The cashier looked at the shopping cart he had just finished scanning next to him, then at the other three carts, with a troubled look on his face.
Luckily, another cashier who was free on the side saw this and came over warmly to help.
Both of them worked pretty quickly, and it didn’t take long to scan everything.
“The total comes to one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three dollars…”
Before the young cashier could ask if he was paying with cash or card, he saw a neat stack of bills placed right in front of him.
He counted them; there were exactly nineteen bills.
“Keep the change.”
Su Fan pulled a bar of chocolate from his pocket, tore it open, took two bites, chewed vigorously, and then frowned.
It was sickeningly sweet.
But the ample sugar gave Su Fan back a little bit of his strength.
He threw the items into two large bags, stuffing them until they were bulging, then swung them up onto his shoulders and left. The security guards at the entrance watched, dumbfounded.
Carrying two huge bags of food, Su Fan headed back to the antique shop.
A not-so-strong-looking young man, lugging two bags half as tall as a person, drew a lot of attention.
He also drew some covetous, lurking stares.
With each step up in his cultivation, Su Fan could now easily perceive the gazes others directed at him.
Especially those eyes filled with malice and greed.
His instinct didn’t warn him, simply because those people were too weak to pose any threat to him at all.
Su Fan turned his head towards where the gazes were coming from and spotted a few darker-skinned young men gathered together.
Homeless people?
The weather was getting colder, and homeless people from nearby areas were starting to gather towards California.
But the number of homeless people seemed way too dense; there weren’t this many in previous years, were there?
Ah…
Su Fan suddenly remembered the matter of Paimon’s cultists.
Even though the situation was gradually calming down, the patrol officers still had to continue their patrol duties and follow-up checks for hidden dangers.
The work of regularly clearing out tents and evicting homeless people had to stop.
Damn Paimon…
Su Fan’s face remained expressionless, but he mentally added another mark against Paimon.
To be fair, Su Fan didn’t harbor much ill will towards homeless people.
Maybe they were just ordinary folks who had suffered a sudden catastrophe or a family decline?
However, that was only as long as they didn’t turn into looters who used their skin color as an excuse for zero-dollar shopping sprees.
If they dared to smash, grab, and burn things at his antique shop, he would show them what a “black hand” really meant.
Noticing Su Fan looking their way, they surprisingly didn’t look away. Instead, they walked straight over to him.
Hmm?
Su Fan was puzzled.
Were these guys really this bold?
Did getting a few people together make them think they could come over and aggressively beg?
Thinking this, Su Fan took out two more pieces of chocolate from his pocket, chewed and swallowed them, and then watched as the group blocked his path.
“Hey, man, can you spare us some cash for fun?”
The young man at the front stepped forward, looking at Su Fan, who was still chewing on something, with a hint of mockery in his eyes.
No car, carrying his purchases out of the supermarket on his back, and an easy-to-bully Asian.
There was no more ideal target than this.
His buddies who walked up with him also snickered.
In their eyes, Su Fan, who was still constantly eating, looked pretty much no different from a simpleton.
“If you’re hungry, go to a shelter for food. Get lost.”
Su Fan was still chewing, but that didn’t stop him from talking.
After eating a bit, he was feeling slightly stronger. Now, he just wanted to hurry back and continue healing his injuries and strengthening himself.
Su Fan’s tough response caught them off guard.
The homeless men were stunned for a moment, then immediately their faces twisted with anger.
“You retard, can’t you understand what we’re saying? I said give me the fucking money, you hear me?!”
The leading Black man pulled out a dagger, while the others immediately blocked Su Fan’s escape route and also shielded the area from view.
Su Fan swallowed what was in his mouth and raised his hand.
The homeless man holding the knife suddenly had his vision flip upside down, followed by a sharp pain at the back of his head. Dizzy and disoriented, without even knowing what happened, he passed out.
The others surrounding Su Fan were stunned.
Even watching from a third-person perspective, they still couldn’t see what happened. They only saw the young Asian somehow appear in front of their partner.
Then, the knife-wielding man was launched into the air, his body spinning as if propelled by a propeller. After a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree flip in mid-air, he landed with a heavy “thud.”
Among them, someone with sharp eyes noticed that the dagger their companion had been holding was somehow now pinched between that Asian kid’s fingers.
That’s right, pinched!
“You… you freak, what did you just do?!”
Someone mustered up the courage to ask, trembling with fear.
They had just witnessed a completely incomprehensible, bizarre scene.
If they weren’t worried about losing face on the streets for abandoning their crew, they would have already bolted.
Just then, a loud shout came from nearby.
“Officer, right here!”
That shout finally shattered the last of their courage.
Without any hesitation, they turned tail and ran!
As for the one passed out on the ground, he was on his own. Good luck!
Su Fan didn’t chase them. He continued walking forward.
He “accidentally” stepped on and broke the unconscious Black man’s shin bone.
Around a corner not far away, a scruffy-looking young man poked his head out. Seeing Su Fan was the only one left, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, he came over.
Su Fan didn’t stop him from approaching.
The police hadn’t actually come at all. That shout just now was simply this person deliberately scaring those homeless men.
“That situation was really dangerous just now. You okay?”
“I’m fine.”
Su Fan answered casually, then looked him up and down.
“You’re a homeless guy too, aren’t you? Why did you shout that?”
They were total strangers, no connection at all, and it was a group operation.
Instead of hiding far away, why suddenly show such kindness?
“What kind of talk is that? Even homeless people have a professional code of ethics. Those guys were thugs, get it? Thugs. I’m not the same kind of person as them.”
Hearing Su Fan’s question, the scruffy young man got a bit flustered.
“If they mess up the peace around here, what happens when the cops come to kick everyone out?”
“I just set up my tent here yesterday, damn it.”
“Bunch of idiots, their vision is as shortsighted as rats.”
Su Fan listened to this broken English, the strange grammar, and the familiar metaphor, then frowned.
“Are you from China?”
“Short-sighted” – that’s a classic Chinese idiom.
Compared to China, the languages, history, and culture of other Asian countries aren’t as rich.
Many Chinese people have speaking habits they aren’t even aware of, which, when translated into English, always carry a strange, overly formal, bookish feel.
The young man, caught off guard by Su Fan identifying his origin, first paused, then shook his head.
“No, I am a Japanese… uh… Watashi wa… Nihonjin desu.”
Su Fan listened to that stumbling, pathetic Japanese, then finally spoke.
“…How are you?”
“I’m fine, thank you, and you?”
After blurting this out reflexively, the young man’s face showed an unmistakably awkward expression.
