhood address.

“Have the delivery guy call when you arrive.”

“I’ll come down to get it myself.”

“Rebirth Home” shop: “Okay.”

A few minutes later, the store owner emerged from the shop, now dressed in a delivery uniform. It grabbed the dog food from the counter.

The middle-aged store owner, in his thirties, had an honest and simple face. The only jarring detail was that beneath the helmet, its face was densely covered in wriggling worms.

White worms burrowed into the eye sockets, piling up to form a body that could walk freely, all concealed beneath the clothes.

The Rebirth Home store owner hummed a cheerful tune, in high spirits.

Once another person bought its “dog food,” it would gain yet another body.

Of course, this human body it had today was even better.

With the wriggling worms now inside the human body, perhaps today it could finally replace this “store manager’s” shell.

The store owner riding the delivery scooter wiped the worms from its face and leisurely headed toward Wenhua Street District.

The office workers standing on the street, waiting to cross, noticed nothing unusual. They only saw an electric scooter speed away when the green light flashed.

The store owner followed the GPS coordinates, weaving through alleys until it pulled up with a smile outside Yunhe Convenience Store.

Hm.

The location showed right here.

Taiping Luxury Garden, was it?

Holding the “dog food,” the store owner turned to look nearby.

But the next second, it froze in confusion.

Why wasn’t the apartment complex from the map anywhere in sight?

Wasn’t it supposed to be right next to Yunhe Convenience Store?

In that instant, the store owner suspected it had been tricked!

Otherwise, how could there not even be a trace of Taiping Luxury Garden?

Just as the store owner’s face twisted in rage the next second, its phone rang.

—It even dared to send a message?