At dusk.
Outside the bakery.
Tang Hong was stunned for a while, the dusk light behind him filled the sky with an afterglow. The sky was golden and the air was cool. The bakery’s huge translucent floor-to-ceiling windows were tinted with sunset colors.
An unparalleled view.
Beside the floor-to-ceiling windows, inside the shop, were tables and chairs. There sat a lady in a beret with delicate features, her hand on her chin. Her face was small and delicate.
It was like a painting, a little unreal, because it was too beautiful.
“It’s her again.”
These few words appeared in Tang Hong’s mind.
Then, he thought: “This is the natural beauty that doesn’t require photoshop, right?”
Tang Hong took a deep breath with ease and took out his phone. He logged into the Fish app and asked the third seller where he was.
“I’m at the bakery, beside the window, in light green hat.”
“…”
Seeing those words, the corners of Tang Hong’s eyes twitched. He looked at the chat log, read it again carefully, and suddenly looked up: “‘Fate brings people together no matter how far apart they may be?”
Surprised and delighted.
The description matched.
The third buyer was the young lady wearing the beret.
‘Wait!’
‘She must have seen the note I wrote saying that these items were given by a laptop… what would she think of me?’
He was apprehensive, yet he felt strange. What was wrong with him?
He couldn’t help but break into laughter. He said to himself, “It’s good to be alone. It’s not as if I am thinking of going into a relationship, or want to have anything to do with her.”
Why did he feel guilty?
Moreover.
The things he was selling were for men. She can’t be buying them for herself, she must have a boyfriend.
“I’ll sell these items first.”
From being surprised to being apprehensive. From being amused to being calm. All his complicated thoughts disappear. In just a few seconds, Tang Hong consciously felt the benefits of how willpower affected one’s mind.
Willpower would not shine, nor would it attract one’s attention. It was more like one’s spiritual practice.
He pushed open the door and walked to the side of the young lady.
She lifted her head.
She looked straight at Tang Hong with her crystal clear eyes without blinking.
The noise in the bakery seemed to have faded.
He could not see any change of emotions from her eyes.
“Fish?”
Tang Hong dangled two bags containing two pure cotton scarves.
“Yes.”
The young lady in a beret responded lightly, cocked her head, and smiled. “You put up the things for sale on the internet, wouldn’t your girlfriend be angry?”
“Nope, because I don’t have one.” Tang Hong shrugged.
“Now in this day and age, without an attractive description, no one will look. If no one looks, no one will buy… Actually, I bought those clothes with my points. They will expire if I don’t exchange them for clothes.”
The young lady in beret beamed as she listened.
“It’s wrong to lie.”
“I know.”
Tang Hong was indeed lying.
Although he didn’t understand why he had to say so much.
“Take a look.” Tang Hong passed her the bags.
“En… no problem.” The young lady in beret looked at the color of the scarves, tucked her hair behind her ear, and nodded to confirm the goods.
“OK.”
Tang Hong nodded, then stood up to leave.
“Aye, wait for me. I’m leaving too.” The young lady in beret carried a small cake and exited the bakery. She pursed her lips and said, smiling. “How strange, I think I’ve seen you somewhere.”
Tang Hong looked at the young lady.
“Mm.”
He thought for a while, then said, “I don’t think so. I don’t remember.”
The young lady asked again, “How are you going back?”
“By bicycle.”
Tang Hong hid the car keys, went to the side to unlock a small yellow bicycle, and rode along the road back to school.
‘No.’
‘My car is in the other direction.’
Tang Hong was on the brink of tears. Why couldn’t he understand that a woman’s beauty was just superficial. His willpower was for nothing.
After riding for more than ten minutes, Tang Hong turned around.
His car was parked on the side road of Yunhai University of Arts. When he parked his car there earlier on, it was between two cars. They were now gone. There were two empty lots in front of his car, and one empty lot behind.
“Phew.”
Tang Hong let out his breath, parked the little yellow bicycle on the sidewalk, and got ready to enter his big yellow car.
Swoosh swoosh.
It sounded like rustling leaves.
It was actually the sound of the soles of shoes on the gravel by the roadside.
Tang Hong casually glanced and was immediately stunned. He felt a sense of crisis rise in his heart. His muscles tensed as he looked at Zhang Jing cautiously.
‘Oh no.’
‘Why is he here? Is he waiting for me? Preliminary Transcendent, Tiansheng Organization, Zhang Jing!’
Obviously.
The short young man, Tiansheng Organization’s Zhang Jing was just standing behind a tree, and he did not sense him.
“Tang Hong.”
Zhang Jing narrowed his eyes. “It looks like you know me.”
It was not a question, but an affirmative statement.
“How do you know me?” Zhang Jing’s expression was like a ferocious ghost, he wore a twisted smile. “Was it that sentence that day, how becoming a Transcendent was in sight?”
Tang Hong nodded without saying anything.
In such an unexpected situation, such an encounter, the more one said, the more one did, the faster one died. Nobody knew if a sentence he said, or a word he said, would make Zhang Jing mad.
He remembered how Fan Yu’s expression changed in the teahouse in the alley: Those who were only one step away from being a Transcendent, the longer they took, the more unstable their mentality.
“Are you nervous?”
“How can you be wary of me?”
Zhang Jing bared his yellow teeth and smiled strangely, as if he had seen something humiliating. “Why are you so wary? Don’t you know… I’m a Transcendent?!”
“Transcendent!”
“Do you know the meaning of Transcendent?!”
Tang Hong’s pupils contracted. What did it mean to be a Transcendent? Why should he not be afraid of being a transcendent ?
Smack!!
A slap came his way without warning. Tang Hong subconsciously chopped with his palm, his perfectly coordinated left hand blocking Zhang Jing like a natural trajectory. However, a terrifying force surged from the opposite side.
Tang Hong stepped back five steps.
“Mm!?”
Zhang Jing was stunned.
Robins chirped in the summer breeze. The twisted smile gradually became a complicated expression.
“Fist technique… it’s the fist technique… the Transcendent technique.” Zhang Jing’s gaze became clear all of a sudden as he panted.
“I’m sorry.”
Zhang Jing stood up and bowed deeply. Then, he retreated with his back bent into the street corner with the dim lights.
Until Tang Hong could no longer see him.
“This person…”
Tang Hong shook his left hand and massaged his left arm.
‘This person is really crazy.’
He deliberately waited for him here, and raised his hand after saying a few words. Until Zhang Jing left, Tang Hong still did not understand what Zhang Jing wanted to do.
Was he testing him?
A test?
It was not right. He was a member of the special training camp of the Yellow River Organization, and Zhang Jing was the full member of Tiansheng Organization.
It didn’t match up at all.
Moreover…
Tang Hong frowned, something seemed to flashed past his mind. “According to what Zhang Jing said, did he suddenly go berserk because I was wary of him!”
“My wariness provoked him!?”
Tang Hong simply could not understand. So he sent a message to Fang Nanxun and asked if he had time to continue practicing tomorrow.
Fang Nanxun did not reply.
He went to the Yunhai branch office, but could not find him either. Fan Yu said Consultant Fang had gone on a business trip.
He could only go to sleep.
Countdown to special training camp: 3 days.