Since they had been marked, escaping easily was out of the question. Just as Xiao Shu and Zhang Yuqiu were looking for a corner or an alley to slip into, Fan Jia, moving with the speed of Mercury, was in front of them in the blink of an eye, asking with a grin, "Where are the two of you planning to go?"

Zhang Yuqiu again placed two fingers to her chest, making her fighting insects duel, all while giving Fan Jia a small, affected glance that earned a wave of fond tolerance from the young man. After a moment, she suddenly announced, "I need to use the restroom."

"Do the undead need to use the restroom?" Fan Jia retorted, finding the question quite amusing. If there was no life, where would metabolism come from?

Realizing her lie hadn't held up, Zhang Yuqiu quickly changed her story. "No, no, I was speaking for Xiao Shu just now. He's the one who needs the restroom, not me."

Hearing this, Fan Jia found it even funnier. He looked Xiao Shu up and down, remarking, "Why do you report to the young lady before using the facilities? Can't you just find a secluded corner and take care of your business?"

At these words, Xiao Shu’s face instantly flushed crimson, like a disapproving official. He felt too embarrassed to even look at Zhang Yuqiu, managing only a soft reply, "She said she knows where the restroom is. It wasn't me." Upon hearing this, Fan Jia paused for a long moment, looking from Zhang Yuqiu to Li Xiao Shu, then taking in their relative positions, before suddenly bursting into uproarious laughter. He laughed so theatrically that onlookers began to worry he might split his sides.

When his laughter finally subsided, he abruptly snapped back into a serious demeanor and said gravely, "I think you two were trying to run. You just picked a poor excuse. Look behind you at what awaits?" The two turned. Beyond this corner was a fountain basin, recessed on all four sides—a spot the designer had specifically created for leisure when planning the street. By now, the fountain was long dry, but a circle of stone benches remained perfectly intact around the edge. Xiao Shu claimed he needed to relieve himself; where was he supposed to go? Inside the fountain? Or under the stone benches?

Their falsehood exposed, the two became flustered, their faces turning beet red, unsure what to say. Fan Jia, however, was more easygoing. He simply slung an arm over Xiao Shu's shoulder and, like a friend, led him back toward his companions. As the two walked ahead, Xiao Shu frantically made hand signals behind his back, urging Zhang Yuqiu to bolt. Yet, Zhang Yuqiu acted as if she hadn't seen a thing, following quietly behind the pair like a docile kitten, silent and compliant.

After walking for a while, Yuan Qi moved up beside her and whispered close to her ear, "You need to be careful. Fan Jia has taken a liking to you. That fellow is very brutal; for women who refuse him, there is only death." She shot Yuan Qi a sidelong glance. "Plenty of people have designs on me. If I were afraid of every single one, wouldn't I have to disfigure myself just to walk down the street?"

Seeing his earnest good advice ignored, Yuan Qi immediately grew disheartened. His earlier swagger by the gasoline drum, his shrewd merchant demeanor amidst the rubble, had vanished into the ether, leaving behind a Yuan Qi constantly mocked by others, ridiculed by his peers, and often treated as invisible. Perhaps this was his true nature.

Who can truly see a person clearly on the first encounter? Only a god could, and even a god would need the scales of conscience to weigh good from evil. However, one saying held true: Long roads reveal a horse's strength, time reveals a person's heart. Only that marvelous thing called time can test the true essence of an individual.