Infinite Game Ch.31.1

Chapter 31.1 – F City

Sitting at the dinner table, the high schooler finished eating and set down the chopsticks. Then he mentioned Xiao Pang.

“With the finals coming up, he wanted to come over and stay for a couple of days to catch up on some lessons.” Finally, he asked, “Is it okay?”

Citizen Jiang who never refused reasonable requests from the high schooler, shed the tears of an old father.

When the high schooler first arrived, he was cautious and overly responsible. It was his first time bringing a friend home to stay overnight.

Chen Jing: “…”

“Stop pretending. Finish your meal quickly.” He would have to wash the dishes after this person finished eating.

Seeing this, Jiang Yujin wiped away his fake tears and quickly finished his meal.

It wasn’t until after the meal, when the sound of the dishwasher ceased and night quietly returned, that this day was considered completely over.

Early the next morning, the high schooler got up to go to the station to pick up Xiao Pang. Jiang Yujin also got up and went downstairs.

The barbershop was already open, the owner smoking and still cleaning.

“Morning, boss.”

Jiang Yujin took the initiative and found a seat, pointing to his hair, half of it already turned white. “Dye it again, please.”

The barbershop owner lowered his eyes and picked up the scissors directly.

As the blade rose and fell, a few white hairs drifted slowly down, simple, direct, and fast.

Losing a few strands of hair, Jiang Yujin immediately got into a scuffle with the owner. Later, catching sight of someone, he forcibly stopped, stomping a couple more times on the freshly mopped floor before leaving the shop.

After the primary school student left, the owner bent down to pick up the few strands of hair that had fallen to the ground. Tiny sparks flickered as the hair turned to ashes in his hand, scattering on the floor. He wiped it clean with a mop.

The high schooler, accompanied by Xiao Pang, met Jiang Yujin at the foot of the building, and the three of them went upstairs together.

Arriving at Chen Jing’s house once again, Xiao Pang was already familiar with the way.

The guest room hadn’t been tidied up yet. The reliable adult attempted to display his parental skills by trying to help organize.

“Chen Jing, where are the blankets?”

“Where are the new towels we haven’t unpacked yet?”

“The light in this room is broken. Can you fix it?”

Chen Jing: “…”

The reliable adult was politely invited out of the team cleaning up the guest room and wiped away the non-existent sweat.

Though he didn’t do anything, he still exerted effort.

Xiao Pang followed along to help tidy up, feeling inexplicably complex and unable to articulate his emotions.

It was hard to imagine that the usually composed, reserved, and imposing person was actually the backbone of household chores, extremely skilled in cleaning the room.

Glancing at the person who had already taken out a cold beer to lie on the couch and turned on the TV to reward himself for his labor, Xiao Pang fell silent for a moment.

Yet, it suddenly didn’t seem so hard to imagine.

By the time the guest room was finally cleaned up, Jiang Yujin had already watched an episode of the TV series, and tossed the remnants of the beer into the trash can.

While Xiao Pang, carrying his backpack, went into the high schooler’s room.

He took the books out of his backpack and pretended to neatly arrange them on the table. Holding a pen in his hand, Xiao Pang looked at the person opposite, showing a hint of pity, “You’ve worked hard.”

Chen Jing took out a sheet of paper but remained silent.

Laughter from the TV outside echoed into the room, and the person on the couch chuckled along.

“Last night, there was another strange species at A University, and the SIU dealt with it,” Xiao Pang glanced at the now-closed door and said, “Including what we dealt with before, this is the fifth strange species discovered at the school.”

The recent frequent appearance of strange species was quite bizarre, especially their precise occurrences at the school; it was hard to chalk it up to mere coincidence.

Chen Jing lowered his eyes as he wrote down an option, saying, “Yesterday, Zhang Xin found out that before these incidents, there were strangely dressed individuals wandering around these places.”

They acted covertly, but there were still witnesses and surveillance records. People who appeared near the locations had a dark red symbol, a ‘0’, seemingly branded onto their faces, resembling a terrifying mark seared directly onto the skin.

Xiao Pang remarked, “I heard that those acknowledged by Zero get marked on the face.”

If things went as expected, those lurking around the accident sites were affiliated with Zero.

He frowned, “But Zero has always been discreet before.”

Previously, the other party was well-hidden; they had searched for a long time until they accidentally stumbled upon the existence of Zero and gradually understood some of their information. Yet now, the other party seemed to be openly targeting the school, making it difficult to comprehend their intentions.

Pulling up a statistical chart on his phone, Chen Jing handed the phone to Xiao Pang, saying, “The frequency of strange species in F City has also been increasing lately. The branch in A City has been destroyed, offering no further investigative value. We’ll head to F City at the end of the month.”

Xiao Pang nodded and then asked, “Why at the end of the month?”

Chen Jing replied, “Because I still have final exams.”

“…”

Surprisingly irrefutable.

Chen Jing took out a map of F City, grabbed a red pen, and emphasized several places on the map, saying, “We’ll prioritize visiting these places when the time comes.”

Xiao Pang nodded repeatedly.

In the morning, half was spent cleaning the guest room, another half discussing the plan for F City, and only a quarter was devoted to studying.

Accompanied by the noise from the TV outside, Chen Jing completed the comprehensive exercises without changing his expression, while Xiao Pang managed to cover a quarter of their morning’s material.

Outside, Jiang Yujin had finished watching a season of a melodramatic urban drama. Reflecting on the emotional rollercoaster of the characters, he glanced at the closed room door, grabbed his phone, and prepared to play a round of Xiaoxiaole.

As the game interface popped up, an advertisement sounded on the TV: “…Panda Burger! Students now receive a panda accessory with every purchase of a kids’ meal upon presenting a student ID!”

Jiang Yujin slowly lifted his gaze.

The TV sound faded, replaced by a series of footsteps.

Soon after, there was a knock on the room door.

Chen Jing set down his pen and stood up to open the door.

The person at the door smiled at him and said, “It’s about time, shall we go out for lunch?”

Then, he heard the person ask, “You guys brought your student IDs, right?”

…

Seated in a brightly decorated hamburger joint, Chen Jing and Xiao Pang glanced at the two kids’ meals in front of them and finished their meals simultaneously.

The kind-hearted citizen, Jiang, sitting across from them, held two panda accessories in his hand, his eyes sparkling with a smile. “This meal’s on me, and if it’s not enough, Uncle can get another one.”

Since their first meeting, when Xiao Pang hadn’t clearly seen his face and hesitated for a while before addressing him as “uncle,” Jiang Yujin, who accepted the title, became more and more skilled in calling himself uncle.

Chen Jing chose silence and resigned himself to reality, focusing on his meal.

The two high schoolers, soon to face their final exams, didn’t have much time to spend in the restaurant. Also, their inability to stomach another round of kids’ meals pushed them to leave the establishment.

The adult man casually invited them and resumed playing Xiaoxiaole while eating.

They were in a mall, and it being a Saturday meant a steady stream of people. It happened to be lunchtime for nearby companies, so the restaurants along their route were bustling, occasionally requiring them to sidestep to make way.

Chen Jing had been brought to this area’s other restaurants by the adult man before, so he walked confidently, without glancing around. Xiao Pang, unfamiliar with the place, looked around curiously.

As they reached the other side of the mall, his gaze halted momentarily, and involuntarily, his steps paused.

Noticing his sudden pause, Chen Jing also stopped and followed his gaze.

Two people passed by on the opposite corridor, dressed in casual attire and seemingly inconspicuous to the casual observer, yet easily recognizable to them.

It was Xu Tonggui. Despite not wearing the Special Investigation Unit’s uniform, his height made him stand out in the crowd. The person beside him was unknown to them.

Knowing that the other party was sensitive to gazes, Chen Jing and Xiao Pang only glanced briefly before averting their eyes.

Xiao Pang pondered, “What are they doing here?”

Chen Jing shook his head and continued walking.

They didn’t have any plans to deal with Xu Tonggui at the moment, nor was it the right time.

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