Chapter 5: 004 Purest Street Tyrant: How It’s Made_1
Translator: 549690339
——What? She used to be in the international class?? (confused face)
——How did she get in there?
——Listen to me, Class 2 is the real victim here, being dragged down by an aircraft carrier.
——Class 2 class representative: It’s so annoying. Our humanities class grades were dragged down by her, and this time it’s even better, she scored zero, she cheated alone and our whole class has to face the ridicule.
——Bai Shaoqi replied to Class 2 class representative: Sister has already gone to Xiangcheng.
This is the entire content of the screenshot.
The original owner didn’t add Bai Shaoqi on WeChat, nor did they add Song Min.
The friend then messaged Bai Lian: [I’m so pissed, she just deliberately replied to that message from the Class 2 representative, and everyone is spreading it like crazy. What’s really going on? Are you actually in Xiangcheng?]
Bai Lian: [As you can see, I’m in Xiangcheng.]
The friend: [Are you a fucking idiot for going to that back-of-beyond place?]
The friend: [???]
Bai Lian: [[Smile]]
The friend: [You send me a smile?]
Miss Bai isn’t too familiar with modern people’s smiles.
She typed a question mark and went back to the search engine, looking up topics of interest.
Ji Heng doesn’t live in a complex; he lives on Purest Street.
In an undeveloped slum of Xiangcheng, there is a large area of bungalows, dark and damp, with a street outside, a no-man’s-land, full of bars and black markets at the end of the street, very chaotic.
The river that faces Purest Street from afar marks the boundary between two countries.
This area is particularly chaotic; most of the time, even the police don’t dare to interfere.
Today, however, a few patrolling officers can be seen, with small bulges at their waists indicating they are armed.
Ji Shaojun glanced over and was surprised, “Is someone patrolling today?”
“It has been like this for some time now,” Ji Heng replied, holding his tobacco pipe as he walked toward an alley.
Ji Shaojun nodded; having patrolling officers around was better, at least it ensured some safety in the area.
After all, Bai Lian’s face was quite dangerous in this part of town.
The alleyways here are narrow and dimly lit, with cobblestone paths, and heaps of uncollected trash lying around bends. Stepping on the stones sometimes squeezed out black water, a stark contrast to the brightly-lit Beicheng.
Bai Lian remained quiet throughout, not commenting on the conditions here.
After winding through several alleys, they finally arrived at Ji Heng’s residence, with low houses all around. Ji Heng took out his keys to open the gate to a small courtyard.
The courtyard wasn’t big; in the middle was a Chinese parasol tree, with a stone table beneath it and a well.
Ji Heng, with his pipe in hand, pointed to the room on the right, “That’s where your mother used to live. You’ll sleep there. The conditions are what they are; if you’re not comfortable, you can head back to the Bai Family.”
Having said that, Ji Heng turned and entered his own room.
Ji Shaojun gave Bai Lian a comforting smile, relieved to see she hadn’t objected, and then brought her suitcase inside.
The room was old but everything inside had been well-preserved and was clean.
Bai Lian opened her suitcase and took out a pile of books, placing them on the desk near the window.
“Alian, you…” Ji Shaojun thought her suitcase would contain her clothes or women’s cosmetics, but it was filled with books. He paused for a while before saying softly, “Don’t worry about school. We’ll figure something out.”
He went out to look for Ji Heng.
Bai Lian sat with her legs crossed at the table, flipping through books, and pulled out a math book that interested her the most.
From math to geography and politics, then to English, which was the language she least wanted to look at. She briefly skimmed it before turning to the last subject—
History.
The original owner studied liberal arts and took history.
After about five minutes, she pulled out one of the history books. A test paper that was tucked inside fell to the floor. Bending down, she picked it up, but her eyes caught on a question from the paper—
[20. Briefly describe Liang Zewen’s corvée system and its impact on the long-term stability of the Great Yong Dynasty. Why did his death push the coup of Emperor Jiang Wu to its peak?]
“Snap—”
Bai Lian suddenly tucked the test paper back into the history book.
Her breathing became rapid, her fingertips deforming the book with their grip, the rounded edges of her nails turning white as her long eyelashes lowered, covering her trembling eyes.
**
“Do you want me to accompany you?” Ji Shaojun, seeing Bai Lian about to leave from a distance, came out from inside and then explained, “It’s quite confusing around here.”
Shen Qing and the others can’t remember the way.
Bai Lian stretched her hand to pull on the hood of her sweatshirt and shook her head.
“Alright,” Ji Shaojun noticed she seemed somewhat silent and guessed she might be upset because of the Bai Family. He softened his voice, “Don’t go far, call me if you can’t find the way, and be careful.”
“Okay.”
Bai Lian walked back the way she came, her memory was excellent; despite the complex routes, she wouldn’t forget once she’d walked them.
In the past, she had drawn many of the maps used by the military.
“Two yuan.” The middle-aged man at the small street-side shop handed her a bottle of mineral water and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the towel around his neck. “Young lady, you’re not from around here, are you?”
Her appearance was striking, and she had a distinctive aura. Her outstanding figure clearly set her apart from ordinary people, and the shop owner could tell she wasn’t a local.
Purest Street was part of the old city district, a three-meter-wide bluestone path. At the end of the street were gambling dens, black markets, and bars, a jumbled mess of the good and bad.
A kilometer further on, it got even more complicated—the border between two countries.
A lawless zone where it wasn’t rare for someone to disappear.
Bai Lian nodded, she used her Huawei smartphone to scan and pay, her gaze falling on the massive branches of the banyan tree next to the shop.
The banyan tree was in the temple ahead, and its stout branches enveloped the neighboring low-rise houses beneath its canopy.
A three-meter-long street was lazily crossed by one of the tree’s branches.
Several strips of red silk hung from it.
“The Tree God is over thirteen hundred years old,” the shopkeeper continued moving the mountain of boxes piled up outside his shop and explained when he saw Bai Lian looking at the banyan tree, “It’s our guardian deity. If you want to take a look, just walk two steps forward, and you’ll see the main entrance to our Tree God Temple.”
Bai Lian’s long hair fell gracefully to one side as she leaned against the wall to look at the tree trunk, a hint of laziness in her eyes: “Over a thousand years, huh.”
She felt several gazes upon her.
The shopkeeper put down a box and turned around, involuntarily tightening his grip on the towel around his neck.
A few people appeared on the street. It wasn’t too hot, but the leader wore a white tank top.
The man in the white tank top approached, initially not concerned.
But after glancing at Bai Lian’s exquisite face that many would find tempting to conquer, he casually took a box of cigarettes from the shopkeeper’s store and asked as he pulled one out and bit it, “Who is she?”
The shopkeeper was stunned for a moment, then nervously said, “She’s my niece.”
“You don’t have a damn niece!” the man in the white tank top scoffed, kicking him aside and getting closer to Bai Lian.
The shopkeeper was kicked away, “There are patrols these days, you, you…”
Several underlings gathered around him; they were obviously quite adept at dealing with such situations, not taking Bai Lian seriously and standing aside, relaxed, enjoying the drama unfold.
Bai Lian glanced at the man in the white tank top. “You’re looking for me?”
The man felt a jolt in his chest as he took a big step forward.
He sized up Bai Lian from head to toe, his gaze as slimy as a venomous snake, lighting his cigarette, “Do you know that you have to pay a protection fee to walk on Purest Street?”
“Protection fee?” Bai Lian nonchalantly flicked a leaf off her shoulder.
She turned her head and smiled sweetly, her eyes twinkling like stars.
Sweet and adorable, yet stirring a strong desire to conquer.
“Yeah.” The man in the white tank top, unable to hold back, reached out to touch Bai Lian’s face.
At that moment, Bai Lian twisted the empty bottle and threw it into the trash can.
As she turned, she grabbed the man’s arm reaching toward her, exerting great force to fold it, then grabbed his hair from behind. The man in the white tank top let out an agonized scream just as he tried to resist, but his head was suddenly slammed against the wall behind him!
With a “thud”, his head was smashed hard against the wall!
Blood immediately seeped from his forehead.
The man in the white tank top contorted his face in pain, and to his horror, found himself unable to move. He could only widen his eyes in shock as he looked at her, “You…”
Bai Lian held his hair in her hand, lazily smiling as she used massive force to slam his head against the wall again!
“Bang—”
Another sound, more blood flowed out, and the man’s vision began to blur as he lost the ability to resist.
He was like a rabbit, helpless in her grasp.
Nobody doubted his fighting skills; he was the toughest in the area which was why he was the boss. The three underlings shrunk back to the side.
Bai Lian withdrew her gaze.
Her attention returned to the man in the white tank top.
She was actually a bit curious about the taste of tobacco that so many in this world seemed to enjoy.
In the frightened gaze of the man in the white tank top, Bai Lian took his cigarette pack, methodically pulling one out.
With her rosy lips gently biting the tip, her eyelashes casually drooped as a nearby underling immediately stepped forward to light it for her.
Her hair slightly disheveled, she exhaled a thin stream of smoke from her mouth, casually holding the cigarette between her clean, slender, and pearly white fingers. With her other hand, she lazily held the man’s hair as his blood dripped down his face, drop by drop, to the ground. She lazily flicked the ash, “So—”
“Now, do you still want that protection fee?”