Facing an Ancient God for a Year

Chapter 2669: Chapter 2664: The Eight Wicked Women (40)

Caught red-handed.

Fu Qian’s current personal image might be bizarre, but compared to something like a candleholder, he still had a bit of an age-gap disadvantage.

Under the staff member’s sharp, penetrating gaze, it suddenly wasn’t easy to argue his way out.

"How can you call it stealing? This item and I are fated."

But something like this could never stump Professor Fu. He snorted coldly on the spot, declaring that treasures belong to the virtuous.

"You’re actually pretty honest..."

The staff seemed to have never seen someone this uninhibited; he froze for a second before giving him high praise.

"So are you planning to confiscate it?"

Upholding the intellectual’s calm dignity, Fu Qian didn’t start floating just because the other man tossed him a couple of compliments. He played with the candleholder in his hand, trying to confirm what the proper procedure was.

"So you didn’t hear what I was saying?"

But at this, the staffer showed clear dissatisfaction, his face cooling.

"I told you in the very first sentence: pedestrians don’t get checked."

Got it. This part isn’t work-related.

Ignoring the man’s tone, Fu Qian even found himself empathizing with his mood for a moment.

Forget "caught red-handed" and all that—if the guy even openly admits it, handing him in is an easy win on your record... but the question is: is it actually within your job description?

I’m paid to come in and type on a keyboard; if someone walks in and beats the boss until he’s crawling on the floor, what the hell does that have to do with me?

Now that’s professional ethics.

As someone with a similarly strong sense of ethics, Fu Qian easily empathized with the staffer’s line of thinking, and couldn’t help feeling that it had been wise to first approach as a pedestrian.

And choosing to do this wasn’t just some mentally ill thrill-seeking; there was a logic to it.

Since there are abstract elements at play—for instance, only by driving through the checkpoint can you truly leave this place—

then the act of not driving ought, in theory, to have some unusual significance as well.

When you’re not sure of the rules for passing through, using this method to test contact is clearly a low-risk, high-gain attempt.

Encouragingly, the staffer was quite enthusiastic, and in just a few sentences touched on a lot of key points.

"Understood. Thank you very much."

For a moment, Fu Qian maintained the high standards of an academic worker, offering earnest thanks for the patient explanation.

"So are you going through?"

Civility gets you everywhere. The staffer grunted, seemingly somewhat pleased.

But the cold light in his eyes hadn’t really diminished; he scrutinized Fu Qian, concerned about his plans.

"Not for now. I need to deal with my body first."

Fu Qian shook his head, gesturing with his eyes.

Fair enough...

That reason was pretty irrefutable. Looking at that faintly deathly body, the staffer finally couldn’t bring himself to say things like "You seem fine, no need for that sort of thing."

...

"Doesn’t look like I’m very welcome."

After his first informal face-to-face got rejected, Professor Fu quickly withdrew with Su Gao.

And staring at that checkpoint that was practically falling apart, he summed up the gains from this trip.

"I’m not exactly sure why... I’ve never been stopped here before."

Su Gao didn’t seem very surprised by the result either, but the slight furrow in her brow suggested she was short on ideas.

So even her "character setup" for this area has been interfered with? You could say that actually makes it look even more suspicious.

Unfortunately, to a professional, even this seemingly contentless behavior still held flavor for Fu Qian.

"Never been stopped here before" can be understood as, just like the "agreement with Professor Fu," a specific identity setting assigned for this mission.

Meanwhile, it seemed a chunk of Su Gao’s original cognition had quietly been cut away.

Otherwise, just hearing the term "smuggler" should have been enough to trigger certain associations—back at the Academy, he’d once invited her to be a volunteer in a special experiment.

And the content of that test not only related to Dreams; what he wanted her to help him with was specifically "smuggling"—smuggling into the Sea of Souls.

That’s right, in Fu Qian’s hypothesis, there’s a nontrivial chance that this is the theme of the mission.

Think back carefully on the elements encountered along the way—a Dream-like cognitive space, all the familiar women who are connected to him, the White Head Holy Church which is already tightly bound to human nature...

Plus, one more point: Professor Fu’s opponent is Professor Fu.

He’d previously guessed that this was exactly why the warehouse had him act as an ordinary person.

Looking at it now, stripping away his Transcendent attributes might very well be part of making smuggling easier?

...

The warehouse is figuring out how to get this outsider into the Sea of Souls? If so, what’s the purpose?

Though it’s hard to answer at the moment, for Fu Qian, anything even tangential to that is undoubtedly a major breakthrough in the field of the Sea of Souls.

It’s a pity. Someone who should’ve been able to share this feeling with him—Su Gao—wasn’t as sensitive to it as he’d imagined.

There’s good reason to believe that her memory in this area has been deliberately stripped.

But it’s precisely this abnormality that reeks of overcompensation.

If this has nothing to do with the Sea of Souls, why make all the related elements so sensitive?

Overall, it suddenly makes everything feel twisted, like they’re both setting the stage and concealing the aim, highlighting a sort of self-contradictory shadowboxing.

Of course, now isn’t the time to condemn the warehouse.

"Let’s get in the car first."

Fu Qian gestured toward the vehicle.

...

No flaws to pick at.

Walking may not be targeted, but it’ll never get you to the destination; driving is a necessary condition.

Su Gao immediately complied, and at Fu Qian’s instruction, chose the same car they’d driven here in.

"You know how to drive?"

But when she was about to sit in the driver’s seat, she was met with Professor Fu’s question.

"I do."

Su Gao was clearly puzzled as to why Fu Qian was asking, but she still answered.

"Good, I do too."

Fu Qian nodded, praising her as he gestured for her to move to the other seat.

Hmm...

Her wanting to drive herself was obviously considering Professor Fu’s mobility issues.

Yet he actually wanted to personally enjoy the fun of driving. Su Gao had no objections and obediently did as he asked.

"This is for you."

Once she was seated in the passenger seat, the first thing Fu Qian did was hand something over.

This...

Heavy in her hands—clearly the candleholder.

From the start, Su Gao hadn’t understood this behavior, but she asked nothing and simply took it, looking at Fu Qian and waiting for the next instruction.

"I’m not going to last much longer like this."

Fu Qian gestured at his own body again.

Hmm...

Su Gao didn’t offer meaningless comfort. With a normal human constitution, wounds like this don’t just make survival difficult; the pain involved is far beyond what ordinary people can imagine.

"And this is my heart."

Fu Qian continued, pointing at his chest.

"You’re good with a sword. You should be able to use the candleholder to stab accurately into the muscle without piercing all the way through, right?"