Hidden Dead Ends-Chapter 64

“Nice to meet you. I’m Li Chengyi,” he said, keeping it brief, as they were practically strangers.

He caught the mischievous glint in Chen Yi-jun’s eyes and immediately understood her not-so-subtle intentions.

The conversation meandered and somehow landed on their thoughts about love and marriage.

“I’m so fed up with this monotonous life,” Chen Yi-jun said with frustration, tugging at her hair. It had grown long, with darker roots starting to show, creating an unintended gradient effect.

“I mean, if life is just work, rest, and sleep, day in and day out, then what’s the point? After that, it’s marriage and kids, then spending your life raising them and taking care of your parents. Look at those middle-aged couples—they can’t even take a trip without planning around the kids’ school breaks. Every day feels so rushed, with hardly any time for themselves,” she sighed.

“That’s not the life I want,” she concluded.

“So, what kind of life do you want?” Li Chengyi asked. “A lot of people would consider that lifestyle a blessing.”

“I want something different, something exciting and cool,” she said, folding a napkin on the table into a paper crane within seconds. “I can fold a crane in five seconds—can you?”

“What’s your point?” Li Chengyi raised an eyebrow.

“Picked it up at work. Impressed?” She sighed. “Life’s so boring I could just... ugh, it’s unbearable.”

“It’s true,” Xue Xue chimed in. “My job requires no personal input. It’s all just following orders, and no matter how hard you work, the feedback is the same. It’s meaningless.”

Zhou Xingtong said nothing, sipping her watermelon juice quietly.

Li Chengyi was left speechless. After his recent experience with Mist Street’s Dead End, life already felt intense enough for him. Yet here was Chen Yi-jun, actively craving excitement. She had no idea that “excitement” inherently carried risks and dangers. Without risk, there was no thrill—they were two sides of the same coin.

While he was always yearning for a quiet life that eluded him, others were out there seeking out danger and excitement.

“For me… a stable life sounds just fine,” Zhou Xingtong said softly, breaking her silence.

Li Chengyi instinctively nodded, which didn’t escape Chen Yi-jun’s notice.

She immediately pointed at him with a teasing smile. “What’s going on? You two are so in sync for a first meeting! This is uncanny.”

Suddenly, the conversation veered toward their similarities, with Chen Yi-jun smoothly directing the topic back to Li Chengyi and Zhou Xingtong.

It was a masterful display of her years of social experience.

Over an hour later, they finally finished their meal.

Li Chengyi stood up to pay.

“Hold it! I’ll pay!” Chen Yi-jun announced, standing up with a dramatic flair. “I’m the oldest here—you all have to listen to me!”

She had had a little beer, and her cheeks were flushed as she rose and declared her intentions.

“No one better dare fight me for this bill! I said I’m paying, so I’m paying. Anyone who tries will be disrespecting me!” she shouted.

Drinking and acting out—it was a signature move that Li Chengyi was familiar with by now. He could only watch as she held onto her chair for support and slowly made her way to the cashier.

In an almost orchestrated manner, Xue Xue stepped away to make a phone call, leaving Li Chengyi and Zhou Xingtong alone.

Li Chengyi had a good idea of what Chen Yi-jun was up to. Zhou Xingtong was delicate-featured, with a gentle demeanor, large eyes, and thin, pale lips. Her face was small and soft, but her figure had a surprising allure—she radiated a quiet charm.

Girls like her tended to be easy targets in social dynamics. Among other women, they were often bullied, and in the male circle, they were seen as easy to manipulate.

For a moment, Li Chengyi sighed inwardly. If it weren’t for the looming threat of Dead Ends, he might have had the time to enjoy getting to know someone like her. But his life, entangled with the danger of Dead Ends and his own cursed abilities, was anything but normal.

The reality was that he would always be caught in a world of danger and sinister intentions.

During their brief chat, he asked a few polite questions about Zhou Xingtong’s background, which she answered earnestly. They exchanged contact information, a gesture more to appease Chen Yi-jun than anything.

After paying, the four of them strolled down the street, taking in the night air and digesting their meal.

The conversation was mostly led by Chen Yi-jun, with the other three listening and occasionally responding.

“Yi-jun?” As they walked, two men out for a night jog passed by, one of them recognizing her and greeting her warmly.

“Manager Ding? Out for a run?” Chen Yi-jun responded with a smile.

“Yeah, I go for a jog every night. Haven’t seen you around here before,” replied the lead man. He had a solid build, a ruddy complexion, and slightly sunken cheeks that gave him a cold look, though he was notably warmer when talking to her.

After a brief exchange, Manager Ding gave Li Chengyi a quick glance—a fleeting look—and then resumed his jog after bidding Chen Yi-jun goodbye.

But in that brief moment, Li Chengyi felt a strange sensation.

In his mind, he received a message from the Evil Flower.

“Detected envy-based dark thought. Please select a specific floral armor to absorb.”

Dark thoughts were categorized?

Li Chengyi considered this, realizing he hadn’t encountered this kind of situation with his original wisteria floral armor. Things seemed to be evolving.

Was it a second evolution of the wisteria? Or was it related to the opening of the second flower deity slot after gladiolus?

He couldn’t be sure.

Walking along, he focused more on the Evil Flower, which responded by revealing additional information.

“Floral armor evolution involves distinct nourishment requirements at each stage, resulting in unique capabilities.

First evolution: enhances material strength and refines flower language abilities.

Second evolution: integrates floral armor with external armor systems, with options for visibility or invisibility.

Third evolution: further enhances floral armor and significantly improves flower language, potentially introducing major changes.

Each flower species has a maximum evolution threshold. Upon reaching the ultimate stage, the flower will develop a final flower language, enabling dual flower language abilities.”

Li Chengyi’s heart pounded as he continued to read.

The Evil Flower’s feedback went beyond just evolution details and included insights on dark thoughts.

“For each evolution, one must first absorb mutant floral energy, followed by different types of dark thoughts.

First evolution requires absorbing chaotic dark thoughts, allowing any dark thought type to suffice.

Subsequent evolutions, however, require specific dark thought types, each influencing the evolution differently.

Available dark thought types: killing intent, rage, envy, lust, pride, resentment, greed.”

“This… just got interesting,” Li Chengyi thought, intrigued by the Evil Flower’s evolution system.

“Different combinations of dark thoughts will result in distinct floral armors. It’s like feeding the plant different nutrients to produce different blooms. It’s brilliant, using dark thoughts as nutrients.”

“But where am I going to find all these types of dark thoughts?” he mused.

Killing intent would be the easiest to encounter, and rage wouldn’t be difficult, either. But envy, lust, pride, resentment, and greed would require specific individuals to harbor these thoughts.

Most people wouldn’t develop these feelings out of nowhere.

Li Chengyi checked his progress.

The first evolution of his wisteria floral armor was complete. Now, he needed to move on to the second evolution.

This required two conditions: mutant floral energy and dark thoughts.

However, he hadn’t yet absorbed enough floral energy for the second evolution of the wisteria armor, which meant he couldn’t absorb dark thoughts just yet.

As for the

gladiolus, it wasn’t even halfway through its first evolution. He still needed more mutant floral energy before it could start absorbing dark thoughts.

Neither armor was ready.

Fortunately, to work toward his goal, he’d begun scouting out a nearby small botanical garden with some of the bonus money Sindra had given him.

This garden came with established facilities, making it convenient. Staff, automated irrigation systems, and other essentials were already in place. All he needed to do was bring in the specific flowers he wanted.

Reflecting on it all, Li Chengyi suddenly realized that the Evil Flower’s system was actually quite straightforward.

It was essentially a system of cultivating flowers with different nutrients to yield unique floral armors.

Mutant floral energy, chaotic dark thoughts, and refined dark thoughts—all served as nourishment.

Different nutrients led to different results.

Li Chengyi even suspected that absorbing various types of mutant floral energy might influence the evolution path of the floral armor.