No matter how I asked Huang Ran, this fat guy did not give a direct answer. He either pretended not to hear or changed the subject and passed it off. Xiao He Shang seemed to know something too, but now his mind was all on the shark fin in front of him, eating with shining eyes, as if he hadn't heard anything we said.

  It was already past midnight, and I had only tasted a couple of dishes from the full table, while Sun Baozi was busy telling stories and didn't eat much. Huang Ran kept pouring wine and serving dishes to Xiao He Shang, almost without touching his chopsticks. The only one who ate with abandon, burying his head in his food, was Xiao He Shang.

  However, Master Xiao is already in his seventies, and no matter how good his appetite is, he can't eat anymore. At this time, the hotel manager started to linger at the door of the private room for no reason. Huang Ran understood his meaning and called him in to pay the bill. He also packed up the leftover food and gave it to Xiao and Shang as a midnight snack.

  Taking advantage of the manager's departure to fetch the bill, I turned to Sun Bi and said: "Great Sage, what happened afterwards? With so much gold in the cave, I don't believe you could put your mind at ease."

  Sun Baozi let out a bitter laugh and said to me, "Lazi, you should believe me." He sighed again, paused for a moment, and continued, "It's not that I'm saying this, but if it weren't for the fact that I was thinking of you back then, I would have definitely taken the gold out. Unfortunately, when I went back later, it was already too late. The area within five miles of the General's mansion had been turned into a military zone. I still wanted to get a military uniform and sneak in, but Old Gao did something really ruthless - he sent my photo to the local military camp, specifically instructing them not to let the person in the photo enter. Forget it, this is all just tears now. Let's talk about what happened after we returned to the capital."

  As he spoke, Sun Baozi picked up his teacup and took a sip of tea to moisten his throat before continuing: "After I left Da Guanren in charge of watching over the place, I rushed to the airport with my men. When I returned, I didn't even go back to the People's Consultation Bureau, but instead went straight to the hospital to see you. When I entered your ward, I saw Yang Jun guarding you. It was only when I asked him that I found out someone had contacted Yang Jun the night before, telling him you were in danger at the hospital and he should come right away. By the time Yang Jun arrived, everyone else on your floor had fallen under a spell that made them sleep, and the door and window of your ward were wide open. Apart from you lying in bed, there was also a corpse lying on the ground... Ah, my toothpick fell out, spicy, can you help me pick it up?"

  Just as they were halfway through, the manager came in with the bill. Sun Baozi reacted promptly and Xiang He Shang was no slower, immediately hiding under the table and saying: "Is it mine? I'll help you look for it."

  Looking at these two shameless old and young, I sighed, thinking that this meal was settled by me. Yesterday there were several hard dishes that didn't come up today, yesterday 28,000, today 12,300 is almost the same. After the dissolution of the Public Opinion Bureau, I also had some spare money in my hand, occasionally treating such a banquet would not hurt my bones.

  Just as I was about to take out my wallet, the hotel manager suddenly said: "The dishes you ordered total 13,560 yuan. The two bottles of Bordeaux wine that this old gentleman just ordered are 24,000 yuan per bottle, and two bottles are 48,000 yuan. Adding the dishes together is a total of 61,560 yuan. Rounding down to the nearest whole number is 61,000 yuan...

  "Great saint, my toothpick has fallen here, I'll help you pick it up." After being stunned for a moment, my first reaction was also to dive under the table. Sixty thousand for one meal... Before getting to know Sun Wukong at the Bureau of Civil Affairs, it's hard to say if the meals I had with others were worth sixty thousand or not, now one meal costs over sixty thousand, if my grandfather knew he would kill me alive?

  After crawling under the table, I saw Sun Baozi and Xiao Heshang squatting together. Old Xiao was still licking his face at me with a smile, I got annoyed and didn't want to drink with them anymore, wasn't the Erguotou you drank also good? Why are you now going for the over 20,000 yuan per bottle red wine? What's going on now that you're hiding under the table to avoid being alone?

  After hearing Huang Ran's voice say "Sixty-two thousand...", the three of us finally crawled out from under the table. Xiao Shang hypocritically said: "Didn't we agree that I would pay the bill? Little Huang Ran, how could you do this? This time I'll let it go, but next time if you speak out of turn again, I'll treat you."

  Huang Ran smiled and said, "It's just a meal, it doesn't cost much money, what's the point of arguing over who pays? If you're so particular about it, then next time I won't bring my wallet and I'll just follow you."

  After hearing Huang Ran's words, Xiao He Shang blinked his eyes and said: "Follow me, I'll take you to try all the local snacks in the capital."

  After hearing his words, I looked at Sun Baozi beside me and whispered: "Having tried all the snacks in the capital city, two thousand should be enough, right?"

  Sun Baozi nodded and replied: "There are 1,500 left"

  Just then, the manager came back with the bill and Huang Ran's bank card. Xiao Shang pointed to the leftover dishes on the table and said: "Pack everything up, and that soup too, put it in a plastic bag, I'll take it home to stew tofu."

  While waiting for Xiao Shang to pack, I continued to ask Sun Baozi what had happened in the hospital. Sun Baozi said: "I've told you everything that's on the surface. When Yang Jun arrived, he saw a dead body lying on the ground. There was nothing else left. However, later I guessed that Lin Feng was afraid you would suddenly wake up and sent someone to take your life. But in the end, you were fine, and the person who wanted to kill you ended up dead instead. After the autopsy, it was discovered that the person only had a thin wound on their chest, which should have been done by the person who saved you. Then, before Yang Jun arrived, that person jumped out of the window and left the hospital room first."

  Sun Baozi finished speaking, and I became even more perplexed, saying "Someone saved me? Besides you, who else?"

  Sun Baozi picked up the chopsticks on the table, measured the length of the blade and said: "The knife is this big, who do you think it is?"

  After seeing the length of the knife, I almost blurted out: "Hao Tou! Is it Hao Wenming?"

  Sun Baozi looked at me with a seemingly smiling yet not quite smiling expression and said, "If it's not me, then who else could it be?"

  Just as I was about to continue asking him, Xiao He's luggage had been packed and the chaos made it impossible to ask him again until we got on the car. The few of us put on our clothes and came out of the hotel. Huang Ran didn't drink that night, so he drove us back. As we waited for Huang Ran to get the car, a streetlight in the distance suddenly flickered strangely twice before completely plunging into darkness. I reflexively glanced over at the streetlight.

  Under the already extinguished streetlights, two people stood one after another. The two people were in the dark, and with my eyesight, I couldn't see what they looked like. Maybe it was because they found me staring at them, the person standing in front waved at me. As I was wondering, a cold and sinister power surged towards me like a tsunami.

  In an instant, I was as if frozen in place, my whole body stuck to the ground. The feeling was like suddenly hearing a black cat's meow. While Sun Baozi and Xiao Heshang seemed to be unaware of anything, they didn't even notice anything out of place on me. The two were still chatting idly.

  Just as I was panicking, a voice suddenly echoed in my mind: "Long time no see, do you still remember me?"

  As the voice sounded, a white-haired man's appearance appeared in my mind. The first time I saw him was on the fifth floor of the underground survey office. The white-haired man locked up by Wu Renyi - Guangren.

  Guang Ren smiled and continued, "I thought I'd come find you a bit later, but your body's recovery is better than I imagined. By the way, after I left, I had another beer and realized that those two cans you gave me were really bad."

  Taking advantage of Guangren's speech, I began to expand the power of the seed in my body outward. Just as I had barely expanded the power of the seed a little bit, I heard Guangren say again: "You don't have to be afraid, if we really wanted to harm you, we would have made our move when you were eating dinner earlier. We guarantee that you won't even have the consciousness to resist, and in your next reincarnation, you won't even know how you died this time around."

  "This time I came just to take a look at you, but your state is a bit disappointing. After so long, this seed has only changed so little. I think it won't make much of a difference even if it's inside your body. If it remains like this, I should consider taking it out and finding someone better to cultivate it..."

  Just then, Sun Baozi finally found something wrong with me. He furrowed his brow and patted my shoulder, saying: "Lazi, are you okay? I'm not saying, how did your eyes go straight? Is it because you saw that beautiful woman?"

  I didn't expect that he just patted me lightly, and I actually fell to the ground with a thud. Sun Baozi and Xiao Heshang were both startled as they came over to help me up, and then we heard Guangren's voice again, saying: "This time, let it go. Remember my words, thoroughly stimulate the energy of the seed. If next time I come to see you, and you're still in this state, then I'll become your nightmare. Remember, your time is running out..."

  When it came to the end, I suddenly felt a thread of heat in my chest. It was this thread of heat that completely dissolved the feeling of being frozen all over my body. I flipped over and jumped up from the ground, without caring about Sun Baozi and Xiao Heshang who were asking questions beside me, and looked again under that pitch-black street lamp, where was there any shadow of Guangren?