Chapter 43

"Then I won’t keep you for dinner..." When Tang De said this today, Zhang Tie had long been unable to contain his excitement. Without even saying goodbye, he dashed out of Tang De’s杂货店 like an arrow ready to be fired.

"What a brat!" Seeing Zhang Tie run off in such a hurry, Tang De shook his head. The longer Zhang Tie stayed in the杂货店 today, the more Tang De felt that Zhang Tie seemed to have something on his mind, appearing somewhat distracted. So he had deliberately let Zhang Tie leave early, but he didn’t expect Zhang Tie to be waiting for these words. As soon as Tang De mentioned "dinner," Zhang Tie had already rushed out of the door, disappearing in a flash.

...

Zhang Tie was now very excited, eager to get home and watch over that little tree, keeping his eyes open to see how the "Wulou Fruit" would ripen. Because of his urgency, the soreness and pain in his body seemed to have lessened significantly.

Zhang Tie had only one thought in his mind—get home!

...

The area around the train station was bustling with people. Due to the curfew that started at midnight in Heiyan City in recent days, more people were out and about before the curfew, making the flea market and surrounding shops even more lively.

To get home faster, Zhang Tie didn’t take his usual route but took a shortcut, running through the more crowded streets and alleys near the train station. These places were always a melting pot of all sorts of people, with many outsiders and the most complex security situation. However, Zhang Tie had been coming to this area for several years and was quite familiar with it. But even the most familiar route can have unexpected moments. Just as he was running to a street corner, the sparse streetlights made the area dim, and Zhang Tie, who was running, suddenly collided with someone who had just turned out of an alley. Neither of them expected to run into each other at this intersection.

The other person just staggered, but Zhang Tie was thrown to the ground by the impact, feeling dizzy and disoriented, and let out a muffled groan.

"Kid, are you looking for death!"

Zhang Tie opened his eyes to see a tall, muscular man standing in front of him, in his forties, dressed like a typical pioneer, with brownish-yellow hair and a horse-like face full of scars, looking at him with a fierce expression. He lifted his foot to step on Zhang Tie, looking extremely menacing.

Zhang Tie was already sore all over, and the collision made him feel as if his body was about to fall apart. He couldn’t get up for a long time and didn’t have time to react. He never expected to encounter such a vicious person. It was just a collision, and he was still a teenager. Seeing that the man wanted to stomp on him while he was on the ground, Zhang Tie felt that if he were stepped on by that man’s huge feet and his muscular body, he would either die or be seriously injured.

"What’s wrong, Hake?" A slightly thinner man, also dressed like a pioneer, slithered out from behind Hake, saw Zhang Tie lying on the ground, and quickly grabbed Hake. The thinner man nodded toward the distance, and Hake looked over to see a group of Heiyan City patrol soldiers turning onto the street from a distance. Hake then stopped his foot.

"Are you okay, young man?" The thinner man, who was still much taller than Zhang Tie, squatted down and smiled. For some reason, looking into the man’s narrow, pale yellow eyes, Zhang Tie felt as if he were being stared at by a cobra, and his body hair stood on end. The man also seemed snake-like, and as he approached, Zhang Tie could smell a faint, nauseating odor from him.

Thinking of Hake’s raised foot, Zhang Tie hurriedly tried to get up. No matter what, lying on the ground was too dangerous.

"I’m fine, I’m fine. I was running and didn’t expect you to suddenly turn out of the alley..."

"Hehe, how could you be so careless? Did you get hurt? Come, let me help you up!"

"No... no..." Seeing the man’s hands reaching out to help him, Zhang Tie, who felt uncomfortable, struggled to sit up.

"Of course, of course, it’s also our fault..." The thinner man smiled and grabbed Zhang Tie’s hands without hesitation, pretending to pull him up. Zhang Tie felt his wrists tighten, and then his hands were quickly touched, from his palms to his wrists, elbows, shoulders, armpits, waist, chest, and abdomen. As he pulled Zhang Tie up, the man searched him all over. Finally, he even patted Zhang Tie’s crotch, calves, and ankles, all while Zhang Tie was still in a daze. The thinner man then shook his head slightly at Hake.

"Be careful when you walk at night!" The thinner man smiled at Zhang Tie, and Hake glared at him before both of them disappeared into the crowd.

In just a few seconds, Zhang Tie realized that his entire back was drenched in cold sweat. A night breeze blew, and he shivered. His intuition told him that in those few seconds, he had just narrowly escaped a major crisis.

He had to leave quickly and not encounter those two terrifying men again, Zhang Tie told himself. He took a step, but after two steps, he seemed to have kicked something. He paused, bent down, and picked it up. In the moonlight, he saw a small palm-sized cloth bag containing something. It didn’t feel like precious metal or money. Zhang Tie took it out and examined it. It was just a small, dark red, triangular wooden token, about half the size of a palm, cut in half. There were no patterns or inscriptions on it, and it seemed to be made of ordinary red pine, not particularly valuable. Zhang Tie was about to throw it away, but then he noticed that the texture and feel of the token suggested it was often held in someone’s hand, worn smooth. He thought for a moment. If it were useless, why would someone have carried it so carefully? Suddenly, he realized that this token must have fallen from Hake when they collided. Zhang Tie smirked, put the token back in the cloth bag, and placed it in his pocket before quickly running home.

Half an hour after Zhang Tie left, Hake and the snake-like man returned to the spot. Unlike when they left, their faces were now pale with a look of indescribable fear. They held a lantern and crawled on the ground, searching inch by inch, but they still couldn’t find what they were looking for.

"What do we do?" Hake’s face no longer showed any ferocity, only a sense of impending doom. "Sned, should we go to them directly?"

"Are you crazy?" Sned, the snake-like man, glared at Hake. "You know the organization’s principles and the methods of those people. Without the token, we will likely be killed as soon as we reveal our identities. How can we make them believe us?"

"What do we do, if we don’t complete this mission..."

Thinking of the punishments the organization’s leaders would inflict on those who made mistakes, both Hake and Sned’s faces turned even paler.

"It must have been that kid. I didn’t expect to be wrong this time. You checked the token when we left the train station, and it was still in your pocket. We didn’t come into contact with anyone after leaving the station, so it couldn’t have disappeared for no reason. The only time it could have been lost was when you collided with that kid. The token must have been taken by that kid!" Sned said angrily. "There’s no other possibility!"

"But you checked the kid, and he had nothing on him."

"That kid must be an old hand. He must have dropped the token the moment he got it. It was too dark here, and we didn’t notice the ground. After we left, the kid must have picked it up and fled!" Sned’s theory was mostly accurate, except for mistakenly thinking Zhang Tie was a seasoned pickpocket near the train station. "Now we can only hope that the kid doesn’t throw the token away. We need him to keep it until we find him, or else..."

"Or else I’ll kill his whole family and turn him into mincemeat to cover my back!" Hake’s face twitched. "What do we do now, should we find that kid?"

"No, we’ll catch a pickpocket first and have them lead us to the kid. If the kid hangs around the train station, the other pickpockets will know him!"

"Okay..."

The area around Heiyan City’s train station has always been the most chaotic in terms of security. The con artists, pickpockets, and thieves who frequented this area were all dirty. Especially the pickpockets near the train station, who would cheat if they could, steal if they couldn’t cheat, and rob if they couldn’t steal. They would deceive for both wealth and pleasure, colluding with the local security officials to commit all sorts of despicable acts. In the eyes of the public, they were a scourge of Heiyan City. But tonight, because of a seemingly insignificant incident, two demons finally came for them...

...

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