With Xiaoyu leading the way, the group soon exited the Original Shadow Villa and arrived at the highway entrance. Xiaoyu stood by the roadside, extending his right hand in a hitchhiking gesture. Several trucks roared past him, as if there were no human figures standing by the road at all. In utter desperation, it was up to Ali to step up. Carrying Xiao Shu's backpack, she moved to the curb and frantically waved her small hands at the passing vehicles, looking as if she desperately needed help. Before long, they managed to flag down a minivan.

The driver rolled down the window beside the passenger seat and surveyed the group before asking, "Where are you heading?"

"Back to Xiangcheng," Xiao Shu stepped forward, shouldering Hua Gu's weight, bending slightly as she addressed the driver.

"You might not make it to Xiangcheng. What's wrong with the person on your back?" The driver shook his head, looking helpless.

"She’s injured and needs to get to a hospital quickly. Aren't you driving in the direction of Xiangcheng? Why can't you go?" Xiao Shu pressed further.

"Something happened in Xiangcheng. The public order is an absolute mess. Word is, some madman killed four security guards in a residential complex and then went elsewhere and killed forty or fifty people. The police haven't caught him, and the citizens are furious—the whole city is protesting, and there are strikes everywhere. My vehicle is headed to the outskirts of Xiangcheng; if I reach the downtown area, it’ll be nothing but traffic jams and smash-and-grabs. I can't afford that trouble." As the driver spoke, he waved his hand, preparing to roll up the window and drive off, but Xiao Shu moved faster, pulling the door open. "Sir, please, we have an injured person here. We don't strictly need to reach Xiangcheng; anywhere with a hospital for emergency aid will do."

Hearing this, the driver finally nodded and agreed to let them in, but he stipulated that he would only take them to a hospital in the outskirts of Xiangcheng; the city center was absolutely out of the question. This volley of words left Xiao Shu and her companions with a complex mixture of emotions. Especially Xiaoyu, whose heart was currently a tangled mess—first, worrying about Wang Jue’s fate, and second, contemplating how he would live as an outlaw if he ended up killing a hundred people like Hua Jinlan. Yet, whenever he thought of the life-and-death contract, Xiao Hei would let out a couple of meows, suggesting a sort of telepathic connection between cat and human; the little calico seemed entrusted with the mission of reminding Xiaoyu not to surrender his soul to the devil.

Bearing the weight of Wang Jue’s blood debt, both Xiao Shu and Xiaoyu remained silent throughout the journey, hesitant to inquire too deeply about the protests for fear of arousing the driver's suspicion and drawing public attention to themselves. Only when they got out did they offer profuse thanks. Xiao Shu intended to pull out some money to cover the driver's fuel costs, but the moment the driver saw the motion of her reaching for her pocket, he swiftly rolled up the window and "fled without a trace."

"There are more good people in the world than bad," Ali sighed, watching the minivan drive away. Xiao Shu gave her a soft smile and then said, "Naturally. If it weren't for those kind souls, you probably wouldn't have grown this big..." The words were barely out before Xiao Shu realized she had slipped up. She glanced furtively at Ali, and seeing no sign of suspicion, quickened her pace toward the emergency room entrance.

The emergency room was packed shoulder-to-shoulder with patients rushed in and their anxious relatives. Doctors from internal medicine and surgery were swamped; one moment they were washing the wounds of a dog bite victim, and the next they were writing orders for an X-ray for a fracture patient. The sounds of moaning, crying, and urgent pleading merged into a chaotic din. In the waiting area, a young man suffering from acute gastric cramps was repeatedly banging his head against the wall, wishing he could just cut his entire stomach out to find relief.