Chapter 46: Bounty Order
Rain fell against the glass windows, wrapping the city in curtains of water, with misty vapor drifting through the urban landscape.
Gu Qing liked rainy days.
“Does Lady Qianqian still need a foot warmer?”
“Even when playing puppy, know when to stop.” Lu Qianqian reached out and gently tapped his head. “No more acting crazy today.”
So Gu Qing instantly put on a serious expression, returning to his quiet and gentle appearance, obediently curling up on the sofa. After hesitating for a moment, he rested his head on Lu Qianqian’s white-stockinged thighs.
Lu Qianqian was watching TV, occasionally reaching out to touch his face, just like a housewife petting the little cat sleeping in her lap.
On such a quiet rainy day, with the planet slowly turning and time quietly flowing, wind and rain hidden in the clouds, Gu Qing felt his heart gradually settling with the raindrops.
Until the jarring phone ring interrupted Gu Qing’s thoughts.
Gu Qing glanced at it—a completely unfamiliar number. He waited cautiously for a moment before finally choosing to answer, and immediately heard Li Si’s familiar voice in his ear: “Brother Gu?”
“Didn’t you say to use the phone less for contact?”
“I was afraid if I came to tell you in person, it would be too late… I discovered something this morning.” Li Si’s voice sounded somewhat urgent.
“What?”
“You’re still staying at that girl Lu Qianqian’s place, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Lu Qianqian’s name appeared on the Plum Blossom Club’s website today. Two million bounty, plus an A-grade demon crystal core, for her head.”
Gu Qing’s movements suddenly froze.
When answering the phone, he was too lazy to hold it to his ear, so he had put it on speaker. Lu Qianqian had also heard this, and she was stunned for a moment, looking at Gu Qing with some confusion. “Eh?”
“Got it.” Gu Qing first responded to Li Si, then hung up the phone.
Lu Qianqian looked at Gu Qing uncomprehendingly, but in the next instant, her eyes became slightly surprised.
Because Gu Qing’s expression suddenly became completely different from before. Earlier, his demeanor was like a lazy cat resting in its mistress’s lap, but now his eyes suddenly became fierce, those eyes making her feel an extremely strong unease when she looked directly at them.
One second he was a cat, the next second he suddenly became a snarling dog.
“The Plum Blossom List… well, you can understand it as an assassin organization in the dark world.” Gu Qing hesitated for a moment, restraining the viciousness in his eyes, and said softly, “They take money to do jobs, killing and buying lives for their employers. Those gathered in that organization called Plum Blossom are mostly criminals wanted by the Alliance, or ability users they’ve trained themselves. This organization is quite efficient—their mission completion rate should be above ninety-five percent, I remember, with very few failures.”
“Are you… joking?” Lu Qianqian’s face became slightly pale.
“No.” Gu Qing shook his head, but in the next instant he sat up, reaching out to gently rub her face, as if trying to dispel some of her unease. “But it’s okay, I’m here.”

Ji Yueling was summoned by Gu Qing to Lu Qianqian’s home.
She was initially somewhat annoyed by Gu Qing’s unreasonable summons, but it was rare to hear Gu Qing use such a particularly serious tone to send her a voice message, asking her to come pick up Lu Qianqian to stay at her place temporarily for a few days. On the way, Ji Yueling searched for Lu Qianqian’s information out of confusion and saw Lu Qianqian’s name and photo on that Plum Blossom List.
The photo showed the girl from when she first entered high school, her eyes gentle and clear.
So she began speeding all the way, arriving downstairs at Gu Qing’s building. Gu Qing brought Lu Qianqian downstairs and got into the back seat of Ji Yueling’s car. Lu Qianqian’s face was still somewhat pale—this sudden scene was like being suddenly pulled into some movie, and she was completely unprepared to become the female lead.
“What’s the situation?” Ji Yueling asked Gu Qing behind her while driving.
“Don’t ask.” Gu Qing shook his head. “Anyway, help me protect her for a few days. I’m going out for a trip. Once I resolve this, everything will be fine.”
“Do you need help?” Ji Yueling asked.
“Can you help me?”
Ji Yueling thought for a moment. “I… could go find my dad?”
The moment she said this, Ji Yueling herself was stunned.
She had never even actively sought her father’s help because of Old Tao’s matter, yet here she was because of this girl beside Gu Qing, or perhaps she had already changed too much recently—changes that made even herself feel strange.
But Gu Qing shook his head. “The fewer people involved in this matter, the better.”
Ji Yueling was first startled, but in the next moment she keenly realized that if this was the case, did it mean Lu Qianqian’s identity… also had some unspeakable aspects?
But this time she tactfully didn’t ask more, only glancing at the girl behind her whose face was pale and who was trembling like a frightened deer. Gu Qing was gently holding her waist, comforting her fear, saying softly, “Just stay at Sister Ji’s house for a few days and everything will be fine.”
When Ji Yueling drove to the building, Gu Qing had them go home and upstairs, but didn’t arrange anything else. He just turned and left without saying anything more.

Fighting Club.
“Help me out.” Gu Qing looked honestly at the people in front of him.
The people in front of him didn’t rush to answer Gu Qing, but looked at him with some confusion, until Gu Qing slowly spoke: “Well, I’d like to trouble you to temporarily stay in the residential area where Ji Yueling lives for a few days? Protect the safety of those two people.”
Gu Qing heard responses in demon language.
He breathed a sigh of relief, smiled, and looked toward Uncle Qin at the bar. Uncle Qin was mixing drinks, still with that calm appearance, slowly saying, “Should I go?”
“I’ll go myself.” Gu Qing sighed lightly. “The more you give in, the more trouble there is. Better to make them learn their lesson once and for all.”
“Can you handle it?”
“I can.” Gu Qing answered.
So the doubt in Uncle Qin’s eyes gradually dissipated, and he silently took out two more bottles from under the wine cabinet. Both were beautiful crystal bottles, one flowing with red liquid, the other with black liquid.
These were the legacy left specifically for someone by the two founders of the Fighting Club.
“Which one?” Uncle Qin asked calmly.
Gu Qing fell into brief contemplation.
After a while, Li Si swaggered into the Fighting Club, handing a small booklet to Gu Qing. Gu Qing opened it and glanced—inside were the real identities of some mid-level core members of [Plum Blossom], as well as their possible residential addresses.
Getting this intelligence must have cost him considerable effort.
“I’ll buy you drinks next time.” Gu Qing patted his shoulder.
“Wow, I thought you’d be generous enough to let me taste a drop of what’s in those crystal bottles.”
Gu Qing smiled somewhat helplessly, gently shaking his head. “You’re too weak. You’d die if you tasted it.”
Saying this, Li Si looked greedily at those two crystal bottles, lightly licking his lips, finally sighing helplessly: “Even though you say that, it really makes one want to try… I wonder how Uncle Qin managed to resist keeping them for so long.”
Uncle Qin began mixing drinks expressionlessly. He made an extremely dry martini, no olives, replaced with lime peel. The martini was transparent, but when Uncle Qin took out a drop of the red liquid from the crystal bottle and let it fall into the drink, the cocktail instantly turned crimson, even looking like it was about to boil.
Gu Qing picked up the glass, almost ready to drink it all in one gulp.
“This was her favorite drink when she was alive. They say the day they first met, they competed in drinking capacity and drank martinis that filled the entire bar counter.”
“Who won in the end?” Gu Qing asked curiously.
“He won, after all, he liked to cheat. Even when he vomited on her dress, he wouldn’t admit he couldn’t drink anymore.” Uncle Qin smiled somewhat helplessly, but his eyes revealed a trace of indescribable nostalgia.
Gu Qing suddenly laughed heartily and drank all the wine in the glass.
Li Si watched the changes in his body curiously.
His pupils were originally pure black, but in the next moment, they suddenly became pure white like warm jade, and even his medium-length hair turned silver-white, while the scars on his body all disappeared in an instant.
In that moment, his temperament suddenly changed. From a somewhat down-and-out wandering youth, he seemed to become noble and steady in this instant. Those silver-white pupils were now deep like whirlpools, as if they had already seen through all the [truths] of the world.
When Gu Qing looked around at everyone below the bar, everyone instinctively wanted to avoid his gaze, but at this moment they instinctively tensed their bodies under his eyes. The old-timers of the Fighting Club, looking at this scene, suddenly remembered many years ago when that silver-haired woman and that red-haired man sat at the bar, arguing while crazily competing in drinking. After arguing until their faces were red and necks thick, they would go to the fighting hall and have a big fight.
Most of the time, the man would be beaten black and blue by the woman pinning him down, while the man would just smile lecherously and say she smelled good.
“Thank you, Uncle Qin.” Gu Qing put down the glass.
He stood up, but Uncle Qin suddenly called out to him, throwing him a set of keys, saying softly: “That car is in the underground garage. It should have been yours originally. I’ve been maintaining it all these years.”
Gu Qing caught the keys, looked at Uncle Qin in front of him, and said softly: “Thank you for the trouble.”
Uncle Qin smiled and shook his head, saying nothing, watching him walk out of the bar. Only then did everyone’s tense bodies relax slightly, and Uncle Qin put away those two crystal bottles.
Everyone breathed a long sigh of relief and sat back down, but inevitably began chatting about the past. Li Si also leaned against the bar, slowly eating the nuts in front of him, couldn’t help but say softly: “So similar.”
“Who do you think he’s more like?” Uncle Qin’s face showed a trace of a smile, asking softly.
“Like his dad. As far as I know, they’re both equally shameless. His mom was a person of principle—how could she be as shameless as his dad?”
“I think he’s more like his mother.”
“How so?”
“She also always seemed like she didn’t care about anything normally, but once someone wanted to touch what she treasured…” Uncle Qin handed Li Si’s drink to him, adding softly:
“She would destroy everything about the other party.”