Chapter 294: Chapter 290: A Pity, You Won’t Be Growing Up

’Why does this feel like a scattered jigsaw puzzle?’

A strange look flashed across Hu Qi’s face.

Just then, there was a knock on the door. The waiter was here with the food.

Seeing this, Hu Qi pushed his thoughts aside, picked up his chopsticks, and began to eat.

Half an hour later. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

The nearly twenty dishes and eight bowls of rice on the table had been eaten clean by Hu Qi, without a single drop left.

Under the admiring gazes of the owner and the waiter, Hu Qi paid the bill and leisurely walked out of the restaurant.

That one meal had cost nearly a thousand.

The original body’s pitiful savings had long since been whittled down to almost nothing.

As for the money Hu Qi had now, it naturally came from Wei Fan.

Hu Qi had taken the golden box used to imprison the Dream Eye, melted it down, and sold it to a second-hand gold recycling shop.

Although the price was haggled down a bit, he still made a small profit of over two hundred thousand.

’Now that I’m full, it’s time to deal with my own hidden dangers.

But before that, there are a few small troubles I need to take care of first.’

Hu Qi looked up at the gradually setting sun and murmured softly.

...

Lakefront District was just over three kilometers from Happiness Garden District, located near the center of Qishan City.

It was named for the oval-shaped lake beside it.

Unlike Happiness Garden District, which was resettlement housing from demolition compensation, the buildings here looked brand new, and the roads were much cleaner and tidier.

The guards at the gate weren’t a few old men who, between them, couldn’t even scrape together a full set of teeth. Instead, they were several middle-aged men in their forties who looked quite energetic.

「At this moment.」

Hu Qi, who had changed his appearance to that of a middle-aged man, followed other residents into the district.

Just as he arrived at the base of a certain building, he heard a commotion.

Looking up, he saw a crowd of people gathered over there.

As he got closer, he saw that it was two groups of people in a confrontation.

On one side was an old woman in her sixties or seventies, with a chubby boy of about ten beside her.

On the other was a young couple in their twenties.

The young woman was in a wheelchair, one leg wrapped in bandages from which blood could be faintly seen seeping through. She also had numerous scrapes on her arms and legs, all covered in dust, making her look quite disheveled.

"You say my Wu Xiaobao pushed you? What proof do you have?"

The old woman stood with one hand on her hip, her face full of sharp-tongued malice as she sneered and questioned her.

"What proof? Plenty of people saw it! It was clearly your kid who pushed me!"

The young woman was so angry she bit her lip, leaving an imprint. Her eyes were red, and tears welled up, threatening to fall.

"Who? Which person? Who saw it? Tell them to come out and say it!"

The old woman was unmoved. She lifted her eyelids, her gaze sweeping menacingly over the surrounding crowd.

Seeing this, some people who had originally wanted to step forward and speak a word of justice all lowered their heads.

After all, they had lived here for a long time. Everyone knew what this family was like and how difficult this old woman could be.

Once you got on their bad side, it was like being stuck with a leech you couldn’t shake off. It was utterly disgusting.

Seeing the crowd’s reaction, the old woman grew even more smug. She pointed at the young woman in the wheelchair, cursing and swearing, her spittle nearly flying in the other’s face.

"I think you’re just a malicious girl! Your own leg is bad, so you fell down by accident and now you want to frame my Wu Xiaobao!"

"Grandma’s right! This damn cripple fell on her own! Stinky cripple! I’ll kill you!"

The little fatty at her side chimed in, making faces at the woman and spitting on the ground as he spoke. His behavior was utterly detestable.

The young woman in the wheelchair couldn’t hold back any longer.

With a "WAHHH," she burst into tears.

Seeing this, the man beside her, presumably her boyfriend, clenched his fists in anger and looked ready to rush forward and argue.

"What? You want to hit someone? Hey, everyone, he’s going to hit me!

A big young man bullying an old woman like me! Is there any justice left in this world!"

Seeing things weren’t going her way, the old woman clapped her hands, plopped herself right down on the ground, and started making a scene.

...

"Sigh, that family is just shameless!"

A balding old man on the side couldn’t watch anymore and muttered angrily under his breath.

But as soon as the words left his mouth, his wife, who was beside him, hit him and shot him a look, signaling for him to shut up.

Hu Qi stood at the back of the crowd, watching this scene quietly. From the hushed discussions of those around him, he pieced together what had happened.

Apparently, the woman had suffered a broken right leg in an earlier accident. After resting at home for a while,

she had decided to go out for some fresh air. But as soon as she reached the entrance of her apartment building in her wheelchair, the boy named Wu Xiaobao gave her a hard shove from behind, sending her tumbling right off the platform.

Fortunately, the platform wasn’t very high, so she only ended up with more scrapes. Even so, it had aggravated her original injury.

Having suffered such a raw deal, she naturally wasn’t going to just let it go.

She immediately called her boyfriend, who was at work, thinking she had to make the child answer for his actions.

Unfortunately, she had only recently moved in and didn’t know that Wu Xiaobao was notorious in this building, and in fact, throughout the entire district.

It wasn’t a good kind of fame, but infamy.

The kid was a troublemaker at school—poking classmates’ eyes, pulling down girls’ pants, and even pouring glue into the keyholes of people’s doors. His list of misdeeds was practically endless.

To make matters worse, not a single person in his family was easy to get along with; they were all extremely difficult.

If nothing unexpected happened, it looked like this incident would also end with nothing resolved.

The crying woman reached out and grabbed her furious boyfriend. From the bystanders’ conversations, she had already learned how difficult this family was.

She was afraid her boyfriend might act impulsively and throw a punch, which would only give them a chance to turn the tables and blackmail him. That would be a huge mess.

These days, unreasonable elderly people like that were the worst kind to provoke.

Looking at Wu Xiaobao.

Memories belonging to Fang Xi surfaced.

At the same time, a voice seemed to echo faintly.

"It’s him! Kill him! Kill him!"

This voice was none other than the original owner of the body, Fang Xi.

Of course, this didn’t mean Fang Xi wasn’t dead; it was just a lingering obsession left behind in the body.

Fang Xi’s mother had worked as a cleaner in this very district. She was killed right below this building when Wu Xiaobao threw something that hit her.

Now, upon seeing him, this thread of obsession couldn’t help but surge forward.

There was no way to communicate with an obsession.

Therefore, Hu Qi simply snorted coldly in his mind.

He forcibly suppressed this obsessive urge.

’Don’t worry. I promised you, and I won’t break my word.’

...

「Nightfall.」

The sky was like a black curtain, without a single star in sight.

SLAP!

Wu Xiaobao, who had been fast asleep, was struck squarely across the face.

The sharp pain on his cheek woke him instantly.

The first thing he saw was the sallow, emotionless face of a middle-aged man.

The man was gripping him by the neck, his body dangling in the air.

"Ah! You bad man, let me go! Or I’ll have my dad beat you to death!"

As Wu Xiaobao spoke, he opened his mouth to bite the hand holding him.

SLAP!

The next moment,

he was viciously slapped across the face again.

"Wuwu... You’re finished! When I grow up, I’ll..."

But he didn’t get to finish his sentence. He felt the hand on his neck tighten.

Then, a window to the side opened.

He was lifted completely outside the window.

Realizing this,

Wu Xiaobao’s feet kicked helplessly in the air. His entire body was off the ground, supported only by the arm gripping his neck like an iron clamp.

The wind howled outside the window, whipping his hair about wildly. His eyes, wide with fear and lack of oxygen, were bloodshot, as if they were about to burst from their sockets.

He clawed desperately at the hand on his throat, but it was as if it had taken root, not moving an inch.

The next moment,

the hand gripping his neck gave a slight shake, and a surge of Power was instantly transmitted through him. Wu Xiaobao felt his entire body go numb, losing all sensation.

His face instantly turned from flushed red to a bluish-purple, and he struggled to force out a gurgling "urg... urg..." sound from his throat.

"Too bad you won’t be growing up!"

At this, the sallow-faced middle-aged man smiled, his eyes reflecting Wu Xiaobao’s face, which was distorted by fear and suffocation.

With that, his hand relaxed.

Wu Xiaobao plummeted downwards.

Four or five seconds later, there was a muffled THUD.

Wu Xiaobao, who just moments before had been full of life and spouting filth, was now silent. He lay there motionless, like a broken ragdoll.

After all this was done,

the man’s figure vanished.

As if he had never been there at all.