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“You guy, you broke my gemstone and think you can just walk away like this?”
“Uh?”
Mu’en froze for a moment, narrowing his eyes:
“Uncle, what do you mean by that?”
“Look!”
The old man with the bald head was still holding onto Mu’en’s ankle with one hand while lifting the gemstone he had earlier with the other.
In the sunlight, it was obvious that there was a clear crack on the gemstone.
However, when Mu’en had it just now, it was perfectly intact.
“This must have been damaged by you when you were just examining it!”
The old man with the bald head had a furious expression:
“You have to compensate!”
“Just by examining it, it broke?”
Mu’en was somewhat taken aback, looking at the old man:
“How much do you want me to compensate?”
“I…”
The old man’s gaze swept over Mu’en’s expensive outfit, and a hint of greed flashed in his eyes:
“One hundred thousand, I want one hundred thousand!”
“One hundred thousand?”
Mu’en raised his eyebrows.
This was an interesting number.
If that gemstone really was the Tears of True Love, one hundred thousand monetary units wouldn’t even buy the box to hold it, but that gemstone was clearly fake, and judging by its poor craftsmanship, one could bulk buy a large quantity for ten times that amount.
In other words…
“Extortion?”
Mu’en suddenly found it amusing.
“What extortion!”
The old man with the bald head said angrily:
“You broke my gemstone, so you must compensate.”
“What if I don’t compensate?” Mu’en said with a half-smile.
“If you don’t compensate…”
The old man’s shifty eyes darted around, and he suddenly flopped onto the ground, rolling around:
“Ouch, everyone come look! Someone broke my stuff and still won’t compensate! Is this even reasonable? Is there any justice in this world? Is this not bullying honest people?”
The originally bustling street drew a crowd as people began to point and discuss the commotion involving the old man and Mu’en.
At this moment, a uniformed officer suddenly pushed through the crowd.
“What’s going on here? Why is everyone gathered around?”
It was a security patrol officer.
The officer, holding a baton, glanced over the scene. When he saw Mu’en, his eyes lit up, and he approached the old man to ask:
“What happened?”
“Officer, you have to help me!”
Seeing the officer, the old man suddenly had more confidence, standing up and pointing at Mu’en.
“He broke my stuff! And he won’t compensate! Bullying me, an old man without anyone to rely on.”
“Is that so?”
The officer walked closer, tapping his baton in his hand, and looked at Mu’en:
“Kid, if you damage someone’s property, you have to compensate, that’s just common sense; you wouldn’t be unaware of that.”
“I certainly know.”
“Since you know, then quickly compensate, don’t block the road here and delay everyone.” The officer said impatiently.
“Look at what you’re wearing; giving up one hundred thousand monetary units shouldn’t be a hard task for you.”
“Exactly, compensating for damage is only reasonable.”
“Kid, you’re not planning to run away, are you?”
With the officer’s words, many onlookers began to criticize Mu’en.
In an instant, Mu’en seemed to have become the bad guy who broke the elderly man’s precious gemstone and refused to compensate.
However, when Mu’en turned to look, he found that the ones speaking were just a few fixed individuals hiding within the crowd.
“Oh, junior, it seems you’ve encountered the specialty of the lower district of Bairland.” Senior Anna, watching from the side, had a smile on her face, as if she wasn’t worried at all, and instead looked like she was enjoying the show.
“Specialty?”
“Yes, this is the collusion between the authority and the citizens to extort money. They generally target those who look wealthy, like you. Every year, many people get duped by this; I thought this street would be better, but it seems it’s just as bad in every lower district.”
“So shameless? Aren’t they afraid of encountering someone tough?”
“This is the lower district; it’s filled with dirt and stench, and those high-ups don’t even look twice here. There are no tough characters, and people like this often have gangster backgrounds; they’ve made a note of who not to mess with, so they specifically target newcomers like you.”
“Do I really look that easy to bully?”
Mu’en scratched his head.
After all, he had a yellow-haired face; how could he keep running into these protagonist-specific plots?
“What are you babbling about?”
The officer’s face turned iron-grey after hearing Anna, but when he looked at her, his gaze quickly heated up as he swept over her pretty face and attractive figure, sneering:
“You don’t seem like a good person either. I suspect you stole something and hidden it on you. You need to come with me to the station for a thorough investigation.”
Mu’en’s expression immediately darkened upon hearing this.
He stepped forward, blocking the officer’s sight, and said in a low voice:
“Isn’t this interesting? You, a mere security patrol officer, can arbitrarily arrest people without evidence?”
“What evidence? We have both witnesses and material evidence here!” The officer said arrogantly, as if he had done this countless times before and was well-acquainted with the routine.
Sure, as long as you threaten someone, the average person would obediently comply.
“Hah, talking to you is just wasting time.”
Mu’en sighed, taking out a family crest carved with a sword pattern.
“Do you recognize this?”
“What is this?”
“You don’t recognize it? Then go find someone who does.”
“What do you think you are? Why should I listen to you?”
The officer sneered again.
I don’t even have a pass from my own Scarlet Fire Gang. Who do you think you are?
But in the next moment, he saw a fist, large as a clay pot, rapidly enlarging in his vision.
“Why? Just because of this!”
Mu’en’s eyes burst with uncontrollable anger as he swung his fist.
“I really didn’t want to resort to physical action; after all, doing so would make me seem rough in front of the senior, but it appears handling it this way is faster!”
The officer’s arrogant face instantly twisted under Mu’en’s fist, and he was knocked flying.
As he writhed on the ground, still not entirely losing consciousness, Mu’en coldly added:
“Of course, the most important thing is that your eyes are too dirty.”
…
“That’s it, it seems like I ran into a hard nut.”
On the other side, seeing the officer sent flying by Mu’en’s punch, the old bald man’s face paled instantly.
Taking advantage of the crowd’s chaos, he crawled on the ground, trying to sneak away, but his hand was suddenly and forcefully stepped on by a white leather boot.
Anna, pressing her long dress to prevent it from being peeked at, looked down at the terrified old man with a smile:
“What’s wrong, old man? You don’t want compensation anymore?”
…
Just as Mu’en said, once he directly moved to “attack the officer,” the development of events accelerated.
First, a fat man with a big belly, cursing as he pushed through the crowd, changed from anger to terror upon seeing the family crest in Mu’en’s hand, almost losing dozens of pounds from fright.
Next, a black carriage quickly approached at a speed that seemed like the wheels might fall off. A middle-aged bald man, looking like a panda with heavy dark circles under his eyes, jumped out of the carriage and practically rolled in his rush to reach Mu’en.
“Y-Young Master Campbell!”
The bald middle-aged man wiped the sweat from his forehead incessantly:
“Why are you here in the lower district?”
“Why? Can’t I come to the lower district?”
Mu’en glanced at the man, whose face he recognized from a previous meeting, and continued:
“Viscount Gu’en, it seems the management in your lower district isn’t very good.”
“My fault, my fault, I will definitely improve, definitely!”
Viscount Gu’en humbly offered a smile.
Inside, he felt as if he had stepped on someone’s grave unknowingly.
First, a count’s son died, which attracted the princess.
Now, even the duke’s son is wandering around and just happened to encounter this incident.
What’s going on? When did the lower district become a sightseeing spot for you highborn individuals?
You guys coming here only puts my already sparse hair in more danger!
“I understand the situation now; I will handle it properly and provide Young Master Campbell with a satisfactory response.
So, do you have any additional requests?” Viscount Gu’en asked carefully, wiping cold sweat.
“None. Just disappear from my sight.”
Mu’en waved his hand impatiently.
Viscount Gu’en looked as if he had been granted amnesty, grabbing a group of his subordinates, including the earlier officer and the old man, hurriedly left.
The street quickly returned to calm.
Mu’en turned to the waiting senior, and the gloom on his face instantly vanished, replaced by a helpless smile:
“I feel like my good mood has been interrupted.”
“Is that so?”
Anna tilted her head and smiled:
“But I thought you looked really cool just now, junior.”
“Really?”
“Of course! Especially that line, ‘Your eyes are too dirty.’ It felt just like a prince from a story!”
“That’s too exaggerated.”
“But it’s true.”
“…”
At that moment, looking at Anna’s crescent-sliver-like eyes, Mu’en’s heart couldn’t help but flutter.
“Shall we continue?”
“Mhm, sure.”
Thus, the date continued.
Mu’en flipped through the “Bairland Dating Guide” again, confirming a new route.
However, while hesitating whether to head left towards the highly rated food street or right towards the river where a fireworks show was rumored to happen at night, Anna’s attention was diverted to something else.
“Junior, look! It’s a cat.”
On a stone bench by the roadside, a creamy white kitten was curled up, mewing softly.
“Do you like cats, senior?”
Mu’en asked instinctively.
But that answer was unnecessary, as Anna was already gracefully stepping forward.
“Meow~”
“Meow, meow…”
“Meow, meow~”
“Meow, meow, meow, meow…”
Anna mimicked the kitten’s sounds as she carefully approached it.
She was quite convincing, thus the kitten’s defensiveness was quickly dissolved.
In a daze, Mu’en thought Anna also seemed to turn into a cat, lazily mewing in the sunlight.
“So cute…” Mu’en said instinctively.
“Right? This kitten is so cute.”
Anna had successfully scooped the adorable little kitten into her arms, gently scratching under its chin, and the kitten purred contentedly.
“It seems it’s injured.”
Anna looked compassionately at the kitten’s hind leg, which had a deep and ugly wound, almost to the bone. That was likely why the kitten had stayed curled up here, not fleeing even when strangers approached.
After thinking for a moment, Anna took out scissors and a small knife, carefully trimming away the kitten’s fur and rotten flesh from its hind leg.
The kitten yowled in pain and scratched a few bloody lines on Anna’s hand.
“Senior!”
“I’m fine.”
Anna didn’t mind at all. While gently holding the kitten down, she poured magic potion onto the kitten’s wound.
The wound visibly started to heal, and Anna carefully bandaged the kitten up.
Once she finished all this, the kitten regained its ability to move. It seemed startled by the earlier pain, kicked off Anna’s leg, scrambled up a nearby tree, and quickly disappeared.
“Oh dear, what a pity.”
Watching the vanishing kitten, Anna seemed a bit reluctant to part with it.
“I wanted to pet it a bit more.”
“Senior, are you okay?”
Mu’en walked over, looking at the scratches on her hand.
“I’m fine. Just a few scratches.”
Anna poured the remaining magic potion from the bottle onto her hand, and the tiny scratches quickly healed, leaving no trace.
“See, the magic potion is powerful.”
Anna seemed to be a bit boastful.
“Powerful, senior is the best.”
Mu’en found it somewhat amusing, not expecting senior Anna to have such a childlike side.
“However, junior.”
Anna suddenly propped up her chin, looking at Mu’en with a half-smile and added:
“After waiting so long, you must have figured out where to go next, right?”
“…”
Mu’en’s mouth immediately froze.
This is it; he had completely forgotten because he was too engrossed in looking at the senior.
…
In the end, he decided to first find a restaurant for lunch.
It was only when his stomach suddenly growled loudly that Mu’en remembered he hadn’t eaten for over thirty hours.
His stomach was already growling, just a wall of hunger pushing against his torso; only the excitement of dating the senior helped suppress this body’s natural desire.
Although this date he was very much looking forward to had so far gone quite poorly.
“But this time, it surely won’t go wrong!”
Mu’en clenched his fist, confidently stating.
There’s a saying: To capture a woman’s heart, one must capture her stomach, so all this time he researched the well-known restaurants along this street.
After much comparison, Mu’en finally settled on a private restaurant that he found flawless in both ratings and decoration in pictures.
The only downside was that it was a bit remote, the location even situated outside this commercial street, on another residential area road called Durank.
However, for a date, a tranquil environment with pleasant music and candlelight was not the perfect scene?
Every woman would surely be enchanted by a perfect candlelight dinner… or lunch!
“It seems I should look forward to this.” Seeing Mu’en’s confident demeanor, Anna couldn’t help but smile too.
…
…
“How… is this possible?”
Half an hour later, after finally finding this small restaurant in a quite secluded location, Mu’en began to question his life choices.
“Why… is it closed?”
Looking at the sign on the tightly shut door saying “Temporarily Closed,” and catching the strange expression on the senior’s face, Mu’en was once again engulfed in the overwhelming fear of being an extreme misfortune magnet.
What’s going on?
Am I really this unlucky?
First running into extortion, and now finally finding a suitable restaurant, it’s also closed?
Isn’t today Sunday?
Isn’t it common for a restaurant to be closed on Sundays?
All I wanted was a nice date, is that too difficult?
“I don’t believe this, you old thief of fate, if you can make me more unlucky, go ahead!”
Mu’en couldn’t hold back, his eyes reddening as he looked up and yelled.
And then, as if he’d forgotten something and it naturally led to this, Mu’en at that moment suddenly heard another familiar voice.
“Mu… Mu’en?”
