Chapter 61 Part 2

“Sigh, it’s a long story.”

Yan Qian: …

Wh-what made it such a long story?

Last time with the survey, hadn’t he said Mengjia City was pretty good?

Yan Qian was baffled.

Bo Ting turned to see the girl’s gossipy eyes. His social anxiety barrier shattered, and his urge to vent peaked. He couldn’t help it.

“Say, if you did something really rude in front of a friend, what would you do?”

Though Mr. Xu said he didn’t mind and had kept chatting normally these days, even ordering food for him.

But the nitpicky AC still wanted to salvage his image.

Yan Qian: ???

Ha.

Asking her?

Well, yeah—she’d impulsively asked first.

Watching the shark head slowly lift after petting the terrifying bone dog.

Yan Qian dryly chuckled. “Since it’s a friend, they probably won’t mind.”

“Everyone slips up sometimes—it’s normal.”

Oh, right.

The other side wasn’t human.

Bo Ting: …

It sounded reasonable.

“But that friend is really important,” he emphasized again.

Yan Qian twitched her mouth. No matter how important, if not a crush, why care so much about image?

She plastered on a perfect smile.

“Actually, everyone forgets after a few days.”

Though she didn’t get eerie social dynamics, …did this one really need to worry?

Bo Ting found this staff girl had solid life experience.

Sigh.

He was just too hung up on his image with Mr. Xu, hence the dilemma.

Whatever—might as well have the milk tea first.

A steaming cup of brown sugar milk tea was served, finished a full ten-plus minutes faster than before.

Bo Ting glanced surprised at the back area, but the thick glass obscured it. He took the cup.

“You guys have been working hard these past couple days.”

The master who’d been clumsy at first had improved so much—impressive.

Yan Qian suddenly recalled the captain practicing milk tea shaking with a cup at midnight last night. She nearly burst out laughing but barely held it in.

Bo Ting puzzledly turned his head, feeling like he’d heard something odd.

But on closer look, the staff girl’s expression was normal—probably his imagination.

Bo Ting nodded, met the staff girl’s steady gaze, then withdrew his eyes.

“I’ll head out then.”

“Keep busy.”

Yan Qian exhaled, just smoothing her expression when the eerie with the dog at the door abruptly turned back—like trying to scare her to death.

“Oh, right—thanks for the advice earlier.”

Yan Qian choked.

“You’re welcome.”

“As long as you’re happy.”

Bo Ting smiled in response and finally left with the dog.

The moment that figure departed, Yan Qian couldn’t help but cough a few times, suddenly feeling that she had been far too bold.

She had actually tried to console this Anomalous God, infamous for its foul temper, and even zoned out in the process.

If anything had gone wrong, she wouldn’t even dare to imagine it.

Fortunately, for some unknown reason, Taiping Luxury Garden was still willing to play along with them for now.

Yan Qian let out a long sigh of relief and immediately recorded the conversation, adding a note to the Resurgence Management Office headquarters.

—”This one seems to be in a bad mood lately.”

The Resurgence Management Office headquarters received the message shortly after.

Lu Jingshan scratched his hair with his pen.

“In a bad mood? Who could possibly upset It?”

It had always been the one intimidating them.

He twitched his mouth, and Si Ning glanced at him.

“Perhaps Taiping Luxury Garden is planning some action soon.”

As for the rudeness that “Bo Ting” had mentioned in the milk tea shop’s report, Si Ning felt it was more like a metaphor.

Lu Jingshan had considered the same, but…”Copper Splitter has completely vanished now, its anomalous power suppressed and eroded away.”

“Who else could it be?”

The two exchanged a glance, both puzzled.

…

Bo Ting led Doudou back to the neighborhood once more. This time, he strolled casually while sipping his milk tea.

The aroma of brown sugar wafted through the plastic cup, and Doudou paused mid-walk, its pitch-black snout sniffing. It let out a “awoo.”

Bo Ting: …

“No, it’s too sweet. You can’t have any.”

Doudou: …

Then what was the point of it tirelessly accompanying Bo Ting on this walk?

Gouzi plopped down on the ground with a thud, refusing to budge. Bo Ting’s eyes widened; he never expected Doudou to throw a tantrum.

After a few seconds of furrowed-brow staring at the dog on the ground, just as he prepared to drag it up forcibly, he noticed: the eyes in the air seemed to detect something, swarming over in clusters and floating around him and the dog.

Bo Ting: …

Why did it feel like this swarm of eyes had zeroed in on him?

Ever since getting off the bus that day, Bo Ting had noticed the eyes gathering around him more and more.

And they seemed to be observing him.

Strange—he had been acting like a perfectly normal Mengjia City resident.

Was it because Doudou was too unusual?

Unable to figure it out, Bo Ting looked down at the dog.

Doudou had just caught Bo Ting’s familiar angry glare when it suddenly noticed his gaze shift.

Woof?

The bone dog wagged its tail.

Under Bo Ting’s inexplicable stare, its ears twitched. It abruptly stood up, ready to head home as usual.

“Woof.”

Fine, no milk tea.

Let’s go upstairs.

Bo Ting: …

Cowardly dog.

Whatever, he’d let it slide for today. Some other day, he had to give it a new look.

Otherwise, constantly drawing the eyes’ attention wasn’t going to work.

…

Xu Qinglai noticed that Bo Ting seemed to be deliberately avoiding him.

Was it because of that blunder last time?

After pondering it in his mind, when he got off work that evening, he suddenly looked at his phone.

“ASLEEP YET?”

Bo Ting had just finished showering and deworming the dog when he saw the message.

It was from Mr. Xu.

The familiar avatar caught his eye, and Bo Ting hesitated for a moment.

“Not yet.”

“But I just finished tending to the dog. I’ll rest soon.”

As soon as he sent that, a strange calm settled over his mood.

It seemed… there really wasn’t anything to it.

As long as he didn’t care about his image, nothing could defeat him!

Bo Ting comforted himself while waiting for Mr. Xu’s reply.

Xu Qinglai recalled Bo Ting’s rambling that day and lowered his eyes.

“I wanted to say, you don’t need to feel burdened.”

He paused, then added: “I thought you were very cute that day.”

Very cute…

When that word popped up on the screen, Bo Ting froze for a moment.

He hadn’t expected Mr. Xu to say that, and his whole body suddenly heated up.

Was this the bro filter?

He clearly felt his polite image had shattered into pieces.

Yet his good bro had somehow layered another one on top.

Bo Ting touched his cheek, thinking it felt weird for friends to call each other cute.

Maybe Mr. Xu thought the patterns on his face were cute?

That made sense.

Because he thought they were cute too.

After clearing his throat lightly, he replied: “That’s good.”

Bo Ting composed himself: “Mr. Xu just got off work?”

Xu Qinglai responded: “Yeah, handled some things this afternoon.”

As he spoke, he glanced up at the eyes in the sky.

The changes in the Eye of Virtual and Real didn’t escape the notice of those watching.

The others at the Mengjia City Resurgence Management Office might not know, but the First Ability User Squad… those few who had shed their mortal forms and lurked in the shadows definitely had.

—The Eye of Virtual and Real was stirring.

Thinking of that recent phone call, Xu Qinglai’s expression turned inscrutable: “There might be some celestial phenomenon in a few days.”

“Someone consulted me about a few things.”

Eh?

Celestial phenomenon?

“Related to those eyes in the sky?” Bo Ting asked, surprised.

Xu Qinglai nodded: “But we don’t know the details yet.”

What exactly would happen could only be known once the Eye of Virtual and Real fully opened.

Bo Ting pondered this, noticing that as he discussed it with Mr. Xu, the eyes overhead seemed utterly oblivious.

He rubbed his chin lightly; he’d always been a bit curious.

Was this thing alive or dead?

But since Mengjia City locals took it for granted, asking would make him seem like the odd one out. Bo Ting held back.

The next morning.

Bo Ting woke up and subconsciously looked skyward, recalling their conversation from the night before.

After staring hazily for a while with sleep still clouding his eyes, he suddenly widened them.

Hm?

Wait, were the eyes in the air like this last night?

They seemed… bigger?

They’d only been slightly closed before, but now they looked half-open.

Bo Ting stared down the eyes swirling around him for a long while.

For some inexplicable reason, he suddenly felt a suicidal urge and leaned in close. He stuck his head right up to one of the transparent eyes that had floated over to observe him early in the morning.

He wanted to see what he could glimpse from this half-open, transparent eyeball.

The next second, Bo Ting froze in shock.

Inside the eyeball, he unexpectedly saw—a familiar face?