The closest trash can to Chen Luo's floor was placed by the residential area's fence.
He had to walk around a building to reach it.
Soon, Chen Luo arrived at the trash can holding a trash bag.
Just as he got there, a voice echoed in his mind.
One hundred and twenty-three yuan.
The train ticket costs one hundred and twenty-three yuan.
I have to get it.
Then I'll go back to my hometown and never come back here again.
Hearing those inner thoughts, Chen Luo's gaze instantly hardened, and he quickly scanned his surroundings.
Right after that, he saw a hurried figure walking fast outside the fence on his left-hand side.
A large red exclamation mark hovered right above the man's head.
Judging by those thoughts, this person was about to do something foolish.
I have to stop him.
Having locked onto his target, Chen Luo made his judgment based on the thoughts he had heard.
He tossed the trash bag containing the rat into the bin.
Then he strode quickly toward the community's main gate.
Initially, he had wanted to climb over the fence.
However, although this was an older residential area, the fence was newly installed.
Not only was it tall, but the top was also extremely sharp.
To quickly climb over it without a ladder would be nearly impossible.
Trying to scale it barehanded would take a lot of effort.
It would definitely take more time than simply walking around via the main gate.
Soon, Chen Luo reached the main gate, stepped outside, and immediately gave chase in the direction the figure had just gone.
He pushed his speed to the absolute maximum.
It was already past nine, nearing ten o'clock at night.
There was basically nobody on the street.
Otherwise, given Chen Luo's incredible speed, he would have definitely drawn a chorus of gasps.
The road Chen Luo was now running down had no storefronts.
However, there were shops across the street, and further down, if you made a left turn, there was a street lined with commercial stores.
Chen Luo didn't know where the man was headed to do something foolish.
He only knew that he had to stop him as soon as possible.
Fortunately, the man hadn't crossed over to the opposite street; he was still walking forward along the path outside the residential area.
When he spotted the figure far ahead in the distance,
Chen Luo let out a silent sigh of relief.
Once he locked onto a target whose inner thoughts he could hear,
the red exclamation mark symbol would automatically disappear.
It wouldn't appear again until the person's inner thoughts sounded once more.
If the man had crossed to the opposite street and darted into the residential area behind it,
finding him again would have taken a tremendous amount of effort.
Without slowing down, Chen Luo charged forward at full speed.
At that moment, the man walking ahead heard the sound of rapid, hurried footsteps coming up from behind.
He turned his head around with a wary look.
Running with such urgency.
What is he trying to do?
He couldn't possibly be coming after me, could he?!
...
Who is this person, and what is he up to?
Holy crap!
How is he moving this fast?!
Meanwhile, the man's frantic inner thoughts kept echoing in Chen Luo's mind.
When the man turned his head and saw that it was just a single person—Chen Luo—running toward him at top speed, an expression of confusion first appeared on his face, followed immediately by utter astonishment.
He was completely blown away by Chen Luo's speed.
"Phew! Finally caught up to you."
Chen Luo quickly ran up to him, exhaled lightly, and grinned as he spoke.
Chapter 38: What Did I Just Do?
"Uh...??? I don't think I know you."
The man—or rather, to be precise, a young man of about twenty years old—was stunned at those words, then looked at Chen Luo with a face full of question marks.
This guy is so weird. I don't even know him, why is he chasing me?
"Yeah, we don't know each other."
Chen Luo smiled, nodded, and replied.
K
"Then what are you...?"
Hearing this, the young man looked at Chen Luo with even greater incomprehension.
"Just now, I saw you walking in a rush with a troubled expression, and I figured you must be going through some difficulties, so I chased after you to ask."
Chen Luo thought for a moment and offered this somewhat illogical explanation.
After all!
He couldn't possibly say, "I heard your inner thoughts, I know you're about to do something bad, and I rushed over to stop you."
"Uh... this... well..."
Hearing this, the young man was completely dumbfounded.
He never expected Chen Luo to come out with such a statement.
He stammered and stuttered, unable to get any words out.
Here I am, a proud and upright man, being brought to my knees by a mere one hundred and twenty-three yuan.
How humiliating is that? There's no way I can say it out of my mouth.
Hearing the young man's inner thoughts,
Chen Luo really wanted to ask: If you think it's so humiliating, you'd rather not seek help and go do something foolish instead? What kind of logic is that?
If Chen Luo had actually asked that,
the young man probably would have replied:
If I went to rob someone, I'd only need to state the amount; I wouldn't need to explain all this background.
At least it wouldn't be embarrassing then.
This was the classic mindset of someone who valued saving face above all else.
However!
Chen Luo didn't ask that. Instead, he raised a finger and pointed at a convenience store across the street.
"How about this, let's go across and buy a bottle of water, then find a place to chat."
"This..."
Hearing this, the young man still looked somewhat hesitant.
"Let's go, let's buy some water first."
Seeing him like that, Chen Luo directly reached out, grabbed his arm, and pulled him toward the other side of the street.
This time, the young man offered no resistance, nor did he say anything; he just silently followed the pulling force across the street.
In his heart, he was thinking:
Well, since it’s come to this, I might as well just go with him.
I am thirsty anyway.
If, if he'd be willing to buy me a little something to eat afterwards, that would be great.
I've been starving for two days.
Hearing those inner thoughts, Chen Luo wore a faint smile at the corner of his mouth.
He really is fiercely proud and obsessed with saving face.
Soon, they arrived at the convenience store. Without asking the young man, Chen Luo directly grabbed a bottle of water and shoved it into his hands.
The young man didn't refuse, but he didn't drink right away either.
After handing him the water, Chen Luo left him alone for a moment, grabbed another bottle of water for himself, and then went further inside to pick up a few loaves of bread.
When he came back,
the young man had already unscrewed the bottle cap and drank a small half of the water.
Seeing Chen Luo walk over, he hurriedly and stealthily hid the hand holding the water behind his back.
When he saw the bread in Chen Luo's hands, his eyes instantly lit up quite a bit.
He bought bread!
Regarding this, Chen Luo acted as if he hadn't seen anything, paid the store owner, and then called out to the young man,
"Let's go."
"Yeah."
The young man replied and followed Chen Luo out of the convenience store.
"There's a small park over there, let's go sit down."
Once outside, Chen Luo pointed toward the left and said.
The young man didn't speak.
Seeing this, Chen Luo simply started walking in that direction.
The young man followed behind him without uttering a word.
Chen Luo glanced back out of the corner of his eye, the smile at the corner of his mouth growing even deeper.
The small park wasn't far from here; it took only a five- or six-minute walk to get there.
There was not a single person in the park at this hour.
Chen Luo found a bench a bit away from the roadside and sat down.
Following all the way there, the young man sat down while maintaining a slight distance from him.
"This bread tastes pretty good. I bought a bit too much, help me share some of it."
As he spoke, Chen Luo handed all the bread he had bought over to the young man.
At this gesture,
the young man's eyes grew somewhat moist, and his lips parted as he squeezed out two words:
"Thank you!"
He wasn't an idiot; naturally, he knew that Chen Luo acting and speaking this way was entirely to protect his pride.
The kind-hearted person before him not only preserved his dignity but also offered genuine help.
This was the first time he had received this kind of help since coming to Longsheng City.
The strings of his heart were instantly touched.
"You're welcome."
Seeing him like this, Chen Luo smiled and replied, then gestured for him to eat up.
"Mm-hm!"
The young man nodded repeatedly, tore open the bread packaging, and started devouring it ravenously.
Chen Luo just glanced at him once, then turned his gaze elsewhere.
"Hiccup... Thank you."
Before long, the young man had devoured all the bread and finished every drop of the water. He let out a satisfying burp, turned his head, and thanked Chen Luo once again.
"You're welcome... What are your plans for the future?"
Chen Luo smiled and asked gently.
"I... I want to go back to my hometown."
Hearing this question, the young man froze once more.
He had originally expected Chen Luo to keep asking what difficulties he had encountered, but he never imagined he would ask this instead.
After a brief pause, he answered with a choked voice.
By the time he reached the last word, his eyes were even moister.
"If you miss home, go back. Where's your hometown?"
Chen Luo first gave him an excuse, then asked.
"I'm from Wangjia Village, Lu County, Shui City, Xihe Province. Earlier, I heard people in the village say that it's easy to find a job here and the pay is really high, so I came over. But who would have thought..."
The young man first stated where he was from, and then proactively recounted his experiences.
He stopped studying after finishing high school and chose to go out to work.
However, his build was somewhat frail, he had never suffered any real hardship, and his expectations were high.
He basically couldn't handle grueling physical labor.
As for ordinary jobs, the wages were too average, and he simply looked down on them.
When it came to jobs with good benefits and pay, the employers looked down on him in return.
And since he lacked any specialized skills, he couldn't do technical work either.
Consequently, he failed to find any job back in his hometown. After idling at home for over a year,
he heard villagers boast about the high pay and abundant job opportunities here,
so he got the urge to come here and chase after a high-paying job.
But reality wasn't as simple as the villagers made it sound.
Although ordinary jobs here did pay quite a bit more than back home, the living expenses here were also exorbitant.
All things considered, he was actually worse off than being back home.
And the jobs that required technical skills or hard physical labor were things he couldn't do.
The result was that the money he had brought with him was almost gone, yet he still hadn't found a single job to his satisfaction.
At the same time, he was too ashamed to return empty-handed, thinking it would be too humiliating.
It wasn't until he couldn't even afford a meal
that he finally had to face reality and decided he needed to go back.
But it was too late.
He was completely penniless; how could he possibly afford a train ticket?
And that was when he conceived that crooked idea.
Reaching this point, he paused for a moment, then spoke slowly:
"Brother, if you hadn't appeared just now, I... I was actually going to rob someone for the train fare."
Chen Luo had been listening quietly the entire time. Hearing this, he looked at the young man with some surprise.
He hadn't expected the young man to confess even this intention to him.
"It seems I showed up just in time, otherwise you would have made a huge mistake. Promise me, never do something so foolish again. When you run into trouble, you need to know how to seek help. You can go to a help center or look for the police."
Chen Luo first expressed a sense of lingering fear, and then earnestly advised him.
"The police... this..."
Hearing the first part, the young man nodded repeatedly, but when he heard that final title, he froze for a moment, a trace of doubt flashing in his eyes.
"Yes, the police. As long as you ask for help, they will help you."
Seeing his reaction, Chen Luo replied with absolute certainty.
"Mm-hm."
The young man lowered his head and nodded twice, though deep down he remained deeply skeptical.
Turn to the police? Forget about it!
"Don't believe me? Actually, I am a police officer. Here is my badge."
Hearing those inner thoughts, Chen Luo countered with a rhetorical question, and then flashed his identification.
"Ah! This... I... Brother, you..."
Hearing those words and looking up abruptly, the young man stared blankly at the badge held right in front of him, completely dumbfounded.
Oh my god!
What did I just do? I told a police officer to his face that I was going to rob someone.
"Don't be nervous. Tonight, I'm just a guy helping out a young man from out of town who has no money to eat. Nothing else happened."
Seeing him like that, Chen Luo put away his badge, patted him on the shoulder, and said gently.
Chapter 39: Today's Events Are All Interlinked
"I... Officer Uncle, thank you. Thank you so much."
Hearing Chen Luo's words, the young man's eyes instantly welled up with tears as he expressed his gratitude with deep emotion.
"No need to thank me. As long as you can firmly remember what I said just now, that will be the greatest thanks you can give me."
Chen Luo patted his shoulder again and said, while secretly muttering to himself inside.
Good grief!
I'm at most only a few years older than you!
How on earth did you manage to drag the word "Uncle" out of your mouth?!
"Yeah! I promise I'll never think about doing anything stupid again in the future."
The young man nodded forcefully and replied with a guarantee.
"That's right... Is there still a train back to your hometown today?"
Chen Luo nodded in approval, then asked.
"There's only one train back to my hometown, and it leaves at nine o'clock in the morning."
The young man wiped his eyes and shook his head as he answered.
"Let's go. I'll find you a place to stay first, and then buy you a ticket home."
Chen Luo stood up and said.
"Ah? No, no, no... Officer Uncle, you don't need to arrange a place for me to stay. I can just hang out outside the train station for the night."
The young man hurriedly waved his hands in refusal.
He could accept the train ticket, of course, but as for arranging a place to stay, he truly felt too embarrassed to accept any further help of that magnitude.
"Even though it's still a bit warm now, it still gets a bit chilly in the second half of the night. Spending the whole night outside is a surefire way to catch a cold. Listen to me, no refusal."
Chen Luo first explained, then spoke with an unyielding tone. As soon as he finished speaking, he couldn't help but inwardly vent his annoyance.
Can't this guy show a little bit of situational awareness?
He's still calling me uncle.
Honestly.
"Officer Uncle, really, there's no need..."
Although Chen Luo had spoken with absolute firmness, the young man still opened his mouth, wanting to continue declining.
However, before he could finish, he was cut off by Chen Luo.
"I already said no refusals allowed, and yet you're still doing this. It's settled, follow me now."
With that, Chen Luo turned on his heel and walked out of the park.
"Well... alright then... Officer Uncle, thank you, thank you so much."
Seeing this, the young man stopped refusing and expressed his gratitude over and over again.
"If you really want to thank me, change how you address me. How old am I, exactly? Is it appropriate for you to call me Officer Uncle?"
Seeing that he wasn't going to turn him down anymore, Chen Luo nodded in satisfaction, then couldn't help bringing up the form of address.
Being called "uncle" by someone this big back-to-back.
It was truly too much to bear!
"Uh... aren't people supposed to call you Officer Uncle?"
Hearing this, the young man froze and asked back.
He hadn't expected Chen Luo to care about something like this.
In his impression, addressing the police always worked that way.
"I don't care what others do, but you're a grown man calling me uncle—am I really that old? Change it. My last name is Chen, just call me Brother Chen."
Chen Luo shook his head and said.
"Alright, I'll call you Brother Chen."
Seeing Chen Luo put it that way, the young man smiled and changed what he called him.
"Now that sounds right."
Instantly, Chen Luo felt much better about it, his face beaming with smiles.
Seeing Chen Luo like that, the young man smiled even more happily.
Before long, Chen Luo found a local inn for the young man and booked a single room for him.
Then, using his phone, he bought him a train ticket back to his hometown online.
Finally, he took out a hundred-yuan bill in cash and shoved it into the young man's pocket.
"Take this money to buy some food on the way."
"No... no... Brother Chen, I can't take your money. You've already helped me more than enough. It's only twenty or thirty hours back, I can just tough it out."
The young man hurriedly refused.
"What do you mean 'tough it out'? A man is only as strong as his food; how can you not eat? Listen to me, put it away."
Chen Luo forced the money into his hand.
Yet the young man still tried to push it back.
After a brief tug-of-war between the two, Chen Luo ultimately had to pull rank as a police officer to pressure him, finally succeeding in stuffing the bills into the young man's pants pocket.
And the young man's eyes welled up with hot tears.
Although along his path of growing up, the warmth Chen Luo gave him tonight might not have been the absolute most he had ever received,
it was definitely the greatest warmth bestowed upon him by a complete stranger.
Especially given that he had reached the end of his rope and was driven to the point of committing a crime.
The depth of his heartfelt emotion could well be imagined.
"Alright, it's getting late. Get some rest. Tomorrow, pay attention to safety after you get on the train, and make sure to give me a call once you're back home."
After stuffing the money over, Chen Luo offered these parting instructions.
"Yes, sir. Brother Chen, the moment I get home, I'll call you."
The young man wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and nodded firmly in reply.
"Good... Once you're back, find a solid, down-to-earth job first to support yourself. All of us harbor our own expectations and dreams in our hearts, but reality often turns out contrary to our wishes. When faced with such a situation, the very first thing we must do is make sure we stay alive. Only by staying alive will we ever have a chance to fulfill the hopes and dreams in our hearts."
Chen Luo acknowledged his words with a hum, paused for a moment, and then spoke these words to the young man.
Though their time interacting was brief,
Chen Luo knew that aside from his obsession with saving face, the young man was fundamentally upright and kind.
He felt it necessary to offer a bit more guidance.
"Mm-hm... Brother Chen, I've committed it to memory. Once I'm back, I'll find a job and start working right away, so at least I won't go hungry."
After listening, the young man nodded vigorously once more to show he understood.
"Alright then, I'm heading back too. Get some rest."
Chen Luo nodded and said.
With those words falling away, he turned around and walked toward the doorway.
"Brother Chen, thank you, truly."
The young man escorted Chen Luo to the door, bowed slightly, and expressed his sincere gratitude yet again.
Seeing him like that, Chen Luo didn't speak. Instead, he stepped forward, patted him on the shoulder, and nodded in acknowledgment.
Then he turned, strode away, and headed toward the stairs.
In his original world, Chen Luo had occasionally scrolled past videos of police officers helping citizens in distress.
Back then, even through the screen, he could feel the warmth.
Now that he was experiencing it firsthand and acting on it himself, the feeling was infinitely deeper.
Yeah!
This feeling really is quite nice.
"Congratulations to the host for successfully preventing a crime, sparing the intended victim from suffering harm, and keeping the would-be criminal from committing an offense and facing legal sanctions—not only turning over a new leaf, but also earning six Justice Points."
"The host currently has a total of eleven Justice Points. Consuming ten Justice Points will allow for a lucky draw."
Just as Chen Luo's foot stepped out of the inn's front door, the system's prompt rang out.