Chapter 56

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Chapter 56: I Didn’t Steal A Bite

“Art, that dangerous Class C kid is here again. Go wrap up a few hot buns for him,” the squinting old woman at the bun shop tapped her great-grandson’s backside with her cane.

“I’m in the middle of my ranked match!” Art complained as he put down his phone, then reluctantly followed his great-grandmother’s instructions to greet the customer he least wanted to see.

He didn’t understand why she insisted on treating that guy kindly. Sure, he’d taken off his Class C badge, but a record was a record. Who could guarantee that a former convict would really turn over a new leaf?

Other nearby shops were already whispering behind their backs, calling them fake do-gooders and whatnot. Art couldn’t even meet the eyes of their old neighbors anymore.

Every time the guy came, it was just for two buns. Every single day. Just buns. You’re not gonna die from a little variety, seriously!

He packed two of the ugliest, most lopsided buns, but got smacked again by the old lady’s cane and had to grudgingly swap them out for two decent ones, handing them over to Mi Xiaoliu.

“If you’ve got nothing better to do, why not go play cards with the neighbors or something? I can sell buns on my own,” Art muttered, sick of the neighborhood gossip.

Another whack to his butt.

The old lady glanced across the street at the gossiping women murmuring while watching them. 

“Bunch of sixty-year-old brats. I can’t talk to people like that.”

“…”

Back home with the buns, Mi Xiaoliu found that Circle was already eating—Heli was feeding it.

The cat food Yiwen had provided was long gone. She hadn’t been in a good mood these days, spending her time hunched over her desk, refusing to talk to Mi Xiaoliu. She even slept facing the wall, showing him nothing but the back of her head.

Mi Xiaoliu, in turn, cooperated by not saying a word to her for two whole days.

Yiwen: infuriated.jpg

Now, Circle was eating the cheapest cat food Mi Xiaoliu could find at the supermarket. 

Thankfully, the little cat didn’t seem to mind.

When Circle wasn’t looking, Mi Xiaoliu snuck a kibble from its bowl and tried it. Not great.

Definitely worse than the old stuff.

Even though she moved quietly, Circle noticed. It looked up at her, then pushed the bowl toward her with a paw.

“…”

Before dinner, Gloria was around as usual. In fact, she came over every day to mooch a meal—and to torment Mi Xiaoliu with increasingly creative pranks.

Today’s antics included filling a bottle labeled “black tea” with beer, pretending to make up and coaxing him into a sip. Or slipping a prank cushion under his chair so it made a fart noise when he sat.

Mi Xiaoliu had started to dread visiting Heli’s place, only going because she physically dragged her there.

Heli really wanted to step in and stop Gloria, but she was often busy—like cooking, for instance.

This time, Gloria brought out something new: a hamburger, stuffed with an entire tube of wasabi. She waited until Mi Xiaoliu arrived before unwrapping it, letting the scent of the bun and fried chicken fill the living room—like bait for a middle schooler.

With Heli just starting to cook and no other food smells yet, the aroma of that burger was especially tempting for a student who’d gone all day without eating.

Gloria opened her mouth like she was about to take a bite, then suddenly groaned and clutched her stomach. “Ugh, I’m not feeling so good.” She shoved the burger toward Mi Xiaoliu. “If you dare steal a bite, you’re dead meat.”

Then she ran dramatically to the bathroom.

Her microexpressions and tone betrayed no flaw—it was a performance far superior to the scripted, cringey pranks on the internet. Or so she thought.

Real pranks didn’t need overacting.

Inside the bathroom, she peeked through a crack in the door. Mi Xiaoliu, who had initially stood frozen at the doorway, slowly walked over to the table and sat down. He stared at the burger.

Gloria nearly broke into a triumphant grin. There’s no way this kid’s poker face would survive that wasabi bomb.

But Mi Xiaoliu didn’t move.

Did he not hate her enough? She messed with him every day.

Gloria stared at him from her bathroom perch for twenty whole minutes. Even after the burger had gone cold, the kid hadn’t touched it—just kept staring.

When she finally emerged, Mi Xiaoliu turned to look at her. “I didn’t steal a bite.”

“…”

Whose well-behaved little angel was this?

Looking at that obedient face, Gloria felt… an even stronger urge to mess with him.

Little perv acting all innocent—who’s buying that?

She reclaimed the burger, took the rice Heli served her, and shoved in a huge bite—only to be hit by a blast of nose-burning wasabi that assaulted her senses.

Looking down, she saw streaks of green wasabi mixed into the fluffy white rice. She pounded the table furiously, turning a glare of pure betrayal on Heli.

“You don’t like it?” Heli asked, deadpan. “I saw you put a ton of it in your burger.”

“…”

That night, Mi Xiaoliu once again changed into his beginner combat gear and slipped into the darkness.

There wasn’t a mission. After letting her tag along last month, Wei Shi hadn’t assigned her anything else. Probably won’t until next month.

She broke open the window on the hospital’s eighth floor. The nurse hadn’t noticed the barricade had been forced open, so no one had repaired it.

The window was a special design—not transparent, and with terrible ventilation. The smell of disinfectant in Beibei’s room was overpowering.

“You’re here again? I thought you weren’t coming back,” Beibei said from the bed.

“Creeper blew up your house,” Mi Xiaoliu relayed in her usual monotone.

One hundred meters, one message.

“My house is underwater,” Beibei’s expression froze.

Mi Xiaoliu didn’t respond. She had no idea what the message even meant.

She was about to swing one leg out the window.

“Wait!” Beibei called out in a whisper. If the nurse heard, she’d be in trouble.

Because of her extreme sensitivity to light—bordering on x-ray vision—the hospital didn’t allow visitors outside her family, and even they were screened for anything that might reflect or emit light.

Of course, that wasn’t the only reason. She was a convicted criminal, after all.

The mushroom night light they once put in her room was dimmer than the hallway’s emergency lights, and even that had to be placed far from her bed and used less than two hours a day.

Back when she was first admitted, even metal glints or reflections could hurt her eyes.

As for visiting hours? Might as well give them to someone else. Her parents came only on the first day. Since then, it was just the rotating nurses and interrogating cops.

…Not that anyone else would visit, either.

Beibei picked up a paper bag from her nightstand. “A police officer gave me some donuts today. I don’t have much of an appetite. Want some?”

Mi Xiaoliu nodded, walked over, hugged the bag to her chest, and was about to hop off the bed.

“Wait again!” Beibei cried. “Come on, I gave you donuts—do I really have to beg you to sit and keep me company?”

“…”

Mi Xiaoliu dragged a chair over and sat down silently.

“Wow, Your Highness the Princess is too kind. Next time you see Xue’er, tell her to find out how ‘My Biological Dad and Brother-in-Law’ ends, okay? I was just one episode away before I got hospitalized… Have you seen it?”

Mi Xiaoliu shook her head.

“Why won’t you say anything…”

“Haven’t seen it.”

“You haven’t?! It’s a 9.9-rated masterpiece!” Beibei gasped. “Okay, listen. It starts with Nicholas Zhao Si meeting Outlaw Zhang San…”

She launched into an excited summary. Mi Xiaoliu didn’t say a word.

If she couldn’t reach out and touch her, she might’ve thought the girl had already left.

“Are you still there?”

“Mmm.”

“Oh—can you turn off the yellow mushroom light? Even with this blindfold I can feel it. It’s getting kinda harsh.”

She scratched at the black cloth over her eyes.

It didn’t do much. Her x-ray-like sight was gone, but the light sensitivity remained.

“Yellow?” Mi Xiaoliu turned her head.

“It’s yellow, right? I can feel the color even with this on. What, are you colorblind?”

“Yeah.”

“Huh?”

“Colorblind.”

“…I’m so sorry.”

The room fell into a heavier silence.