This thought surfaced again, yet it did not bring the sense of joy and relief she had imagined.
The hot "courage" in her chest that had supported her in kicking down doors, submitting her report, and storming out seemed to quietly fade the moment she stepped out of the gloomy gates of the Ten-Lords Commission and into the brilliant sunlight.
Replacing it was a hollow sense of aimlessness, and a hint of... boredom?
Yes, boredom.
No more facing those terrifying case file descriptions, no more forcing herself to investigate places that might have ghosts, no more enduring the expressionless gaze of Lady Hanya and the endless mockery of "Tail"...
But then what?
She stopped in front of an old man's sugar painting stall, watching the crystal-clear syrup quickly outline patterns of cranes, starships, and sparrows on the iron plate, lost in thought for a moment.
She felt her pocket; except for that brocade pouch, it was completely empty.
Oh, she had resigned, so her salary was gone too.
She continued walking and passed a street performer's area, where an orange-haired girl was performing a thrilling fire-breathing juggling act with her hands and feet, surrounded by a circle of cheering spectators, with a Jade Abacus for live streaming floating in mid-air, flashing with light.
Huo Huo took a glance, felt no interest, and silently walked around.
Finally, she walked to a relatively quiet path and sat down on a bench meant for resting.
Her gaze behind her sunglasses drifted aimlessly forward, then slowly moved upward, looking at the starships in the sky that followed fixed routes in an endless stream.
They streaked across the blue sky, leaving shallow trails of clouds, orderly and each with its own destination.
As Huo Huo watched, she suddenly felt a bit tired.
Not physical, but a kind of aimless, weary feeling in her heart.
Ever since she had forcibly "muted" Tail Master, he had been very quiet—quiet enough that it even made her feel a bit unaccustomed to it.
Without that voice that always rang in her ears, mocking her for being timid and useless, the world was indeed quiet, but it was also... too quiet.
She took off her sunglasses and rubbed her sore eyes.
The sunlight shone warmly on her, and the breeze blew against her cheeks with a chill, which was very comfortable.
Yet her heart still felt empty.
(What... should I do now?)
Just as she was about to be hypnotized by this hollow tranquility, a light, cunning female voice, as if whispering right against her ear, drilled into her ears without warning:
"Yo~ look who this is? A lost little fox, looking... so bored~"
Huo Huo didn't move, nor did she turn around.
She couldn't muster any energy for anything right now, not even for a mysterious voice that appeared out of nowhere.
She just blinked; after taking off her sunglasses, the sunlight was a bit dazzling.
The voice continued with a smile, "Boredom is such a waste of life~ How about it, do you want to join a game? A super—invincible—thrilling competition? If you win, there might be an unexpected surprise!"
"A competition?"
Huo Huo finally had some reaction; she tilted her head slightly, but her gaze remained forward, her voice filled with the haziness and aimlessness of someone who had just woken up, "Is it fun?"
"Fun?"
The female voice by her ear seemed to have heard a brilliant question, emitting a crisp, bell-like laugh with a hint of mischief, "Heehee~ Of course it's fun! Ten thousand times more fun than looking at those boring files at the Ten-Lords Commission! It's the kind of 'fun' that can truly make your heart race and your soul tremble!"
"Truly make your heart race... fun..."
Huo Huo repeated, and her hollow heart seemed to be stirred by these words.
What she was lacking most right now was probably "something" to fill this void.
Thrilling? Fun? It seemed... not bad?
"Then..." she said softly.
"Then?" the female voice was full of anticipation.
"Alright." Huo Huo nodded, her tone devoid of ripples, more like she was complying with some sudden impulse.
"Heehee~ As you wish!"
The female voice announced cheerfully.
The next second, the figure of Huo Huo sitting on the bench was erased as if by an eraser, disappearing suddenly!
Without any warning, no light effects, no sound, just as if she had never sat there.
Only the large black sunglasses she had taken off and placed beside her, having lost their support, fell onto the stone floor under the bench with a "clatter".
At a street corner not far away, Guinaifen, who was pretending to adjust her live-streaming Jade Abacus while actually keeping her side-glance locked on Huo Huo, widened her eyes in shock, the Jade Abacus in her hand nearly flying out of her grip.
"W—what?!"
She gave a start, a curse slipping out, her head turning like a rusted gear, clicking toward the empty bench, then snapping back, rubbing her eyes vigorously and looking over again.
The person... was gone?!
The fox-person maiden who was sitting there just fine, lost in thought, had vanished into thin air right under her nose?!
A disappearing act?!
The newest popular invisibility spell on the Xianzhou Luofu?!
Or was she, Guinaifen, hallucinating from staying up late editing videos?!
Guinaifen felt a chill shoot from the soles of her feet straight to her scalp, and the Jade Abacus in her hand began to tremble violently—not from fear, but from her own shaking hands.
It's over, it's over, it's over!
The surveillance mission assigned by Lady Hanya!
The target performed an on-the-spot vanishing act right under her nose! How was she supposed to explain this?!
Would the Ten-Lords Commission think she was incompetent and making up lies?!
Would her little live-streaming account get banned?!
And at almost the same time, by the bubble tea stall diagonally opposite, Cipher, who was arguing with Baiheng about "whether pearls are round or square and which is chewier," had her blue cat-like eyes keenly capture the situation toward the bench.
Her ears twitched, and she instantly turned her head, just in time to see the last frame of Huo Huo's figure disappearing and the sunglasses falling.
"Wow!"
Cipher exclaimed, patting Baiheng, who was biting on a straw, "Baiheng, Baiheng! Look over there! Do you Xianzhou people all know how to 'vanish on the spot'? *Whoosh* and she's gone!"
"Pfft—!!!"
Baiheng nearly sprayed a mouthful of bubble tea all over Cipher's face; fortunately, she turned her head in time, coughing repeatedly.
"Cough, cough, cough! W-what do you mean 'relieving yourself in public'! Cipher, don't use words randomly!"
She wiped her mouth while looking in the direction Cipher was pointing; the bench was completely empty—where was anyone?
"Really! Just now, a little girl with a Tail like you was sitting there, *swish*! She was gone in a flash! Just like a magic trick!"
Cipher gestured, looking serious with an "I'm not lying to you" expression, then her eyes brightened even more, "Oh! She even dropped something!"
Her figure swayed slightly, as if it were just an illusion, and the next second, a pair of black sunglasses had appeared in her hand.
"Look, it's this, it fell on the ground."
Baiheng looked suspiciously at the empty bench, then at the sunglasses in Cipher's hand; it was a very ordinary style, nothing special.
"Did you see it wrong? Maybe she just stood up and walked away?"
"Impossible!"
Cipher said decisively, her eyes full of confidence, "With my eyesight and speed, could I have seen it wrong? She definitely went 'whoosh' and vanished! She didn't just 'walk' away!"
Baiheng was still half-doubting, but she noticed that Guinaifen, who had been loitering at the street corner earlier, now had an expression like she'd seen a ghost, rushing hurriedly to the bench, looking left and right around it, bending down to search for something on the ground, then suddenly straightening up, her face even more confused, starting to look around, seemingly muttering something.
(Seems like... something really happened?)
Baiheng's curiosity was piqued.
She pulled Cipher, "Let's go, let's go over and take a look."
As soon as the two approached, they heard Guinaifen scratching her head and talking to herself, "...It definitely fell here? Where are the sunglasses? I clearly saw the sunglasses fall here just now! How did they disappear as soon as I came over?! What the hell!"
Baiheng's footsteps faltered; she looked at the sunglasses in Cipher's hand, then at the anxious and bewildered Guinaifen, and her heart skipped a beat.
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