Chapter 55

Qingchen had never seen over 8,000 yuan in his life. He did not want to transfer the money but insisted that the other party take the cash.

The old man in the gold shop counted the money while muttering, "You're quite cautious for your age, but it's good to be cautious in your line of work. If you have more to sell next time, come to me. I'll give you 5 yuan more per gram, no matter how much you have."

The old man seemed to have mistaken Qingchen for a thief, but Qingchen did not argue.

He handed the money to Qingchen, who then carefully examined each note under the light, checking the watermark, security thread, tactile marks, and hidden text, not missing a single detail.

Finally, Qingchen pulled out two notes from the stack: "Could you please change this 50 and 20 yuan note?"

The old man's teeth ached: "People in your line of work usually take the money and leave. It's rare to see someone as meticulous as you."

Saying this, he opened a drawer and exchanged the two notes.

"If you want to do business well, don't try to fool people with fake money in the future," Qingchen said.

"Alright, come often," the old man said helplessly.

Qingchen took the money and turned to leave. The old, toothless gold shop owner watched his back and thought, "This young man will definitely have a bright future and become a great thief."

He turned several corners in the alley before boarding the bus home.

He then bought over ten pounds of beef, three pounds of eggs, and some vegetables at the market.

Ye Wan had once said that he must now become a fierce carnivore.

When he returned to his building, he looked up and saw Li Tongyun secretly waving at him from the second floor.

Qingchen thought for a moment, then waved back at Li Tongyun, signaling her to come downstairs to talk.

Jiang Xue was a known time traveler, so going to her place might attract attention. But Li Tongyun was just a young girl, so coming to his place to talk would be less conspicuous.

As soon as Li Tongyun entered, she said, "Brother Qingchen, who are the new neighbors? Have you talked to them?"

"They transferred from Hai Cheng to come for Liu Dezhu," Qingchen shared the information. "I heard them speaking English, so Hai Cheng should correspond to the 7th city in the Inner World."

"Brother Qingchen, you can understand English?" Li Tongyun asked, puzzled. "Your listening skills are so good?"

"Pretty good," Qingchen didn't elaborate on this but continued, "They are definitely here for your mother. These people have no roots in the 7th city, so they came to the 18th city to seek opportunities. Of course, I don't think it's that simple. They might have enemies in the 7th city."

Whether they have enemies in the Inner World is not something a time traveler can decide.

If they don't have enemies, why didn't they seek help from other time travelers in Hai Cheng with their local influence?

According to the information Qingchen obtained online, there is an extraordinary person and a spokesperson for the Green Dragon Society in the 7th city in Hai Cheng, which is already quite good.

But Hu Xiaoniu and others didn't spend money to seek help from these people but came to Luo Cheng to find Liu Dezhu.

Perhaps the people they provoked are beyond the time travelers in Hai Cheng to handle.

Li Tongyun thought for a moment and said, "The 7th city is the territory of the Chen family, and the 18th city is the main field of the Li family. Could they have provoked the Chen family?"

Qingchen thought for a moment and said, "It doesn't matter. They are speaking English without restraint, so I'll just listen and find out."

"Will they say it to your face?" Li Tongyun asked, tilting her head.

Qingchen patted her head and smiled, "Because they're not as smart as you."

At this moment, Li Tongyun ran to Qingchen's bathroom, picked up his changed clothes, and ran: "Mom just told me to take your changed clothes upstairs to wash. Brother, don't make it hard for me, I'm just following Mom's instructions."

Saying this, Li Tongyun opened the door and ran upstairs...

Qingchen smiled, then turned to look at his empty home and began his lonely training.

No one to supervise, no one to cheer.

All Qingchen could do was tell himself not to stop, to keep moving forward.

He had once heard that those who live in isolation are either gods or beasts.

Since he couldn't become a god yet, being a beast wasn't bad.

...

Five days left.

Qingchen arrived at school early and swapped desks with Nan Gengchen, making him Wang Yun's neighbor.

When Nan Gengchen entered the class, he gave him an ambiguous smile and whispered, "I thought you had no interest, but you're actually so proactive. You should have said earlier, we could have swapped yesterday!"

Qingchen glanced at him, thinking that he assumed he swapped desks to get closer to Wang Yun.

In fact, he just wanted to listen to Wang Yun and Bai Wan'er's conversation.

But this assumption was the best, and he hoped Wang Yun would think the same.

This way, they wouldn't be cautious when speaking in English.

Nan Gengchen, seeing him not speaking, thought Qingchen was shy and changed the topic with gossip: "Another master joined the time traveler group yesterday. He said he learned a technology for fortune-telling in the Inner World..."

Qingchen asked, "Did you get a reading?"

"Sure, it only costs 5 yuan per reading," Nan Gengchen said. "The fortune-teller said I would get a large sum of money at 65, more than I've ever seen."

Qingchen hesitated, "Is it from your son burning incense for you?"

Nan Gengchen: "…??"

Qingchen said irritably, "Can you quit that time traveler group? It's just a headache. There's not a single serious time traveler, except for one who's a pimp for rich women in the Inner World."

Nan Gengchen stubbornly said, "What if there's a real one?"

At this moment, Wang Yun and Bai Wan'er entered the classroom.

When they saw Qingchen and Nan Gengchen had swapped desks, they were indeed surprised.

Bai Wan'er asked in English, "Why did they swap desks?"

Wang Yun smiled, "Who knows, just ignore it."

"Wait," Bai Wan'er asked again, "Didn't the teacher say he's good at studies? Can he understand what we're saying?"

Wang Yun turned and looked at Qingchen seriously.

But she saw Qingchen looking down at the math competition paper, solving and filling in answers without stopping.

Wang Yun, a top student from Hai Cheng, observed Qingchen's problem-solving steps for a while and confirmed that every step was correct, not just for show.

Wang Yun then said, "The teacher in Hai Cheng said that even if students from small cities have good English scores, it's still hard for them to communicate in English because they study just for exams, and the listening part of the college entrance exam doesn't count towards the official score. Look, he's completely focused on the paper, he can't be eavesdropping and solving problems at the same time."

"True," Bai Wan'er nodded.

Suddenly, Wang Yun said worriedly in English, "Do you think what Hu Xiaoniu said about us being able to hide from Chen Leyou in the 18th city is true?"

Bai Wan'er shook her head, "I don't know, we can only take it one step at a time."

Ten minutes later, when the two finally stopped talking, Qingchen slowly put down his pen.

Indeed, these four people had enemies in the 7th city.

His judgment was correct.

Of course, Wang Yun wasn't wrong either.

Even someone like Qingchen found it difficult to solve math problems at high intensity while eavesdropping and analyzing conversations.

But what set him apart was that he could recall every sound that had ever occurred in his mind.

His life couldn't be relived, but it could be replayed.

...

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